Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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Ireland - Nestled within the capacious surroundings of Curraghmore House in County Waterford, the inaugural All Together Now (ATN) festival may, on paper, have appeared an event of two halves. A family friendly bandstand perched alongside comedy and spoken word stages, dotted the foreground of the stately home itself. Whilst a field away, separated by woodlands, the ATN Stage played host to the likes of Underworld, Mura Masa, Chaka Khan and Fleet Foxes.
In fact, linked by the centrally positioned spectacle of Arcadia’s Afterburner installation - returning to Ireland to mark their own 10-year anniversary - the various elements of All Together Now blended seamlessly. The eclectic line up brought together by renowned Irish promoter John Reynolds of POD Concerts, drew a sell-out crowd keen to explore the diversity of talent on offer from Will Self to Thundercat, Mogwai to Sug

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UK - Adlib has moved to a new Liverpool headquarters in Knowsley.
Located just off junction 4 of the M57, the new hub offers 83,600sq.ft of space including a large pre-production area, a training suite, a comprehensive showroom, dedicated service facilities and a huge contemporary open plan office.
After a long search, Andy Dockerty and the team are pleased to announce the move, which will take Adlib into a new era with more advanced levels of operation, service and efficiency.
John Hughes, Adlib’s director, comments: “Following an extensive four-year search, we are delighted to announce the relocation to our new home. We’re sad to be leaving the old site in Speke in some ways, as it’s a place where we’ve nurtured and grown the foundations of the business.
“The new premises, however, allow us to expand and develop in other - and new - areas. Thi
Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - North American entertainment technology supplier Solotech has acquired UK-based audio services company SSE Audio Group, thus forming one of the largest AV companies in the world.
SSE Audio’s founder John Penn will continue to head the organisation in the UK. The established brands of SSE Audio, Capital Sound, Wigwam and Sigma Products will also be maintained.
Martin Tremblay, president and CEO of Groupe Solotech Inc, comments: “This is the most important transaction in Solotech’s history. With the addition of SSE Audio, Solotech becomes one of the world’s largest AV and entertainment technology companies. The acquisition will generate growth opportunities and expand the services available to current and future clients on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Tremblay adds: “We are thrilled that SSE is joining the Solotech team, especially their well-known

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USA - Created to be the Christian Music Broadcasters’ premier annual event, Momentum is a four-day conference which brings together radio and record industry professionals from around the world. Since its inception in 2009, Momentum has been dedicated to the success of Christian music broadcasting offering a showcase of the hottest musical artists today.
Held for the second year at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando, the CMB events team wanted to create an attendee experience “like none before”, so they called upon the Nashville-based production provider Elite Multimedia Productions who supplied three event stages using a full package of audio, lighting and LED video.
“We are a non-profit ministry, so when we start looking at the production design for the Momentum conference, we have to look at what will offer the best experience for our attend

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UK - Flying the flag for the city’s cultural resurgence is the Liverpool Disco Festival, a weekend-long celebration of underground dance music inspired by the house and disco beats of Chicago and New York.
Tasked with providing exciting visuals for the Stateside and European disco DJs was Cheshire Event Production, which specified seven Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 FX-B, two Rogue R1 Beam, four Rogue R2 Wash and four Rogue R1 Spot fixtures to stunning effect.
With the festival now in its third incarnation and catering to over 3000 people, Cheshire Event Production’s pièce de résistance was to be the scenographic incorporation of the central mirrorball element within the main room at the festival, The Furnace, utilizing the versatile Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures.
“I’ve been toying with the circular truss and mirrorball idea for a while now, and the wild and v

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USA - 10 years ago, Rosco Laboratories became Behind the Scenes’ first Pledge-a-Product partner and Mark Engel, Rosco CEO, and staff members recently presented their 10th annual cheque from the sales of Roscolux #359 Medium Violet bringing the total donated to over $32,500.
“It is our privilege to support Behind the Scenes Foundation, and we are proud to have reached a decade of giving to an organization that passionately provides help to those in need from the entertainment technology industry,” said Engel. “This year we are pleased to contribute $3,000 from the proceeds of Roscolux 359 Medium Violet and we express our gratitude to Behind the Scenes for the support and services they offer to industry professionals and their families.”
Rick Rudolph, chair of the Behind the Scenes Foundation, accepted the cheque, saying: “Rosco led the way as our first corpo

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South Africa - Cape Town-based rental company Core Productions has taken ownership of a dot2 XL-F, dot2 F-wing, a DMX King Pro1 (which integrates with Dot2 on PC software), and a dozen Longman Facepars.
For the tight-knit group of creative individuals who make up Core Productions, the new equipment will bring ‘peace of mind’. “We are always motivated to come up with amazing ideas, sell it to the client, stress on how we will pull it off, and then pull it off - blowing the socks off people,” says Bernard Gramann, owner of Core Productions.
Gramann says he decided the dot2 console and DMX King Pro1 thanks to the functionality of the operating system and the after-sales service he will receive from DWR Distribution. “The dot2 also has the Resolume Profile which we often use for effects on shows, and my team is very excited about ‘giving it a go’ as well as

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USA - With over 250 million books sold – including The BFG, James and The Giant Peach and The Twits – few writers have made more impression on the world’s children (or their parents) than Roald Dahl.
Last year, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. It featured one of the movie’s most memorable tunes, with the evocative line: “Come with me, and you'll be, in a world of pure imagination”.
Creating such a world on the stage is notoriously more difficult to do than in a movie – which is why the musical relies heavily on staging company WorldStage and its well-established mastery of the technologies that can help turn a designer’s vision into a theatrical reality.
As well as providing an ambitious, custom-made Unilumin LED wall to tell the story of how the Golden Tickets were won, WorldStage also dep

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USA - The 52nd Annual Country Music Association Awards ceremony, held on 14 November at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, recognised the best in country music released during the CMA’s annual eligibility period. Winners included Entertainer of the Year Keith Urban and Song of the Year Broken Halos by Chris Stapleton, who also garnered the Male Vocalist of the Year award.
Everyone who heard the show’s 22 music performances and awards introductions by those artists and others listened to them through a pair of DiGiCo SD-Range consoles: an SD7 helmed by Blackhawk Audio president Rick Shimer at FOH for the event’s music performances, and an SD5, which mixed the evening’s production audio, piloted by ATK Audiotek principal Pat Baltzell. The house audio was played through a JBL PA using a combination of VerTec 4889 and

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France - L-Acoustics has acquired HGP - a manufacturer of precision sheet metal, based in Amboise, France – and its sister entity API, specialist in powder coating. "This operation represents a new and extremely positive step in augmenting our R&D and production capabilities,” says Hervé Guillaume, managing director of L-Acoustics. “This alliance will allow us to improve our technical skill set and market intelligence regarding precision sheet metal, a vital technology in our professional audio solutions. HGP’s expertise and savoir-faire are highly complementary to our own, enabling us to better comprehend the constraints and specificities of the trade at every stage, from conception to production.”
Bertrand Bounoure, president and commercial director of HGP, comments: "This constitutes a natural extension of a decade-long, successful supplier/client relation

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Forever Young - Bob Dylan and Neil Young have been announced as joint headliners at London's Hyde Park as part of British Summer Time on 12 July though it's not yet clear in which order they will play.
Lip-Syncing - Rita Ora has been accused of lip-syncing during her performance at America's most famous Thanksgiving Day event. Organisers apologised to millions of viewers watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for "technical difficulties" during the holiday feature. Rita Ora appeared to be out of sync with the vocals viewers heard during her televised performance.
Macy's, the American department store chain that throws the parade, released a public apology. The company said "several recording artists experienced technical difficulties that negatively impacted their performance." It added: "We apologise and want fans to know these issues were out of the artis

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Germany - Green Hippo occupied a key role in its German distributor’s 2018 open day. A key date in the industry calendar, the event attracted an impressive 250 industry professionals. Hosted by Christian Pies, sales director at Cast, the day included a programme of talks from industry professionals, as well as, of regular stops for ‘kaffe and cookies’.
Green Hippo technology was a running theme throughout the day. Green Hippo’s Tom Etra, technical sales manager and product specialist Suzy Stenning travelled to the event and the venue included a space dedicated to demonstrating Hippotizer’s abilities with 3D projection mapping
Green Hippo technology also prominently featured in the lecture given by Thomas Gerdon of Gerdon design. Thomas, a Hippotizer owner and user, presented a practical lecture on the design and programming of lighting systems in the combinat

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The Netherlands - Hans Peitsman’s Rotterdam based rental operation Peitsman Licht en Geluid (Peitsman Lighting & Sound) has made a major investment in Robe fixtures, including 36 x MegaPointes, 48 x LEDBeam 150s and 48 x Spiiders.
These are added to other Robe items in rental stock including miniPointes and LEDWash 600+s, and it follows previous purchases of LEDWash 300s, MMX Spots, DLF Washes and DLX Spots.
Peitsman Licht en Geluid was founded in 1994 and now has 25 full time employees. They moved into their current premises three years ago and supply premium full technical production packages – lights, sound, video, staging, rigging and trucking - to a dynamic mix of live shows and events, B2B and corporate clients, theatre and television productions, parties and public entertainments.
They also look after some venues and event spaces as the technical

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France – ETC has announced the opening of its newest office - in Paris. Local French distributor, Avab Transtechnik France (ATF) has been selling and supporting ETC products for over 15 years and has always shared strong values of service and innovation. When the owners of ATF, Jean-Louis Pernette and Christian Rezgui retired in May, an opportunity arose for ETC to acquire the French company and increase its presence in the European market. With this acquisition, ATF becomes part of the ETC family and is officially named ETC France.
"I am extremely grateful for the dedication and effort Jean-Louis Pernette and Christian Rezgui have contributed through their leadership of ATF over the years,” said Fred Foster, co-founder and CEO of ETC. “The close relationships they have built with our customers in France and the strength of the ATF team provide us with a solid foundati

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South Africa - Robe lighting’s CEO, Josef Valchar presented demonstrations at a successful South African Robe roadshow event which received a friendly welcome in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg at the start of November.
Organised by local distributor DWR and also attended by Robe’s sales director Harry von den Stemmen, the roadshow was an opportunity for the entertainment industry to experience first-hand the new T1 Profile, iParfect, RoboSpot and SuperSpikie products.
The team was very busy from 10am to 5pm each day and gave five to six demos at each venue. “The response was impressive! We had close to 50 people in Cape Town, 40 in Durban and over a hundred in Johannesburg,” commented Josef.
“It was great to hear all the feedback and see the reaction first-hand to the products. Obviously, the main attraction was RoboSpot and the T1, but people als

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Denmark - As part of a new strategy plan, Matrix Sales has become, effective immediately, the new Wireless Solution distributor in Denmark.
Established in early 2011 Matrix Sales is a distribution partner for many international manufacturers, including SGM, Chauvet Professional and Eurotruss.
Urs Friis-Alstrup, lighting sales manager for the Danish company, comments: “We’re very excited to be working with Wireless Solution in our market, and to expand their presence not only in the rental market, but theatres, installations and AV and broadcasting. Their products pair well with our existent product line and fulfil a niche that we seek to reach”.
David Ferraz, international business development manager for W-DMX adds, “The new partnership represents a dynamic change to the company. Wireless Solution is working closely with Matrix to smoothen the transition

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UK - Technical entertainment charity Backup received donations in excess of £25,500 during September alone, thanks to the generosity of Ambersphere, Claypaky, DiGiCo, Lightpower Collection, PLASA and LSi.
The month started with PLASA’s on-going collaboration with the PSA, which saw a group cycle from Chippenham in Wiltshire to London Olympia on the Saturday before the PLASA Show to increase awareness of mental health within the entertainment and events industries. Not only did they achieve their awareness raising goal, they also raised £1,615 for Backup.
Next to show their support was the Lightpower Collection, which exhibits its impresive collection of rock‘n’roll art - of which legendary rock photographer Neal Preston’s work is the core - around the world, with proceeds from the sale of its original prints donated to Backup and US charity, Behind the

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Germany - PRG Germany has struck a deal to add at least 100 fixtures of GLP’s new impression S350 LED moving head to its hire fleet.
Some of the units were immediately specified by leading LD Jerry Appelt for use on the second MTV Unplugged appearance by rock musician Udo Lindenberg.
GLP product manager Michael Feldmann and key account manager Oliver Schwendke had already conducted a product training following delivery of the first tranche of 40 units.
Schwendke comments: “We are proud to have supplied such a significant number of units to PRG Germany and to have them as an early adopter. The impression S350 offers just the kind of package they need, given the broad range of productions that they service.”
Feldmann adds: “We believe that the impression S350 with its high colour rendering, framing unit, form factor and weight, offers the perfect pac

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UK - KV2 Audio Europe, the exclusive UK distributor of KV2 Audio products, has moved into a new 10,000sq.ft facility on Hornbeam Business Park in Harrogate.
The new base houses larger amount of KV2 stock and is well serviced by road and rail from Leeds and York stations. A dedicated on-site demonstration facility has also opened – those who wish to request a demo should book an appointment with KV2 UK.
The audio solutions manufacturer has reported growing demand for its products in a variety of markets, particularly in West End and UK touring theatre, with 20 more shows having specified KV2 products. These include Kinky Boots, Motown: The Musical UK tour and a re-imagining of Swan Lake.
(Jim Evans)

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Spain - After appointing Spain’s VTècnics as a distributor, Clair Brothers has added another Spanish company as a rental partner, Grupo Friends.
Francisco Yllana, general director of Grupo Friends, comments: “We met up with technicians from VTècnics and they told us about Clair Brothers and their reputation globally. Until recently, it was nearly impossible to find Clair Brothers in Spain, but it was at this moment, talking to VTècnics, that we began to feel we could achieve the kind of market differentiation we aim for, with an exclusive team of the highest quality.”
The Spanish company purchased a C12 system and has already expanded its stage monitoring range with the Clair Brothers 1AM system. Grupo Friends also added the kiTCurve system for side-fills or, as the case may be, as a perfect mini PA for smaller spaces. To complete its Clair Brothers system, t

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Sustainable Art - An environmental programme designed to help arts organisations become more sustainable has helped its participants reduce their energy consumption by almost a quarter in the past six years, saving £16.5m as a result. The group of 136 of Arts Council England’s national portfolio organisations have also decreased their carbon emissions by 35% in this time period, according to a report on the scheme by ACE and green arts charity Julie’s Bicycle.
These figures are the culmination of a partnership between Julie’s Bicycle and the Arts Council that began in 2012 with the aim of encouraging arts organisations to become more environmentally sustainable. As part of the six-year programme, the 136 participating organisations consistently reported data at regular intervals across the period. 47 of these were theatre organisations, including the Royal Court and t

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UK - The UK Hog Factor competition final took place at Production Futures as two teams competed in a lighting showdown using High End Systems’ Hog 4 console.
Rose Bruford’s ‘Two CLCs and A Norwegian Walk Into A Bar’ won the lighting programming contest, whilst ‘Hogging Bruford’ finished runners-up. The finalists programmed to Foo Fighters’ Pretender.
The judges, including renowned LD Jonathan Armstrong and senior product manager for Hog consoles, Sarah Clausen, took into account the artistic impression of the live show as well as the programming style of the Hog 4. They agreed that the winning team “produced a better structured show in the desk, and had a better use of colour and contrast with their design, portraying a better journey throughout the song”.
Clausen comments: “Both teams showed a real ability to break down the song and s

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USA - ANSI's Board of Standards Review approved four ESTA standards - three new or revised and one for reaffirmation without changes.
These are:
ANSI ES1.19-2018: Safety Requirements for Special Event Structures, is a new standard written as part of comprehensive event safety suite, with this section helping to identify design, fabrication, operation and use, inspection and maintenance requirements for the portable structures included in its scope. This is the first of several more to come, in a comprehensive set of event safety standards, co-branded and developed in conjunction with the Event Safety Alliance.
ANSI E1.29-2009 (R2018): Product Safety Standard for Theatrical Fog Generators that Create Aerosols of Water, Aqueous Solutions of Glycol or Glycerin, or Aerosols of Highly Refined Alkane Mineral Oil, is a reaffirmation of ANSI E1.29-2009. T

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Australia - Audio, video and lighting services provider NW Group recently bolstered its lighting inventory with Martin by Harman lighting fixtures, provided by Show Technology.
To serve the live concert and touring markets, NW Group specified MAC Aura XB and MAC Quantum Profile fixtures.
Graeme Whitehouse, general manager, NW Group, comments: “We’ve used Quantum Wash, Viper and Aura fixtures with great success for years. We were in the market for next-generation fixtures that could deliver rapid movement and beautiful colour mixing during high profile stage performances. After testing numerous fixtures with local supplier Show Technology, we decided to go with Martin MAC Aura XB washes and MAC Quantum Profiles.
“We’re extremely happy with our choice - the Aura XB and Quantum Profiles enable us to provide even more value to our clients in the arts and ent
  1. HK Audio appoints Italian distributor
  2. Prolyte hosts distributor awards
  3. DM Audio joins Adamson rental network
  4. DWR to distribute Audix Microphones
  5. Blue Parrot invests in Martin MAC Encore
  6. Rivage PM10 is the business for Blitz
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