Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Business

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China - Five Christie DWU555-GS laser phosphor projectors provided impressive projections on the backdrop of a massive sand table model showcased at a new national heritage park in China - restoring the ancient glory of Luoyang city, China's former imperial capital during the Sui (589-618 BC) and Tang dynasties (618-907 AD).

Wu Zetian was the first and only female emperor in China. A major highlight is the full-scale reconstructions of two iconic towers that symbolised the splendour and opulence of Empress Wu's reign.

During her political heyday, Empress Wu instructed the construction of these two towers, which were described as architectural miracles. And today, the recreated nine-story-high Ming Tang houses a spectacular sand table model of the ancient city of Luoyang, which covers an area of 130sq.m and is built to a scale of 1:800.

The backdrop of the massive sand

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South Africa - When it comes to suspending line arrays for large-scale events, In-Harmony Productions rely on ProLyft motors from Prolyte. With six one Ton Prolyft motors in stock already, they recently made an investment of an additional two-ton motor to keep up with demand.

In-Harmony provides a service in two key areas, live technical productions and installations particularly for Houses of Worship, explains Juan Soothill, MD and system designer engineer at In-Harmony. "We own a JBL VTX V25 system, and for massive events collaborate with two other V25 owners. When working on bigger indoor and outdoor gigs, we want to be able to suspend more line array boxes with the focus being on safety."

Earlier this year, In-Harmony used the Prolyft motors for church meetings held in Johannesburg's FNB Stadium (an over 94 000 seater venue) and in Accra, Ghana. The motors then went st

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Season has been running at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End since October 2015. In the first-ever season led by the BAFTA award-winning actor, it has achieved critical acclaim with hit productions such as The Winter's Tale starring Judi Dench, for which she has just won an Olivier Award, and Red Velvet starring Adrian Lester. The latest show, The Painkiller, which stars both Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon, has now opened to rave reviews. As with every other production throughout the season, White Light is providing the lighting equipment on this comedy classic.

The Painkiller tells the story of two men sat in adjacent hotel rooms. One of them is an assassin, whilst the other is suicidal and the only thing that separates them is an adjoining door. The play is a new adaptation of Francis Veber's classic French

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Australia - Cadac has announced the appointment of Hills as its new exclusive distributor for Australia and New Zealand. Hills, recently celebrated its 70th anniversary and is committed to being a value-added distributor of technology and communication solutions across a wide range of market sectors, including home, health, education and audio-visual.

Dan Fletcher, head of Hills AV, stated, "Hills is extremely proud to be exclusively distributing Cadac consoles in Australia and New Zealand. At Hills, the combination of Cadac with other world leading audio brands, such as L'Acoustics and Biamp, continues to provide our partners and their customers with complete solutions that are trusted the world over."

Consultant support manager Bryan Davidson has been busy building the Hills brand portfolio. "Cadac is the perfect fit for our brand portfolio, it will partner extremely wel

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USA - The River Tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band calls forth powerful musical memories. Celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Boss' seminal The River recording and the recent release of The Ties That Bind: The River Collection box set, the concert features full-length sequential performances of the 1980 album's songs.

Mindful of the historical significance of the tour, lighting designer Jeff Ravitz was seeking to evoke images of the classic album's original era, yet at the same time, he wanted something that looked new and vibrant to reflect the energy that his client brings to the stage. He was able to do both with a uniquely framed configuration of COLORado 1-Tri IP LED pars from Chauvet Professional.

The longtime LD for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Ravitz had used the 42-watt COLORado 1-Tri IPs as "audience blasters" for his cl

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On The Campaign Trail - Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has accepted an invitation to speak at this year's Glastonbury festival in June - the first party leader to do so. Mr Corbyn will address music fans in the Left Field area, the line-up for which is organised by singer and activist Billy Bragg. The festival runs from 22 to 26 June - coinciding with the in-out referendum on the UK's EU membership on 23 June. Left Field, which mixes "pop and politics", said Mr Corbyn would be given a platform to discuss issues including social justice, the economy, gender and "and the possibilities for genuine change".

Royal Moves - The 2017 Olivier Awards will be held at the Royal Albert Hall, marking a departure from the Royal Opera House after five years. The ceremony has been held at the 2,256-seat ROH since 2012 but could more than double the size of its live audience when it moves t

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UK/Germany - Philips Lighting announces that the latest addition to the Philips Showline product range, the SL Hydrus 350*, has made its pre-launch debut at electronic duo Lamb's concert during the Convergence Sessions festival.

The festival ran from the 13 to the 19 March at venues across London including the Roundhouse and art deco Troxy. Now in its third year, Convergence spans different genres of music and celebrates visual artists and pioneering technology.

Lighting designer Mark Wynn-Edwards, who has worked with the band for nearly two years, specified 11 of the new moving lights to add super bright beam effects to his stripped back design.

"My concept for Lamb is always less is more, playing with black and white and minimalist looks," explains Wynn-Edwards. "When the opportunity came to preview the Philips Showline SL Hydrus 350 before it hits the market I jumpe

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Australia - Hillsong, a multi-site church with campuses in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Hobart, Darwin and Noosa as well as numerous international campuses around the world, has announced a partnership with Adamson Systems Engineering to provide sound reinforcement to multiple Hillsong venues worldwide.

"It started with our looking for a new system that would better meet our needs for the City Centre worship space in Sydney," explains Hillsong production facilities manager Steve Le Roux. "At the same time, we knew that there were existing systems in other venues that needed to be upgraded, plus new churches under construction that would require sound reinforcement. It made sense to be incredibly thorough - we sat through many, many product demonstrations - in order to decide upon one manufacturer to work with for everything. In the end, Adamson came out

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USA - The South by Southwest Music Festival may have been the last of the trifecta that makes up SXSW 2016, but it was just as spectacular as the film and interactive portions of the nine-day event.

Lighting designer Victor Fable entrusted Bandit Lites to provide the lighting package for the McGarrah Jessee Rooftop stage, which featured performances from Phebe Starr, Armstrong Leigh, 2 Chainz, Aubrie Sellers, Flo Rida, LANco and Cypress Hill.

Keith Hoagland programmed the lighting and was the board op. Taking into account the lighting production needed to function both for performances in the daytime and evening, Fable created a dynamic structural look that applied high-performance fixtures with eye catching configurations.

"The stage was two tiered, split horizontally about a quarter way down from upstage," explained crew chief Ty Veneziano. "The second tier upstage w

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Argentina - DPA Microphones has announced that it has named Equaphon Sistemas de Sonido SRL as its new distributor in the Argentina market.

Equaphon designs, develops and manufactures international-quality sound products, and represents the best international brands in professional audio. At the same time, the company guarantees all its products: the ones designed and manufactured in Argentina and abroad, as well as the products of the companies it represents.

"The expansion of DPA's products into markets all over the world is an important part of the company's strategy for future growth, and we are pleased to name Equaphon as our new distributor in Argentina," says Leonardo Romero, sales director, Latin America for DPA Microphones. "This agreement brings together two companies that are both recognized for their high-quality craftsmanship, reliability and exemplary custome

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UK - Hawthorn is helping 1970s favourite, Jackie magazine, come back to life on stage with Jackie the Musical. Coming to theatres across the UK, Hawthorn is supplying equipment from its extensive hire range to meet the specification of the production's celebrated lighting designer, Philip Gladwell. Hawthorn has now worked with Philip on several productions, including recent collaboration on Hairspray and The James Plays.

Jackie launched in January 1964, attracting millions of fans as it became a best-selling teenage title for 10 years. Jackie The Musical revisits those heady days, and tells the story of a fifty-something divorcée who revisits her stash of well-thumbed Jackie magazines for the same reason she first read them nearly forty years ago: advice on how best to navigate the opposite sex. Funny and feisty, with a soundtra

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UK - With more than 45 years' experience, White Light has a strong reputation in supplying the latest state-of-the-art technology to the entertainment industry. As it continues to develop its range of video technology, the company has recently invested in the new and innovative ImageCue, a compact, easy-to-use image server that provides control of high definition still images and videos with only twelve channels of DMX512. The product is now available to purchase through WL, which is the exclusive UK distributor.

ImageCue has already made a major impact in the world of playback devices, having won the LDI 2015 PLASA Member's Choice Award for Best Gadget. The product allows users to supply their own images and videos using a USB flash drive or external hard drive and can provide access to over 65,000 image and video files. It is also extremely fast, with images and videos able

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USA - Three additional documents makes eight in public review at http://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php. Comments on these additional documents are due no later than 23 May, 2016. Anyone who would be materially affected by the publication of these documents as American National Standards is invited to submit comments. The three additional documents are:

BSR E1.28 - 2011 (R201x), Guidance on planning followspot positions in places of public assembly (a reaffirmation)

From the Followspot Position Working Group, E1.28 offers guidance on the planning of permanent followspot positions, including recommendations on the locations of the followspot positions within the venue, the power likely to be needed, the waste heat generated, the amount of space likely to be needed, and the fall protection and egress issues to be considered for the followspot op

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USA - Three existing ESTA standards have been opened for revision. Materially affected parties are invited to join the Technical Standards Program working groups developing the revisions or to comment in future public reviews. The three revision projects are:

BSR E1.40, Recommendations for the Planning of Theatrical Dust Effects

The standard is being revised primarily to address deflagration of dust. Other changes include a generalized grouping of types of dusts, editorial changes, and changes to references to Material Safety Data Sheets, which have been replaced by Safety Data Sheets. This is a project of the Fog & Smoke Working Group.

BSR E1.41, Recommendations for the Measurement of Entertainment Luminaires Utilizing Solid State Light Sources

This standard is being opened for revision to specify that the Fidelity Index (Rf) rating as defined in IES

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UK - Mariah Carey started her latest European tour March, Sweet Sweet Fantasy, by returning to the UK after 13 years' absence.

Working for the production team behind the tour, Creative Technology (CT) supplied seven Panasonic projectors which were used to feed playback content onto a number of upstage panels, all driven by Photon. The panels were able to move across the stage with the projection tracking and following the movements.

The four panels centred around the main upstage display, a large circular panel, which was also projected upon. All the visual effects were completed using projection.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Music and design company GAS Music composed & produced the music and visuals behind the spectacular New Beginnings show of Ashton-Under-Lyne Old Swimming Baths. On 19 in the swim at March a live show revealed the history of the public swimming baths originally opened in 1870 with 11 original pieces of music plus a backdrop of CGI historical images created by GAS.

GAS worked closely with Tameside Council, choreographer Stacey Maurice who directed almost 200 dancers for the performance and creative producers Stone Soup who led the multi partnership project.

The opening event attracted over 10,000 people to celebrate the rebirth of this iconic piece of English history. The large brick Italianate building fell out of use 40 years ago and was on the at English Heritage at risk register but until funding of £3 million from Tameside Council, Heritage Lottery Fun

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The Netherlands - After releasing its latest album, All In Good Time, last year, and playing several large festival and one-off arena gigs, award-winning Dutch band Racoon has been on an extensive but intimate theatre tour around The Netherlands.

Front of House engineer Marty Brugmans and monitor engineer Jelmer Dijkstra both specified SSL Live consoles for the tour, with Brugmans taking an L500 for FOH and Dijkstra using an L300 on monitors. Both consoles have been supplied by Dutch hire and events production company, Stagelight, and are using Dante AoIP network technology for audio transport.

Brugmans was an early adopter of SSL Live technology, having already used the L500 on several large-scale events. His move to the SSL platform was triggered by dissatisfaction with the quality of summing and processing on other live consoles. "The first time I used it, everyt

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USA - In what has been hailed by Rolling Stone Magazine as 'the most adventurously programmed music festival in America,' The Big Ears Music Festival returned for its fifth year.

Created and produced by AC Entertainment, Bandit Lites provided the lighting package for one of Knoxville's newest venues, The Standard Presented by Red Bull Music Academy.

Bandit lighting programmer Wayne Lotoza used VL 2000 washes, VL 2000 Spots, S4 Lekos and Atomic Strobes programmed with a Road Hog console at the venue to create looks that would be conducive to the wide range of performing artists, which included Wolf Eyes (a postindustrial noise band), saxophonist Anthony Braxton, musician Marc Ribot's interpretation of organ music transcribed for guitar and Lou Reed's installation piece entitled Drones.

"The Drones project included GRNLite Washes, ETC S4 LED units, R

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UK - The Olivier Awards with MasterCard are held annually and recognise the very best in London theatre. Organised by the Society of London Theatre, the awards are presented to individuals involved in West End and other London-based productions. This year's event took place on Sunday 3 April at the Royal Opera House. With its reputation as the leading lighting supplier to West End theatre, White Light provided the lighting equipment for the sixth year running.

2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the Olivier Awards and this year's ceremony was attended by some of the most high-profile names in the industry. WL was asked to provide the production support across four areas: the Piazza ITV Stage, the red-carpet entrance, the main awards presentation and the after-show party.

The main awards presentation took place on the historic Royal Opera House stage. The lighting designer w

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UK - To mark World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April 2016, PRG XL Video partnered with The Jigsaw Trust to light Guildford Cathedral blue for the Light It Up Blue campaign.

The campaign sees buildings and landmarks around the world changing to blue to raise awareness for Autism globally and to kick off International Autism Awareness Month during April.

From the evening of 31March to Monday 4 April 2016, the night-time floodlights which accentuate the modern Guildford Cathedral building were changed from orange to blue - the signature colour of the Autism Awareness campaign.

To achieve this change, a team of staff from PRG XL Video visited the cathedral on 31 March to switch lamps in the floodlight fixtures in the grounds of the building, and up on the roof.

This is the fifth year PRG has worked with The Jigsaw Trust to make this change at Guildford Cathedral,

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Germany - Coda Audio's AiRAY system is making waves. Since its launch in July 2015, sales have been strong and orders are being placed in increasingly high volumes. AiRAY's impact is nowhere better illustrated than at this year's Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt where Japanese giant, Hibino Sound Division, placed a substantial order for AiRAY, increasing its holding of Coda boxes to over 300 (including AiRAY, TiRAY, ViRAY and others).

Hibino Sound Division, head of sound, Hiroshi Inoue comments, "Firstly, as with all Coda line-array systems, we see that AiRAY achieves very high sound resolution with good separation of each instrument's sound. Sound shape is maintained over a long distance meaning that the required SPL can be obtained using fewer cabinets. AiRAY's functionality is also excellent for both flown and ground stack applications - cabinet angles can be quickly and easil

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USA - Southern California's newest event, meeting and production space, AV, in southern California's Orange County, has installed a large Elation Professional automated lighting system. Designed by leading industry professionals to be the ultimate one-stop for events of all sizes, nearly 200 Elation lights are used to create virtually any atmosphere a client desires.

Located inside entertainment production company N-EFFECT Productions' new design studio and headquarters in Irvine, AV is a customizable event space that encompasses 25,000sq.ft of space. The latest in event technologies - an intelligent Elation lighting system, 30 ft. LED wall, and full concert sound system as well as an in-house event and production staff, make it a suitable space for corporate meetings, weddings, galas, social and civic events.

"People are really blown away by what they see when they walk i

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USA - Sometimes the tranquil leisurely pace of a small town can belie a tradition of change and innovation. At least that's the case in New Stanton, home of New Stanton United Methodist Church, a house of worship with a new campus that has a state-of-the-art audio system and a versatile all-LED lighting rig made up of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Good Sounds.

The dynamic church's forward-looking sound and lighting systems are in keeping with the history of New Stanton. Tucked away in southwestern Pennsylvania, this picturesque community of 2000 has seen its share of trend-setting developments. Over 200 years ago it was the site of some of America's earliest commercial grain mills. In 1978, when Volkswagen opened a facility outside of town, it became home of the first mass production foreign automobile plant in the US. Today companies making a variety of high-tech

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USA - When Audio Formula / Tour FX CEO Nick Assunto and his team were hired by the City of Doral and The Knight Foundation to produce an evening of music at Downtown Doral Park, he turned to DPA Microphones for all of his amplification needs. The free concert, which took place on a cold Miami evening with the breath-taking Doral City Hall as the backdrop, featured the world-renowned Forbidden Saints and a special guest performance by the Miami Symphony Orchestra.

Assunto, an avid user of DPA microphones, was confident the mics would be capable of handling the challenges that come with miking a large number of performers in a temporary outdoor venue.

"Amplifying a symphony orchestra with 70-plus musicians on stage in a windy environment is not an easy task," says Assunto. "We had to give care and consideration for the microphone placement with the addition of windscreens, a

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