USA - Orchard Hill Church, located north of Pittsburgh in Wexford, offers a striking architectural design around its 1,200-seat auditorium. And just as modern is the church’s new sound technology, L-ISA by L-Acoustics, integrated as part of a $1.3m design-build renovation of the main worship centre. “It’s been clearly shown that when we can connect what we see with what we hear, the technology disappears,” says Josh Maichele, L-Acoustics application manager, house of worship. Specifically, he says, our eyes want to watch a pastor on stage but our ears draw our vision towards the PA speakers reinforcing their voice. L-ISA technology effectively disconnects the sound from the sound source, allowing audience members to focus their attention on the stage, immersing themselves in the content. “L-ISA makes the connection between sight and sound more natural, and i
Austria - Austrian Audio reports ‘making big strides in the last year’, thanks partly to the ‘excellent cooperation’ with their distributors. The company which started in 1917 following the closure of AKG’s Vienna offices, has seen growth not only in the US, where the distributor Group One has opened a large number of stores for Austrian Audio, but also internationally. In the past six months, the company has added new distributors in Chile, Mexico, India, Singapore and Thailand. Additionally, Austrian Audio products will start shipping to Iceland, Malaysia, Brazil, Malta, South Africa and Russia this summer. “We are very excited to work with each of our amazing partners worldwide. Of course, we are supporting their efforts by providing education and sales materials for our products. But ultimately, they know their markets best,” says Martin Seidl, CEO o
UK - The ABTT has announced the Virtual Ideas Platform. Set up in collaboration with Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the platform will serve as an informal introduction service between independent creative innovators and commercial developers behind the sectors’ leading brands, products and services. The platform is open “to anyone and everyone with an idea” and aims to recognise and help realise new ways of making theatre work. The ABTT says: “We know when backstage people are faced with a technical challenge, they get inventive and creative, cook up ideas and find solutions. The Platform is here to recognise, salute and honour those innovators in our midst. “By its very nature, theatre is a dynamic working environment in which to invent and develop new and better ways of doing things - in special effects, costume and wardrobe, wigs, make-up and
UK - Martin Audio is gearing up for two ‘action packed days’ in early September, which will see them combine the latest in open day programme - and their first in two years - with a party to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Held on 7 and 8 September, the open days have been designed to coincide with the return of the PLASA Show in London, when the international light and sound community descends on the capital. The events will rigidly follow COVID rules for both staff and visitors, with appropriate protocols put in place. Sessions will be held at 09:30, 12.30 and 15:30 on September 7th, and at 10.00 and 13:00 on September 8th. Each session will run for two hours. For the active demonstrations, guests will have the opportunity to sample the Adorn series, including the latest ceiling additions, as well as BlacklineX, CDD, Torus and SXCF118 subwoofer. The Wavef
Germany/UK - Last month, SUSE made its initial public offering debut on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In response to the limitations of physical events brought on by the pandemic and in lieu of being at the Deutsche Börse in person, SUSE reinvented the entire listing day experience with a digital-first approach. SUSE collaborated with Deloitte Digital, using technical solutions specialist White Light (WL’s) SmartStage in London, to create an entirely virtual experience that could reach its global audience. Bespoke virtual worlds, and overall storyline, created by Deloitte Digital / ACNE, together with their production partner NSYNK, using Unreal Engine, were seamlessly integrated into the SmartStage environment and remotely edited via VPN from Frankfurt. The environment was further enhanced with extended reality (XR) features, such as a virtual drone to visual
New Zealand - The Stardome Observatory and Planetarium recently upgraded its cinema and live performance venue with a complete Harman Professional networked surround sound system comprised of JBL Professional, Crown, BSS and Soundcraft solutions. The Stardome’s observatory opened to the public in 1967, while the planetarium - the largest in New Zealand - launched in 1997. The venue features a panoramic theatre with a full-dome concave screen, laser projectors and IMAX angled seating for an immersive 360-degree viewing experience. Doubling as both a cinema and live performance venue, the Stardome needed a versatile sound system to support a wide range of events. Additionally, since a range of staff members and volunteers operate the facility, ease of use was a top priority. Stardome organisers hired AV Integration company Avid Automation and Harman distributor JPRO t
UK - The widely respected PLASA Awards for Innovation return to the PLASA Show for 2021, in association with LSi magazine. All PLASA Show 2021 exhibitors are invited to enter their new products by Friday 6 August to be in with a chance of winning one of the coveted awards. The awards celebrate products from across live entertainment technology which demonstrate a new style of thinking, improve technical practice or safety, introduce new materials or techniques, or offer a new commercial advantage. Each entered product will be judged by an independent panel of industry experts who have the authority to present up to eight awards of equal standing, plus a potential Gold Award for an outstanding new product. Furthermore, an Award for Sustainability is reserved for a product that can demonstrate a significant reduction of power, utilises renewable energy, or has a po
Sweden - Geijerskolan, a school surrounded by forest, deep in the heart of the Swedish countryside in Ransäter, Värmland offers a wide variety of music-based education alternatives including music production, last year it opened a new analogue studio with the Audient ASP4816 desk at its heart. The studio and two rehearsal rooms are housed in an old-fashioned red wooden house typical of the area, whose rustic exterior belies the technology found within its walls. “It’s important that the students can work with a real analogue console. They need to make their own mistakes as well as finding their way around a ‘real’ studio,” says Stefan Deland, one of the teachers at the school. He underlines the school’s ethos of giving students the freedom to evolve in a creative community and ‘learn by doing’. The music production programme is a mixture of studio pro
Italy - Powersoft has launched two additions to its rtouring amplifier platform, the T Series. The new T902 and T904 have been introduced to extend the applications of the T Series further, allowing it to cover the requirements for any system deployment, including larger-scale live sound applications. The T902 is a 2-channel amplifier specified to deliver 4000W at 2 Ohms, 3200W at 4 Ohms, or 1800W at 8 Ohms, and its high rail voltage and peak current on the outputs make it ideal for driving large 4-Ohm subwoofers (like dual 18’’) or 2- and 3-way line sources. The other addition to the T Series family is the 4-channel T904, which can deliver 1800W at 2 Ohms, 2000W at 4 Ohms, or 1600W at 8 Ohms. This new amplifier platform is designed to power Bi-amped systems like stage monitors, 2-way point source speakers, and 2-way line sources, as well as smaller subwoofe
UK - Technical solutions distributor Visualization has announced the appointment of James Belso to spearhead its end user and consultant activity. Belso will be charged in developing Visualization’s business and grow its partner network. Having worked for Christie Digital Systems for over a decade, Belso has recently been focusing on the consultant community and key end users. With both a deep technical expertise and strong commercial focus, Belso was instrumental in some major wins including the London Stock Exchange digital transformation. Prior to Christie, Belso has worked with Panasonic and Cabletime (now MediaStar Systems) in sales focused roles. Visualization managing director, Nick Pidgeon, comments, “James’ pedigree and experience precedes him. His relationships and industry experience will further help Visualization expand its offering to our chan
Singapore - At the end of last year, The Lion City became home to the country’s largest extended reality (XR) stage, created by Singapore-based creative content development agency in events and media production, AUX Media Group. AUX Immersive Studio features an XR facility, with Brompton Technology helping merge physical and virtual events with its Tessera processing and Brompton HDR. Powered by AUX Media Group’s partnership with UK-based creative technology company disguise, and Japanese audio-visual leaders Yamaha and Panasonic, AUX Immersive Studio is a collaboration between leading brands and technologies with a common goal, “to create experiences that allow our creatives to tell their stories in a way never done before,” explains Choong Chyi Kei, CEO at AUX Media Group. “In 2020, amidst the worldwide pandemic, many industry players pivoted to virtual an
USA - Peak City Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is a contemporary Christian church experiencing a high level of growth. The church recently moved to a new location with room to expand its congregation, services, and community outreach and looked to LEA Professional to provide powerful amplification solutions to serve this growing community. As part of the Church's plans to best address their current and future needs, managers reached out to AV systems integrator, Sight+Sound Technologies to design and install sound, lighting, and video systems that included a new distributed audio system for their lobby/cafe and common-space hallway area, and systems for their multi-use classrooms. Kris Johnson, the chief operating officer for Sight+Sound Technologies (SST), was one of the key project point people for the new Peak City Church sound system expansion. SST has been
USA - The Meyer Sound Spacemap Go US Roadshow will roll across the country through the summer and fall with stops in 10 cities, including sessions in conjunction with the Church Facilities Conference & Expo (CFX) in Dallas, 21-22 September and InfoComm 2021 in Orlando, 26-29 October. The Roadshow demo sessions are principally focused on Spacemap Go, Meyer Sound’s spatial sound design and live mixing tool, although the touring system also showcases other new technologies as incorporated in the Ultra‑X20 compact loudspeaker and VLFC very low-frequency control element. “We are taking Spacemap Go on the road so customers and users can experience it first-hand,” says Daniel Rivera, sales manager, West for Meyer Sound and principal organiser of the tour. “You cannot fully appreciate the power of Spacemap Go until you hear it in action, and you can’t grasp it
China - The Xi’an Olympic Centre Stadium in the Shaanxi Province of Northwest China is due to host the opening ceremony and track and field competitions for China’s 14th National Games in September. With an immense size of 866,667sqm, the newly built venue boasts three main zones: the stadium, with 60,000 seats; the gymnasium with 18,000, and the natatorium with 4,000. A venue of this size required a colossal audio system that could meet the ambitious needs of the stadium throughout the upcoming National Games and beyond. The responsibility of designing an audio system spanning across these three zones was given to Powersoft’s Chinese distributor EZPro. “The brief we were given was to create a world class audio system, that was advanced, stable, cost effective and flexible,” commented Yongjun Jiang, EZPro’s technical manager of the project. “With the syst
Singapore - Situated in the heart of Singapore, Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay is a new destination for tourists. The hotel, part of the Pan Pacific Hotels Group, is the result of a complete renovation of an existing building. The 767sq.m Garden Ballroom hosts wedding banquets and corporate dining events and can also be partitioned into three separate rooms for seminars. Acoustic and audio-visual consultants CCW Associates were tasked with the technical specifications of the Garden Ballroom. Concealing all speakers at their installation points within the elegant interior design was an essential requirement. CCW Associates invited Singapore-based L-Acoustics certified provider Concept Systems Technologies to participate in the project tender, based on its proven credentials in providing audio solutions to over 40 hospitality projects around the city island. Gera
USA - Audinate’s Dante AV is now available as part of new solutions from Bolin Technology and Patton Electronics. These new products are the first commercially-available offerings in the Dante AV video-over-IP networking platform, ushering in a new era of video connectivity over standard 1Gbps networks. The new offerings are available and can be ordered immediately from the Bolin and Patton websites. “Today’s announcements from Bolin Technology and Patton Electronics bring the reality of easily managed AV-over-IP to life,” comments Aidan Williams, CEO of Audinate. “Complete networked AV systems can now be deployed over 1 Gbps networks with the no-nonsense compatibility, automatic discovery, and one-click signal routing that have made Dante audio the most popular AV networking solution in the world.” Bolin Technology is now shipping its new D-series PTZ came
India - Crescendo AV recently equipped Saga: Cuisines of India’s new reataurant in Gurugram with Harman Professional audio and lighting solutions to provide a memorable experience for dining and entertainment at the ambitious new restaurant and bar. Created by restaurateur Vishal Anand, Saga: Cuisines of India is a spacious dining destination with a food and beverage menu curated by twice-Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar. The 200-capacity venue features a 51ft ceiling, one of the world’s tallest bar displays and a stage for live performances that can accommodate anything from a DJ to a six-piece band. To provide sound and dynamic lighting, Crescendo AV outfitted Saga with JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, BSS signal processors, AKG microphones and Martin Professional lighting fixtures. “SAGA was a unique install in every sense,” said Vineet Wad
UK - iMAG Displays has become a leading player in virtual production, with its services being used on major projects for Treehouse Digital, Amazon, Lionsgate, Warner Brothers, Netflix, and Sky Cinema. Key to iMAG’s success in the HDR virtual environment is its delivery of indoor HDR LED virtual production volumes. This has involved key investments in market leading equipment that works seamlessly within the chain, including ROE Visual LED screens, Brompton Technology Tessera SX40 processors and disguise media servers. “It’s vital for our VP that the entire process is considered before pre-production,” says Chris Musselwhite, producer and head of production at Treehouse Digital, which works with some of the world’s largest content streaming companies. “Working with iMAG means that we are able to provide a complete service to our clients, whilst supporting th
UK - Serving up some much-needed humour, Sky has partnered with LIVENow to deliver a live stand-up series. Produced with live events specialists The Manual London, LAUGHNow Comedy Club premiered on 19 March with its first show, with the series consisting of six 55-minute live sessions, headlined by Jonathan Pie, Spencer Jones, Reginald D Hunter, Ed Byrne, and Nina Conti and Russell Kane. Sky VIP customers were able to win complimentary access to live streamed events via the My Sky App, with some lucky winners also being in with a chance to get a remote place in the audience, on individual TV screens, giving them the feeling they were at the heart of the show. Non-Sky VIP members could also access the event by purchasing tickets via LIVENow. Set in atmospheric music venue Omeara in London’s Borough, audio production company Major Tom supplied a full audio control package an
China - Christie HS Series 1DLP laser projectors are illuminating the newly-opened Jiangsu Garden Expo Park with spectacular visuals that heighten the beauty and engineering marvel of this mountainside garden complex. Located in Tangshan, Jiangning District, Jiangsu Garden Expo Park is a large-scale ecological, cultural and tourism venue that’s fast becoming a new landmark of Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province. Covering an area of 3.38sq.k including a core gardens zone measuring 2.2sq.k, the sprawling park was built on abandoned mine pits over a two-year period. It boasts meticulously manicured gardens, traditional-style pavilions, promenades, rock formations and a lake. Among the major highlights of the park are re-creations of traditional gardens situated in the 13 cities of Jiangsu province including Nanjing Garden, Suzhou Garden, Wuxi Garden and Taizho
South Korea - Harman Professional Solutions recently collaborated with TechDataPS to equip Jeonju National University of Education’s multi-purpose concert hall with a live sound reinforcement system. Jeonju National University of Education’s Hwanghak Hall is a 28-year-old building that was recently remodelled. In addition to seminar rooms, waiting areas and dressing rooms, the 9,800sq.ft facility features a 470-seat multipurpose auditorium. In order to ensure premium sound quality in the auditorium, the university needed a modern sound system. Jeonju National University of Education hired TechDataPS to outfit the performance space with a system including JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers and Soundcraft mixers. TechDataPS reports that Jeonju National University required a simple-yet-dynamic audio system to produce impactful events in their concert hal
UK - Peerless-AV has announced that it will be hosting an AV exhibition and networking event on 16 September at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. AV and digital signage brands signed up to take space at the exhibition, include Absen, Philips, Samsung, NEC, Kramer, Sony UK, Iiyama, Datapath, Hypervsn, Signagelive, Tripleplay and Matrox. The AV User Group, AV Magazine and AVIXA Women’s Council UK will also be involved. “After a long time planning and deliberating, closely following the latest government announcements, we’re very pleased that we can finally push ahead with our exhibition and networking event,” comments Keith Dutch, managing director - EMEA, Peerless-AV. “For many AV professionals, ISE 2020 will have been the last time they had face-to-face interaction of this scale. I think I can speak for the majority in that, as restrictions ease, we’re a
Europe - ALC NetworX, developers of the high-performance Ravenna AoIP networking technology platform, has announced that the new Ravenna website is now live. Sporting a new, more modern look and feel the new site offers ‘even easier access to information and resources concerning all things that relate to Ravenna, including standards information, use cases, webinars and other resources. The RAVENNA website is already a comprehensive resource in the world for AES67, and the new site aims to provide the same level of information for SMPTE ST 2110. While still it its infancy, the new SMPTE ST 2110 section already offers information and illustrative diagrams on what it is and why it’s useful, along with use cases, application examples and much more. Over time this information will become incr
UK - Woods’ Silver Fleet has worked with Flipside Soundsystem to create a discreet yet powerful AV system for its new Woods Quay home in central London. The new building moored on the Thames includes a tasting room and bar alongside 140m of private river moorings. “When we first heard about the pavilion project, we knew it was the kind of venue that could really benefit from our expertise,” says Flipside managing director, James Cooper. “We understood exactly what they wanted to achieve with Woods Quay and how we could deliver something above and beyond their expectations.” The opportunity to create this base came with the purchase of an old pub boat, The Queen Mary, located just 100 yards from their temporary base at the Savoy Pier. When The Queen Mary was floated away, it revealed a remarkable piece of London’s history. “Underneath that there was
