Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Business

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South Africa - Three further African countries have embraced the popular singing competition The Voice - South Africa, Angola & Nigeria - with all three series recorded at and broadcast from Stage One, Sasani Studios, Johannesburg - and all featuring over 100 Robe moving lights prominently on their respective lighting rigs.

Johannesburg based production company Multi-Media is co-ordinating and supplying all technical elements - including lighting, sound, video, rigging and staging - for broadcaster AMPN (African Media & Productions Network) TV over an 11-month period which ends in July 2016.

Multi-Media's technical project manager, Chris de Lancey put together the team who are making it rock which includes lighting designer Joshua Cutts, asked on-board for his experience and flair in lighting live music TV shows as well as his reputation for innovation. Dewet Meyer wo

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Ireland - Dublin's 398ft high Monument of Light Spire was transformed into a giant 'Lightsaber' in December to celebrate the premiere of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, using powerful fixtures controlled by Avolites' Titan One DMX USB Dongle.

Commissioned by Disney, Tom Rohan of event production house Eventco conceptualised the installation alongside lighting designers Mick Murray and Matthew Cregan. The team used 16 of Clay Paky's intensely bright SuperSharpys to beam colours up the Spire to create the Lightsaber effect.

The event lasted for three weeks, with the team checking and controlling the lighting via CCTV, connected to the internet, which sent live images back. They then accessed the laptop within the Spire using the TeamViewer app.

"We did initial focusing on an Avolites Tiger Touch II and then transferred the show to a Mac laptop with th

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Croatia -Although Croatian distribution company, Sunflower d.o.o. set up back in 1996, it was only after 2010 that the country's infrastructure had professionalised itself sufficiently to support brands of the calibre of Powersoft.

This year the Italian manufacturer, through its regional account manager (EMEA), Stefano Previtali, did a deal with the Rijeka based company, appointing them as their new distributor for the territory. This enabled the brand to join other high prestige names like d&b audiotechnik, XTA and DiGiCo in the top tier distribution portfolio.

According to Sunflower's Tomislav 'Kuki' Koran the new alliance will do much to raise the profile of both companies, as previously Sunflower had only represented a small and virtually unknown OEM Chinese amplifier manufacturer. "Powersoft will certainly be used for high performance applications," he said.

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USA - Metalcore band Atreyu have a knack for painting pictures with their music. Philadelphia-based LD Lenny Sasso did justice to the group's imagination in his lightshow on their recent tour by drawing on the zone control and pixel mapping features of Chauvet Professional Rogue and Nexus fixtures provided by Squeek Lights.

After working on Atreyu's tour for their sixth and latest studio album Long Live, Sasso described how he went beyond illuminating the stage to reflect the varying moods of the music. "The music of Atreyu can get pretty intense and it evokes powerful images," he said. "I wanted the lighting to keep up, to reflect this and contribute to taking the audience on a journey. So, for example, when there were sections of songs that were slow and dramatic, instead of doing a random slow dimmer fade between the lights as I normally do, I opted to

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Russia - Allen & Heath's GLD digital mixing system has been installed in the concert and cinema hall of the System Operator of the Unified Energy System's head office in Moscow, Russia.

As part of an audio refurbishment, the GLD system was selected by installer, Audio Video Solutions, the system comprised a GLD-80 console installed in the control room, with AR2412 and AR84 remote I/O racks located at the surface providing 32 local analogue inputs and 16 local analogue outputs. The GLD is complemented by a QSC speaker system.

System Operator of the Unified Energy System is a state-owned organisation providing operational and centralised control of Russia's unified power system. The head office occupies a large building in the historical centre of Moscow, and the 500-capacity hall is used to hold a variety of events, from management and staff meetings to musical performances a

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UK - Lee Valley Leisure Trust came into operation in April 2015 to run 14 of the major sports venues and other sites owned by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.

Last summer Martin Audio partner, Old Barn Audio (OBA) undertook a sound system upgrade at the £31m Lee Valley White Water Centre in Waltham Cross, one of the host venues for the 2012 London Olympics, using the manufacturer's new CDD range. Such was the level of satisfaction that the integrators were immediately asked to provide a similar Martin Audio solution at another Group venue, Lee Valley Ice Centre in Leytonstone.

Within this cavernous space, the operators host a range of learn-to-skate and public skating sessions, while the international sized ice rink is also home to the Lee Valley Lions and London Raiders Ice Hockey teams and the Lee Valley London Skating Club.

But the 15-year-old system was start

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USA - Behind the scenes at the Emmy-nominated Jimmy Kimmel Live, lighting designer Christian Hibbard is busy bringing the shows musical performances to life. With two outdoor stages that host the hottest musical acts from around the world, Hibbard is asked to create the ideal lighting environment that best personifies the varying musicality of each artist. Understanding these challenges, Hibbard needs lighting instruments with a number of quality capabilities, which he has found in the VL4000 BeamWash luminaire from Philips Vari-Lite.

"I've been at Jimmy Kimmel Live since the beginning and we've been doing the outdoor concert series since the inaugural episode where we featured Coldplay," began Hibbard. "The lighting rig is different every time depending upon the band performing as each artist will have a look that's appropriate for their style of m

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UK - On 21 January 2016, as it welcomed members of the industry to its Embassy Theatre for the annual Association of Lighting Designer's (ALD) New Technology Showcase, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was delighted to announce the establishment of the Richard Pilbrow Scholarship.

With special thanks to alumnus and renowned lighting designer Richard Pilbrow for his generosity, the Richard Pilbrow Scholarship will support a young lighting designer at the School as they undertake the training necessary to embark upon their professional career.

Richard Pilbrow is both a graduate and an Honorary Fellow of Central, as well as an internationally renowned stage lighting designer, author, theatre design consultant and theatre, film and television producer. He is a pioneer of modern stage lighting in Britain, and his work has been seen in London, New York, Paris, Berlin, V

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UK - The Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI) 2016 has launched and submissions are already coming in for its Television and Concert Touring and Events categories.

This year marks the 9th KOI Awards, which celebrates the creative talents of international lighting and digital content designers working in the UK in the sectors of TV, Theatre and Concert Touring and Events.

The 2016 edition will see the event moved from its usual date in early October to the 18th September to coincide with the PLASA London 2016 exhibition. The venue for the sparkling awards ceremony and dinner has also moved to join the PLASA show at its new location of Kensington Olympia.

Submissions are open for the Television and Concert Touring and Events categories and shows performed or broadcast between 1st August 2015 and 31st July 2016 in the UK are eligible. As with previous years the Theatre sectio

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Independents' Days - This week, the UK music industry celebrates the third Independent Venue Week (IVW) with a week-long series of gigs all across the country. Led by London-based agency I Like The Sound of That, the seven-day long campaign is supported by the Arts Council through its Grants for the Arts funding programme. Its reach is expanding with 120 venues now taking part, from Aberdeen to Exeter and Belfast to Norwich. Among venues joining this year are Quay Arts (Isle of Wight), The Soundhouse (Leicester) and Nambucca (north London).

Helen Sprott, director of music at Arts Council England, says, "Arts Council England is pleased to be supporting I Like The Sound of That and their brilliant Independent Venue Week project for the second year running. It is vital that independent venues are recognised for the value they bring both to their local communities and the nati

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USA - Bandit Lites has made a sizeable purchase of Ayrton's newest fixtures, including Ayrton CosmoPix-R, IntelliPix-R, MagicBlade-R, MagicDot-R and MagicRing-R9.

"I'm very excited that we have added a large variety of Ayrton products to our inventory," said Jake Tickle, Bandit's director of technical services. "Ayrton has taken a refreshing approach to their fixture design, adding innovation and consistency to their entire product line. From a service and maintainability stand point we couldn't be happier."

These products will all be seen on upcoming 2016 tours, including Dave Butzler's lighting design for Garth Brooks, Mike Swinford's lighting design for Jason Aldean's We Were Here Tour, Nick Whitehouse's lighting design for Thomas Rhett and Little Big Town's 2016 tour.

Las Vegas-based Morpheus Lights, the exclusive US distributor for Ayrton, was ple

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Ireland - Croke Park in Dublin has been at the heart of Irish sporting life for over 100 years. Boasting a capacity of more than 82,000 people, the stadium is home to the Gaelic Games and the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The venue is also a prime location for meetings and events, so when its flagship Hogan Suite recently underwent refurbishment, Doughty Engineering was called upon by Cine Electric to supply all the new facility panels.

David McKeown, project manager at Cine Electric explained: "This is an extremely prestigious job for us - Croke Park isn't just a stadium, it's Ireland's national stadium and is held in very high regard both by those of us who live here and visitors from around the world. We were initially brought on board by the electrical contractor, CJ Ryder Lawlor, to facilitate all the specialist infrastructure, LED lighting and rigg

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Qatar - During Qatar National Day in December 2015, Creative Communication Group (CCG) was the company responsible for the sound through the whole Corniche area that included five different locations including the fireworks show. In order to cover the whole area with audio, CCG incorporated Xirium system, purchased from local distributor Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises (NMK), to ease the set up on areas where cable crossings were difficult and extended more than 100m.

The purchase of Xirium system for the event included four transmitters and 20 receivers. One of the challenges of whole project was to get signal across roads and extended it more than 300m. Xirium was used in the repeater mode and thanks to the system's software technicians were able to see the signal strength in different areas and plan accordingly.

CCG was established in 1998 in GCC as a full serv

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Germany - In Berlin the New Year is traditionally greeted at the Brandenburg Gate. To welcome in 2016, TLT Event AG was once again in charge of production and technical implementation of the popular event. The turn of the year was also the go-ahead for TLT to invest in a RockLink system, which came into operation for the first time on NYE to provide a redundant fiberoptic network for the MA-Net between FOH and Dimmercity.

"As we are placing great value on reliability for our productions, we have been working with Rock Solid Technologies' RockSwitch Mk2 for some time. Moreover, there was an increasing internal necessity to invest in a redundant fiberoptic network", stated Helge Rabethge, technical director Light and Rigging.

"For the buying decision, it was important to us to invest in a reliable system that consists of as few individual components as possible

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UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises (NMK), distributor of Clear-Com in the United Arab Emirates for the live sound market segment, has recently supplied eclipse Staging Services with FreeSpeak II and HelixNet Partyline.

eclipse has purchased two HMS-4X HelixNet digital four channel headset/speaker main stations, 30 HelixNet digital two channel dual listen monaural beltpacks together with four dual channel 4-wire interfaces, two FreeSpeak II base stations and thirty FreeSpeak II digital wireless beltpacks.

Both FreeSpeak II and HelixNet were used at the third annual Internet of Things World Forum (IoTWF) that hosted over 2000 attendees in Dubai World Trade Centre. 24 wired stations of HelixNet and 16 wireless stations of FreeSpeak II covered intercommunication between the production and technical teams.

"The system was very easy to set up and operate. I w

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Europe - After completing a successful sold-out tour of the US and Canada for much of last year, with a Martin Audio MLA PA provided by Showtime Sound LLC, popular actor-comedian, Kevin Hart, and his production manager, Scott Tydings, ensured they maintained continuity by asking Capital Sound to provide a similar rig when the What Now? tour arrived in Europe.

One of America's fastest rising comedy talents, Hart has released four comedy DVDs and appeared on numerous TV shows and in blockbuster films; he has over 20m worldwide followers each on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

As for Tydings he had clearly enjoyed the MLA experience both with Kevin Hart and fellow comedienne Amy Schumer. The fit with Capital Sound, who also specialise in providing sound reinforcement for top-drawer stand-up comedians was an obvious one - although as general manager Paul Timmins explained, the

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Switzerland - The last day of March 2016 marks the end of the 25th year of operation for Merging Technologies. Claude Cellier founded the company in 1990 after his departure from Nagra and immediately embarked on a journey involving many ground-breaking innovations.

If Pyramix is the best known, the more recent introduction of RAVENNA/AES67 Networked Audio Interfaces, Horus and Hapi, is no less significant. In fact, these converters very quickly established themselves as the pinnacle of audio excellence as witnessed by the vast majority of Grammy nominations for classical recording using either or both converters. Networking has introduced many benefits and has revolutionized the facilities using this technology and with the industry approval of AES67, the options dramatically expand. Merging recognized the importance of allowing the maximum number of devices to connect to its

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UK - Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's musical Mary Poppins originally opened in 2004 and ran in the West End for three years. Since then over 11m people worldwide have seen the show, which has just returned to the UK, opening in October at Curve in Leicester. The musical will tour the country until the start of 2017.

The demanding tour is packed from start to finish with stunning special effects and in order to be able to re-create the exact same magic in every venue, senior production manager Chris Boone enlisted the help of Unusual Rigging.

"I have a long running relationship with Unusual Rigging - they're my go-to company for all my rigging needs. The last job we worked on together was the Barnum tour, which in comparison to Mary Poppins was far less complex. Unusual Rigging has supplied over 60 chain hoists to suspend the Mary Poppins tour

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South Africa - Rental and production specialist Sound Stylists opened their Durban branch in 2010 to service the growing events, music and entertainment markets in the busy, buzzing cosmopolitan KwaZulu Natal port city, and it's expanded from a satellite operation for the Johannesburg HQ with two staff to a major branch with 11 full time employees, working across all industry sectors.

MD Kevin Glover's intention has been to proactively grow the company's work portfolio on all fronts, providing innovative and imaginative audio, lighting, and staging and AV solutions.

A steady investment in Robe moving lights has featured in the success of the Durban facility as the lighting division has increased its capacity and pushed the proverbial envelope of excellence.

Initially, Durban started with 24 of Robe's classic workhorse 575 E AT ColorSpot and ColorWash series products, but

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UK - Triple E's universal building system, ModTruss, has provided a strong and versatile solution to fly a powerfully bright 18kW Arrimax HMI head in an arc over the stage for the world premiere performances of Morgen und Abend at London's Royal Opera House.

The production team approached Hertfordshire-based 'theatre magicians' Lamp & Pencil to devise a solution for flying the Arrimax HMI head in a moving yoke across the stage to represent the path of the sun.

The vertical movement of the lamp is achieved with the existing flying system at the venues. The horizontal movement is realised with tracks on a frame with a carriage driven by existing point hoists.

The ModTruss sections were combined with Triple E's Unibeam, carriers and other standard components and required very little custom metalwork. Triple E managed the project, designed and built the mechanical elem

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UK - Tape London, situated just off Regent Street in London's Hanover Square, describes itself as, "an exclusive nightclub offering an elegant party experience for an elite, global crowd, attracting influential members of the music industry and music fans alike."

The venue, which opened in Autumn 2015, is a nightclub, recording studio and members lounge that aims to become the "home" of London's music industry. The nightclub offers an elegant and exclusive party experience, with sets from internationally renowned DJs attracting members of the music industry and music lovers. It is a unique, fresh and exciting new concept inspired by Grammy award winning producer Dallas Austin. The 250-capacity nightclub also has a full-sized stage for live performances.

The design brief for SSE Audio Group was to install a high quality audio system throughout the main bar

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UK - Unusual Rigging has been highly commended for its efforts in implementing a circular economy in The Circulars 2016 Awards. The Circulars, the world's premier circular economy award programme, offers recognition to individuals and organisations across the world that have made a notable contribution to driving circular economy principles - where growth doesn't depend on the use of scarce natural resources. Unusual Rigging has been shortlisted from thousands of entries to receive the commendation in the 'Ecolab Award for Circular Economy Enterprise'.

Tom Harper, who heads the drive towards a circular economy at Unusual, said: "This is a huge deal for us as we are in our first year of implementing these changes to our business. The past twelve months have seen us become 55% renewably driven, having just received OFGEM status as a generating site for 100% renewable electri

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Poland - Nearly 150 Philips Vari-Lite professional luminaires, including one of the latest additions to the product line the VL4000 Spot, have been installed into Torun's brand new multi-functional hub the Jordanki Culture and Congress Centre (or CKK Jordanki).

The 22,000-m2 building, designed by world-renowned Spanish architect Fernando Menis, is the culmination of an intense two-year building project that completed in December 2015. The venue is located in the city's Old Town and boasts a unique aesthetic with cutting-edge technical features.

Hired by Wroclaw-based construction company Intersystem, Philips Entertainment distributor for Poland PS TTeatr supplied and installed 144 Philips Vari-Lite moving heads into the venue's 880-seat concert hall and 300-seat chamber hall. Further Philips Entertainment lighting brands were also installed by PS Teatr, including 32 Philips

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UK - With an increase of 26% of floorspace, the second edition of PLASA Focus Glasgow has been hailed a success with 50% more brands showcasing the latest in live entertainment technology and attendees increased by 32% since the inaugural show in 2014.

Cementing itself as the industry's essential meeting place for the region, the show - which opened its doors at the SECC from 20-21 January - offered live product demonstrations, two days of high quality seminar sessions and over 75 brands in an environment ideal for networking and generating business face-to-face. Attracting visitors with a combined spending power of £130m, the development of the show reflects the continued expansion of the industry in the region.

David Steedsy Stevenson from Ward Steedsy Audio, distributor of Funktion-One in Scotland comments: "It's the first time we've had a trade stand at a PLAS

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