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25 February 2025

UK - A performer and songwriter of consistently fresh ideas, Craig David’s polished melodies and thoughtful lyrics gently insinuate themselves into your mind and then take up permanent residence. After 25 years he’s still doing it as he takes his anniversary tour around UK arenas, performing hits such as 7 Days and Rendezvous for his loyal fans.

Oli Metcalfe, the show’s designer and a man with a reputation for challenging himself, took the opportunity to reflect David’s innovative song cycle with some new tech and a fresh idea of his own. “For arenas it's a bijou design with some real-time video elements,” he says. “It’s cool stuff. I’m using Unreal Engine (Epic Games), console driven via NDisplay for workflow, effectively working 3D scenes with a virtual camera embedded.”

Figuratively placing your artist within

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25 February 2025

USA - ATK Audiotek, a Clair Global brand, supplied live audio reinforcement and a stadium-wide communications network to the Super Bowl LIX, hosted at the 83,000-capacity Caesar's Superdome in New Orleans on 9 February.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles took centre stage for the NFL action, which saw the Eagles reign supreme in a sports battle that was accompanied by Clair Global touring client, Kendrick Lamar's Halftime Show.

ATK has worked across 27 Super Bowl games in a row, ensuring the event – produced by Roc Nation and DPS (Diversified Production Services) – is executed with technical prowess.

This year, almost 130m broadcast viewers tuned in as ATK devised the in-bowl audio, pre-game, Halftime, and in-game stadium sound, alongside the vital site-wide comms. The scope also extended to distributing audi

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25 February 2025

The Netherlands - Theater De Maagd, a converted church-turned-theatre in Bergen op Zoom has recently undergone technical modernisation, part of which included transitioning from halogen to LED lighting.

Ampco-Flashlight Sales, Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for The Netherlands, recommended Ayrton Diablo TC, as a versatile and advanced LED fixture that perfectly aligns with the theatre’s vision for its future, installing 16 Diablo TCs as front lighting and an additional six units for use on stage.

The drive for innovation and a new way of working was precisely the reason the theatre chose Ayrton Diablo, as Cees Snellink, head of technology at Theater De Maagd, explains: “Switching to Ayrton Diablo saves us time and money because we now need much less physical setup compared to the conventional halogen lighting we used previously. Much of the pre

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25 February 2025

UK - To celebrate their ninth birthday, Salford’s Hope Mill Theatre put on a production of Nine, a Tony-Award winning musical centred around fictitious film director Guido Contini. The story is set in Venice, Italy and covers Contini’s struggles with writer’s block, marriage breakdown and a distressing midlife crisis. Featuring an all-star cast, including Ruthie Henshall and Ramin Karimloo, the production took place at The Lowry’s Lyric Theatre using an audio system from KV2 Audio supplied by Autograph Sound.

Theatre sound designer, Nick Lodge, who was in charge of audio for the production, comments: “I have worked with KV2 on multiple productions in the past and have total confidence in their ability to provide a system that meets the unique demands of musical concerts. The pristine sound quality and transparency of KV2 loudspeakers is al

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25 February 2025

UK - The Westfield London Shopping Centre is inviting its customers to “step into a world of light, colour and wonder” for an inaugural winter light experience called Here We Glow. Based around a number of outdoor light art sculptures, it is designed to dazzle visitors of all ages, and will run until the beginning of March.

Of the eight commissioned exhibits, two - Shifting Visions by Adam Povey Lighting and Tessellis by Italian Angelo Bonello - are brought to life by sympathetic soundscapes delivered through Martin Audio loudspeakers.

The audio system for both of these quite diverse features has been designed by David Gregory, at London-based Clay Productions.

The company specialises in delivering large-scale immersive projects, and in the case of Shifting Visions they have deployed Martin Audio Adorn

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25 February 2025

France - The city of Lyon (France) recently hosted the 47th edition of WorldSkills, an international competition that brought together nearly 1,400 young competitors from 66 countries, aiming to inspire youth through excellence in vocational skills. Held across several sites in the city, this global event welcomed 140,000 visitors and featured opening and closing ceremonies worthy of the largest sporting events, planned and executed by Groupe Novelty.

The WorldSkills opening ceremony kicked off in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron at a sold-out LDLC Arena, in front of 12,000 spectators.

Two Groupe Novelty companies, Novelty Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Novelty AURA) and Alabama Média, handled all technical requirements for the event under the direction of Stéphane Simmat, technical director for the opening ceremony, and

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25 February 2025

South Africa - For three weeks in November, Time Square’s 8,500-capacity SunBet Arena in Pretoria is home to Afrikaans is Groot, a series of performances devoted to Afrikaans music and culture. 2023 was the first outing with DiGiCo Quantum consoles and in 2024 the audio team increased their capacity with a Quantum 338 and Quantum 326 Pulse at Front of House and Quantum 338 at the monitor position.

The 2024 edition was Afrikaans is Groot’s biggest year yet, boasting nine shows over two weekends, with over 70,000 people enjoying the experience. Kyle Freemantle is head of audio for the production and has overseen the growth over the last decade. He offers his insight into why DiGiCo continues to be Afrikaans is Groot’s console of choice.

“DiGiCo consoles are at the top of my list because of their flexibility regarding Optocore

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25 February 2025

Mexico - PRO3 – one of Mexico’s leading lighting and visual design studios, which also has a large stock of its own lighting equipment – has invested in more Robe moving lights in the last 18 months with the purchase of Fortes, Spiiders and RoboSpot systems.

The company was started in 2012 by three individuals all passionate about letting and delivering the best and most exciting shows and live experiences – Fulkas Camacho, Osvaldo Giuliano ‘Chicho’ and Juan Carlos Zamudio ‘Charly’, who are all lighting designers in their own right.

They brought new energy, innovation, enthusiasm and ideas to the Mexican production scene and have enjoyed considerable success working with a series of music and corporate clients. The company is still growing, and the ideas never stop flowing, with everyone bringing different personalities, concepts and

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25 February 2025

UK - Follow-Me has appointed Luke Edwards to the role of designer relations liaison UK. With extensive experience in both the creative and technical sides of the live event industry, Edwards will play a pivotal role in supporting the company’s growth in the UK market by bridging any possible gap between designers, technicians, rental companies and production managers considering using Follow-Me’s performer tracking systems on their shows.

Edwards' career began in Belgium, working in sound and lighting rentals. In lighting design he has toured globally with artists such as Gary Numan, Kelis, Jessie J, and Jacob Collier. He worked in LED video rental and virtual production, before taking on a designer relations role at Vari-Lite.

“I’m excited to step into this new role with Follow-Me, where I can help designers fully understand what our system

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25 February 2025

Sounds of Silence - More than 1,000 musicians – including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Kate Bush – have released a silent album in protest at the UK government's planned changes to copyright law, which they say would make it easier for AI companies to train models using copyrighted work without a licence.

Under the new proposals, AI developers will be able to use creators' content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders elect to "opt out". The artists hope the album, entitled Is This What We Want?, will draw attention to the potential impact on livelihoods and the UK music industry. All profits will be donated to the charity Help Musicians.

"In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?" Kate Bush said in a statement. A public consultation on the legal changes closes later today, Tuesday.

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24 February 2025

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24 February 2025

UK - Dear Evan Hansen brought an aesthetic focus on social anxiety to Broadway and West End stages, vividly and musically. In doing so, the theatrical production received considerable critical acclaim, nominated for nine Tony Awards and winning six.

The arrival of Fourier Audio’s transform.engine, and especially its recent v1.2 software enhancement, which adds features like Cuelists that can snapshot the entire state of all currently loaded plugins and MIDI control to fire Cues, has played a key role.

“Finally, a proper bona fide solution to plugins on a DiGiCo console,” says Tom Marshall, the sound designer for the current UK touring edition of Dear Evan Hansen, now in the midst of its 29-city run. “I put the transform.engine on my list as soon as I knew it was out there and working and as soon as I knew that the v1.2 updat

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24 February 2025

The Netherlands - The HOFtheater, a prominent cultural venue in the Dutch town of Raalte, has taken a major step towards the future by investing in LED lighting technology from Elation. The investment, facilitated through Elation’s Dutch distributor, Rolight, has elevated the theatre’s creative capabilities, and opened up new possibilities for both artists and technicians.

After an extensive search to find lighting that met their high standards for quality, versatility, and energy efficiency, the HOFtheater selected a combination of 24 Elation KL Profile FC ellipsoidals, 16 Fuze Profile moving heads, and 24 KL PAR FC. The new fixtures are now providing high-quality overhead, front, and backlighting for performances, offering a substantial upgrade from the theatre’s previous conventional halogen fixtures, some of which dated back to 1965!

Hans B

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24 February 2025

Canada - SFM has announced an improved comprehensive range of professional services designed to empower channel partners with the best AV solutions, under the new Plus branding.

SFM, which is now part of the international AV distribution operator Midwich Group, was instrumental in the initial development of the Plus global professional services offering.

Plus offers a range of services tailored to meet the different needs of each project.

“The launch of Plus is a significant step in our commitment to supporting our channel partners consistently across the globe. With SFM’s unique expertise, we're able to offer a level of support and services that truly sets us apart in the market,” says Randal Tucker, CEO and president at SFM.

“Whether it's a complex stadium project or a streamlined meeting room setup, Plus ensures our partner

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24 February 2025

Philippines - ARX Systems has announced the appointment of Manila-based Yupangco Electronics Corporation as its distributor for the Philippines.

ARX managing director Colin Park says: "The YEC Team has expressed their excitement about introducing our USB DI Series of interfaces, MSX series of signal distribution products, and AudioBox series of audio toolbox essentials to their pro audio, installation, and broadcast clients and market players in the Philippines industry.

"YEC are one of the leading music, professional audio and related products companies in the Philippines where their customer and brand support is renowned.”

In addition to ARX, YEC represents a variety of leading brands, including Harman Professional Solutions.

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24 February 2025

Benelux - The iconic Belgian duo Clouseau first appeared at CC Sint-Genesius-Rode in December 1984, and since then have continued to expand their horizons, singing in different languages and exploring new musical concepts.

Luc Peumans, head of the award-winning design studio Painting With Light, started working with Belgian duo Clouseau in 1995 on the Oker Tour as a light tech, becaming the duo’s lighting and production designer in 2001. Since that time, he has worked on all Clouseau tours and Sportpaleis shows. He has enlivened each one with a vibrant, new vision that resonates with contemporary audiences of the day.

This spirit is evident in Clouseau 40, the year-long tour throughout Benelux that celebrates the band’s 40 years of making music. Just as Clouseau haven’t lost a step (and indeed have added several new ones) on t

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24 February 2025

USA - The ADJ team will be hitting the road over the coming weeks and months to showcase the company’s latest lighting technology at a series of local open house events across the USA. Each Beams, Bites & Bright Ideas event will be hosted at an ADJ dealer and provide an opportunity to see new fixtures in person before they are released, as well as to network and talk shop with ADJ reps as well as other local lighting pros with complimentary food and beverages provided.

Building on the success of ADJ’s recent road show tours, these new micro events will focus on quality connections. Lighting pros will have the opportunity to look at and touch ADJ’s new fixtures before they begin to ship, as well as see them in action and ask questions of the knowledgeable ADJ rep who will be on hand.

Attendees will have the chance to discover the IP

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24 February 2025

UK - Fabric London has unveiled the long-anticipated update to its Room 1 Bodykinetic dancefloor, marking the final stage of its Room 1 sound system renovation project. Completing a renovation that began in 2024 as part of the club’s extensive fabric25 celebrations, the all-new Bodykinetic dancefloor – the first upgrade to the floor since Fabric opened in 1999 – features 36 units of Powersoft’s moving-magnet transducer, Mover, reimagining how audiences connect with sound and vibration.

“The original sound design for Room 1 featured a groundbreaking and advanced dance floor, incorporating Bodysonic transducers. These transducers resonated the floor with silent subharmonics that travelled through the body,” recalls Matt Smith, technical manager for Fabric London.

“Combined with a quadraphonic speaker setup and impeccable audio pr

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24 February 2025

Europe - TAF (Truss Aluminium Factory) introduced several new products at ISE 2025 that showcased its focus on development of its product lines and new innovations.

TAF’s new Safety Lock System, designed for use on TAF Tower 2, safely and effectively removes all weight of the grid from your chain hoists. The three-part system consists of a Safety Lock Tube (62 x 6mm stainless steel), Sleeve Block Adapter, and Safety Lock Truss segment that mounts tightly on the sleeve block for safe, worry-free support you can trust.

Tower 2 was standing tall and getting attention at TAF’s stand at ISE. Its versatile design makes it a suitable choice for lifting large-scale structures, such as touring roof systems and big show grids, or providing support for other types of structures, such as frames for LED screens. It can reach heights up to 12m and handles high

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24 February 2025

USA - Alto Professional has announced the launch of the TX4 Series of powered loudspeakers and subwoofers. Engineered for reliability, power, and simplicity, the TX4 Series is purpose-built to meet the diverse needs of live sound professionals, musicians, DJs, and business owners alike. The series is designed for a variety of applications, including weddings, restaurants, gyms, DJ booths, rehearsal spaces, and small-to-medium venue setups. Each model in the series is precision-tuned in the USA, providing consistent performance in any environment, says Alto.

“The TX4 Series is the culmination of Alto Professional’s commitment to creating reliable, high-quality audio solutions for professionals at every level,” said John Boudreau, director of product management at Alto Professional. “Whether it’s a mobile DJ set, a gig or rehearsal, or a restaurant i