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08 October 2024

Brazil - In 2024, Rock in Rio celebrated its 40th anniversary. For nearly 15 years, Outline’s audio systems have made a notable impact on the event’s sound reinforcement, with São Paulo-based Gabisom Audio Equipment taking on the sound reinforcement role for Rock in Rio, aligning with the festival's stature and demands.

This year, Outline’s GTO, GTO C-12, Superfly, and Mantas 28 models, driven by Outline power amplifiers, were deployed across three of the festival's key stages: New Dance Order, Global Village, and Supernova. Gabisom has made significant investments in Outline audio technology in 2023 and 2024, following earlier purchases that included a substantial GTO C-12 system and Newton processors in 2020.

In 2020, Gabisom became the world’s largest owner of Newton inventory, utilising these [patented] FPGA-based proce

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08 October 2024

Turkey - Gen Z-oriented Fanta Fest returned for 2024 to visit seven of the country’s biggest cities, with five large LED screens displaying more than 43m pixels of performer-specific content, all driven by a Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Server.

Video designer and programmer Gürkan Çalışkan worked with Fanta Fest’s technical director Can Besbelli to deliver strikingly different visual content for the range of artists playing each venue, including prominent Turkish singer Tarkan Tevetoğlu and Turkish rapper CEZA.

Çalışkan was given media content from each performer’s production team, designed to the dimensions of the LED screens, which he loaded onto the Boreal+ MK2 Media Server using Hippotizer’s Media Management feature to organise the show.  

The LED screens were rigged stage left and stage right and as a backdrop, with two

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08 October 2024

New Zealand - Produced by Semmel Exhibitions, Marvel: Earth’s Mightiest Exhibition, offers a fresh perspective on Marvel’s rich 80+ year history. With its world premiere having taken place in Wellington, the exhibition gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creation of some of popular culture’s most famous stories and characters – enhanced by an immersive soundscape from Genelec.

The audio for the project was a collaboration between Sebastian M. Purfürst of Berlin-based LEM Studios and acoustic scenographer, Markus ‘Hossi’ Hossack. Commissioned to realise the artistic and technical concept of the immersive sound installation, they developed a soundscape that guides guests into the world of Marvel.

“As composers, media artists and engineers, we like to call the development of the sonic layers of the exhibition experience 'a

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08 October 2024

Canada - Salle Odyssée, the cultural performance theatre at the Maison de la Culture complex in Gatineau, Québec, has installed a wide range of Ayrton and Robert Juliat lighting fixtures and a new grandMA3 console provided by Perfecson, also in Gatineau. All three brands are exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Entertainment.

Salle Odyssée is a busy venue which daily hosts a variety of shows, including music and stand-up comedy. The new equipment is part of a CAD$5m project for a state-of-the-art upgrade of the theatre.

An AV equipment rental facility, integrator and production services company, Perfecson worked closely with Salle Odyssée to provide the right equipment for the upgrade. Perfecson also continues to supply local labour to supplement the small team of in-house technicians during performances.

“The theatre was usi

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08 October 2024

UK - Holotronica was part of Brighton Festival this year, the largest annual curated multi-arts festival in England.

“We were very happy to install Hologauze for the visionary string orchestra, 12 Ensemble. Max Ruisi, the orchestra’s artistic director worked with art director Ben Ditto to create an immersive sensory experience using audio reactive, AI-generated holographic visuals on Hologauze,” says the company.

Holotronica installed a 10m by 5m Hologauze XL at the Corn Exchange venue in Brighton Pavilion Gardens. “We provided the installation so once our production team were on site, everything worked perfectly. We used a Panasonic RZ21, which provided the optimum brightness for the venue and the holographic visual piece enveloping the orchestra looked incredible.”

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08 October 2024

UK - Rapidly expanding family business GLO Film Lighting has made a timely investment in Data Strategy’s QC-Check, the automated equipment safety inspection system. With QC-Check integrated into its rental software package, GLO Film Lighting maintained the high level of service integral to its ethos, whilst it focused on company growth.

Based in South-West London, GLO Film Lighting provides dry and wet equipment rental to customers across the UK in the television, commercial and film industries. To carry out electrical equipment testing, cable testing and the inspection of power distribution boxes, QC-Check was customised to include the PAT-4, CAB-4 and RCD-t testing units from OutBoard.

With equipment increasingly going out as complete dry hire packages, GLO Film Lighting is confident that every picked item has been tested well within safety regul

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08 October 2024

UK - Obsidian Control Systems has announced the hiring of Edward Smith as the company’s new product support and development specialist. Smith is an authority in entertainment lighting control systems and a valued professional that Obsidian has been eager to bring on board for some time.

“Like many say, patience is a virtue, and finding the right individual for this role was all about patience,” stated Koy Neminathan, business development director at Obsidian. “The Obsidian team and I have been monitoring Edward for some time and we are delighted to welcome him on board.”

Smith brings solid experience to the position from his previous role as a control product specialist at Zero 88 / Vari-Lite, where he worked providing technical support, software testing, product development, training, and demonstrations for lighting consoles and data distr

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08 October 2024

Serious Risk - Councils will be forced to abandon the arts and other non-statutory duties without an urgent "injection" of government funding in the upcoming Budget, local authorities have warned. Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre have called the £54bn shortfall in local council funding a "serious risk to cultural provision" in England and have responded by reiterating their demand that the government strategically review public investment in the performing arts.

According to a new report submitted to the government by the County Councils Network, England’s councils face a funding "black hole" of £54 billion over the next five years, fuelled by the soaring cost of social care. Confronted with an "unpalatable trade-off" between bankruptcy and minimum services, the shortfall could lead to local councils being able to provide "little more" than care

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07 October 2024

UK - Production company, RG Jones Sound Engineering, needed to pull out all the stops when RG Live and Merlin Entertainment staged a mixed programme of four back-to-back concerts within the medieval setting of Warwick Castle. It was the perfect ‘picnic on the lawn’ scenario, and an occasion which challenged the Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker array to the maximum.

Opening with The Music of Hans Zimmer vs John Williams – an epic showdown between the film composers – the programme journeyed via Ministry of Sound Classical to McFly, before soaring further into the atmosphere with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds as a finale. As a bonus for the audience, joining Gallagher were Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr and The Waeve, featuring Blur’s Graham Coxon and ex-Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall.

All played out through Martin Audio’s flagship PA, whi

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07 October 2024

Europe - Registration is now open for Integrated Systems Europe (ISE). Returning to the Fira de Barcelona Gran Vía from 4-7 February, the ISE team is promising ‘a host of new initiatives and features, an expanded and more easily accessible content programme, as well as the unveiling of Hall 8.1’.

Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, comments: “ISE 2025 will be our most ambitious, inspiring and motivating edition to date. ISE is the global destination to get your connection restored with the industry – through virtually impossible experiences, unrivalled networking opportunities, and state-of-the-art technology, as well as even more chances for career and personal development.

“With the show floor already 20% bigger, the addition of exciting new features, and our world-class content programme that digs deep into th

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07 October 2024

Portugal - Europalco has announced a new phase of expansion and innovation with its transformation into a group of companies: the Empowerment Ecosystem. This move aims to consolidate Europalco as the central brand of a dynamic ecosystem, with new companies strengthening its portfolio: New Audiovisuais, Rise, and Av Tech.

At the heart of this new system is Europalco, which takes on the role of empowering all the companies in the group. The Empowerment Ecosystem is built on a differentiated systemic narrative, where Europalco drives the growth and expansion of its companies, always focusing on the people who are part of this universe.

“The creation of the Empowerment Ecosystem is a natural step in Europalco’s evolution. We believe the synergies between New Audiovisuais, Rise, and Av Tech, backed by Europalco’s expertise, will ensure sustainable g

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07 October 2024

USA - Donald Glover’s recently completed The New World Tour was his last run of shows as the Grammy-winning artist Childish Gambino before he retired that stage persona.

“The idea of the whole tour was to build a world – The New World, as a sort of parallel universe, conveying a feeling of high tech but LOFI,” says production designer Tobias Rylander. “The world was to be dystopian and futuristic, not revealing if we’re headed toward darker times, or if we have just come out of them. It is a world where technology is modern but broken – and a world of not so high resolution.”

Lit by a carefully curated collection of fixtures, including the Chauvet Professional PXL Curve, this show opens with Gambino appearing on one of the two side stages dressed in a futuristic space suit surrounded by smoke, lights and laser beams. As he be

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07 October 2024

UK - Holotronica provided a bespoke Hologauze installation for the Island in a River exhibition created by Matthew Rosier at the refurbished Yarm Town Hall Heritage Centre in Stockton-on-Tees.

The Island in a River film was designed to be viewed from outside at night. Reflections of the river Tees are projected onto the Hologauze and float past a canoe, connecting river use past and present.

The exhibition features a collection of local artefacts interpreted by 10 films, created by the artist in collaboration with local residents. The objects are displayed inside the exhibition centrepiece – a replica iron age canoe, carved by local volunteers throughout summer 2023.

The exhibition room is open to the public in the daytime, and so the installation was designed so that the Hologauze could be deployed each night for the Island in a River film

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07 October 2024

USA - The expertise of live sound engineers Malcolm Gil and Ben Rothstein converged at Lollapalooza this summer, where they were part of the team supporting US breakout pop star Chappell Roan.

At Full Sail University, Rothstein built a solid foundation in audio engineering and pursued a position at Clair Brothers. "I've been with them for almost 18 years, starting as a PA tech and working my way up through various roles," he shares. His career-defining moment came in 2018 when he was entrusted with mixing monitors for Queen.

After gaining experience at Third Encore in Burbank, Gil took a leap into touring with a West Coast reggae band, Rebelution, in 2017, and has been on the road ever since. He now mixes for artists including Ice Spice, Khalid, Labrinth, and now Chappell Roan.

At Lollapalooza, Gil, serving as both monitor engineer and stage

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07 October 2024

USA - Merging Technologies has announced that Pyramix 15 will be unveiled at the upcoming AES Show in New York from 8-10 October.

This latest version of Pyramix comes with a fresh, modern redesign and an enhanced user experience, making it more intuitive and easier to use. It boasts an advanced real-time editor, versatile fade editor, complete mixing and mastering functionalities, and immersive workflows, including support for the Dolby Atmos ADM format. Pyramix 15 introduces a number of new features and enhancements.

Members of the Merging Technologies software team, led by Dominique Brulhart (head of application software) and Maurice Engler (product owner - Software Solutions), will be on hand to demonstrate Pyramix 15 at AES New York.  

“It is with great pleasure and excitement that we present the newest version of Pyramix 15 to the No

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04 October 2024

UK - The Backup Tech team was thrilled to once again be part of the #WeMakeEvents hub at the PLASA Show 2024. From this base, the Backup team and its ambassadors were able to connect with industry professionals and raise awareness of the important work Backup is doing in the industry.

Every year, the show represents an opportunity to meet up with old friends, enjoy great conversations and make new connections. This year, the larger footprint meant that the hall was abuzz with even more new technology and creativity. Spaces where attendees could relax and regroup were an important part of the wellbeing strategy, and the wellbeing hub, crewed by the EventWell team, provided an additional quiet space for anyone who wanted it.

“Backup received multiple donations during the show, thanks to a lot of hard work from our fundraisers and the generosity of PL

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04 October 2024

UK - LSi is sad to report the passing of software and media server pioneer, Richard Bleasdale (1965-2024) at the end of September.

Rob Halliday writes: “Richard Bleasdale was one of those backstage artists whose work was never recognised in itself by the show-going public, but which enabled remarkable work by others that was, in some cases becoming era-defining. Some of these ‘secret’ backstage artists work in wood, some in metal, some in fabric. Richard’s medium was software: software which enabled shows to happen in entirely new ways.

Like a fair number of others in this industry, Richard studied at Imperial College in London, theatre a distraction from the actual course that would go on to shape his working life. Working at Vari-Lite at a time where you’d have one lighting console for the conventional lights and another for the moving li

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04 October 2024

UK - Avolites has announced the launch of its Academy Online Learning Platform, which takes a ‘bite-sized’ learning approach and replaces the previous version launched in 2021.

This new platform will mean anyone with an internet connection can access and learn to use Avolites software. At launch, the platform will have the Titan Intermediate (Level 1) training course available and contains over 70 three-to-five-minute videos. All the individual videos are grouped together into ‘lessons’ for ease of navigation.

All the videos will have the option of an English voiceover appearing as subtitles in several languages, and more will be added in the future. To further promote users’ knowledge retention, taking the online courses and simultaneously practising live on the software is recommended.

After completing each video and lesson, there

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04 October 2024

UAE - HH Audio, part of the UK Headstock Group of companies, has officially announced the appointment of Sound Factory FZCO, based in the UAE, as an official HH distribution partner in the GCC including the Middle East, CIS and parts of Northern Africa.

Sound Factory’s BD manager Fara Azari states: “At Sound Factory, we're excited to kick off this new partnership with the HH brand. Their history, strong reputation for quality, and customer focus align perfectly with our values, and we’re confident this will lead to growth and success in the territories we've been entrusted with. We truly appreciate the opportunity to team up and are eager to explore what’s ahead for HH Audio. Here’s to a successful and rewarding partnership as we work together to take the brand forward.”

Ian Wright, Headstock’s director of global sales adds: “I am ver

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04 October 2024

USA - Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sammy Hagar was on the road for two months over the summer with his Best of All Worlds tour that played across the USA with a line-up including Joe Satriani, and a lighting design created by Jamie Fadden featuring Robe moving lights prominently on the rig.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Fadden started working with the prolific artist four years ago and took over the LD position in 2021 and is also LD for Satriani. For this tour, a completely new lighting design was produced utilising 22 x Robe BMFL Spots and 10 x BMFL WashBeams, 40 x MegaPointes, 42 x Spiiders and five Tarrantulas together with eight Forte FollowSpots running on four RoboSpot BaseStations. All lighting equipment was supplied by Felix Lighting.

Fadden also produced most of the tour’s video content and the band risers were part of her