Details

19 February 2025

China - Audinate Group and Beijing Film Academy (BFA) have announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding to integrate Dante Certified Training into the curriculum of BFA’s Sound School department.

As part of the agreement, the two organisations established a Dante Certified Training Centre at the BFA campus to expand education of IP-based audio and video systems and applications. Through the Dante Training Centre, the Chinese film industry will offer a comprehensive series of training opportunities for Dante AVoIP technology and cloud-based applications to expand students’ knowledge and prepare them for future career opportunities.

The BFA is the largest film academy in Asia and China’s premiere educational film production academy. Founded in 1950, BFA developed a multilevel, multidisciplinary cultivation system that embraces th

Details

19 February 2025

Germany - A HK Audio Cosmo line array system was called into action to support performances on the main stage at the annual Winterleuchten Oelde. The solution for the event was provided by local rental partner MA Holtewert Eventconcept and designed to cover the large audience area in the town’s main square.

Located in the North Rhine-Westphalia region in the west of Germany, Oelde is a small town with a long history. It holds an annual winter lights festival designed to bring locals and tourists alike into the town centre to shop and be entertained. The focal point for this is the town square where the main stage hosts a variety of performances from choral singers to magicians.

The most recent event was headlined by Dutch rock band Enorm, meaning the stage PA needed to deliver high SPLs in a controlled manner.

The main stage for the festiva

Details

19 February 2025

Hungary - Vibe, a newly opened Budapest nightclub from the Costes Group, offers dining, cocktails and music.

Resident DJs from the Hungarian capital and South America combine with Colombian dancers, artists and even circus performers to create a carnival atmosphere, all powered by a Nexo sound system designed and installed by local lighting and sound specialists Lisys-Project Kft.

The most spectacular elements of a visually exciting venue include trees made of columns, in the branches of which the Lisys-Project team has built LED strips controlled via the DMX control network.

“In addition to the Yamaha DM3 mixer, the Pioneer CD-3000 DJ multiplayers, the Pioneer DJM-A9 digital mixer and the Shure and Sennheiser microphones, the Vibe sound system is based on products from Nexo,” reports Péter Tatarek of Lisys-Project. “The seven P10 full

Details

19 February 2025

Europe - For engineers to choose a particular brand of console it requires multiple plus points. For audio engineer Daniela Seggewiss, DiGiCo ticks a host of boxes – workflow, customisable layout, support and, most importantly, sound performance that is compatible with many different styles of live performance.

As a child, Seggewiss knew she wanted to be involved in the live music industry. She loved music but was not keen on performing. “When I was 23, I moved to Leeds in the UK to go to university. It was a monitor engineer who lived in Leeds that I had first met when I was younger, who really helped me out,” Seggewiss recalls. “I’d asked him for work experience and he’d shown me a few things. He also took me to his local venue in Leeds, I got chatting to the team there and a week later, when they needed a monitor engineer, they called me! I ne

Details

19 February 2025

Hungary - Having renewed its brand identity in 2024, Lightware has now unveiled its redesigned website (Lightware.com), designed to offer a more modern, user-friendly, and intuitive experience for its global customers. The new site features streamlined navigation, enhanced search functionality, and several upgraded tools to improve accessibility and support for Lightware’s products and solutions.

The new website is hosted on an AWS cloud server, ensuring speed and accessibility from anywhere in the world. Additionally, the site’s search functionality is powered by an AI engine, learning from user searches and becoming more intuitive over time. This continuous learning process will ensure the site becomes increasingly relevant and efficient as it evolves, says Lightware.

Int

Details

19 February 2025

USA - Genelec has significantly expanded its international Installed Sound team with the appointment of Anthony Berry as sales support engineer and Andrew Glasmacher as US sales manager. In these newly created roles, Berry will be responsible for helping to develop the Genelec Installed Sound brand globally, while Glasmacher will support contractors, consultants and architects across the US, and develop and cultivate new business relationships and accounts.

Growing up in Australia, Berry studied Audio and Acoustics at Sydney University before embarking on a career in AV that has involved prestigious projects around the world, including clients such as the Sydney Opera House, Google and Spotify. After relocating to Europe in 2014, Berry handled system design and audio commissioning for Swedish integrator JML, and technical sales and support for Nordic distrib

Details

18 February 2025

Germany - Prolight + Sound, the international trade fair highlight for event and entertainment technology is celebrating its 30^th anniversary.

Mira Wölfel, director Prolight + Sound, comments: “With the anniversary edition, we want to offer exhibitors and partners, but above all visitors, a particularly inspiring environment with a stronger technical focus and optimised networking opportunities.

“My heartfelt thanks go in particular to our association partners and our new trade fair advisory board, which is providing us with significant support in the further development of the show. Above all, the 30th anniversary of Prolight + Sound is an occasion for us to look to the future with great motivation.”

Based on numerous discussions with the movers and shakers of the sector, the next Prolight + Sound will have three top themes

Details

18 February 2025

UK - During 2024, Backup welcomed three new companies to its list of partners – L-Acoustics (platinum partners), Chauvet (gold) and Carallon (silver). The contribution that all Backup Tech partners make is testimony to the spirit of the industry, and each company has its own reason for joining. The end result is the same: helping continue the amazing work Backup does to support industry family members when they need it most.

"Live sound professionals are a valued and essential part of our community and ecosystem – they inspire our innovations and share our passion for connecting people through extraordinary experiences," says Anne Hamlett, chief people officer at L-Acoustics. "Supporting Backup means supporting the very people who bring sound to life and make these meaningful connections possible."

Chauvet Professional has supported Backup for ma

Details

18 February 2025

Poland - Once again, Gigant Sound was entrusted with delivering, installing, preparing, and operating the sound systems for Poland’s largest annual charity event, the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP) Finale. The 2025 edition, held on 26 January, set a new fundraising record, surpassing 178m zloty (€42.2m) by the end of the evening.

Founded by Jerzy Owsiak, WOŚP is one of Poland’s most recognised non-governmental, non-profit organisations, dedicated to improving healthcare by providing medical equipment to public hospitals. Owsiak, also the creator of the renowned Pol’and’Rock Festival, has been instrumental in shaping the country’s most significant charitable and cultural events.

Gigant Sound deployed a powerful Outline audio setup, including their flagship GTO line-array systems. In the dedicated TV studio area, Out

Details

18 February 2025

UK/India - Diljit Dosanjh is a mega-star Punjabi singer and actor, with over 50m followers across all his social media channels. His Dil-Luminati world tour utilises DiGiCo Quantum 338s at the front of house and monitor positions, supplied by Solotech Group for the UK and European leg of the tour, complete with DMI-KLANG immersive in-ear monitoring.

Engineers Kenny Narayan and Ranjeet Singh have toured with Diljit Dosanjh for many years, choosing DiGiCo because of the console’s durability and the range of features that enable it to cope with the demands of a multimedia artist.

“The show is very heavy on snapshots and MIDI recalls. Diljit is very active on social media, so we use a lot of busses, too,” Narayan explains. “The console really meets our needs. There are often TV news cameras, or social media teams that need feeds, so havi

Details

18 February 2025

UK - The Royal Masonic School for Girls is an independent day and boarding school in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. The Great Hall, with its ornate plaster ceiling, is the heart of the school's daily activities, hosting assemblies and special events throughout the academic year. The Hall recently added an L-Acoustics sound system to improve the venue's acoustic capabilities, particularly addressing the challenges posed by the hall's highly reverberant environment.

Following the successful recent installation of an L-Acoustics A Series system in the school's performance venue known as The Space, the Royal Masonic School again selected L-Acoustics certified provider Adlib for this installation. Tim Robinson, senior applications engineer at Adlib explains: “The aim was to provide a future-proof system which could provide accurate coverage throughout the space

Details

18 February 2025

UK - Warwick Arts Centre has upgraded its audio infrastructure with two new mixing consoles, thanks to a long-standing partnership with provider, HD Pro Audio. This marks the latest collaboration between venue and supplier in a business relationship spanning four decades.

In response to Warwick Arts Centre’s request for new sound desks to enhance the venue’s versatility, HD Pro Audio supplied the Midas HD96, replacing the previously supplied Midas PRO6. This upgrade marks a significant step forward in the venue’s audio capabilities.

In addition to the Midas upgrade, HD Pro Audio has also equipped Warwick Arts Centre with a DiGiCo Quantum 225 system, complete with MADI and Dante connectivity. Both console packages were delivered with custom flight case and cable packages, ensuring seamless integration and optimal performance.

The technic

Details

18 February 2025

Germany - The Mediterranean flavours of Cologne’s Da’s Lupo restaurant – one of five owned by the restauranteur, Gabriel Zanchetti – were reflected in its requirements when a new audio system was sought out. The restaurant opted for the Optimal Audio ecosystem that AV specialists Starpoint recommended.

Spread across two floors, Da’s Lupo’s restaurant features a large dining room divided into two areas with a separate bar. A function room with dancefloor occupies the lower floor.

For Da’s Lupo, music is an integral part of the dining experience, and the restaurant needed an audio system that met three criteria. The first of these was that the system was customisable for each of the three distinct areas of the restaurant, so that the music fitted the flavour of the day and time. The second was that the system was simple and intuitive so t

Details

18 February 2025

Australia - Originally opened in 1930 as a movie theatre, the Plaza Hotel in Sydney has undergone many iterations over the years. Featuring a striking Spanish mission-style façade, under the ownership of the Winchester Hotel Group, with creative direction from Sarah and Ryan Maloney, the theatre has been revitalised.

The operation now boasts six distinct areas (including a revived, classic 1930s theatre). Ryan Maloney conceived Level One as a nightclub inspired by Ibiza – recognised around the world for a top-tier sound, lighting and videowall infrastructure that would attract international DJs and performers.

The installation project was awarded to Brendon Fava from Xcite Audio Visual, and the sound – chosen to fulfil the brief of a premium product line that would meet international rider specifications – came from Martin Audio.

The m

Details

18 February 2025

Spain - Robe and its associated businesses enjoyed a busy ISE 2025, presenting their largest stand to date, launching two new products – the iStrobe and the iEsprite LTL – and showing a range of other new technologies, as well as staging a high-octane one-person live show with gravity-challenging acrobat Oskar Skrypko.

Robe CEO Josef Valchar commented: “ISE has definitely established itself as a major European trade show for lighting manufacturers and has made great efforts to ensure we can present our products in the right environment. That’s why we launched innovative new tech there this year – with fantastic results. We look forward to 2026 already – with big plans!”

Visitors from all over the world from every sector visited the stand, and many also visited the nearby EES/Earpro (Robe’s Spanish and Portuguese distributor)

Details

18 February 2025

Manchester Calling - Manchester’s cultural sector has bounced back post-pandemic and generated more than £342m last year for the city, a report has revealed. The Annual Culture Impact Survey, presented to the Manchester City Council’s Economy and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee last week, declared that the figure amounted to a "very good" return on the investment of council money in culture.

According to the report, Manchester City Council invested £23.1m in arts, culture and libraries in 2023-24, which helped leverage a further £159.2m from other private, public and other funding streams during the same year. It said this represented an overall economic boost to the city of more than £342m, an amount deemed to demonstrate a post-pandemic recovery. The report also revealed that footfall at Manchester’s cultural venues stands at 93% of its

Details

17 February 2025

India - A wide array of Claypaky fixtures illuminated the Kolkata and Bangalore (Bengaluru) concerts on Sunidhi Chauhan’s ongoing I Am Home tour. Lighting designer Jasangat Sonpal selected 72 Claypaky Sharpy X Frames for both venues and added 32 HY B-EYE K25, 24 Tambora Batten Square, 48 Tambora Flash, 14 Sinfonya Profiles and two ReflectXion fixtures for the Kolkata show.

Sunidhi Chauhan is one of India’s most loved playback singers, or ghost singers, whose pre-recorded songs are dubbed into motion picture soundtracks replacing the actors’ voices. She is a celebrated performer in her own right, known for her vocal range and versatility and recording in multiple languages.

Her I Am Home tour celebrates the idea of home through music, nostalgia and Chauhan’s dynamic stage presence. The Bangalore show last October was the firs

Details

17 February 2025

UK - In its 12th year, the Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) winners’ presentation for Excellence in Sound for a Feature Film 2025 took place at a reception at Warner Bros De Lane Lea, with Dune: Part Two receiving the award.

Gareth John AMPS and Ron Bartlett were present to receive their polished bronze AMPS trophies from chair Andrew Wilson, in the company of AMPS members including Award Group leader and three-time Academy Award nominee Graham Hartstone. Tom Harrison, Martin Kwok, Richard King, Doug Hemphill were unable to attend but will be sent their awards.

Upon accepting the award Ron Bartlett said: “We couldn’t be more pleased because it is from sound professionals. To be honoured by them means a lot, it is from people we know and work with. It is a great honour.”

During the reception, Andy Nelson als

Details

17 February 2025

USA - The 19,000-seat Enterprise Center, home of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, has consistently ranked as one of the top drawing concert arenas in the USA. Last month it "transformed into a honky-tonk" for Cody Johnson’s Leather Deluxe Tour which is playing arenas throughout North America, Australia and the UK, between now and the end of the summer.

Moving right along with Johnson's lively music and charismatic stage persona, while enhancing the good-time atmosphere, is a high-energy Richard ‘Wookie’ Whitley lighting design, complete with bold fast-moving aerial effects, a compelling video wall backdrop, and a generous helping of immersive audience lighting that makes it easy for the crowd to join the party.

Helping Wookie with the latter are 34 Strike Array fixtures from Chauvet Professional, which, like the rest of the rig, are su

Details

17 February 2025

UK - "We didn't know what to expect," Those Damn Crows frontman Shane Greenhall told an interviewer about the band's first ever UK headline show on 14 December. The answer for Greenhall and everyone else who packed Cardiff's Utilita Arena was obvious.

From the moment Those Damn Crows took the stage and ripped into a full throttle rendition of Who Did It, the hometown crowd screamed with delight at the top of their lungs. The crescendo got even more intense as the concert progressed, reaching new heights on the third song Man On Fire when pyro effects glowed throughout the stage.

Fresh off their wildly successful EU tour, the Welsh rockers from Bridgend were back home, and the celebratory atmosphere couldn't have been more electric. Underscoring the energy on stage and reflecting the music was a production and lighting design by Gary