Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Czech Republic - "Showlight 2009 was a superbly organised event which inspired me from the first minute until the very last. To hear so many diverse approaches to solving innumerable problems reminded me of why I first entered this industry." This comment, from Simon Stuart, Managing Director of HSL, refers to the last Showlight, held in Scotland in 2009, but it could equally apply to any Showlight, including the upcoming event in 2013 . . .

A four day event, Showlight is unique for many reasons, not least of which is that everyone - speakers, exhibitors and delegates - are present for the duration, so there's plenty of time for discussion and exchange of ideas. Hence the high regard in which Showlight is held as being one of the best networking events in the business.

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USA - Tait Technologies has appointed Jim Kempf as its new director of design for automated rigging, based in the Lititz, Pennsylvania office. Kempf will oversee the newly-formed winch and hoist design department, in addition to the existing track and rig design department. He will also support the permanent installation and rental/touring markets.

Joining Tait with nearly 15 years' experience at PRG Scenic Technologies, Jim's most recent positions there included director of technical design, as well as design development and estimating lead. With an impressive portfolio, he has served as the project lead on over 100 Broadway shows, including 42nd St., Wicked, The Producers, Spiderman, Book of Mormon and more.

Originally hailing from Long Island, New York, Jim's educational background consists of a BFA in Scenic and Lighting Design from Carnegie Mellon and a MFA in Technical D

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UK - Automation specialist Kinesys is launching LibraWATCH, a new free multi-platform load-monitoring software app which works with Windows, Mac, iOS and Android operating systems.

LibraWATCH is the latest in the innovative Libra range of products by Kinesys and integrates seamlessly with LibraCELL, LibraPRO and LibraWIFI.

With smartphones and tablets an increasingly popular everyday tool for technicians, riggers and touring crews in the entertainment industry, Kinesys has developed this new, user-friendly and robust load-monitoring experience specifically for all professionals who are working 'on-the-go' with rigged installations.

LibraWATCH offers a fully flexible and fully mobile solution designed so load information can be viewed quickly and clearly via a wired network or through a LibraWIFI wireless connection on multiple portable and hand-held devices.

Once installed

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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USA - Carnival, the wildly festive celebration popular in areas with sizeable Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Orthodox populations, has its roots among most of the islands in the Caribbean. While the largest and most well-known celebrations are held in Trinidad and Tobago, these festivals are also common here in the United States. Toward the close of the summer season, Carnival celebrations occurred in Atlantic City, NJ, Brooklyn, NY, and Miami, FL. At all three events, loudspeaker systems drawn from the Aero and Aero Series 2 catalogues of D.A.S. Audio played a major role in the music heavy celebrations.

Advanced Audio of NY, NY, a live sound services company that specialises in the pro touring and special events markets, was contracted to provide audio systems at both the Atlantic City, NJ and Brooklyn, NY Carnival celebrations. At each event, D.A.S. Aero Series 2 lo

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UK - Located in central Leeds, the West Yorkshire Playhouse provides top-class theatrical performance facilities for audiences throughout the region and beyond. It is a producing theatre which creates its own shows for both in-house production and national touring, whilst also collaborating frequently with other major regional theatres. Numerous shows have transferred to the West End from Leeds, the most recent being Loserville which premiered at London's Garrick Theatre in October 2012.

The Playhouse also provides one of the country's most comprehensive arts education programmes, working with schools and young people in addition to offering a range of initiatives for adults and community groups. It is also a significant local employer with in excess of 200 staff representing every working discipline necessary to operate a contemporary theatre.

The West Yorkshire Playho

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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

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USA - Pro sound, lighting and staging professionals from around the world will converge with the music instrument and product industry at the 2013 NAMM Show, which runs 24-27 January at the Anaheim Convention Center. Hundreds of pro sound and lighting brands including Harman, Avid, Chauvet, Bosch, Sennheiser, Shure, Korg, Tascam, Yamaha, American DJ and Behringer will be debuting products at the show.

"The massive changes in the recorded music industry have made live performance more important than ever for artists. And the industry that supports these live events continues to innovate, using technology to create a better, closer and more intimate experience for both performers and their audiences. It's a natural progression for NAMM to provide business-to-business platforms for these growing markets," said Joe Lamond, president and CEO of NAMM.

Pro sound and lightin

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UK - West Street Live, Sheffield's only venue to offer live music seven nights a week, has taken delivery of an HK Audio ConTour Series PA system, supplied and installed by Sheffield-based Audio Engineering Services.

The front of house system comprises two CT115 tops and four CT118 subs (with two subs and a top stacked each side of the stage) - all driven by a Lab.gruppen C88:4 four channel amplifier - and is supplemented by four L5 112XA active monitors from HK's recently introduced Linear 5 range.

When the venue decided it was time for a new sound system, they turned to Andy Fisher of Audio Engineering Services. Being a long-time HK Audio user, with an extensive inventory of the ConTour Series and other HK systems, Fisher knew a ConTour rig would be the right choice. To prove the proposed system would be capable of handling the eclectic mix of bands featured at WSL, he arran

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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

www.cameolight.com/p6profile

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Switzerland - At the end of August, the Saint-Prex Classics took place for the seventh time in the medieval village of Saint-Prex, in French Switzerland. For the first time Gerriets was involved in the event and helped to make sure that that the many international artists from the fields of opera, ballet and chamber music had a very special outdoor venue.

For the Fondation Saint-Prex Classics, Gerriets collaborated with the architect Dieter Dietz from EPFL Lausanne. Gerriets produced a four-piece, fire-resistant motorised outer shell made of high-strength, transparent PVC Polyglass covering an area of about 355sq.m. In addition, a roof membrane from 750 g/sq.m heavy PVC was supplied (21.80 m x 11.20 m).

Gerriets also provided a 200m long, three-dimensionally curved JOKER95 track with several FRICTION-DRIVE motors. The construction was designed to withstand wind loads of up to

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Belgium - After initial shoot-outs involving lighting designers and a visit to the PLASA trade show in London in September, Belgium-based event production supplier Phlippo Showlights made an investment in the new Martin Professional MAC Viper Profile, winner of the PLASA Innovation Award.

"I was present at the first shoot-outs at the Phlippo Showlights headquarters and the Viper looked promising to me," says lighting designer Thomas Boets of Light Design Productions, who specified the Viper on I Love Techno that took place in November at Ghent's Flanders Expo, one of Europe's leading indoor dance festivals.

"In the field, the Viper performed even better," he says, "An amazing light output for a 1000 W fixture! And with the even field through the entire zoom range, you get a fantastic quality of light throughout the beam. Definitely a winner."

Li

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USA - For nearly 60 years Milne Stadium has been home to generations of Albuquerque's local sporting events. Recently the 6500-seat arena received a wide-ranging makeover, including a new playing surface, new paint and stucco, and a new audio system featuring Community R-Series loudspeakers.

As Sound and Signal Systems' William Hartley explains, the stadium's previous sound system had been problematic for some time. "A few years ago they installed a new scoreboard behind the end zone, complete with a long-throw, single-point line array system. A lot of sound was reflecting off the concrete and glass press box. The problem is, the stadium is surrounded on three sides by the city and the freeway, but the side opposite the press box faces a residential area."

One of two municipal stadiums serving the Albuquerque School District and surrounding community, the park is bus

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USA - Bandit Lites recently wrapped another successful venture with Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam. Held on 15 December, 2012, this event marked the 24 year anniversary of the rock and blues guitarist's annual charity benefit show.

Warren Haynes originally organized the Christmas concert to gather musicians together in his hometown of Asheville, N.C. for a marathon of good music for a good cause. This year featured artists such as Sheryl Crow, String Cheese Incident, The Warren Haynes Band, Blind Boys of Alabama and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. The eight-hour event, which was broadcasted for the first time on AXS TV, donated the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity.

"The lighting design this year for Xmas Jam 2012 was one that I could not have been more proud of," said lighting designer Preston Hoffman. "I was able to take what I learned from last year and

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Germany - Lab.gruppen and Lake have ended the year on a high after completing a run of Lake Level 1 training seminars across Germany.

The training programme is designed to introduce key aspects of Lab.gruppen and Lake technologies and develop user familiarity with the companies' industry-leading tour sound hardware and software platforms. The modular course is aimed at freelance engineers, tour/install system designers, theatre sound designers and tour system engineers.

The introductory 'Level 1' Certification course, held at various locations throughout Germany, has introduced participants to the core essentials of Lake & Lab.gruppen technology as well as gaining complete familiarization with the hardware as well as all the class-leading Lake features such as: Raised Cosine Equation, Iso-Float, Ideal Graphic EQ, Processing Modules and LimiterMax.

The final training seminar

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UK - Kensington Close Hotel & Spa recently completed an impressive £40m renovation in celebration of its 50th anniversary, and this extension project included new conference and banqueting suites.

But situated in a prestigious London location, just off High Street Kensington, the hotel wanted to improve its sound containment, and so brought in CP Sound's Colin Pattenden. In addition to advising on acoustic treatment the technician sought the optimum sound system for the flagship, 230 seat Balmoral event room, since this is reconfigurable between one or two spaces, and operable in theatre, classroom, party or boardroom modes.

"The council had suggested that the hotel look at sound thresholds and I put together a scenario I knew would work - based on JBL's new PRX 400 series," explained the CP Sound MD.

Introduced as a replacement for the popular MRX series, th

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World - Stage Technologies flew three major recording artists on three continents during a 24 hour period on the weekend of 8-9 December 2012.

The first gig took place in Dubai on Saturday 8 December at the Closing Ceremony of the World Parachuting Championships. Katy Perry performed at the show and flying during her entrance suspended under a prop parachute. To fly the star in over the audience the Stage Technologies rentals team used a two way bridle, two BT290 winches, a Nomad desk with PC Wing backup, and an AU:tour control rack.

That same night in Las Vegas saw rapper and boxing promoter 50 Cent descend from the rafters while performing his hit My Life prior to the start of the Juan Manuel Marquez vs Manny Pacquiao fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. ZFX Flying Effects rented a Stage Technologies winch for the flight.

Finally, a rentals team comprising staff fro

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USA - Armenian symphony orchestra and choir KOHAR has enjoyed remarkable success since it was formed 25 years ago. Performing across the world, the ensemble recently returned from a series of shows in South America, at which three Yamaha CL5 digital consoles were utilised.

With over 140 musicians, a choir, 12 solo singers and a dance troupe of 11 to accommodate, the shows required a flexible audio system with a large channel capacity and reliable connectivity, but which was easy to implement. Hamburg-based Pinguin Audio Production asked Arthur Koll from Yamaha Music Europe GmbH to act as the tour's Live and Broadcast Audio Consultant, supervising the system design and deployment for the elaborate show.

The system comprised one CL5 at the monitor position and two more at front of house - one doing submixes which were fed via Dante to the other two consoles. Thanks to their smal

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UK- With viewing figures approaching three million, BBC1's Saturday Kitchen is one of the most successful Saturday morning television shows of the past decade.

Recently its production company, Cactus TV, started working with Prolink Television Facilities, who in turn brought the many benefits of a DiGiCo SD10B mixing console to the show.

Established in 1989, Prolink supplies equipment and staff to many of the world's highest profile broadcasters, including the BBC and ITV, and a large portfolio of production companies. When leading Production Company Cactus TV was looking to move both to new premises and into High Definition broadcasting, the company took the opportunity to consider potential new partners and chose Prolink.

"We provide anything from a single man and single camera through to OB trucks, permanent installations as per Saturday Kitchen and som

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UK - West London-based rental company Entec renewed its long working relationship with both FOH engineer Paul Ramsay and UK rockers band Skunk Anansie, who kicked off their Black Traffic tour with UK and European dates.

Ramsay has worked with the band since 1996 - and also with Entec as audio contractors for that period - although the band took an eight year hiatus between 2001 and their much acclaimed reformation in 2009.

Once again a d&b system was specified (as it was on their very first production tour back in 1996) .. however there has been considerable system and technical evolutions since then.

This time the d&b was a J-Series line array, and this was looked after on the road by Entec's James Kerridge and Richard Gibson.

The venues varied between 1200 and 12,000 capacities, so the key was having a system that was fully - and easily - adaptable, straightforwar

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians took the opportunity of its annual Christmas Party last Friday, hosted by Gold Industry Supporter Group member ETC, to bestow its top honour, the ABTT Fellowship, on Jason Barnes and Bill Dudley.

The ABTT Fellowships, given only to individuals who "have rendered signal service to the technical aspects of the art of the theatre", were unanimously endorsed by the ABTT Council at its last meeting.

Jason Barnes is for many synonymous with the National Theatre's Cottesloe, having staged over 350 productions, during his time as the venue's production manager. He has acted, toured and worked in theatres throughout Britain and overseas, as well as lecturing regularly and contributing to many publications. He is a member of the ABTT Historical Research Committee, a contributor to the organisation's Theatre Planning Committee

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USA - Bandit Lites recently participated in its annual angel tree charity by providing gifts for local families who have fallen on hard times, in both Knoxville and Nashville.

In the lobby of each Bandit office, employees decorated a Christmas tree with angels requesting items for families in need. Items range from necessities such as diapers, shampoo and towels to gifts of stuffed animals, books and games. For those who participated, it was an opportunity to share the spirit of the holidays with those less fortunate.

Lee Anne Cooke, Bandits' business manager, has been at the helm of the angel tree campaign in Knoxville for over twenty years, a cause she says that does her heart well.

"Delivering our gifts is when Christmas really starts for me, and it's a task I will never delegate," said Cooke. "When someone tears up at the sight of a box of toothbrushes at

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UK - The team at LSi will be taking a break now until the 2nd January 2013. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all our readers for following LSI Online news throughout 2012 and wish you a very happy holiday season, however you might be celebrating.

The daily online news will resume on Wednesday 2 January.

Merry Christmas!

(Claire Beeson)

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UK - Artistic Licence Engineering's ongoing commitment to industry education saw company founder, Wayne Howell, present a seminar to the Society of Light and Lighting entitled Controlling Interest - The Future of Lighting Control.

Taking place in mid-December at the London Transport Museum, the 'Taking Control' evening was the final event in the Society of Light and Lighting's current programme to inform and educate participants about trends in lighting, providing a forum for debate.

Lighting designer and chairman of the Society's London Events Committee, Peter Phillipson, introduced Wayne Howell as the inventor of the lighting protocol Art-Net, a method of distributing DMX512 over Ethernet. Howell's company, Artistic Licence, makes control devices that use many lighting protocols, and is a world leader in DMX512.

Howell compared and contrasted the major control proto

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