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

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Germany - Just in time for Prolight and Sound in Frankfurt, DuraTruss announced the hiring of Karsten Steinbach as sales and marketing manager.

Karsten, who has extensive experience in the trussing business from both his education and former employment, has wasted no time in getting started in his new role, having already been involved in the planning of the upcoming show where DuraTruss will exhibit a host of new products.

Along with the internal and external DuraTruss sales team, Karsten's main role is to support key customers and guide larger projects. Furthermore, he will be working together with product development to increase the number of products offered. In the area of marketing, Karsten will work closely with ADJ Group Marketing to increase market presence of the brand

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France - Following the worldwide success of its flagship K1 touring PA system, L-Acoustics has launched the new K2 system which, the company says, "offers K1 performance in a rescaled package". Pitched as a replacement for the company's successful V-DOSC system, the K2 system's flexibility makes it suited to both permanent installation and touring applications, from theatre to stadium productions. The main system components are the K2 full-range element, with Panflex horizontal steering, operating from 35Hz to 20kHz; the K1-SB low-frequency element, reinforcing LF contour down to 30Hz or LF throw down to 35Hz; the

SB28 low-frequency element, extending the operating bandwidth down to 25Hz; and the LA4X/LA8 amplified controllers or LA-RAK, touring rack fitted with three LA8s.

With its 3-way quad-amplified design, K2 has "an exceptional ability to perform in many a

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Germany - Cadac launched its MegaCOMMS System Network at last week's Prolight+Sound exhibition in Frankfurt. Built on the company's proprietary digital audio protocol and based around the MC CDC Router, MegaCOMMS System Network incorporates the CDC I/O 6448 and CDC I/O 3216 stage boxes, and the MC MADI Bridge and MC Dante Bridge, allowing the configuration of large-scale digital audio networks of up to 3072 audio channels.

Cadac's proprietary protocol offers advanced performance advantages over current systems, with superior bandwidth and latency, supporting 256 bi-directional channels of 96kHz 24bit audio, along with all control data and clock synchronisation, on co-axial cable with runs of up to 150 meters (492 feet). MegaCOMMS networks have only 0.2 milliseconds of delay per link, so even after several links in the network there is negligible aggregated latency. An extensive

LSi 40 - Banner - July-Nov 2025

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UK - Liverpool's Everyman Theatre, whose acting alumni includes Pete Postlethwaite and Julie Walters, has undergone a complete structural and artistic renovation thanks to the Everyman creative team, architects Haworth Tompkins and theatre consultants Charcoalblue.

In 2005 the Liverpool and Merseyside Theatres Trust enlisted Haworth Tompkins and Charcoalblue to consult on the complex and ambitious project.

Having just celebrated their 10th Birthday, Charcoalblue's managing partner, Andy Hayles, observed that for nine of those years the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Team has been their most determined client.

"When a project takes this long to get through funding hoops and complex site negotiations, the sense of achievement experienced when opening such a sensational building is particularly poignant," says Hayles. "The client and design team have become clo

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USA - Jacksonville, Florida's Celebration Church - one of the nation's fastest growing churches - is utilising over 100 Chroma-Q Inspire premium performance, colour-changing LED house lights to provide an 'immersive' environment during its worship services.

With attendee figures of more than 12,000 per week, the services held in Celebration Church's state-of-the-art, newly constructed worship arena feature an energetic, next generation praise and worship experience that infuses diverse genres and styles.

The Church wanted to make the audience feel a part of the onstage experience through lighting.

Featuring an installation of 96 Chroma-Q Inspire fixtures above the auditorium's seating areas, the unit's extensive RGBW colour-mixing palette provides a seamless lighting transition throughout the room, from the stage to audience.

Synched via DMX with the stage lighting and con

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UK - This February, the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, introduced, for the first time into its theatre, a Hippotizer Rackoon, the new six layered HD Rackmount, to provide video control on a Royal Ballet production. With video production by Florian Baeumler, Programmer, the Rackoon was chosen for its wide range of capabilities with PixelMapper and ease of use in a 1U Rackmount.

Tectractys- the Art of Fugue received four performances as part of a mixed programme of work bringing an exhilarating fusion of contemporary ballet and baroque music to the stage.

Using PixelMapper, set and costume designer Tauba Auerbach, worked with Florian Baeumler to create pixel-mapped shapes using lines and colours providing a very simple and contemporary sculpture design as a backdrop to the production.

Using six layers of the Rackoon, Florian was able to pixel map seven dif

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Germany - While the launch of the QL series digital mixing consoles was the headline event of Yamaha's presence at ProLight+Sound 2014, there were many more of the company's state of the art audio solutions on display.

Yamaha showcased the brand new R Remote, a software solution which allows engineers to control the head amps of R Series i/o units from a Windows PC. Already used on at least one touring production, R Remote opens up many new possibilities for audio engineers in both the touring and installation markets.

The full range of CL series digital mixing consoles was on show, including the Rio3224-D, Rio1608-D, and Ri8-D i/o units and a range of mini YGDAI interface cards. CL consoles also featured in a major Nexo, Audinate and Yamaha demonstration which took place throughout ProLight+Sound in the adjacent Frankfurt Festhalle.

Now featuring in many significant install

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Italy - In a break from its traditional loudspeaker roots, RCF unveiled its new L-PAD range of high performance audio mixers this month at Frankfurt's Prolight+Sound exhibition.

RCF has been producing components such as compression drivers and woofers since 1949 and its own complete speaker systems for over 30 years, but has only now decided to move into the mixer market with the creation of a new dedicated division. The establishment of the 'RCF Mixer Division' represents an important strategic move and considerable investment in R&D. According to RCF chairman, Arturo Vicari, the models introduced in Frankfurt are just the first step in a much wider development plan, and the beginning of next year will herald the arrival of several innovative digital models, he promises.

"To successfully enter a crowded market it requires us to be able to offer advantages and a different

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Austria - Channel 4's popular celebrity winter sports series The Jump wowed audiences during February with ski jumps lined with 400m of IntelliFLEX LED systems, controlled by Avolites Media's Ai Server Infinity EX Series.

The show, presented by Davina McCall and Alex Brooker, took place in the Tyrolian Alps near Innsbruck, Austria, and saw 10 celebrities, including Sinitta, Sir Steve Redgrave, and Joe McElderry, compete against each other in a range of winter sports, including three ski jumps of increasing size.

Lighting director Roger Williams worked alongside set designer Patrick Watson to specify the Ai Media Server as the control system for the impressive lighting concept.

The technology was executed by lighting programmer David Bishop, alongside LI technicians Ben Vaughan, Anders Akermo and Joe White.

"The Ai server coped admirably in the conditions, being

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Germany - Leader Light, a Slovak manufacturer of LED lighting and LED technology, last week attended ProLight+Sound 2014 where visitors could find the company's whole product range on display. One of the most interesting products on show from Leader Light was the LED cyclorama which consists of 72 LEDs with input power of only 200W. "The luminaire is specially designed as backstage area lighting for theatres, television studios, concerts and studios and is compatible with DMX 512," says the company.

"With a lifetime of 75.000 hours, the big advantage of the cyclorama LL stage CYC is its availability in five light colour versions and the possibility of custom-modification for any colour combinations," adds Leader Light.

Leader Light will next be at Light + Building 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany on stand number 4.1 F51.

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UK - The latest version of the BroadWeigh Log monitoring software (BW-LOG100) has been released to complement the BroadWeigh Load Monitoring System. BW-LOG100 is now more than just a data logging software package and offers many additional features.

BW-LOG100 software, developed to support the BroadWeigh wireless load monitoring system, allows the viewing and logging of up to 100 channels of data from multiple wireless acquisition devices including load cells and anemometers. A web server feature now allows this data to be viewed remotely from a computer, tablet or any web enabled device.

The BroadWeigh portable wireless system offers real-time, simple, effective and accurate load monitoring for rigging professionals, safety officials and site managers enabling them to monitor and log the precise loads on any given rigging point.

Central to the design of the BroadWeigh syste

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Germany - In Frankfurt, Lawo presented the mirroring of two mc² consoles - a requirement especially useful in theatre applications. This allows an mc² console to be located in the auditorium to prepare and fine-tune the mix during rehearsals.

This is the ideal position to do the mix since it is where the audience is sitting, and it enables the mix engineer to be in close contact with the actors. The console settings are mirrored to a console in the control room, where the show mix is handled without disturbing the audience - and with the first console removed, the seats in the auditorium can be taken by paying visitors.

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Backstage Academy says a lack of industry training provision in countries outside of the UK - and particularly outside of Europe - has resulted in a number of enquiries for overseas courses.

The Academy runs degree courses and short courses that cover the variety of creative and technical skills needed to work backstage in live events production. Based at state-of-the-art facilities in Wakefield, North UK, it also offers custom training programmes for entertainment industry professionals seeking to boost their knowledge or career prospects, with training in rigging, event safety, temporary electrical systems, stage pyrotechnics and much more.

The Academy launched to a European and global audience at the Prolight+Sound show in Frankfurt last week.

Said PR & marketing manager Rachel Esson, "In the first two days of the show we took enquiries for training from pr

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UK - The Royal College of Music is one of the world's greatest conservatoires, training gifted musicians for international careers as performers, conductors and composers. The RCM's buildings, facilities and location are the envy of the world, as much for their aesthetic beauty as for their location directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall.

So when new acoustic panels were installed in the iconic building's Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Unusual Rigging was brought on board by Arup Theatre Consultants to devise a solution for installing them without impinging on the beauty of the hall.

Matthew Nicholl, head of estates at the Royal College of Music, said, "The Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall is a performance space of the highest international standard which can accommodate large orchestral and choral concerts. It's an exquisite space with a beautiful barrel shaped roof and

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Germany - Robe once again enjoyed a massively busy and successful Prolight+Sound exhibition at the Messe in Frankfurt ... launching a selection of new innovations and presenting another eye-catching lightshow on the booth in Hall 11, which attracted huge numbers of visitors to the stand and created a buzz which resonated throughout the entire trade show.

Other highlights involved the inventive Robin MiniMe winning the Prolight+Sound International Press Award (PIPA) for 'Lights FX' [sic], and for the second year, the Robe team was joined on the stand for one day by Czech MotoGP rider Karel Abraham and his bike. Robe is one of the sponsors of the 2014 season.

Robe's CEO Josef Valchar says, "The show was fantastic! It is currently the best of its type in Europe for attracting quality international and leading professional visitors, and is a great showcase for our brand."

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Stones Cancel - The Rolling Stones have cancelled the first date of their Australian tour after the death of Sir Mick Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott. The celebrated US fashion designer was found dead in her New York flat on Monday, in an apparent suicide. The British band were due to play in Perth on Wednesday. Their promoter said no further information was available. They are scheduled to play five more concerts in Australia. The next is due to take place on 25 March in Sydney.

Monty's Off - The West End version of The Full Monty is to close after five weeks, two-and-a-half months earlier than planned, due to poor ticket sales. The play, which was adapted from the hit 1997 film about hard-up Sheffield steelworkers, opened on 20 February and was due to run until 14 June. But its last performance at the Noel Coward Theatre will now be on 29 March. Producers David

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Germany - Presented for the first time at ProLight+Sound, Frankfurt and offering power, speed and flexibility, Shapeshifter is the new, innovative light from High End Systems. Designed by Richard Belliveau and featuring 126 high-powered LEDs with custom lensing, the fixture produces an "incredible beam of light, making this the industry's brightest LED fixture," says High End. Two versions are available: the Shapeshifter C1 (RGB) and the Shapeshifter W1 (White), with the C1 outputting 24,000 RGB lumens and the W1 an incredible 27,000 lumens.

Seven independently controlled modules housed in one moving fixture create a multitude of highly defined beams coming together to form an amazing array of effects from the bold to the subtle.

"All elements of the fixture are lightning fast giving the designer the largest palette of creative options available, all from one fi

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Germany - Philips Strand Lighting has launched what it calls "a new chapter in the evolution of control" in the form of the new NEO expandable control system. The sleek and modern NEO is designed to make a strong statement of Strand Lighting's commitment to creating forward-thinking, powerful consoles catering for the needs of the most demanding lighting design projects, the company says.

"We are incredibly excited about the NEO console, which heralds a new era for Strand Lighting as the company celebrates its 100th anniversary of lighting control," says Pete Borchetta, Philips Entertainment product marketing manager. "NEO offers the ability to seize the light, to grab, move, change, position, colour and motivate your lighting design simply and effectively. NEO is the closest that a designer can get to actually touching the light."

NEO includes an

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Europe - ETC is expanding its LED family, with the introduction of two new products: the Source Four LED Series 2, a powerful spotlight with the most expansive colour spectrum possible from an LED luminaire; and the Source Four Mini LED, an ultra-energy-efficient variation of ETC's tiniest fixture. Both were seen for the first time in public at the Prolight+Sound show in Frankfurt.

Since introducing the Source Four LED luminaire in 2012, ETC has experimented with the x7 Color System, mixing together new colour combinations to create brighter light that covers a larger spectrum. "The result is the Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr array," explains ETC fixtures product manager Jim Uphoff. "We've made advances in white light - with the Source Four LED Series 2 being up to twice as bright as the original Source Four LED Lustr+ - and improved certain tints to have up to t

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USA - ZFX, Inc, will be among the exhibitors displaying products and services for the performing arts and entertainment industry at the 2014 Annual Conference and Stage Expo in Fort Worth, Texas on 26-29 March. ZFX's performer flying services cover the full spectrum from Broadway to the high school in your neighbourhood, closing in on 7,000 productions to date.

ZFX will be in booth # 809 demonstrating the ease with which you can incorporate the Bert's crowd-pleasing "proscenium walk" into your next production of Mary Poppins. Also, back by colossal demand, the fondly-referred-to "pony rides", wherein ZFX offers random Expo attendees the chance to experience flight.

A leader in performer flying since its inception in 1994, ZFX is a contributing member of The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), an organization serving professionals

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Europe - Nuage, the flagship integrated system from Yamaha and Steinberg, has brought a new and very welcome approach to audio post-production. Some of Europe's premier post-production studios have invested in it and are enjoying the many benefits that it brings.

"Nuage seamlessly marries dedicated Yamaha control and interface hardware with Steinberg's Nuendo 6 DAW software, delivering unprecedented creativity for professionals in the broadcast, advertising, film and games industries," says the company. "Combining cutting-edge technology from two of the professional sound industry's biggest hitters, Nuage signifies a radical re-defining of what is possible in audio post-production."

Studios which have recently invested in Nuage include The Soundshack in Hamburg, Germany; Stone Post production in Bratislava, Slovakia; Mediaset in Cologno Monzese, Italy; Temp

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