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Astera launches AX9 PowerPAR

The main applications will be for film and TV, stages and concerts and all indoor and outdoor events

Details: 27 July 2021

Germany - Wireless LED lighting specialist Astera has launched the AX9 PowerPAR, billed as ‘a high-intensity, rock-solid, all-purpose everyday LED lighting fixture with all the advantages of Astera, including battery operation, wireless control, and quality engineering’.
AX9 is the ‘big brother’ of Astera’s successful AX5 TriplePAR. AX9 is bigger, brighter and benefits from all Astera’s latest innovations, like the Titan LED engine, an optimised bracket with Airline Track, a Titan-style keypad for fast and easy local control and direct control via the versatile AsteraApp.
Effectively it is a three-in-one solution. Offering a wireless PAR light source that can also be run as a wired PAR for longer-term installations and an elegant up-lighter, with the fixture

The two suppliers got together to provide an effective solution

QC-Check finds solution for Universal Pixels

Details: 27 July 2021

UK - When the regulatory moment arrived for Data Strategy’s QC-Check customer, Universal Pixels, to inspect its StageSmarts power distribution systems, QC-Check’s comprehensive RCD inspection process was implemented with an unexpected outcome.
Universal Pixels, takes a robust approach to electrical safety, relying upon Data Strategy’s QC-Check to inspect its electrical inventory to a level of integrity beyond that required statutorily. The company also favours StageSmarts power distribution systems, which incorporate new technological safety and protection systems.
When a safety indicator of the StageSmarts system conflicted with QC-Check causing a test fail, the two suppliers got together to provide an effective solution.
The answer to the issue was an update to the StageSmarts safety feature included in its power distribution systems with the change integ

SLA Warsaw is situated right in the heart of the city

BlacklineX serves audio versatility in Warsaw

Details: 27 July 2021

Poland - A new restaurant in the Polish capital of Warsaw has been equipped throughout with Martin Audio BlacklineX series loudspeakers.
The system was supplied by Phono Media, Martin Audio’s Polish distributor, and installed by High Shine, run by Jakub Ołdak, with whom they have worked closely for many years. The entire AV project was under the specification of AV system designer, Michał Malczyński.
SLA Warsaw is situated right in the heart of the city, and combines restaurant, nightclub (with dancefloor) and cocktail bar. Hence a potent sound system was required as part of an advanced AV solution that would cater for several different scenarios.
“This is an extremely interesting space, with a design which transfers guests from the centre of the city into the heart of the jungle,” say Phono Media. “The most important requirement from the investor was

The hour-long sound installation will be played on a continuous loop each night

Ready to Drop on Brighton Beach

Details: 27 July 2021

UK - Ready to Drop is a new sound art installation conceived and created by Orlando Gough and John Del ‘Nero. Inspired by the thousand twangling instruments that hummed around Caliban’s ears in The Tempest, it will be presented at the Brighton Beach Basketball Court over seven nights from 20 - 26 August.
Whilst walking together through Gough’s hometown last year, the two were struck by the energy, joy, competition, and communication of the court and its users, from basketball players to roller skaters. Ready to Drop is their response to this poetry in sound, field recordings of the collective sounds made by people at play on the basketball court and those of the adjacent dingy stand, the wind and the sea, combined with original composition.
The hour-long sound installation will be played on a continuous loop each night, filling the air with

Nexo delivers at Stockton Parish Church

Details: 27 July 2021

UK - Audiologic worked together with Sound Source AV to deliver a sound system upgrade at the Stockton Parish Church that delivers a well-balanced and personal audio experience for all its attendees.
Built in 1712, Stockton Parish Church prides itself on being a diverse, lively and charismatic church with its attendees and community set at the heart of everything they strive to deliver, led by Minister Mark Miller.
As with many historic and complex buildings, delivering an exceptional audio experience is somewhat a challenge. Stockton Parish Church as a project was no different. With its previous set up, the church suffered audio which was non-uniform throughout the listening area and speech intelligibility was poor due to the acoustics of the space. A level of uniformity was required to ensure all attendees received the same listening experience, no matter where they

ISE 2022 is scheduled for February in Barcelona

ISE Live and Online overcomes COVID challenge

Details: 27 July 2021

Europe - ISE @ London marked the final stop for ISE Live and Online, a series of events created to ‘bring the AV community together and look towards building a brighter future’.
Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, said: “It’s been an incredibly challenging 18 months for events. Thankfully, at ISE, we have an amazing team and like so many in our industry, we wanted to keep pushing forward. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved with ISE Live & Online – 3,000 in-person visitors to the live events and the debut of ISE Digital a rich content resource which will remain accessible for months to come – it’s not been an easy ride, but we did it and we did it for the right reasons.”
ISE @ London welcomed visitors across two days to experience in-person networking in a safe environment and feedback has been positive.

The centre boasts an open-air Wind Theatre, a small Moon Hall, and the principal Sun Hall

Kumagaya centre upgrades with L-Acoustics

Details: 27 July 2021

Japan - Twenty years ago, the city of Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture opened its Cultural & Creative Centre to offer cultural entertainment to locals and tourists. The centre is named Sakura MATE – Sakura, for the cherry blossoms, which are the symbol of Kumagaya, and MATE, for Music, Art, Theatre and Expression.
For two decades, Sakura MATE has hosted a diverse mixture of various traditional and contemporary performances using a sound system that, more and more, became inadequate for the venue. The city turned to Sigma Communications to recommend a sound system upgrade, which took place over three years.
The centre boasts an open-air Wind Theatre, a small Moon Hall, and the principal Sun Hall, which seats a thousand people in its shoebox-shaped auditorium. The multi-story space was built with side and rear balconies to create a sense of unity between performers a

Mega Robe Rig for Six60 at Eden Park Stadium

Details: 27 July 2021

New Zealand - Six60 became the first ever band to play Auckland’s Eden Park stadium in a landmark show in front of 50,000 wildly enthusiastic fans.
Show and lighting designer Ben Dalgleish from Human Person designed a high impact lighting show fitting for the occasion – utilising over 200 Robe moving lights – helping to create a spectacular and stand-out event that was also televised live.
Six60 hit the road with a dynamic new show back in January, one of a handful of artists in the world able to do so at the time, and the Eden Park performance was the culmination of that tour.
The pressure was on to create a production design – which included over 550m of LED screen – in just five weeks from the show being confirmed to the gates opening to allow fans onto the hallowed turf of New Zealand’s biggest sports stadium. Production manager Leon Dalton did a

Join BikeFest industry fundraiser

Details: 27 July 2021

UK - On Saturday 4 September, a group of industry professionals will band together for BikeFest, a fundraising bike ride from SFL’s headquarters in Reading to PLASA Show at Olympia London. BikeFest aims to raise funds for industry charities and mark the return of live events and entertainment following 18 months of unparalled challenge.

The organisers of BikeFest are calling for fellow cyclists to sign up and follow them on one of two routes: a relaxed 40-mile ride direct to London via flat roads and cycle paths, or a more strenuous 80-mile ride traversing the Surrey Hills. The two routes will cater for all levels of cyclists, from casual and commuting cyclists to serious road bikers. London-based cyclists are also invited to join for the last leg through the capital.

All money raised will go

The Versa Mediabar offers ‘high-quality visual collaboration, audio conferencing’

ClearOne launches all-in-one Mediabar

Details: 26 July 2021

USA - ClearOne has announced the market introduction of its new Versa Mediabar, the company’s first professional quality all-in-one audio and video capture device that combines the ‘simplicity of a soundbar with the power of ClearOne’s intelligent audio capture and 4K camera technologies’.
According to ClearOne chair and CEO Zee Hakimoglu, the Versa Mediabar provides high-quality visual collaboration, audio conferencing, and UC applications from a single integrated device, offering the simplest solution available for offices, conference rooms and home offices with virtually no setup required.
“The number one thing we hear from dealers and customers is that they need video conferencing equipment that looks and sounds excellent but also works right away, every time, without training or troubleshooting. That’s exactly what the Versa Mediabar delivers,” Haki

The kits utilise Dante Audio-over-IP networking

Studio Technologies adds PL intercom kits

Details: 26 July 2021

USA -bStudio Technologies has announced two new party-line (PL) intercom kits that utilise Dante Audio-over-IP networking. These new kits allow customers to purchase a bundle of Studio Technologies intercom products at a reduced price point.
The Party-Line Intercom Kit 1 (DPL-KIT-01) includes a Model 5421 Dante Intercom Audio Engine and four Model 372A Intercom Beltpacks. Party-Line Intercom Kit 2 (DPL-KIT-02) again includes a Model 5421 Dante Intercom Audio Engine but with four Model 373A Intercom Beltpacks. These new offerings enable personnel to easily implement a high-performance, Dante-enabled PL intercom system in fixed and mobile broadcast facilities, post-production studios, commercial and educational theatre environments, industrial, and general entertainment applications.
“We’re pleased to offer our customers a cost-effective means of implementing a small

The Ashdod Lights tour features high-impact AV art installations

Outline adds the audio to Ashdod Lights

Details: 26 July 2021

Israel - The city of Ashdod, one of Israel’s largest international cruise and cargo ports and southern Israel’s only outlet to the Mediterranean, through which much of the country’s citrus crop is exported, hosts a number of industries and a petrol refinery, but excavations have traced this vibrant city’s roots back to the 17th century BC.
Funded by the city’s municipality, Ashdod recently launched Ashdod Lights, a tour enabling visitors to walk round five key locations hosting high-impact AV art installations, including video art projections on buildings and water screens, projection mapping, lighting and laser effects and holograms.
Tel Aviv-headquartered pro audio company Gidron Levitan, Italian manufacturer Outline’s Israeli distributor, was commissioned to provide the audio systems for this high-profile project and company owner, sound engineer and mu

Chauvet meets Europe Day challenge

Details: 26 July 2021

Europe - Appropriately on Europe Day, the European Parliament held the opening ceremony for its 2021 Conference on the Future of Europe entitled The Future is in Your Hands. This theme was clearly reflected in the event’s setting, the modern hemicycle of the European Parliament Building in Strasbourg.
Accentuating the architectural features of these surroundings, while also adding a warm, inviting touch to the proceedings, was a Dimi Theuwissen lighting design that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional Maverick and COLORado fixtures supplied by Splendit.
Theuwissen, of Hasselt, Belgium-based ID2Q, was retained by DB Video to light the conference, which included a limited number of socially distant live guests, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who delivered the opening remarks, as well as online participants.
“COVID influenced everyt

The studio is located next to the Marshall Milton Keynes factory

Amp maker Marshall opens UK recording studio

Details: 26 July 2021

UK - Amplifier manufacturer Marshall has built a recording studio next to their Milton Keynes factory in the UK. “This has been a passion project for the Marshall crew,” said commercial director Alex Coombes, “our ambition was to build a versatile and flexible commercial multimedia facility to serve the modern entertainment market, and at the same time to promote young talent and give something back to the artist and producer community.”
The spacious new-build facility is on the site of an old theatre, adjacent to the Marshall factory. The live room has a stage with lighting and PA, along with an artist green room, bar and reception area – with the large recording control room featuring a 40-channel vintage Neve 8048 console. The self-contained studio has the benefit of ample parking in front and a ready supply of Marshall amps and Natal drums.
Producer Chri

The system flexibly switches between Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio immersive music formats

Herbert Waltl gets immersive with Neumann

Details: 23 July 2021

USA - As the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Southern California in early 2020, spatial audio pioneer Herbert Waltl relocated his mediaHyperium operation to a disused music school, where he has outfitted a former recital room with an 18-speaker Neumann KH Line studio monitor system.
The system flexibly switches between Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio immersive music formats without the need to reposition any speakers by combining a 7.1 layout with nine height and three floor-level speakers.
Waltl, an award-winning producer, musician and technology evangelist who founded mediaHyperium in 1996, had been planning to build a new studio before the pandemic. For years he had mostly been working at Skywalker Sound in the Bay Area, for the last five years in partnership with Eric Schilling, a recording engineer and broadcast audio mixer with a long list of Grammy and

Mark Barry, drummer and engineer for Lord Huron

Lord Huron records and livestreams with DPA

Details: 23 July 2021

USA - After crashing onto the music scene in 2012 and gaining popularity among indie rock enthusiasts, Lord Huron recently released the group’s fourth album, Long Lost. Recorded at Whispering Pines Studios, near downtown Los Angeles, the band has also been working on a live streaming show, Alive From Whispering Pines, also produced at Whispering Pines, and has spent the last four months hyper-focused on its music.
In order to ensure its hard work and musical talent was showcased properly on the album and during its live show, the group turned to DPA Microphones.
According to Mark Barry, drummer and engineer for Lord Huron, he and other members of the group, which includes founder Ben Schneider (lead singer and guitarist); Tom Renaud (guitarist) and Miguel Briseño (bassist and keyboardist), have long been fans of the quality and performance the DPA micr

Spacemap Go delivers for Birds in the Moon

Details: 23 July 2021

USA - Birds in the Moon, a provocative new chamber opera with music by composer Mark Grey, has launched a national tour based on a revolutionary staging concept: the entire production is housed in a 20ft shipping container that can be quickly set up for outdoor performances at essentially any location.
To simplify audio production while also offering an extended horizontal soundscape, the production utilises 12 Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers mounted on the container and on fold-out wings. The show is mixed on an iPad with Meyer Sound’s Spacemap Go spatial sound design and live mixing software.
The “containerized” opera debuted at Domino Park in Brooklyn in early May as part of the New York Philharmonic’s free, city-wide Bandwagon 2 programme.
From the outset, Mark Grey created Birds in the Moon with flexibility and portability in mind

Alan Jackson plays Coweta County Fairgrounds

Chauvet creates big looks for tornado benefit

Details: 23 July 2021

USA - Taking the stage at the Coweta County Fairgrounds, Newnan, GA, Alan Jackson led a line-up of artists in the Where I Come From Tornado Benefit Concert. In addition to raising over $2m dollars to help people affected by the storm, the show was a celebration of hope in the wake of a disaster, as the country superstar performed hit after hit from his stellar career accompanied by iconic video images.
Accentuating the upbeat mood of the show and strengthening the connection of the 20,000 fans in attendance to Jackson’s performance was an immersive Mason Felps lighting design that featured 36 Rogue R2X Wash fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
Positioned on upstage ‘lighting ladders’, the high output moving fixtures, which, like the rest of the rig were supplied by Bandit Lites, were used to create a wall of light behind Jackson.
“This was a hybrid

Hairspray returns with Orbital Sound

Details: 23 July 2021

UK - Orbital Sound has returned to work with performances with audiences, with Hairspray leading the way. The Coliseum’s Edwardian auditorium celebrated the end of quarantine, with Michael Ball reprising his Olivier Award-winning role as Edna Turnblad.
Sound designer Andrew Keister, representing original Broadway designer Steve Kennedy, flew in for the project but had to quarantine prior to arrival in the theatre. In the meantime, Hairspray’s UK sound team - Josh Richardson, Callum Wills, Simon France, Robbie Barclay and Larry Golland - were hard at work along with the Orbital team led by Henry Pierce, ensuring everything was set up in advance at the Coliseum.
Andrew has high praise for the whole team saying, “It would have been amazing to be back in any theatre again after so many months of the industry being shut down, but to be back in the Coliseum, in

Israeli Opera has undergone a significant audio upgrade

Israeli Opera back on song with L-Acoustics

Details: 23 July 2021

Israel - Israeli Opera is both the principal opera company and busiest hall in the country, producing top quality operas and playing host to some of the most prestigious artists from around the world. Located at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre and owned by the municipality of Tel-Aviv, Israeli Opera is also home to regular shows by local orchestras and ensembles, delighting performing arts lovers with a multitude of first-rate productions.
Over the years, as the venue began to expand its music programme, it became clear that the existing in-house PA was not capable of covering the diverse spectrum of productions and had to be augmented with rental equipment. Recently, venue management decided to perform a significant audio upgrade, choosing to install the new L-Acoustics K3 line array.
With the building closed due to the pandemic, Eyal Levi, head of light & sou

When No One Is In The Room with Stryke Percussion

Chauvet lights Stryke Percussion performance

Details: 22 July 2021

USA - Stryke Percussion ensemble has often taken things a step further. In 2018, for example, the ensemble used an actual airplane in its show, its members weaving their way around wings and fuselage as they executed their precise beats.
Unfortunately, as a result of protocols that restricted crew sizes in the wake of COVID, it became impossible for Stryke Percussion to incorporate any props into the group’s latest show, When No One Is In The Room, an apt title, given that they had to perform in an empty gymnasium as a safety precaution.
Nevertheless, the group was still able to deliver a beautifully textured performance rich in narrative quality thanks in large measure to a Clifford Michael Spulock lighting design that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional Maverick, Rogue and COLORado fixtures.
“These indoor percussion shows usually don’t g

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