USA - The San Francisco Opera utilised a complement of Ayrton Perseo-S fixtures when it brought opera back to town in a COVID-safe outdoor production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Ayrton Perseo is the first compact, multi-function luminaire with an IP65 enclosure rating developed for intensive outdoor use.
The Barber of Seville, directed by Matthew Ozawa, ran from 23 April - 15 May at Marin Centre, 15 minutes from San Francisco, where the audience pulled up their cars alongside the lagoon with the beautiful hills of Marin in the background. They watched the production, on a custom-built stage with soaring LED videowalls, from their vehicles.
“We have staged concerts before in Golden Gate Park, but nothing to this extent has been produced outside

UK - Panasonic has announced its new series of 1-Chip DLP laser projectors delivering 4K display resolution.
The Panasonic PT-RDQ10 Series is designed for entertainment, rental and corporate organisations that want to ‘captivate viewers with detailed 4K images and vibrant yet natural colour reproduction’. It comes in three different models, ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 lumens. The optional ET-DLE020 Ultra-Short-Throw Zoom Lens with zero offset adds versatility by enabling large-scale images to be projected, free from shadows, even in the tightest spaces.
The Series achieves 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution using Smooth Pixel Drive, a one-axis pixel-shifting technology to produce crisp, smooth, and richly detailed images. The updated Rich Colour Enhancer boosts colour reproduction for more vibrant colours, faithfully recreating even the most detailed visuals, such as art

Spain - LightShark, Equipson's range of multiprotocol control products for the entertainment industry, are being given their own brand identity to reflect their growing popularity and the impact they are making on the entertaiment industry.
With LightShark, hardware and software control of up to eight DMX universes and 4000+ DMX channels is completely integrated via smartphones and tablets, while full compatibility with other manufacturer's equipment is assured because the products work with industry-standard DMX and Artnet lighting protocols, as well as any operating system (Android, Linux, Windows and macOS).
Equipson originally included LightShark in its Workpro range, which features a wide variety of products aimed at the installation and live sound markets. But as the LightShark products have evolved, the company has decided to make this a stand-alone brand with i
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OPUS X4 PROFILE – the most powerful LED moving head from Cameo to date

The OPUS® X4 PROFILE is the new flagship model from Cameo and is among the most powerful LED moving heads on the market. Equipped with a 1,400-watt LED white light engine, this spot profile moving head produces an enormous light output of 50,000 lm, providing powerful spot and gobo projections on even the largest stages and much more.
www.cameolight.com

USA - Christie has announced the launch of the Christie Inspire Series, a family of fixed zoom lens 1DLP laser projectors in three brightness options designed for small to mid-sized environments, including classrooms, boardrooms, museums, houses of worship and more.
The Inspire Series offers professional-grade features in a budget-friendly package. A range of brightness options, starting at 6000 lumens, as well as 7,200 lumens and 8,100 ANSI lumen options (7,150, 8,500, and 9,600 ISO lumens respectively), brings bold images in WUXGA resolution to any application. And with laser illumination, the Inspire Series offers up to 20,000 hours of low-maintenance operation to 50% brightness.
“The Inspire Series offers a winning combination of low-maintenance performance and value, without sacrificing advanced capabilities,” says Chris Kee, executive director, Enterprise pro

Spain - Audiovisuales Canarias, part of AVC Group, has recently purchased 16 Prolights EclPanel TWC and TWCJr to their rental fleet.
The AV service provider decided to invest in these units to continue offering their customers equipment with reduced energy consumption thanks to its LED technology.
“Our decision to acquire the Prolights EclPanel TWC and TWCJr came after an exhaustive comparison with similar products on the market and, after some last tests of brightness, colour temperature, features, etc., we made the final decision to go ahead with the Italian brand. All the characteristics of this fixture were exactly what we needed to add to our list of equipment for our rental market,” said Alex Labao, commercial director for AVC Group. “The ECL Panel met our needs, completing our increasingly extensive list of equipment with reduced energy consumption.”

UK - Based in Glasgow, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a world-leading conservatoire of music, drama, dance, production and film. Founded in 1847, it now has more than 1,300 students studying undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and, pre-COVID, staged over 600 live performances across its professional venues throughout the year. It recently opened a new rehearsal and performance space for its students and approached White Light (WL) to provide the lighting equipment.
As part of its COVID-19 response plan, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland realised that building occupancy numbers and social distancing were going to play a key part in ensuring it could continue to deliver technical training and support to all its students. The decision was made to transfer a rehearsal studio into a new, fully-equipped performance space that would allow both performance and productio

The Netherlands - Lighting, audio and rigging for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was delivered and co-ordinated by leading Netherlands rental specialist Ampco Flashlight, and for lighting control, this included 14 grandMA3 light consoles and 32 active grandMA3 processing units (PUs) used by production lighting designer Henk-Jan van Beek of visual design practice Light-H-Art and his team.
Henk-Jan created a spectacular design that enabled each of the 39 entries participating in the 2021 contest - which also included two televised semi-finals - to have a distinct and dynamic look utilising over 1,800 (main show floor and key) moving lights and LED luminaires from multiple brands, plus over 500 universes of LED tape running via two Green Hippo media servers.
In addition to the real lights in the space, some augmented reality elements featured in the broadcast invo
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Case Study: Hans Zimmer Live

When award winning film composer Hans Zimmer brought his smash-hit tour Hans Zimmer Live to North America fall 2024, the show's audio team sought out to bring infrafrequency bass to the show to add new depth to the show's audio experience. The team chose Danley Sound Labs.

UK - The CloudPower series of amplifiers from Apex are set to arrive in the UK and Ireland with the appointment of FBT Audio (UK) as the range’s exclusive distributor.
Effective 1 June 2021, the agreement comes as FBT Audio (UK) continues to experience rapid growth in its commercial audio division - a trend that has continued despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Described as capable of scaling from “a karaoke room to an opera house”, the Apex CloudPower range comprises four Class-D models - the 4 x 350W CP354, 4 x 700W CP704, 4 x 1500W CP1504 and 4 x 3000W CP3004.
Each is lightweight and compact at just 1U and can run in low impedance down to 2Ω or 70/100v line configuration. Also on board is feature rich DSP plus a built-in WiFi hotspot for simple setup, control and monitoring either locally using any HTML5 capable browser (Mac, PC, iOS or Andro

Spain - Integrated Systems Events managing director Mike Blackman marked the opening of ISE Live & Online yesterday with a presentation at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via in front of a gathering of representatives from government, local executive boards and agencies, ISE’s owners and the media.
ISE Live & Online is a hybrid event, livestreaming from the Fira and broadcasting to a global audience via the ISE Digital platform.
The opening of ISE’s first show in Barcelona represents a significant milestone in the development of Integrated Systems Europe, and a personal and professional triumph for Blackman, who launched the event 17 years ago with a staff of three.
Along with representatives of the Fira, ISE co-owner AVIXA and ISE exhibitors, Blackman made a symbolic trip by motorbike from ISE’s office in Munich to Barcelona, stopping en route in Geneva

UK - Britannia Row Productions Training (BRPT) has launched its Live Sound Fundamentals and Live Sound Intermediate courses online with 145 newly produced video lectures at www.britanniarowtraining.com.
Created after receiving an Arts Council England Culture Recovery Grant, the new online delivery platform offers video lectures, course notes, quizzes and optional exams together with learner support that the live sound specialist hopes will generate a more accessible gateway into the professional audio industry.
BRPT managing director, Mike Lowe, states: “We anticipated having to wait for some semblance of post-pandemic normality before continuing our programmes in live sound, however, being awarded a Culture Recovery Grant was an amazing development. It has

UK - Philip French and his team from Peachy Productions lit Guildford Cathedral resplendent green - using Robe Pointes and LEDBeam 150 moving lights - to mark Surrey Day 2021, one of several celebratory events happening around the county led by Visit Surrey and their media partners BBC Radio Surrey and Surrey Life magazine.
It was the second Surrey Day in which Peachy Productions has been involved. The company has many strong ties to the city and the area, and was keen to participate in promoting Surrey, which is known for its natural beauty, woodlands, and wildlife habitats among many other attributes.
Having lit the Cathedral on several occasions last year, including in support of the National Health Service and other frontline workers battling the pandemic and also to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the Peachy crew were delighted to be back on top of St

UK - Technical solutions distributor Visualization will distribute the VUE2 product line in the UK.
VUE2 offers a range of 3LCD laser-based projectors across a range of brightness and resolutions.
With a complement of 21 products that cover installation, portable, and Ultra Short Throw (UST) series, the VUE2 range addresses the corporate, education, house of worship, and rental staging markets.
Visualization managing director, Nick Pidgeon, comments: “The VUE2 product line fills a gap vacated by a number of manufacturers. With a range of resolution and brightness at extremely competitive price points - and backed up with a reassuring seven-year warranty - we believe the VUE2 product range will be very well received in the UK.”
Mohammed Sajjad, product manager at VUE2, adds: “The UK market - via Visualization - offers us a tremendous opportunity to g

Italy - Powersoft has named Prase as its Italian distributor. Headquartered in Noventa di Piave, near Venice, Prase was founded in 1993 and for 28 years, the company has provided services to the Italian audio market.
Prase's 50 distribution brands, once paired with Powersoft, will provide integrated installation solutions for system integrators, AV designers and consultants.
Fabrizio Romano Bolzoni, Powersoft’s sales distribution manager, comments: “We’ve always had a long history of mutual interest with Prase. The time has finally arrived to materialise that into a solid partnership for the development and success within the Italian professional installation market. With Prase’s best-in-class reputation throughout the installation sector and in the live world, we are delighted to be entering a partnership with them.”
Ennio Prase, managing director at P

Another Lost Summer - UK music festivals face "another lost summer" due to the government's refusal to back insurance for events at risk, a committee of MPs has found. A report into the sector's future said the government should provide a safety net for live events set to take place after 21 June.
Several major festivals have been axed for the second year running, but the government claims it is "continuing to work flat-out to support festivals and live events". Glastonbury and BST Hyde Park will not take place this year, but others, like Latitude and Download, are currently scheduled to go ahead. The latter was called off in March but has since been resurrected as a government test event, albeit with a significantly reduced capacity.
On 21 June, the government hopes to move to the final stage of its roadmap for lifting lockdown. Restrictions on large events such as mu

UK - Extending the capabilities of its compact Dante audio network interfacing modules, Neutrik has introduced the NPS-30W Gigabit Power over Ethernet power supply, addressing the increasing requirement for PoE injectors with the first ever such device optimised to operate in the harshest stage and field applications.
The NPS-30W PoE injector behaves as a passive power supply, delivering constant uninterrupted power, with no requirement for power negotiation with connected devices. The NPS-30W PoE partners the new NA2-IO-DPRO and NA2-IO-DLINE I/O interface devices that enable connectivity of legacy analogue and digital audio equipment within Dante audio networks, in the most demanding application environments.
With a 30W PoE budget, up to four of these I/O Dante interface devices can be daisy-chained off of a single NPS-30W; this makes the NPS-30W ideal for application

Poland - The debut of the new Mercedes-Benz EQA vehicle in Poland took place in April, with Kukoni and Robimy Live supplying sound and lighting equipment, cameras and streaming systems.
Kukoni supplied a range of Prolights equipment, including 16 Air5Fan, 12 Stark 1000, eight Ruby, 20 Lumipix 12QTour, six Sunblast 3000FC, one Mosaico, 18 SmartBat Plus, 18 TrussPod3 Bat and 18 Solar 27Q, with design by Kuba Czarnik.
“Our main goal was to create a spatial effect to win the emotions of our viewers watching the event online,” says Miłosz Łapiński, manager at Kukoni. “We placed the Air5Fan on all sides of the stage area, where the car would drive in. We then placed the Sunblast 3000FC fixtures behind the car, proving a powerful colour punch as it would come in through a mist of smoke.”
The Stark 1000 washes provided front white-light to the presenters and

Zimbabwe - Blessing Bero, Tatenda Gaylord Rushwaya, and the rest of the Events Evolution team faced a formidable task recently when they worked a noon to 8pm pay-for-view show by platinum Epic Records star Benjamin Dube.
A noted South African gospel singer (he performed at Nelson Mandela’s Freedom of the City Award presentation), Dube was joined by a large group of other performers on stage. This helped the Events Evolution team achieve the diverse looks they were after. Also contribution to the variety, was a flexible lighting rig that included 11 Maverick MK2 Spot, four Rogue R2 Spot and four Rogue R2 Wash fixtures, plus a Net-X node from Chauvet Professional.
“We created a wide range of backgrounds with our videos and the rainbow of colours we were able to get from our lighting fixtures matched them all,” said Rushwaya, who programmed the show and ran the vide

UK - The team behind A Light Walk, a charity walk set to take place across 20-24 September, has announced details of the fundraising mission and the ways in which everyone can get involved.
A Light Walk will see Chauvet’s Sam Bowden and ALD Lumière working group chair Charlotte Burton walk from The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford Upon Avon to the National Theatre on London’s Southbank, a total distance of over 101 miles (160 km), which will be completed in just five days. Members of the ALD’s executive committee and other members of the Lumière Scheme working group will be joining the walk for individual days or remotely.
Departing from The Royal Shakespeare Company on day one, the walkers will complete a distance of 24 miles. Day two starts at Bloxham and ends 19 miles further at Bicester. With day three, the walkers will pace the 23 mile

Saudi Arabia - Jeddah provided the start and finish lines for the 2021 Dakar Rally, while its King Abdullah Sports City Stadium - 30 kilometres north of the bustling port city - was the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies which included a special show complete with soundtracks by Daft Punk, other cultural performance segments and a host of media events and live broadcasts including the winner presentations. Each of the two events comprised around 10 hours of consecutive airtime in total.
French creative lighting practice Concept K was invited by Paris-based Leap Creative Studio and Blink Experience’s Dubai office to create a production lighting design for the two ceremonies. Their brief also included direction of lighting for the cameras and integration of the set and scenic elements and video screens into a single visual picture for the events which were attende

USA - Audio Engineers of Detroit has opened a new recording studio in midtown Detroit with a 32-channel Neve Genesys Black console at the heart of its main control room.
The studio provides many different recording services, including commercial voice over, podcasts, music recording, mixing in stereo, 5.1 up to Dolby Atmos, audio restoration, location sound and audio-visual services. Running alongside this commercial work, Audio Engineers of Detroit also offers an education programme that teaches students the skills and techniques needed to follow a career in professional audio.
“Some years ago, I had the pleasure of mixing on a vintage Neve console and fell in love with the sound,” says Mike Kinnie, founder and vice president of Audio Engineers of Detroit. “We wanted that Neve sound for the new studio and we also wanted a console that had DAW control so it made

The Netherlands - ESC official technical supplier, Ampco Flashlight of Utrecht, supplied a large number of Ayrton Huracán-X, Karif-LT and MiniPanel-FX LED fixtures for the 65th Eurovision Song Contest at the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena, at the request of ESC head of lighting, Henk-Jan van Beek of Light-H-art.
With some 39 countries and 55 scenes to create and programme different looks for, van Beek needed fixtures that would give him a lot of variety and used the ‘trilogy’ of Ayrton fixtures for three different purposes.
“Huracán-X is our workhorse,” says van Beek. “We chose it because it gave us all the power, possibilities and creativity in one fixture and we used every feature of it.”
180 Huracán-X were rigged over the main and B-stages where 40 of them were mounted on extendable drop arms, and on three levels around the auditorium from where they wer

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