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13 May 2024

The Netherlands - Tilburg University campus which specialises in artificial intelligence, social and behavioural sciences, recently upgraded its DAF Technology Lab to revolutionise the way its students learn and collaborate.

Expanding the possibilities of immersive education and innovative research, two CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) systems with VR opportunities and 360º sound from Genelec now call Tilburg home. In a project that aims to positively impact education and training, Genelec’s Smart IP series of networked loudspeakers brought real-life audio to a notably complex installation. 

Max Louwerse, professor of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence at Tilburg University – and founder and scientific director of the DAF Technology Lab – has been a big advocate of this new type of immersive learning. In several publica

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13 May 2024

USA - Bandit Lites has added adds Claypaky Sharpy X Frames to its touring arsenal and is the first company in the world to send the Sharpy X Frames on the road.

“I am very excited to have these in our inventory to offer our clients,” said Jake Tickle, Bandit Lites vice president of business and innovation. “Claypaky somehow found a way to create what may be the most complete Hybrid Beam fixture in its category. From smooth, even output to intense beams, the Sharpy X Frame really does it all.”

Bandit wasted no time in getting the Sharpy X Frames out on tour with American blues guitarist and singer Gary Clark, Jr. (lighting design by John Adamo and Robert Fuller), The Used (lighting design by Dillon Pajunas and Joe Nicoletti) and Hardy’s set at Patriot Fest (lighting design by Trevor Drawdy). Other tours are in the planning phase now.

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13 May 2024

USA - Working with lighting designer Roger Gant, Montreal-based visual design company Lüz studio oversaw the lighting design, creative design and video content for Billy Strings’ ongoing US tour and festival dates, which feature Ayrton fixtures, grandMA3 consoles and MDG theONE atmospheric generators provided by Bandit Lites in Nashville.  ACT Entertainment exclusively distributes all three product brands in North America.

The singer, songwriter and bluegrass star’s current tour commenced in Asheville, North Carolina in February. Dates are booked nationwide through April and May, there’s a break in June and July for a trio of festival performances, then the tour resumes for a summer leg that wraps at LA’s Kia Forum. Billy Strings’ 2024 tour is in support of his Grammy-nominated collaborative album with his father, ME/AND/DAD.

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13 May 2024

Canada - For Winnipeg’s large French-speaking community, the Franco-Manitobain Cultural Centre (CCFM) serves as an important cultural gathering spot for events and celebrations. CCFM recently marked its 50th Anniversary in grand fashion with a dazzling show featuring a production design by Red Rover Entertainment and illuminated by Elation lighting.

With two large-scale shows as well as several smaller events on the schedule, the venue’s year-long anniversary celebration commemorates the rich cultural heritage of Winnipeg’s francophone community across five decades. For a special anniversary show that took place 19 April, several francophone artists who have graced the CCFM stage over the past 50 years, old and young talent alike, were invited to perform backed by a house band.

Jon Stanners, who has operated Red Rover Entertainment in Winnipeg

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13 May 2024

UK - Union Audio has launched an EQ/crossfader unit designed to accompany and expand the mixing possibilities of the company’s flagship orbit.6 analogue rotary mixer. The eq.xfader is a 1U rackmount unit featuring a dual four-band isolator design with an Innofader crossfader, adding another dimension to the capabilities of the orbit.6, and opening up an array of expansion options to innovate customer set ups and promote dynamic mixing.

Designed with a six-channel architecture to mirror the orbit mixer, the dual crossfader transitions between audio sources connected to either side of the crossfader, placing channels 1-3 and channels 4-6 on opposing sides of the crossfader. A Mix/Cut switch alters the crossfader's functionality from a carefully designed curve to create gradual transitions in Mix mode, to full volume in Cut mode when the crossfader is moved t

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10 May 2024

USA - JLGroup has announced a strategic investment by JLL USA LLC into Vital Show Solutions (VSS), a pivotal move set to bolster both companies' growth trajectories. JLL USA LLC is investing over $1m into VSS, affirming its commitment to ensuring expansive equipment upgrades and continued team development. JLL USA Team will operate out of VSS’s shop located in Carrollton, Dallas, Texas.

This investment strengthens the collaboration between VSS's 19-member team and JLL USA, enabling JLL USA to tap into the expertise of VSS's entire team, including the head of video, head of sound, project managers, and enhanced transport capabilities. This positions both companies to efficiently manage and execute a substantial combined $12m order book for the year.

"JLL USA's investment in VSS represents not only a strategic alignment of our businesses but also our

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10 May 2024

UK - Penn Elcom, the manufacturer of flightcase hardware, racking, speaker component, cabling, LED lighting and other related elements, is celebrating 50 years in business. Founded in 1974 by Roger Willems, initially focusing on metals and anodising, the company has expanded and diversified over the five decades and is now producing and supplying an array of vital entertainment industry related infrastructural elements, which are fabricated from bases in the UK, US, Germany and China in a tightly co-ordinated operation involving over 600 full-time employees.

“So many fantastic people have contributed to making Penn Elcom what it is today,” says Roger. “Their collective personalities, foresight and diligence have helped shape the strong brand identity that sees us achieve this landmark anniversary. I want to say a huge and sincere thankyou to each and e

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10 May 2024

UK - Pro-audio service provider 22Live has completed its d&b SL-Series offering by adding GSL to its hire inventory.

Having now completed its first full year of operation 22live continues to assert itself in the pro-audio rental market as a major force for the future. 22live was appointed as a d&b audiotechnik rental partner in early 2023 after making initial investments into XSL and KSL line array packages.

The company achieved successes in 2023 with these d&b systems being deployed to tours - Tori Amos Ocean to Ocean, Madness C’est La Vie, and events such as Lionel Richie & George Ezra at Chepstow Racecourse. In 2024 the drive for large scale touring utilising d&b has continued with the Pendulum arena tour, and now with d&b GSL in stock, 22live is well positioned to continue its growth, offering services

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10 May 2024

USA - Don’s Seafood is an institution around Ascension Parish, famous for its Zydeco Shrimp, Fried Allegator, and other Cajun delicacies. But it’s been a long time since Don’s did the kind of business it did on 5-6 April. According to its owner, the 90-year-old restaurant saw more than $20,000 in additional sales that weekend.

The story at Don’s was repeated throughout Gonzales, a Louisiana town of roughly 13,000 people, as every place from the local hotel to the service station and cowboy boots store did more business. That’s exactly just what the folks at 46 Entertainment and Peach Tree Entertainment were hoping for when they put together Rock The Country, a series of two-day festivals intended to give an economic boost to seven hard-hit small towns across the South.

Appearing at the series inaugural event, which took place just a few mil

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10 May 2024

UK - Studiomaster has widened its FOH loudspeaker portfolio coming out of Q1, with a line-up of new and uprated replacement series and new product type designs, including several revealed during the NAMM and ISE shows at the beginning of the year.

Four completely new active loudspeaker series offer compact columns, two-way point-source cabs, and vertical and horizontal compact line arrays, with designs offering significantly improved feature sets, utility and price to performance advantages, increasing the brand’s competitive edge in key market segments.

The Direct MX series column array is a highly versatile, 127 dB / 2000 W column array design, available in two system configurations; with the 6x 3” mid frequency / 1x high frequency 1” precision compression unit armed column array, respectively (and literally) coupled with a compact 10” and

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10 May 2024

Italy - After participating in Sanremo 2024, Roman singer-songwriter Gazzelle, exponent of Italian indie pop, left for the Inside X always tour, with a total of 12 dates throughout Italy.

Lighting designer Andrea Arlotti chose to use the innovative and powerful Ayrton Rivale Profile, the most versatile fixture in the Ayrton range, equipped with continuous rotation of the pan and tilt movement.

“I chose Ayrton because it is top of the range equipment, and supplied by Mister X,” he says. “I positioned the Rivale Profile in the hanging trusses and use them mainly for effect lighting during the songs. They have high definition and excellent beam brightness.

“The concept echoes that of Rome’s 2023 Olympic stadium repurposed as a sports hall. A simple but very direct concept, with large screens and linear trusses, to directly convey the e

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10 May 2024

UK - ETC dealer Stage Electrics has supplied ColorSource Spot Jr fixtures to upgrade the lighting in London’s Park Theatre.

Park Theatre is a local venue in north London which houses two performance and rehearsal spaces that showcase a diverse mix of new and emerging productions. The team at the theatre were looking to upgrade the existing lighting rig to LED as part of an initiative to reduce tungsten and also make a more sustainable investment for the future. ETC’s affordable ColorSource Spot Jr was the preferred choice – with 14 of the fixtures being selected for the theatre.

The compact yet powerful nature of ColorSource Spot Jr was just one of the reasons that made it a good solution for the venue as the theatre space features a thrust stage whereby many of the fixtures hang in close proximity to the audience. The fixture’s built-in zoom

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10 May 2024

New Zealand - Lighting designer Jo Kilgour created the lighting design for Hatupatu / Kurungaituku: a forbidden love, a new aerial dance work produced by Aotearoa’s kaupapa Māori theatre company, Taki Rua Productions. The work, written by creative director Tānemahuta Gray and Kapa Haka by Wētini Mītai-Ngātai, premiered at the Tãwhiri Warehouse in Wellington as part of the 2024 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.

Eighteen Robe T1 PCs and 10 x LEDWash 600 wash beams made up an integral part of Jo’s lighting rig, which was supplied to this production by Wellington-based rental company, Grouse Lighting, and project managed by Cameron Nicholls with the assistance of Riley Gibson.

The immersive storytelling was presented in traverse, with the audience standing either side of a central 1.5m-high runway stage, relating the tale of w

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10 May 2024

The Netherlands - When Easter is approaching, many people are busy trying to decide how they want to spend their long weekend off, but for the employees at Stagelight, they are already busy working on one of first major music festivals in the Dutch calendar. Paaspop is a three-day festival that takes place in Schijndel on Easter weekend each year, but the build-up starts much earlier.

Each stage at the festival not only has to be built from scratch, but also equipped with sound and lighting equipment worthy of some of the biggest national and international acts. This year’s event saw names like Anouk, Editors and Tiësto among the headliners.

Stagelight has been providing Paaspop with lighting equipment for a long time and this year was no exception. In total, project manager Hermen Klerks selected a grand total of 1,310 light fixtures from Infinit

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10 May 2024

Australia - Seamless AV has chosen Prolights' Astra Wash19PixIP to update its inventory in response to the increased demand for outdoor installations. Alex Moffat, director of Seamless AV, consulted Show Technology, the Prolights distributor in Australia, for the selection of new IP projectors to be included in the inventory.

The choice fell on Prolights' Astra Wash19PixIP. The Astra Wash19PixIP was designed to be a workhorse for any large, outdoor stage or installation, offering a robust and sealed mechanical assembly but keeping the same features and performance as its indoor version.

"We have found the units to be robust for outdoor work and they have not missed a beat,” commented Moffat. "They are amazing as a wash unit and having the LED outer ring makes them look stunning as eye candy for back-of-stage looks. The four to 54-degree zoom makes

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09 May 2024

UK - PLASA Focus Leeds returns to the city’s Royal Armouries from 14-15 May with two sold-out show floors and a bigger-than-ever programme. A record number of people have registered to attend the popular trade show, which promises to deliver an abundance of brands from across the pro audio, AV, lighting and staging sectors alongside a packed programme of seminar sessions, panel discussions, training events and more.

On the show floor, over 200 brands will span two halls, with Ambersphere proudly returning as headline sponsor. Many of the exhibitors will showcase their latest products, with several UK debuts to look out for.

Lighting brands include Avolites, Beamz, Chauvet Professional, Elation Professional, ETC, GLP, Highlite International, Martin Professional, Prolight, Robe, Roxx, TMB, and Vari-Lite.

Pro audio brands include Allen & H

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09 May 2024

UK – The Profile Awards, dedicated to TV and theatre lighting design, will take place on 6 June at Alexandra Palace. In the run up to the inaugural ceremony, the judging teams are hard at work whittling down the many shows and productions they have seen to select their winners.

Theatre Awards chair, David Benedict explains the process: “The theatre section of The Profile Awards is judged by eight of the UK’s leading theatre, dance and opera critics. Every single new production we see is automatically eligible for consideration.”

He continues: “At our lengthy judging session, we drew up a long list of 30 pieces of outstanding lighting design from the literally hundreds of productions we saw in person across the year. That list was then whittled down to a shortlist of 18. From there, we chose to salute the work of eight of the most exciting t

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09 May 2024

Bolivia - Adam Hall Group continues to expand its international sales network. With STD Pro Audio, the event technology vendor headquartered in Neu-Anspach, Hesse, has gained a new distribution partner in Bolivia. STD Pro Audio has already successfully implemented projects with Cameo in the past and is now the exclusive distributor for Adam Hall Group’s lighting technology brand in the Bolivian market.

Based in Cochabamba, STD Pro Audio was founded in 2011 by Wilson Reynaga López and has quickly developed into a leading vendor of event technology in Bolivia. In addition to distributing lighting and audio technology, the company also acts a service provider in the live event and installation markets. Milestones include upgrading the lighting technology at Teatro Internacional de Oruro, including the installation of Cameo moving lights.

“With Came

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09 May 2024

Greece – Audio & Vision has been appointed as distributor for 1 Sound throughout Greece. With headquarters in Athens and experience working on projects in renowned music halls, theatres, and more, Audio & Vision has cemented its status as a leading destination for high-end audiovisual solutions and expertise in the Greek market.

With a rich history of providing top-tier services and representing other AVL brands, Audio & Vision has strategically expanded its offerings featuring the 1 Sound brand for the installation and live sound markets.

“Audio & Vision, true to the principles of innovation, excellence, and high expertise that it has set since its inception, has chosen to partner with one of the world’s leading loudspeaker manufacturers. We are thrilled because we found in 1 Sound exactly what we were looking for and more,”

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09 May 2024

South Africa - Cape Town’s nightscape has been enriched with the recent addition of Halo; a premium nightclub experience that combines opulent design with cutting edge technology, including a Funktion-One sound system from the loudspeaker manufacturer’s distributor for South Africa, Phuture Sound.

Completed at the end of 2023 and opened shortly after, Halo is Cape Town’s newly envisioned nightclub that combines world-class sound, custom acoustic treatment (by Supersonic), and opulent interior design (by Conduit Interior). Stepping into the space offers partygoers sensory immersion and removal from the everyday, with leading domestic and international DJs providing the soundtrack.

“There is typically a tug-of-war in setting up a new venue between what sounds good and what looks good,” says Phuture Sound’s Anton Sinovich. “But Halo is pro