Australia - Creative Technology Australia and New Zealand opted for Data Strategy’s QC-Check to address three main needs in terms of product inspection: socapex cable testing, the safe inspection of twin-frame distribution boards, and the ability to set up the specific testing processes needed to be carried out by anyone in the warehouse.
Maintenance manager, Myles Barlow, explained that the company’s highest priority was to be able to test multipin connectors such as Socapex three-phase cables, as “there’s just no safe way to test them”.
In addition, he found that “standard PAT testers fail products that have lots of internal relay, control voltages and several limit points. They see it as a dead short when there’s actually not a problem”. So without, QC

Germany - A 4K CarbonLight VX LED screen from Leyard Europe forms the heart of a new inspirational and educational exhibition at the headquarters of the European Molecular Biology Lab (EMBL), a laboratory for research into life sciences, which explains and celebrates its work to better understand the building blocks of all life on Earth.
The World of Molecular Biology exhibition occupies 800 sqm of the double-height atrium of the EMBL headquarters in Heidelberg and tells the story of life through 45 AV exhibits comprising a mix of audiovisual, virtual reality, interactive and tactile elements, grouped into three zones, themed The Spirit of EMBL, Life is Amazing and Seeing is Understanding.
The star of the exhibition, called the Wall of Wonder, is the 1.9 mm pixel pitch, 8m by 4m Leyard CarbonLight VX 1.9mm 4K LED screen, with content via a 7thSense media server and PIX

Finland - Located in Espoo, Bodom Bar and Sauna is the headquarters of melodic death metal band Children of Bodom. Complete with poster strewn walls, red leather couches and band memorabilia, the venue recently collaborated with Genelec to create a sound system capable of handling the band’s back catalogue.
Espoo is the hometown of the pioneering five-piece who rose to fame in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Taking their name from one of the most intriguing cases in Finnish criminal history - the Lake Bodom murders - Children of Bodom released 10 studio albums across their career, gaining them a loyal long-haired following who travelled globally to see the band perform.
They continued to tour up until their split in 2019, which was shortly followed by the passing of lead guitarist Alexi Laiho in 2020. Bodom Bar and Sauna was opened to celebrate the legacy of the ba

Algeria - The desire to improve the quality and efficiency of the technologies for post-match press conferences has seen an increasing number of sporting arenas investing in their press facilities. The recently completed new stadium in the city of Tizi Ouzou is a venue that has made this a priority right from the start, with the installation of a CCS 1000 D Digital Discussion System and an Integrus Wireless Language Distribution System from Bosch Building Technologies.
The 50,000-seat stadium is the new home of Algeria’s most successful football club, JS Kabylie, and has been built to exacting UEFA standards. This includes all the press and broadcast infrastructure and meant that a high-quality press conference solution was demanded from the outset.
The stadium called on Turkish Bosch partner Atempo to design the solution for the press conference room, along with t

UK - Founded in 1943, the Cathedral Church of All Saints - better known as Derby Cathedral - is one of Derby’s most beautiful and historic sites and holds many monuments of Derby’s and Derbyshire’s past. An important spiritual and cultural hub for the city and surrounding areas, the cathedral hosts no fewer than 18 services per week plus special and seasonal services to celebrate important events in the religious calendar.
The cathedral recently turned to specialist consultant and integrator, Charles Brown of Acoustic Solutions to upgrade their audio solution to bring it into line with modern requirements. Brown specified and delivered a comprehensive point source system from KV2 Audio.
Brown is something of a reference when it comes to installing audio solutions in churches and cathedrals throughout the UK and is often the first port of call for houses of wors

Denmark - Aarhus Musikhuset has recently invested in Robe Painte moving lights and TX1 PosiProfiles for three of its halls. The Rhythmic Hall (Rytmisk Sal) also known as the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall has eight Paintes, the Small Hall (Lille Sal) has seven TX1, with another eight TX1s - four with gobos - for the 1,172-capacity Symphonic Hall (Symfonisk Sal).
The lights were specified by the Musikhuset’s head of lighting Henrik Hambro and his crew, and delivered by Robe’s Danish distributor, Light Partner.
The venue is a cultural and entertainment beacon at the heart of Denmark’s lively second city and stages over 1400 shows and productions annually. Originally opened in 1982, it was substantially expanded in 2007 to over 40,000sq.m of facilities offering seven differently sized and styled performance spaces including the three mentioned above.
A diverse and a

USA - Visual design group Lightswitch has overseen lighting design and creative direction for Enchanted Forest of Light at Descanso Gardens in Southern California since 2016. This year, the popular one-mile nighttime walk through colourful and dazzling lighting displays shined brighter than ever with an expanded IP-rated lighting package from Elation that included the company’s new Proteus Hybrid MAX.
Enchanted is an immersive visual experience tailor-made to highlight the historic botanical garden’s beauty and flora. Each year, Lightswitch reimagines portions of the experience, enhancing areas and repositioning luminaires. This season’s show ran from 19 November through 7 January and included a new area as a result of refurbishment elsewhere in the gardens.
Lightswitch creates and produces the entire “Enchanted Forest of Light” experience, designing lighti

Italy - With his glowing bow that evokes a Jedi lightsabre, electric violinist Andrea Casta is known as the ‘Jedi Violinist’. Casta performs over 200 concerts a year that reach more than 2m live spectators. The artist has taken his music to over 30 countries and boasts a social fanbase of nearly half a million followers.
His recent tour, The Space Violin - Visual Concert, sold out in major Italian cities. He was awarded Best Performer at the Dance Music Awards in 2018 and 2022. Many of Casta’s performances are smaller, boutique events. For those, the artist has chosen a TT+ Audio System that satisfies his desire to bring the highest possible sound quality and musical clarity to his audiences while being highly versatile, portable and aesthetically discreet.
“My smaller performances were a real challenge,” said Casta. "I needed a compact and easily transport

Canada - Powersoft has announced the appointment of AVL Media Group, a division of Intellimix Corp, as its new distributor and service centre for Canada.
Established more than 25 years ago, AVL Media Group is an award-winning distribution company with a mission of developing long-term, mutually beneficial, business relationships through professional products backed by excellent sales, service and technical support.
“We are excited to be represent Powersoft in Canada and we are looking forward to informing Canadian customers about Powersoft’s offerings with particular emphasis on Mezzo, the new Unica amplifier platform, and the recently announced Verso cloud gateway,” says Andrew Hope, managing director of AVL Media Group.
AVL Media Group will focus on promoting Powersoft’s products and technologies, making its customers and potential partners aware of


Size Matters - The UK's largest indoor arena will open its doors for the first time with a headline act performed by Peter Kay. The Bolton comedian will perform at the opening night of the new 23,500-seater Co-op Live venue in Manchester on 23 April. Liam Gallagher, Take That, Pearl Jam and Olivia Rodrigo are also set to separately perform at the £350m arena.
Co-op general manager Gary Roden said Kay was the "perfect" opening act who "embodies what this city is about". The new venue, set to open opposite Manchester City's Etihad stadium, features a "unique bowl design" that would bring fans "closer to the artist than at other arenas of equivalent size", a spokesman for the Co-op said. The arena is set to surpass the Manchester Arena and O2 Arena in size to become the UK's largest indoor arena.
Get Back - Sir Paul McCartney has been reunited with the bass

USA - Ayrton has announced the appointment of Scott Kinnebrew to the role of global install manager as part of Ayrton’s Global Installs team, with immediate effect. Kinnebrew, who is based in the US, has extensive experience, working with industry-leading brands.
“In my new role I’ll be helping others find the right products for environments such as amusement parks, arenas, cruise ships, theatres, stadiums, and other locations and venues,” says Kinnebrew. “Illuminating such locations brings a different challenge from the rental and staging world. Shows can run 24 hours a day, have very limited time for support, and be a challenge from a design standpoint, be it fixture access or placement. Ayrton brings a level of product offering second to none which meets those challenges, and I'm proud to represent the company and the innovation that the brand brings to the glob

UK - Event management solutions company OctoCue has launched a user-intuitive cloud-based event management app, DeckTrack, enabling event professionals to monitor and manage conference presentations in real-time.
Focusing on three key pillars, DeckTrack delivers ‘a comprehensive solution’ to the market that helps prevent and mitigate presentation issues, by providing full control for event professionals. The app not only offers full visibility of presentations and enables monitoring anywhere with an internet connection, but its ease of adoption and deployment is exceptional. Its simple cloud-based monitoring functionality eliminates the need for expensive on-site networking, making it an incredibly cost-effective option.
“We’re thrilled to announce that DeckTrack is now available for the market,” says Paul Williams, director at OctoCue. “OctoCue developed

USA - Low trim heights, limited hang points, the lack of house lights - these challenges seem to be present when lighting an event at any big ballroom. They certainly were at the Gatlinburg Convention centre when Andrew Dingman set out to light the Clayton King Ministries’ Crossroad Winter Conference this January.
Dingman comments, “The room and rigging will always be the biggest challenge when designing a show like this in a venue like this. But as is true in every case, there are always ways to overcome challenges.”
In this three-day conference, Dingman met the challenge presented by the relative lack of overhead space by modifying his plans. “Originally, I wanted to do another LED Banner above my mid stage LX truss, but was unavailable due to trim,” he explained. “Flying my MS LX truss to max trim allowed me to get bigger looks and more beam throw. A lot

USA - The Winter Jam Tour Spectacular returned for its bi-coastal celebration of positivity and spreading the Gospel with a lighting system provided by Bandit Lites. This year’s line-up included Crowder, two-time 2024 Grammy-award winner Lecrae, CAIN, Katy Nichole, Seventh Day Slumber, Newsong and more.
“Each year I lean towards putting most of my budget into the flown rig,” said longtime production manager Jerry Holcomb. “The tour usually has artists that bring some sort of ground package, so I leave room for that. Additionally, I have to be conscience of truck space and set up time. Winter Jam doors are early compared to most tours considering we have up to 10 artists and speakers each night; so, a rig that is efficient enough to fit into a truck and a half yet still look big enough for an arena is my goal.”
Holcomb sought Bandit client rep Allen Deneau’

UK - In its 11th year, the Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) winner’s presentation for Excellence in Sound for a Feature Film 2024 took place at The Rosewood Hotel, with The Zone of Interest receiving the award.
Johnnie Burn AMPS, Tarn Willers AMPS, Mateusz Stasiak and Simon Carroll were present to receive their AMPS trophies from AMPS chair Andrew Wilson, in the company of AMPS members including award group leader and three-time Academy Award nominee Graham Hartstone. James Ogden was unable to attend but will be sent his award.
AMPS’ annual awards recognise multiple facets of the sound industry; alongside supervising crew members, AMPS honours key 1st assistant sound/boom operators and supervising dialogue/ADR editors. AMPS recognises the assistants in the team as well as the HoDs, with Mateusz, Simon and James receiving trophies and being named

USA - The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) approved a change in its regulation that now permits operation of Wireless Multichannel Audio Systems (WMAS) in the United States.
WMAS is an advanced wireless microphone technology designed to meet the challenges of highly demanding live performance and studio applications. Compared to conventional wireless microphone systems, WMAS offers higher spectral efficiency – the ability to transmit more audio channels within a limited block of radio frequency (RF) spectrum – as well as greater interference protection to other wireless services that share the same spectrum.
In her statement during the Open Commission Meeting, chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel pointed out, “Unless you’re in video and audio production, the odds are you haven’t thought much about wireless microphones. But they’re everywhere. […] So when

UK - Bluesound Professional has appointed Sound Technology, a Midwich Group company, to grow the brand’s reach in the UK and Ireland. The appointment takes effect immediately.
“We are very proud to represent Bluesound Professional as its unique endpoint streaming solutions are cutting edge for this industry,” says Alison Charters, business manager, Sound Technology. “The versatility of the solutions it offers will help our network of integrators grow their businesses by creating new revenue streams while also cutting costs.”
“Sound Technology have such deep roots in the commercial A/V sector with an excellent network of experienced integrators,” adds Graeme Harrison, vice-president and general manager of Bluesound Professional. “We look forward to seeing the kinds of interesting and novel installations that our products will be used in.”

Qatar - On 12 January 2024, Qatar hosted the opening ceremony of the AFC Asian Cup at the 88,000-capacity Lusail Stadium, the largest stadium in the Middle East. The ceremony comprised a full-size stage in midfield with a set featuring sand dunes, colourful costumes, and visuals around a central motif of giant mirrored petals.
Simultaneously broadcast internationally across the Middle East, Asia and Australasia, the 21-minute visual extravaganza, Mirrors, The Lost Chapter from the Book of Kelileh Wa Demneh, was ‘a triumph of theatrical story-telling’. It was struck in just 27 minutes by 700 stage hands, in choreography as coordinated as the performers who preceded them, before the first match of the tournament kicked off.
“It was like Superbowl on steroids,” says lighting designer, Roland Greil who, brought in by design and production agency, Sila Sveta

UK - PLASA is running an industry-wide survey on sustainability. The association aims to understand how and if companies across the entertainment technology sector are tackling the important issue of sustainability and carbon reduction.
The survey was launched during the Member Business Forum on Sustainability and Carbon Reduction, which took place in London on 18 January 2024. However, the survey is now open to the wider industry until 29 March, in partnership with #WeMakeEvents, LSi, LIVE and PEARLE.
Even though there are no current legal requirements in the UK to implement such plans, PLASA recognises the importance of sustainability across the industry and the need for support. Therefore, the association is now conducting research to understand the current position of the industry. The data will help to inform the activities of the association, as well as future in

UK - Area Four Industries UK has appointed Theresa Gibson to the newly created role of head of marketing.
After four years as head of marketing for Robe Lighting UK, she brings extensive experience across the sector.
This new appointment represents ‘a strategic pillar’ for the business as Area Four Industries approaches its 30-year anniversary, providing a pivotal support function to the UK sales team, working closely with HQ in Czech Republic, and its major global manufacturing divisions, international colleagues and extensive brand portfolio.
Area Four Industries UK’s managing director, Glen Brown says: “I am excited to welcome Theresa Gibson to the A4iUK team. Her wealth of marketing experience and passion for exceptional service levels, synergies and connections within our core industries will help steer the business into its next chapter. Theresa wil

UK - Specialist lighting controls manufacturer, Pharos Architectural Controls, has joined the Q-SYS Technology Partner Programme. This programme enables software and hardware technology partners to create market-ready solutions that integrate seamlessly with Q-SYS, a cloud-manageable audio, video and control platform.
As part of the programme, key products from the Pharos range have been verified and endorsed by Q-SYS, following plugin integration with a Q-SYS Ready badge.
Pharos Designer and Pharos Expert will integrate with Q-SYS to provide integration with its ‘architainment’ and show control system for advanced installation through Q-SYS and Expert’s DMX control.
Pharos Designer is the company’s original, award-winning range, which now boasts a wide range of controllers to suit any DMX, eDMX and DALI lighting project, as well as comprehensive show co

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