UK - The Llanerch Vineyard Hotel near Pontyclun in South Wales, with its beautiful surrounding grounds, is a popular venue, principally for weddings but also hosting conferences, corporate events, galas and parties.
A large marquee is a permanent fixture there and provides ample space for over 200 guests when required. In common with so many similar venues, the pandemic had caused a huge backlog of weddings and despite its rural location, the sudden rise in noise levels following reopening was causing some difficulties with nearby residents.
Spartan Audio Visual of Cardiff were approached to design, supply and commission an installed sound system that would meet all the various needs of a modern multi-purpose venue, yet also meet the noise control requirements of the a

UK - Since investing in a Nexo Geo M12 line array a couple of years back, Bluestone Audio is winning more and more mainstage jobs at festivals where they might previously have supplied systems for second or third stages.
A recent example is Lakefest which took place in August at the picturesque Eastnor Castle Deer Park in Herefordshire. The Bristol-based sound rental company has previously handled the VIP Gold Stage at the festival, but this year moved up to the mainstage, with headliners including UB40, Manic Street Preachers, Leftfield and Supergrass.
“This year’s Lakefest gig is typical of how our business is growing with the Geo M12 system,” says Bluestone owner Sam Brook. “And we’re building relationships with other Nexo-equipped rental companies like Total Sound Solutions from Swansea, who are partnering with us at this event.”
With an audience

Czech Republic - The majestic former Vítkovice steelworks in Ostrava again resonated with the music, and animated carnival atmosphere of the Colours of Ostrava festival.
The four-day 2022 event is the largest music festival in the Czech Republic and one of the most popular in Central Europe, presenting multiple stages and a diverse line-up of mixed-genre local and international talent.
Technical production – staging, rigging, lighting, sound, video, audio, stage management and all associated infrastructure – for 18 of the 19 stages was co-ordinated by Prague-based SMART Production, with a team led by Josef ‘Pepa’ Ženíšek, and a Robe moving light rig made impact on the Liberty Stage.
The Liberty Stage was full of Robe moving lights provided by rental specialist AV Media Events, and tech’d and run by Kamil Kruźík and Martin Nakládal.
When
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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.

USA - Verge Aero took Chicago’s famous Lollapalooza festival to new highs in July as 300 of the company’s custom-built drones danced high above the site to elevate the experience.
Acts as diverse as Dua Lipa, Metallica and J. Cole performed over the four-day event, which took place at the city’s Grant Park. It was the first time that drones formed part of the Lollapalooza spectacle, and Dua Lipa’s Friday night slot was the setting for the specially created Verge Aero drone show, which was staged in partnership with cellphone network company T-Mobile and Google Pixel phones.
“We actually launched the drone show over T-Mobile’s 5G network, using a Google Pixel phone,” reveals Verge Aero’s Mason Hayes, who designed the drone show using the company’s unique software and piloted the drones on the night. “We have a Verge Aero-created app that we can load

Austria - The annual Summer Night Concert (Das Sommernachtskonzert) by the Vienna Philharmonic at the illustrious Schönbrunn Palace is the second biggest show every year in Austria, only outdone by the orchestra’s renowned New Year's Concert. This year, lighting designer and director of photography Jerry Appelt used 280 Elation Proteus series luminaires to light the summer show for 80,000 spectators in the Palace Park plus a worldwide television audience of millions.
Appelt has been part of the event for five years, lighting the entire space for a live audience and camera, which includes the orchestra and stage, the majestic backdrop of Schönbrunn Palace, and the surrounding park. This year, the designer had 124 Proteus Maximus, 92 Proteus Excalibur, and 64 Proteus Rayzor 760 at his disposal.
Over the years, the event has transitioned to more and more IP65-rated

Europe - KV2 Audio has announced the launch of the 500 series range of processors which, for the first time, are available directly from KV2’s online store at https://shop.kv2audio.com/
The range comprises three models; the TCL thermo-compressor/limiter; the QD8 stereo 8-band master EQ with line driver; and the MPA microphone preamplifier.
The TCL is an analogue thermo audio compressor featuring a superior natural RMS detector and dynamic voice bass enhancement control. Its patented design offers ‘an exceptionally musical and natural compression that is a component part of its real-time input, rather than a typical side-fed gain reduction circuit attempting to either follow or anticipate compression demands’.
QD8 is a George Krampera 8-band stereo equaliser specifically designed to highlight a desired band without adversely affecting the overall sonic lands

Europe - Yamaha Corporation has announced two new additions to its professional audio line-up with the Stagepas 1K mkII portable PA system and the DXL1K powered loudspeaker.
Featuring a high frequency array of 10 1.5” speakers and a compact, powerful 12" bass reflex subwoofer, all driven by a powerful Class-D amplifier, Stagepas 1K is an all-in-one portable PA system that delivers professional audio performance from a small footprint and slimline vertical profile, with fast and simple setup. Now, enhanced sound and control features in the new mkII version make it even more flexible and powerful.
With a coverage area of 170° (horizontal) by 30° (vertical), Stagepas 1K delivers uniform, high-quality sound throughout an audience. The onboard digital mixer offers extensive input capabilities, with three channels of mono microphone/line inputs, plus stereo inputs, as w
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BikeFest Spain 2025 - Join the ride!

BikeFest Spain is set to return for its fourth consecutive year, inviting cyclists from across the industry to join the 360km ride towards ISE in Barcelona. From 31 January to 2 February 2025, riders will again rally in Valencia, cycling along the Mediterranean coast in support of industry causes.
For more information and to sign up, visit: www.joinbikefest.com

UK - Brompton Technology will be joining leading specialist display and trade-only rental company, PSCo, at the PLASA Show at Olympia London (stand G21). Brompton’s LED processing will be showcased as part of PSCo’s new virtual production offering for the live events industry, alongside other solutions from Absen, Aluvision, Barco, disguise, and Epson.
This year’s PLASA Show for entertainment technology will bring technological advancements from the worlds of audio, AV, lighting, rigging and staging, attracting some 3,000 rental companies and event professionals and 200+ international brands. Representing the company’s largest presence at the show to date, PSCo will occupy 56sqm of floor space, reinforcing its commitment to supporting the live event and entertainment market.
The star attraction of the stand will be a live xR stage to demonstrate the possibiliti

UK - Artistic Licence is exhibiting at PLASA London, Stand D15. This year the company will be showing products across all its main areas of expertise, including splitters, gateways, control interfaces, test equipment and dimming technology.
Entered for the Innovation Awards is the Micro-Scope 3c upgrade kit - a low-cost item that scores highly in the sustainability category. The kit contains a microprocessor chip that allows any Artistic Licence Micro-Scope DMX tester to be updated to the latest specification – most significantly adding RDM support. Artistic Licence started selling these testers nearly 30 years ago and there are many in active service today. The addition of RDM support (via a simple chip replacement that the customer can carry out) means they should be good for another few decades
On a lighter note, Artistic Licence is holding a competition at the s

UK - ETC is set to return to Olympia London for the 2022 PLASA Show from the 4-6 September with the latest product innovations and seminars. The team will be on stand B29 to catch up and network with customers and visitors at the tradeshow.
ETC will present a variety of its newest entertainment fixtures and controls including its latest line of consoles: Eos Apex. This powerful, next generation of lighting control offers cutting-edge technology, a variety of new features, award-winning software and more.
The latest High End Systems moving lights will also be showcased at the PLASA Show, including the newly launched SolaPix 19 XT, an exterior rated version of the most popular SolaPix fixture, the compact Lonestar framing fixture, and the silent fanless SolaFrame Studio.
Visitors to ETC’s stand will also be able to explore the X8 array in the new Source Four LED

South Africa - Noot vir Noot (Note for Note), a long-running popular and successful Afrikaans language TV music-based games show produced by Stemmburg TV and broadcast on SABC 2 has returned to screens after a two-year break due to Covid, with edition 40 featuring a slightly reimagined version of the new set designed by Michael Gill and built by SDS for the fully visually revamped 2019 season.
Lighting is again designed by Ryan Lombard from Blond Productions – the company also supplying the lighting kit – and he specified Robe Esprites for the first time on this show, together with two of his trusty favourite moving lights, the Robe LEDWash 300 and the miniPointe.
The series was filmed at Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg, and while some features remained constant from the last edition, the set lighting and video are now fully integrated, and Ryan

USA - When officials at the La Crosse Centre in Wisconsin were looking to replace the venue’s aging PA system as part of a $42m dollar renovation, the task of finding a sound system capable of handling today’s complex audio demands while delivering unrivalled clarity was given to operations manager Kris Salzwedel and his team. Salzwedel found the solution he was looking for with a custom Radius RSX Series PA from Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW).
Located in the heart of downtown La Crosse’s riverfront district, the La Crosse Centre hosts conventions, meetings, trade shows, concerts, weddings and sporting events that welcome hundreds of thousands of attendees each year. Built in 1980, the centre was recently expanded to include the South Hall.
“We chose to install EAW’s RSX PA system in our 21,000sq.ft arena because the system checked all the boxes,” says Salzw

UK - Adam King captured the powerful, punchy and uplifting spirit of the musical Legally Blonde when lighting a recent Franny Rafferty directed production of the Olivier Award winning musical at Mountview’s The Mack Theatre.
“Given the nature of the story, vibrant pink was the major colour theme for Elle Woods, so it was important that we be able to transition to it when necessary,” he said. “However, we also had to lean away from this palette when the scenes were not so linked to the character in order to make it more effective.”
At its core, Legally Blonde is a story of transitions. In this Mountview production, Elle’s transformative journey is supported by well-timed and placed lighting changes that King executes with a rig anchored by Chauvet Professional Ovation fixtures.
“There were lots of different locations that we needed to

UK – Multi-genre English musician Jacob Collier is back on the road for a grand world tour to celebrate his DJESSE album series. The show features an energetic lighting design harnessing the rich colours of the VL2600 range of luminaires from Vari-Lite.
The design was put together by Luke Edwards, specification sales specialist at Signify. Edwards, who was a full-time lighting designer before joining Signify earlier this year, took the opportunity to push the boundaries of his lighting design dynamism, to match five-time Grammy Award-winning Collier’s enthusiastic performing style.
“Jacob’s concerts are as much about the audience as they are about him and I find working with him hugely inspiring,” says Edwards. “His high-energy approach to every moment is infectious and I wanted to create a design that would reflect that and embrace the natural colou

USA - San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival, presented by Another Planet Entertainment and co-producer Superfly, returned to Golden Gate Park 5-7 August, with headliners including SZA, Green Day, and Post Malone. This year, a Meyer Sound Panther large-format linear line array loudspeaker system powered the Lands End main stage, provided by Bay Area rental company UltraSound, LLC.
While previous generations of Meyer Sound systems have been in place at the Lands End main stage since the festival’s inception in 2008, this year marks the first edition with the new Panther loudspeaker. Although it was introduced just six months prior to Outside Lands, Panther was welcomed by visiting engineers who were mixing on the new system for the first time.
“Overall feedback was positive, and engineers had a fun time mixing on the system,” says UltraSound senior systems engin

UK - Solotech has announced the appointment of Lee Unsworth as director of UK operations – live productions, working out of the group’s Manchester office.
In this new role, Lee will oversee the day-to-day running of the company’s live productions operations at the five warehouse locations in Manchester, Redditch, Hemel Hempstead, London and Southampton. Lee first joined the group as operations manager for the Manchester office in June 2019 before stepping up to the role of general manager.
Lee Unsworth commented, “I’m looking forward to taking on this expanded role. Since becoming part of the Solotech group we have sought to standardise and integrate our processes across the UK operations and this position is key to delivering on that promise. I look forward to maintaining and extending our hire inventory to meet the demand of our clients, while overseeing o

UK - Martin Audio has announced the appointment of Henry Packard as its new finance director.
Henry had previously been financial controller at parent company Focusrite. He said the drive to fill the vacant position, following the departure of his predecessor Steve Miller, had become more pressing with the growth of Martin Audio and the launch of sister brand Optimal Audio. “As Dom [Harter, Martin Audio MD] and Sally [McKone, Group CFO] are in regular discussion the move came about quite organically,” he said.
“An internal move is great for the company and generally for everyone involved. I’ve effectively had a six-year interview process to prove myself with Focusrite, so it was a lovely surprise to be told I was being considered. There was no way I could let the opportunity pass, and after a few further chats with Sally and Dom, it seemed like a great match al

UK - This year marks the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and in honour of the historical anniversary, the UK is holding several events celebrating her 70-year reign. At The Royal Windsor Horse Show in May, Elation Professional had its own workhorse on display albeit not of the equine variety. PRG provided a full lighting rig for the event that incorporated 171 Elation Proteus Maximus IP65-rated LED moving heads as the key luminaire in the design.
The challenges of creating a dramatic and theatrical lighting rig on an arena scale with a daily horse show running concurrently are vast, but PRG has a long and successful history with the event and has provided lighting rigs for the illustrious equestrian show for over 12 years.
This year, the company made the decision to update to a more sustainable LED option and much needed waterproof protection. Richard Gorrod, v

The Netherlands - Genelec has further strengthened its growing AV business by appointing Audio XL as its distribution partner for the entire Genelec AV Installation range throughout the Benelux region. Audio XL’s appointment also deepens the relationship between Genelec and the European AV Group.
Founded in 2004 and based in Utrecht, the Audio XL team specialises in the live, retail and installed sound markets and combines exceptional levels of sales and marketing expertise, technical knowledge and system design – all backed up by a premium quality logistics operation.
With a separate showroom in Antwerp, Belgium, and two independent sales teams, Audio XL is well equipped to handle the entire region and its various language requirements. It is the distributor for several leading brands, including AV system automation and integration solution providers such as AMX a

USA - Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Marco Lopez as the company’s VP of engineering. Marco brings 30 years of experience in the broadcast market to his role at Clear-Com, where he will spearhead innovation across key strategic areas related to product development, including strengthening the company’s leadership in wireless technology and advancing its IP-based intercom solutions.
Over the past three decades, Marco has contributed to significant movements in broadcast technology. In the mid-2000s, he played a key role in the transformation of analog to digital signals with Miranda Technologies and helped develop the Active Format Description (AFD) standard that defined aspect ratio control between standard and high-definition broadcasting. After Miranda Technologies was acquired by Belden, Marco was appointed president and tasked with leading the acquisition

Germany - The current system update of DirectOut’s Prodigy series gives the devices another boost in meeting the requirements of the market. For the modular audio converter Prodigy.MC and the multifunctional audio processor Prodigy.MP the Automator Licence is now available.
With Automator it is possible to programme triggers to run tasks in an automated way. Triggers can be coming from different sources, such as parameter or status changes in the device itself, a MIDI or OSC command from an external device, a cron job (periodically recurring trigger) or can be created based on time (e.g. LTC).
Device actions such as gains, mutes, snapshot recalls, input manager switches and EARSTM source selection or GPOs can be triggered. And it is also possible to send custom defined messages via OSC and MIDI, or to hosts via HTTP, UDP, TCP commands.
Taking into account th

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