Poland - In the city centres and main squares of many Polish towns and cities, visitors will come upon a multi-purpose building known locally as a ‘culture house’. Like many of these structures, which date back to the 1960s, Arts and Culture Centre Oskard in Konin was beginning to show its age.
A renaissance has now taken place in this centre thanks to a renovation project run by the Arts and Culture Centre Oskard's Arts Council and Committee. A key part of this rejuvenation was the installation of two all-new lighting rigs, one for each of the centre’s stages.
The council did careful research, visiting trades shows and consulting with local installation specialist, LTT, which distributes Chauvet Professional products in Poland.
In the end, Chauvet Professio

UK - AED Audio supported a student music showcase, What’s Going On at The BRIT School in Croydon, South London which is funded by the British Record Industry Trust. Its alumni include artists such as Adele, Jessie J and Amy Winehouse.
What’s Going On was a showcase of protest music in a variety of eclectic styles, all performed and written by current year 12 music students.
The concert took place in the School’s Obie Theatre, which AED Audio provided with a range of equipment to help bring the student’s creations to life. This included two line arrays consisting of eight FLEX6 speakers and one SOLID15 low cabinet/subwoofer, as well as a ground stack of SOLID28 and SOLID15 subs with a FLEX6 in point source to provide infill to each side. The AED Audio system integrated seamlessly with the Obie Theatre’s existing Dante network, meaning it could o

USA - Tallowood Baptist Church, in the Memorial City neighbourhood of West Houston, replaced an aging mixing console at front-of-house with a Solid State Logic Live L350 in recent months. The installation was part of ongoing upgrades at the church that also includes construction of a new video and audio control room, new audio and video equipment and wider implementation of a network infrastructure.
When the choir and the musicians returned to the church after the initial lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, they all wore masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and, not surprisingly, it sounded like it. “It was really hard to get intelligibility and clarity,” Tallowood’s director of technology, Miguel Ortiz, says. Then the church replaced the old desk with a new SSL Live L350. “The choir was still wearing masks when we switched the console - and it sounded as if
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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 - DJ Deorro played two shows at the Hollywood Palladium in early July and electrified the sold-out crowds using a lighting rig that included Elation’s multi-functional Smarty Hybrid CMY colour mixing moving head as the main moving effect light. The atmosphere at the 4,000-capacity venue both nights was raging, reflecting the EDM community’s excitement to be back live, as well as the hype around the artist’s new album Orro which was released just days before.
“The Smartys were an excellent choice because they can move as fast as a typical beam fixture, but also provide all the core attributes a spot fixture has to offer,” said Lorcan Clarke of the full-featured 11,000-lumen moving heads. Clarke served as lighting director, programmer and operator on the shows, coordinating 12 Smarty's on the downstage floor plus another 12 on the downstage overhead truss

USA - Veteran audio engineers Ross Landis and Andrew Crow had the opportunity to demo an Allen & Heath dLive system earlier this year. “You can do basically anything, and set it up how you want,” recalled Landis. When it came time to tour with Grammy-nominated rock group Nothing More, the pair opted to each bring along a dLive S5000 surface - one at front of house, and one for monitors.
Both Landis and Crow appreciated how many user-defined SoftKeys were available to them on the large format 28-fader dLive surface. “I was able to use those for mute groups, stopping and starting my recordings, FX controls, and even selecting certain channels that aren’t always visible on my fader banks” noted Landis. “To be able to mix how I want to mix without having to navigate through layers - that was huge.”
Their system incorporated a DM64 MixRack, which features

UK - Japanese-born singer-songwriter, model, and actress Rina Sawayama, released her debut album during lockdown on the Dirty Hit Label to favourable reviews, from ‘strongest album of the year’ (Elton John) to ‘something truly beautiful’ (NPR).
In support of the album, Patchwork London was selected by Rina’s management / record label to record live video shoots during the lockdown period, providing monitoring and multi-track recording, which led to Patchwork being asked to support the UK tour, followed by her biggest show to date at Roundhouse and ultimately the NME Awards 2022 show.
With lots of energetic choreography and dancing, on her first large scale tour, a premium wireless microphone system was a necessity. Patchwork London’s touring director and Rina’s production manager / FOH engineer, Calum Mordue selected the Shure Axient Digital Wireless Sys

Singapore – This summer, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) returned to the Southeast Asian city island for the first time in two years. Titled The Anatomy of Performance - Ritual, the event featured over 70 performances staged at seven sites and venues, all designed by creative designers in various performance art disciplines. Opening the festival with a performance in a defunct power station, SIFA presented the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound provided by J5 Productions.
The Singapore Chinese Orchestra, together with the Tuyang Initiative, a Sarawak-based creative agency that focuses on the cultural heritage of indigenous Borneans, opened the festival with their performance of Mepaan. In the language of the Kayan peoples of Borneo, mepaan means ‘always’ and the performance was a sonic and visual voyage through the
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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

UAE - Creative Technology (CT) has announce a further two additions to its live team in the Middle East.
Joshua Spencer has joined the company as a crew operations manager. Joshua is responsible for the management of the crew bookings where he utilises his extensive knowledge on management of people to ensure every event has the right calibre of people assigned.
Spencer comments, “I feel very privileged and proud to be able to call CTME my new home. It’s so evident to see that everyone here shares the same vision and dedication to maintain the highest level of service. I am excited to develop this team and be part of CT’s growing vision.”
The company also welcomes Samantha Peltret who has joined as a projects co-ordinator. She has many years of experience within the Middle East and South Africa.
Pelteret comments, “It’s so great to be a part of

Finland - From Clash of Clans to the family favourite Hay Day and more recent releases such as Boom Beach and Brawl Stars, Supercell has become one of the most successful and profitable mobile gaming companies in the world. Now, Supercell has finally moved into their first custom-built offices in Helsinki – an impressive building named Wood City that has been designed from the ground up to represent the company culture and to encourage wellbeing and productivity
Nearly 500 Genelec loudspeakers have been integrated across the building, including some 300 Smart IP networked models.
Markus Haikonen is Head of AV and Broadcast at Supercell. “When we started to build the company’s new home, we needed to reimagine the spaces where we work,” he says. “We needed rock-solid AV project management, which is what Akukon did for us. We also ne

USA - Australian singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Tash Sultana is back out on tour for the first time in three years supporting the sophomore 2021 release, Terra Firma.
Following an initial 15-date jaunt across Europe and the UK in March and April, Sultana has just now completed a 32-show North American trek, which kicked off on in June in Las Vegas and wrapped up on 24 July in southern California. For the run, Nashville-based Worley Sound supplied the tour with its FOH and monitor control packages, both of which were built on DiGiCo Quantum338 consoles.
The current 2022 world tour finds Sultana morphing from a solo act to a full band setup for the first time.
“I started touring with Tash in 2017 and carried a DiGiCo SD11i system that I loved on many dates around the world for the solo years,” says Perth-based FOH engineer Sam Pe

UK - Immersive experience company Pixel Artworks has designed and created the immersive mindfulness experience Room to Breathe. Located in Outernet London, a new ‘immersive culture, media and music district’ at Tottenham Court Road, the sensory experience is based on the science of ‘box-breathing’. It aims to help anxious commuters and busy Londoners unwind and catch their breath throughout the day.
This experience has been masterminded by Pixel Artworks, harnessing the healing power of digital light and pixel technology, with original music written by Matthew Wilcock and guidance from trauma and anxiety consultant Jayne Cox.
Jayne comments: “Anxiety and stress often changes the way we breathe, with our breath often becoming rapid and shallow, resulting in heightened anxiety and becoming ‘stuck’ in a state of fight or flight. Learning and regularly impl

Europe - AV systems integrator and remote collaboration service provider Kinly has announced its entry into the DACH market, with the opening of offices in Germany and Switzerland.
The latest expansion increases Kinly’s office numbers to 20, across 12 countries, with operations being established in Zurich, Frankfurt and Berlin. Kinly works with more 2,500 customers and is backed by a team of more than 1,200 employees across EMEA, Americas and APAC.
Tom Martin, CEO at Kinly comments: “The DACH region is a thriving and growing market, and one which we have been looking to enter for some time.
“As times change, many businesses are looking to deploy or evolve the way they operate. AV/ UC, meeting and collaboration technology requires a specialist skillset. Kinly’s approach is anchored in customer success. Instead of starting with technology, we cooperate to

South Africa - Lighting designer Ryan Lombard decided that South Africa’s newest DSTV games show The Saturday Showdown was prime time for him to make the switch to an all grandMA3 – hardware and software – solution to run lighting and video graphical content!
The show was recorded at Urban Brew Studio 10 in Johannesburg, and produced by Red Pepper Productions for broadcaster Mzansi Magic, and designed as an action-packed sport-themed entertainment game show to keep fans enthralled on Saturday nights while the Local and Premier Leagues take their break.
Ryan specified a grandMA3 light as the main console for graphics and lighting, coupled with grandMA3 onPC running on a dedicated computer on the network accessed via a grandMA3 onPC command wing which was used to trigger all the reactive LX and AV cues as different sections of the games were played.
T


UK - Essex Sound & Light (ESL) has completed the acquisition of DPL Production Lighting.
AV integrator, ESL has been growing its rental and production business since early 2015. Since then, ESL has been providing full production support (including staging, sound, lighting and video) to numerous events and festivals throughout the UK. ESL has grown its rental stock, most recently with a large investment in IP-Rated LED video panels and processors.
DPL, founded in 1989 by Darren Parker, has offered professional lighting equipment, rigging and technical production services to the events and entertainment industries for over 30 years.
ESL managing director Mike Glover comments, "We are excited to bring the DPL name within the ESL Group. Darren Parker and DPL have an amazing amount of history and experience within the rental production market including supp

France - Opened in spring 2021, the Scène de Bayssan sits on a site near Béziers in south-west France which has a rich history going back 5,000 years over successive Greek, Roman and Gallic societies. More recently, the area hosted a circus, a fact that’s reflected in the Scène’s architecture. The new theatre complex features three spaces; the open-air Claude Nougaro amphitheatre which can accommodate 965 people seated or 1462 standing, the 432-seated / 1350 standing Michel Galabru theatre, and a small structure that houses reception facilities.
Offering a varied programme of perfoming arts, art exhibits and cultural events, Scène de Bayssan required an ultimately versatile sound system that could handily address the varied programme. The team chose L-Acoustics K, A and X Series, supplied by L-Acoustics partner, Du Show, to deliver both consistent audience coverage

UK - The Drum theatre is a flexible performance studio venue, forming a successful part of the Theatre Royal Plymouth (TRP) complex. A bijou 159-capacity space, it hosts a mix of house productions and also receives shows from established smaller scale touring theatre companies. The venue has recently undergone a full refurbishment including a premium sound system from EM Acoustics based on their flagship Reference Series loudspeakers.
TRP head of sound, Dan Mitcham explains that as part of the renovation process, he and his team were tasked with looking into how to improve the existing sound system. “We had a four-box set up of main L/R and surround L/R, but it didn’t cover the whole auditorium, and was also starting to show its age. We decided it was better to start again from scratch and put in a system worthy of the space.”
Mitcham continues, “We’ve always

UK - When Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts decided to bring a bold new actor-musician interpretation to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s musical adaption of the Stephen King classic Carrie, it was Mountview’s former head of lighting training, Louisa Smurthwaite, who worked with the students to create the visceral, yet retro lighting design. Keen to introduce fixtures that bought an era-reflecting feel to the classic story, yet still introduce the students to the latest lighting technology, Smurthwaite specified the VL5LED Wash luminaires by Vari-Lite, the originator of the modern moving head and a Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) entertainment lighting brand.
With a lighting design brief from show director Rich Fitch that specified ‘Stranger Things meets ‘80s horror gameshow,’ the scenic design, created by Sophia Pardon, was a torn-up school, ravaged by the

Eurovision - The Eurovision Song Contest will take place in the UK next year after show organisers decided it could not be held in the winning country, Ukraine. The ongoing war following February's Russian invasion prompted the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to look for an alternative host.
The UK's Sam Ryder came second this year, which prompted the EBU to open talks with the BBC last month. Several UK cities have already expressed interest in hosting. The UK has a number of places with suitable arenas, accommodation and international transport links, with London, Sheffield and Manchester already confirming that they will put in an official bid.
The bidding process to decide which city will host will begin this week. The BBC and the The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will consider all official approaches and will publish the longlist later this summer.
"We

UAE - Creative Technology Middle East has appointed Huw Godfrey as head of system integration.
Huw has professional experience in AV across both systems integration and live events within roles that encompass the full project lifecycle, including engineering, project, account and operations management. He has provided leadership in the design and implementation of multiple simultaneous national and international projects to support accountability, building transparency and collaboration across the project teams.
Over the years he has led teams on numerous high-profile projects including Bloomberg Walbrook Square, Russia World Cup, to the Palm Jumeriah launch party in the UAE.
Godfrey comments, “I am delighted to be returning to CT at what is an incredibly exciting times for both the SI division and the business as a whole. There is such fantastic growth in th

USA - Harman Professional Solutions has introduced the newest members of JBL Professional’s VTX line array series, the VTX A6 subcompact dual 6.5-inch passive line array element and the B15 compact, arrayable 15-inch subwoofer.
The A6 and B15 bring JBL’s acoustic technologies to compact form factors for small- to medium-size touring and fixed installations, providing versatile solutions for production companies, touring acts, rental houses, theatres, houses of worship and anyone who requires superior sonic performance in space-critical applications.
“When you choose the JBL VTX A Series, you’re building a complete ecosystem, with common acoustic profiles and rigging systems, consistent voicing and standardized system design and operational tools,” says George Georgallis, director, product management–performance audio at Harman Professional Solutions. “An

Germany - Wireless LED lighting manufacturer Astera has launched a new multi-lingual website optimised for all devices - www.astera-led.com
Astera sales director Sebastian Bückle explained that when the previous website was launched, they had three lighting fixtures and 10 accessories available. There are currently 11 Astera luminaires and an impressive 150 handy accessories, all of which now have their own pages complete with videos and downloads.
“Our objective was to empower our users by creating the smartest web page in the industry containing a mine of relevant information explaining products and answering all questions.”
The project was started during the Covid lockdowns when remote support became a vital service.
“With the live show and event industry back to full speed and more, we fully appreciate that technicians, gaffers, crew and desig

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