UK - The ABTT’s first Make A Difference conference took place at the Albany Theatre on Friday 21 April, 2023, and the association has now announced the release of the conference’s full report.
70 industry delegates from across the country and a range of companies, venues, organisations and institutions were in attendance to discuss the industry’s current recruitment and retention challenges. The report outlines the issues which were discussed and the actions that were suggested. It also reports on some things that have already happened as a result of the conference day.
The “conference day was developed in order to find a way to better host and join-up some of the thinking that was happening throughout the year in ABTT seminars and at the ABTT Theatre Show. It was also intended that the conference would not only further nurture these discussions but would also

Mexico - Myst is a colourful cabaret-style musical megamix encapsulating some of Mexico’s rich and vibrant musical culture and history over two hours - split into two acts - staged at the Foro Totalplay in Mexico City.
At the centre of the show’s lighting since it has been at this venue are 60 x Robe Spikies and 30 x Spiider LED wash beam moving lights. These were specified by lighting designer Juan Ignacio Adriano who is also the technical director of música esencial at Foro Totalplay.
This story began back in 2017 when Myst needed a new resident venue after being forced to move from the previous one, Sala Corona, which was damaged in the devasting 2017 earthquake.
Foro Totalplay, inside the upscale Antara Mall in the Polanco district of CDMX, was designed as a 400-capacity club rather than a theatre or even a cabaret venue, explained Juan Ig

UAE - Dubai’s newest luxury hotel, Atlantis The Royal offers 795 guest rooms, plus 17 on-site restaurants. Ears are not forgotten, as throughout the hotel’s common areas the sonic environments are reproduced by more than 400 discreetly placed Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers.
Thrusting up from Dubai’s elegant Palm Jumeriah, and surrounded by the waters of the Persian Gulf, Atlantis The Royal opened early in 2023. The developers of the hotel, Investment Corporation of Dubai, made it clear to all parties involved that only the highest standards of excellence should be considered in the selection of vendors. This brief was communicated to the media consultant, Mediatech, and the firm’s principal consultant on the project, Ged King.
Because the audio systems could in no way intrude on the visual aesthetics, for the restaurants and most common areas, Mediatech

USA - The 2023 CMT Music Awards moved from Nashville to Austin this year. The three-hour event, which was broadcast on CBS, radiated a fresh, vibrant energy that instantly captured attention with its distinctive colour schemes, boldly outlined stage, and dramatic catwalks.
Tom Kenny, who created the lighting design for the event at The Moody Centre, credits the change of venue with inspiring him, production designer Ann Brahic, and the rest of their team to reach deep into their creative wells to come up with their bold, and highly original, looks.
“The whole process of moving to the hip city of Austin gave us all a big hit of adrenalin,” said Kenny. “Everyone jumped in to have fun and worked hard at getting the show into a great place. We began the week outdoors, at the stage off Congress, with a big show by Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban that put the whole ci

Dominican Republic - IVM Multieventos, a company with over 20 years of experience in the industry based in the Dominican Republic, has chosen DiGiCo as their preferred brand. As one of the earliest adopters of the Quantum 338, the company has solidified its position as a leading player in the event industry in the Caribbean.
Owner, Ivan Abreu, began pursuing his dream of working in the music industry at a very young age, starting as a DJ. Since forming IVM, the company has experienced significant growth, overcoming barriers by organising large-scale events nationwide. Some of the Caribbean’s most renowned artists, such as Romeo Santos and Juan Luis Guerra, are part of its portfolio.
“Throughout our extensive journey in the industry, we had never had the opportunity to use products from the renowned DiGiCo brand,” says Ivan. “However, once we ventured into explo

UK - The ABTT is inviting people to sign up and participate in its Work Life Challenge initiative. It’s a challenge designed to “encourage us to prioritise time for activities that allow us to wind down from the stresses and strains of our working life, while also providing a focus and incentive for raising money for our much-loved industry charities: Backup Tech, The Theatrical Guild and Stagehand”.
The aim of the challenge is to encourage us to consider and promote a better attitude towards achieving a healthy balance between our work and other “life” activities that help us to unwind and get away from the pressures of our career. Consider starting a walking group; get together with others that run; start a weekly yoga practice before shows; baking; crafting; anything you like but make sure it’s fun and that it makes you smile.
There are two options to s

USA - Las Vegas-based Show & Design Group (SDG) has made its first investment in Ayrton lighting fixtures with the purchase of 24 Diablo S units. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton products in North America.
SDG offers live event production and lighting rentals; a complete trucking division, SDG Logistics, Inc., is targeted at expedited entertainment logistics.
“The purchase of 24 Diablo S fixtures is our introduction to Ayrton, although we have been aware of the brand since they launched MagicPanels,” says project manager, Lew Aronoff. “Our core business is trade shows and corporate theatre, and we’ve seen Diablos become very prevalent in the cross-rental market. Our B2B partners run short of 20K lumen fixtures on a regular basis, so we decided to invest in Diablos since we needed more fixtures of that size. Their size and weight-to-o

USA - Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty’s musical comedy Seussical, based on the works of the famed Dr. Seuss, is filled with an abundance of exuberant characters, from Yertle the Turtle and Gertrude McFuzz, to Sour Kangaroo and the Wickersham Brothers, The Cat in the Hat, and The Grinch.
Lighting such colourful characters is fun! Ask Christopher Robin, who used layered effects and a variety of light angles to bring them and their imaginative costumes to life at a recent West Hempfield High School production of the play.
“This was just a really enjoyable experience,” said Robin. “The costumes were magnificent, and the set was beautifully painted. Within the set itself, the whole spectrum of colour was used. The giant story book on stage gave me free reign to use any colour to capture the palette on the pages of Dr. Seuss’s many children books.”
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ALC NetworX, developer of the Ravenna Audio-over-IP technology has welcomed Peavey to the Ravenna community. Under its Commercial Audio brand, Peavey offers an entire range of products from the microphone to the loudspeaker, and every link in the signal chain in between.
Under the Ravenna partnership, Peavey has developed sNET - a single IP-based network infrastructure technology which will work at the core of their future MediaMatrix products. sNET is based on Ravenna, the broadcast industry’s de facto AoIP standard, featuring low latency, fully synchronised signal transparency and highest reliability - all while ensuring broad interoperability through its compatibility with AES67 and SMPTE ST 2110 standards.
According to Peavey Commercial Audio general manager, Shayne Thomas, joining the Ravenna community was a natural move. “Adopting Ravenna is part of our vision and

UK - This year, Black Skull Creative, in collaboration with its sister company Black Skull Studio and Marvin Dietmann, was entrusted with the task of creating nine distinct country performances for this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.
From content design and choreography to production design and stage direction, Black Skull Creative covered all aspects of creative direction and production from ideation to completion.
"As the co-creative director of nine Eurovision countries, overseeing such a massive task was undeniably challenging,” says Ross Nicholson of Black Skull Creative. “However, it was also an immensely rewarding experience. Eurovision provided a platform for untapped creativity and we, at Black Skull Creative, seized that opportunity to infuse our creatives with a sense of boundless imagination and fun.
“The Eurovision stage became

UK - Through a mix of live performances and puppetry, The Peter Rabbit Easter Adventure is an immersive theatrical experience that brings to life the stories and characters of Beatrix Potter.
Taking place at London’s Covent Garden, audiences are transported back in time as they help Beatrix herself rescue Jemima Paddle-Duck from the clutches of Mr McGregor, with the help of Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit. The show features a lighting design by Sean Gleason who approached White Light (WL) to supply his lighting equipment.
When it came to lighting the show, Sean comments: “My role on The Peter Rabbit Easter Adventure was mainly to bring found and adapted spaces to life, help set the scene, as well as bring focus to certain moments. The play has a mix of actors interacting with puppets and puppeteers so light needed to play a large role in not only crea

Canada - AVL Media Groupand Wharfedale Pro have extended their distribution agreement to now include Canada. The change is with immediate effect.
The agreement, which was previously exclusive to the USA, now makes AVL Media Group the authorised distributor for Wharfedale Pro products throughout North America. As a result of this expansion, customers in Canada will now benefit from improved technical support, training, and product availability.
The AVL and Wharfedale Pro teams will showcase their latest offerings at the upcoming InfoComm Show in Orlando, Florida from 14-16 June.

Europe - As of 1 July 2023, QSC will take over direct distribution for all QSC Pro Audio portfolio in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This approach will give QSC Pro Audio customers “unrivalled access and support” from the recently opened European Service Centre in the QSC Netherlands office, says the company.
Algam will remain responsible for the distribution of QSC Pro Audio in France and the Nordics. “We would like to thank Algam for their support in distributing the QSC Pro Audio portfolio in Benelux and look forward to our continued partnership in France (including Maghreb) and the Nordics,” says Perry Celia, vice president, global sales and service, QSC Pro Audio.

USA - Last fall, Darkroom Creative enlisted Elation Smarty Hybrid moving heads on Walker Hayes' Glad You’re Here Tour as a multifunctional workhorse on the country star’s first headlining arena tour. Currently out on his follow-up Duck Buck Tour, the design firm has again turned to the compact moving head as the only hard-edged fixture in the rig.
“It met all the needs and continues to carry far more of a workload than you think a fixture of that size could accomplish,” stated Seth Jackson, partner at Darkroom Creative, of the CMY colour-mixing hybrid moving head. Darkroom Creative is again handling lighting design, set design, video production and content for the 2023 outing with lighting supply by Bandit Lites.
Limited in both crew and truck space on last fall’s tour, the set and lighting rig for Glad You’re Here was understandably restricted. Now, howe

USA - The ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest, the event where manufacturers and developers test their lighting products for interoperability, is scheduled to take place from 5-8 October 2023 at the Marriott Dallas/Fort Worth in Westlake, Texas. This is the 19th instance of this informal testing laboratory. Attendance is free for both ESTA members and non-members.
In response to feedback from last year’s event, the Control Protocols Working Group (CPWG) and Plugfest organisers have announced that Plugfest 2023 will expand from three days to four days. The CPWG’s task group meeting schedule now provides additional time for evening Plugfest activities.
ESTA’s Plugfest is an opportunity to connect your lighting products with those of other manufacturers to test and resolve compatibility challenges. Attendees from around the world bring controllers, intelligent lights,

UK - Tim Routledge, lighting designer for Eurovision Song Contest 2023, utilised a large complement of 194 x Claypaky Sharpy-X-Frames, 126 x Scenius Unicos, 40 x Hy B-EYE K25s, 12 x Sharpy Plus Aqua and 12 x ReflectXions to illuminate the set, whose embracing design had special significance this year.
The ESC took place in Liverpool after Ukraine, the winner of the 2022 contest, was unable to meet the demands of hosting the 2023 event. The three live shows, two semi-finals and the grand finale, were presented by British and Ukrainian hosts and featured 37 participating countries.
The stage design by New York set designer Julio Himede was based on “the principles of togetherness, celebration and community”, a sentiment with poignancy considering international solidarity with Ukraine. The stage was 450 sq.m and featured 220sq.m of independently rotating LED screens

Italy - Following his success in the United States and Europe, Diodato, winner of the Sanremo Festival 2020, returns to Italy for a tour that will take him around Italian clubs for the whole of summer 2023. The singer-songwriter has already performed in famous clubs in Turin, Milan, Padua and Bologna, where his new single If You Want Me, the soundtrack to Diabolik - Ginko all'attack! was hugely successful.
The performances were illuminated by lighting designer Andrea ‘Bobo’ Amadei, who opted for 10 Ayrton Diablo S fixtures, six of which were positioned on vertical trusses as backlight and four positioned on the musicians' platforms.
“After a very interesting meeting in Molpass I was struck by Diablo’s optics and its internal effects and I decided to use them for the first time,” says Amadei.
“The concept of the tour was an imaginary gard

Australia - Taking place from mid-February to early March, WorldPride is a global LGBTQIA+ festival that has been staged since 2000, with cities vying to be chosen as the host. Licensed by InterPride, this year's WorldPride took place in Sydney, making it the first-ever host city in the Southern Hemisphere.
The event showcased more than 200 celebrations of queerness and diversity on the world stage, which included the popular Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) events. A range of other festival events were also on offer including arts, sports, theatre, concerts, parties, and First Nations programming.
Notable performers such as Kylie Minogue, Kelly Rowland, MUNA, and Charli XCX graced the stage. Novatech Creative Event Technology, one of Australia's leading audio-visual production companies, supported the festival by providing an LED screen setup that was powere

Australia - Located in Chippendale’s Central Park Mall, Fortress Sydney is a gamer’s haven. The expansive new site now holds the title of largest esports complex in the Southern Hemisphere, drawing crowds as a modern entertainment mecca. Housing a slew of colourful arcades, streaming booths, a themed tavern, sci-fi inspired bar, PC LAN lounge and a colossal custom-designed esports arena, Fortress Sydney has been designed from the ground up as the unparalleled capitol of the city’s gaming community.
Sponsored by high-end PC gaming titan Alienware, Fortress is by nature, a hub for the tech-savvy. Packed with a myriad of elite gaming PCs, peripherals and addressable lighting, the word ‘performance’ was on the lips of every supplier involved in the project. Faced with providing a loudspeaker solution befitting of such a technological pedigree, The Avit Group selected N

UK - SLX has announced that applications are now open for its 2023/24 Lighting Programme. SLX’s Lighting Programme exists to nurture creativity, drive collaboration, build connections and break down the barriers that prevent new talent from entering into the industry.
Built upon SLX’s Student Bursary scheme, this programme provides hands-on training, exclusive workshops delivered by leading manufacturers and exposure to on-site client projects with industry professionals. Now in its fourth year, the Lighting Programme provides students with an even deeper understanding of the technical aspects around event lighting, production and operations.
As part of the programme, students also gain access to a like-minded community of professionals comprising this year's cohorts, and also established specialists from within the industry. With networking set as a key pillar of

UAE - Expanding its reach into the Middle East, Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) has announced GSL Professional as its newest distributor in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region as well as Egypt.
“We are thrilled about our partnership with EAW,” says Fouad Fowzi, CEO of GSL Professional. “EAW's combination of innovative design, strong customer relationships, ongoing product development and commitment to quality and performance will be key to its success in this highly competitive market. Together, we will continue to deliver exceptional sound solutions to our clients in the GCC region and Egypt.”
Further investing in EAW’s regional customers, GSL offers a dedicated service centre located in Dubai to support clients and ensure a satisfactory after-sales experience. The centre handles a variety of maintenance, repair and support services. Additional support c

Columbia - Martin Audio has announced the appointment of Avcom Colombia as its new distributor for that territory. Negotiations with CEO, Camilo Aranguren, first began with Martin Audio - along with sister company Optimal Audio -at the ISE Show in Barcelona at the beginning of this year.
“We were already a partner of [Martin Audio parent company] Focusrite in Colombia, and know the technical advances Martin Audio has made,” stated Mr. Aranguren. “We have a strong position in the entertainment technology industry and knew the brand would be a perfect addition to our distribution portfolio."
The Avcom CEO comments: “Martin Audio is a ‘green field’ as far as Colombia is concerned. The brand is known but the opportunity to develop it is huge. The business model is beneficial for both parties.”
In particular, he predicts Wavefront Precision optimised li

Australia - At Vivid Sydney 2023, visitors will be able to discover, a whole new way of experiencing immersive, super-sized light and animations with their own personalised cinematic quality audio’.
The Cinewav innovation, means spectators can fully appreciate the aural design of Vivid Sydney artworks from anywhere: on the water, from across the harbour, from the top of a building and more.
Cinewav is a patented technology that allows users to listen to a clear, crisp soundtrack on their smartphone in-sync with a public show.
For Lighting of the Sails: Life Enlivened 2023 by John Olsen and Curiious at Sydney Opera House, Fabio Nardo, creative director at creative technologist Curiious comments, “Curiious are always exploring new trends in immersive communications. Large-scale animations tend to be purely visual. Cinewav gives us even greater cre

South Africa - DWR Distribution has expand its AV offering to include converters, rack mount modules and signal processors from Theatrixx Technologies.
While Theatrixx offers a wide range of products, DWR looks forward to selling and promoting its innovative and highly popular hardware based xPressCue media player, their video converters available as ruggedized standalone units or rack mountable modules, and of course working with Erik Guertin, the territory manager for Theatrixx Technologies.
“Given the importance of signal flow, we decided to bring in these units because of their stability, how robust they are, and because a lot relies on them,” commented Bruce Riley, who heads technical support and the workshop at DWR. “This is a very important piece of equipment and one often overlooked. It eliminates the need for unreliable IEC connectors and 12 Volt jack po

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