Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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UK - The end of April saw Blur release The Magic Whip, their first album for 12 years. To celebrate, the Britpop legends played two secret shows at London's Mode club, where a pair of DiGiCo SD10 consoles helped tame the acoustically tricky venue.

With both shows - one for friends and family, the other for 300 competition-winners - taking place at the Westbourne Park venue on the same day, monitor engineer Dave Guerin, Front of House man Matt Butcher and PA tech James 'Kedge' Kerridge had a very busy time. But with Dave and Matt each mixing on a DiGiCo SD10, supplied by rental company Entec Sound and Light, what could have been a very challenging event ran very smoothly.

"When we tour, there's a balancing act between what we need and the available budget," says Dave. "We decided on the SD10 for these shows because it's a big enough console to do what we n

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UK / India - Lighting and video control specialist Avolites has appointed Integrated Entertainment Solutions (IES) as its sole distributor for the Indian market. The announcement comes ahead of the two companies combining their efforts to exhibit the latest from Avolites at the PALM Expo at the end of May.

IES is an 18-year-old distribution & trading company based in Mumbai, pioneering in the fields of intelligent lighting, pro-sound & control systems. Their expertise stretches beyond distribution to encompass solutions from entertainment-related venues such as nightclubs to architectural installations.

Avolites' story in India stems back over 20 years, and directors Steve Warren and Koy Neminathan conducted the first workshop there in 2002. Regular training opportunities continued, and so grew the relationships with the local LDs and rental companies.

As the sole distributo

LSi 40 - Banner - July-Nov 2025

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South Africa - SABC TV Outside Broadcasts has invested in an Avolites Quartz console, part of the Titan Mobile Family, and a Lumen Radio CRMX Nova FX RDM transmitter and receiver, their second LumenRadio acquisition. South African based DWR Distribution supplied the equipment.

Andre Rossouw, the specialist production lighting electrician for the SABC TV Outside Broadcasts, was introduced to LumenRadio a couple of years ago when Peter Kirkup visited South Africa for a LumenRadio Roadshow. "The system is rock solid," said Andre. He used LumenRadio for the second time at the South African elections in 2014. "I had two different areas which needed camera lighting and it was no hassle. I have sat under an escalator before with dimmers around the corner and the rig set up inside a hall. LumenRadio has a decent frequency." He also used LumenRadio, working with Kurt

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USA - Barco is establishing a national footprint for its factory certified training programmes, collaborating with AV partners to provide a course for the E2 4K screen management system in select locations throughout the United States.

Barco is launching the expanded training programme with its E2 courses, with plans to add additional classes at authorized training centres in Orlando, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; and, Las Vegas, Nevada. Orlando is an especially advantageous location because of its popularity as a business meeting destination and live show venue.

"With the immensely growing popularity of the new E2 screen management system, we want to ensure that our customers can quickly get up to speed on the product at a place and time that is convenient for them," comments Scott Nipper, technical training manager for Barco. "Based on our excelle

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USA - In many educational theatre environments, students are often confronted with the challenges of learning their craft on outdated equipment, but every so often, a school district gets the opportunity to create a performance space filled with all the latest technologies available. At Denison High School, the newly created Smith Auditorium is one such case as Batts AVL was given the chance to install a completely new lighting system filled with lighting, dimming and control from Philips Strand Lighting.

"In the design of the new space, we were very fortunate to not only get what we needed, but also what we wanted," began Amy Jordan, Denison High School Theater Arts Department chair. "For the new Smith Auditorium, I wanted the students to have the most advanced lighting technologies so they could be best prepared to move onto careers in the theatre industry once

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USA - - A weekend at the ocean can be entertainment enough, but Alabama's Hangout Music Festival took that sentiment and expounded upon with multiple stages scattered across the sandy beaches and ocean backdrop with lighting from Bandit Lites.

The event provided not only a view of paradise, but the sounds of the Foo Fighters, Beck, the Zac Brown Band, Umphrey's McGee, Skrillex, My Morning Jacket, Foster the People, Paramore and Spoon. With a Ferris wheel, a beach house hangout, VIP areas, gourmet beach fare and a viewing tower known as the Mega Drop, this year's festival also touted a hip craft beer courtyard that boasted draughts from Goose Island, Lagunitas, New Belgium, Straight to Ale, Southern Tier and Abita.

Designed by Dizzy Gosnell, Bandit provided six trusses for the main stage's overhead lighting rig loaded with VL 3000 Spots, VL3000 washes, VL 3500 washes, Sharpys,

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UK - Sky TV lighting designer Iain Davidson is using one of the latest additions to the Philips Vari-Lite product line, the feature-packed VL4000 Spot, to deliver smooth, precise effects and stunning colour to popular Sky Atlantic show Thronecast.

The official fan companion series to widely-watched fantasy drama Game of Thrones (GoT), Thronecast follows shortly after each new instalment of GoT on a Monday night. Presented by Jamie East and Sue Perkins, the show sees a live discussion of the episode's events with various members of the cast and crew. Iain is employing six of the award-winning Vari-Lite luminaire, supplied by Richard Martin Lighting (RML), to give depth and texture to the chat show set up.

"My original brief was for a glossy set in front of a white cyc and, as the look was going to be high key, the standard beams and smoke approa

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World - Anastacia, a long-time user of Sennheiser, has re-emerged for her Resurrection Tour, with her voice sounding better than ever following her courageous battle with cancer. Once again, Sennheiser proves to be the right choice for her voice, as she delivers intimate and exciting performances night after night with an all new set list and a special Q&A session where she talks about her experiences in overcoming cancer.

For the Resurrection Tour, which includes stops everywhere from Paris to Belarus to Brisbane, Anastacia's voice is better than ever as she sings through a Sennheiser SKM 5200-II coupled with an MD 5235 capsule, running in combination with an EM 3732-II receiver.

Front-of-house mixing engineer, Gerard Albo, who has been working with Anastacia for over four years, and appreciates the sound quality and flexibility he gets night after night with the SKM 5200 / M

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USA - As it heads into its third decade, Calvary Chapel Melbourne (CCM) in Florida has grown from a handful of believers assembled in a hotel conference room to a mega-church that serves over 10,000 members with three campuses spread across east-central Florida.

In addition to its main campus in West Melbourne, CCM operates a 1,100-seat location in Sebastian River High School's auditorium and a 1,099-seat, purpose-built sanctuary in Viera, Florida. Beginning with the commons area at its main campus, CCM has been turning to natural-sounding, well-controlled Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and subwoofers and, in many cases, powerful Danley amplifiers and DSP to convey the full high-energy dynamics of its services.

"I've been impressed with Danley's philosophy and products for some time now," said CCM associate audio engineer David Hoover. "I got into pro audio via

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USA - Less than a year after purchasing its Meyer Sound MIna and Mica line array loudspeaker systems, Snob Productions of Grand Junction, Colo. reports a steep climb in business activity, profitability, and customer satisfaction. It has become a dominant sound company in western Colorado and eastern Utah, and a favoured provider for events in the nearby resort town of Telluride.

"I can honestly say that, from the first time we brought Mina to Telluride, our business exploded," states David Wall, CEO of Snob Productions. "After 18 years in business we were well-known in the area, but this quantum leap in sound quality and setup efficiency has paid off 10 times over. The sound quality alone has landed us job after job."

Wall recalls the first time he used a Mina system for a Telluride event. "The quality just blew everybody away," he says. "We

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UK - Complete production solution specialists White Light is set to launch a new studio facility at its Wimbledon premises. Featuring its own dedicated entrance and hospitality suite, Studio 15 incorporates a high-specification infrastructure including large format meeting space with video conferencing, pre and post productions audio and video editing suites, and a 120m2 dedicated rehearsal, teaching and product demonstration space.

The multi-purpose venue offers the market accessible space facilitating full technical rehearsals, with the resource to make up-to-the-minute final edits to material. Studio 15 will also be utilised as a hub for White Light's clients to develop bespoke creative content for their events, as well as host industry masterclasses. With a capacity of 60 pax theatre-style, or 30 cabaret, the versatile hire options will include competitive rates.

Lee Denni

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USA - Stroll down Grant Place or Webster Street in Old Towne Arvada,CO, and you might find it hard to believe that you're less than a half hour away from Denver. Although this picturesque village, which traces its roots back to the 1850 Colorado gold rush, has grown into a sizable commuting suburb, it's managed to retain much of its old-fashioned hometown feeling. This is evident in Arvada's many homegrown festivals; and it's also plain to see in the warm attitude that prevails at the city's Centerpoint Community Church, which welcomes visitors with refreshments before services every Sunday morning.

As deeply rooted as it is in tradition, however, Centerpoint is also committed to creating an engaging worship environment for modern sensibilities. With this in mind, church leaders contacted Roland Dutzmann of AcousTech (Franktown, CO) to give their 500-seat house of worship a majo

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Argentina - OffRamp is a production company based in the San Andres area of Buenos Aires headed by José Luis López. He started this company four years ago, and himself has 20 years of experience at the sharp end of the entertainment technology industry.

Recently, OffRamp invested in Robe MMX WashBeams which were supplied through Argentinean distributor, TSD Group.

The company owns a carefully selected quantity of sound, lighting and video equipment that is utilized on their own shows, for which they will usually provide the full technical production including design. They have a portfolio of many high profile corporate clients and brands and service numerous prestigious events.

Jose Luis explains that they chose Robe after much careful deliberation, primarily because of the brand's reputation for "reliability and quality engineering".

"Being able to

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UK - HSL continues its busy spring 2015 season supplying lighting & visuals designer Max Conwell for Morrissey's touring work.

Without the constraints of management or record company, Morrissey tours and performs prolifically without being tied in to any album cycles and other more conventional commercial considerations.

This means that his touring work has to be cost-efficient and self-supporting. Things like truck size is an important factor, onstage visual elements have to work hard and be multi-purpose and he challenges his technical team to be constantly imaginative and to deliver the best production values.

He takes an active interest in the look, sound and feel of his stage presentation, and has built an honest and heartfelt rapport with a loyal worldwide fanbase.

Since 2014, Max has turned to rental company HSL from Blackburn to supply all his touring lighting, whi

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USA - Outline North America, the US subsidiary of Outline S.r.l has added two highly respected live sound service providers to its growing partner network in the western United States - Southern California's Garibay Brothers Sound and Northern California's Spider Ranch Productions.

The agreements enable both companies to offer clients' access to the Outline GTO C-12 and the full-sized GTO loudspeaker systems.

Garibay Brothers Sound (GBS), based in Cerritos, CA, services a broad range of clientele with a focus on popular Norteno and Tejano musical artists. Recently, GBS specified and sold a C-12 rig to the prominent touring Mexican band, Calibre 50. The company also regularly provides a similar system to Intocable, another leading Tejano act.

"I've mixed hundreds of shows on virtually every brand of concert audio system over the past 18 years," says Rigo Garibay, GB

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UK - Illuminate Design has been appointed as a London and South-East Dealer for the High End luminaires range with effect from 1st June 2015. Illuminate Design have a long-heritage in the Theatre Market; Director Ben Payne is an established Theatre Lighting Designer and Technical Sales Manager Ken Berreen has over 30 years experience of the Stage Lighting sector.

Ben Payne of Illuminate Design comments, "We are delighted to be working with High End Systems to introduce their range of LED products to the London and South East markets. The High End Systems brand is one that sits very comfortably with Illuminate Design and we look forward to working closely with them to develop their product sales in the UK in the coming months."

The SolaSpot Pro 1500 and SolaWash Pro 1500 heralds a new generation of lighting innovation from High End Systems; these agile, bright and gre

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China - Star Events will design and supply a world-class rigging system to STU Sports Park in Shantou, on the south east coast of China.

Set within Shantou University, the Sports Park includes a multi-use arena with incorporated hotel and conference facilities. Star Events is contracted to design and install two rigging mothergrids, which will cover three-quarters of the arena floor and can lift and hold production equipment weighing up to 70 tons. The company will also provide the perimeter rigging system that will hold 33 large format, high-definition projectors supplied by American company Obscura Digital. All 80 of the hoists will be controlled by Star's Active Roof Technology (The ART of rigging) system.

STU Sports Park general manager, Greg Turner, said, "We wanted a venue that could host a diversified event schedule and allowed promoters to move in and out as effic

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Turkey - Manchester based lighting and rigging specialist dbn was presented with another brain-teasing rigging challenge by production company WRG for a large corporate event staged in the Crystal Ballroom at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel & Conference Centre in Istanbul.

The design for the conference - hosted by a leading pharmaceutical brand - involved a fully immersive curved scenic set running around three sides of the room, featuring projection screens and a myriad of 3mm LED video panels.

With no flying in the ballroom, a ground support structure was the obvious answer but the creative producers were adamant that no truss legs were allowed within the environment ensuring everyone would receive the full visual experience.

This meant that a 26m span needed to be bridged by a structure with the ability to support over three tonnes of equipment.

Further to these chall

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Indonesia - Allen & Heath's iLive-T112, iLive-T80 and iLive-R72 mixing systems and a ME personal monitoring system, were selected for installation in the newly constructed GBI Gilgal PIK church in north Jakarta, Indonesia.

Kairos Multijaya was appointed to manage the audio, video and lighting installation. The 4000m2 four-storey building includes a main 1,000-seat sanctuary, a 400-capacity Youth Fellowship hall, as well as other rooms, catering facilities and outlets.

An iLive-T80 system was selected for the Youth Fellowship, whilst an iLive-T112 surface and iDR-64 MixRack system were installed in the main sanctuary, along with 5 ME-1 personal monitor mixers. A third iLive system, a rackmount iLive-R72, is available as part of a portable AV system for the other rooms.

"I never used a digital mixer before but once I tried iLive, it was not as hard as I thought it would b

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UK - Over 2,000 items of lighting information from industry magazines, product catalogues and technical manuals, have been gifted by lighting designer Chris Watts to three organisations. This major collection of lighting information from the UK and USA has been carefully collected by Watts for over 30 years.

The collection represents a historical review of lighting companies and reveals developments in technology and design processes from the 1950s to the modern day. The collection also includes plans and technical information on a number of theatre spaces, original colour swatch books, lighting stencils and even an original cardboard colour frame.

The collection is being shared between three organisations: The V&A Museum, London, The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) and the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT).

Watts says: "I am pleased that my coll

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USA - Grammy-nominated singer Meghan Trainor has been making waves ever since she burst on the music scene. It's not just her highly resonant voice and distinctive blend of blue eyed soul, doo-wop and pop that make this effervescent star stand out, it's also the confident, carefree way she defies expectations about body types and sets an example for 21st century women to define their own standards.

Trainor's independent exuberance was on full display during her recent appearance before millions of viewers on The Today Show, supported by an appropriately dynamic lightshow featuring a collection of Chauvet Professional Next NXT-1 and Nexus 4x4 LED panels provided by WorldStage.

Lighting designer Peter Greenbaum used the Next NXT-1 and Nexus 4x4 to create a seamless look on The Today Show's Summer Concert Series stage. "I wanted the lighting to pull everything togethe

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UK - Core Lighting's new PinPoint wireless LED pin-spots and their best-selling ColourPoint Mk II wireless LED uplighters made their presence felt at the National Theatre In London for the 2015 Fast Forward Gala, a fund-raising event where normally unseen areas of the facility are opened up for an audience of special guests.

An extensive - and exclusive - backstage tour ahead of the evening's entertainment for the star-studded guest list included a close up look at scene docks, design studios, rehearsal spaces and workshops, all the areas vital to the smooth running of a successful and highly acclaimed production operation.

The behind-the-scenes areas are all specially lit for the occasion, and for the first year, south London based rental specialist White Light won the contract to supply all the lighting equipment for the event, working with several different lighting designe

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Italy - ARX Systems has appointed Bregnano based Etabeta Electronics spa as their new exclusive distributor for Italy.

ARX's MD Colin Park said, "Etabeta Electronics spa are a well-known and respected Italian distributor, here at ARX we're looking forward to working with Roberto Santini and the team at Etabeta Electronics.

"They're very enthusiastic about the possibilities for the growing ARX digital and analogue product range amongst their extensive dealer base throughout Italy."

Etabeta Electronics president Roberto Santini said, "ARX fits perfectly in our portfolio to help our installation, live sound, corporate, broadcast and studio customers."

Etabeta Electronics was founded by Roberto Santini in 1985 to distribute professional audio equipment, initially representing Cerwin Vega servicing the Italian disco market.

Subsequently, Etabeta adapt

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USA - Syncrolite has given its website (Syncrolite.com) a new look. "After months of brainstorming and hard work, we are excited to announce that a new and improved website is now live," says the company.

New Features include: User-friendly - content is well-organized so you can easily find the information you need; Easy Navigation - pages have been optimized to include easy-to-understand headings; Valuable and Timely Information - content is fresh, informative and tailored to your needs; Social Media Integration - follow us on our new social media platforms where we will be sharing our projects and productions from around the world; Mobile Ready - access our site from any device and get a first-rate experience; Parts Catalogue - authorized users can access an easy to use visual replacement parts catalogue, and Pre-Owned Equipment - visit the site to see what used equi

  1. WIMagic in motion for Tegen de Sterren Op
  2. Showline gives life to the lightning in Venus in Fur
  3. Clay Paky delivers for Ireland's Year of Light launch
  4. AMD lights up Times Square with mega display
  5. Britannia Row supports A Party to Remember
  6. Blue Parrot for Edinburgh's Hidden Door arts festival
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