UK - Production Futures exists to create opportunities for young people to learn, train, network and develop real careers in production across every area of the live event, music, touring, theatre, TV, broadcast and film industries. The organisation has announced that its flagship On Tour event will take place at Production Park, Wakefield on Thursday 28 September.
Featuring international special guest speakers, panel discussions and learning zones, the event will place emphasis on the theme of transferable skills across the production industries. Production Futures’ diversity partners will also play an important role on the day with Black Lives in Music, The Association for Black Event Professionals, Women in Live Music and The Network of Women in Events, all represented. New features for this year’s event include new ‘speed networking’ and ‘recruitment’ areas.<

UK - Vision: 2025, the UK outdoor event industry's steering group for environmental sustainability, has been commissioned by the Event Industry Forum’s (EIF) Purple Grants Fund, to write a new chapter of the Purple Guide on Environmental Sustainability for events.
It is intended to provide clear guidance on best practice and signpost to users to resources and guidance to minimise the carbon impact of events.
Feedback will be reviewed in September and the chapter will be launched 18 October 2023, at SES 23, hosted at the Showman’s Show.
The draft is available online for comment until Friday 1 September on the Vision: 2025 website.
The draft has been prepared by an industry working group including Hope Solutions, the Local Authority Event Organiser’s Association (LAEOG), Julie’s Bicycle, The Association of Festival Organiser’s (AFO) and even

UK - Eight years ago, 11 teams turned up, had a bit of fun and raised a small amount of money driving some karts for the live events industry. Fast forward to 2023 and The Parish of Backup delivered the Village Fete, its biggest and most successful event to date. The day was set against the backdrop of a traditional British Fete, 350 members of the live events industry came together to have the best of British days out.
With Chauvet Professional once again taking up the headline sponsor slot, and first-time main sponsor 5 Star Cases joining them and providing a colourful selection of flight cases for the Flight Case Challenge, over 40 companies, along with many individuals, descended on Daytona Sandown Park. Outside of the traditional award shows and trade shows calendar, this event has become one of the biggest fun days out for the live events industry.
“Raising the

Germany - Digital Signage Summit Europe (DSS Europe) celebrated its 50th edition at Hilton Munich Airport in Germany, earlier this month. A joint venture between Integrated Systems Events and invidis consulting, the summit attracted digital signage specialists from across Europe to explore this year’s theme: Engaging Experiences - Concepts, Creation & Content.
This year’s line-up of speakers, including experts from First Impression, Futuresource, Google, M-Cube, Trison, Visual Art and ZetaDisplay and spanning a wide range of sectors such as media, retail, and corporate, addressed the current market outlook and the impact of major trends.
Highlights included Dave Haynes, editor of Sixteen:Nine, and Mark McDermott, CEO at ScreenCloud, discussing How to get the message across to your employees and why agnostic software solutions that integrate with other s

UK - ISCVE has announced the dates for its annual event, ISCVEx 2024, which will be taking place at Coombe Abbey on 19-20 March 2024. Attendees can expect ‘30+ exhibitors and distributors, thought-leading seminars, inspiring talks and more’.
Taking place in the Coombe Abbey Hotel, ISCVEx day one includes ISCVE’s Member’s Day, AGM and Networking Dinner whilst day two includes three seminars and exhibition.
Attendees also get the opportunity to network with other industry people from all sectors of the audio, communications and visual industries with more than 30 exhibitors and distributors in one convenient location.
"This year, in addition to our regular attendees and exhibitors, we saw increased engagement from audio visual companies showcasing their businesses at the exhibition and attending seminars," comments Ros Wigmore, ISCVE business manager.

UK - With just six weeks to go, PLASA Show has announced the first wave of programme sessions, which include global brands and eminent thought-leaders from across the entertainment technology industry.
Taking place in Olympia London’s Grand Hall from 3-5 September, the show will feature 70+ keynote talks, panel discussions, live demonstrations, and practical training sessions - all of which are free to attend with an entry badge.
Lighting designer Tim Routledge will present his creative vision for lighting this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in the UK. Ahead of his session, Tim comments: “I'm thrilled to be able to talk at the PLASA Show this year, and to share the journey my team and I had to create Eurovision 2023's monster show. It was a dream come true for me and an experience I will never forget. I hope that the story I tell will inspire others

UK - Production Futures is an initiative created to provide opportunities for young people to learn, train, network, and develop real careers in production across every area of the Live Event, Music, Touring, Festival, Theatre, TV, Broadcast and Film industries.
At its most recent On Tour roadshow event in Manchester, which was opened by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, chief executive Hannah Eakins announced the expansion of the Production Futures Breakthrough Talent Awards to better reflect the wide range of roles and skill sets required across the production industry. These rely heavily on transferable skills such as computer science, architecture, engineering and business management, as well those associated with the traditional event-management, music, TV, film, media and live technical fields. Hannah explains:
“The Production Futures initiative originated

USA - The 2023 AES International Conference on Audio Archiving, Preservation & Restoration, held at The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia, concluded ‘with resounding success’.
Over the course of three days, nearly 200 researchers and practitioners from around the world gathered to discuss critical preservation issues and explore strategies that foster collaboration and interoperability between the industry and the preservation, restoration, and archiving communities.
The conference, which took place from 1-3 June, provided an opportunity for experts in the field to come together and share their knowledge and insights. The event's focus on audio archiving, preservation, and restoration emphasized the importance of safeguarding our sonic heritage and ensuring its accessibility for future generations.
Part

UK - For a second year, PLASA is able to support UK-based companies who wish to exhibit at LDI. Working in conjunction with the Department for Business and Trade, UK companies can make their debut at the Las Vegas trade show for a specially reduced rate.
When LDI returns this year from 3-5 December, the show will yet again feature the Meet the Brits Pavilion, which will introduce UK companies to the expansive US market and facilitate valuable in-person networking.
The Meet the Brits package includes a 5sq.ft logo-branded kiosk, complete with furniture, lighting and power, as well as online and onsite promotion. With PLASA’s support, this package is reduced from $3,800 down to $2,600.
Exhibitors in the Meet the Brits Pavilion will also gain an invitation to a special networking reception and have the opportunity to attend the Department for Business and Trade Ex

UK - Atlas Show Control for spatial audio which was recently named Sound Product of the Year by the ABTT, has been officially launched.
The show control software is designed with the control and implementation of spatial audio engines at its heart. Atlas ‘aims to change the way in which designers and operators interact with the plethora of audio hardware and software within their environment’.
Atlas supports incoming positional data from trackers offering control and smoothing algorithms. Atlas can also output control data to other audio applications, sound consoles, video servers and lighting consoles.
Atlas allows for manual positional programming, the use of hardware trackers or a combination of both as demands dictates. Atlas is designed to provide users with a friendly user interface whilst unleashing the full potential of spatial audio control.

UK - Innovate Audio, creator of the panLab software, will show its latest spatial audio solution at the PLASA Show in London (3-5 September, Olympia). The new development, called panLab Console, is a software solution that adds spatial audio functionality to a range of live mixing consoles.
Cost and time constraints currently put spatial audio technology out of reach of smaller applications. Now, however, panLab Console presents a straightforward solution for more users than ever before. Put simply, panLab Console takes the proven panLab algorithm and applies it directly to the mixing console itself. It allows audio to be spatialised through existing hardware, without requiring expensive, dedicated processors. The solution is designed to be so simple to setup, users can be up and running in under five minutes.
“It enables people to deploy amplitude-based panning wit

UK - PLASA and LSi are calling for nominations for this year’s Gottelier Award. The award recognises the invaluable contributions of the people behind the products, from pioneering product developers to creative R&D teams.
Named after the late lighting designer and industry commentator Tony Gottelier, the Gottelier Award aims to recognise product developers who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of entertainment, presentation, or installation technology.
Launched in 2007, previous recipients include: JB Toby (Avolites), Christian Heil (L-Acoustics); Alan Jacobi (Unusual Rigging); Wayne Howell (Artistic Licence); Anne Valentino (ETC); David Cunningham (Entertec); Pasquale Quadri (Claypaky); Jim Bornhorst (Vari-Lite); John Meyer (Meyer Sound); Terry Clarke (Klark Teknik, MC2 Audio); Fred Foster (ETC); Alex Cooper (Midas & Klark Teknik); Joh

UK - With over 3000 registrations, this year’s ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace was busier than ever. The event drew a broad range of attendees at all stages of their careers alongside an ever-increasing list of exhibitors from all areas of the industry, say the organisers.
Running once again over two days, the ABTT Theatre Show gave the industry an opportunity to meet face-to-face in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. With an increase of 15% of exhibitors on the show floor, this year’s event featured over 150 brands.
The ABTT reports an 82% growth in overall visits among which was a 53% increase in students attending. The new ABTT Skills Workshops were particularly popular, tutoring over 150 attendees over the two days in a broad variety of topics. Responses from those who attended have been ‘overwhelmingly positive’.
This year, ABTT focused on you

UK - The Robe UK team report a busy, successful, and very positive ABTT (Association of British Theatre Technicians) expo staged at Alexandra Palace in London.
The company had two exhibition areas, with a stand upstairs in the main hall and a large demo area downstairs in the Palace suite - both showcasing a range of its latest lighting technologies for theatre, performance, TV, and broadcast scenarios.
The stylish booth in the main exhibition hall featured a selection of the newest Robe, Anolis and MDG products.
A video wall at the back offered four separate brand windows / digital messaging boards snapshotting information, with two dedicated to Robe, one for Robe’s architectural lighting brand Anolis, and one for atmosphere and haze specialist MDG, which is distributed in the UK by Robe.
Selected products were also showcased on raised displays aroun

Singapore - Cinewav is looking to expand its presence in the live events, sports and broadcast sector.
The platform has already been successfully enjoyed by thousands of guests at outdoor cinema events and at festivals including Vivid Sydney 2023 where Cinewav enriched dozens of immersive, super-sized light, drone shows and animations with personalised soundtracks.
At the Danang International Fireworks Festival 2023 (DIFF2023), Cinewav synchronised the audio soundtrack with fireworks displays via mobile phones to locals and tourists across Da Nang, Vietnam’s fifth most populated city. Upcoming global projects include Drive-ins and cinematic screenings at cultural attractions, hotels and resorts.
Cinewav is a platform and mobile app that allows users to watch visuals on a big public screen and listen to the audio in perfect synchronicity on their own mobile pho

UK - The widely respected PLASA Awards for Innovation are now open for entries, for any product released since PLASA Show 2022. The awards are open to all, including PLASA Show 2023 exhibitors, PLASA members, and non-member non-exhibitors. And this year, early bird entries can save 20% off the entry fee if they submit their application by midnight on Monday 7 August.

Organised in association with LSi, PLASA’s market-leading magazine, the awards celebrate innovative products from across the live entertainment technology industry that demonstrate a new style of thinking, improve technical practice or safety, introduce new materials or techniques, or offer a new commercial advantage.

Each successfully entered product will be judged by an independent panel of industry experts who have the authority to present up to eight awards of equal standing, one of whi

UK - The world of live entertainment technology will once again convene at Olympia London from 3-5 September for PLASA Show 2023. The key international show will connect 200+ exhibitors with 5,000+ visitors, who can now register free until 31 August.
PLASA Show will feature cutting-edge technologies from respected brands spanning pro audio, stage lighting, audio-visual, staging and rigging. These include Chauvet Professional, Epson, ETC, GLP, L-Acoustics, Nexo, PSCo, RCF, Sennheiser, Steeldeck Industries, TAIT, Triple E, Theatrixx Technologies, Vari-Lite & Strand, UK Rigging and Vectorworks, to name just a few. Furthermore, headline sponsor Robe will wow audiences with regular demonstrations of their latest lighting products.
In addition to the plethora of brands and new products, the three-day event will host 70+ keynote talks and interactive panel sessions. Acr

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians’ Annual Awards took place on Wednesday evening, 7 June, after the first day of the 2023 ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace, London. This year, the awards were again generously supported by TAIT.
Ted Moore, director of rental services, said of the Awards: “TAIT is really proud to be here once again to sponsor the ABTT Awards Presentation, one of the best globally in our industry. We wish all the nominees good luck and give congratulations to whoever the winners may be.”
The five highly sought after Awards for Lighting Product, Sound Product, Engineering Product, ‘Widget’ and Stand of the Year, were complemented by the announcement of the recipients of the ABTT Technician of the Year and the ABTT Award for Emerging Excellence which recognise the achievements of individuals both starting out and well-establ

UK - Void Acoustics has announced a bumper presence at InfoComm in Orlando, USA, this week. The company will showcase five new products on the Exhibition Booth 5287 (Exhibit Hall, Level 2, Audio Pavilion), whilst highlighting these important new products alongside the existing Void Acoustics portfolio in the Void Acoustics Demonstration Room (Audio Demo Room W232B).
The key new products which will be on display include the Air 15 IP-53 rated subwoofer, perfect for nightclubs and bars, restaurants and retail solutions. With its stylish, non-resonant fibreglass enclosure it can provide large-scale output in a variety of environments requiring comprehensive audio coverage.
A new subwoofer has been added to the Cyclone Series - the Cyclone 208 - a compact, IP-55 rated reflex-loaded subwoofer. Paired with the Cyclone 4 or Cyclone 55 it offers a high-output, stylish sound

Germany - Sennheiser has entered the unified communications A/V bar market with the most flexible all-in-one devices for small and mid-sized meeting rooms and collaboration spaces. Part of the Sennheiser TeamConnect Family, the TeamConnect (TC) Bar Solutions were unveiled publicly during an exclusive virtual launch event this week and will be showcased in-person to the attendees of the InterOp Tokyo and the InfoComm Orlando.
With options for small (TeamConnect Bar S) or mid-sized (TeamConnect Bar M) meeting and collaboration spaces, the TC Bar Solutions offer benefits like easy setup, brand agnostic integration, easy management & control, high video quality, security and sustainability. The TC Bar S features four microphones and two speakers, while TC Bar M has six microphones and four speakers. Both easily integrate with any meeting platform and can be further enhanced

Portugal - The Intermunicipal Community of the Coimbra Region (CIM/RC) attracted much interest at BTL 2023 with its innovative and immersive booth.
CIM/RC was the only booth at the fair to replace promotional paper with digital screens, emphasising sustainability and quick and easy access to information. The booth was composed of a municipal counter, an auditorium for presentations and a total of 240m² that invited visitors to live a unique experience with the projections on its LED screens.
“The CIM/RC booth was the result of many months of preparation, idea development, concept and project design,” says Gaspar Magarreiro, director of Creative LED. “It culminated in four days of intense work by 38 technicians from different areas who carried out another successful project. The immersive experience of the booth was made possible thanks to a 100m², circular scre

USA - Alfalite will make its debut at InfoComm with its LED panels for the rental, fixed installation and virtual production markets at the booth of its partner FOR-A.
Alfalite will showcase its Litepix LED panels for rental companies, Modularpix LED panels for fixed installation, as well as the Modularpix Pro VP XR solution for virtual production and extended reality environments.
FOR-A's booth #2023 at InfoComm 2023 will showcase a complete live virtual production ecosystem that will include a four 2.5m Alfalite display with an HDR-compatible FA-9600 multipurpose signal processor, EZtrack camera tracking system, ClassX 3D graphics generator and XR technology, among other solutions.
Satoshi Kanemura, president & COO, FOR-A America, comments: “We’re excited to have joined forces with Alfalite to add virtual studio capabilities to our expanding portfolio.

USA - InfoComm 2023 attendees will have the opportunity to experience The Sound Solution in person at booth #5645 and demo room W221DE, where Renkus-Heinz will exhibit various systems, including the award-winning UBX Series of passive column loudspeakers, the ICLive X Series of digitally steerable arrays and an all-new software tool that revolutionises the entire Renkus-Heinz steerable product line.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear the C Series in action as Amadeus Acoustics will perform an immersive sound demonstration with Renkus-Heinz C Series C121M loudspeakers at the beginning of each demo hour.
Members of the Renkus-Heinz team, including president Monika Smetona, CTO Ralph Heinz and many more, will be on the floor to answer any questions about the company’s latest projects and developments.
“This InfoComm, we’re bringing our best line-

USA - MXL Microphones debuts its new AC83 Bluetooth LE 5.0 enabled boundary microphone at InfoComm 2023 (Marshall Electronics Booth 4107).
“We look forward to introducing our new AC83 microphone at InfoComm this year,” says Gina Stimler, global Sales manager for MXL Microphones. “With its Bluetooth capabilities, audio quality and range, and long-lasting battery life, the AC83 provides the flexibility needed by many AV professionals in the industry.”
With its three-capsule battery design, the AC83 mic picks up direct sound, while simultaneously mitigating indirect sources, delivering optimal audio for every user. The AC83 microphone will capture the audio required over a long period of time; holding up to 36-hours of non-stop battery life.
Designed for AV integrator and professionals, the AC83 is suitable for most conference room applications. Additional

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