South Africa - A recent technical upgrade at Joburg Theatre includes four Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI followspots which have been installed for use in the 1000+ seat Mandela Theatre.
The complex’s largest auditorium, The Nelson Mandela Theatre, regularly sees over 75% of capacity audiences and remains open a minimum of 50 weeks in each year. In the past decade, it has hosted many hit shows, including William Kentridge’s acclaimed interpretation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the West End and Broadway musicals West Side Story, Chicago, The Color Purple and Spamalot and top-of-the-line global touring shows, such as Le Grand Cirque, Lord of the Dance and Brazouka.
Joburg Theatre is also the permanent home to Joburg Ballet, Jill Girard and Keith Smith’s Peoples Theatre Company, and one of the country’s most

UK - Creative technical production experts Hawthorn and AVC Live have been appointed as the preferred technical production partner at Wembley Stadium in London.
As part of the long-term joint partnership agreement, the companies, which are both part of the PSAV International family, will be the preferred technical production suppliers for events across all eight of Wembley Stadium’s event spaces and 160 pitch-facing corporate suites.
With a capacity of 90,000, Wembley is one of the largest stadiums in the UK and offers a flexible set of event spaces.
Michael Simmons, business development manager at Wembley Stadium, comments: “We’re delighted to have AVC Live and Hawthorn onboard as we continue to bolster our offering to event organisers. Wembley Stadium is a venue with a fascinating history and with that in mind, it’s vital that we work with highly knowle

Finland - The University of the Arts recently upgraded some of its AV facilities to improve the student experience. Electro Waves, a local integrator, carried out the work which includes new Christie APS and the GS series laser projectors in a number of lecture theatres and music performance halls.
With its combination of disciplines including fine art, music and theatre studies, the new university offers varied education opportunities to students in Finland and overseas. And, with increasing numbers of students attracted to the university through its growing reputation, the in-house AV team were keen to add first-class projection to enhance the teaching and presentation facilities. Kai Tuovinen of Electro Waves organised a trial period to test which projectors would be suited to the university’s requirements.
“In partnership with the in-house AV team we decided to

France - The Amphithéâtre de la Verrière, located in Aix-en-Provence, recently added Robert Juliat Dalis 863 Access lighting fixtures to its in-house inventory. These LED battens can be used to illuminate a cyclorama, or as front of stage lighting.
Located inside the Cité du Livre, the Amphithéâtre de la Verrière is a 450-seat multi-purpose hall. Jean-Marie Albaladejo, technical director of L'Amphithéâtre, was looking for an LED solution to replace old luminaires and provide effective low-angle lighting. Until now, this had been problematic in this amphitheatre-shaped venue, with an audience that sits very close to the stage.
"We are already equipped with many long-standing Robert Juliat luminaires, so it was only natural that we should turn to the same brand with confidence to find an appropriate solution, and choose LED sources that are more energy efficien

UK - On 5 November, Bristol-based specialist installer Stage Electrics marked 40 years in business with a staff party held at Bristol Zoo.
The company was formed in 1979 by a group of theatre lighting and sound equipment enthusiasts and has since grown from three staff to over 120 whilst amassing an impressive portfolio of sales and installations.
Offering a range of services, including installation, product sales and testing, inspection and maintenance services, Stage Electrics has a sales team of over 20, including a field sales team. Its export business has also seen significant growth in recent years.
“We tailored our service to suit our customers, who all have differing needs,” explains sales director, Anna Western. “Some clients like to see their contact person on a regular basis, while others like to have someone available on the end of the phone.

Italy - RCF has been announced as the main sponsor of a 100,000-seat outdoor venue - the RCF Arena.
The arena, stated to open on 12 September 2020, will be the largest in Italy once completed. It is being built in an area called Campovolo, just outside the manufacturer’s hometown of Reggio Emilia, and will feature a permanent installation of RCF’s TT + audio system plus 10 delay towers.
Arturo Vicari, CEO of RCF Group, comments: “RCF was born in 1949 in Reggio Emilia. From here we brought the excellence of Italian sound throughout the globe and today we are among the major players in the market.
“Giving our name to RCF Arena is a source of pride for us, but also a mission and a commitment. We have a strong bond with this region, and we intend to treat it in the best possible way. With this wonderful project, we will bring our innovation and technology t

UK - The market value of the UK entertainment technology industry has grown by an estimated 5% in the past 12 months, according to PLASA research.
This puts the industry’s value at £1.36bn in 2018/19, up from £1.30bn in 2017/18. The sectors with the largest growth include architecture, broadcast and corporate events, which are valued at £250m, £220m and £160m respectively.
Only a third of the businesses surveyed expect the industry to grow in 2019/20 however, the main concern being how and when the UK will exit the European Union.
The full report, which follows on from PLASA’s comprehensive industry research released in 2018, details sector by sector performance, investment in marketing and R&D, and the future outlook for the industry.

USA - In Dayton, Ohio, in the heart of the downtown Arts District, the Mead Theatre is the cornerstone of the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Centre. Opened in 2003, the 2,300-seat venue hosts a wide range of performances, including the Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Opera, Dayton Ballet, touring Broadway blockbusters, rock concerts, comedians and more.
Helping to inspire the imagination and refresh the spirit of the three-balcony facility, Scenic Solutions of Ohio specified and installed FloppyFlex LED neon into the architectural details of the venue.
In addition to the installation in the concentric rings of the ceiling that culminate in a representation of the night sky when the Wright Brothers took their first flight, “We used 204m of FloppyFlex White 2100K deployed in the existing coves that accent all three balconies,” says Andrew Persson of Sceni

Latvia - The Latvian College of Culture (LCC) in Riga is part of the larger Latvian Academy of Culture and is described as "the best place to study creative industries" in the country.
The college has a continuous and built-in effort to keep up with the times, which is why school administrators called on SGS Sistemas, Clair Brothers distributor in the region. Normunds Eilands and Guntars Bluss of SGS were asked to recommend the best loudspeakers for LCC’s next upgrade of its audio production equipment. After evaluating the school’s needs SGS recommended the Clair Brothers kiT12-i loudspeakers, and kiT-Subs.
Along with the selected kiT12-i loudspeakers and kiT-Subs, the Clair Brothers PLM 12K44 power amplifier was also specified and installed. Other equipment chosen by the college includes a Lab.gruppen power amplifier; a Midas digital mixing console plus a Midas in

Norway - Touring theatre productions in rural areas of north Norway can be very challenging, especially with limited local facilities and equipment that has to cope with fast-changing extremes of temperature. But an Alcons Audio LR7 pro-ribbon system is proving equal to every challenge for the country’s northernmost regional theatre.
Established in 1971, Hålogaland Teater was the first regional theatre in Norway, serving counties of Troms and Finnmark. It occupies a modern building at Teaterplassen in Tromsø, built in 2005, which features two modern theatre stages, a cafè stage and a rehearsal stage.
It tours productions all year to 15 regular venues located throughout Troms and Finnmark, often in local dialects. The varied programme includes contemporary and classic drama, musicals, children's theatre and more. These shows need an audio system which can be easily

Dominican Republic Sound Video Lighting (SVL) has installed a full complement of Martin Audio CDD speakers and SX subwoofers in the Peperoni restaurant and bar in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo.
Describing the venue, SVL’s Jonathan Del Villar explains: “Peperoni is a very popular restaurant serving what is essentially international cuisine in a variety of styles. Owner Jean-Pierre Bahsa used to be a club owner who knows that business very well. He had gone to Bachata Rosa, a popular restaurant in Punta Cana, owned by singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra, and was very impressed by the Martin Audio system that we had installed there.
“Since we are friends, he asked us to work on the project early on during the planning stages which was good because we were able to have significant impact in terms of everything that has to do with technology - the aud

Europe - With more than 50 destinations across Europe, Event Hospitality Management Holding currently operates more than 80 business and conferencing hotels in Germany, Italy and The Netherlands under its Event Hotels brand.
The group’s corporate management regularly liaises with the directors of each hotel, with the focal point of these important meetings being the large conference room at the corporate headquarters situated in Cologne on the banks of the River Rhine.
In February 2019, work finished on an ambitious installation which featured Shure’s Microflex Complete Wireless Solution, complemented by an IntelliMix P300 Conferencing DSP Processor. The system was planned and installed by systems integrator Tascan.
Due to the conference room being an oblong shape, the previously installed conferencing system was unable to guarantee speech intelligibility dur

USA - Home to 80 full-time musicians representing more than a dozen nations, the Colorado Symphony is one of North America’s leading orchestras and performs more than 150 concerts annually at the 2,700-seat Boettcher Concert Hall in downtown Denver, at nearby Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and across the state
In 2012, the City of Denver purchased a DiGiCo SD7 mixing console as part of a major audio facilities upgrade for Boettcher Concert Hall that also notably included a full L-Acoustics loudspeaker system. With productions growing increasingly complex and technically more demanding over the past seven years, the City once again chose to invest in DiGiCo - this time by upgrading its existing SD7 with a new Quantum engine.
For more than 15 years, Aric Christensen has served as Colorado Symphony’s head of audio. Seeing that he individually mics all of the orchestra’s in

USA - Located on Monterey Street in the heart of downtown San Luis Obispo, the 865-seat Fremont Theatre is a surviving - and now thriving - example of the Streamline Moderne style favoured by West Coast movie theatres and performance halls when it opened for both roles in 1942. As its entertainment appeal gradually waned over the decades, the facility dodged various attempts to modernize it as a multiplex cinema, and then to be razed altogether.
Thankfully, a new group of partners, the Fremont Theatre Entertainment Group, has invested in restoring the theatre’s visual and acoustical charm while also modernising its technical facilities. A key part of that effort was the addition of an L-Acoustics Kara loudspeaker system, originally installed in 2018 and then re-flown with a new truss system installed earlier this year.
“We knew from the very start that we wanted an

UK - Since the National Theatre’s initial investment in 42 MAC Encore Performance LED moving heads for the Olivier Theatre in May 2018, a planned roll-out has seen the venue on London’s Southbank install MAC Encores in the Lyttelton and Dorfman Theatres and add further units to the Olivier. In total, 156 MAC Encore Performance and Wash fixtures are either permanently installed or held in shared lighting resources.
Selected for their feature set, durability and near silent operation, the roll-out has been supplied by a number of Martin dealers including White Light, Stage Electrics, Hawthorn and Flashlight - all themselves supplied by UK Martin distributor Sound Technology.
In the Olivier Theatre - the largest of the three theatres within the National - lighting supervisor Jack Williams is preparing to install additional MAC Encore Performance CLD fixtures as the p

Russia - Dominated by Russian gymnasts, rhythmic gymnastics has been a particular success for Russia since gaining worldwide recognition as an Olympic sport in 1984. In Moscow, construction of a new gymnastics venue was recently completed, the Irina A. Viner-Usmanova Rhythmic Gymnastics Centre, a world-class facility that houses a flexible Elation Professional lighting system.
Featuring a main performance arena and facade that resembles the wave of a gymnastic ribbon, the Irina A. Viner-Usmanova Rhythmic Gymnastics Centre, named after one of the most successful gymnastics coaches of all time, can host any type of gymnastics event from local competition to world championship.
As the sports facility was designed to be multifunctional in order to accommodate training and competition across a variety of events, as well as concerts, shows and special events, Elation distr

Germany - Inaugurated in 2005, Munich’s Allianz Arena, with its striking façade of almost 3,000 air-filled panels which made it the first stadium to display a full colour-changing exterior, is one of the best-known football stadiums in the world.
Inside, too, the three-tiered stadium construction leaves an impression on the 75,000 plus spectators who come to see top national and international sport, and especially to support home football team Bayern Munich. For this season, the sound system in the Allianz Arena has stepped up its game. In cooperation with the engineering and planning office Müller-BBM, L-Acoustics certified provider system integrator, Wilhelm & Willhalm event technology group, have installed an extensive Kara system from L-Acoustics.
Since the Arena opened, Wilhelm & Willhalm has been the infotainment technology service provider to the ven

Germany - Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) uses Sennheiser wireless systems in its lecture halls and seminar rooms to convey the spoken word in the best possible audio quality. It currently has 53 wireless channels from the Sennheiser SpeechLine Digital Wireless series operating in the DECT range.
The systems are spread around different university locations and were installed successively over a period of two years. The conversion from UHF to DECT frequencies has not yet been completed at Martin Luther University – an application to purchase further Sennheiser wireless systems has already been made. The homogeneous wireless equipment at the Universitätsplatz, the Steintor Campus, the Weinberg Campus and the Francke Foundations simplifies both handling and servicing.
Up to three SL Rack Receiver DW units are used in typical lecture halls at MLU. These

USA - Following a year-long renovation project, the former West Nashville United Methodist Church re-opened last year as Clementine, a space for weddings as well as corporate, fundraising and music events. The venue offers a ‘blank canvas’ for hosting bespoke gatherings and that includes an expansive all-LED, all-ADJ lighting system which allows custom-coloured illumination of every part of the space.
Owners Dan and Brenda Cook are no strangers to projects that involve breathing new life into previously closed historic buildings. In 2011 they bought a shuttered church in the Hillsboro Village area of Nashville and lovingly restored it to create a boutique event venue they named Ruby. Since then the location has proved popular for a wide range of private functions, while Dan and Brenda have been on the look out for another suitable building to transform into a similar ven

UK - Penn Elcom has released the PDU16-10DJ PDU (power distribution unit) range of 1U rack mounting units which combine all the power and practicality of 10 switchable output sockets - available with different socket outlets - and a range of power ratings between 10A and 16A.
The full catalogue of Penn PDU devices now includes these four new slimline variants plus four other 2U devices, all of which are designed to flexibly assist full connectivity in a wide array of scenarios.
The PDU16-10DJ range is suitable for numerous installation and integration applications - from live music venues, theatres and studios to clubs, restaurants and bars, plus custom install applications like home automation, says the company.
Each of the 10 switchable channels is protected by a thermal current overload trip switch, and each numbered channel has a dedicated rocker switch with

USA - Sound and lighting specialist, Infinity Sound, has completed the design and installation of live and background music sound systems for FireHouse Gastro Park (FHGP) in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Within the original buildings of a 20th century fire station, FHGP is now a diverse hang-out-and-eat location. The venue has been created by owners Jason and Carlee Smith, in collaboration with Rouch Architecture. The FireHouse aesthetic and philosophy was inspired by the Smith’s roots in southern California, their passion for the historic building rehab revolution, and Grand Prairie’s commitment to preservation and economic development. The original fire station remains at the heart of the FHGP and the sprawling and evolving space now features indoor and outdoor dining, a secret garden bar, a family-friendly green-space, coffee shop and a smoke house.
Music is a key eleme

Vietnam - Ba Sao Investment Co., Ltd recently installed a Harman Professional Solutions networked audio, video, light and control solution at Van Lang University to deliver pristine sound and alluring lighting for performances, presentations and events.
Founded in 1995, Van Lang University is one of the first and most distinguished private universities in Vietnam. With three sprawling facilities across Ho Chi Minh City, Van Lang University offers an array of educational amenities, including an expansive technology center, a smart library and a world-class concert hall. In order to provide exceptional sound and lighting for events in the concert hall, Van Lang University hired Vietnam's premier AV distributor, Ba Sao Investment Co., Ltd to install an AV solution. After surveying the location, Ba Sao Investment assembled a comprehensive Harman Professional Solutions

UK - On the surface, My Favorite Year and Children of Eden are very different shows. The Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical takes a farcical behind the scenes look at 1950s television, as a hapless writer tries to keep an irascible matinee idol from a bygone era out of trouble before his appearance on a live show. By contrast, Steven Schwartz’ Eden recounts the story behind creation in the Book of Genesis.
Different? Indeed! But both shows offer audiences the shared experience of departing from everyday reality and cry out for brightness and colour on stage - which is what Nic Farman provided for recent productions of the plays at Mountview’s new theatre. Aiding him in this undertaking was a collection of Chauvet Professional Ovation fixtures supplied by White Light.
“I’ve worked on a number of productions for Mountview before,

UK - Owned by AB Hotels, Sopwell House is a luxury country house hotel set in 12 acres of Hertfordshire countryside. Steeped in history, the house was once home to the Mountbatten family and remained as a private residence until 1969 when it became a hotel. In 1986, it was acquired by Bejerano family who are still at the helm of the business.
With more than 100 rooms, two restaurants, bars, conferencing, wedding and spa facilities as well as a swimming pool and gym, the hotel is equipped to meet every kind of business and recreational requirement.
Just as the gym plays an important role for guests who do not wish to interrupt their training regimes whilst away from home, its audio system is critical to delivering a complete experience. Fitness spaces with high quality background music reinforcement are now very much the expected standard.
Not satisfied that its e

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