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Brazil - Held in Barra Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, the recent Rock in Rio festival saw Gabisom Audio Equipment from Brazil deploy Martin Audio’s premier MLA rig on the Palco Mundo main stage.
Martin Audio’s MLA was first used on the second stages at Rock in Rio’s US event in Las Vegas in 2015 and at the event’s 30th birthday in Brazil the same year.
Gabisom chief engineer, Peter Racy, confirmed the impact created by MLA, stating, “For me personally it was a pleasure to hear the pristine sound quality of MLA, and in my opinion it was MLA that made the difference. In fact I heard nothing but rave reviews from users of the MLA in Rio.”
At Rock in Rio in Lisbon 2016, that MLA was taken onto the main World Stage, becoming the largest deployment of MLA systems on a single stage, eclipsing both Glastonbury and Hyde Park main stages

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New Zealand - Jands, the Harman Professional audio distributors in New Zealand, recently launched JBL’s new medium to large format line array at the ASB Theatre in Auckland.
The JBL VTX A12 is a dual 12" three-way line array element purpose-built for mid to large-size touring applications and high-end fixed installations.
“We wanted our guests to understand the philosophy behind the technology of the VTX A12 and then to experience first-hand the innovative new features such as the ease of set up due to the redesigned rigging system,” says Jands tour sound manager Tim Robertson. “We then gave each person the opportunity to conduct their own listening tests on the system.”
The listening tests had some varying responses from guests. “I've never tested anything so uniformly flat both on and off axis in the HF range, and they have heaps of detail there,”
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UK - Delegates who attended the 2017 PLASA Rigging Conference at London Olympia last month have hailed the new format a success, according to the event's Platinum sponsor Unusual Rigging.
The 8th annual conference commenced with the traditional opening address – this year from industry legend Morris Lyda who talked about working with the likes of Phil Collins and Genesis while addressing the key entertainment basics, their shortcomings, values, obscurities and a contemplation of its uncertainties.
The speech was brought to life by cartoonist Matt Lawrence who worked closely with Morris and Unusual's Robin Elias to create a series of drawings – as well as providing a series of tongue in cheek caricatures of those who attended the event.
This was followed by a programme of subjects for debate – the morning session was chaired by Unusual's Alan Jacobi and deba

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UK - Load Cell Rental (LCR) provided a 40-cell wireless BroadWeigh system to monitor the loadings on each lighting and audio point during the load in and load out during Adele’s Adele Live 2017 tour.
Steve Walsh, head rigger on the tour said: "As the entire rig was located in-the-round on a custom ground support, being able to load the structure evenly was essential. We're talking about a total rig of 72 tons in weight and 25m high, with four leg ground supports designed to need little to no side bracing.
“Even loading of the structure was absolutely essential from a structural point of view – we knew that the ground support was immensely strong, but it had to be loaded correctly. It was at this point we turned to Colin Luke at Load Cell Rental (LCR). I've used LCR for all of my tours over the last five years and the service and equipment they supply makes

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USA - Metallica’s WorldWired tour is pushing technological boundaries by debuting the world’s first autonomous indoor drone swarm in a major touring act and revealing a new, in-the-round stage design, custom-built by TAIT.
The fresh set and stage design by show director David Braun, give concert-goers an immersive concert experience with a 44 ft. by 44 ft. square mainstage equipped with several prop lifts located in the centre of the arena.
This in-the-round experience incorporates 52 LED video cubes which ascend and descend while displaying colourful, vivid and flashy video content. The LED video cubes hang from 52 BT290 winches housed in a 60ft by 60ft mother grid rigging system above stage. Each 4ft LED video cube moves 4ft per second and has 40ft of vertical travel space.
TAIT Navigator, an entertainment automation platform, serves as the primary s

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UK - Technical producers LarMac LIVE once again chose to bring in PRG XL Video as a supplier of video, lighting and rigging technology across multiple stages at this year’s Creamfields 2017.
PRG XL’s team supplied rigging, indoor and outdoor video screens; a broad variety of lighting; LED signage; media servers and content manipulation technicians; and broadcast equipment and support.
For all the video elements, PRG XL senior account manager Paul ‘Macca’ McCauley took care of the specifications, with project manager Ian Jones taking care of the technical delivery. For lighting, account manager, Gordon Torrington, and event services coordinator, Chris Scott, took care of the design and implementation on site.
On the main Arc (CF01) and Horizon (CF02) stages, PRG XL Video supplied festival technology including lighting, rigging and video across both struct

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UK - UK-based international entertainment industry engineering design and safety specialists and consultants BLUMANO Ltd has launched Stage DB - a unique new multi-lingual software tool for co-ordinating and collating all the necessary machinery / equipment documentation to meet production health and safety requirements.
Stage DB has been developed for BLUMANO by Lluis Diaz-Guerra, also one of three directors of the company which launched in 2014. Since then, BLUMANO has led the way in establishing important health and safety related working practices for the world of concert touring, special events and large spectaculars.
Any tour or event needs to produce a fully organised bundle of documentation, including all the mandatory certificates and reports mandated by the H&S work regulations. This is often required in different languages, all of which also have to be

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UK - The International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference (ITEAC) has confirmed TAIT Stage Technologies as the principal sponsor of the 2018 conference, taking place in London on 3-5 June 2018.
TAIT Stage Technologies is the event’s major sponsor for a fourth consecutive conference, having been one of the founder sponsors of the initial event in 2002.
ABTT chief executive, Robin Townley, comments, “The commitment to supporting ITEAC 2018 that TAIT Stage Technologies has so generously made, is hugely important to allowing the next edition to be presented.
Presented by the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT), the fifth edition of the quadrennial event will take place on Sunday 3 June, Monday 4 June and Tuesday 5 June 2018 at Savoy Place, the global engineering hub of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
A Call

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Italy - Outline GTO PA system was used during the performance of electro-funk superstars Jamiroquai at the Firenze Summer Festival held in Florence's Cascine Park.
A year after its successful deployment at a similarly memorable Florence concert by Sting, Outline’s GTO systems was once more centre stage, but with a totally different music genre.
Outline product specialist Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Perreux explained: “The PA was designed by Outline and Tuscan rental firm Emporio On Stage, based on the predictions of Outline’s Open Array 3D software.”
Angelo Catoni, owner of Emporio On Stage, added, “I’d worked with Jamiroquai FOH engineer Rick Pope in the past, so knew what he’d want for the band as far as the PA was concerned and in fact our design met with all-round satisfaction right from the paperwork stage. The enclosures respond really well

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China - Star Events introduced a 22m Orbit and two V-towers to the Chinese market in September, providing the main stage and support structures at Concrete & Grass, a two-day music festival in Shanghai.

Star has supplied the event, at Shanghai Rugby Club, for the last three years from its depot in the city and organiser Split Works moved the company to the Main Stage after its 17m Orbit roof, Stage 2, was the only performance space to withstand torrential rain in 2016.

Gavin Scott, Star Events’ special projects manager, used an 80-ton crane and a six strong crew to build the bigger stage, a significant saving in time and resources compared to the local system it replaced.

Jo Xie, operations director at Star Events China, comments: “It is still very rare to see cranes building stages in China. Most are based on scaffold tower

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USA - Quasar Science, the Los Angeles-based LED technology & logistics company has joined forces with Burbank-based Matthews Studio Equipment to create “the future of LED rigging support”.
Utilising MSE’s new MyWayGrip rigging system, the MyWayPlate Linear LED Mounting System is built for Q-LED linear lamps, making it simple to mount 1, 2 or 4 lamps off of a single stand. Or combine and configure multiple plates with optional MyWay adaptors.
“As people became familiar with the advantages of our linear LED lamps they began using them as singular fixtures but struggled with a simple and affordable mounting solution.” says Quasar CEO Steven Strong.
Up until now, LED tubes were often rigged using random clamps, tape, zip ties or other hardware not designed for the application. The combination of Quasar Science lighting technology and MSE grip support al

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UK - CPL (Central Presentations Ltd) has completed a full technical upgrade - staging, lighting, audio and AV - to the conference theatre at Heythrop Park Resort where the west Midlands-based company is also the house onsite technical support provider.
Heythrop Park Resort is a luxury venue set in 440 acres of stunning Oxfordshire Countryside and dating back to 1710. It currently has two hotels, an 18-hole golf course, a health club & spa and state-of-the-art conference facilities including a ballroom with capacity for 300 – 400 guests (in banqueting or theatre style respectively), the Conference Theatre which can hold 400 delegates and the charismatics Enstone Room for up to 200.
The latest plans have seen the addition of a marquee which can be configured as a 650-seater banqueting hall or an 800 capacity theatre space which will further expand the available res

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UK - In their fourth year of attending PLASA Show, Current RMS have ensured their focus remains on evolving their software alongside the fast-paced AV and lighting industry it was built for.
PLASA Show 2017 was “a huge success” for the Current team, meeting lots of new and existing customers while demoing their cloud-based software on-stand. It was also the perfect opportunity to show PLASA visitors exactly what’s changed in the last 12 months, with over 20 voted-for new features being released since last year’s show.
Launching a new feature, Global Check-in, on the show’s second day, Current RMS has made it even easier to keep track of inbound and outbound stock in one centralised system. The much-anticipated Global Check-in lets users scan in returned stock from multiple jobs all from one screen, perfect for those busy mornings in the warehouse when differe

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USA - In August, one of America’s largest Christian groups, the Assemblies of God, summoned youth from across the United States to its National Youth Convention and Fine Arts Festival in Anaheim, California. Held 7-11 August at the Anaheim Convention Centre, an important centrepiece of the event was a large stage set up used for presentations, services and evening concert celebrations, much of which was live streamed.
Elation dealer Illuminate Production Services provided a large Elation lighting and video rig for the five-day gathering with IPS’s Caleb Franke handling lighting design duties. IPS, headed by Caleb’s father Rick Franke, worked on the project with Jerry Dahlberg of DC Productions and used a wide variety of Elation gear on the event.
With Assembly of God church students from all across the nation in attendance, and the 10,000-seat capacity venue host

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UAE - After 18 years of producing some of the region’s most memorable shows, Protec – a Dubai-headquartered event technical and staging solutions company, continues to deliver extraordinary experiences through its creative technical skills.
Company founder and CEO Stephen Lakin said: “We have seen the events industry evolve considerably over the last 18 years since I started the company. Technology has grown, creativity has become bolder and audience engagement now plays a crucial role in every event. Our clients are spending more time on developing bespoke events, creatively using content with technology to immerse and involve their audiences into their story’s environment.
“Technology continues to play an important role and new technologies are guiding content developers to dig deeper into their creative talents to make full use of the technical reso

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Singapore - Automation and motion control specialists and manufacturer Kinesys has appointed a new distributor in Singapore - Total Solution.
The move underlines the increased trend for motion control and movement systems becoming a visual element of live shows, events and spectaculars.
Kinesys MD Dave Weatherhead said: “There’s been a surge of interest in Kinesys in Asia generally in the last two to three years, and the timing of this deal is perfect for us to capitalize on this and increase our brand exposure and market share. Total Solution is a strong company that is well-established and respected, and we’re looking forward to a very positive working relationship.”
Total Solution was founded by Glenn Wong in 1998 and works with a number of premium lighting, rigging and AV brands across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
Glenn commented:

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UAE - With the delivery of a large batch of over 500 pieces of LiteDeck staging platforms, Prolyte Group and Fruition Events LLC embark on a fruitful cooperation in the Middle East region.
Prolyte Group will deliver the LiteDeck staging elements in two batches, the first to be completed in September, just in time for the start of the season in the Middle East region. The second to complete later in October.
Fruition Events aims to become a recognised event delivery partner in the Middle East region.
They choose to achieve this through continuous investment into a world-class team of industry professionals and sustainable product lines that can meet creative challenges. They focus on offering a professional and full-service infrastructure for the events sector. Fruition Events have extensive regional experience and can boast varied strategic partnerships, guarante

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UK - East Anglia-based CEG has recently launched its new website (www.ceghirepro.uk) which includes a hire catalogue allowing customer to get a real-time view of inventory information and availability.
Working closely with rental management software experts, Current-RMS, CEG has created its website using the API (Application Programming Interface) provided by Current to help build these industry-first features, which give CEG’s customers access and control as never seen before.
CEG’s director Ben Bowles explained: “When we started this project back in 2016, we worked closely with Chris Branson and his team at Current RMS to see how we could build our new website using the functionality built within Current. From the start of the project we were keen to incorporate some ground-breaking features into the hire catalogue and rental account sections of the website -

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Europe - Entertainment engineering experts WIcreations has constructed several major set elements and developed associated rigging systems for the spectacular stage architecture designed by Stufish for the Rolling Stones’ No Filter European tour.
WI’s team, led by Hans Willems and Koen Peeters, had to create a cantilevered stage roofing system above the main performance area; devise a method for rigging and securing four 23m x 11m LED video screens to the front of four large steel towers; and build two mobile technical areas.
Koen Peeters has worked on previous Rolling Stones Tours in 1998, 2002 and 2005. He said: “It’s great to be back working with the band and an amazing creative and technical team. We have really enjoyed the challenges and the collaboration, and I think the end results are something of which we can all be proud.”
After discuss

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UK - The 40th anniversary of the PLASA Show saw its refocussed direction paying dividends, with an increase in visitor numbers, a sold-out show floor and a 25% increase in the number of audio companies exhibiting. Exhibitors reported continually busy stands and a high quality of visitor across all three days, with a particular increase in the number of international attendees, whilst visitors were pleased with the number of brand new products on show and the content rich seminar programme.
“The quality of the people was bang on,” says Mick Hannaford from the show’s platinum sponsor, Robe. “The amazing thing from our point of view was the amount of lighting designers attending, especially on the Sunday, and not just from the UK, but mainland Europe, too. It was a really impressive. Undoubtedly, the move back to West London is making that happen. Every time I looked, t

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South Africa - To cater for theatre productions Priscilla Queen of the Desert (South Africa & Hong Kong Season), The Sound of Music (Asian tour 2017/18) and Evita (South African & Asian tour 2017/18), South African based Gearhouse Splitbeam, a theatre equipment rental company, has invested in 90 additional Prolyft motors and six controllers supplied by DWR Distribution. Alistair Kilbee is the managing director of Splitbeam and writes on his experience with the brand and why he went this route.
“I have always liked the Prolyft brand and this purchase made sense as we already had a stock holding of 57 Prolyft motors (1 Ton & ¼ Ton). The new acquisition, consisting of 85 Prolyte Prolyft Aetos 1 Ton and five Prolyte Prolyft Aetos 2 Ton, all in cases, along with six Aetos Pro range low voltage 8-way control, fits in nicely with our current stoc

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UK - On its first ever public outing at PLASA 2017, Le Mark’s new PAL Label Challenge was attempted by some of the shows strongest visitors and exhibitors, but remained completely undefeated.
“The PAL Label Challenge is so much fun. It gets really competitive between friends and colleagues but so far, no one has made it budge.” Said Le Mark’s marketing & strategy manager, Mark Gibbons.
What’s the PAL Label Challenge? Le Mark wanted an entertaining way to demonstrate the raw strength of the adhesive they use in selected PAL Road Case Labels. With the help of with 5 Star Cases, they designed a set of flight case plates, fitted with heavy duty handles and stuck them together using the very same super-strength foam adhesive used in their foam-backed PAL Labels. The challenge is to see if anyone has the strength to pull them apart.
With no one successful

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UK - Tourflex Cabling, the cable manufacturing division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (AC-ET), has launched its new dedicated website - www.tourflex-cabling.com.
Tourflex Cabling builds cable assemblies to customers' specific requirements in its manufacturing facility in High Wycombe, not far from London. The level of customisation even goes down to adding specific heat shrink labelling, RFIDs and barcodes as required by the client. Typical customers include rental and production companies, as well as venues and installers.
Phill Capstick, AC-ET’s managing director said: "Custom cable assemblies for Entertainment, Film and TV is an important part of the business, but it’s always been difficult to explain the full range of what we’re able to do as there are thousands of options. Having a dedicated site for Tourflex Cabling helps us to do this.
Ou

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UK - Lighting and rigging dry hire specialist Nexus has launched a new brand identity as part of its wider business growth plans.
The company, which earlier in the year secured private investment from motor finance giants Evolution Funding, has introduced the new corporate identity to represent their position in the market and their vision for the future.
Tom Agar, Nexus managing director, explained: “This year has been a rollercoaster, with lots of exciting developments. We’ve invested nearly £1m in new stock over the last six months, including significant new purchases from Martin Professional, SGM, Robe, MA, ETC, and INDU.
“We’re securing contracts from all over the globe and a shift in our business model means we are now buying everything in quantity to ensure we have enough stock to service even the most onerous demands.
“We felt it was time
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  4. Ten 47 launches Powerline QC at PLASA 2017
  5. ÉPIX Strip IPs create memorable stage setting
  6. MDG Celebrates 40 Years of PLASA London
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