Absen has signed a partnership agreement with SQM as the company’s official distributor in Poland. SQM will have exclusive rights over the sale and distribution of the Aries AX1.5, the world’s first MiniLED rental display, in the Polish rental staging market. Headquartered in Poznan, Poland, SQM provides multimedia and audio-visual rental services for trade fairs, conferences and events across Europe. The company has recently added over 100 sqm of Absen’s AX1.5 product – part of the Aries MiniLED rental series – to its inventory, making it one of the few partners to be able to offer rental customers such a…
Author: James Robertson
NEXO is kicking off the new year by unveiling two new compact point source loudspeaker models in its P+ Series. The P8 and P10 are true multi-purpose performers that have serious ambitions to become just as ubiquitous in the audio marketplace as their predecessors, the classic PS Series cabinets that made NEXO’s global reputation. The P8 arrives exactly 20 years after the launch of the PS8, a super-compact stage monitor and PA speaker which, together with the larger PS10 (launched 1993), became a staple product in rental inventory for AV and audio production companies, and a common sight in fixed…
The HiJinx Festival of Electronic Dance Music marked its second year with a return to Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Convention Center where Production Designer Cort Lawrence ramped up the excitement with Ayrton Huracán-X fixtures for dynamic graphics and colourful effects. ACT Lighting is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton fixtures in North America. HiJinx drew crowds of approximately 25,000 on December 27 and 28, 2019 with headliners such as Bassnectar, Excision, Slander, GRiZ, Porter Robinson, Skrillex and Zeds Dead. Following the success of its inaugural year in 2018, the festival occupied a bigger portion of the convention centre and staged a bigger show…
The Live Design International Conference and Tradeshow (LDI) has firmed up its experiential design foundations by joining the Questex stable. The move follows the runaway success of LDI2019, held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in November, which reported record attendance from an array of both established and first-time exhibitors. Armed with these figures, it is now aligning its mission for growth in the experiential sector with Questex, which has US offices in New York, Boston and Washington DC. “This exciting development allows us to provide our audience and exhibitors with even better experiences, professional training, and engagement as Questex…
d&b audiotechnik will join over 100,000 audio and music professionals attending the 2020 NAMM show in Anaheim from January 16 – 19. At the d&b booth #18107 show attendees will be able to learn about the new addition to the acclaimed SL-Series line array family, as well as the augmented array A-Series, which combines the flexibility of point source clusters with the extensive control of d&b line arrays. In the d&b demonstration room #18816 there will be presentations of various technologies that elevate the listening experience both in the audience and on stage. Demos will specifically feature the A-Series augmented…
A large complement of Claypaky lighting fixtures hit the road with Mexican pop rock band Maná when the multi-Grammy Award winners launched their North American Rayando el Sol Tour in September. Maná was founded in Mexico in 1986 and has become one of the most successful rock bands in Latin music history. It has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and won four Grammys and eight Latin Grammys. The Rayando el Sol Tour kicked off in September in Corpus Christi, Texas and wrapped in Los Angeles in December playing more than 30 dates. Their seven-show LA appearance at The…
The sixth annual SonRise Music Festival returned to the Virginia Beach oceanfront in 2019, with talent including American Idol finalist Colton Dixon and the rock bands Disciple and Anthem Lights. To maintain the frenetic pace needed to prepare, soundcheck, and move 20 acts across its stage over a two-day time span, the faith-based event called upon the flexibility and speed of dLive C3500 and SQ-7 mixing systems from Allen & Heath. “We were working with 10 artists per day,” related front of house engineer Sonny Smith of S&S Production Services, which did sound and lighting for the festival. “Even with…
Keeping pace with the ever-increasing demand for its products in the Caribbean and Central America, Chauvet has added highly regarded lighting specialist Luis Varona to its team. Varona, who has spent over 15 years as an executive at leading companies in the region, joins Chauvet as Business Development Manager for the Caribbean and Central America. He will be responsible for CHAUVET Professional and CHAUVET DJ products in that market. “Luis is well-known and respected throughout the region,” said Stéphane Gressier, Chauvet’s International Sales Director. “As a result of his varied experience, he has a deep, personal understanding of how lighting…
Versatility was the watchword at CHAUVET Professional when the company’s design team developed the new Rogue R1 Beam Wash. Capable of producing intense beam effects one moment and soft colour washes the next, the compact fixture was engineered to be a flexible and reliable workhorse on any rig, whether on tours, or at live music venues, festivals, theatres, and events. “The R1 Beam Wash was developed in response to feedback from designers and rental houses who wanted a fixture capable of filling a variety of roles often during the same project,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “We included a…
When it comes to launching a brand with a real ‘wow’ factor, Novatech Creative Entertainment Technology (NCET) is arguably one of the best-placed companies to deliver. It proved its reputation once again this November with an impressive re-branding event for Australian painted steel business Nexteel, in both Adelaide and Perth. Brompton Technology LED processors were chosen to support the stunning array of large LED screens, which were suspended above the stage and delivered pulsing content, teasing the audience with what was in store. Tasked with ‘breaking the usual norms’ for the project, Novatech deployed two Brompton Tessera SX40 processors along…
Peter L. Spadaro III was just about to take a break from a busy touring schedule when he got a call to light a show by the up and coming jam-funk band Goose. Much as he might have wanted some down time, Spadaro, the LD for the red hot Citizen Cope and Matisyahu, jumped at the chance to light the quartet when he received a call from their guitarist/keyboard player Peter Anspach asking if he could fill in for their regular designer. “It was an easy decision,” said Spadaro, who had just finished a tour the day before. “As a…
Light artist and designer Christopher Bauder and composer / music producer Kanding Ray brought their epic immersive kinetic light / sonic art piece SKALAR to Mexico City for a 5-week installation, which also featured seven live shows in Fronton Mexico, on the Plaza de la Republica, right in the heart of this massive vibrant megalopolis. Ninety Robe Pointe moving lights plus 65 x double-sided mirrors each with a perimeter ring of 180 addressable pixels and suspended on 195 x custom WHITEvoid motors … were at the core of the work. SKALAR premiered at Kraftwerk in Berlin last year. The former…
Tom Sutherland of DX7 Design, along with creative director Brian Burke, provided lighting and production design for country singer Keith Urban’s Summer Festival Tour, which has been running this past year. The lighting rig comprised mainly GLP’s popular X4 Bars and JDC1 hybrid strobes. As well as providing creative direction for Urban, Tom has already made a name for himself Stateside, winning the KOI Sword last year for his work on Pitbull’s Las Vegas residency and tour. The Keith Urban tour also had a Las Vegas segment thrown in, with a spot at the CMT Awards in Nashville and two…
POLAR, supplier of key industry brands to the installation, MI and professional audio markets, has announced the promotion of Will Turney to the position of National Sales Manager for its Integrated Solutions Division. Turney will lead POLAR’s seven-strong sales team, covering the company’s extensive network of systems integrators across the UK. POLAR is very much on an upward trajectory and with yet more new and diverse technologies coming on stream next year, sees it as vital that its field sales management continues to work smoothly and efficiently for customers and suppliers. Stuart Leader, Integrated Solutions Director, is in no doubt…
Even after 40 years on the market, the legendary General Purpose (GP) truss series from JTE is still one of the world’s most popular multi-purpose systems. Superior performance for medium-sized projects is delivered via its super safe and stable plated connection system and classic bracing pattern. This type of truss is also the industry standard for film productions, which use it to build huge “lanterns” or “reflective panels” for indoor/outdoor applications. The General Purpose truss series consists of two sizes, the 30.5 by 30.5 cm GP30 and 52 by 52cm GP52, which are able to handle a wide variety of…
Blackmagic Design announced that live video for the European dates of Little Mix’s LM5 Tour was delivered by the LED Shed, who relied on acquisition and control hardware from Blackmagic Design. The solution featured URSA Mini Pro fiber chains and ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K. LM5: The Tour is the sixth concert tour by British pop girl group, Little Mix. Opening at the WiZink Center in Madrid in September, the European tour has spanned 40 shows in total, concluding at London’s O2 Arena. A multicamera fiber workflow was deployed for acquisition and IMAG relay, with two URSA Mini Pro cameras in the pit on a track…
SLX was sold last month, separating it from former sister company Stage Electrics. As a result of this separation the Chief Executive and now new owner, Alastair Currie, promised investment. It appears the hire and events company have wasted no time, with numerous new stock announcements made, including a £250,000.00 spend on SGM fixtures. The investment places SLX as the biggest stockist in the South West of the SGM IP rated LED fixtures used for professional stage lighting, broadcast lighting and architectural installations. Chief Executive and Owner of SLX, Alastair Currie, says: “The new roster of SGM fixtures now on…
Norwegian DJ and record producer, Alan Walker is currently out on his latest ‘Aviation’ tour across China, India and Norway, along with an Allen & Heath dLive Wings system handling both FOH and monitor duties. One of Norway’s biggest EDM music exports, Walker performs with various third-party software, as well as a live band and requires a complex setup. The engineers needed a small and lightweight system to fly around the world, which could also handle a high I/O count via several protocols, such as Waves SoundGrid, Dante and MADI in order to interface with third-party systems. Supplied by audio production company, Sonic…
