On the opening day of ISE (11 – 14 February 2020) Absen launched a new super-lightweight touring solution for rental stagers. The Venus (VN) Series is an innovative LED display that has been specifically designed for concerts and festivals due to its ability to create super-sized screens at speed. The product features a highly unique integrated ‘module-on-frame’ design. By removing the sub-frame (cabinet frame), Venus is 27% lighter than competing solutions. In fact, at 27.5 kg/sqm, it is the lightest integrated touring display solution on the market, allowing creative teams to cut back on weight, save cost and build even…
Author: Jacob Waite
CODA Audio launches a brand new ultra-compact three-way line array at this year’s ISE show in Amsterdam. N-RAY places the benefits of CODA’s flagship AiRAY technology into a shallow, lightweight cabinet perfect for theatres, performing-arts centres and corporate events. N-RAY is part of CODA’s latest N-Series, a range of lightweight, compact systems with the efficiency and power to rival much larger and heavier loudspeaker systems. N-RAY incorporates the very latest in driver and system design technology, delivering twice the power handling and SPL, as well as significantly more low-frequency output, when compared to other systems. It delivers high-fidelity sound with…
Funktion-One has launched two compact loudspeaker models – the F5 speaker and the SB8 bass unit. The Funktion-One F5 is a unique loudspeaker innovation, which offers an extremely balanced and natural sound quality that’s not often found in loudspeakers of its size. The F5’s ultra-compact dimensions and high output mean it is suited to a wide range of applications, including distributed public address systems, bars and restaurants, as well as domestic applications, such as home cinemas, desktop monitoring and home music systems. The F5 features a Funktion-One bespoke wide-range, high-sensitivity 5” driver, an integrated high pass filter for low frequency…
Ocean conservation organisation Project Zero HAS announced Zero Carbon Roadie, an innovative carbon calculator that is set to support touring musicians’ efforts to mitigate their carbon footprints. This brand-new tool can be used by music artists to reduce their impact on the environment resulting from travel, haulage, power generation and other activities that are part and parcel of touring. The tool uses the latest greenhouse gas emissions data to calculate total emissions and provide a picture of a tour’s overall carbon footprint. Project Zero Trustee Tyrone Wood says “Like so many facets of society, the music touring industry wants to…
Emerging victorious after an extensive tender period, Dutch supplier Ampco Flashlight was selected to supply audio, lights and rigging for the 65th Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena, broadcast live in May 2020. First equipment load-in and build-up commences early April, however, the preparations are already in full swing. Dick van Berkum, CEO Ampco Flashlight remarked: “We are extremely pleased and proud to be able to cooperate on this unique worldwide event, organised and supplied by Dutch professionals. It is an honour that after ESC Lisbon 2018, where we supplied lights and rigging, we have now…
How did you fall into the world of live touring? “Touring came after around a five-year real-world apprenticeship of pushing boxes, patching and fixing cables, plugging-in speakers and generally hoofing around the pubs and working men’s clubs in the North of England. I spent years working with a Nottingham-based PA company, MerlinPA, starting at the bottom of the audio rental ladder, and worked hard until we got onto the corporate ball circuit. That’s also when I got the chance to mix my first big artists, including Liberty X, Hear’Say and S Club 7.” You’ve worked as both a live sound…
https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpifeb20_digitallr/78 www.outboard.co.uk
https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpifeb20_digitallr/76 www.l-acoustics.com
Presented by The NAMM Foundation annually, the TEC Awards continues to recognise the exemplary achievements and innovations behind the world of professional recording, live performances, films, television, video games and multimedia. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpifeb20_digitallr/14 Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for NAMM www.namm.org
The past 12 months in the live events sector have certainly been momentous, with a number of major acquisitions and mergers taking place. The latest announcement, released prior to the festive break, came from UK-based loudspeaker manufacturer, Martin Audio. One month on from the news of the company’s acquisition by Focusrite, TPi grabbed five minutes away from the busy NAMM Show floor to chat to Focusrite CEO Tim Carroll and Martin Audio’s Dominic Harter, to discover what the landmark move means for both businesses. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpifeb20_digitallr/12 www.focusrite.com www.martin-audio.com
PSCo has made a large investment to expand its trade rental fleet. The deal will see the company carry huge volumes of matched-batch LED stock, available for both hire and sale. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpifeb20_digitallr/20 Photos: PSCo www.psco.co.uk www.absen.com
For the past 10 years – in one form or another – lighting specialist ADJ has invited the industry to visit its Los Angeles HQ for Open House events. For the past six years, this gathering has taken place prior to the first day of The NAMM Show, giving visitors of the tradeshow the opportunity to explore the company’s warehouse and discover some of ADJ’s latest products. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpifeb20_digitallr/18 Photos: ADJ www.adj.com
Famed for their theatrical and macabre stage shows, Ghost have become a force to be reckoned with on the live touring circuit, garnering the respect of rock and metal fans alike. With four albums under their belt, 2019 saw the masked Swedish musicians join non-other than Metallica on the European legs of the metal titan’s WorldWired tour. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpifeb20_digitallr/16 Photos: Victory Event www.ghost-official.com www.victory.dk
After hitting the jackpot in Las Vegas during its Annual Product Showcase in early January, Eleven Engineering, followed that up one week later in Anaheim, Calif. by rocking the 2020 NAMM Show with SKAA Pro. “Our theme for 2020 is ‘Let the people party, any way they want!’ ” explained Rex Whitehead, Eleven Engineering executive vice president, sales & marketing. “During CES, we focused on multi-point and multi-cell technology, highlighting SKAA’s ability to not only do multi-point but also have more than one SKAA cell going at once even in one system. This allows the user to freely mix SKAA…
In a watershed moment where professional AV makes its first substantive presence on the cloud, start-up-turned global player, LEA Professional today debuted the LEA Professional Cloud Platform at ISE 2020. The platform provides systems integrators with powerful, reliable and secure remote monitoring and control capabilities across the entire lineup of IoT enabled LEA Professional Connect Series amplifiers. Unique within the industry, all LEA Professional amplifiers leverage the built-in Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT Core. The platform allows integrators to monitor critical operational data points that are integral to maintaining system health remotely. The capability delivers greater visibility to provide preventative…
Universal Pixels has made a significant acquisition of disguise equipment, responding to increasing demand in theatre and an overarching determination to remain at the forefront of designers and production engineers’ needs. Universal Pixels (UP) has added multiple disguise gx 2c media servers, as well as SDI VFC and HDMI VFC cards, to its rental stock as it continues its expansion in a range of markets. The company, which prides itself on a flexible and attentive approach to all of its projects, made the investment to meet the evolving creative demands of video designers. UP’s Ollie Luff commented: “We’ve always got…
At the age of 25, burgeoning Southampton-based audio system engineer Oli Crump has already played a significant role in a range of projects during his brief time in the live events industry. His work as an audio project manager at the Lion’s Den stage of Boomtown Chapter 11: A Radical City saw him go on to win Young Freelancer of the Year Award at the TPi Breakthrough Talent Awards last year. Following the trophy scoop, TPi checked in with Crump to discover what’s next on his bucket list. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpifeb20_digitallr/70 Photo: Mark Cunningham www.productionfutures.co.uk www.olicrump.co.uk
POLAR has appointed US-based professional amplifier manufacturer LEA Professional as an exclusive distributor in the UK and Republic of Ireland. This bold new company has been in existence since January 2019, when a team of industry veterans with more than 200 years combined experience in the sector, steered by founder and CEO Blake Augsburger, set out to imagine a new approach to audio technology. Since its inception, LEA has moved swiftly to become a major industry player, focused on merging IoT (Internet of Things) technology with professional amplification. LEA’s Connect Series range, with standard and Dante-enabled options, addresses the needs…
