LOS ANGELES – Electrosonic has promoted Rob Smith to sales manager of the Cultural Entertainment and Leisure (CEL) business for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Smith joined Electrosonic in 2010 as client account manager for the CEL team. Smith has spent 20 years in the AV industry. Before that, he served in the Royal Air Force as an avionics engineer.
Read More »PITTSBURGH, PA – Vincent Lighting Systems, Mainstage Theatrical Supply and Production Advantage have announced that they are merging to form a new lighting, rigging and staging company, MainStage, LLC, with locations in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Pensacola, Pittsburgh, Tampa and Burlington, VT. Paul Vincent will serve as the president of the newly-formed company. All three companies will continue service as normal until the merger is completed.
Read More »SYRACUSE, NY – The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) is providing free rigging inspections and safety training at high schools around the country through its Rigging Safety Initiative. It selects 10 schools twice a year – spring and fall – for its service, and the newest list of schools was just announced. Deadline is April 1 to apply for consideration in spring.
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LONDON – British rockers Level 42 celebrated the 25th anniversary of their hit-producing album Running in the Family with a performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall. LD Yenz Nyholm’s design included 12 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 700s.
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LAKE ORION, MI – High Resolution Systems introduces UDC Pro ECS-Raptor, a UDC Pro Embedded Control Server designed for permanent AV installs. Raptor teams up with the company’s UDC software to offer a cost-effective, stable hardware/software solution for long-term installations in a range of environments. A Linux-embedded server, Raptor significantly lowers costs to users over full-blown Windows servers while significantly lowering power usage. It begins shipping in February.
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AUCKLAND, New Zealand—LightFactory, the PC-based control system, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Founder/CEO Martin Searancke says he developed LightFactory out of a passion for the industry and a knack for writing code. LightFactory blends traditional theatrical dimmer controls with a full-featured, interactive moving lights suite and the latest in multimedia capabilities.
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OSLO – Lighting director Nick Collier chose Philips Vari-Lite VL3000 Spot luminaires for the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert to honor Nobel laureates on Dec. 11 at the Oslo Spektrum Arena. Collier has taken over the lighting design duties from original designer Al Gurdon. Performers included Jennifer Hudson, Kylie Minogue and others.
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BILLERICA, MA– Broadcast Pix has hired industry veteran Steve Ellis as its president and CEO, effective Feb. 11. He will also be a member of the company’s board of directors. Broadcast Pix co-founder and CEO, Ken Swanton, will remain actively involved with the company and on the board. Since 2008 Ellis has served as vice president of Telestream.
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TAMPA, FL and COLUMBUS, OH — Daktronics (Brookings, SD) has provided new integrated video, scoring and audio systems for hockey venues this season, including one of the largest HD center-hung display configurations at the Tampa Bay Times Forum for the Tampa Bay Lightning (pictured left) and a significant upgrade to Nationwide Arena for the Columbus Blue Jackets (pictured below).
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WASHINGTON, DC – For the third time, GoVision LED screens provided visual support for a presidential inauguration ceremony. For the public ceremony staged Jan. 21, five mobile LED screens – including a high-definition mobile LED unit – were positioned on both sides of the U.S. Capitol’s steps, and at the head of the National Mall. CNN also contracted with GoVision to construct a 10 by 17 foot modular LED screen for its broadcast set, pictured here.
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STOCKHOLM – Swedish LD Henrik Lundin, a member of the Stockholm-based company Satellite Live, he recently been touring with eight of SGM’s new X-5 LED strobes. They were provided from the new office, SGM Sweden, headed by Mikael Uddh. “Because we were often visiting clubs with limited access to power, the X-5, with its low power draw when compared with the traditional energy hungry xenon sources, became a natural choice,” he says.
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