Sydney’s new 2,000 seat theatre – build underway

Who knew? We sure didn’t, but then again we don’t hang around Rooty Hill – 45 minutes west of the Sydney CBD where the local club (NSW’s largest) is remarkably investing 100 million to build the Western Sydney Performing Arts Centre. With unprecedented scale, design and facilities, in close proximity to Sydney’s new airport and positioned…

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Rumours, Bits & Bytes. Wed 22 November

Well known industry guy, Thomas Kelly joins NAS in Sydney as of next Monday, departing Midwich. Prior that he was at Hills, enjoying some of Ted Pretty’s guidance. The (former) supreme leader of Hills is currently at a listed startup called Covata – which he says ‘listed too early, promised too much, delivered too little’. He…

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Bic Runga Drives JBL VTX A12 on Anniversary Tour

New Zealand’s most awarded individual artist Bic Runga has celebrated the 20th anniversary since the release of her debut album with a New Zealand tour. Regarded as one of the most iconic albums in New Zealand history, her first album Drive was released in August 1997. It achieved platinum status seven times and won the…

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Opera on the Beach

Features Opera on the Beach The idea of transforming the sands of Coolangatta Beach into the Egyptian shoreline for an alfresco production of Aida looked good on paper. Unfortunately Queensland turned on some rather unseasonable weather which resulted in a lot of sand, wind, more sand plus some rain and more sand. It also resulted…

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Art From Science: The FFT

Tech Tools Art From Science: The FFT By Simon Byrne. The progress of loudspeaker development has benefited greatly from computers. Once manufacturers had access to enough processing grunt, it meant they could develop their designs dramatically, both acoustically and electronically. For example, the concept of a line array has been around since 1957 when Harry…

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Listen Here – The Bleeding Obvious

REGULARS If you’re at a show and the mix is clearly up a certain creek without a paddle, are you someone who finally says “enough!” and storms the FOH position, or do you suffer in silence? Listen Here – The Bleeding Obvious By Andy Stewart. Last Saturday night I went to a gig straight after…

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Rumours, Bits & Bytes

15th November edition Previously we pondered the prevalence of success that has smiled on some people in the lighting trade. Millionaires like Richard White (Wise Tech is worth 1.6 billion), John Gunton (Dynalight was sold for gazillions) and of course theatre supremo Stephen Found (Bytecraft was split in half and sold twice!) all started in…

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Drake’s Boy Meets World tour

By Cat Strom. Grammy-Award winning artist Drake toured his record breaking Boy Meets World tour around Australia and New Zealand. As a massive influence in the hip-hop and contemporary music space and the most streamed artist on Spotify and Apple Music, Drake has never not been in the Hot 100 charts since debuting in the…

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LDI opens in Vegas on Friday

The annual LDI Show promises much when the doors open at the Las Vegas Convention Centre on Friday. Inconveniently scheduled across the weekend (who does this?) the show has traditionally been strong on lighting and supported by some audio and screen firms. A strong contingent of Australians are there, and although this may be slightly…

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d&b GSL ‘A destroyer of worlds’

The new top end, biggest member of d&b’s line array family is not a replacement for the iconic J Series. GSL is instead a system that delivers much more SPL and full broadband directivity control, for the largest events. GSL8 is loaded with two newly designed 14” woofers for low end, and a single 10”…

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Duets – Todd McKenney & Georgie Parker

Roadskills Duets – Todd McKenney & Georgie Parker By Cat Strom. Todd McKenney and Georgie Parker, two of Australia’s most respected entertainers joined forces to bring their favourite duets to the stage for a tour somewhat obviously called ‘Duets’. Sound engineer was our own Jimmy Den-Ouden (we’re not afraid of nepotism here!) who not only…

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