Bill Sapsis, founder of Sapsis Rigging, provided the training.

It’s good to have a story about rigging in the news that is about proactive safety: Sapsis Rigging provided fall arrest equipment and the training on how to use it correctly to the national touring production of War Horse.

RC4 Wireless dimming systems are now available to rent.

Want to create some magic lighting props, but don’t have the cash to spend purchasing the gear you’ll need from RC4Wireless? Now you can rent the gear  you need for the effect you want. A typical rig from RC4 Wireless of their RC4Magic DMXio transmitter and a pair of DMX2dim 2-channel wireless dimmers costs $1257 retail—but can be rented for $284.50 per month.

NATEAC takes place July 22 and 23

NATEAC is bringing the knowledge, and the star power. In addition to their sessions helping architects, engineers, consultants and manufacturers create better theatres, the keynote address will be given by Richard Pilbrow—one of the most revered theatre designers and lighting designers and founder of Theatre Project Consultants.

Evita uses more than 100 moving lights. The focus was documented by FocusTrack.

On the Broadway revival of Evita there are 110 moving head fixtures from ETC, Martin, Vari-Lite and PRG (The Best Boy 4000 made its Broadway debut on the show) with more than 900 focuses. Recording focus and position data for all those fixtures, and documenting it with photos of the looks was a gargantuan task—which the lighting team accomplished in three hours thanks to FocusTrack, which coordinates console data, light positions, and a digital camera to automate the documentation process.

The Robe Robin LEDWash 1200 now comes with LumenRadio’s CRMX platform

Robe has added LumenRadio’s CRMX wireless technology as a standard feature in all of its Robin products as a standard feature. The CRMX system is a wireless data transfer platform that supports RDM (Remote Device Management), DALI, Art-Net, Streaming ACN, ETCNet, ShowNet, Pathport and KiNet 1 & 2.

The classic Show Boat at Lyric Opera of Chicago was the first production there to use audio reinforcement.

Lyric Opera of Chicago recently produced the musical theatre classic, Show Boat, but they did it in a decidedly modern way for them: They broke with tradition and used loudspeakers. Opera is one of the last bastions of unamplified sound, and its devotees are exceptionally sensitive to that fact, which meant that the company was very careful when choosing a Meyer Sound line array system made up of 10 M2D line array loudspeakers, 16 MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers, two CQ-1 loudspeakers, and one 700-HP subwoofer.

Greg Thymium of the LEAP OF FAITH woodwinds section plays into Neumann TLM 103 D digital microphone in the low position and a Neumann KM 184 D digital microphone in the overhead position (photo: Cheryl Fleming).

Leap of Faith, the new Tony-nominated musical with a score by Alan Menken, uses 12 Neumann digital mics in the orchestra pit. At Masque Sound’s suggestion, Sound Designer John Shivers and Associate Sound Designer/Mixer David Patridge specified Neumann digital mics on the brass and woodwind sections of the orchestra. The mics are fed into a Neumann DMI then mixed on a DiGiCo SD7 digital console. Shivers and Partridge appreciated the more “transparent” sound of the microphones, as well as the ability to remotely manage and pads or shelving effects applied to the mics.

The Spa Theatre in Poland uses Renkus-Heinz CF-Series speakers in a line array configuration.

The Spa Theatre, locatec in Jelenia Góra, Poland, was built in 1836 and today serves mainly as a theatre for children’s productions, although it recently went through a giant-sized renovation. Entertainment tech specialists M. Ostrowski supplied the lighting, audio and stage management systems for the renovation and for audio they chose the Renkus Heinz CF-series loudspeakers.

The Rose Brand & Fan Choice Awards are now accepting nominations of scenic designs.

Rose Brand has long had a Hollywood office, but this year they really went Hollywood, providing the drapery for the 2012 Academy Awards. They had such a good time doing it, they’ve been inspired to create an award of their own. Rose Brand is now accepting submissions for the Rose Brand and Fan Choice Awards. Scenic and event designers can nominate their work (or others’ work) in two categories: Best Scenic/Set Design and Best Environment Design.

Ravensridge by T.S. Cook is one of the new titles from Original Works Publishing.

Original Works Publishing has released five new titles: two full-length plays and three one-acts. The new full-length plays are Ravensridge, by T.S. Cook and Armless, by OBIE-award winner Kyle Jarrow. New one acts are: 3boys, by Becca Schlossberg; Counselor by Stephen Cedars; and Traffic Jam, by Jennifer Bogush. All titles are also available in Kindle editions.