When the Empire Theatre burned down in 1933, it marked the start of a glorious rebirth. Located in Toowoomba, two hours from Brisbane in Australia, residents have fought to preserve this Art Deco treasure. ‘Within nine months it had been rebuilt to what we see now,’ says Steve Alexander from the theatre technical department. ‘The proscenium is Australian Heritage listed, and any changes at the theatre have to fulfil more than just technical expectations.’
The air is thick with discussion of Audio Video Bridging. So thick, in fact, that it’s more confusing than enlightening to those not directly involved – and to some of those who are.
Whether you’re walking a trade show floor or surfing the industry’s social media groups, AVB can be as hard to escape as it is to understand. You need to know more...

The opening of a brand new ‘world-class’ recording facility is uncommon news these days. Uncommon in the world's former 'recording centres', anyway, but not Costa Rica...
Because a world-class studio is what the Malvicino Design Group and Guitar Center Professional have given studio engineer – and now studio owner – Federico Hencker.
There is a gathering realisation within the global concert production industry that it is facing a major skills gap. This is principally caused by the steady departure of a generation of people who, in many cases, could be considered to be the founding fathers of the industry, and who have never worked in any other sphere.
Without suitable people to step in, we have a critical problem...
In today’s world, where technology advances by the day, it is very difficult to choose between software tools and DAWs. Almost have good audio engines and the tools to create fantastic sounding mixes. So it is workflow and add-ons that make the difference.
While each one has its own set of unique features, Ableton Live, along with Cycling ’74, looks to have set a benchmark in DAW innovation.
This week saw the announcement that the SAE Group is to be acquired by Navitas, a broader-based educational (and considerably younger) operation. 'The acquisition represents the next phase in SAE's ongoing growth,' said SAE Institute President Tom Misner.
Fast-and-Wide turned to business analyst Linguabrand for a look into the two companies' brand language...


Taking cult sci-fi figure Dr Who from the small screen onto the stages of nine major UK arenas around the UK was no small feat for events specialist XL Events and sound, lighting and audiovisual solutions company Adlib Audio. Visuals, pyrotechnics and video content were accompanied by Murray Gold’s scores, delivered by a 16-piece orchestra and combined with cast dialogue, choir, additional orchestral stems, VT playback character dialogue and special effects.

I recall a novel demonstration of audio cable given at an IBC show a few years back. Well, it was as much a demonstration of a piece of wet string as what you’d call audio cabling. In fact it was just that – a simple playback system using wet string to help deliver the Eagles’ trade show eternal demonstration favourite, ‘Hotel California’.