Austria - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the appointment of Schneider Audio Concept Vertriebs GmbH (SAC) as its distributor for Austria.

Based in St. Leonhard am Forst in central Austria, SAC was founded in 2001 by its current management team who each have more than 25 years' experience in the professional audio industry. With a portfolio of premium brands, the company is strongly focused on delivering the highest level of service and technical support for its customers in the installation market.

"SAC has a well-established network of installers and integrators in the installation sector and will provide Community with great distribution," commented Community's EMEA sales manager, Jamie Ward. "Equally important is their first-class technical backup and su

UK - Artistic Licence recently devised a solution for the complex lighting control requirements at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, a conference venue in Westminster, London. The centre was in the final stages of a major refit. Main contractor, Overbury had brought in Delmatic to install a sophisticated house lighting system using DALI fixtures.

The difficulty was that, on a regular basis, the DMX512-based production lighting system would need to take control of aspects of the house lighting. This would enable the overall visual effect to be controlled for a production. This presented a problem in that the DALI house lights were not compatible with the DMX512 controller.

Artistic Licence was brought in to provide a solution. Testament to the diversity of Artistic's technology range, this was achieved through a combination of standard products. First, a Rail-DMX-DALI unit ena

UK - Lighting designer Louisa Smurthwaite has selected Claypaky's super bright hybrid luminaire the Mythos to break through the saturated LED wash on indie rock outfit Glass Animals' latest tour, which was given four stars and described by The Independent as a "brilliant second album show".

Hailing from Oxford, the four-piece have played such venues as London's The Roundhouse and Brighton Dome in support of the critically-acclaimed How to be a Human Being. Smurthwaite specified 10 x Mythos from rental operation SES NC to carve out the playfully geometric set and hold their own against the backlight to provide a strong contrast.

"The creative brief was extremely detailed with a strong focus on colour," explains Smurthwaite. "The goal was to make the band feel like they were within the album cover so I used the same colour palette of sunkissed, pale hues, along

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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

UK - A.C. Special Projects (AC-SP) has specified, supplied and installed a multi-purpose, energy-efficient LED lighting system for Pearson Hall - a historic community hall in the village of Sonning, Berkshire.

Situated at the heart of the village, the much-loved Victorian building has acted as the local community's social hub since 1889. It continues to be used for all variety of functions and productions, including events linked to the bi-annual Sonning Festival in May.

The project brief for Pearson Hall was to provide a low-cost yet high-performance, multi-purpose lighting solution. Flexibility and energy-efficiency were key. The system not only had to work for everyday activities, but also had to be able to provide a range of sophisticated ambiances through the use of colour, for premium social events.

Thanks to a specification tailor-made for the architectural deta

UK - Star Events will supply stages, support structures and seating to the third edition of Spirit of Rock Productions' Ramblin' Man Fair next July, at Mote Park in Maidstone, Kent. The contract comes on the back of a successful sophomore year for the 15,000-capacity event.

Star has committed to provide Ramblin' Man 2017 with a 20m VerTech Main Stage, two mobile stages, a VT show deck stage, that will sit inside a temporary structure, and a mobile seating unit.

Chris Ingham, creative director at Spirit of Rock Productions, comments: "The quality of Star Events' infrastructure and its experience with festivals of all sizes makes it a perfect fit for Ramblin' Man."

Pete Holdich, head of structures at Star Events, says: "Three years in, Ramblin' Man Fair continues to grow and we're very pleased to be involved with the next stage of its development."

Ramblin' Man Fair

USA - Every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas over 500,000 people (more than the entire population of Kansas City or Atlanta) stop at 611 Fifth Avenue to take in the Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Display.

It's a safe bet that none of them will leave disappointed this year. Created by American Christmas, the luxury retailer's 2016 Land of 1000 Delights extravaganza dazzles visitors with a magical winter candy land that features 4,678sq.ft of foliage, more than twice that amount of garland and over 2000 jumbo candy ornaments, plus a Chris Werner-designed lightshow that makes the 10-story department store building glow with holiday cheer.

The owner of Los Angeles-based Chris Werner Design, Werner uses an extensive collection of fixtures supplied by 4Wall Entertainment to create over 300,000 individual points of light on the stately building. Playing a key role in this

The Netherlands - André Beekmans from creative lighting design practice The Art of Light based in the Netherlands produced three stunning lighting schemes and supplied programming / operating crews for the three major live venues at the 2016 Amsterdam Music Festival.

AMF is an integral element of the wider Amsterdam Dance Event conference, a five-day EDM extravaganza staged in the spiritual hub of electronic music and culture. It is a collaboration between organisers Alda Events and ID&T showcasing some of the best EDM talent on the planet.

The Art of Light specified over 500 Robe fixtures across the Amsterdam ArenA, the Ziggo Dome and the Heineken Music Hall, most which were deployed in the Amsterdam ArenA. André and his team also looks after the global creative visual requirements of several leading dance artist including Armin van Buuren, Hardwell, Nicky R

USA - Bandit Lites once again participated in the Angel Tree Christmas assistance programme. Started in 1975 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Angel Tree began with the simple idea that under privileged children also deserve a visit from Santa Claus. Making their wishes on paper angels that adorn trees in local malls, food stores and businesses, patrons are encouraged to choose a child's wish list and make their Christmas dreams come true.

Bandit's director of philanthropy Allison Burchett, controller Shay Simpson and HR coordinator Cori Link combined their efforts to orchestrate the day of giving across multiple Bandit Lites locations. Bandit provided each team member the opportunity to choose an Angel, where gifts ranged from the practical, such as jackets and shoes, to the ever wished for toys and games. Shop Foreman Erich Hudgens graciously spent the day shuttling groups of Ban

UK - Cardiff-based 11th Hour Ice has enjoyed a busy and very productive lead-up to Christmas, supplying and installing ice-rinks at several locations in South Wales. Temporary ice rinks are becoming an increasingly popular feature in the landscape of the festive events season, something with which 11th Hour Ice is well acquainted, having operated in the field for a number of years. The company covers all bases in terms of ice rink provision, offering everything from the ice itself, to any infrastructure and ancillary services that are required.

Essentials such as power generation, distribution and site lighting can be supplemented with everything from project management, ticketing, rink marshalling, decorative lighting, sound systems and even marketing and sponsorship. Effectively, 11th Hour Ice offers a bespoke ice rink service tailored to meet the needs and budgets of a rang

UK - At the world-renowned Tower of London, ice skaters can enjoy a festive experience in what is normally a totally off-limits area, while being immersed in dynamic lighting effects from Elation Professional LED luminaires. One-stop event services provider Figure of Eight Events has provided all power, lighting and sound reinforcement, lighting the ice rink and historic walls at the Tower of London using compact Elation E Spot III LED moving heads with custom fitted snowflake gobos and Elation SixPar 300 IP LED Par colour changers.

Figure of Eight Events was tasked with creating a lighting design to grab people's attention and draw them to the ice rink in the moat along the banks of the River Thames. "The system needed to be powerful, reliable and cost effective," stated Rich Rayner, director at Figure of Eight Events. "We wanted to give the ice rink more life than what you c

UK - Current RMS reports having had a "huge year" in 2016, with major feature releases on display at multiple shows in the UK and US, as well as significant team growth, enabling its team to provide more support to customers worldwide.

To end 2016, the company has revealed a brand new feature, ready for users to have a play with over the Christmas holidays . . .Users can now Clone or Copy & Paste Opportunity Groups across different jobs, which is useful when providing kit for a job with multiple rooms or venues. Rather than having to use the Product Picker to select the same item across multiple jobs, users can now select 'copy' next to the item and paste it onto a different job.

Current RMS will be seeing in 2017 with over 2,100 rental experts onboard, across 1,300 cities worldwide. Major feature releases such as; Simultaneous Scan, Organisation Discounts and a new Costin

Denmark - As of 1 January, 2017, co-owner Michael Jarl Christensen will replace Tue S. Andersen as CEO of Neets A/S, one of Scandinavia's leading suppliers of intelligent AV solutions.

The Denmark-based company, which produces intelligent and intuitive AV systems for classrooms and conference rooms worldwide, has been run by Tue S. Andersen since its founding. However, on 1 January, the retiring CEO, who developed the first products in his kitchen, will take up the position of board chairman of the company he started nearly 18 years ago.

Since producing its first simple product back in 1999, the vision for Neets has always been to create AV equipment that makes life easier for teachers, speakers, and communicators. The earliest products did this through their simple design based on a recognizable system of buttons, while today's focus is on advanced, intelligent, and, not

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (AC-ET) has announced that Mike Docksey has joined the team in a key external UK sales role.

Mike is a well-known face in the industry and brings a wealth of experience to the company. Having spent many years touring with live events around the globe, he joined the HSL Group in 2005 as part of the projects team. Mike enjoyed almost ten years at HSL before moving to Adlib, as head of their lighting and video departments.

Jonathan Walters, AC-ET's sales and purchasing director, said, "Mike's knowledge, enthusiasm and contacts will be a huge asset to us. His background means he'll be able to understand exactly what AC-ET customers are looking for and explain the full range of products we supply, whether that's lighting, rigging, audio, video or cabling and other consumables."

Mike will be based primarily in the North of England, a

The Netherlands - Panasonic will launch a new 20,000 lumens projector at ISE 2017, a replacement for the PT-DZ21K, Europe's best selling high-brightness projector.

In addition, the company is set to demonstrate its live events capability, with a show combining laser projection technology, 3D mapping and performers interacting with moving projection courtesy of the newly launched PT-RZ31K, a 31,000 lumens laser projector developed for the live market.

Hartmut Kulessa, European projector marketing manager at Panasonic, said: "Our annual showcase is fast becoming a tradition at ISE and this year we will create a live event display, which uses the latest AV techniques and is sure to stop people in their tracks.

"Our relentless innovation in laser technology means we now have a roster of projection products that perfectly position us for the live events market."

ISE 201

UK - Stephen Daldry's multi-award winning production of An Inspector Calls has returned to London's West End. This now famous revival was first performed at the National Theatre in 1992 and has since won 19 major awards across the globe.

Lighting designer Rick Fisher has lit the production since its infancy and returns once again for this latest run at the Playhouse Theatre. He approached White Light to provide the lighting equipment, which included quantities of the GLP impression X4 Bar 20s which the company has recently invested in.

An Inspector Calls is written by JB Priestley and tells the story of a family's dinner party being interrupted by the mysterious Inspector Goole who is investigating the death of a young woman. Rick comments, "What's great about An Inspector Calls is that it's still a brilliant production which resonates with a lot of audiences

Italy - A musical masterpiece returned to the stage at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan. The moving scenery designed by Cristiano Colombi dynamically creates the various different settings. All of them recall the Upper West Side of New York, where the story is set, and Claypaky's light beams shine out.

Federico Bellone was asked to direct the show. "To set the scene, I decided to focus on two elements: the theme of fear, a feeling shared by all the characters in the two rival groups, the Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks, and red, the colour that has become a trademark of the musical, along with the five iron fire escape staircases which link the various levels of the scenery."

The work of the creative staff involved in producing the musical was focused on these pieces of scenery. Valerio Tiberi was asked to design the show lighting.

Did the presence of the fire escape stair

China - With an early career in lighting design combined with a Masters in ancient Chinese medicine, Daniel Richardson, lighting designer, programmer and operator, credits wysiwyg from CAST Software as an essential tool for designing and programming for the spectacular set of Storm, Now or Never and EDM other festivals in China. Originally from Australia, he is now in London operating tours and designing projects globally.

"I have been lighting designer for Storm since it began in 2013. Each year there's a new brief based on the alien sci-fi theme. This year we worked with Dutch set designers, 250K, working together from the start of the project. In the early design phase I present a preliminary wysiwyg plot to show where the lights, trusses, bars and other technology will be and to give my input on how this works with their set," explained Richardson.

"Outdoor EDM festiva

Ireland - As Europe's premier mixed martial arts organization, BAMMA is used to delivering powerful output at their explosive events.

The latest instalment of the regular BAMMA events - BAMMA 27 - took place at the 3 Arena, Dublin on 16 December 1and Dublin-based production specialists Just Lite turned to the new VHD 5.0 System from KV2 Audio already known to pack a punch, delivering a knockout blow to the belief that only a Line Array solution could tackle such a venue.

KV2 have always embraced the principles and established benefits of point source speaker system design and have risen to the challenge of building a system for audiences of 20,000+ - the VHD 5.0 System.

BAMMA 27 is just one of a number of wide ranging events that Just Lite have deployed the VHD 5.0 System on and have proved that the system is equally at home in the raucous environments that BAMMA crowd

Germany - A multimedia Christmas musical, A Star is Born, was one of the performance highlights during the Christmas advent events held at the ZKM Art & Media Centre's Filmpalast cinema in Karlsruhe, Germany, mixed on an Allen & Heath dLive system.

The production switched between stage, screen and live music, requiring a flexible audio system at the helm. Managed by ICF Karlsruhe in cooperation with Baden TV and involving the children's charity, ARCHE Karlsruhe e.V., there was a total of 20 shows and audiences of 11,000.

Andreas Kurcz, sound engineer of ICF Karlsruhe specified the dLive system, comprising two S7000 Surfaces with DM64 MixRacks to manage FOH and monitors.

"Our great Christmas musical entailed a run of 20 shows, 53 inputs and 30 outputs, over 11,000 visitors, and an alternating team of 10 technicians. The dLive systems were an important part of the

USA - The Alpha Production team had one thing in mind when they put together the lighting rig for the Pepsi Funk Fest Tour when it stopped at Florida A&M University. The most important thing they focused on was movement. Their goal was to create a show that was constantly moving and changing so it could keep up with the artists on stage.

The Alpha Productions team got the action it was looking for with a dynamic rig that was anchored by Rogue R2 Wash and COLORado 2-Quad Zoom Tour fixtures from Chauvet Professional. They needed it too. The festival's star-studded hip hop, R&B, and soul lineup featured Grammy winners and nominees like Fantasia, T-Pain and Jeremih, as well as legends like Uncle Luke, Jodeci, 69 Boyz and 95 South, who collectively shook the Tallahassee stage to its foundation.

They relied on 12 Rogue R2 Washes to keep up with the performances on stage, noting

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