UK - The Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers has announced details of its latest training initiative. Voice Alarm System Fundamentals is an engineer's introduction to the requirements of BS5839-8:2013, detailing the requirements for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of voice alarm systems, along with practical advice and examples.

Voice alarm systems form the sounder circuits for a fire detection system, not just an expensive public address system. For them to operate in the intended manner, saving lives, they must be designed and installed correctly. This course deals with the concepts involved, standards requirements, equipment and the duties of those during the implementation.

The presenter is Bob Howard MInstSCE, who has a wealth of expe

USA - An increasing number of lighting designers have turned to Capture lighting design software to visualize their designs and help sway clients. One advocate is LD Jason Robinson, who uses Capture to create virtual designs for WWE professional wrestling and has designed lighting for Top Rank Boxing using Capture software.

"I now use Capture in my daily work and it has changed the way I think about the design process," he stated. "After I finish a drawing in SketchUp I just drop it in Capture. It's a seamless import and then it's simple to place the lights and turn them on. I can get all the attributes of a fixture. It's very intuitive, has an easy work flow and has become part of my normal work procedure."

Top Rank Boxing is the country's premiere promotions company for boxing with events that feature some of boxing's biggest stars like Manny Pacquiao. Robinson has been

USA - Country music artist Kenny Chesney has completed his fifteenth concert tour, and his third with Nexo STM modular line array systems, supplied by Morris from Nashville, TN. This year's Spread The Love tour started back in April, and has included 14 stadium dates, supported by Miranda Lambert. The final two nights in Boston's Gillette Stadium entertained more than 120,000 people.

Selling out 50+ dates on last year's Big Reviva tour, and grossing more than $100m in ticket sales, put Chesney among the Billboard Top Five touring artists of 2015. The country legend's last three tours have confirmed the standing of Nexo's STM Series in the hierarchy of large-format PA systems, capable of handling the biggest venues in the USA and flexible enough to scale up and down through different sizes of venue.

Outlining his artistic objectives for 2016's Spread the Love, Kenny Chesney

featured content

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

USA - The Dave Mathews Band is playing its 25th anniversary tour in the US and Canada this summer. The lengthy annual DMB summer tours have actually acquired legendary status and are known for improvised renditions of their regular songs as much as for their stunning visual shows which have been designed by Fenton Williams since the early 1990s.

Fenton and his Charlottesville-based design company Filament Productions are still responsible for the production design and this year he and co-lighting designer Aaron Stinebrink specified Robe BMFL Spots and PATT 2013 fixtures.

Aaron also works for Theatrical Media Services (TMS) based in Omaha, Nebraska, the tour's lighting vendor and he's been involved with Fenton and DMB in various lighting capacities since 2003, the last four years as joint LD and lead programmer.

The design process between the two men is always "a lot of

Canada - From 6-8 October, Montreal will host its first festival dedicated to video mapping. With the support of numerous internationally acclaimed creative studios from Montreal, the first edition of MAPP_MTL will emerge at the convergence points of Montreal's renowned Mile End and Mile-Ex neighbourhoods, proposing circuits of both exterior and interior installations, exploring as an open laboratory - -a vision of the future of video mapping.

Thien Vu Dang, the co-founder and artistic director of MAPP_MTL, explains, "Mapping is a fascinating medium that uses video projection to reinvent spaces. It's a form of art that is gaining more and more notoriety, but still has plenty of untapped potential.

"The festival brings life to a number of structures throughout Mile End and allows the public to reclaim their neighbourhoods, see the environment through new eyes and completely

Crucial Opportunities - Policymakers in the UK and China are being called upon to exploit possibilities for cultural collaboration, as part of a report claiming "crucial opportunities" exist for both countries. The report, published by the Department for International Trade and cultural organisation BOP Consulting, claims that the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote has moved collaborations with non-European countries such as China further up the UK's agenda.

However, fostering short-term or profit-led relationships are unlikely to succeed, the report argues, highlighting the emphasis should be on building a long-term, sustained collaboration between the two nations. Recent projects to build collaborations between the UK and China have included a Chinese-language production of War Horse, produced by the National Theatre of China in collaboration with the UK's National Theat

UK - Music, parent company of Tannoy, has announced the appointment of a new vice president to lead its Lifestyle Division. The news comes as the Tannoy brand "continues its transformative growth, creating innovative, high-end audio solutions". The company has appointed James Bradbury "to execute an ambitious vision to strengthen Tannoy's market leading position".

Bradbury, an executive with experience in the connected home and digital marketing sectors, comments, "My priority is to re-invigorate Tannoy into a 21st century business by leveraging the incredible capability of Music's organisation, taking advantage of the huge investments that the business is injecting into research and development as well as state-of-the-art production facilities.

"It is a privilege to be working with such a revered brand and extremely exciting to be part of the mission to bring the most inn

Germany - GLP has announced the release of the upgraded 30 Watt version of their popular X4 atom fixture. Adding a new high power light source into the unit has doubled its brightness, and introduced greater optical efficiencies within the unit. At the same time, an additional 6-way PSU has been added to the product line up.

Concurrently, and supporting GLP's philosophy of promoting longer product life cycles, the company has undergone a complete market swap-out of current units, allowing all existing owners and users to benefit from this technology upgrade immediately, and without cost.

The brighter 30 Watt RGBW LED source is from the same family used across all GLP's X4 range. This ensures full colour matching across fixtures and enables the X4 atom to really cut through, despite its compact size.

However, the X4 atom houses a lot more besides a bright source, starti

USA - For designers that have zero patience with dim, bulky and muddy linear LED units, the ENTTEC Phero 33 RGB Pixel Bar may be the answer.

"I'm convinced this new Phero model, with its technical features and sleek form factor is going to make a big dent in the small to medium size touring market," says ENTTEC Americas general manager, Jeremy Kumin. "We're focusing our energy on telling designers who are hip, rising stars about this light because it just feels like a must-have for the indie bands that are starting to break into big festivals or are headlining in small to medium sized clubs,"

At a mere 18 watts, the Phero 33 is an energy efficient unit designed for direct lighting applications. Comprised of 33 independent RGB pixels, the Phero 33 features extended color blending and uniform color. While some LED units struggle with the warm colour palette, the Phero 33 giv

Germany - The PLUSlite 1000-4 fulfils the wish of many users for a handy, single chain-fall D8 Plus chain hoist with a safe working load of 1,000 kg at 4 m/min.

The Movecat PLUSlite 1000-4 is based on the current DIN 56950-1:2012-5 standard and satisfies in full the BG requirements. The mechanism is designed for twice the nominal load and the chain exhibits dynamic and static safety factors of 8:1 and 10:1 respectively.

With its compact aluminium housing, a 9x27 load chain, two robust handles and a total weight of only 115 kg, it is suitable for day-to-day touring and rental applications.

Above all, when used as a climbing hoist in combination with the Movecat Case, which was developed in close cooperation with users, ideal operation is guaranteed, as the chain-hoist can climb and retract independently drawing its power from the case.

Features include: overhead or

Europe - The new 24S and 24S-D point source loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik are set to conquer permanent applications including night clubs, live performance venues, houses of worship, multipurpose centres and sports venues, says the company.

These latest additions to the established xS-Series all feature redesigned front grills making them more unobtrusive than ever before. "The 24S, 24S-D and 21S-SUB are designed to set and forget. They meet the exact day to day demands of permanent installation with minimum fuss and maximum reliability," explains Wolfgang Schulz, product manager of installation products at d&b.

Differing only in horizontal dispersion, with 75° x 45° and 110° x 45° (h x v) respectively, the 24S and 24S-D house two 12" LF drivers in a dipolar arrangement and a single hornloaded 1.4" exit compression driver. This HF horn is rotatable, me

USA - High-profile lighting designers, Rob Sinclair and Chris Reade have been nominated in the 2016 Parnelli Awards Lighting Designer of the Year category, for their Peter Gabriel and Dierks Bentley concert tour designs utilizing show lighting and media control by Jands Vista.

Longtime Vista user, Rob Sinclair's show design for Peter Gabriel was part of the Rock Paper Scissors summer co-headline concert tour in North America with Sting. It featured both artists on stage for the whole performance, alternating between and sharing singing duties on each other's songs.

Rob designed and programmed the lighting for songs written by Peter Gabriel - with the occasional song being performed by Sting. He commented, "The Vista showed strength as a team player. Working closely with Danny Nolan, Sting's LD, we alternated songs and consoles. What could have been a control nightmare was

USA - Rock band O.A.R. recently wrapped their summer tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. The tour coincided with the band's 20th anniversary complete with a double compilation album entitled XX released 5 August.

Tour manager and lighting designer Chris Wrightsman evoked the double 'X' symbol within the look of the show creating a truss design of two interlocked X's. VL 2500s and MAC 2000s spread throughout the rig, providing maximum coverage and tight shots, and coupled with ACL floor bars placed upstage of the riser line, four cell mole lights in front of the riser line and four restored old time fresnels for side glow, the result was a production that was unique and memorable.

"We wanted to create a great "big arena" concert experience in smaller venues, specific to OAR, and emphasize on the band's history," Wrightsman explained.

Bandit als

UK - Event technical production solution specialist PR Live supplied large format projection - using a combination of their new d3 server and six Christie 20K high powered projectors - which was applied to the side of a large house as the finale for an exclusive private party in the UK.

PR Live's Dave Gillett led the team, designed the projection system and applied his experience in the specialist area of projection mapping which caught guests' attention as they exited a big marquee that was erected in the garden for the event.

PR Live also commissioned the custom video content for the four-minute looped show, created by artist Jack Beccegato, which was mapped to the 30m wide by 8.5m high side for the house.

The projection surface involved a number of bay windows, decorative brickwork and a raised surfaces at different depths, all of which had to be taken into consider

France - In July, Paris hosted the Japan Expo, a full-scale video game show dedicated to the Japanese culture.

Square Enix, a Japanese video game company best known for developing role-playing video games such as Final Fantasy was one of the major exhibitors. For the audiovisual design of the booth, Square Enix contracted NEXXT France, a young French company that provides audiovisual services through innovative solutions. In the middle of the 550m² booth, NEXXT France put a 30m² LED wall and two LCD side screens above the main stage which was intended for host conferences and signing sessions.

Marc Gloria, CEO of NEXXT France, explains the concept of the booth, "The LED screen was the main element of the booth. No one could miss it. Our client wanted visitors to test games and watch live demos on a large display."

To feed the screens, Marc Gloria chose the Eikos², a

USA - Many of baseball's legends have experienced butterflies in their stomachs the first time they entered the colossus that is Yankee Stadium. Apparently so too do country music superstars. "I'm nervous as hell," Garth Brooks, the best-selling solo album artist in the history of the US, said at a press conference before his two-night performance at the fabled ballpark.

Brooks needn't have worried. From the moment he began his set with Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up), he captivated the New York crowd with the raw power, enthusiasm and heartfelt country passion of his performance. Keeping pace with Brooks as he led the sell-out crowd through singalongs and romped around a massive circular runway, was a high octane lightshow created by Robert Peterson of Real World Lighting with a stage rig supplied by Bandit Lites that included Rogue RH1 Hybrids from Chauvet Pr

USA - Ben Rector's career is a textbook case of what the new music industry landscape looks like: a sea of independent musicians touring and working hard to break through public consciousness when up against major label-backed artists. The Tulsa-born, Nashville-based Rector has put out seven albums on his own indie label, Aptly Named Recordings, selling over 450,000 albums and four million singles in nearly a decade - a considerable accomplishment for an indie artist.

Jake Hartsfield, Rector's FOH engineer and production manager, has added a new tool in Rector's road ki,t helping him perform in that crowded field that is the music business: a compact pair of DiGiCo SD9 digital consoles, used for FOH and monitors. The DiGiCo SD9s give Rector and Hartsfield the power and performance to help stand out on the road, plus the economic effectiveness to stay out there profitably.

Canada - CBC's Studio 42 at Maison Radio-Canada in Montréal is to Canadian television what a legendary room like Studio 8H in Rockefeller Centre is to US broadcasting history. Coincidentally first opened 42 years ago, the flagship studio has been used for countless awards ceremonies, talk shows, concerts and other live-event programmes over its four-plus decades.

Earlier this year, Le Studio, as it's known to millions of Canadians, underwent a significant technical upgrade. Included in that was a new L-Acoustics ARCS WiFo, sound system for Studio 42's audience seating, which Radio-Canada systems designer Michel Desjardins first heard at AES 2015 in New York City.

Designed by Radio-Canada's technical service team and installed by Solotech, the new sound system comprises one L-Acoustics ARCS Focus enclosure plus one ARCS Wide flown under two SB18 subwoofers per side,

UK - You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966 - 1970 is a brand-new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum that explores the era-defining significance and impact of the late 1960s. The era is relived though photography, posters, music, film, fashion and artefacts in this immersive exhibition which draws connections on the way we live today. Having a long-lasting relationship with the V & A Museum, White Light was called upon to provide the creative and production support for the exhibition's launch.

Bethan Garland, senior museum events manager at the V & A Museum, comments, "This is one of this year's biggest exhibitions so we wanted to make sure it received the launch it deserved. This meant capturing the spirit of the exhibition whilst remaining sensitive to the building."

Richard Stirzaker, WL's creative producer, comments, "We were approached

Germany - As part of an initiative to strengthen the company's presence in a key European market, Meyer Sound has announced that audio veteran Wolfgang Leute joins as sales director, Germany.

Leute's background includes over 26 years of professional audio experience. Leute was most recently the head of international sales and distribution at beyerdynamic GmbH. Previously he held positions at Shure Europe as director, distribution management, EMEA and at Harman Germany as product manager for JBL Professional.

"Germany has always been an important market for Meyer Sound," says Helen Meyer, company co-founder and executive vice president. "We are pleased to welcome Wolfgang to the team to lead sales in this key market. His experience and network will add value for our existing customers and will grow our business in this region."

In other territories, Chris Mead has been

India - Cloud Electronics exhibited at InfoComm India 2016 in Bombay for the first time with recently appointed distributor for the India region, Acoustic Arts.

Simon Curtis, managing director for Cloud Electronics reports, "Cloud is one of the industry's oldest and most respected brands in commercial contracting and distributed audio. Until Acoustic Arts were appointed, Cloud had limited into the regions of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. We're very excited about this partnership and the particular benefits it will bring to dealers in these regions.

"Exciting times lie ahead for the Indian market as AV tech, digital signage and High-Speed Internet are finding relevant solutions and applications, although more traditional solutions are still very much in demand in this, the most diverse marketplace of all.

"It was very reassuring how clearly relevant and app

Latest Issue. . .