China - With a live audience of 80,000, the recent final of the first series of Sing China was a production on a massive scale and needed an audio system that provided total reliability and sufficient processing power. To fulfil both these requirements, a total of nine DiGiCo digital mixing consoles were specified by the show's broadcaster, Zhejiang Television.

Sing China is based on The Voice of Holland, the concept being to find new singing talent (solo or duets) drawn from public auditions. In China, the show stopped using foreign copyright in 2016, changed its name to Sing China, and became one of the most popular singing competitions in the country.

The final was held at the Birds Nest, which was originally designed as the main stadium for th

France - The Live Vibration Tour is the main event promoted by radio station Vibration, involving some of the most famous national artists - such as Soprano, Black M, and Fréro Delavega. This year's edition included five concerts in the cities of Orléans, Le Mans, Tours, Bourges and Blois, which took place 14-24 September.

Rental company XCPH took care of most of the technical aspects of the tour and provided an RCF audio system for the second year in a row. Several HDL20-A had been used to cover a crowd of over 8000 people in 2015; however, this year Vibration anticipated higher attendance, therefore XCPH suggested the use of HDL50-A, the latest addition to the D Line.

The HDL50-A is an active three-way line array module with a built-in 2200W RMS digital amplifier, with 2x12'' woofers, four symmetrical 6.5'' midranges and two 2'' drivers. For all five dates

UK - Scotland's live events and festivals sector throw its weight behind the third edition of the hugely successful PLASA Focus Glasgow, which returns to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) on 18-19 January, 2017.

The event will again offer live product demonstrations, the latest technological innovations from a wealth of manufacturers and distributors, alongside a packed two-day programme of informative, relevant and educational seminars.

The events and festivals sector is a major contributor to the Scottish economy - both locally and internationally and this year Scotland has taken steps to invest in the future of the industry with the unveiling last month of a 10-year collaborative strategy to significantly grow this £3.5 billion industry.

The result of an 18-month consultation process involving the Scottish Government, VisitScotland, Scottish

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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

USA - Located in Clarksville, just northeast of Nashville, Austin Peay State University is the fastest-growing university in Tennessee. Its football team - the Governors - plays at the 10,000-seat Fortera Stadium, which was built 70 years ago and was, until recently, known as Governors Stadium.

The name change coincided with a massive facilities upgrade, which included a new four-story home-side structure with modern seating, suites, concessions, athletic training facilities, and more. Local AV integrator Lowrance Sound Company (LSC) designed and installed a new, modern sound system to complement the upgraded facilities, relying on Ashly Audio's affordable nX-Series multi-channel amplifiers.

"This was a huge, multi-million-dollar renovation to Governors Stadium, but as so often happens, they failed to think of a corresponding upgrade to the sound system until the entire bu

UK - CPL (Central Presentations Limited) was tasked with designing, specifying, and producing a spectacular architectural lighting scheme - primarily utilizing battery powered LED luminaires - for the exterior of the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Heythrop Park Resort in Oxfordshire.

The west Midlands based creative and technical production specialist was commissioned for the project by a leading Belgian production company for their end client, a major pharmaceutical brand.

They wanted a special evening treatment for the front entrance of the hotel to welcome their 250 conference delegates.

CPL's team was led by Mike Radford. The brief was to illuminate the front entrance of the property and bring a touch of magic for guests arriving to Heythrop on two evenings.

The primary elements walls were highlighted with a selection of wireless LED fixtures and moving lights with

UK - Shure UK has awarded the second annual Shure Rental Partner of the Year Award to Cardiff-based Stage Sound Services. The award was established in 2015 to recognise the efforts and achievements of Shure rental partners across the UK, with the first accolade going to Wigwam Acoustics.

Stage Sound Services received this year's award in recognition of their commitment and dedication to excellence in delivering the best outcomes for their customers. With particular note to their adoption of new wireless systems, Stage Sound Services have fully embraced the diverse range of Shure products to deliver exceptional results - often under challenging circumstances.

The award was presented to Stage Sound Services MD, Phil Hurley by Shure UK Pro Audio Group manager, Tuomo Tolonen and Shure UK Area Sales Manager, Stuart Moots.

"Over the course of this year, we've really seen Sta

New Zealand - Simon Garret from Auckland based Oceania Productions designed lighting and visuals for the main showspace for New Zealand Fashion Week 2016, which was staged at The ANZ Viaduct Events Centre, a funky venue at the heart of Wynard Quarter, New Zealand's largest urban regeneration project, right on the Auckland waterfront.

Simon, known for his individual style in lighting, has been involved with the NZFW event as it's been known since 2004, since the start. This year he again transformed the showspace with bold and dramatic looks and scenes with the help of 24 x Robe BMFL Blades and 12 x BMFL Spots.

The venue showcased creations by some of the most innovative and interesting New Zealand designers, and with up to five shows a day for seven days, Simon needed as much flexibility as possible to change the ambience of the environment and meet the demands and expecta

Benelux - Projector manufacturer Epson has announced a multi-million euro agreement with AED, the projector installation rental and sales distribution business in the Benelux, to supply over 130 laser projectors, including 70 units of the new EB-L1505U, one of the brightest 3LCD projectors on the market.

Thierry Heldenbergh, managing director, AED Display, commented, "AED has always been associated with market leading technology, we chose Epson because they met and even exceeded our very demanding standards for durable, versatile and truly bright projectors that provide excellence in colour and picture performance.

"As the leading rental and sales distribution business in the Benelux, we value the significant investment Epson has made in their new laser installation projection range allowing us to offer the outstanding quality our customers rightly demand from us."

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The Netherlands - Highlite International has recently held their annual Dealer Days at their HQ in the Netherlands. The event was attended by dealers and rental companies from all over the world.

It was also the platform to launch their venture: Odin Audiosystems, the Celestion-loaded active line-array system.

Two live bands - Jewelste and ZENO performed outdoors on the premises of the company and gave the audience a glimpse of the true Odin sound.

FOH was mixed by Ralph Gabri

UK - Sennheiser has announced that its Sound Academy training programme is heading to The Warehouse in Glasgow on 8 November 2016 for its latest Wireless Mics and Monitoring Essentials courses.

Run by Sennheiser's Andrew Lillywhite and Tim Sherratt, the course is aimed at both new and existing users of wireless microphones and in-ear monitor systems, including sound engineers, live event professionals, students, apprentices, sales people and AV technicians who want to further their understanding of the area.

The course will provide the skills and confidence to operate multichannel wireless systems, covering acoustics and electro-technology, wireless mics and monitoring, antenna technology, microphone technology, frequency management and wireless monitoring.

Each course offers a combination of classroom training, which includes hands-on practical modules and eLearning,

UK - The Emmy-award winning TV show Red Dwarf made a return to UK screens last month for its 11th series. Delighting its dedicated fan-base, the latest run of the sci-fi comedy includes the addition of numerous guest sets, and features a striking collection of lighting effects, thanks to some impressive programming by Ziggy Jacobs-Wyburn on an ETC Cobalt control desk.

Red Dwarf's director of photography, Ed Moore, encountered Jacobs-Wyburn at the PLASA Show 2015, where she was demonstrating a Cobalt lighting desk. Moore was keen to maximise the potential of the recently upgraded lighting control systems at Pinewood Studios, which included ETC Cobalt and Congo jr consoles. In turn, Jacobs-Wyburn was invited to join the team for the two new series that were about to begin filming.

In line with broadcaster UKTV's commitment to the BAFTA albert consortium sustain

Europe - Optocore is offering its customers a unique opportunity to trade in their old 'E'-designated devices for the renowned and more efficient R-series products.

The company has announced how users can derive the maximum benefit from this replacement programme and update now to the newer, state-of-the-art R-devices.

Customers wishing to make the exchange before the end of 2016 will qualify for an 18% discount and they will receive the replacement R series model at the special price by return.

Says Optocore: "This unique trade-in discount will provide users with many advantages, designed to make the new portfolio the fibre network for the pro-audio industry. This includes lowest power consumption; open standards compatibility; maximum flexibility and scalability; lowest latency in the industry; five-year warranty;a of fans, and therefore no noise - and all the

UK - Arena Group has acquired the event equipment, management and operational teams of Leeds-based RIM Scaffolding.

RIM Scaffolding, with a 25-year history in the live events industry, is renowned for its expertise in designing and building structures for prestigious dates such as the Ryder Cup, Wimbledon, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Henley Regatta. In 2008, the business expanded into the UAE, China and India and subsequently supplied the Omega World Cup, the Dubai World Championships and the HSBC Men's Championship in Shanghai.

As a result of the acquisition, Arena Group has added significant amounts of scaffold systems, glass handrails, viewing decks, sub platforms for temporary structures and ice rinks, camera platforms and carpentry services.

Now known as Arena RIM Scaffolding, the acquired business will continue to manage relationships with existing clients wh

USA - Chroma-Q's Color Force II has won two awards at the LDI in Las Vegas. The fixture was recognised as the Best Debuting Conventional Lighting Fixture by LDI and took the Members Product Choice Equipment Award awarded by ESTA, the Entertainment and Services Technology Association.

The LDI judges said, "The Chroma-Q Color Force 2 showed a stunning face and elegant colour mixing, both as a smooth surface wash and as a clean visual look."

John Fuller, global brand manager for Chroma-Q, in accepting the awards said, "We're honoured by the recognition from the industry. This is a great endorsement of all the hard work and innovative effort that our technical team have put into developing the Color Force II and it reinforces all the positive feedback we've had from designers who've seen the product on both sides of the Atlantic."

The Color Force II range of RGBA LED batte

UK - Baldwin Boxall has announced that its popular Omnicare EVC system can now be extended to include up to 8,064 outstations. The company admits that it is 'extremely unlikely' that a system on this scale would be needed, but it does mean that previous limitations no longer exist.

Known as 'OmnicarePLUS', the system provides a touchscreen interface as the master point of control, with local areas taken care of via standard style panels.

Should a site require it, additional touchscreen control points can be added to the system; enabling placement in alternative control or security rooms. These will be 'slave' or 'mimic' panels unless full control is transferred due to comprise of the master control point or as required by the user(s).

Each local area control panel can handle up to 64 outstations and these can be any combination of any of the outstation types available

Europe - ArKaos Pro has announced the official release of the new MediaMaster Pro 5.0 with MediaHub. The launch of MediaMaster Pro 5.0 at PLASA, UK followed a successful preview at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt earlier this year.

ArKaos MediaMaster Pro is a professional software solution for the control of real-time video and effects which is specifically designed for desk operators and lighting designers. MediaMaster Pro turns any computer into a powerful media server ready to perform at any professional level.

With the introduction of MediaMaster Pro 5.0, ArKaos continues to stay ahead of the competition by combining maximum functionality with simplicity of operation. MediaMaster Pro 5.0 retains the user-friendly and broad functionality that has become the trademark of the ArKaos product range.

The new functions and creative capabilities of MediaMaster Pro 5.0 are avai

Turkey - Turkish popstar Ajda Pekkan completed a series of special concerts in prestigious venues across the country touring with a 30-strong band. Allen & Heath's dLive digital mixing systems, comprising two S7000 Surfaces and DM64 MixRacks, managed FOH, monitors and recording.

The shows took place at Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Amphitheatre in Istanbul, Bodrum Amphitheatre and Izmir International Arena.

Ajda Pekkan's production manager & FOH engineer, Inanc Yenidogan, specified dLive for the tour. The band used stereo IEMs plus side-fills and mono sub monitor mixes for the drummer and bass player, requiring up to 60 mono auxes. Additional auxes were routed over Dante to the FOH DM64 MixRack as an output expander. All the shows were recorded via M-Dante on a Mac DVS.

"We made the most of the interlinking possibilities of dLive," says monitor engineer, Wayne Nigel Gittens. "

The Netherlands - Full service provider to the radio broadcast industry, Broadcast Partners, has become the latest member of the ever-growing RAVENNA partner community. Headquartered in Terneuzen in the Netherlands, Broadcast Partners also has offices in in Hilversum, the hub of media-based industry in the Netherlands, and in Leipzig in Germany.

The company provides broadcast technology products, software solutions, consultancy and network operation services for radio stations, production companies and governments.

Broadcast Partners' R&D manager, René van de Kolk, is pleased to see the company become the latest RAVENNA partner. "IP is becoming more and more prevalent in the media industry, if not to say standard in certain environments," he said. "As full service provider to the industry, it's therefore our job to ensure that we remain at the forefront of innovatio

USA - Football is king in Dodge City, Kansas, where the high school's Red Demons and the community college's Conquistadors play at the centrally-located Memorial Stadium. With home and visitor bleacher seating for 5,000 fans, Memorial also hosts soccer games, track and field meets, and other large community events.

McClelland Sound of Wichita, Kansas, designed numerous systems of varying complexity, performance, and price using Danley Direct 3D modelling software to upgrade the sound reinforcement system, ultimately arriving at the simplicity of a single Danley Sound Labs J1-94 Jericho Synergy Horn mounted on an I-beam in the end zone and powered by two of their DNA 20K4 Pro amplifiers.

McClelland Sound had installed the previous distributed sound reinforcement system, which met the facility's needs at the time, but as game-day production technology evolved, expectations f

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