Australia - St Catherine's school in the Sydney suburb of Waverley is both the oldest Anglican girls' school and the oldest independent girls' school in Australia. It boasts many famous old girls including Dame Joan Sutherland and the school's performing arts centre - the Dame Joan Sutherland Centre - is named in her honour.

However, the centre was opened 15 years ago and although their sound system, supplied by Jands Contracting, way back when, and incorporating JBL speakers, had performed magnificently over this time it was starting to show its age and needed to be updated to meet current technologies.

Rod McKinnon, from Jands Sales followed up an inquiry, and involved Lee Conlon, managing director of Revolver Audio, to implement, supply and install a renewed solution in terms

UK - XL Video supplied LED screens, Video projection, IMAG camera system, HD playback and control systems and crew for the spectacular celebration event marking 25 Years of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera musical, produced by Cameron Macintosh and staged in London's Royal Albert Hall.

The high-impact digital scenery and projections elements were designed by Jon Driscoll. He was asked onboard by the anniversary show's designer Matt Kinley and by Cameron Macintosh's production manager Nic Harris. Driscoll also designed the projections for Phantom sequel Love Never Dies which ran at the Adelphi Theatre.

Driscoll in turn asked XL to provide the hardware, with XL's Paul Wood project managing their elements of the three RAH shows, the final one of which was broadcast live to movie houses in the US, Japan, Australia, Europe and across the UK. Driscoll has wor

Europe - Making significant progress in its technical work, the OCA Alliance pre-released a first set of technical documents to its observer members, making it possible to follow up on the process to become an open public standard for professional media network systems.

The Open Control Architecture Alliance has been formed to ensure the standardisation for a wide interoperability of professional audio equipment. Since its formation in June 2011 the nine full members have been working towards a final technical definition of OCA and it eventually becoming worldwide standard.

The following documents are now available to observer members: OCF Open Control Architecture Framework and OCC Open Control Architecture Control Classes.

The observer members are encouraged to give their feedback to the OCA Alliance at this early stage of development and will be able to join

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

Finland - The Espoo Cultural Centre (Espoon kulttuurikeskus) is the premier venue for performing arts and cultural life in Espoo, Finland's second largest city. Earlier this year, Meyer Sound dealer Studiotec installed a new M'elodie line array system in the cultural centre's 800-seat Tapiola Hall (Tapiolasali).

System versatility is key at the Tapiola Hall, which hosts musicians from around the world for dance, opera, and conferences, as well as crossover performances with classical orchestras and electric bands. Local children with their Finnish kantele are also amongst the stars at the venue.

"The sound reinforcement system has to be very sensitive and very powerful, while the clarity must remain the same for every performance," says Tuomo Matikka, sound designer at the Espoo Cultural Centre. "Because the installation is in a concert hall, the system must als

UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd will be showing a mixture of old favourites and new LED Lighting products at the Showman's Show. The venue is the Newbury Showground on 19 -20 October.

Portable products will feature heavily on the stand with a new high powered battery uplighter on show for the first time. The ULite6000 is bright enough to light trees and architectural features without the need for cabling.

Moving heads are now an affordable option with the EPW dual function wash/spot.

For exterior lighting there will be a range of LED battens and PARcans. These IP65 rated units provide coloured wash lighting in all weather conditions. MilTec will be on stand number 83 in the Exhibition Hall.

(Jim Evans)

Spain - Robert Juliat has confirmed that Entertainment Equipment Supplies (EES) of Spain has joined the Robert Juliat distributor family.

From 1 September 2011, EES has assumed responsibility for sales activity across Spain and Portugal, promoting and supporting the full range of Robert Juliat lighting equipment including tungsten, HMI and LED profiles and wash lights and the world-famous range of followspots.

EES has two bases in Spain from which to service its customers, at Astigarraga and Madrid, whilst the Portuguese market benefits from its own Figura Determinante, Siamanto Ismaily, whose experience and direct presence enables EES to provide a better service and assistance in the region.

Mrs Leire Olascoaga, managing director for EES, says, "The whole EES team is delighted to have started our relationship with Robert Juliat. EES's main aim is to meet all our custom

The Netherlands - The Dutch Maritime Museum - Het Scheepvaartmuseum - has reopened following major renovation. The museum consists of several themed exhibitions, object exhibitions and interactive exhibits. Rapenburg Plaza made an important contribution to the interior layout of the Museum.

Rapenburg Plaza is responsible for the complete media and lighting control, the major part of the audio-visual installations and also the entire technical content, including the lighting & sound design for the Voyage at Sea - an impressive maritime experience. A Richmond Sound Design SoundMan-Server Virtual Sound System with 96 track playback and 48 input and output channels handles all the sound content and effects as well as all audio from the video sources in this attraction.

The Voyage at Sea is a 20-minute show divided over five rooms in which the public is taken on a jou

South Africa - Showgroup recently underwent a complete transformation from a fresh new logo, new website, trucks with bright green sign-writing, office renovations and a Spa where clients and staff alike can make appointments for anything from free manicures to massages, ensuring everyone's welfare is looked after, says the company.On the technical side, Showgroup purchased 16 Robin 300E Spot fixtures, liking the optics, design and zoom of the fixtures, along with 14 new LTM Loadguard 500kg hoists. The Robins have already been hard at work on various gigs including ABSA Choirs, the Business Women's Association of South Africa Awards and a rather spectacular reveal of the AHRLAC!At the Teatro at Montecasino, Showgroup used 16 Robin 300, eight VLX Washes, and VL 2 500 Spots for the seventh annual ABSA Choir Halala Festival. A grandMA was hired in for the show.The concept behind the

Germany - L-Acoustics certified provider Soundhouse has installed a Kiva WST modular line source system into the Max Littmann Saal concert hall in Bad Kissingen.

The historic concert hall, built in 1913 and panelled in cherry wood inlaid with ebony, can accommodate 1,160 people and specializes in classical music and spoken word performances through to blues and rock music. When the time came to upgrade its sound system, the major requirements were low weight, wide and controlled coverage and low visual impact.

Soundhouse installed a left/right system of eight Kivas and two Kilo low frequency extension units per side, driven by LA8 amplified controllers. "This system provides an appropriate sound coverage while remaining almost invisible in this historic environment," says Christoph zur Loye from Soundhouse. "It can be configured for floor and/or balcony coverage

Indonesia - "In keeping with tradition of making the best sounding speaker boxes in the world, Adamson have outdone themselves. The E15 combined with the T21 is a force to be reckoned with. This changes everything," declares Ken 'Pooch' Van Druten about his experience mixing Linkin Park on the new Adamson E15 rig in Jakarta Indonesia.

A set of shows over two evenings was the Asian maiden voyage for the new Adamson E15 system. Big Daddy productions based in Jakarta, Indonesia together with Team 108, Adamson's distributor for Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia), came together to provide a large scale E15 system for the two back-to-back events.

Big Daddy productions, a division of Big Daddy Entertainment Group recently acquired an E15 system as a beta testing company. This enables Big Daddy to place the new system in front of numerous tours and FOH engineer

UK - Llanelli-based Lighting Technology Projects (LTP) was asked by Lancashire-based Lite Ltd who are a Philips partner for the Midlands and the North providing solid state lighting solutions, to bring to life their lighting design for a new illuminated cube array feature at the city's Eagle Market.

This bustling town centre market is incorporated within the new Westfield Derby shopping centre development which opened in 2007.

The nine internally lit cubes are suspended from the steel grid ceiling structure and illuminated with over 3500 nodes of Philips CK i-Color Flex SLX. This was spec'd by Lite and LTP as a flexible dynamic, robust and energy efficient solution, which would allow programming of some interesting abstract coloured dynamic effects - including twists, scrolls and swirling rainbows as well as being able to provide a straightforward colour changing lighting appe

Canada / France - L-Acoustics and Sennheiser Canada Inc. have announced their joint decision to end their collaboration. Sennheiser Canada will cease to be the exclusive distributor of the L-Acoustics brand in Canada, effective 1 January 2012.

Starting January 2012, all sales support will be provided direct from L-Acoustics. A communiqué to this effect will be issued to all Canadian customers and users within the next few days. As for the future representation of the brand, L-Acoustics will establish a Certified Provider Network for Canada. This scheme has already been implemented successfully in other European markets and in the US.

L-Acoustics business development director Jochen Frohn comments, "Sennheiser Canada has always proven to be a professional and dedicated partner for L-Acoustics during our many years of collaboration and we wish them well for the futur

UK - The 5th annual APRS Sound Fellowship Awards Lunch, is to be held at the Roof Gardens, Kensington on Tuesday 22 November. Stephen Navin, CEO, Music Publishers' Association, has been invited to give the 'keynote' address by way of proposing the special 'Harewood Toast'.

The Harewood Toast was introduced to provide an opportunity for a prominent member of the music, film and TV businesses to speak about the relationship they have with the studios and service providers that make their products.

The inaugural proposer of the Harewood Toast was Jeremy Lascelles, the son of the late Earl of Harewood, the founding President of the APRS who died earlier this year.

The APRS's annual celebration, hosted by Sir George and Lady Martin, sees the recognition of six new recipients of the APRS Sound Fellowship bestowed on individuals who made a 'significant contribution to the art, scie

USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the appointment of Thomas Mittelmann as director of business development, Asia-Pacific.

A well-known industry figure, Mittelmann most recently worked with Powersoft, successfully concentrating on global brand building and marketing while overseeing sales in the Asian region. However, it was during his years with Lab.gruppen when rapid growth led from managing all overseas sales to focusing primarily on Asia, prompting his relocation from Germany to Singapore in 2007.

Mittelmann previously had spent eight years with Community handling European sales. His return to the company is well-timed as Community continues to see significant growth in international markets and expand its already comprehensive product range.

Julia Lee, sales and marketing director of Community comments, "Thomas brings invaluable international s

Poland - Mitsubishi Electric has commissioned a major stadium screen installation for the newly-opened Wroclaw Stadium in south west Poland. The 42,771 capacity stadium will be the main venue for the UEFA Euro 2012 soccer tournament as well as an impressive range of other major cultural, entertainment and sporting events planned for the coming year. The two 98sq.m screens overlook opposite ends of the stadium and have already been used successfully at several high profile music and sporting events.

Working closely with local long-term partner and AV integrator, Shadok Audio-Visual, Mitsubishi supplied the two 12.8m by 7.68m screens, consisting of its recently introduced Diamond Vision ODX8 LED screen modules. Each 15:9 aspect ratio screen offers a native resolution of 1600 by 960 pixels at 6000 cd/sq.m, delivering extremely high-quality images in all lighting conditions.

The s

South Africa - Lighting designer Denis Hutchinson joined creative forces with Robert Grobler from rental company Techrig to produce a masterpiece of imagination and style for the Gala Dinner event at food and beverage brand specialist Clover's annual conference. This was staged in the Royal Ballroom venue at the Sun City resort, in the Pilansberg Mountains, South Africa.

Robe moving lights - including 24 Robin 600 LEDWashes - were the key fixtures of the design, supplied by Johannesburg based Techrig, who provided lighting equipment and crew to the entire Clover event for the first time.

Set designer Michael Gill produced a large and innovative scenic design for the gala dinner. Grobler initially gave Hutch - as he's widely known - a basic show brief, which included several high profile live performances, plus an idea of the look they wanted to achieve, to which Hutchinson soo

UK - Newcastle's Theatre Royal reopened its doors to the public on Monday 12 September following an extensive £5m restoration project. The complex renovation drew on the theatrical expertise of UK theatre consultants, Charcoalblue.

Charcoalblue began work on the refurbishment project in September 2009. Managing director of the company Andy Hayles explains, "The scope of the restoration for this Grade I listed theatre was particularly ambitious, and included complete internal redecoration, new seating, new and refurbished pit lifts, new lighting positions and extensive rewiring. Charcoalblue was responsible for the design of all the technical systems and their integration within the historic fabric of the building, as well as advising on sightlines and seating layouts."

The works, which restored the original 1901 designs by theatre architect Frank Matcham in the

USA - "It is always disappointing when church technical teams have their expectations for a new system threatened by budgetary limitations," explains Michael Garrison, founder and owner of Michael Garrison Associates, a system design/consultation firm that has worked with churches all over the United States. "This was the exact situation we walked into at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church."

Located in Menlo Park, California, the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church originally commissioned plans for a comprehensive building renovation in 2007. The renovation included all new theatre seats, a major stage redesign as well as modern technical systems, including a concert-level line array and an electronic 'variable' acoustic system to support the diverse types of services and music performed in the room.

"Our mission was to come up with creative design solutions th

Kenya - This year's annual Safaricom Kenyan Classical Fusion series of classical concerts took place from 28 September to 2 October and were reinforced by Turbosound's Flex Array sound system.

The Classical Fusion series consists of three concerts spanning two cities - Nairobi and Mombasa - and all three events were technically managed by Xtreme Media Solutions Africa Ltd with Nairobi sound company EdTheMix providing sound and monitoring systems.

With audience sizes ranging from a small select VIP group of 800 in the Nairobi Arboretum to the huge public gathering of 12,500 people in the Impala grounds, a flexible audio set-up was required to deal with these extremes, and as a result Turbosound's Flex Array line array system was chosen for its fast set-up and easily scalable configuration.

Based in the heart of Nairobi, EdTheMix is an established sound and lighting company th

Denmark - Moto Rental has been supplying equipment for the annual Ledreborg Slotskoncerter (Ledreborg Castle Concert) for almost 20 years. Since 1999, Moto Rental has used L-Acoustics systems for the event, hosted by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra with various guest performers. This year, FOH engineer Henrik Bonné chose Moto's new Kara WST modular line source system with SB18 subs for the concert.

"Everyone was very excited about getting this large Kara/SB18 system," says Bonné who has mixed the concert since 1995. "Normally we work with V-DOSC in larger venues and Kara in smaller venues. But using Kara on this large outdoor concert, which attracted with 24,000 people over two days, really impressed us. We only received good, positive feedback about the sound."

The main system consisted of 20 Kara cabinets each for left and right hangs,

USA - Apollo Design Technology will be displaying Multiform's latest GII range of LED lighting products at LDI 2011 in Orlando where their booth will be staffed by Joel Nichols, Jeff Mateer and Melissa Irk.

Multiform's MultiSpot GII HP3 and MultiSpot GII HP5 high powered professional fixtures are housed in a waterproof diecast and extruded aluminium chassis using 5 Pin XLR and Neutrik PowerCon connectors for internal and rental applications. By fitting an optional conversion kit using cable glands and hard wired cables the devices meet the IP65 specification for permanent external use. Fitted with RGB TriLEDs for maximum brightness or RGBAW LEDs for the widest colour range these fixtures offer a comprehensive range of DMX ( RGB and HSL) or Stand Alone control modes.

Also on display will be a number of additions from their established successful range including the MultiSpot LS

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