USA - When the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention (MTAC) has crowds of up to 10,000 coming to pay homage to Japanese anime and manga, the organisation behind the event has to make sure that the audio system is both powerful enough and flexible enough to cope with the array of offerings that include live music, contests, panel discussions and more.

2012's MTAC Omega - as the event was dubbed this year - was themed around surviving the end of the world and how post-apocalyptic settings are prevalent in anime, manga and Japanese popular culture. With such lofty themes, the event saw appearances and performances by the likes of Symphonic Anime Orchestra, Eric Stewart, Kyle Hebert, Jason Charles Miller, Pinn Panelle, Head Phones President, Jason David Frank, Kaiju Big Battel, Yad Mui, D

USA - Gold was everywhere at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony last month in Hollywood: Gold glitzed from the red carpet, gold Oscars were handed out to lucky winners and gold Sharpy lighting fixtures from Clay Paky helped illuminate the telecast for millions of viewers around the world.

Lighting designer Bob Dickinson specified 12 Clay Paky Sharpys to add pop to the show. The powerful yet compact lights were supplied in a newly available gold housing, which blended seamlessly with the décor and set design of the auditorium. Dickinson is known as the go-to lighting designer for major international events, including previous Oscar, Emmy and Grammy Awards shows, the opening and closing ceremonies at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and events at Expo 2010 Shanghai China.

The complement of gold Sharpys for the ceremony was supplied by VER. A.C.T Lighting is the North American

UK - RCF will have representation from its premium ranges on show at PLASA Focus: Leeds (April 17-18).

Leading the charge will be D LINE flagship, the HDL 20-A active line array. With purpose-designed transducers, a unique, composite cabinet and powerful DSP processing, it is driven from a 1400 Watt Peak Power amplifier.

From the TT+ (Touring & Theatre) range is the TTL 11A digitally steerable active column array. Composed of mid-high and bass modules, powerful 96 kHz, 32 bit DSP provides the signal processing and 2000 W digital amplifiers power each of the modules.

RCF will also show the VSA (Vertical Steerable Array), a highly controllable system designed for challenging indoor installations requiring high intelligibility. This directs the audio signal to the listening area and avoids unwanted reflections in environments with high reverberation time.

Finally, the Media s

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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 - Visitor registration for PLASA Focus: Leeds 2012 closes at 5pm today. Don't miss out, register for your free visitor badge today and experience the largest get-together of entertainment technology professionals in the North.

Registration is free, choose from 20 free seminars and meet 130 exhibitors across two sold-out halls. Plus, who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? Free lunch will be served from 1pm on both days of the event.

PLASA Focus: Leeds 2012 takes place at The Royal Armouries in Leeds on Tuesday 17 & Wednesday 18 April. Don't miss the essential industry event for the North of England. A full run down of the products, the seminars and the people can be found on the website, alongside visitor registration:

(Claire Beeson)

UK - Backstage Academy has started accepting applications for its Live Events Production Foundation Degree, due to start in November 2012. It has also launched a range of short courses for Spring 2012.

Based at the LS-Live rehearsal studios in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the Academy benefits from its links to some of the world's leading productions and production personnel, tailoring courses to suit the evolving demands of the sector. Courses take place in its state-of-the-art training centre and Apple Authorised Training Suite, adjacent to the studio where the likes of Kylie, Dizzee Rascal, P!nk, Robbie Williams, Lady Gaga and Tinie Tempah have all rehearsed.

The Foundation Degree in Live Events Production, which is validated by The University of Bolton, is delivered on site at the LS-Live facility. It is pioneering in its links with industry, its fast-track intensive format,

Belgium - LumenRadio played a key role in the lighting of Music Centre De Bijloke in Ghent, Belgium.

The site started out as a medieval infirmary in the 13th century when Ghent was one of the largest cities in Europe. It was recently, after years of construction, reopened as a music centre with four world-class concert stages. The process included plenty of challenges as the building was completely void of any technical infrastructure and there were severe restrictions on what could be done to the original structure.

LumenRadio's Belgian distributor AVL was given the task to design the lighting control system that not only would have a minimal impact of the historic building and be for the most part invisible to the public, but that also would have to meet new stringent standards for energy efficiency. Luc Buytaert, Technical Manager at AVL, found the solution in a comprehensi

The Netherlands - A new package of Robe Robin 600 LEDWashes and Robin MMX Spots has been delivered to De Nieuwe Doelen, a 560 capacity venue in Gorinchem.

The popular and well patronised theatre is both a producing and a receiving house with a busy programme of over 200 shows a year featuring all types of live performance from music and dance shows to dramas and comedy nights.

Technical manager Peter Visser - also the main in-house lighting designer - was asked by the theatre's director to produce a plan to upgrade their lighting rig. They were regularly renting in moving lights for their own productions, and this situation reached a point where it became a more cost effective solution to purchase.

"We wanted a high quality brand," explains Visser, who included his full team of seven technicians in the decision making process.

They conducted several shoot-outs in

UK - PLASA Focus this year sees the UK launch of Cooper Controls' new network and data distribution products. Designed for compatibility with the RDM standard, these products are designed for future-proof installation or touring systems where data distribution needs to support the latest in control protocols.

The EtherN.2 RDM and EtherN.8 RDM feature Art-Net to DMX conversion, together with RDM support, whilst the Split2.8 RDM is a two-input, eight-output RDM enabled DMX splitter designed to add flexibility to DMX splitting situations, with an A/B switch on each output to select the data stream required. These products, along with examples from the Zero 88 product range, will be exhibited this year in the Royal Armories hall, stand D12.

From the Zero 88 brand, demonstrations of their Solution series, ORB XF and a preview of ZerOS 8 software will be on display. Come along to th

USA - In order to keep the ETCP examinations fresh and current, the Subject Matter Experts have written new questions for the Arena Rigging examination. ETCP is set to launch these questions 1 July 2012. To gather the statistical data necessary to properly score the exam, it is essential that as many arena riggers as possible are tested during the month of July. To further this initiative, the test administration fee of $675 for groups of 10 or more will be waived for the month of July. Candidate application fees will still apply and score reports will be delivered in six-eight weeks.

The new test form for Theatre Rigging will be available late summer or early fall and the offer to waive the administration fee for that exam will be made to organisations at that time.

ETCP will send a proctor to you, but space must be provided by your organisation. You can find a list of testin

UK - Roland Systems Group will be exhibiting professional audio and video products for mixing, recording and web streaming at PLASA Focus, stand number RA-A9, including the VR-3 AV Mixer, R-1000 48 Track Recorder/Player and the M-480 48 Channel Live Mixing Console - showcasing the recently launched V1.5 firmware update for this popular console.

The V1.5 firmware update for the M-480 increases the number of DCA groups from 8 to 24 giving the engineer a massive jump in controllability in larger or more complex mixes as well as when using the M-480 in 96 channel cascade configurations. The added Scene Fade function allows channel fader levels to be set to fade smoothly when a scene is changed. Fade time is selectable up to 100 seconds and can be set to on or off for each channel and each scene.

Simplifying production and streaming, the VR-3 incorporates a video switcher, audio mi

UK - CIE-Group - European master distributors for US audio brand Atlas Sound - has announced the UK and mainland European launch of Atlas Sound's brand new 'Time Saving Device' (TSD) range.

With a range of 17 new devices, the Atlas Sound TSD range provides "a whole host of AV problem solvers designed to alleviate many of the most common audio system installation problems with simple, low cost and efficient solutions".

The TSD range includes compact mixers, amplifiers, pre-amps and a range of audio signal distribution & control devices.

Atlas Sound's Time Saving Devices are feature-loaded and designed with simplicity of installation and use in mind - saving time, money and hassle, says the company. Each unit is housed in a highly compact, robust metal housing. Common features include removable individual Input/Output connectors for fast, simple wiring, separate grou

USA - Wybron has appointed Bill Radcliffe as the company's director of sales. He will be responsible for sales team leadership, driving revenue, providing support and strengthening customer relationships, as well as general management responsibilities. Wybron has held the previous position of international sales manager at Wybron from 1997-2000.

Radcliffe comes to Wybron from Event Production Services where he served as a business development and production manager. He was responsible for identifying and establishing new opportunities and on-site management of a variety of state-wide productions, including corporate events, music and food/wine festivals.

Keny Whitright, Wybron president and CEO, states "We are very excited to welcome Bill back to our team at Wybron. Not only will he bring a tighter focus on customer relationship quality, he will be an integral part of the

UK - Martin Professional heads to Leeds on 17 April for PLASA Focus 2012 where a new breed of moving head - the MAC Viper Profile - and much more will be on display at Martin stand S-E16.

Join Martin April 17-18 at the Royal Armouries Museum for an up close look at the MAC Viper along with a host of other new products like the all-new VC series of creative LED video solutions, a new portable lighting controller in the M-Series, and a new compact hazer in Martin's Jem family.

The Martin MAC Viper Profile is a new breed of high-performance profile luminaire with the qualities of a better industry workhorse. It features intense light output from advanced lamp technology and innovative feature set. Its highly efficient optical system outperforms market-leading profiles in the 1200-watt range and with over 25000 lumens of power from a 1000-watt HID source is convincingly brighter t

Finland - The Svenska Teatern, a Swedish-speaking theatre in Helsinki, has taken delivery of an Optocore system as part of a complete new technical infrastructure. This was designed to coincide with the Finnish premier of Kristina från Duvemåla - the hit musical written by former Abba members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson - at the end of February.

The Optocore fibre loop will form a digital backbone (with Sane extensions) for signal distribution to the amp racks, TTA Stagetracker localization and Yamaha processing. It also includes MADI converters.

The equipment was supplied by the company's Finnish distributor, msonic, who also assisted the theatre's long-serving technical manager Andreas (Stanley) Lönnquist - and the theatre's consultants (including Santtu Sipilä) - with the design and specification of the highly complex audio networking system, as well as th

UK - Music Group has today announced that the Eurocom family of installed sound products will be distributed in the UK and Ireland by Polar Audio. Eurocom is a range of commercial and installed sound products developed and manufactured by Behringer, a Music Group brand.

The Eurocom product range was developed over a period of two years by Behringer's engineering and product management team "in an effort to bring true innovation to an otherwise neglected product segment".

"We invested heavily in new, green technologies in order to build the most energy-efficient electronics the installed sound industry has ever seen," commented Costa Lakoumentas, the line's chief architect.

Eurocom products span the range from utility integrated amplifiers to digital automixers, DSP powered and Ethernet controlled power amplifiers and nearly 30 different models of loudspea

USA - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has confirmed that registration is now open for its 47th International Conference on Music-Induced Hearing Disorders, which will take place at Columbia College in downtown Chicago, 20-22 June 2012. The conference presents expert knowledge from audio engineers, academic researchers, medical experts and manufacturers, with a total of 18 papers being presented over two days.

"The conference is a great opportunity for people to learn a wide array of perspectives on hearing health in the music industry," says Michael Santucci, conference chair and president of Sensaphonics Hearing Conservsation, one of the conference sponsors. "We have several presenters coming in from Europe, along with experts from several U.S. universities and manufacturers. This is a great opportunity for AES members to gain critical knowledge on the issue

USA Electronic musician Avicii took his DJ-run show on a Texas tour with High End Systems products lighting and controlling the way. Insomniac Events produced the shows.

LD Justin Jenkins, owner of Creative Production & Design in Austin, TX, designed and supplied gear for four of the five cities. The rig featured eight trackspot Bolt moving mirror fixtures, four intellaspot and eight Technospot automated luminaires, and two Studio Spot 250s as keylights on the DJ. A Road Hog Full Boar console with Road Hog Playback Wing was in control.

The combination of the trackspot Bolt, intellaspots and Technospots was "a great balance of lighting," Jenkins said. "The dynamic output and mix of all three just made the show.

"Trackspot Bolt is phenomenal," Jenkins adds. "The speed of the moving mirror and the intensity is great for Avicii's music. I love the I

UK - Pro audio hire company BCS Audio have made their first foray into the world of Soundcraft, with the purchase of a premium Vi6 digital console from Crystal Pro Audio.

Dave Shepherd, who runs the operation from a base in Fareham, has extensive touring experience and has worked with many of the current digital desks - with acts ranging from Plan B, to Thirty Seconds to Mars and Black Eyed Peas.

He had previously found himself hiring in Soundcraft boards to meet an increasing number of rider demands - so he decided it was time to invest in his own.

The opportunity to part exchange secondhand kit in order to facilitate the purchase led him back to Soundcraft dealers Crystal Pro Audio, with whom he has dealt on a number of occasions.

"I like the desk a lot and decided it was a good weapon to have in our armoury," said the BCS man. "It's extremely intuitive -

UK - Sky TV lighting director Malcolm Reed lit the studio show covering this year's Academy Awards red carpet arrivals and main awards ceremony broadcast to the British nation. Included in the large Martin rig supplied by Richard Martin Lighting was the MAC Aura, a key fixture choice for the show.

Reed used six Aura fixtures as part of the set and placed them in pigeon holes shooting straight out towards the camera. He comments, "I chose the Auras because of their unique dual light source which creates some amazing eye-candy effects. The silent nature of the fixture is great for TV studios and the smooth pan and tilt allows for nice dynamic movement effects."

Reed had other movers from Martin's LED range at his disposal as well. Located behind the set were four MAC 350 Entours. "The MAC 350 is a wonderful light, not only for its power output but also its optical

USA / Europe - Barco recently supplied its FLM HD20 projectors to create a spectacular visual journey enlivening electronica artist Amon Tobin's latest international tour, ISAM Live. The centrepiece of the show was a 25' x 14' x 8' multi-dimensional, shape-shifting 3D art installation in which the world-renowned DJ performed his electronic music show from a control booth centrally located within the structure.

Combining 3D projection mapping and generative/audio reactive real-time and pre-rendered elements, the producers used Barco's FLM HD20 projectors to display the kaleidoscope of visual elements in concert with Tobin's music. The artist recently described the integration of projection mapping and music as a "reverse score," alluding to the cinematic parallels he sought to achieve in creating the show.

The dynamic stage featured the joint efforts of industr

UK - XL Video's concert touring division continues a busy spring by supplying Pixled F-11 LED screens and processing equipment to chart-topping, award winning and massively popular UK boyband, JLS.

XL is supplying the equipment to show producers Production North as part of the video package for the band's latest sold-out UK arena tour.

Co-ordinating the tour's video are Production North's Luke and Tom Levitt. XL Video's account handler is Jo Beirne with technical requirements handled by James Morden.

Says Luke Levitt, "We have worked with XL video for a long time - they are the biggest rental company specialising in live music video and are still the best. The technical support is second to none, and all the kit all came out of the warehouse in excellent condition as you would expect, all delivered to production rehearsals perfectly labelled and addressed."

The p

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