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UK - Entertainment industry training centre Backstage Academy has announced a new two-year BA Visual Production course, which will launch at its Wakefield facility in January 2014 (subject to validation).

Developed in conjunction with a range of industry partners including d3 and Fix8, the course is the first of its kind dedicated to the emerging convergence of visuals and lighting. It's designed to meet the demand for skilled visual professionals that can take a project through from the concept and design stage to the final application, using the right tools for the job.

Based on a workflow developed by d3, the course will teach students the personal skills needed to work successfully in the visual production industry worldwide, equip them with the ability to interpret a client

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Finland - Genelec is reaffirming its environmentally conscious philosophy by dedicating itself to a renewed long-term green initiative, which will see the introduction of new products and revised, more energy-efficient versions of the existing product line, in addition to other company policies.

Genelec management has always strived to adhere to efficient manufacturing and shipping methods, and in fact the very concept of active monitors is at its core more energy-efficient than passive monitor/amplifier combination setups. Environmental consciousness is also a large part of the culture of Genelec's homeland Finland, with the country commonly ranking among the world's greenest.

Will Eggleston, Genelec marketing director, stated: "We believe people do care about the future of the planet, and Genelec has given serious thought about how we can more substantially participate

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UK - With Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway challenge standing at two all, the series decider on Saturday 6 April saw the pair climb a Tower of Terror at ITV's London South Bank Studios. Giving an added edge to the challenge, the 50ft tower, designed and built by Unusual Rigging, was suspended 120ft above the ground.

Describing the tower, Unusual's technical director Robin Elias said, "The challenge for us was to design a safety system that would allow them to perform a daring and exciting challenge without taking anything away from the feat itself. We were responsible for the safety management of the event, and specifically the safety management of working - or in this case, playing - at height."

Working to a brief from producer John Adams, Unusual had just three days to come up with the structure that would challenge the boys to the limit: two 50ft square

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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

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UK - Busy UK technical production specialist and rental company Pearce Hire has invested in 36 of Robe's LEDWash 1200 fixtures which have been added to its hire stock.

It's the first Robe purchase for the Peterborough, Cambridgeshire based company that provides lighting, audio, power, rigging, staging and draping to numerous events embracing multiple sectors.

Pearce Hire project manager Dan Shelton explains: "We needed an LED moving wash light and tested and compared several brands . . . in the process discovering that Robe stood out above all of the rest in every aspect - brightness, beam spread, colours, speed, zoom, etc."

Apart from that, he explains, the decision to go with Robe was also in response to an ever-increasing amount of specs now requesting the brand. He reckons that the LEDWash 1200 is 'rider friendly' for the majority of Pearce Hire's production pr

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Slovakia - With roots going back to 1776, Slovenské Národné Divadlo (the Slovak National Theatre, or SND) in Bratislava has witnessed over 300 years of drama, in all senses of the word. Its current building, the City Theatre, was constructed in 1886. A recent technical upgrade has seen a state-of-the-art Yamaha CL series system installed, allowing maximum flexibility for its performances.

The current SND company was established at the City Theatre in 1920. The 611-seat venue is now known as the SNT Historic Building, to differentiate it from an additional venue opened in 2007. Locally it is referred to as the 'Old Opera', as nowadays it mainly hosts opera and ballet. After long and trouble-free service, the theatre's Yamaha PM5D-RH digital console has moved on to new owners and a CL series system installed in its place.

Supplied and installed by Mediatech Centra

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UK - The new Harlequin Standfast vinyl floor has provided a new "world class" stage at the £1.2m refurbishment of Birmingham.

After 30 years and more than 1,000 performances since its last refurbishment, the main stage at the Birmingham Hippodrome was in desperate need of repair with splits, cracks and uneven surfaces. Versatile, durable and slip resistant - as well as being the closest match to the original flooring - the hard-wearing and heavy duty Harlequin Stanfast fitted the bill.

"We aim to provide something that is world class and that has to be world class in every aspect, front of house and on stage," said Stuart Griffiths, Birmingham Hippodrome chief executive. "We have to provide the best working conditions for performers, musicians and technicians."

Following the removal of the original floor and the repair and levelling of the

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Canada - There's nothing like the malfunction of an aging rigging system in front of an audience to step up the pace of a replacement-just as it did at CEGEP de Drummondville, a technical college in Drummondville, Quebec.

The college had budgeted for a replacement "within the next five years," said Geoff Stock, project manager with J.R. Clancy, Inc. "While the president was doing a presentation in the auditorium, one of the hydraulic hoists slipped, and the pipe crept in behind him."

Suddenly the replacement rose to the top of the agenda. The hydraulic system was condemned overnight, said Pierre Lemieux, principal with Trizart Alliance, the theatre consultancy firm selected for the job. "Within two weeks, the contract was awarded," he said. "We had good support from Clancy's local installers. Everything moved very rapidly."

Trizart spe

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Canada - At the 2013 JUNO Awards, Canada will celebrate its music industry achievements with more than 170 Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers from Solotech, a Montreal-based full-production supplier. Hosted by Michael Bublé, this year's awards will be held on April 21 at the Brandt Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan, and broadcast live by Canada's CTV Television Network.

This year's award programmes are presented on three stages in the 7,000-plus capacity arena, including two performance stages at the ends of the ice hockey oval and a centre presentation stage. Solotech's system design calls for a total of 112 Mica line array loudspeakers flown in 12 arrays of between eight and 10 cabinets each. Supplementing the main arrays are floor centr- fill arrays of six each Mina line array loudspeakers, with additional UPA-1P loudspeakers and UPJunior VariO loudspeakers providing f

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USA - Built nearly seven decades ago, Miami Beach's Variety Theatre - later known as the Paris Theatre - achieved a certain amount of fame in the '80s when Big Time Productions used the space as a photo/film studio to shoot album covers and music videos for top artists like Madonna and U2.

Today, world-renowned musicians and celebrities are once again pouring into the South Beach hotspot - now dubbed 'Bamboo Miami' - but this time for its swanky nightlife. Bucharest-based Bamboo Group, a successful European club owner and promoter, took over the landmark venue last year and renovated it into a lavish nightclub that both faithfully preserves its classic Art Deco ornamentation and dresses it up with a mega-dose of modern ambience.

As part of the renovation, Bamboo Group brought in Audio Formula of Miami to supply a full L-Acoustics loudspeaker system to sonically reinforce the s

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USA - As the reigning CMA and ACM Female Vocalist of the Year award-winner Miranda Lambert's Locked and Reloaded Tour set out across North America, it was her fourth headlining tour to date and her largest ever produced. So when the production meetings began, lighting designer Chris Lisle was asked to create a dynamic design to complement the fiery personality of one of the hottest acts in Country Music today. To accomplish this, Lisle turned to tour vendor Bandit Lites who supplied him with 45 high-powered VL3000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"I started working with Miranda in 2005 and the show has definitely grown over all the previous tours which has allowed me to have a great toy box with more lighting tools at my disposal," began Lisle. "Creatively my main goal is to always compliment her performance with the visuals and she is a very active

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Panama - One of Latin America's hottest destinations just got even hotter. In the heart of Panama, the new Hard Rock Hotel Panama Megapolis rises up to a spectacular 66 stories, promising to deliver rock star service in an environment of urban chic design - all infused with the passion and irreverence of rock 'n' roll.

Some of the millions of investment dollars have been spent on a fabulous discotheque on the 11th floor, complete with a sound system worthy of the Hard Rock's reputation. Designed and installed by Grupo Eska Panama, the system features Nexo products throughout: Geo S12 line array modules and RS18 sub bass for the main system, and lots of PS cabinets throughout the venue.

The principal dance floor system uses four horizontal arrays of three Geo S1230s, and four RS18 subs running in cardioid mode. The rest of the club audio system is managed in six zones, using in

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UK - If you are a technician, teacher or student and interested in obtaining new or improving on your existing skills then the 2013 technical training courses provided by Stage Electrics may be suitable for you.

Stage Electrics has been successfully delivering training for a wide range of technical entertainment disciplines nationwide for over 10 years.

New courses include Getting to Grips with Sound- a one day course aimed at professionals within the education sector providing an understanding of the fundamentals of sound and audio reproduction. In addition training topics include courses and workshops on lighting design, moving lights, pyrotechnic safety awareness and working at height (ladders and tallescopes) and accredited PASMA training.

Bespoke and individually tailored informal courses held at the customers venue, particularly on stage lighting, form an essent

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Greece - Nikos Vertis is one of Greece's most popular performers and when he decided to invest in an audio and lighting rig for his performances, DiGiCo's SD5 digital mixing console was top of his wish list.

"Nikos and his Front of House engineer, Akis Eleftheriadis, first saw the SD5 at its ProLight+Sound launch last year," explains Pandelis Kariotis, general manager of Kariotis Audio & Lighting, DiGiCo's Greek distributor.

"Nikos was fascinated by the flexibility and capability of the console. He wanted to buy a product that is world-class, but he's very demanding and wanted to test the desk out in live conditions so that he could prove to himself that it was everything we were claiming."

Pandelis arranged with DiGiCo for a demo console to be made available for one of Nikos's performances in Athens, so that it could be tested under like conditions.

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Norway - There are seminal moments in every band's career and 9 March was one for Norwegian hip hop and rap band Karpe Diem. Playing to a packed house at Oslo's Spektrum Arena, Karpe Diem delivered a memorable show beneath a large Martin rig that included some of Martin's newest lighting solutions.

Playing before their largest audience to date, the show was universally acclaimed as a huge success for the band, and was also a benchmark for lighting designer Sebastian Ekeberg, who has been with Karpe Diem for the last four years.

"This was one of the largest and most important events I've been involved in so when I designed the show it was important for me to use equipment I knew in advance," Ekeberg stated, who turned to a large Martin rig that included some 225 MAC moving heads. "I've had great experience with the MAC range in the past so they were an obvious ch

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Canada - CAST Software's lighting design suite, wysiwyg Perform, is a crucial component of the bespoke system used to illuminate Medieval sets on HBO's big-budget TV show, Game of Thrones, it has emerged.

wysiwyg has been used to create lighting designs for the epic fantasy series since 2011 and the start of filming for Season Two, which saw Belfast-based Key Console Systems take over lighting duties using a specially adapted rig put together by company director, Keith Shanks. At the request of production executives, who had been impressed by his work on the first season of the show, Shanks designed a new lighting system, which saw the introduction of wysiwyg and ChamSys MagicQ consoles to the Game of Thrones set.

Prior to this, Shanks owned a stage lighting rental company, which he subsequently sold to launch Key Console Systems, with HBO as one of its first cli

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UK - Due to the phenomenal success enjoyed by multi-award winning singer/songwriter Emeli Sandé, the consequently high ticket demand meant that her seven date UK tour had to be swiftly doubled in number. Promoting a Special Edition release of her debut album Our Version of Events, Sennheiser equipment is key to Sandé's performance.

All shows on the tour rapidly sold out, including three nights at London's Hammersmith Apollo and two homecoming shows at Aberdeen Music Hall. Sennheiser UK has supported Sandé and her band since the 2012 show recorded for the Live At The Royal Albert Hall album and DVD. The current tour features an SKM 5200-II with MD 5235 head for the lead vocal, plus e604s, e904s and an MD 409 featuring on the backline and a package of ew 300 G3 in-ear monitors for all the performers.

Front-of-house engineer Darren Connor has be

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South Africa - Robe once again was right at the heart of the action in South Africa when specified for filming of the newest South African TV talent show series, Clash of the Choirs.

The Endemol SA produced talent show presented by Bonang Matheba was broadcast on DSTv channel Mzansi Magic and had massive impact in a country with a fantastically rich musical culture of choir music and performance.

Seven amateur choirs from different provinces were mentored by celebrity musicians and are competing for a prize of 500,000 ZAR, 250,000 of which goes to the winning choir and 250,000 to a charity of their choice.

The first series' rounds were recorded at the new Soweto Theatre, Nr Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, and the final will be battled out by the top three choirs in April.

Lighting for the series was designed by Peter Reick from Blond Productions. The rig included ov

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UK - Yorkshire-based Stage One has received the Queen's Award for Enterprise. Given annually to outstanding British companies, this award is made specifically for continuous innovation. Stage One excels in the field of event and stage spectaculars - not least the realisation of Thomas Heatherwick's design for the Olympic Flame at the 2012 London Olympics.

Stage One employs over one hundred people; designers, developers, electrical and mechanical engineers, motion control experts and materials technologists.

Founded over 20 years ago, Stage One output is varied, from the British Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, to the staging system that enabled Lord Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group to tour Phantom of the Operathrough the sports arenas of Taipei. The common denominator recognised by this Queen's Award is continuous innovation throughout that whole body of work over

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The Netherlands - Roermond-based Easy Touch and Live Music (Arnhem) report a complete AV installation at the ECI cultuur fabriek in Roermond. The cultural centre is located at a former electrochemical factory that has been abandoned since 1974. The site has now been transformed into a temple of culture over the past two years. Having opened in September 2012, it now comprises a concert hall, a theatre, two cinema halls, an exposition room and a bar/restaurant.

It was made clear to Bart Smits of Live Music that the installation would have to be without compromises and ready for the future. The ECI technical team was closely involved in the decision making from the start. "If we wanted to meet the high demands of the ECI we could only go for our selection of high-end AV suppliers."

Although the historic building was never intended for acoustical purposes a set of measu

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UK - PLASA Focus will see the UK launch of the LEDHead Mini-Map miniature LED screen. The Mini-Map will be the first of the LEDHead range to be manufactured in the UK.

The LEDHead range has been expanded to include two pixelmap products for stage, corporate and entertainment lighting use, the Mini-Map miniature LED screen and the 3D-Pixeltube.

The Mini-Map measures 150mm x 150mm with 36x 5050 tricolour pixels. It can be used individually or in clusters to produce video and graphic effects. The Mini-Map has a steel casing, PowerCon and XLR5 connectors and is designed for touring and installation use. The PixelTube is a 3-dimensional lighting system designed to give spectacular lighting effects when the LED tubes are hung above a stage or from the ceiling in entertainment venues. Both products use DMX512 control to allow compatibility with the many DMX512 pixelmapping systems no

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Germany - PR Lighting has reported an excellent response to the suite of new products, premiered on the stand of their German distributor, Focon Showtechnic at this year's Prolight+Sound Show in Frankfurt.

According to international sales director, Ernie Armas, feedback to all three new products couldn't have been more positive.

Pascal Vieregge at Focon confirmed that the PR Lighting booth had been one of the real eye-catchers - an inviting area with friendly faces and 72 XLED 336's, designed as sunstripes, dominating the backwall.

"At the same time beams appeared to come out of the heavens, crossing each other like an alien invasion - projected by the innovative PR Lighting XR-200, XR-300 and PR-5000 Beam. The booth design, by Focon's Jens Ottenhus, in combination with Gunnar Loose's intelligent programming, brought an enthusiastic response from the customers."

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