Italy - Thursday 4 July, at the Clay Paky head office in Seriate, the Moto3 250cc four stroke engine was unveiled after one year of toil by Rumi-Sport Engineering.

At the official presentation more than 90 people participated, mostly coming from the world of motorsport; technicians, engineers, journalists in the sector, as well as two special guests: the multi-world champion Carlo Ubbiali and volleyball champion Marco Meoni.

Some guests were also from the main local media - the Eco di Bergamo, Bergamo TV, VideoBergamo, Mediaset Italia2 - SportMediaset. - who carried out reports which were to be published or aired the next day on the local news stations.

Stefano Rumi, coordinator of the project, started by presenting the Racing Team Department, which was followed by a video tha

USA - Audio-Technica has recognized Los Alamitos, California-based Alliance Audio Visual Group as its Rep of the Year for the 2012/2013 fiscal year. The award was presented to Alliance's Matthew Jensen, principal, and Jim Chase, account executive, by Philip Cajka, Audio-Technica U.S. president and CEO, and Michael Edwards, A-T V.P. professional products..

Jensen and Chase accepted the award on behalf of other Alliance personnel not in attendance, including Kenny Andrews and Karen Lopez. Alliance represents Audio-Technica in the region of Southern California and Southern Nevada.

Audio-Technica held the awards ceremony to honour its dedicated force of manufacturer's representatives during the InfoComm Expo 2013, in Orlando, Florida. The A-T Rep of the Year recipient was congratulated for outstanding sales performance and bestowed with Audio-Technica's Samurai doll award. Allianc

USA - Mike West is a California-based acoustic guitarist and vocalist who plays well over 200 shows per year. His current solo show, The Beatles Down To Earth - A Magical History Tour is drawing rave reviews and ever-growing audiences. Recently, West upgraded to the Line 6 StageSource loudspeaker system.

"I own an L3t and an L3m and use them as my house PA system," says West. "I've found them to be a fantastic addition to my stage. In terms of power, sound quality, and set-up time, they are a big upgrade from the articulated linear array I was using before."

With the growth of his show leading to more gigs at bigger venues, West began to realise the limitations of his old system. "Basically, it didn't play well with others," he says. "Introducing another speaker required all these weird extra connections and adapters. It wasn't easy. 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 - Following the sustained year on year business growth, Sennheiser UK has moved its operation to new premises in Marlow, Buckinghamshire for the first time in 20 years.

Having set up the first formalised office with just six staff in 1990, Sennheiser UK is one of the UK audio industry's true success stories. In 1996, when the company moved to its former office at Century Point in High Wycombe, it had already grown to 26 employees and a turnover of £7.5m.

Now at 72 staff and grossing £45m, Century Point's 6,000 sq.ft of office more than reached capacity therefore the move to its new 15,000sq.ft home in Marlow has provided much needed space for the team as well as the new service facility.

"We have come a long way since our first foray into the UK market," says Sennheiser UK general manager, Phil Massey. "We are very proud of our achievements and

USA - Chauvet Professional COLORado fixtures coloured a dramatic rainbow on the Civil Courts Building for a PrideFest initiative in downtown Saint Louis. Ironman Sound Industries production company of Brentwood, Mo., specified 36 COLORado 4 IP wash battens and 24 COLORado 1 Tour PAR-style wash fixtures, which uplit in saturated colours the top of the Civil Courts edifice.

"We used 36 COLORado 4 IP luminaires to light up the outward face of each of the columns that wrap the building," said Stace Napper with Ironman Sound Industries.

"The columns are about 40ft tall, plus our mounting position was an additional 15ft below them for a total throw of over 55ft. The mounting position was a small ledge, only about 2ft deep; but thanks to the slim profile of the COLORado 4 IP we were able to mount each light to the buildings existing lighting hardware, which also ensure

USA - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is holding its 50th International Conference, dedicated specifically to audio education, 25-27 July, 2013, at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

The three-day conference will focus on teaching methods, instructional resources, learning outcomes, technical operations, industry relations and related topics that impact the theoretical and practical aspects of professional audio education. The conference will bring together leading educators and professional audio industry representatives to exchange ideas and knowledge that will contribute to improving quality and effectiveness for students and faculty alike.

The event will also for the first time include a significant focus on live sound as a component of a pro audio education curriculum, a fact underscored by the event's keynote address delivered by Bob

Austria - Every year since 2000, the most successful national and international musicians in Austria have received Amadeus Austrian Music Awards in different categories. It is the most important pop music award in Austria. MA Lighting and Clay Paky products were among those used during the recording of the ceremony this year at the Volkstheater in Vienna.

The lighting designer Matthias Frank, the show light operator Matthias Schöffmann, the white light operator and MA system technician Jürgen Erntl and the media server manager Stefan Kürzel counted - among other things - on two grandMA2 light consoles, a grandMA2 fader wing, an MA Network Processing Unit (NPU) and 80 Clay Paky Sharpys.

Matthias Frank commented on his use of the MA system, "It was critical in this production for more than one operator to work in a network. However only the systems needed for the console

Italy - Italian fans enjoyed a spectacular display of lights, lasers, and effects at Vasco Rossi 's sold-out stadium tour this year. For maximum visual impact, designer Giovanni Pinna specified 64 of the new Lase-Array systems from ER Productions of London, plus 14 Look Solutions Viper Deluxe smoke machines.

Controlling 12 of the Viper Deluxe machines were a LumenRadio wireless transmitter and 12 LumenRadio receivers. "Wireless was the only way to go," says ER Production's Ryan Hagan. "Smoke machine placement around the stadiums varies depending on the wind, which of course is unpredictable. With wireless we can cover every angle and whatever the wind throws at us. Such flexibility just isn't feasible with cables."

Hagan adds, "LumenRadio wireless DMX is great. It's solid as a rock and never lets us down. We use it at every festival show we work on too

Spain - A few weeks ago Equipson organised its first open days. About 70 people in the trade came during two days (19 and 20 of June 2013). It was something the company had wanted to do for some time, in order to give the opportunity for clients to visit Equipson headquarters and see the new WORK developments.

Equipson prepared an extensive programme with many training courses for devices like Blueline system, Digiline or LM 5. The 150m2 showroom was specially prepared to receive people in the trade and engineers were available to answer technical questions.

The visit to the acoustic laboratory allowed people to understand how new loudspeakers are designed, using tools like the anechoic chamber. Proceedings concluded with the live demo of Arion 10, the ultra compact line array system of from WORK.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Over 30 International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.) Local One members passed the Entertainment Technician Certification Programme (ETCP) Rigger - Theatre examination in June, which brings the total number of Certified Riggers in Local One to 85. The New York Local now has more ETCP Certified Technicians that any other in North America.

"Local One is very excited and proud of our success in the great number of our members who have been certified as ETCP Technicians over the last couple of years," said Local One I.A.T.S.E. president James J. Claffey, Jr. "We believe that this achievement demonstrates our commitment to educating and training our members to provide the best service possible to our many employers, as well as enforcing, enhancing and protecting the traditional jurisdiction of Local One."

Claffey added, "Congratula

USA - City Theatrical is launching a new version of the DMX SHoW Baby wireless DMX system called SHoW DMX SHoW Baby 5.

SHoW Baby 5 now has five SHoW IDs, allowing systems to be scaled up to multi universe broadcasts by using more than one transmitter, or as a way of avoiding interference from other SHoW Babys in the area.

SHoW Baby 5 is still plug and play. Each unit is a transceiver and by plugging a DMX cable IN, it automatically selects itself to be a Transmitter. If nothing is plugged into the DMX IN port, it selects itself to be a receiver.

SHoW Baby 5 is the same price as the original SHoW Baby and is compatible with all existing SHoW Babys in the world.

There are still seven indicator lights on the front of the SHoW Baby, four for signal strength, one to designate whether it is a transmitter, one to designate whether it is a receiver, and a data present light. In th

UK - Patrick Almond has been appointed assistant general manager for Carlsbro and Studiomaster with the move of the two l MI and pro audio brands to a new HQ, warehousing and distribution centre in Milton Keynes in southern England.

Almond has been with Studiomaster since 1986 and has most recently held the position of marketing manager for Carlsbro, Studiomaster and Cadac, following their acquisition by the Soundking Group. With the move of Carlsbro and Studiomaster operations to the new Milton Keynes joint facility, and the re-establishment of a joint distribution operation for the UK and Eire, Almond takes a lead operational role for both brands, across the MI and professional audio market sectors. His new role includes continued responsibility for the international marketing of both brands.

"All of these changes," states Almond, "are in line with the strateg

UK - It is with great sadness that we report the death of Steven Brown. Steve died on Friday 7July 2013, from lung cancer.

Steve's work as a sound designer was well known, he was head of sound at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester for over 21 years where he designed over 80 shows. He designed countless other shows across the country.

Gareth Fry writes, "Steve was dedicated to advancing the art and perception of theatre sound. To this end he served as a founding board member of the Association of Sound Designers, was the head of the sound working group for OISTAT, and was key to organising the sound element of many national and international design events and exhibitions, including the forthcoming World Stage Design conference.

"Well known for his passionate and often contentious views, Steve was a driving force in the short history of modern sound design.&quo

USA - Designing shows for artistes ranging from Sheryl Crow to Fleetwood Mac over a long period, experienced LD Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie has been increasingly finding GLP's impression X4's an essential component in his touring inventory.

Earlier this summer, PRG supplied production for Fleetwood Mac's LIVE 2013 48-city Stateside arena tour - and this time Guthrie requisitioned 36 of the new generation LED moving heads.

The association between Paul Guthrie' (of Toss Film & Design) and Fleetwood Mac dates back to 1999 when he worked with lead singer Stevie Nicks, before co-designing the band's 2003 tour with their veteran LD Curry Grant and Bruce Rodgers (of Tribe Design). He then took over the reins entirely for their 2009 and 2013 tours.

Curry's own history with the band dates back to 1974, and since he had always used PRG as his preferred service provider Guthrie saw no reason t

UK - PRG will be holding a Sale of Used Equipment at the East Molesey office on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 July, 10am-6pm.

Sale items include an extensive range of professional lighting, audio equipment and unused consumables.

(Jim Evans)

Brit Icon - Sir Elton John is to be the first recipient of a new annual honour launched by the Brit Awards organisers to celebrate major figures in music. He will receive the Brits Icon award at a show in September which will be broadcast later by ITV. The prize has been created by the BPI, the music industry's trade body. It will go to an artist whose writing, recording and performances have made a "lasting impact" on UK culture.

The BPI and Brit Awards chief executive Geoff Taylor said that Sir Elton had "achieved such a level of artistic creativity and originality, critical acclaim, global recognition and popular success" that he deserved to be recognised as a "true icon of our cultural life". Sir Elton has sold more than 250 million records globally. Proceeds from the show will go to the Brit Trust and the Royal Academy of Music, where Sir Elton

Germany - Further to the launch of their ARC3 last October, Astera has now released an improved version of their tablet controller. Now referred to as the AsteraTouch (ARC6, formerly ARC3), with a more intuitive control system and user-friendly interface, Astera has pushed the boundaries for easy-to-use wireless lighting control, says the company

The Astera range features handheld LED controllers for all types of user, from the simple infra-red controller (ARC1) with limited features to the more advanced radio frequency controller (ARC2) with a greater range and extensive control. The AsteraTouch improves the current range with its visibility and enhanced usability. Due to the seven-inch, 1024x600-pixel captive touchscreen, the often complex Astera control system is simplified into easy stages, but more importantly, it still maintains the comprehensive control and customizabilit

UK - Set manufacturer Brilliant Stages has played the leading role in supplying the dazzling stage set for Robbie Williams' Take the Crown stadium tour.

Brilliant Stages' general manager, Tony Bowern was tasked by the tour's production manager, Wob Roberts, to oversee the design, construction and delivery of elements including a series of replicas of Robbie Williams' head, on-stage tracking solutions, a multi-tiered main stage with protective roofette and a curved header topping the massive back wall.

In collaboration with a number of key partners, including fellow Prolyte Group subsidiary Prolyte UK, Brilliant delivered an exceptionally conceived and constructed product to the specifications of artistic designer Willie Williams and the late stage architect Mark Fisher.

"Tony transformed our requirements into an enormous construction schedule which co-ordinated t

UK - Working for event management company MEDIAmaker, XL Events recently supplied multi-screen projection, mapping, live interactive elements, camera system and audio systems for a corporate conference and awards ceremony serving 1200 delegates and guests.

The event, held at Telford International Centre, was spread across a total of six rooms, as well as being webcast live to an invitation-only microsite which allowed attendees in remote locations to login and view the awards in the evening.

In the primary room the main focus was a twin projector blend using two of XL's Barco FLM HD20s on to a 13m x 4m screen. The blend was controlled by an Encore unit, also from XL Events, which was programmed and controlled by Charlie Archer.

This screen displayed keynote presentations, awards films and other graphical elements.

Either side of the main screen two stacks of flown boxes we

UK - RG Jones' busy summer season with Martin Audio premier PA systems continued in July, with the 2013 Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace. This followed the Glastonbury Festival, held a few weeks previously, with the simultaneous Henley Festival also placing further demands on their Martin Audio inventory.

Such congestion with very different environments was always going to be a challenge, but with careful planning and deployment, the Coronation Festival proved once again that RG Jones and Martin Audio were capable of uniting the audience experience.

RG Jones are themselves Royal Warrant Holders and participated at an exhibition in Buckingham Palace Gardens (along with 200 others) while simultaneously providing sound reinforcement for the gala concerts. The RG Jones stand comprised an original Morris J-type, as the one used by the original founder Ronald Geoffrey Jones

Australia - Robe got behind UK based lighting designer Simon Brockwell of SBLD to assist the facilitation of his innovative interactive work The Nocturnal Pianola, one of the eye-catching exhibits at the 2013 Vivid Festival of Music, Light & Ideas in Sydney, Australia.

The festival featured around 60 major lighting installations all located in and around the downtown area of the city after dark, spread across 18 days in June. It attracted approximately half a million people who came to enjoy and experience some of the wonders and thought-provoking and imaginative properties of light as a live art form.

Robe has always been interested in creative arts projects, and Brockwell's initial contact with Robe was with Ashley Lewis, key account manager for film, theatre & TV from the UK office. The two have worked on some previous projects together. Ashley put him in touch with

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