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USA - The Open Control Architecture (OCA) Alliance, the industry collective developing a standardized media networking system control architecture for professional applications, has added Focusrite and RCF Corp. to its fast growing roster of members.

The organization also has completed and released OCA version 1.2 of its base specification, and forwarded it to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) for review as part of the X210 standardization of OCA. OCA Version 1.2 continues the development roadmap and schedule. It enhances OCA's ability to work with different media transport technologies, and incorporates significant feedback from early adopters.

"We are very excited to announce the issuance of Version 1.2 of the specification and to welcome our new members to the OCA Alli

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UK - Billed as 'the latest in the exciting tradition of War Horse and His Dark Materials, Emil and the Detectives requires lighting designer Lucy Carter to transform the National Theatre's Olivier Stage into 1920s Berlin, utilising the subtle colours and theatrical grade dimming of Chroma-Q's Color Force 48 and 72 premium performance LED battens.

Lucy - a respected and sought-after lighting designer with an eclectic 20-year career - has specified 12x Color Force 72 1.8m / 72" and six Color Force 48 1.2m / 48" length fixtures to wash numerous scenic elements softly and evenly, evoking the atmosphere of the play's period.

All of the Color Force units are rigged overhead between a series of portals to wash down in subtle colours. They create a full wash and also work in smaller sections to create a 'broken up' coverage.

"For me, the best thing about the Co

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South Africa - The DWR Team were invited by Nick Britz to attend a basic Avolites Training course which covered the infrastructure and operational instructions of the console.

The day kicked off with a short briefing from Bruce Riley on his recent travels to PLASA. Then it was over to Nick Britz.

For those who had never sat in front of a desk before it was a great thrill to record their first cue! For the experienced, a few novel tricks and tips kept them interested.

Nick Britz comments, "At the end of the day, education makes our job simpler too as the users have a better understanding of the equipment. In regards to the DWR team, it's so much easier to sell something that you know."

DWR's Duncan Riley believes consistent industry training is imperative. "I think we take a lot for granted thinking people know the equipment," said Riley. "It's real

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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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Italy - Following Peter Johansen's takeover of SGM in February 2012, the company and brand have undergone a complete revamp. This process remains ongoing, with the latest activity being a new distribution channel for the Italian market provided by the SGM subsidiary, SGM Italy s.r.l.

Managed by Mario Radice as CEO and Giorgio Radice as commercial director, this recent initiative, effective from 1 November 2013, has been put into place to ensure the highest level of service for SGM's Italian partners.

Says Peter Johansen, "Moving all activities to Denmark has not caused us to neglect either SGM's origins nor our valued and loyal Italian customers. We have been planning this set-up and now the timing is just right."

Mario Radice is no new face to SGM and the lighting industry. Having working closely with Peter Johansen since 1992, the two passionate lighting enthusia

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Australia - Royal Randwick's $152m five-star grandstand opened in time for the Sydney Spring Carnival season. Stretching 110m alongside the track and towering five levels above the finishing post, the handover of the grandstand from builders Brookfield Multiplex to the Australian Turf Club was a momentous occasion.

The grandstand not only features a 4500-capacity amphitheatre surrounding the Theatre of the Horse parade ring, but eight new restaurant and dining spaces, and four undercover terraces on each level facing west over the Theatre of the Horse.

Brookfield Multiplex chose The P.A People to deliver the networked television distribution and audio systems. Required acoustic performance criteria for each space and an indicative number of zones were nominated, along with an overview of functional requirements and environmental constraints. A 1000 port Ethernet network specif

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The Netherlands - The 2013 MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) enjoyed all the usual spectacle of one of the music industry's highest profile events. But amongst this, the sound department was enjoying a quiet revolution of its own thanks to Sennheiser equipment - notably the new Digital 9000 Series microphone system, which was making its MTV debut.

Taking place at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome on 10th November, the EMAs included performances by Eminem, Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars, Icona Pop, Katy Perry and Kings of Leon, all of whom used Sennheiser 2000 series in-ear monitors and a combination of Sennheiser 5200 or 2000 series wireless microphone systems, except Kings of Leon who opted for MD 431 wired mics.

Two of the biggest challenges for sound designer Derrick Zieba were the amount of RF channels needed and that the presentation podium was at the far end of the Ziggo Dome from the perf

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UK - Soundcraft Vi series digital consoles may now be prevalent around the world - but few single venues can boast as many as five (plus a vintage Soundcraft analogue console) regularly operating in a single space. But the multi-room Manchester Academy, run by the University of Manchester Students Union on the city's Oxford Road, can boast just such a feat.

Having historically hired front line sound for its main 2500-capacity Academy 1 from Liverpool-based Adlib Audio, this summer the Union began to upgrade its technical capabilities considerably to ensure that all four rooms were rider friendly.

The catalyst has been technical manager Stuart Wright, who was brought in 13 months ago to mastermind the refit. "The venue was very set in its ways and everything needed upgrading when I arrived," he said.

Although the main room remains on long-term rental - with a Soundc

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UK - Live music lighting designer Rod Clay is making good use of the colour rendering technology of Philips Vari-Lite's VLX3 LED Wash luminaires to provide key light for Bryan Ferry during his An Evening with Bryan Ferry tour.

Ferry remains the ideal combination of mystery man and rock star and Clay's flattering and restrained lighting palette artfully reflects this. Conjuring up an intimate, smoky jazz club feel on the show's opening, half way through he seamlessly segues into dynamic concert style lighting backed by bright video imagery.

Clay's fixture palette, supplied by technical and creative production company One Big Star, includes Philips Vari-Lite VLX3 Washes for front, face and key lighting and Philips Selecon Rama Fresnels make up much of the cross lighting floor package.

Clay discusses: "We wanted a tungsten/jazzy feel for the opening of the show so t

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UK - Although starting out more than 20 years ago in the Welsh village of Cwmaman, it wasn't until 1996 that Stereophonics secured management, a record deal (with V2) and embarked on a world tour in support of their first album Word Gets Around.

Enter front of house sound engineer Dave Roden, sound rental company, Capital Sound Hire and Martin Audio. That three-way relationship with the band has remained intact from day one. Seventeen years on, Kelly Jones and Co. have just completed another successful arena tour to give some exposure to the recent album, Graffiti On The Train, as well as old back catalogue favourites like Dakota.

Roden retains a fierce loyalty towards Capital Sound and has never been let down by their recommendations. "I started with the old [Martin Audio] F2," he remembers fondly, "and then moved on to Wavefront technology, the W

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UK - Henry V, the last of the five plays forming the acclaimed debut season of the Michael Grandage Company, recently opened at London's Noël Coward Theatre - with entertainment lighting specialist White Light supplying the lighting once again, as it has done since the season began last December.

With a cast led by Jude Law as the English King, Henry V follows Privates on Parade (which featured Simon Russell Beale), the world premiere of John Logan's new play Peter and Alice (featuring Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw), The Cripple of Inishmaan (featuring Daniel Radcliffe) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (featuring David Walliams and Sheridan Smith). The productions have all been directed by Michael Grandage, formerly artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, and designed by Christopher Oram. One of the main aims throughout the season has been

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USA - Carlos Colina, lighting designer for the 2013 Latin Grammy Awards, staged at the Mandalay Bay Events Centre, Las Vegas, USA and produced by Univision, decided to make a point for Ricky Martin's live appearance at the event... utilizing 18 of Robe's new Pointe multi-purpose moving lights for the superstar's acclaimed rendition of Más y Más together with singer songwriter Draco Rosa (who won Album of the Year).

The show was broadcast live across the Univision network with a staggering 9.8m viewers tuning in to all or part of the three hour telecast, which also generated record levels of interactive social media activity.

Colina has lit the Latin Grammys for the last seven years, and each year he and set designer Jorge Dominguez collaborate to produce a stunning visual concept for the action-packed line up, which included 21 live performances and the 13 Awards pres

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The Power of Advertising - Lily Allen has returned to the top of the UK singles chart with her cover version of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know. The song, used in a festive television advert for department store John Lewis, is tipped to be Christmas number one.

Critics' Choice - Three artists have been shortlisted for this year's Brit Critics' Choice award, won last year by singer Tom Odell. Chloe Howl, Ella Eyre and Sam Smith are in the running with the winner to be announced on Thursday 12 December. Howl has been compared with Lily Allen, while former Brit school student Eyre scored a number one as the vocalist on Rudimental's Waiting All Night. La, La, La, Smith's collaboration with producer Naughty Boy, also reached number one in the UK singles chart.

Voting for the 2014 Brit Awards opened for members of the music industry last week. Their shortlists fo

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Denmark - For Danish pop and R&B singer-songwriter, Medina, this fall has been dedicated to her extensive Danish tour Tæt På.

Medina's lighting designer, S°ren Peglau, selected both variants of SGM's LED tubes for his design creation: 150 pcs 1-meter LT-100 and 50 pcs 2-meter LT-200, specifically acquired for this tour by rental company Comtech.

Peglau's vision was to place the tubes in various heights and depths to fill out the stage and make it seem random and unintentional. "The effect I was looking to achieve was for the lighting to drizzle down over the musicians. For this, I created content that moved vertically in a slow mode," states the designer, who for other pieces of music also produced a slow-running fire effect for the tubes.

Also the audiences were invited to become 'immersed' in the setting, with tubes hanging over their heads, for whic

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UK - Engage Production Ltd, specialist in interactive technologies for branded environments, has announced the distribution of Holo, a development of the 400 year old 'Pepper's Ghost' illusion. A broadcast product offering the biggest 360° floating optical experience on the market, and controlled by simple hand gestures, the 2.4m high, diamond-shaped Holo was designed by Conran and devised by London-based innovation company Beagle Media.

Launched in October at Sir Terence Conran's apartment in London, Holo is available in a bespoke range of colours and materials to achieve a unique minimalist design, including wafer-thin German engineered glass, brushed aluminium and chrome.

"Holo is the biggest hologram product on the market using projection and projectors," explains Steve Blyth, managing director of Engage. "But there's more to Holo than sheer size. It's a

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Austria The Top of the Mountain Opening Concert marks the start of the ski season in Ischgl, in the south Tyrol. Set in an impressive location in the mountains, the biggest open-air arena in the snow attracts big names to what has long been regarded as the party highlight of the season. World stars such as Elton John, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys and Rihanna have already performed on the Top of the Mountain Opening stage.

This year, it was the turn of brothers Chad and Mike Kroeger, Ryan Peake and Daniel Adair, collectively known as Nickelback. The Canadian rock quartet, with five Grammy nominations and over 50m album sales, filled the outdoor arena with a crowd of about 18,000.

Front-of-house PA was a Nexo STM modular line array system, provided by Fantasy Event Engineering of Austria. Under the supervision of Fantasy's Hannes Knapp, a multi-national engineering team set

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UK - Sennheiser UK is unveiling a newly-designed office in Marlow completed after enlisting the help of five creative students at Buckinghamshire New University to come up with ideas.

Following sustained year-on-year business growth, Century Point's 6,000sq.ft of office had more than reached capacity therefore Sennheiser UK moved to its new 15,000sq.ft home in Marlow, Buckinghamshire earlier this year.

BA (Hons) Spatial Design and Graphic Arts students at the University in Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, came up with distinctive designs for the new Sennheiser UK office in Globe Park, Marlow, making the most of its curved walls and glass partitioning.

"Students tackled a design challenge to make the new offices for Sennheiser UK look more distinctive and convey their core business to people who use and visit the offices", commented Alison Shreeve, Head of School

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UK - Buckinghamshire rental company Siyan supplied a floor lighting package for the recent UK and European leg of a tour by American psychedelic rockers MGMT, who are promoting their eponymous third studio album, to complete an eye-catching lighting and visuals design by Ben Silverstein.

Siyan's Tom Grant explained that Ben's spec did not originally contain Robe products, but as this is one of Siyan's main moving light brands, he agreed to the suggested substitutions and use Robe for the first time.

"It was a very positive experience all round and Ben was happy with the fixtures," comments Tom, who saw him craft a high impact show from the floor rig with six Robe LEDWash 600s and eight MMX Spots at its core.

For the larger UK shows, Siyan boosted the overhead rig with additional fixtures including 20 more MMX Spots.

A twin 22k video projection system was also sup

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UK - When the University of Roehampton Drama Department decided to upgrade their stock of theatre lighting, White Light was the university's first choice as supplier. Jonathon Wilson, technical manager for Drama at Roehampton, wanted to drastically increase the university's lighting capabilities while also complementing their existing equipment.

With a tight budget and a very broad range of equipment needs, Wilson was looking for a supplier that could deliver a large selection of products, excellent value, and superior service. He found all three at White Light and worked with business development manager Jonathan Haynes to put together a working list of products for demo at White Light's base in Wimbledon. "I was able to see similar units side by side and properly evaluate them. That resource was invaluable in making informed choices about products," said Wilson.

Th

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UK -Richard Martin Lighting (RML) which has been involved with Top of the Pops for many years, was asked to be involved in the annual Christmas and New Year specials.

This year the shows were filmed at Riverside Studios where all three stages were packed full of vibrant set pieces and lights, as well as some of the leading acts around right now. These include Rudimental, The Saturdays, One Republic and Chase and Status.

Dave Gibson was also reinstated as LD making it even more nostalgic. The vast lighting rig included Sunstrips, Sharpys, Alpha Beam 300's and 700's, Robin 100 LEDBeams, MAC 500's, 8 Lites and MAC Auras.

A show of such magnitude, with so much going on throughout, means that it is an ideal opportunity for LDs to try out some of the newer fixtures that are now available. Dave saw this opportunity and took it with both hands using both the Chauvet Nexus 4x4 and th

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UK - With London enjoying the busiest time of the year during the Christmas and New Year period, Westminster City Council have taken the decision to install a giant 'snow globe' to protect the Shaftesbury Memorial and Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus.

The replica snow globe, designed by Wildstone, and constructed by fabric structure experts Architen Landrell, includes an 11m inflatable PVC membrane that adds festive sparkle to the area whilst keeping the statue and monument safe from excitable revellers.

The base of the globe, formed into an octagon shape, features eight high resolution LED screens supplied by XL Video. The screens, formed from tiles of high-brightness Pixled F-6, are covered by 6mm of acrylic to protect the LED from the elements. The screens display a range of content including Christmas greetings and sponsor messages from Microsoft, Fiat, JD Sports, Canon, a

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UK - Utopium supplied the full event production for guests to get into the swing of things at Nokia's 1920s themed Christmas party held at Colston Hall.

Transporting guests back to the glamorous era, Utopium provided over 200 lighting fixtures to create the perfect ambience for the evening. This included Chauvet Well Uplighters, which were strategically placed throughout the venue to enhance its art-deco furnishings and original architectural features.

The evening's entertainment was held in the venue's main auditorium where Utopium designed and installed a complete stage lighting package to accommodate the various performances. Acts included two live bands, a DJ, hula hooping and swing dancers. The team also supplied a 9m x 3m rear projection screen that enabled custom graphics to be displayed, as well as a feed from video DJ Cheeba.

Throughout the venue Utopium used Showte

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