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USA - Millions of viewers worldwide had their eyes on MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, 2 February watching as the NFL's Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks battled it out for the title of Super Bowl XLVIII champion.

While the game itself left Denver fans a bit bored, the halftime show proved to be the most exciting part of the day. Super Bowl XLVIII was the most watched television programme in US history with 111.5m viewers while the halftime performance was the most watched in the history of the Super Bowl drawing in a record 115.3m viewers, passing the record 114m who watched Madonna perform two years earlier.

The Super Bowl Halftime Show has some of the most stringent requirements in the business. Setup occurs in front of a packed stadium and in this case nearly f

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Education Initiative - The Musicians' Union has urged the government to do more to support music hubs, after a critical report from Ofsted claimed the publicly-funded initiative was largely failing. The union re-iterated its concern that the "completely unrealistic timeframe" set by the government to establish the hubs, combined with local authority funding cuts, had allowed the "postcode lottery" of provision in schools to worsen.

Funded by the Department for Education and administered through Arts Council England, the three-year £171 million programme was considered to be a major positive outcome of Darren Henley's 2011 review of music education in England.

However, Ofsted's report published in November said the hubs, funded from August 2012, had done little to improve the quality of music education from previous years and that the subject continued

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USA - When Britney Spears' new Las Vegas revue Britney: Piece of Me opened at the end of last year, leading production designers Baz Halpin and Chris Nyfield of Silent House Productions invested it with a typically dynamic and versatile set.

Halpin, who boasts a veritable portfolio of global superstars among his credits, first started using SGM's groundbreaking XC-5 colour strobes last year on world arena tours with P!nk and Taylor Swift, as rental stagers PRG invested in inventory to meet the demand.

This time he confirms that he has deployed 40 of the LED strobes on the stage at Planet Hollywood Resort as the only strobe platform in the set.

Designed to highlight the pop diva's signature style and energy as she performs infectious dance hits alongside tracks from her eighth studio album, Britney Jean, the show will run for a minimum of two years and combines a high-

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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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Germany - ProLight+Sound and Showtech will merge and take place concurrently in Frankfurt from now on. Reed Exhibitions Deutschland GmbH, the organiser of Showtech, and Messe Düsseldorf reached an agreement to that effect.

The merger of both shows will create "the largest trade fair alliance for professional event technology in the areas audio, lighting, theatre and stage, media and image production, and system integration".

"The two international market leaders will contribute their globally renowned brands to this alliance of strength," says Hans-Joachim Erbel, CEO of Reed Exhibitions Deutschland GmbH. Stephan Kurzawski, SVP of Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH, echoes this sentiment: "Industry leader meets industry leader in a move that executes the bundling of the market in just one trade fair venue so often demanded by both exhibitors and visitors.

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Israel - A new reality TV series, Chef Games, has just made its debut on Israeli TV's Channel 2 with lighting designed by Dakar Azulay.

The show was recorded in Studio 5 of the Globus Group Studio complex in Jerusalem, produced by German based Constantine Entertainment, and lit with the help of Robe ROBIN MMX WashBeams and Robin LEDWash 1200s which were instrumental to Azulay's design.

The set featured a full kitchen on one side where the competitors created their culinary art, and this was connected via a conveyor belt to the restaurant / tasting area the other side. The food was dispatched to the tasting teams via the belt, so the judges were unaware of which chef had prepared which of the dishes!

Azulay decided to use the LEDWash 1200s for soft light on Chef Games, the first time he's used them for this application and context. He did this with the addition

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Germany - Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund is the biggest football stadium in Germany and Ateis Europe's IDA8 is now playing a major role in ensuring that the upgraded audio system reaches all areas of the 80,720 capacity venue.

The stadium opened in 1974 as the Westfalenstadion and is home to Bundesliga football team Borussia Dortmund. While still referred to by its original name it is known officially as Signal Iduna Park after the Signal Iduna Group insurance company that has sponsored Borussia Dortmund since 2005 in a deal that runs until 2021.

Four new stands were built at Signal Iduna Park for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Germany. It can seat 65,718 fans for international games, with a mixture of seating and standing areas for home matches bringing it up to full capacity. Because of the growing need for a technical infrastructure to provide both voice alarm co

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Denmark - Martin products took centre stage and attempted to outshine Mylène Farmer on her 2013 Timeless Tour in a hitherto unseen combination of conventional and creative LED video products. The tour management team worked with Alabama Media to create a state of the art stage design with Martin LED video products.

Martin Professional VC-Grids, VC-Strips, VC-Dots and EC-Panels were integrated into all possible elements of the stage. One of the spectacular details was a curtain made up of Martin VC-Dots. Other than working as a traditional curtain it was used both for effects and to display images.

All along the front edge of the stage, a number of VC-Grids were placed. VC-Strips and VC-Grids were also put on stairs and a piano for maximum visual impact. Other stage elements included eight large trapeziums full of VC-Grids and VC-Strips were flying around on stage during the s

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The Netherlands - New, intriguing, unique: three easy words to say yet much harder to produce the reality. A visit to the d&b audiotechnik demo room at this year's ISE in Amsterdam made the case in triplicate.

Three demonstrations daily introduced listeners to the passively crossed over 24C and 24C-E column loudspeakers from the new xC-Series; fixed installation products aimed squarely at speech reinforcement in demanding acoustic spaces. This Series is specifically intended for the kind of highly reverberant environments where conquering acoustic challenges must balance with aesthetic considerations.

The xC-Series also includes the 16C, a smaller column using four 4" low/mid drivers plus a centrally mounted constant directivity HF horn with 0.75" compression driver. The 24C contains six 4" low/mid drivers and a HF array of six 1.1" dome tweeters. Passive f

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UK - The newest addition to Flare Audio's product range is the SM15 Stage Monitor - a versatile compact and lightweight design that is suited for live music venues wanting to maximize stage space. Featuring 15" and 1" drivers, it combines high definition power (Max SPL of 133.5dB) in a compact size (384mm x 595mm x 421mm) and weight (28kg). The versatile SM15 uses Flare's Vortex technology for great feedback stability, and can be used at either a 40 or 55 degree angle.

The first venue to use the new SM15s is The Half Moon in Putney where Stevie Wyatt, chief engineer reports: "The (SM15s) deliver consistent high fidelity and vocal clarity no matter how hard you push the system, there are no holes in the coverage, they are super loud - it really is the perfect system for the venue."

Flare speakers use Space enclosure structure and Vortex porting technology in

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UK - Delta Sound has announced that Martin Locket will be working with their global senior management team, as a business strategy adviser. He will be providing input to the Delta Sound companies in the UK, Dubai and Qatar in various areas of business development and diversification; advising the team headed by Mark Bonner, Paul Keating and Andy Jackson on how to develop business and maximise opportunities. "2014 will be a year of advancement and opportunity," says Delta Sound.

Martin commented: "I am working with a number of exciting companies and brands in the production industry now. I am really looking forward to working closely with Mark, Paul and Andy on opportunities and strategy for the business in Europe and the Middle East. Having previous experience with rental companies of various sizes in the UK, I am relishing the challenge of getting more involved i

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The Netherlands - Bazelmans AVR, a Dutch AV rental company, has invested in the Meyer Sound LYON linear sound reinforcement system and become one of the first suppliers of the new product. The LYON sale, closed during the ISE 2014 trade show in Amsterdam, includes 40 LYON linear line array loudspeakers, 22 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, and a Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system, in addition to RMServers for loudspeaker monitoring.

Making its tradeshow debut at ISE 2014, LYON incorporates the technology of the LEO Family in a more flexible and compact package, and extends the advantages of highly linear self-powered systems to a larger range of venues and applications. LYON is available in two variants: the LYON-M main line array loudspeaker for main arrays, and the LYON-W wide-coverage line array loudspeaker for downfill and outfill applications.

"The

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Italy - Loudspeaker manufacturer RCF SpA has announced the third edition of its sound engineering course, which is organised by the Department of Science and Methods for Engineering of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, in cooperation with RCF.

The course, which will be presented in English, will cover 120 hours over a five-week period, from Monday to Friday, beginning 5 May and ending 6 June 2014. The course will be located at the RCF Audio Academy premises, located in Reggio Emilia, Italy.

The primary goal of the course is to provide engineers with a specific knowledge of the state-of-the-art technologies related to sound, transducers and speaker systems and their applications in the professional market. The course is organised in modules progressing the basis of electro-acoustics components such as transducers, amplifiers and digital processors, to the design of a

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Germany - According to Music Group, Midas has launched a new competitive price plan for their award winning PRO Series digital mixing consoles. "A price reduction of up to 30% provides system integrators and rental/production providers more incentive to specify and purchase the legendary PRO Series consoles for their everyday, pro-audio applications," says the company's statement.

"We listened to our customers and those who desire to be Midas owners," said VP of global sales Shawn Watts. "This new pricing creates opportunities for installers and rental providers who have wished to integrate Midas' legendary technology and performance, but until now could not - due to budgetary requirements. Now, everyone can enjoy the benefits of Midas performances, at a truly amazing price point."

The new price structure is a direct result of Music Group's $100 m

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Germany - Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, inventors of Cubase, ASIO and VST, is celebrating three decades of innovation and experience.

Thirty years ago, nearly to the day, Manfred Ruerup and Karl Steinberg founded the company that has become one of the world's largest manufacturers of music and audio software and hardware, with more than 1.5m users worldwide.

"Steinberg have a tradition of pioneering in new technologies that we can be proud of, and our wide network of accomplished engineers, musicians, producers and composers allows us to keep our fingers at the pulse of the industry," comments Frank Simmerlein, marketing director at Steinberg. "I've been a part of this company for a long time and it's wonderful to sense that the spirit of the early days, the constant desire to find new ideas and solutions, lives on."

Since 2005, the company is a whol

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UK - 2012 UK X-Factor winner James Arthur has had a roller-coaster rise to stardom in the last 12 months, with his first full production tour kicking off two days into the new year complete with a stylish production and lighting design by Andy Hurst and lighting equipment supplied by Blackburn based HSL.

Hurst took the 'less is more' approach to lighting the Impossible singer's show, which he programmed during production rehearsals at Millennium Studios in Bedford, working a discreet jazz clubby vibe blended with urban edge in to the soul orientated show.

HSL's project manager Mike Oates comments, "Andy's design is classy and intelligent - and really shows off his skills at creating a theatrical style environment."

The stage visuals start with a sumptuous red velour drape upstage - supplied by EventServe Drapeage in Ireland - which sets the tone of the show, with t

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UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd started the New Year celebrations by delivering their 1000th LEDHead Batten2 into UK rental stocks. The recipient of the 1000th unit is Push Hires Ltd, based in Eastbourne. Push Hires are part of Push Studios Ltd.

Steve Hubbard, Push Hire's production manager had seen the Batten2 being used on a variety of shows and was impressed with what he saw so he visited MilTec's stand at PLASA for a closer look. A full demo was then organised at the Push premises in Eastbourne, resulting in an order for 68 units.

Steve commented: "The Batten2 was chosen over rival products because it is bright, compact, robust and because the layout of the connectors makes it easy to set up for shows. It is obviously a well thought out and well designed product. Our first job with them will be at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on a huge exhibition stand over 80m long.

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UK - A new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in London has introduced audiences to two innovations: the story of Stephen Ward, who was at the centre of a political scandal in the 1960s; and a huge lighting rig that includes 65 ETC Source Four LED luminaires specially purchased by dealer PRG.

Lighting designer Peter Mumford decided he wanted his rig to be as dynamic as the tabloid-worthy musical, and chose a large number of Source Four LED luminaires after seeing their versatility on King Kong in Melbourne. "ETC has managed to create hugely successful LED fixtures with the Source Four LED," he says. "ETC seems to have cracked the problem of making an LED source that works through lenses."

The largest part of the ETC Eos-controlled rig for Stephen Ward is moving lights, says Mumford, but he used the Source Four LED Lustr+ luminaires as his 'generics,' provid

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Germany - Dry hire company Niclen Moving Lights Systems GmbH, has added Elation Platinum Beam 5R Extreme moving heads and EPV762 MH high resolution LED moving head video panels to its extensive inventory of lighting and video products.

"We have always been in close touch with professionals from different markets and have always been good at fulfilling specific design needs and adding luminaires when needed," states Niclen CEO Bodo Valasik. "The choice to add the Elation Platinum Beam Extremes gives the market a very sophisticated tool for beam projection and offers the highest standards in brightness, optics and flexibility. We're pleased to have it in our inventory as there is always business for an excellent light."

Niclen, located at the centre of TV production in Dortmund in western Germany, has specialised in moving head systems for the past 15 years a

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UK - Fans of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing are flocking to a 21 date live UK arena tour to see seven celebrity dancers and their professional partners show off their moves on stage. Four Yamaha digital mixers are ensuring that the sound is top quality.

Taking place in January and February, South Wales-based Sonalyst has designed and facilitated the Strictly tour's sound and lighting for a number of years. Managing director and sound designer Rory Madden chose a pair of Yamaha PM5Ds, an M7CL and an LS9 to deliver the 2014 production's intricate mix.

The show follows the format of the television show, each couple dancing twice and receiving comments from the judges, a full production number, routines by the professional dancers, an audience vote (by text message) and presentation to the night's winning couple.

With a 17-piece live band, five vocalists, three judges and p

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UK - After the global success of their take on rhythm and physical theatre, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas have taken the Stomp concept to a new level. Where Stomp creates rhythm with everyday objects, The Lost and Found Orchestra transforms everyday objects into a plethora of invented instruments. LFO recreates every section of a symphony orchestra, using musical saws, bottles, whirly toys and traffic cones.

PRG's Andrew Strachan worked alongside Jason Culverwell from Stomp Productions as production manager and Paul Emery, lighting designer to supply the lighting and rigging for the show in Paris from 21 January to 9 February.

Within Paul's lighting design he utilised Vari-Lites, Impression X4s & Pixelline with a traditional theatrical generic rig making up the back-bone of the design.

Ian Philips was PRG project manager with Mary Webb from PRG heading up the lighting

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UK - CIE-Group, one of the audio visual industry's longest established providers of equipment for the professional audio visual integration and PA sectors, has added the 2N NetSpeaker Audio-over-IP System to its growing product portfolio.

Controlled via a PC-based Central Management Software tool, the 2N NetSpeaker System allows the user to stream music, recorded voice announcements, tones, jingles and promotions or live paging announcements to any on-site zone, remote site or multiple zones/sites via a standard web, LAN or WAN connection.

The new additions to the product portfolio come following the announcement that the CIE-Group has entered into a new distribution partnership with 2N to provide an innovative range of IP-addressable audio, intercom and door entry systems for professional the AV, telecoms and security sectors.

Commenting on the announcement Chris Edwards, m

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