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UK - The Savoy Theatre in London recently embarked upon a programme of works to address its environmental impact whilst at the same time improving its customer experience. It should come as no surprise, given its status in history that The Savoy chose a pioneering way ahead.

The theatre wished to replace its existing house-light system, which comprised traditional 40-60W tungsten candle-lamps and cold cathode tubing, with an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly system. The new system was to be retro-fitted with no impact on the fabric of this historic site.

Given the spectacular nature of the interior, the installation was to replicate as closely as possible the way in which the auditorium had traditionally been lit, in order that the detailed architectural features could

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South Africa - Tucked away in a suburb in Randburg are the studios of Stark Films, an independent television production company where the popular series Binneland and many other longstanding dramas are filmed. Stark Films have purchased a Philips Strand Lighting 250 ML Control Console, which is an ideal desk for their daily requirements.

Stepping inside the Stark Film studios can be compared to an architect environment as enormous windows overlook an entire eco garden. While Stark Films was established in 1985 by Friedrich and Elsje Stark it was only four years ago that they left the inner city of Johannesburg to their new quarters which has become an oasis for those working day in and day out on soap operas and morning shows. It's a setting that allows for creativity and serves as a home away from home.

Chris Gardner has been with Stark Films for the past nine years an

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USA - When the touring production of the five-time Tony Award-nominated 80's musical Rock of Ages hit the road to rock its way across America for a third season, Masque Sound went along for the ride, supplying a custom audio equipment package to support sound designer Craig Cassidy and his team.

Set in 1987 on Hollywood's famed Sunset Strip, Rock of Ages tells the story of a small town girl who meets a big city rocker at Los Angeles' most famous rock club, The Bourbon Room. This arena-rock love story is told through the hits of the greatest bands of the 80's including, Journey, Night Ranger, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and more.

Recreating the heavy, arena-rocking sound that defined the big hair 80's with a PA system that would be able to move in and out of the theatres quickly enough for the tour's rigoro

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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 - London's Leicester Square was chosen as the venue for the world premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - the latest instalment of the Marvel Comics franchise from Columbia Pictures.

The glittering premiere was attended by the stars of the movie including Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and Dane DeHaan. For the red carpet exterior of the cinema, XL Video were brought in to provide a video solution including multiple LED screens and media control.

XL Video's project manager, Mark Rooney selected the company's new MC-7 LED which displayed the logos and character images from the film. Despite the bright sunshine in London that day, the screen performed very well, with vibrant colours.

With only a few hours to rig the screens from 6am on the day of the premiere, XL's crew of Gary Burchett, Steven Grinceri, Rob Smith, Colin Mudd, and Fabrizio Di Lelio worked clos

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UK - Belfast PA company, Wackiki, employed its Allen & Heath GLD digital mixing system, comprising the GLD-80 mixer and accompanying AR2412 remote I/O rack, for the recent Arenacross UK tour, which visited seven arenas from Belfast to Wembley, showcasing an international line-up of pro racers and Freestyle motocross.

"We chose GLD because of its small footprint and I/O processing abilities. The use of compressors, high pass filters and 4-band EQ on each channel was a must. With some venues posing difficult cable runs, we liked that the GLD only required a single CAT5 to connect the stage box, instead of multiple cables like most desks," explains Wackiki's hire manager, Steve Woods. "The truck pack was also very tight with the amount of truss and PA involved, and the only way the tour budget would work was if all the sound and lighting production fit into one truck

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UK - Having previously been nominated for two Olivier Awards, it was it was third time lucky for sound designer Gareth Owen as he won one of the coveted awards for Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along. Gareth's choice of a Yamaha PM5D digital console for the show proved that his philosophy of 'the right tools for the right job' is a recipe for success.

"I'm not one to always use the same equipment - no 'cookie cutter' specs, if you will. I believe in picking the tools that are best for each production and not spending a lot of the producer's money on gear for the sake of it," he says.

"Merrily We Roll Along was all about sonic clarity and fast operation. It needed a straightforward system, just exactly what was needed to deliver a sound which was very clear and true to the original. Three of the main reason why I chose the PM5D was because it has

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USA - Rational Acoustics has announced the release of the fifth major version update for the Smaart v.7 measurement platform - Smaart v.7.5. This latest release includes significant feature additions, usability enhancements, interface modifications and important bug fixes. This is a free update and is recommended for all Smaart v.7 users.

Notable among the feature additions in Smaart v.7.5 is the addition of 'Target Curves' on RTA plots allowing ASCII traces such as the X curve (used in cinema tunings) to be imported into Smaart and displayed in a static position on the RTA plot to serve as a visual target or threshold for single channel measurements. A 'Quick Compare' feature has also been added for transfer function measurements which captures a copy of the top transfer function trace and stores the inverse in memory as a weighting curve, allowing it to be quickly applied as a

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UK - Who wouldn't want to be in Leeds on a sunny spring day with all the delights of the PLASA Focus event laid out before you? As usual, long before the need for a mid-morning latte, the place was busy with visitors and exhibitors alike. Nowhere was busier than the d&b audiotechnik stand in the New Dock Hall where the three latest products were on display.

Mounted against a backdrop of vaulted gothic cathedral windows was the rather elegant xC-Series of column loudspeakers, comprising the 16C, 24C and 24C-E. Designed specifically to deliver the d&b System reality in those difficult reverberant environments, the company's long experience of working with passively crossed loudspeakers has produced a series of column loudspeakers with supremely effective horizontal pattern control.

Meanwhile, the freshly updated ArrayCalc simulation software from d&b attracted a steady stream of

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UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd had another busy PLASA Focus show this year with a stand in the New Dock Hall and an audio demo room in the Holiday Inn hotel next door. Both positions were themed to promote MilTec's increasing British manufacturing base. Visitors to the demo room had the opportunity to try out a traditional Kentish ale or a G&T made with London dry gin.

As well as promoting fine British ale and spirits, the company also used the additional space to demonstrate their Blakite range of British speakers along with their own signal processing equipment. New products on show included a 6" speaker and 12" compact stage wedge, both fitted with dual concentric drivers. These speakers and two subs were being powered by a prototype class-d amplifier. The amp has six channels giving 2x 2,500WRMS and 4x 800WRMS into 4 Ohms. It also includes an updated version of MilTec's DNP2

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USA - The second in a series of three training DVDs presented by ETCP Recognised Trainer Richard Cadena is now available at http://bit.ly/EEonVid2. Entertainment Electrics on DVD Part 2 is a series of 22 video modules with a 10- to 15-minute presentation covering a single topic related to live event production electrics, followed by a short quiz to test your knowledge and retention.

Part 2 covers electrical safety and practical aspects of power distribution for the live event industry. It covers topics that are listed as being in the content outline for the ETCP Entertainment Electrician Certification Exam. ETCP Certified Electricians and ETCP Recognized Riggers can get recertification points for taking this video course.

"I honestly thought producing this series of videos would be a three-month project, and now, nine months later, we're only releasing the second o

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USA - Meyer Sound has bolstered its marketing efforts by recruiting Karen Ames for the newly created position of vice president of marketing and communications.

A veteran communications professional who has worked with a diverse range of artists and institutions - from the San Francisco Symphony to George Thorogood - Ames joins the Meyer Sound senior leadership team to head up its global marketing and communications strategy. She is charged with the overall leadership for corporate communications, marketing, advertising and sponsorships, social media, public relations, philanthropy, and public affairs.

As part of this restructuring, Ames heads up a marketing team that includes Jodi Hughes, who assumes the director of marketing position, and Rachel Archibald, who drives strategic marketing initiatives such as competitive research, market development, and industry alliances. The

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USA - Though he was born in Pasadena, CA, vocalist / composer / performer Gerardo Ortiz was reared in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. These days, Ortiz is recognised as a stand-out artist in the Norteño-Banda, Corridos music genre and, in 2011, he dominated the Billboard Mexican Music Awards. Ortiz is presently on tour and, to ensure the best audio fidelity with consistent coverage, he relies on loudspeakers drawn from the Aero Series 2, Convert, and Road catalogs of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

Los Angeles-based International House of Music, Inc. (IHOMI), a full service music and audio equipment supplier that services a wide range of customers from individuals to professional touring acts, recently sold the Ortiz tour a large D.A.S. Audio sound reinforcement system. Presently, the mains system includes 36 D.A.S. Aero 50 3-way, large-format line array modules powered by Lab G

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UK - The Health and Safety Executive has recently held a briefing meeting for interested parties within the entertainment industry to layout the changes to the 2007 Construction, Design and Management Regulations and their decision to include the entertainment industry within the scope of the new Regulations. The meeting coincided with the release of the 10 week consultation document which started at the beginning of April and closes on 6 June (D- Day!!!).

Please take a moment to read through this report and decide if this applies to you and your undertaking. The PLASA Technical Resources cannot stress how important it is that those who will be affected, read the consultation and comment on the proposals. If you do any work that sees you installing equipment within live events, theatre, exhibitions, conferences etc. CDM 2015 will apply to you and your work will fall under the sc

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Royal Record - London's Royal Albert Hall enjoyed a bumper year in 2013, posting record audience numbers of 1.71 million and operating income of £18.6m, up 10.4% on the previous year. The figures represent the most successful year of trading in the venue's 143-year history with 390 events driving a 7% increase in audiences. The venue recorded its highest ever operating surplus of £5.3m. The Hall's own promotions - which included performances of Carmen, Swan Lake and live orchestral accompaniment to films including Fantasia and Singin' in the Rain - generated £600,000 more in ticket sales than in 2012. The figures were released to coincide with the unveiling a new large-scale mural by artist Peter Blake featuring more than 400 artists who have performed in the hall since it opened in 1871.

Eurovision 2014 - The first of the Eur

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South Africa - A Martin Audio OmniLine micro-array, much favoured by houses of worship, has been installed in the 1500-seat Old Apostolic Church (OAC) Christian church at Mayfield Park in Gauteng, South Africa.

Audiosure, Martin Audio's territorial distributor successfully tendered for the work to install and commission a complete sound system in the new sanctuary, working from the OAC's specifications. OmniLine was central to the bid and the installation was carried out by their clients, JRTL Projects.

With Audiosure's Thys Venter overseeing the project, OmniLine first needed to meet a number of key criteria aside from the quoted specifications, including technical output, price, quality and warranty, before being chosen to handle the traditional twice-a-week service regime.

The design was based on a single central hang, comprising 12 OmniLine elements. In addition, eight M

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Denmark - The Danish city of Ishøj is implementing the four basic elements as part of an exciting renewal of its urban areas. SGM fixtures are playing a key role by illuminating the town centre building.

As one of the world's largest lighting design offices, ÅF Lighting is experienced in creating holistic lighting solutions manifesting the right balance between functionality, aesthetics and sustainability. With more than 30 years in the industry, ÅF Lighting was offered an opportunity to develop an overall lighting concept for the urban areas surrounding the town centre in Ishøj, revolving around the four elements: earth, air, fire and water.

The first part of the concept, implemented in 2012, was based on the element water. The square in front of the train station near the coastline has been furnished with feature and scenographic lighting in blue and green sh

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USA - "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn," wrote Benjamin Franklin. Chauvet Professional subscribes to this theory wholeheartedly, which is why the company sponsored a highly personalised hands-on lighting workshop recently at its new southern California showroom and learning centre.

The Chauvet Professional Concert Lighting Workshop gave students from four colleges in the Los Angeles area an opportunity to design a sequence to music of their choosing on the Chauvet Professional demo rig, working with GrandMA2 programmer Joe Spangler. Each student group got to work one-on-one with the programmer to light his or her song on an impressive rig that featured a variety of Chauvet Professional products including Nexus panels, different COLORado fixtures, Legend 230SR Beams, Q-Wash 419Z moving yoke washes and the entire new Rogue series.

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Slovakia - Rental and technical production company Q-99 has added Robe's new multi-functional Robin Pointes to its hire stock - bringing their full stock of Robe moving lights to nearly 500 fixtures.

Headed by the country's top TV lighting designer Martin Kubanka, Q-99 - which also provides video and audio solutions - has always been committed to making the very best technology available for all its clients and their events.

"We eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Pointe," explains Kubanka. "We all had high expectations, but when the Pointe was actually launched and we saw it in action for the first time ... it absolutely surpassed everything in all criteria."

Q-99 services numerous high profile light entertainment TV shows and events as well as concerts, theatrical productions and corporate projects. "We like to offer the latest technologies to o

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UK - The original production of the hit musical Billy Elliot, still running at London's Victoria Palace Theatre almost a decade after making its debut there, has moved the show's lighting to a new control system based around ETC's popular Ion control console.

The new desk has replaced a Strand desk that ran the show since it opened, continuing the trend of long-running shows updating their control systems to ETC products to ensure continued trouble-free performance night after night.

"Our previous desk served us well," comments the show's lighting designer, Rick Fisher, who won a Tony Award for his work on the show on Broadway and a Helpmann Award for the production in Australia, "but with the show continuing to enjoy success in London, and with new productions planned elsewhere, it seemed to make sense to move the show onto a newer platform that was rece

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Spain - Space Ibiza has marked its 25th anniversary by being crowned 'Best Club in the World' in the prestigious DJ Mag Top100 Clubs awards for the fourth time in seven years. The venue, which is highly regarded by clubbers and operators around the globe, has been home to a Funktion-One sound system since 2002.

Since opening in 1989, Space Ibiza has received a host of awards and has consistently impressed with its forward thinking operational and music policies. DJ Mag's 'Best Club in the World' prize is one of the most renowned awards in the nightclub industry. Winners are chosen through a public vote, making the recognition even more special.

The venue has six different areas. The 2,000-capacity main room, known as La Discoteca, features a Funktion-One sound system, comprising custom clusters of DS15s, R3SHs and R1SHs, along with F221 bass enclosures, and F88s with R3SHs in

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