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UK - Entertainment production specialist White Light has been chosen as the lighting supplier to the new stage musical adaptation of the hit film Bend It Like Beckham, loading in to London's Phoenix Theatre now and due to make its first public performance on 15 May.

The stage show is being directed by Gurinder Chadha, who also directed the film, designed by Miriam Buether, with lighting by Neil Austin.

For the show, White Light is continuing its long-standing policy of providing lighting designers with the latest tools and technology. Neil Austin's design is based around a core of 26 ETC Source Four LED series 2 Lustr profile spotlights, which the designer first used on Shakespeare In Love last year. Because of their versatility and popularity with designers, White

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Cultural Moves - John Whittingdale is to take over from Sajid Javid as UK culture secretary, Prime Minister David Cameron has said. Whittingdale has been chair of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee for a decade. One of his first duties will be to oversee negotiations for the BBC's charter renewal. Last October, he said the TV licence "was unsustainable over 20 to 50 years", it was "worse than a poll tax" and must be "tweaked immediately". He will also face the prospect of cuts to his department, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, as the new government seeks to eliminate the national budget deficit.

Lack of Funds - The BBC Performing Arts Fund will close after 13 years in March next year. Its funding, by revenue from phone voting in shows like Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice, has significa

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Qatar - In what has been one of the largest and most complex wireless audio system deployments in the Middle East, the Sheraton Doha, a five-star hotel in the capital of Qatar, has successfully leveraged Sennheiser solutions to roll out a state-of-the-art wireless conference and translation system across its entire meeting and conferencing facilities. The landmark project, which was handled by the Doummar Group, ensures that the Sheraton Doha can offer the very best event, meeting and conference facilities to its customers.

"The Sheraton Doha spared no expense and every system that has been utilised is absolutely first class," said Esber Nasrallah, operations manager for Q2 Advanced Technology Contracting LLC, a member of the Doummar Group of companies, which handled the entire AV portion of the hotel's renovation. "It was decided to use wireless systems in order

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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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USA - Barry Manilow is back on the road for One Last Tour and this time he really means it. Veteran live sound engineer Ken Newman, who began working with Manilow in 1992, is mixing with a Martin Audio MLA system for the first time, engineered by Delicate Productions crew chief Phil Reynolds.

Manilow had 25 consecutive Top 40 hits between 1975 and 1983 and worldwide sales of over 80m albums over his four-decade career. Last year's My Dream Duets debuted at No. 4, making it his 15th Top 10 album. Meanwhile, Ken Newman has worked with everyone from Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Paul Anka, and One Last Tour represents a unique combination of best practices he's built for Barry Manilow over the last 23 years.

In 1991 when Newman was between mixing gigs, A-1 Audio sent him out as system tech for several of Manilow's Showstoppers

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Belgium - ArKaos PRO will be hosting two hands-on courses as part of InfoComm's education programme. ArKaos sales manager & project coordinator, Benjamin Bauwens, will lead the comprehensive training sessions which will provide participants with everything required to setup, programme and run a show using MediaMaster PRO. Topics will include video mapping, edge blending, 3D mapping and advanced geometrical correction. Each half-day session provides focused, hands-on training with the new MediaMaster Pro V4.2 software and media servers range.

The course is designed for creative lighting designers and professional video operators and programmers who wish to establish a solid core of media server knowledge on one of the most powerful and economical media server solutions on the market.

Session Times: Wednesday 17 June 9:00am - 1:00pm - LT02 Arkaos Media Server Training; Thursday

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China - One of the top 10 chains in China, leisure, entertainment and business corporate Da Yue Xiu Entertainment Group is the biggest KTV (karaoke) brand in the country's Henan province. The Group also specialises in non-KTV venues, with three recently-opened bars all featuring Coda Audio systems.

W Music Club is a new chain of venues which highlights the atmosphere of both live and recorded music, but at generally lower volumes than a traditional nightclub. The first branch - in Henan province capital Zhengzhou - attracted a very positive response and so two more, in the cities of Nanyang and Haikou, have recently opened.

W Music Club venues are designed to encourage people to interact and communicate. Careful interior layout of the 300m² Nanyang venue and high quality sound reproduction would maximise the potential for this and so, after a number of demonstrations and A/B

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UK - Over 40 representatives from universities across the UK and Ireland visited Panasonic's UK headquarters, to see the latest developments in technology for higher education.

The event at the Panasonic Solutions Centre in Bracknell (Thursday 23rd April) consisted of product demonstrations and presentations from both Panasonic and lecture capture specialists Panopto, who delivered a keynote speech on anytime, anywhere learning.

Peter Ingle from Panopto EMEA showcased how video is being used to offer on-demand learning for students, from lecture capture to flipped classroom. This was followed by a presentation from independent lecture capture consultant, John Lynch, who outlined the steps required for successful lecture capture by universities.

Peter Ingle commented, "There's been a huge trend in the education sector towards using video to support student learning. Coup

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Canada - Located in the Canadian province of Quebec, l'Université de Sherbrooke is a French-speaking institution with over 40,000 students, who have at their disposal arts and entertainment facilities that include a 1,500 capacity theatre hosting national and international artists.

Recognized throughout the industry and named after the university's first secretary general, Maurice O'Bready, the venue recently underwent a complete aesthetic upgrade and technological overhaul, including the installation of a new sound system by Italian manufacturer Outline, which is attracting considerable attention in production circles.

Simon Lemieux, a consultant with Montreal's GO Multimédia, explained that the technical upgrade included a crossover to the digital world and when it came to the sound system the clients wanted some help to find what they needed, so GO arranged to

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USA - Elation Professional's new ELAR Q1 is an ultra-compact, colour-changing PAR light with outdoor IP65 rating that can be used just about anywhere dynamic colour is required. Measuring less than 3.0" high (75mm) and weighting only 1.1 lbs. (0.5kg), the ELAR Q1's small size allows it to hide virtually anywhere for use as a pixel source, pin spot, truss toner, accent or decorative light, and can even be used for landscape lighting.

Whether mounted on its yoke or recessed into a stage, set or ceiling, its narrow 7-degree beam and single 18W RGBW LED source provide a surprisingly bright effect for direct viewing or illumination of objects. The ELAR Q1 delivers an output of 9,310 LUX @3.3 ft. and consumes a low 18W of max power. Suitable for highlighting or enhancing set pieces, the RGBW LED is capable of emitting a wide palette of colours from saturates to more subtle pastel

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UK - Working with their client, Under The Radar, XL Video supplied outdoor LED screens and a multi-channel camera system for the naming of P&O Cruises' newest luxury ship, Britannia.

The ship, which is over 300 metres long, was officially named at a traditional ceremony in Southampton.

In order to ensure the visiting dignitaries had an excellent view of proceedings, XL Video supplied a 7m x 4m Lighthouse R7 outdoor LED screen.

XL Video also supplied five Sony HXC-100 HD cameras and 2 Bradley CamBall 2 robocams situated around the port location.

The cameras covered all angles of the luxury ship, which bears a stylized Union Jack on its bow, as well as close-ups of the podium from which the traditional bottle of Wiston Estate British sparkling wine was launched to name the ship.

One of XL Video's large Grass Valley Kayak PPUs, engineered by XL's Broadcast Director, Malcolm

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UK - Lighting Technology Projects has completed another striking energy-efficient architectural lighting scheme, with the illumination of a 27-storey residential building, which overlooks West London's 'Golden Mile'.

The Tower is the prominent centrepiece of Barratt London's flagship regeneration project - Great West Quarter (GWQ) in Brentford, Middlesex. One of the tallest interactive sculptures in Europe, it offers views across the capital and the nearby Kew Gardens, with a publicly accessible viewing gallery. Boasting an internal area of 13,600m2, it hosts 178 apartments and stands to the west of the five-hectare mixed-use development.

LTP was invited by Barratt Homes to design, supply and install the spine lighting solution for The Tower. This comprised of 53 horizontal runs of six point sources of light, set at 1000mm intervals up the north facing side of the building.

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UK - PLASA Focus Leeds 2015 sees The Prolight Concepts Group (Stand N-D12) launch their new 140 page stage & event catalogue featuring almost 100 new products. The bumper number of product additions launched so far this year will see the range offered by Prolight Concepts Group close in on 1500 product lines available from stock.

Products featured on the stand include the following new products plus a host of popular existing products:

eLumen8 Kudos 600ZS moving head alongside the smaller Kudos 100ZS, 200ZS and 300ZS. The Kudos ZS series features Osram Ostar RGBW Quad colour LEDs combined with a dynamic zoom system offering wash thru beam.

eLumen8 Liberty Wireless Uplighters. Available in two formats: 36W RGB COB LED or 7x 12W 6in1 LED the Liberty series feature long battery life combined with on board W-DMX for rock solid reliability.

eLumen8 PF series LED Profiles. Featu

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UK - One of the UK's most sought after session musicians, musical directors, programmers and educators, Donavan Hepburn has worked with Take That as live drummer on every tour, and has also played with Jeff Lynne (ELO), Tom Jones, Adele, and Olly Murs.

For a long time Donavan had been looking for an alternative device that would reliably play back high quality audio to replace his old and bulky units.

"I was looking for a compact, reliable, high quality recorder/player, and above all it had to be rock solid," says Donavan. "I'd tried other devices but they didn't quite have what I needed, working with various artists who use some pre-recorded tracks laid down in the studio, and then using these track alongside live performances, meant that the unit would have to be solid."

He continues, "Then in the summer of 2014, Karl Bates of JHS introduced me to

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UK/Italy - Showforce and Italian event and modelling agency BeA Models, have signed an agreement that will see the two companies working closely together in the Middle East.

The partnership will allow Showforce to offer its clients throughout the Middle East high-end event personnel and models from BeA's team. As a successful company in Italy they boast an impressive client roster of both national and international businesses including Mercedes Benz, Breitling, Ray-Ban, S. Pelligrino and Veuve Cliquot.

Ian Spendlove, Showforce's chief executive, commented on the partnership, "I met Guiseppe when conducting some recent business in Milan for Expo 2015 and was really impressed with their approach, professionalism and client list. With the number of international brands and companies promoting themselves in the region there is definitely a market in the Middle East for the se

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South Africa - The world tour supporting Grammy-winner Chris Brown's latest album X features a power-packed lightshow designed by LD Bryan Hartley, who is widely known for his work with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. As sometimes happens with international tours, however, rigs have to be pared down when the show travels from country to country.

This was the case, recently when the Chris Brown tour made two stops in four days in South Africa. The lightshow nevertheless was able to deliver the bold, powerful statement that Brown's critically acclaimed album deserved, thanks in part to a powerful performance from Legend 230SR Beams from Chauvet Professional.

"The original design had 174 fixtures, but the number of fixtures was reduced slightly due to venue structural weight limitations and availability of outdoor stage structure for the tour," said Sean Crawley, h

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USA - Guitarist Al McKay and his band, the Al McKay Allstars, are travelling the world, performing with a collection of DPA Microphones' d:facto Vocal and d:vote 4099 Instrument Mics. Selected by the group's longtime FOH engineer, John A. Baker, the mics complement the funky style of music the group performs.

A five-time Grammy Award-winner, Al McKay is a guitarist, songwriter and producer. Best known as former lead guitarist for the American funk band Earth, Wind & Fire, McKay has writer and producer credits for the hit songs September and Boogie Wonderland.

As an ode to his earlier career, Al McKay Allstars is a 14-piece ensemble that performs a set dubbed The Earth Wind & Fire Experience at major jazz festivals throughout the world. Baker's first interaction with DPA Microphones was with the company's d:vote Instrument Mics, which are well-suited to the

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UK - The Low Carbon Innovation Fund (LCIF) has backed temporary power specialist Midas Productions with a five-figure sum, accelerating the company's development programme.

Supported by the European Regional Development Fund and private sector investment, the LCIF provides equity finance for East of England SMEs contributing to the low carbon economy.

Sam Burton, project officer for Creative Industries, comments, "Midas ticked a lot of the boxes in way very few businesses in the region can. It's given recycled biodiesel a platform in number of sectors and a unique profile at events across the country.

"Typically, companies come to us, but I discovered Midas powering the production behind Grimes on the Beach in Aldeburgh, for the Benjamin Britten Centenary, and approached them, because we like what they do."

Midas' managing director, David Noble, said, "

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UAE - Backed by a host of wireless microphone and in-ear monitor systems from Sennheiser, Robbie Williams successfully wooed over 20,000 fans during the Abu Dhabi leg of his Let Me Entertain You tour on Saturday 25 April 2015.

For its inaugural Robbie Williams experience, Abu Dhabi was treated to quality audio, courtesy of the entertainer's Sennheiser tour kit which primarily includes SKM5200 MkII handheld microphones with 5235-J Capsules and SR2050 Dual Channel In-Ear Transmitters.

Commenting on the performer's preferred choice of microphone, Joshua Lloyd, system engineer at Britannia Row Productions. Said, "Robbie spends a lot of time in front of the PA system and the 5235 Capsule has a modified low/mid presence in the upper mic which is very good at rejecting noise flow when he is in front. He also monitors his own voice and after testing lots of capsules, we fo

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South Africa - Gearhouse Group will again play a key role in Mediatech Africa, the only media and entertainment technology trade show for southern Africa.

Mediatech Africa, staged in Johannesburg every second year, will be held from 15 to 17 July 2015 at the Ticketpro Dome at Northgate, Johannesburg.

Robyn D'Alessandro, national marketing manager for the Gearhouse Group, says that the group, which has participated as official technical sponsor of Mediatech since 2009, views the sponsorship as a prime opportunity to show its support for the media, broadcasting, film and AV sectors.

"We see this as an opportunity to give back to the industry in a small way. While only one of the Group exhibits formally; the rest of us are there in full force, meeting and greeting and catching up with our suppliers, colleagues and competitors alike. We bring our latest complement of Gearho

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UK - Debuts are to the fore at this year's PLASA Focus: Leeds, with more and more exhibitors choosing it as the UK launch pad for new product releases, including Cadac's new CDC six and DiGiCo's S21 mixing consoles, Meyer Sound's Leopard loudspeaker system and Zero88's FLX lighting console.

At the entrance to New Dock Hall, Martin Professional is displaying its new VDO Sceptron indoor/outdoor LED strips, which come with a choice of diffusers, the 6mm Fenix panel video and Rush 650 and 850 smoke products. Also on show are the Quantum Wash and Quantum Profile, launched last year, as well as the Aura XB, which has 50 per cent more output than the standard Aura, plus extended colour mode.

"Out of all the shows we exhibit at, this is where you can spend proper time talking to people, so we've brought representative selection of our new and current ranges," says the compan

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Denmark - The RUSH Club Smoke Dual, Martin Professional's new hybrid smoke and haze machine, is now shipping and available from stock.

First unveiled in April at Prolight+Sound 2015, the new addition to the RUSH by Martin line of atmospheric effects is an innovation based on the Magnum Club Smoke system, installed in prestigious venues all over the world.

The Club Smoke Dual is a multi-head system, which utilizes up to six heads across three zones via DMX or an on-board digital display. This feature of the system allows the user to deploy fog, haze, or a combination of both using a specially formulated fluid. This means that fluid changeover is no longer required for the desired atmospheric effect. The separate base unit, which can be installed in a convenient remote location, contains a 10-liter fluid reservoir, ensuring continuous use throughout busy nights.

"After th

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