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14 March 2016

The two-day concert featured artists including Brigada Flores Magon, Mono und Nikitaman, Patchanka and Chaoze One, as well as several speakers and short films. The PA system included 64 JBL Vertec full-size line array elements, with VT4880 subwoofers arranged in matching arrays directly beside the VT4889 arrays.

"We chose the Vertec line arrays because they are very efficient and able to cover all styles of music during a concert like this," said Wolfgang Neumann of Sirius Showequipment. "Everybody was really happy with the performance of t

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14 March 2016

"We had a very tight timescale," explains Martin Green from AEG, owner and operator of The O2. "We were staging this series of events as part of the very high profile opening of The 02 in what is essentially a new building. Not only that, but it was organised in a matter of weeks, so we needed a fast, quality response and a very reactive one as we came to know our new venue more."

"As a result of the merger of SEGL and SRC, the group now has

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14 March 2016

Madden customised the design to suit each arena's specifications, but based them all on line arrays incorporating 40 Mica cabinets, 18 M'elodie units, three UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers, and four groundstacked 600-HP subwoofers. Madden's original plans called for additional UPA-1P loudspeakers and 600-HP subs, but he ultimately didn't need them "because the Mica goes down so low," he said.

The presence of a large, reflective ice floor presented a dilemma in venues that weren't designed for entertainment on ice. "Many of the arenas weren't made for ice skating, unlike the hockey arenas we usually use," says Mad

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14 March 2016

When not in use, the unit appears to be just another huge 34ft trailer, but at the push of a button, it unfolds Transformers-style to reveal a professional stage. The complete sound and lighting rig is set up in minutes. Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil observed: "The stage is an awesome portable stage with top notch sound and lights. I look forward to playing on it again."

All power for the stage comes from a built-in generator, and with a sound system designed for an audience of 10,000, power constraints were a prime consideration when the lighting system was planned. Designers found a solutio

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14 March 2016

The system comprised 56 Adamson Y10 line source array boxes, eight Adamson SpekTrix boxes and eight Adamson T-21 Subwoofers. The system was powered by LabGruppen fp6400s and processed using Dolby Lake processors controlled from a tablet PC using a Cisco wireless network.

Keith Urban's audio crew includes front-of-house engineer Steve Law, who has been mixing Urban for years, monitor engineer Jason Spence, FOH system engineer Joe Keiser, and monitor technician Bill Flugan. Norwest's audio crew was made up of senior system engineers Jason Norman and Matthew Ling.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Gearhouse Power is headed by Antony Sackstein, who initially worked for Gearhouse managing director Ofer Lapid as a freelance lighting technician at Lighting Unlimited in 1992, moving to a permanent position in the company in 1995.

The new company is able to offer clients a comprehensive range of power generators with a range of 300, 200 and 100 KVA generators on hand.

All generators have their own trailers so each may be used as a separate unit for individual events. All of the machines can be integrated and they are all cam-locked and power locked, which reduces the set-up time required on site, a great advanta

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14 March 2016

With a recent purchase of Martin moving head and LED lighting gear, Di and Di has now expanded into other rental areas such as the touring market. "With the recent purchase of Martin moving heads and LED lighting gear, Di and Di is a new reality in dry rental for the international market," comments Di and Di head David Biancifiori.

Di and Di has expanded its stock of lighting equipment through the purchase of a large, two million euro Martin lighting package. Added to its existing stock are 100 MAC 700 Profiles, 50 MAC 700 Washes, 100 MAC TW1 tungsten washlights, 50 MAC 2000 Washes, 50 Stagebar 54L and 50 Stagebar 54S LED luminaires and 50 LC 2140 LED panels.

Among

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14 March 2016

The stage for the show was designed and built by JSA - the recognised Russian leader in this field. "We are very happy with the interaction with JSA and we hope for successful continuation of this cooperation in the future," said a spokesman for the band.

Last year, the Russian company built a stage and provided production-functions at a Metallica concert in Estonia with 80.000 spectators.

"We have been involved in this business for more than 10 years now," says JSA president Alexander Strizhak. "We have built up a growing client list and service many of the major touring productions that come to Russia."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The external appearance of the Kendra reflects the design of many temples in India, including a portico with niches which house a popular Hindu image of welcome in the form of Lakshmi, and also Siva as Nataraja, Lord of the Dance.

The new building extension to the temple in Southall opened in April 2007 with a sound system installation in the main function room by Electracoustic. The function room will be used for community and religious events, weddings and meetings but also includes DJ and small live band facilities.

Powered by MC2 Audio T Series amplifiers and controlled by the Biamp Nexia, the system is designed to blend sympathetically with the stylish building interior to the ex

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14 March 2016

Lighting designers Michael Creason and Seth Rapaport of Visionary Light & Media in Montverde, Florida, were charged with illuminating the iconic bottle and creating lighting effects for the attention-getting signage. Within the bottle are 216 Color Kinetics ColorCast 14 fixtures, 10 Flutes, 96 Birkett Strobes and one Coemar PAR. Each six-foot high level of two-ply glass panels forming the glass cylinder, which goes from opaque to translucent to give the illusion of ice, is outfitted with 104 x Color Kinetics Color Blast 12s.

"The client came to us with the fixtures already specified and pu

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14 March 2016

Designed by Mark Hornsby for Paul Gillieron Acoustic Design, and installed by Orbital Sound, the system is designed to handle the Cathedral's wide variety of events and congregation sizes, forming part of a major £500,000 refurbishment. Key requirements for the sound reinforcement system included scalability and ease of use, incorporating discrete speaker positioning around the Cathedral, and a flexible, mobile mixer.

The Cathedral is the mother church for the Roman Catholic diocese of Southwark, and regularly holds congregations of up to 2000. Designed by the Victorian architect Pugin, the original building opened in 1848 but was destroyed during the Blitz and r

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14 March 2016

Production designer Marc Brickman chose to use six Lycian M2 under hung truss spots, 52 Vari*Lite 3500 spots, 37 VL 3000 washes, seven VL 3000 spots and 36 Martin Atomic Strobes with Atomic Colors.

Additionally, Brickman puts great emphasis on smoke machine styles and effects as well as placement to enhance the show's looks. Specifically, the Martin ZR33 smoke machines provide an added effect by bering hung up in the upstage truss.

The most substantial element in the production design is a 29ft tall by 56ft wide LED display from Barco.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The show is staged at the iconic Carlton Hotel in downtown Johannesburg. The 119m high building with its distinct bell-bottomed base has been mothballed since 1997. Once a week, its deserted but still highly atmospheric ballroom is reinvented beyond its former glory days.

The essential lighting requirement for the series was to make the dancefloor into 'an ocean of gobos'. Working with original LD Hugh Turner, rental company Gearhouse SA achieved this with a little Robe power - buying the fixtures off Robe SA's distributor DWR Distribution for the show.

Production company Rapid Blue have required the same spec for the last three seasons, explains lighting director Sean Rosig from Gearhouse SA, who programmes and runs each epi

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14 March 2016

Under Will Tuckett's direction, a cast comprising opera singers, musical theatre specialists and actors were put through their paces in a witty, tongue-twisting production that placed exceptional demands on singers more at home with a classical repertoire. And there were equally significant demands on the wireless system. Extensive dynamic ranges - from a hushed whisper to full operatic fortissimo - meant careful consideration had to be given to equipment choice.

Sound designer, Chris Full from Autograph Sound explains, "As you would expect, there were some pretty strong singers with their operatic backgrounds, and I knew that whichever system I chose, it was going to be tested to the l

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14 March 2016

Chairman, president and CEO Larry Powers said: "We are pleased to report second quarter increases in both sales and earnings. Our focus on higher margin product lines and the price increases helped us achieve higher sales and gross margins for the second quarter.

"Our commercial lighting business grew moderately from last year, but the growth was offset by weakness in the residential sector. In addition, results for the second quarter of

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14 March 2016

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Industrial Resolution brought together visual artists from Microchunk, led by director Todd Graft, to perform custom-designed, multimedia to the soundscape of DJs, including 2 Many DJs, Carl Cox, Fatboy Slim, Laurent Garnier, Layo, Sasha, and many more.

The focal point of the visually stunning show was the shaped Harkness screen - 48m wide by 18m high over a 25m radius and with a total area of more than 800sq.m - specially constructed for the event to form a spectacular backdrop for the

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14 March 2016

Artists featured on the main stage included Scissor Sisters, Razorlight, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs, Stereophonics, Natasha Bedingfield, The View, The Fratellis, The Fray, The Twang, Jamie T and Mika.

Lite Alternative's Paul Normandale provided the creative direction for all three stages at this year's event for SJM, assisted on the main stage by lighting director Glen Johnson.

The brief was to create a dynamic, encompassing visual range which as well as achieving a big look for the live stage audience, would translate well on camera for the TV audience.

The back wall of the stage featured a 19m wide by 6m high drop of Color Web 250, with further panels turning the stage corners to provide

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14 March 2016

This is not the first time lighting designer Andrew Bridge and associate Michael Odam have worked on Joseph, nor PRG Europe project manager Peter Marshall - all were involved with the last West End production back in 1991, which starred Jason Donovan. This time the star of the show is Lee Mead, who won the part following the BBC show Any Dream Will Do.

The rig, installed under the supervision of production electrician Fraser Hall, includes some 70 Vari-Lite luminaires, over 200 ETC Source Fours, Wybron colour scrollers, Lycian follow spots and other conventional lights, along with strobes, smoke and special effects.

The reworking involved a major desk transfer from the Artisan control console to a Wh

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14 March 2016

The 1800mm long by 1300mm high, navy blue case contains a complete engineering and service workshop, including clean and dirty work benches, a vice and full set of 10 drawers containing enough tools and spares to keep his hot-rodded Zivko Edge 540 single-seat-single-engine aerobatics plane going for a year.

A separate section at the back of the case contains other essentials, including two mountain bikes (for Bonhomme and his race engineer Wade Hammond), a kettle and a toaster.

The Red Bull Air Race is an adrenalising flying competition staged around the world, pitting the speed and precision skills of the world's most talented pilots against each other. There's a total of 10 races and 13 pilots, three from the UK including B

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14 March 2016

The moment arrived in late June as Metallica embarked on a 12-date tour of shows and festivals across Europe, starting in Lisbon and ending in Moscow. As all shows plus two days of production rehearsals took place during just three weeks, two identical control and backline systems leapfrogged their way across Europe, with both XL8s supplied by Canegreen via the M7 Group, which facilitates UK XL8 rentals.

"I always considered myself an analogue diehard and I've used Midas since the Pro 1," says Hughes. "I tried most other digital consoles along the way but I never felt comfortable. The XL4 is a heavy beast, it fee

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14 March 2016

The stage was once again on a revolving system, to account for the quick band change overs, with an A/B set up of splits, front of house and monitor systems and trucks. Two DiGiCo D5 Lives sat at the front of house position with engineers Chris Coxhead and Chris Morrison at the A and B consoles respectively. Mike 'Bunny' Warren operated the show/presenter console. DiGiCo's Tim Shaxson sat at a further, offline, D5 that was used by guest engineers to check their settings.

"Our main role was to help the visiting band engineers to set up, or modify, existing D5 session files which woul

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14 March 2016

Maltbury provided a Scenic Revolve comprising three 8ftx4ft panels mounted on a rotating frame. These panels are arranged so that three different 8ftx8ft faces can be shown to the audience - a total of almost 200sq.ft of flattage.

The boards can be painted, have things stuck to them or projected onto them. They can also be removed. Each panel can then be taken down and the frame folded up for easy storage or transport.

The scenic revolve is designed for drama, dance and musicals but can equally be used for conferences, exhibitions or any information display, says Maltbury.

• Plymouth Music Zone is a music education facility in Devonport. Once a de

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14 March 2016

"Nicknamed Symphony of a Thousand because of the sheer size of the cast: eight soloists - including one angel singing from 'heaven' - a full orchestra and choirs, this would give any soundman a difficult task in an auditorium," explains RTE's senior producer engineer Anton Timoney. "Added to that, it was being performed in a basketball arena. So my first task was to go see the arena with the orchestra manager and a representative from our OB department.

"I figured we'd need around 50 mi

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14 March 2016

The new operation, known as Midas Consoles Benelux, operates from divisions based in Apeldoorn in Holland, and Zaventem in Belgium.

"Our successful and focussed Midas and Klark Teknik distribution model proved its success in Holland, and together with the UK headquarters, we have taken it to the next level," says managing director Axel Nagtegaal. "During the course of this summer, both divisions will become fully operational business units working closely but autonomously."

Midas Consoles Benelux also incorporates Dryhire.eu, set up to offer dry hire support to the international event and touring production industry throughout Europe, including rentals of the Midas XL8 live pe