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UK - The Audio & Music Production course at Buckinghamshire New University has been awarded a three-year accreditation by JAMES - the Joint Audio Media Education Services Association.

JAMES is the education and accreditation arm of the APRS (Association of Professional Recording Services), UK Screen Association and the Music Producers Guild (MPG) and the course at Bucks is one of just 10 courses awarded accredited status in the UK.

Plaques confirming the award are now on display outside the University's audio and music production suites and outside the Students' Union's White Room venue at the University, in High Wycombe, Bucks.

Warren Bassett, course leader, audio production, said: "We are pleased to gain another endorsement that shows the growing industry links held by the Audio & Music Production degree at Bucks New University. It will benefit our students going in t

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UK - Wakehurst Place, a National Trust property in West Sussex, southern England, which is managed by Kew Gardens, believes it has the largest Christmas tree in the UK. Wakehurst Place decorates the giant tree every year and hosts a number of Christmas events for the public.

Facelift Access Hire has been working with Wakehurst Place for more than 10 years now, helping to decorate the tree with lights. Work begins at eight a.m. when two Bronto machines are carefully positioned, with a team of ground staff from Wakehurst Place helping to load the lights up and begin the process of attaching them to the tree.

The day provided every kind of weather - sun, wind, rain, sometimes all at the same time. Fortunately, as the team are now so familiar with the operation they completed the work ahead of schedule, allowing plenty of time to take up the visiting journalists for a better view

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USA - On 11 December 2010 Warren Haynes began his 23rd annual Christmas Jam inside the Ashville Civic Centre. This event again hosted a who's who of the music world. Haynes premiered his new endeavor, The Warren Haynes Band, alongside artists such as Gregg Allman, The Steve Miller Band, Umphreys McGee, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Missing Cats and John Bell of Widespread Panic.

The focus of the concert is to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, which builds housing for those in need. Haynes has raised well over a million dollars for this cause and looks for ways to increase the stake every year.

This year's edition found production manager extraordinaire Chris Rabold assembling a team that included lighting designer Paul Hoffman at the creative helm, along with Bandit Lites and client representative Dizzy Gosnell. Rabold worked his visual art that included "a 'fest

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UK - Systems integrator IVC Media, has installed a full AV system in London University's Senate House. The major installation was part of a multi-million pound, three year refurbishment, which has seen Senate House now re-open its doors as a leading London conference and event venue.

"We have been delighted to supply all the AV equipment required at Senate House, to ensure this magnificent Art Deco building has the highest class of facilities, throughout its conference, class rooms and public areas," says Ray Harding, chairman, IVC Media. "From video conference systems to large screens, projectors, multi input devices right through to the 250-speaker PA system installed within 21 zones over five floors of the building, IVC scoped, sourced and installed the entire working AV and PA solution."

Built in 1936, Senate House was London's first skyscraper. The bui

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New Zealand - In preparation for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Auckland's Eden Park has undergone a multi-million dollar transformation which includes a new three-tier south stand and a new two-tier east stand to replace the terraces thus increasing the crowd capacity to 60,000 from 42,000.

The redeveloped Eden Park, which will host the Opening Ceremony and Game as well as the Final, also features an internal concourse that will allow people to circulate around the grounds inside the stadium and world-class facilities, including food and beverage outlets, toilets and corporate areas.

As well as an update of facilities, the Stadium has had a complete overhaul of its sound systems by Bartons Sound Systems (BSS), subcontracted to Fletcher Construction to design and implement combined music, PA and evacuation systems.

BSS and acoustic consultants Marshall Day Acoustics used EASE and

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UK - Event LED Signs took their sign system to Earls Court earlier this month to work backstage at the British Military Tournament (formerly known as the Royal Tournament). The networked signs provided a cue light system to marshal the troops backstage and indicate when they should move into the arena.

The LED signs were placed at strategic points backstage, using text and colours to call specific performers to get into formation; to proceed to a waiting position; then to enter the arena. The signs were updated from a single control point under the direction of the deputy stage manager.

Karen Mayne, Event LED Signs director said: "Participating in the Tournament was a fantastic experience, as it such an iconic show. I was providing the cues for the bands and troops to enter the arena. There were two entrances to the arena and with more than 500 people and 150 horses invol

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Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB was recently a 'green' participant for Allt Ljus på Uppsala 2010 ("All Lights on Uppsala 2010') in which lighting designers and architects lit a variety of buildings, statues and trees in the city. The event first took place in 2008, aiming to promote the city with all its beautiful facades, as well as promoting and improving public health by getting people out of their apartments at night walking around to see the lights. The project was a huge success and the Uppsala Municipality decided to make the project a biennial event therefore reoccurring this year, 2010.

One of the objects of 2010 was the old mill in the city centre and the water surrounding it. Kreativ Teknik AB created and transformed the area into a dynamic coloured adventure with music and sound effects. The theme was 'The Four Seasons' and the site went from winter throug

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Romania - The National Council of Private Small and Medium Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR) last month ranked Synco Network member Five's in the highest position of the 'National Top of Private Companies in Romania 2009', awarding the company for its outstanding financial performance in a challenging 2009.

Five's thus becomes the leading company of the corporate and musical events production market in Romania in 2009.

"It is a matter of great honour for our company that Five's not only secured first position in the shows and events category, but also indirectly awarded our clients, partners, suppliers. Actually we win when our clients win, and our commitment, first and foremost, is to provide them best-in-class services and solutions." stated Liviu Stanescu, general manager of Five's.

Just like previous years, the ranking was established based on data provided by T

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Europe - Danish rockers Volbeat are currently in the midst of an extensive European tour to promote their latest album Beyond Hell / Above Heaven. With inspiration ranging from Elvis Presley to Metallica, the band's sound features two DiGiCo consoles on the live shows.

Supplied by Danish audio company DPA SoundCo, which has a wide range of DiGiCo consoles in its inventory (purchased from DiGiCo's Danish distributor Soundware), the Volbeat touring rig features an SD7 at the Front of House position and a D5 on monitors.

"I have been using the D1 and D5 for the last couple of years, but the size of this tour gave me the opportunity to work with the SD7 and it has been a very pleasing experience," says FOH engineer Mads Mikkelsen. "I love using the dynamic EQ and three-band compressors. I use them on almost all my outputs and on many of the input channels. Fo

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UK - Paul Weller's tour across the UK and Ireland saw a Midas XL8 FOH, supplied by Canegreen/SSE, earn new fans in the shape of Andrew Jones, Weller's FOH engineer of over 20 years, and tech support Mike Savage who used the same console for support acts The Bees, The Rifles and Cow.

With no previous files to install, Jones's first task was to build the entire show from scratch for an artist who draws on an extensive repertoire for his sets where, according to Jones, no two shows are ever the same. But the basic show with 20 or so scenes was ready to go pretty quickly, and his final set up encompassed some 45 scenes.

Savage, who has completed in-house training at Midas, helped with the initial set up. Utilising the XL8's flexible modular system, they decided on three DL431 splitter units to create a total of 72 available channels plus an isolated split to allow for any outside

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Australia - St Mary's Anglican Girls School in Karrinyup, Western Australia is home to the Lady Wardle Performing Arts Centre, a 509 seat auditorium which hosts an array of school events including plays, concerts, debates, dance productions, assemblies and lectures.

Recently the School decided to upgrade their lighting system with the purchase of eight Selador Vivid 22" and eight Vari*Lite VL500 80V.

"The Selador Series high power Vivid LED fixtures have made an excellent side light replacing what was once a very patchy par-can wash in basic colours," reports Peter Rubie, head lighting operator for the venue. "I love the 7-LED colour mixing. It gives me the ability to accurately match any gel colour instead of just the party colours you get from so many LED wash lights on the market.

"As we have such a fast turnaround of shows and a wide variety of s

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Italy - The ancient Adriatic port of Porto San Giorgio is a historic town, popular with tourists and famous for its annual chess tournament and festival of the sea. Now, however, Yamaha loudspeakers and amplifiers have brought a new attraction to its nightlife.

Originally a 'literary bar', a comprehensive refurbishment has seen Caffè 900 transformed into a disco bar - high quality food and drinks complementing equally high quality sound, thanks to the Yamaha audio rig.

Specified and installed by Promo s.r.l, based in nearby Alba Adriatica, Caffè 900's nightly DJ sets are distributed throughout the venue via Yamaha Installation Series IF2108, IF2208 and CW118 loudspeakers, SP2060 loudspeaker management units, XP 5000 and XP 7000 amplifiers.

"Caffè 900 is a well known site for the town's nightlife, where many people like to 'see and be seen'," says Mauro Traini, t

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Australia - Perth's Helvetica Bar is one of those cool city bars that you have to walk down a dark and dingy alleyway to find. Recently the venue opened a new space upstairs, contacting B & H Australia to design and install the audio system.

The audio system has been configured for music playback utilising JBL speakers, Crown Amplifiers and a Soundcraft mixer to provide superior, clear intelligible audio throughout the upstairs area. Background and foreground music was required resulting in the installation of six JBL Control 226CT and two JBL Control 19CS in ceiling subwoofers. The speakers are powered by two Crown XLS1000 amplifers.

"The JBL Control 226CT in ceiling speakers are ideal for applications where superior musical impact, voice clarity and high sound levels are required," remarked Paul Raphael, B & H Australia's account manager for Western Australia. &quo

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Slovakia - ADB Lighting has appointed City Light Slovakia as its new distributor for Slovakia. City Light recently staged two open days to show off ADB's new products.

The company, headquartered in Humenne and with a new showroom in the capital, Bratislava, is a major player in the Slovakian entertainment technology industry, stocking many leading international lighting, audio, staging and special effects brands.

"We have been seeking to grow our presence and market share in Slovakia, where a thriving entertainment industry is looking for new innovations in product development," said ADB Lighting area sales manager Andre Bragard-De Naeyer.

"We are strongly positioned with our new and forthcoming product lines, and with the perfect partner in City Light Slovakia we anticipate building on our combined strengths to create exciting new opportunities."

Marek

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UK - Lighting designer Yenz Nyholm took to the O2 Arena, London, UK, with a Diamond 4 TITAN for much loved pop-rock band, Level 42's 30th Anniversary world tour. Nyholm has been a keen Avolites user for some years and he particularly likes the power and functionality of the D4 for larger shows.

For this tour he was one of the first to try TITAN V4, the latest software due for official release in the new year. Having now used the TITAN D4 on over 60 shows, it's proved to be "Very reliable," he states.

Lighting equipment for the UK tour was supplied by High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire based rental company Siyan.

The tour's lighting design was based around three large and striking backdrops - a central cloth and two legs - featuring artwork from all the band's record sleeves since 1980. The general vibe on stage was that of a big celebratory party atmosphere with lots of

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UK - 5 Star Cases has designed and manufactured a bespoke flightcase for Paragon Projection, to house their new fleet of Christie MicroTiles.

Paragon Projection, in Hednesford, Staffordshire is a trade-only rental specialist in professional display equipment for exhibitions, and training seminars, as well as being one of Europe's leading trade-only plasma screen rental company.

The company has been a long time customer of 5 Star, which has supplied them with a numerous cases for plasma and LCD screens, projectors, lenses and numerous accessories over the years.

New to Paragon's hire inventory is the Christie Micro Tile, and as soon as they'd taken delivery of the first batch of 60 Tiles, Paragon's Mark Davies again contacted 5 Star to create a case solution.

The brief was to house six Tiles, the associated mounting hardware, accompanying ECU control unit and the front disp

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UK - XTA's iCore software package was developed to provide the interface for sister company MC² Audio's Ti Series and XTA's DC1048 integrated audio management system. Now, the new iCore2 package has been extended to support all 4Series products as well as adding a number of features that will make operating systems - whether in live sound or fixed installations simpler.

iCore2 sees upgraded control features including the aforementioned control of 4 Series devices, Parameter Linking, Custom Control Panels, application auto-update and wireless kit compatibility.

The XTA 4-Series is completely supported by iCore. Although Library Manager files cannot be handled by iCore, presets and memories (including those with locked parameters) can be uploaded from 4-Series devices to iCore. Settings can be intelligently copied and pasted from 4 Series memories and presets into DC1048 device

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UK - Belfast-based Production Services Ireland (PSI), supplied lighting, video (including screens and media servers), trussing and rigging to BBC Northern Ireland for the 2010 Belfast Children In Need concert staged at the city's Odyssey Arena.

PSI has been involved with this annual fundraising event for at least seven years, but this was the first year that they have supplied such a comprehensive package of technical equipment and crew for the show, which was presented by John Daly and BBC Radio 1's Reggie Yates. The capacity audience enjoyed live performances by Westlife, The Script and Jedward among others, and it was broadcast live across the region, with link ups to the simultaneously running London event at the BBC.

PSI's Brian Reilly project managed, commenting: "We were delighted to be so involved with Children in Need this year as it's a fantastic cause, and it w

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The Netherlands - 2011 will see Dutch rockers Golden Earring celebrating a remarkable 50 years in show business. Famed for 'biker anthem' Radar Love, Golden Earring are celebrated as one of Holland's most enduring rock acts. Although these days the touring schedule is a less hectic than in the past, the band is committed to delivering the very best live productions. The Hague-based rental company Bourgonje Sound & Lighting which (backline apart) supplies all of Golden Earring's production equipment.

Front of house engineer Arjan van Egmond has worked with the band for 23 years, using the Yamaha M7CL mixing console since it was introduced. "The M7CL is easy and simple to operate, its layout is clear and logical and, most importantly, it always works," says Arjan. "I have tried all the other brands of digital console and came across bugs in all of them - except Yama

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Oman - The Oman Tattoo is held every five years and is unquestionably the biggest event for the Oman government. So when Wizcraft entrusted Sound.Com to provide the complete sound design and equipment after the company's successful work at the Commonwealth Games, they prepared to ship two containers of audio equipment on their maiden voyage overseas - including a full Optocore fibre optic system.

"This time we provided total audio solutions and not just engineering solutions as we did in the past," states the company's managing director, Warren Dsouza "That is why this event goes down as a milestone and Sound.Com's first international show."

With all the experience gained from the Commonwealth Games, it was a matter of successfully redeploying a winning formula for the sound design at the Al Fateh Stadium. System integrators Sunil Karanjikar and Warren D'so

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Downsizing - Sir Paul McCartney performed an intimate lunchtime gig at the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street, the historic music venue that is threatened with closure. Around 300 fans were treated to a set lasting almost two hours, comprising songs by the Beatles, Wings and from Sir Paul's solo back catalogue. It was the smallest gig the star has played in the UK for nearly 10 years.

The club, which began life as a restaurant in the 1940s, has played host to the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones and Metallica down the years. But rising rent in the centre of London has pushed the venue into the red. Unless a new buyer or sponsor is found, the club could close before the year is out.

A campaign to keep the 100 Club open has attracted support from Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and Sir Mick Jagger. Fellow Rolling Stones member Ronnie Wood played a benefit gig for the venue earlie

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Germany - ABBA - The Concert performed by AbbAgain is a live reconstruction of the legendary 1979 Abba performance at Wembley featuring more than 13 musicians and 150 minutes of Abba songs. To distribute the audio at the various tour locations, the show uses a RockNet digital audio network from Riedel Communications.

To connect the stage and the FOH into a single audio network rental company PRG Germany uses a set of three RockNet 100 interfaces at the event. RockNet 100 is a flexible, digital snake solution and a cost-effective entry to RockNet digital audio networks. Based on the RockNet 300 technology, RockNet 100 provides 80 audio channels with 48kHz/24-bit digital audio quality.

The RockNet 100 interfaces are combined with six RockNet RN.141.MY interface cards for digital Yamaha consoles. With RockNet's Independent Gain feature it is possible to control each input

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UK - Unusual Rigging may be the appointed points rigger for Earls Court - which means they're the only company with the licence to attach things direct to the ceiling - but that doesn't mean they automatically get to rig everything else. But when it came to choosing a supplier for the T4 show Stars of 2010, event producer Done & Dusted didn't need to think twice.

"We've worked with Unusual many times before, and we know they always do a fantastic job," says event director Rachel French. "The show is Channel 4's roundup of the year's highlights in music, TV film, featuring three presenters and 15 live music acts - so it was bound to be big - with stunts and special effects.

"Our designer, lighting designer and CAD artist all work closely with Ruthie Buchanan, Unusual's Earls Court service manager, to make sure everyone knows what's happening and agree

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Norway - After a 28-year career, Norwegian trio A-ha have decided to split, saying farewell to their fans with a major world tour. Two DiGiCo consoles, plus a full complement of Sennheiser microphones and in-ear monitoring systems, ensured that the band's career - as the tour's name suggested - ended on a high note.

Taking in Asia, Europe, North and South America, the tour finished on home ground in December with four sold-out dates at the Oslo Spektrum. Having used a DiGiCo SD7 on the band's previous Foot Of The Mountain tour, front of house engineer Sherif El Barbari was happy to use it again. This time he was joined by monitor engineer Kursten Smith using an SD8.

"When the band asked me to do this tour, as far as equipment goes, all I asked for was an SD7," says Sherif. "It has never let me down and, with its full redundancy, I have complete confidence

  1. FLI Rigging opens in US
  2. grandMA2 in Miss South Africa pageant
  3. Lighthouse screens in focus at MAHA 2010
  4. Sefton High School with Jands & The PA People
  5. Lewden at Taste of London 2010
  6. Budapest pub upgrades with QSC
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