Australia - Campbelltown RSL recently amalgamated with Cabra-Vale Ex-Active Servicemen's Club and as a result a number of refurbishment programs were undertaken. Particular attention was paid to creating a much friendlier atmosphere for members, guests and visitors by opening up the very large lounge area so that much of the club's facilities could be seen from different vantage points. However this goal presented a major problem - how do you stage a variety of entertainment in one area of this vastness whilst simultaneously running other functions?

The closeness of the bar, restaurant and poker machine area meant that with a traditional audio set up, problems would be encountered relating to loud music and its exposure to patrons and staff.

The Club's general manager Tony Jackson contacted Jbn Sound Solutions . "Jbn assured us that the noise levels at the bar, restaurant

UK - Creative Technology (CT), the worlds leading supplier of AV and technical staging services, welcomed over 250 of their clients and friends to a series of Open Days entitled "Video Another Dimension", held at the Riverside Studios in London on 26 and 27 January.

A joint production with sister company Presteigne Charter, the event provided a unique opportunity to learn more about the technology and processes involved in creating and displaying 3D content in the events market. Showcasing a variety of applications and products specialising in the 3D genre, the higher than expected attendance and the level of interest of all who came, clearly demonstrated the impact this revolutionary display medium is expected to have on the events market.

Dedicating the event to introducing and demonstrating a range of new technologies featuring that extra dimension, the video and

UK - Brilliant Stages, UK-based fabricators of specialist staging reports that its work was internationally represented in three of the top five tours of 2010.

According to Pollstar's recent listings of the Top 50 worldwide concert tours, the numbers two, three and four slots were occupied by AC~DC, U2 and Lady Gaga respectively, to all of whom Brilliant Stages was a key supplier.

AC~DC's Black Ice tour originally kicked off in 2008 and marked the first appearance of the band for eight years. Brilliant Stages designed and manufactured the infrastructure for the spectacular focal point, the Rock 'n' Roll Train. Conceived by Fisher Studio's Jeremy Lloyd and Mark Fisher, the life-size steam train incorporated lighting, pyrotechnics, smoke, C02, headlights, a brass bell and deployable, light-up devil horns.

Totalling 6000kg, the locomotive could be pushed up

Olivier Awards - Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies leads the way at the Laurence Olivier awards with seven nominations. The Andrew Lloyd Webber show is up for best new musical, while its stars Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess and Summer Strallen are in line for acting prizes. The National's revival of Terence Rattigan's After the Dance has six nods, while the Donmar's King Lear and the musical Legally Blonde have five. The awards will be held at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 13 March.

Love Never Dies, which received mixed reviews when it opened in March last year, is also nominated for best lighting, set and costume design. Its nominations follow a four-day closure in November, during which some changes were made to the show. Love Never Dies and Legally Blonde will compete against Fela! and Love Sto

UK - Over 6500 visitors have confirmed their attendance at London's entertainment and installation technology trade show, one month after registration opened on 1 January 2011. The unprecedented surge in visitor registrations represents a 30% increase on the same period in 2010.

Organisers PLASA Events put the increase down to the quality of the products launched at the event with events manager Sophie Atkinson commenting, "The PLASA Show is a favourite place for companies to launch ground breaking innovations to an international market. There's a real opportunity for companies to make a big splash and our exhibitors are taking full advantage of that."

She adds: "The past few years at the PLASA Show have seen the industry's standout audio, lighting, video and stage technology products receive their international débuts. From the high profile mixing consol

Denmark - Matrix Group has set its mission to "become one of the most important players in the market segment of product supply to the entertainment industry".

"An important part of the mission for Matrix Group is to become a facility house with the right people, the best product lines and be market leader with high skills and knowledge about the things that we work with," says chairman of Matrix Group, Claus Reher-Langberg. "The investment behind Matrix Group is on a solid capital base, and we will become a major player in the industry. We have worked on this for a long time and the companies that are brought in to the group are a future investment, and we look forward to growing further."

He continues, "Our organisation is up and running and we are proud to announce that Moto Audio Sales, Nordic Sales & Staging and Signal Audio are now part

UK - White Light has been selected as the lighting supplier for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production of the classic musical The Wizard of Oz. With Daniel Hope, chosen by the public through the BBC's Over the Rainbow, taking the lead role, the show will open at the London Palladium in March.

Directed by Jeremy Sams, choreographed by Arlene Phillips and designed by Robert Jones, the creative team behind Lloyd Webber's earlier revival of The Sound of Music in the same theatre, the production will feature the classic Harold Arlen-E Y Harburg songs from the MGM film alongside new songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and his original writing partner, lyricist Tim Rice.

The lighting for the show is being designed by Hugh Vanstone, the Olivier Award winner for best lighting in 1999, 2001 and 2004, Tony Award nominated in 2005 and 2009, and whose lighting for Shrek

UK - Ten Christie Roadster HD10K-M 3-chip DLP projectors were deployed by rental and staging company A to V recently, when Travel Weeklymagazine hosted the Globe Travel Awards before 1000 guests at London's Grosvenor House Hotel.

The awards are voted for solely by travel agents, and the event is widely regarded as the pinnacle of the travel industry calendar. Hence production company, Three Media Creative (Three MC), designed a highly creative technical infrastructure that would befit the occasion, which was hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr.

Manchester-based A to V had been introduced to the event by local VT house Editz, who were assisting Three MC with the content for the show.

Working alongside Three MC's creative director, Steve Csanyi, A to V rigged three stacked pairs of projectors to fire onto a 40ft x 10ft edge blended main screen, while the remaining four

USA - At this year's NAMM Convention, Community Professional Loudspeakers bestowed their annual Rep of the Year Award on Long Beach, CA-based Mac West Group.

"Mac West has been instrumental in some of our most important projects in Southern California and Arizona, and we're proud to have them in our corner," said Rod Falconer, Community's western regional manager.

"We were surprised and delighted to get this award," added Mac West's principal Steve McNeil. "It is a pleasure and privilege to work with a group of professionals as talented and dedicated as the people at Community. Their outstanding support for us, and for our customers out in the field, makes us look good. Their passion for the art and science of sound really shines through."

(Jim Evans)

UK - The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, one of the most majestic architectural complexes in London, has installed a powerful sound reinforcement System by Proel.

London Audio, the company in charge of the audio system design, had to choose loudspeakers that could match the style of the historical building. The system configuration includes 15 custom-painted 100V constant voltage EDGE25PW, installed on special purpose-designed pedestals .

The Proel audio system was installed in the Painted Hall, one of the largest reception halls in Europe. The hall is located in King William Court and it is decorated with James Thorhill's baroque frescoes. It is famous for having hosted Lord Horatio Nelson's body after his death at in October 1805 when the British Fleet defeated Napoleon's Fleet. The grand opening with the new sound system took place during the celebrations to commemora

UK - The Australian Pink Floyd Show (TAPFS) are back on tour with a series of headline shows across the UK and Europe featuring 3D stereographic visuals.

The band has recruited Hollywood visual effects specialist John Attard who has worked on films such as Gladiator, Last Samurai, Harry Potter, Holes and many more. Attard realised that by augmenting the shows with 3D elements he could bring the level of audience involvement in the show to a whole new dimension.

The 3D used in TAPFS is the same as that used in cinemas. The Audience wears 3D polarised glasses, stereo images are then sent to the eyes and the brain sees the whole thing in 3D.

(Jim Evans)

UK - TC Group International (TCGI), the sales organisation responsible for all Tannoy sales (outside North and South America) has made two major changes to distribution arrangements recently, with Professional Audio NI becoming an exclusive sub-distributor in Northern Ireland and Noretron Audio appointed as new distributor in Finland.

Belfast based Professional Audio NI, a sister company of Sennheiser Ireland, will now handle all sales of Tannoy loudspeaker products in Northern Ireland (except VQ Live) as well as looking after all business for sister companies Lab.gruppen and Lake. The company's MD, Chris Campbell comments: "We're delighted to be working with TCGI in representing some of the most respected brands in the business in Tannoy, Lake and Lab.gruppen. With our local expertise and customer base, and the excellent product portfolio now available to us, we're confide

UK - Lighting designer Nathan Wan used Robe moving lights at the core of his rig for the Fifth Gear Live Action Arena at the 2011 Autosports International show, staged in Hall 5 of Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre.

The Live Action Arena - the largest indoor tri oval racetrack in the UK - took up the entire hall, with a performance area of approximately 120m wide by 100 deep, and was the focus of the exhibition for the most serious petrol heads, speed freaks and performance car enthusiasts. They were treated to a series of races and stunts by some of the fastest vehicles on four - and three - wheels for 55 minutes of burning rubber, screeching brakes and adrenalized excitement. The five show-a-day schedule on the two public days attracted up to 4700 people per session packing the grandstand to capacity!

It was the third year that Wan has lit the show - working for

France - Loudspeaker manufacturer APG has announced a series of workshops in conjunction with Audio-Technica, to be held across France during 2011. The first of the two-day events will be held in Bordeaux on 1-2 March followed by a second workshop in Rennes on 9-10 March. Further dates will be announced in due course.

The workshops are aimed at all those who are likely to use (or are already using) APG and Audio-Technica equipment in a professional capacity, either within a rental company, installation or elsewhere. Each workshop lasts a full day and will be held twice in each venue. A wide range of topics will be covered and there will also be a number of practical demos.

The day kicks off with a seminar from Audio-Technica's European Regulatory specialist for wireless products, Dre Klaassen, on the wireless frequency sell-off in Europe, current UHF regulations and what it m

UK - The Capstone Building at Liverpool Hope University is a multi-function performance and education facility for its performing arts courses, as well as a base for a range of local music and drama organisations. At its heart is a modern performance hall, with seating for 200 people, which features an Alcons PA system.

Comprising six LR7 and one LR14B per side, the system was designed by Ian Rees of Norwich-based Adrian James Acoustics. Because of the hall's size and configuration - featuring balconies on each side - the Alcons arrays are flown from close to the centre of the stage, splayed out to cover each half of the hall.

"When flown at the sides of a proscenium arch, a problem with the wide dispersion of any line array is that they tend to drive a lot of energy into the walls," says Rees. "With the side balconies in the Capstone Building hall, and the fact

Malta - Christie has confirmed the sale of 170 MicroTiles for installation in Malta International Airport.

The order, placed with Christie's Cyprus distributors, ALA Equipment Co, by Michael Kyriakides of International Airport Advertising Corporation (IAAC), follows the concession won by IAAC and its strategic partner, Clear Channel Airports (CCA), to take over the advertising programme on the MIA premises for the next 12 years.

Divided into seven separate displays (including five 8 x 3 synchronised videowalls in the Baggage Reclaim area), the installation forms the bulk of a €1m investment which will see all static media convert to video signage.

Kyriakides comments: "We were recommended MicroTiles as representing an original approach to digital signage technology; and because of MicroTiles' size and flexibility we knew we could not only offer clarity and crispness of

UK - Currently being packaged for Video on Demand and DVD release, Imogen Heap's live show at the Royal Albert Hall was the largest High-Definition shoot to date for London agency Bluman Associates.

"Equipping for an 11-camera shoot, providing screens for the concert, and mixing feeds for a webcast by Rebild Productions to half a million viewers has been our most demanding assignment as a production company," says MD Pod Bluman.

The Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Imogen Heap is an outspoken advocate of using new technology to interact and collaborate with her fans. At the end of 2010, she took to the Royal Albert Hall, with friends and family, a 67-piece orchestra, 40-piece choir and her own band, and some adventurous creative ideas.

Imogen Heap was conducting the orchestra and choir herself, as they performed her original composition, the score to the concep

Italy - Clay Paky VIP 300s were used to create a new concept in illumination along the streets of Parma during the 2010 Christmas celebrations.

The project was conceived when Alessandra Toscani made an offer to a priest in Parma who wanted to project a nativity scene onto the façade of his church (known as the Oratorio dei Rossi). Following this, the city council (through its appointed bodies Gecc and CCN) assessed the possibility of replacing the traditional festive illumination with projected Christmas scenes.

The artistic design was funded by the shops in the street, sponsored by IRES (the power company) and Parma city council, and was entrusted to Alessandra Toscani's agency ....And Arts, with the technical support of Giuseppe Cavatorta's Top Service and Italo Bellocchi's Brait Acoustic. Equipped with these luminaires, the creative team decided to innovate the concept of

UK / World - In December 2010 the wax figure of one of the world's most flamboyant and individual performers - Lady Gaga - simultaneously took to the stage at eight Madam Tussauds attractions around the world.

In London, Madame Tussauds' show services manager, Simon Morris, augmented the press launch lighting with the latest Philips Selecon LED lighting fixture - the PL1.

Morris's brief was to achieve high energy, live music atmosphere that would excite the media without compromising the press photographers' ability to capture clear shots of the Lady Gaga figure. "My brief for the main lighting state was to emulate a photographic studio shoot," says Morris. "Our biggest challenge was achieving the same colour temperature as studio flash lighting, while conveying a theatrical and suitably dramatic style.

"The PL1 certainly delivered on its promise. Its ful

UK - The M-48 Live Personal Mixers from the Roland Systems Group are on the road with We Will Rock You which is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a UK tour, and PA rental provider Sonalyst has supplied eight Roland personal monitoring systems, one for each player in the live band.

Sonalyst has supplied this touring production with a high-spec system, the key elements of which are distinguished by their space and weight-saving characteristics. Front-of-house PA is a combination of the self-powered Meyer Sound Mica and M'elodie with Upa and M1d fills, mix control is DiGiCo's compact SD7 digital console, and performers are wearing the miniature headmics from DPA Microphones. New to the show are the Roland M-48 personal mixers which now handle the monitoring requirements for the 8-piece band.

"I was on the hunt for something new and suggested these units to the WWR

France - Located in the south of Paris, the Stade Sébastien Charléty is an arena with a long history. Since 1939, the 20,000-seater stadium has provided the setting for a wide variety of sporting events.

Last year, the stadium management embarked upon a series of major renovations. As well as an architectural facelift, they were keen for the stadium to receive a powerful sound reinforcement system capable of satisfying a wide variety of tasks. The invitation to tender was won by the Clichy-based company INEO GDF Suez for its Electro-Voice and Dynacord -based installation concept.

"In addition to Electro-Voice and Dynacord's numerous world-class references in the field of stadium sound reinforcement, a strong factor in our favour was that we were capable of performing the installation within the tight three-month schedule," says Ahmed Benali, manager of

UK - Eurohire Sound and Light, a long established turnkey supplier for Europe's events and entertainments industries, recently expanded its EAW inventory with the addition of 16 KF740 Three-Way Line Array Modules. The Basingstoke, Hampshire, England-based company is the latest professional sound and lighting company in the UK to add the KF740 modules to its extensive inventory of EAW products.

"When EAW's UK sales manager Kevin McNally first mentioned they were coming out with the KF740 and gave us the rough dimensions of the box, being smaller and more manageable than some of our current inventory, I knew this would be something we would be interested in," stated Eurohire owner Mervin George. "We've had the KF760's for some time, which are great for outside in the summer, long-range or arena-type shows, but we wanted to get into a new system opening up the possib

Finland - Lighting designers Martin Kuhn (GER), Per Sundin (SWE), Tülay Schakir (FIN) and Mikki Kunttu (FIN) created lighting installations for the third Season of Light event in Helsinki between New Year and 9 January. In comparison to 2010 the event expanded this year and installations were created on new sites.

Mikki Kunttu once again relied on two grandMA2 light - one in Tracking-Backup-Mode - and one MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) for the necesary processing power. His project was called Grace. Kunttu explained,"Grace originated from a religious or spiritual point of view. After creating two works on the Helsinki Cathedral in previous years, I wanted to make a piece that completely supports the universal message of the church. We tend to look at this building and appreciate its architecture, but this time I wanted to bring the heart of the churc

UK - The Black Light Open Day, Scotland's biggest lighting, sound, AV and stage technology show will open its doors on 18 and 19 March in Edinburgh. It has over 40 confirmed exhibitors and will showcase a wide range of products from leading manufacturers.

"This is the only event of its kind in Scotland," says Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "Our annual open days have always been really popular and this year's will be the biggest and best yet. It will be a great opportunity to see the latest developments in the industry and will save people in Scotland the trouble of going down to the London shows."

The event, which will run from 10am until 4.30pm on each day, is designed to be of real value to anyone working in the theatre, events or architectural sectors. Over the two days visitors will be able to talk to manufacturers and get a ha

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