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UK - For Sky Movies Oscars Night presentation, lighting designer Malcolm Reed opted for Chroma Flood TC's and Richard Martin Lighting's most recent purchase - Clay Paky Sharpys, to help create a vibrant and neon look to the retro set. Also utilised were Pixel Par 90's.

The Sharpys were used to create the impression that the studio was live in LA, the beams moving around the sky line.

"For part of the set dressing - lighting plants and louvered windows, I wanted a wide beamed LED Light source so I chose the Chroma Flood 200 TC," says Reed. "For me this was an ideal light as it gave the beam spread that I was looking for a great colour range and being Tri colour LED's I get very good and strong colour coverage."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The Arena Group celebrated the 100th Cheltenham Festival anniversary with the provision of over 5,280sq.m of hospitality structures in March 2011.

A range of companies invited thousands of hospitality guests to join them and enjoy four days of racing in bespoke suites created by Arena.

Building on a close relationship with Cheltenham Festival organisers extending back 27 years through the provision of multi-storey structures, Arena was entrusted to supply a number of temporary structures for the 100th anniversary. All three structures, a double deck Horizon structure (20x30m), a four story Arena Scene structure (10x27m) and a 15m by 100m glass fronted double-deck hospitality suites, were located along the home straight providing uninterrupted views over the course.

Ron Smith, projects director at Arena Structures, has been working with the Cheltenham Festival for the pa

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Australia - The historic Strawberry Hills Hotel in Sydney has recently emerged from a six million dollar renovation. It's a classic pub with art deco windows, twenties style pub tiles and a State Theatre carpet but there is nothing old-school about the sophisticated audio visual system designed and installed by the Constant Group.

For audio, a range of JBL speakers and Crown amplifiers were chosen including surface mount JBL Control 25's along with JBL SB-210 and JBL ASB-6115 subs, which have been discreetly integrated into the walls and cabinetry making it as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Twenty-two JBL-8124 in-ceiling speakers provide background music in the toilets and hallways, along with the TAB area.

"We always prefer to use JBL speakers because they constantly deliver quality and Jands always provide great back up," commented Con Constantinou, director o

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USA - Chance Theatre's (Anaheim Hills, CA) production of The Who's Tommy received an impressive honour when it was invited to play at Orange County's Segerstrom Centre for the Arts this February. In this remount of the show, the lighting and video design was once again in the hands of KC Wilkerson.

For Wilkerson, the larger-scale reprisal of Tommy represented an opportunity to expand the lighting concepts he had developed for this classic rock opera.

Lighting and video were especially important at certain key points in the show, Wilkerson said, beginning with the opening scenes, in which the designer displayed actual historic British World War II footage, to the use of different colours to dramatise Tommy at different ages, to the spectacular Pinball Wizard scene. As in the earlier production, Wilkerson chose products from Elation Professional to light up

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Australia - Hillsong Church has selected Lab.gruppen's PLM Series Powered Loudspeaker Management System for its flagship Baulkham Hills campus in Sydney. The PLMs power the church's new speaker system and make full use of the Lab's integrated Lake processing and monitoring features.

Steve LeRoux and Jad Gilles head the Hillsong audio team. "We purchased our first Lab.gruppen amplifiers a few years ago and they have been rock-solid," says LeRoux. "We've also been using Lake processors for many years, so the combination of Lake processing built into a Lab amp made choosing the PLMs an easy decision."

A total of 24 PLM systems were supplied comprising 20 PLM10000Q (four 2300w) and four PLM20000Q (four 5000w). Two FP10000Q's (four 2100w) were also purchased to drive the stage monitor speakers.

Hillsong is using a feature of the PLMs called LoadSmart. A verifi

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UK - XL Events supplied video and visual production - including camera and PPU system, projection, playback and crew - for The Big Bang, a 2500 seater live performance space run in the ICC at London's ExCel Centre alongside the UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair.

The raison d'Ωtre for the whole event was to encourage young people to engage with the invention, fun and vast potentials of science. The ICC element was production managed for M4 Entertainment by Nigel Mousley and project managed by XL's Bill Hughes.

Over the three days, hour-long special versions of two high profile different TV science shows were showcased in the ICC - Sky 1's Brainiac, and the BBC's Bang Goes The Theory each with two shows a day.

This was followed on the Friday evening by the national finals of the CREST Awards (managed by the British Science Association) and the Young Engi

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USA - Renkus-Heinz is launching two InfoComm CTS accredited RU training programmes for audio technicians in the fields of Intelligibility and Digital Beam Steering. The senior course instructor is well-known pro audio developer, instructor, AES moderator, author and journalist John Murray.

Both courses will be hosted at multiple locations across the USA, including at the Renkus-Heinz factory in Foothill Ranch, CA.

The Intelligibility (Non-Manufacturer) course - worth four RUs - covers Line-Source vs Point-Source, Technology Theory and Intelligibility. Topics include understanding line-source versus point-source behaviour and their fundamental characteristics; understanding STI (Speech transmission Index) and how it can be used to assess a sound system's intelligibility; and understanding the relationship between high-Q line-array directivity and the resulting intelligibility i

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UK - HSL supplied lighting design, equipment and crew for four live stages at the 2011 Move It exhibition in Olympia, London - the UK's largest live dancing experience - working for Upperstreet Events - who organised and co-ordinated the exhibition.

The stages - Main, Freestyle, Arena & Flawless - were spread around Olympia, and a production lighting design for all of them was created by HSL's project manager Dave Singleton. Singleton has designed this show before but this was his first time working for HSL who have been lighting equipment suppliers for the last two years.

One of the challenges they had to content with was the high daylight factor due to the venue's arched glass roof, and the other was the very tight get in/rigging time.

For the load in HSL supplied 16 lighting techs, crew chief Simon Lynch and rigger Ian Stevens, plus four students from technical courses at

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UK - Lighting and visual design specialists, Renegade created the lit environment for the 2011 Orange BAFTA (British Academy of Film & TV Arts) Awards gala dinner and aftershow party at London's Grosvenor House Hotel.

The event which followed the Awards Ceremony at the Royal Opera House, utilised multiple spaces in the venue, including the Great Room, the Ballroom, reception and peripheral areas.

It is the third year that Renegade's Nick Gray has been involved in designing the high profile showbiz event, working for production company AD Events. The challenge was to take some of the classic lighting elements from last year's successful scheme, and integrate them with a totally new look and feel for the Great Room and other spaces.

Chris Fyfe was Renegade's technical project manager, leading their crew of five, and overseeing the get-in and rigging of all the production light

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UK - All exhibition spaces were taken at ISCEx2011 and the wide variety of exhibitors and seminars attracted a larger than ever number of bookings at an event that goes from strength to strength each year, say the organisers.

Kraken Acoustics used the exhibition in Watford to launch their new carbon fibre BB80 micro-bass loudspeaker together with the unique BB80 X3 active crossover amplifier and were very impressed with the excellent turnout.

Andy Tinsey, of Kraken Acoustics, said, "Many thanks for the organisation of a great exhibition. We were extremely pleased with the response to our product launch which has generated enquiries worldwide and are happy that we chose ISCEx2011 to do it."

Tony Torlini, of Fuzion plc, was also happy. He said, "As an exhibitor, ISCEx2011 was a great success with a good solid flow of industry professionals, generating a good num

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USA - The Gateway Church in Southlake, TX changed its former AV distribution and communications system for a fibre based network installation. The fully integrated solution consists of a MediorNet fibre network backbone and an Artist digital matrix intercom from Riedel Communications. Responsible for the installation and planning was the systems integrator Beck Associates.

The Gateway Church comprises three different campuses. For providing distribution of all video, audio and communications signals, the Gateway Church installed a comprehensive system consisting based on Riedel MediorNet, a fibre based multipoint network solution providing integrated transport for 3G/HD-SDI video, audio, data and communications.

Heart of the installation is a set of five MediorNet mainframes. Offering a true fibre based real-time network approach beyond single point-to-point links, MediorNet a

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UK - When the analogue mixing console at Dundee Repertory Theatre was showing signs of old age, the theatre's head of sound Colin Lowson realised that it was an opportunity to give the venue's audio system a 21st century shot in the arm. A DiGiCo SD8-24 now in place at the mix position.

The theatre has a varied programme, taking in plays, musicals, dance, live bands, comedians and corporate events, so a digital console was the ideal solution. "We had been considering various options over a two year period," says Lowson. "When the SD8-24 was introduced, it seemed to offer more capacity and functions than digital consoles from other manufacturers. The chassis size was another major factor, as it's the ideal size for medium theatre but doesn't lose any capacity or functionality."

When the SD8-24 became a serious choice, Lowson had an SD8 on demo for a week fro

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UAE - The annual Laureus World Sports Awards provide a high profile focus as stars of the sporting world come together to salute the finest sports performances of the year. And on hand to help make sure this year's show, at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, looked the business was Unusual Rigging & Engineering's team from the next-door emirate of Dubai.

With a brief to create an award ceremony that was bigger, better and more dynamic than ever before, production company Done and Dusted designed a set that comprised several large LED screens, two of which tracked across the stage.

Leon Ingram, project manager for Unusual Rigging & Engineering, comments, "The auditorium at Emirates Palace has no loading capacity from the roof, so in order to track the screens across the stage we had to build a ground support system. With a span of 22m, the system also had to provide support for

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USA - When fans enter the Amway Center for an Orlando Magic basketball game, they might mistakenly assume that an in-the-round rock concert tour had left town and forgotten to take its sound system. The permanent system - anchored by 66 Meyer Sound Milo line array loudspeakers - largely duplicates recent touring rigs for Usher, Metallica, and Céline Dion.

Rick Price, assistant director of broadcast technology and services for the Magic and Amway Center comments, "This building is about sponsorship opportunities and fan experience. With our massive LED scoreboard, I knew we would be doing visually incredible things, but I wanted to be absolutely sure that we had audio that was equally impressive.

"We said early on that the most important thing we could put it in this building was an amazing sound system. It's the one thing you can't sell, but, if people walk aw

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Europe - A grandMA2 light was chosen by lighting designer Paul Normandale and lighting director Glen Johnson for James Blunt's Some Kind of Trouble 2011/12 world tour which has just kicked off in Europe. Two grandMA2 light consoles are on the tour, running in full tracking back up, with networking provided via two MA NPUs (Network Processing Units).

The main reason that grandMA2 was chosen for this tour - apart from the fact that it is Johnson's current console of choice - is that they are using the desk's DMX merging facility to enable video content stored on a Catalyst media server to be run through 50 Martin Professional MAC 101 LED moving lights and 24 Sun Strip MR16 battens.

The grandMA2 takes in Art-Net from the Catalyst, allowing Johnson to merge four universes of DMX in the desk, and send colour and intensity information from the Catalyst out as standard DMX - v

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UK - Lighting designer Bob Bryan used almost 150 mission critical LED effects - as well as many conventional fixtures from the SGM catalogue to help animate BBC Worldwide's new Doctor Who Experience at London's Olympia Two.

The Doctor Who Experience offers an immersive walk-through adventure followed by a dynamic exhibition, featuring props dating back to the successful BBC TV first series in 1963. It includes authentic Tardis (police box) sets, never-before-seen costumes and re-creations of iconic recent sets, including the Pandorica as well as monsters spanning the generations from Daleks and Cybermen to Silurians, an Ice Warrior and a Zygon.

Visitors are invited to step through a crack in time allowing them to join the Doctor, currently played by Matt Smith, on a journey through time and space, encountering some of the best-loved and scariest monsters from th

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UK - ETC's Eos was the lighting desk in use for three of the four shows nominated for best lighting design, including the winner, The White Guard, lit by Neil Austin at the National's Lyttleton Theatre.

The National Theatre embarked on a programme to upgrade all its lighting control desks to Eos some three years ago, while Paule Constable took the decision to run Love Never Dies on Eos less than a year ago, declaring herself the desk's "biggest fan".

Control supervisor Sarah Brown moved from her previous position as a lighting programmer to being responsible for training all the staff in the use of the Eos at the National Theatre. "While I was an operator," she explains, "I was approached to ask what I thought of the desk - and I really liked the way it works. Our previous desks had reached the limits of their capabilities, and were takin

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UK - Visionpoint Technologies, the AV arm of Flipside Group, has installed two dnp new wide angle 100in high contrast screens at BSkyB's Sky flagship store, situated in London's Westfield Shopping Centre. These were supplied by the manufacturer's UK distributors, Paradigm Audio Visual.

Although the Centre only opened in 2008, Sky was aware that its digital signage hardware looked under-specified due to the high ambient light afforded by the Centre's glass roof. Sky were keen to remedy this so they could best showcase their high-definition television content. In addition, by the start of 2010 Sky were also ready to launch a permanent demonstration of their new 'Sky 3D' product ahead of the launch of their 3D channel in October 2010.

Visionpoint was commissioned to review all aspects of the hardware utilised on the stand and recommend latest technologies to maximise Sky's invest

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UK / USA - Harvard University's Media Production Centre has added a SoundField Mark V B-Format microphone to its existing inventory, which already includes a SoundField SPS422B mic and an SP451 surround sound processor. The Mark V is being used to make stereo and surround-sound recordings for various departments at the university, including the music faculty.

Anthony Di Bartolo, Manager of the university's Media Production Centre, provides audio, video and multimedia services across the university, and has himself long been a user of SoundField microphones for jazz and acoustic recording, including the older ST250 portable microphone system.

"We already have an SPS422B and the SP451 surround processor here", he explains, "but we were looking for another mic or system that would enable us to record in surround. Of course, there are now various ways to do that, an

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India The 34th National Games 2011 were held at Ranchi in Jharkhand recently. While the event itself saw athletes from all Indian states competing against each other, around 7,000 athletes marched past audiences of up to 45,000 during the four-and-a-half-hour long spectacular Closing Ceremony.

After successfully executing the audio for the Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi, large event specialists Sound.Com were again contracted to broadcast the audio for both spectaculars, working for event production house Core Networks and Cineyug Group, who managed both the Opening and Closing ceremonies in the Ranchi Stadium. The pro audio specialists again delivered an advanced network solution with all audio transported over Optocore using the German company's new 'R-FX' series devices.

Following an air display, entertainment included Indian musicians, Bollywood stars, a laser show, a fi

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UK/Sweden - Orbital Sound reports on a successful season with La Soirée, as it moves from the South Bank Big Top to Sweden prior to a return to London later in the year. Billed as a fusion of cabaret, new burlesque, circus sideshow and contemporary vaudeville, Orbital was responsible for the show's sound design and system supply, working with production manager Dan Watkins to overcome a number of challenges, including 23 very eclectic acts performing in a circus-style tent.

Sound design was down to Orbital's Davy Ogilvy, who explains his approach to coping with the large circus-style tent and its inherent challenges.

"We needed to have a central truss to fire the speakers from. With only a single point to hang from, this made weight a very real issue - as the same point is used for some of the acts during the show. We elected to use four of the d&b audiotech

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Norway - Having purchased a Martin Audio Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array in December last year, Rubicon demonstrated the system to key technicians and concert management at Sentrum Scene in Oslo recently.

Among the audience were NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), and Live Nation, both of whom were excited about what the MLA system could do for their productions.

Roar Ånestad, Head of Sound at Rubicon, guided the audience through a technical presentation of the system. The listeners were impressed by the MLA system's smooth tonal balance throughout the venue.

To ensure that the MLA system always delivers a uniform experience, all system engineer have to be certified by Martin Audio - and Rubicon is the first rental company in the world to have certified all its key system engineers. "This enables us to guarantee our customers the same MLA quality every time,&qu

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USA - Visitors to the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Lower Manhattan are discovering the beauty of Native American artifacts and the stories behind those stunning objects in the new permanent exhibition, Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, planned to be in place for the next decade.

Electrosonic engineered, provided and installed 20 exhibits for Infinity of Nations - 10 linear video stations and 10 interactive workstations housed in the NMAI's George Gustav Heye Centre in the Old Customs House. Five years in the making, the new permanent collection reflects the geographic and chronological scope of the museum's collection, and includes magnificent headdresses, robes, beadwork, baskets and vessels, as well as works by contemporary Native American artists.

"Preparing for In

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Earthquake Appeal - A group of UK rock acts are to play a benefit gig in aid of Japanese earthquake victims. Primal Scream, The Coral, and Liam Gallagher's Beady Eye are among the bands set to play a show at Brixton's O2 Academy on 3 April. The money raised at the gig will go to the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal. Ex-Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft, Blur's Graham Coxon, and veteran rocker Paul Weller will also play.

Justin Bieber and U2 are among artists who have agreed to contribute songs to an album to raise funds for victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Record label Universal Music said it hoped to release the digital-only album globally by the end of the week. Bon Jovi and Rihanna have also been confirmed for the album, which will also raise money for the Japanese Red Cross. "We are doing it only digitally because it is faster," said a Universal spokesman

  1. Elation shows Platinum Spot 5R Pro and moving head video panel
  2. Yamaha StageMix for Viper Alley
  3. PR XL 1500s at Minsk Crossfield Festival
  4. LumenRadio CRMX lights Pont du Gard
  5. CHAUVET UK DEBUTS THREE FIXTURES AT PLASA FOCUS
  6. Tohoku-Pacific Ocean earthquake
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