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14 March 2016

The stadium is a multipurpose facility that currently seats 25,000 spectators and will be capable of being extended to 40,000 seats in the future. Metricon Stadium features an AFL oval that will also be capable of holding ICC cricket matches, concerts, festivals, IAAF athletics events and FIFA World Cup soccer matches.

The PA People opted for a tested formula that they have used in other stadiums designed around a variety of JBL speakers. The Stadium has grandstands around three-quarters of its perimeter with an open Northern end where the scoreboard is situated.

"We have 20 clusters to deal with t

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14 March 2016

Children's Favourite - Bristol Old Vic's production of Swallows and Amazons is to play in London's West End for a five-week Christmas run. Based on the classic children's novel by Arthur Ransome, the songs for the musical have been created by The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon. It will be directed by Bristol Old Vic's Tom Morris, co-director of the National Theatre's West End hit War Horse. The show wi

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14 March 2016

The impressive mixture of horse show and acrobatics was thematically embedded in a gentle, romantic story. Altogether, 45 horses starred on the specially-created stage, captivating audiences with their charm. To reinforce the story, the entire Apassionata manège was continuously bathed in different-coloured lighting, giving extra depth to this equestrian theatre.

Lighting designer Henning Schletter used among other effects 20 impression 90 RGB, 12 impression 240 XL and 36 Ypoc 700 CMY heads, from LED moving head manufacturer GLP.

Schletter has been a freelance lighting designer and operator for many years and is fami

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14 March 2016

In order to allow the bands to engage at close quarters with their hordes of screaming fans, production designer Butch Allen designed a 91ft catwalk leading from the main stage to a 'B' stage - using no fewer than 79 GLP Volkslicht Zoom LED spots to edge the perimeter of the vast 155ft-wide main and subsidiary stages - including 17 footlights down each side of the thrust. The complex staging and movement was fabricated by Tait Towers.

"Since the whole set design was based around the 91ft thrust, my idea was to use the Volkslichts as footlights, to carve the space out around the audience," said Allen, explaining the concept.

The tour has seen him reunited with Jesse Blevins

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14 March 2016

In a series of talks and seminars over the course of three days, delegates learned about new ETC products, projects and systems.

Part of the event centred on ETC's latest LED fixtures, Selador Desire, which comes in a range of different options, each optimised for every type of lighting need.

Selador's x7 Colour System adds four colours to the traditional RGB mix, radically expanding the colour range and power. The range was specifically designed to mix well with traditional tungsten lighting, giving lighting designers the best of both worlds. Desire's optional red shift mode mimics the way the colour temperature of a tungsten lamp warms as it fades.

Erik Larsen, ma

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14 March 2016

With this year's series of concerts between 7 and 12 July 7, the organiser celebrated 20 years of staging this successful event. At the same time, a new technical concept made its debut behind the scenes. This year for the first time, the audio infrastructure was digital, based on the use of two all-digital Eclipse mixing consoles from Innovason and digital microphones from Berlin-based manufacturer Neumann.

An Etherso

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14 March 2016

Jerry Roberto Romani, designer of the theatre's lighting system, has evaluated these mobile heads designed for creating light scenes in shows and musicals. The ACL M were chosen because they are "adaptable, small, powerful, and low consumption. Furthermore, their silence makes them ideal for theatrical/musical productions".

Thanks to their characteristics they have been selected by the technical staff of Gardaland, and in particular by artistic director Filippo Tassi and his assistant Roberto Botti.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Mitchell handles touring sales at Florida-based LMG, a company with a long and highly reputable history in the corporate market, but relatively less well known in touring circles. For Pixies production manager Simon Foster the one stop shop logic was sound, but it's not just equipment that determines these things.

"I wasn't familiar with LMG before the last Pixies US tour," said the band's long time house engineer Ray Furze. "When Simon mentioned they

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14 March 2016

The first sees a DiGiCo SD9 take up residence at Sweden's national broadcaster, Swedish Television, for 55 consecutive days from 13 June for its early morning children's show, Sommarlov, which is not only broadcast nationwide, but also has a live audience of 500 children each morning.

"The SD9 and D-Rack sit at the heart of the whole sound set-up as the mic pre/gain master," says eurosound's Mattias Dalin. "The show is set in the harbour at Malmoe's Docklands, but the broadcast sound is mixed in SVT's regular studio control room at their premises. A two-way fibre connection between the SD9 and the control room services all audio signals.

"Because of this set-up, we need maximum safety and we're confident

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14 March 2016

Installed throughout the venue are 16 COLORado Tri Tour, 60 COLORband Tri and 10 COLORado Batten 72 Tour, as well as 36 LED PAR 38 wash lights. Sanders specifically sought LED-fitted fixtures due to their longer life and color changing capabilities.

"There are 150 fixtures installed throughout," Sanders said. "I didn't want to change 150 light bulbs. Colour-changing LEDs were selected because the interior is white and pastel and we could add colours and turn [the

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14 March 2016

The Academy, which is based in Wakefield, will be offering Apple courses that are relevant to this field, as well as courses for Apple beginners and enthusiasts.

Tuition will take place at The Backstage Academy's new facility, adjoining the LS-Live rehearsal studio, which is one of the largest purpose-built rehearsal spaces in Europe.

The Academy has an Apple Authorised Training Suite, modern classrooms, a 3D viewing suite and 14 en-suite bedrooms to accommodate participants who may wish to stay overnight.

David Kirtlan, an Apple education mentor and education director at The Backstage Academy, said, "Our courses cater really well for those working in live events production, as well as lecturers and technicians who provide sup

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14 March 2016

The 85,000sq.ft centre, which opened last year, serves the Northern Virginia community. Theatre consultant and lighting designer Robert Davis specified Aramis followspots for the 1,121-seat Merchant Hall, which is designed for symphony orchestra performances, dance, opera and theatre and boasts a 45ft by 100ft stage and a motorised pit set for large orchestras.

"A followspot has to do everything perfectly - It doesn't have to clear just one hurdle, but dozens," says Davis. "The instrument has to have a really good followspot beam, and you need to have good control over it. It has to accelerate and decelerate smoothly and s

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14 March 2016

As well as offering an overview of the entire Dynacord product range, the Academy included a presentation of Electro-Voice microphones. The third generation of Dynacord's PowerMate family, the new CMS mixing consoles and the Corus Evolution series were also the subject of great interest.

"The Academy was no sooner over than requests began pouring in to attend the next," says Klaus Seitz, sales director MEA, ProSound and CCS. "Clearly we hit the bullseye with this academy. The demand is very real, and we're already planning the next events in the series."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Located in Earls Court 2, the feature takes the form of a theatre-in-miniature, complete with 'auditorium', 'stage', 'backstage', 'foyer' and 'box office'. In each area The Theatres Trust will demonstrate proven sustainability techniques, as well as featuring technologies from PLASA 2011 exhibitors.

Tim Atkinson, theatre building services advisor to The Theatres Trust, comments, "The larger space means our stage will be able to accommodate a greater variety of presentations and events. Another key development is that, whereas last year we had only signed up half of

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14 March 2016

Working for Twofour Digital, the Gloucester-based AV specialists commandeered no fewer than 270 tiles, configured in a giant concave 30 x 9 display to help car manufacturer Audi showcase its entire range.

Production AV were brought in by Central Presentations, to whom they had earlier demonstrated MicroTiles. The latter, in turn, introduced Twofour Digital and Audi to the technology when they were looking for a jaw-dropping media display that would wow visitors to their touring pavilion at Goodwood.

"When they saw MicroTiles they decided to fill the whole of one wall with a curved display, giving them a 12m x 2.7m screen," said Production AV project manager, Sam McCrea. Set on a 1m high plinth the displ

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14 March 2016

As a part of the extended relationship Synergy will regularly stock LDR fixture in its warehouse to supply the industry market in Singapore and to some of the nearby countries. The Synergy show room will feature luminiares, follow-spots and other inventory from LDR.

Fabiano Besio comments "With the stock as well as the showroom to demonstrate our solutions, we will be better able to service the local and the nearby markets through Synergy."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The caravan also plays loud music and this year RCF speakers were fitted on several vehicles. The company La Cite Du Son-Sonowest from Rennes was responsible for the audio installation. Forty RCF Art 310 and C5212 speakers were installed in the vehicles.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Located near the Pliska Hotel, east of the city centre, Arena Sofia is the largest and highest standard multi-discipline indoor sports venue in Bulgaria. As well as providing a national facility for sport, the arena has also been designed to host music concerts. With a 12,000+ capacity, the 16,000sq.m venue is built on five levels, one of which is underground. In addition to the main sports hall, the venue incorporates dressing rooms, training area, fitness centre, spa centre, restaurant, a press conference hall and underground parking for nearly 1,000 cars.

The training area is already in operation and the first major sports event will be a volleyball tournament between the national teams of Bulga

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14 March 2016

Designer Marc Brickman chose the new Vari-Lite VLX for the current Keith Urban tour. Lighting director Nate Alves is "thrilled" with the addition of these units as well as the new Clay Paky Sharpys, also specified by Brickman. The Sharpy is energy efficient and packs a tremendous punch for such low power consumption.

Designer Paul Holst is using the Martin MAC 101 on Owl City, as well as several GRNLite products,

Seth Jackson has specified the new GLP Volkslicht LED fixture for the current Selena tour, which is selling out in every market.

Bandit also purchased several I-Pix BB4's to complement the inventory of BB7's already on hand. In addition, the inventory of GRNLite PARs, Moving Washes, Battens, Washes and 8 Light Units was doubled this summe

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14 March 2016

While a venue like Leeds Castle provided a breath-taking backdrop to the music, the site itself presented its own set of challenges for those involved in specifying and delivering a performance audio system for the event, with Lake's LM 26 a major part of the eventual solution.

Outline UK specified the loudspeaker sound system through SRD Group of Kent, and supplied by Britannia Row for the site for the Saturday and Sunday concerts. As well as being an Outline rental house, Britannia Row have committed to Lake as their chosen system processor, with their dry and wet hire inventory finding its way onto many major tours and events across the country, including the shows at Leeds Castle.

"The situation

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14 March 2016

Taking in 36 stadium dates across the UK, Ireland and Europe, the tour's sound requirements have been supplied by Capital Sound, with help from Delta Sound. A DiGiCo SD7 is used to mix the Front of House position, with a second for mixing the support act - the Pet Shop Boys - and anything else that may arise. Two more SD7s are on monitors - one for the five members of Take That, the other for the backing musicians - while a fifth DiGiCo console, an SD9, is mixing monitors for the Pet Shop Boys. All consoles share three DiGiRacks via a fibre optic multicore.

This tour is the first time that Take That's FOH engineer Gary Bradshaw has used the SD7 and he has pronounced himself very pleased with it. "Being laid out in banks of 12 fits really well with this production," he

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14 March 2016

The 14th Gymnaestrada, which took place between 10-16 July, is one of the largest international amateur sports events with nearly 22,000 participants from 55 countries. For the opening and closing ceremonies as well as during the regular events, the organisers used a large RockNet installation for distributing the audio within the stadium.

A total of three RockNet rings transported 180 audio signals between four different stages and the FOH in the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise arena. The Swiss event specialist Skynight from Geneva was responsible for plan

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14 March 2016

Their new, 55-minute show features a Michael Jackson impersonator who has the signatures dance moves down and lip-synchs to original songs including Smooth Criminal, Thriller and Remember the Time.

In order to promote the show nationwide, a four-minute music video was created and featured 18 COLORado 1 Tour wash lights, an Arena Hazer 2 haze machine, and two Q-SPOT 260 LED and six Legend 6500 moving heads. ShowXpress controlled all of the fixtures during the video shoot.

Paul Kocel, owner of Summit Group Event Services, comments, "The entire 55-minute show, which took over 83 hours to programme and contained 4,000 steps, ran in complete sy

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14 March 2016

It was the first time that Adlib has worked with Starr. Account handler Phil Kielty comments, "It was a great honour to be asked to work with one of Liverpool's best known musicians and one of the remaining Beatles, his Liverpool show in particular was amazing."

However, Adlib won the project not because of their geographical location, but because they came highly recommended to Starr's production, and because they could deliver the L-Acoustics PA specified by Starr's FOH engineer John Cooper coupled with excellent service.

L-Acoustics was chosen for its reliability, consistency and sonic character. As they were playing a wide variety of different sized venues, Adl