Europe - Eclectic British musician, Patrick Wolf, has embarked on another European tour with a Dante-enabled Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system managing both FOH and monitors, supported by PA company, Britannia Row.

FOH Engineer, Fabrizio Piazzini, selected an iDR10 MixRack for monitors, digitally split using Dante to an iDR-16 for FOH, with an iLive-144 Control Surface at FOH and iLive-80 for monitors. A third MixRack, an iDR0, will provide the I/O for live recording via the Dante network, controlled from FOH. No additional hardware is required as Audinate's Dante virtual soundcard is installed on laptops to run multi-track recording software, Reaper.

"Patrick has a very elaborate style, so it's great the iLive system has a lot of headroom and you can really drive the inputs. Even if he goes nuts and plays really hard, it's not going to start distorting. With othe

UK - Liverpool-based Adlib's audio division supplied an L-Acoustics K1 sound system and crew for The Specials most recent tour.

It was Adlib's second Specials tour and the first for monitor systems engineer Marc Peers who jumped at the opportunity to be onboard. "It's an absolute privilege to get to work with one of the best and most original bands of that era," he enthuses.

With up to 13 musicians and performers onstage at peak times, monitor world was quite frenetic. Peers was working alongside Specials monitor engineer Pete Abbott, who has been with them since 2009, like Adlib, coming onboard via tour manager Mike Darling.

Adlib supplied 16 d&b M2 wedges, powered by D12 amplifiers, which handled a total of 12 mixes. Lynval Golding, Neville Staple and the flute player used IEMs, together with the string section so a mix of Sennheiser G3 supplied by ADLIB and G2 o

UAE - Martin Professional's award-winning MAC Aura wash light is quickly finding its way into lighting rental company inventories around the world. As a leading supplier to the event production industry in the Middle East - and following a visit to the PLASA trade show in London - Dubai-based Eclipse Staging Services has made an investment in the new Aura which won a PLASA Award for Innovation.

Darren Hodge, Eclipse Dubai's GM, who made the decision to purchase the lighting fixtures, says, "Eclipse has been very happy with the Martin MAC 301s; they are constantly in use by our team and requested by clients for their versatility. I was very impressed with the new Aura light and had no hesitation in being the first company in the region to add these units to our extensive lighting stock. They have just arrived and are already being used by our team at the Live Nation DXB Beac

France - Adamson Systems Engineering has announced the addition of MPM France to the list of Project Energia beta partners. France is a key European territory for Adamson, with more than 30 vendors carrying the Y-Axis and SpekTrix series.

Brock Adamson, president and CEO of Adamson Systems Engineering, comments, "MPM has been a strong partner for many years. They are a dynamic organisation working on regional and international work. With more than 500 Adamson cabinets in their inventory, we could not ask of a better partner to lead the way with Project Energia in France. We look forward to their input as Energia progresses."

Marc Morosini, director general of MPM visited Canada last autumn to listen to one of the first finished prototypes of the E15 system. Morosini comments on Project Energia, "This system offers more power than any other cabinet, in a smaller

USA - PLASA Focus: Austin welcomes a raft of new exhibitors as the two-day event expands its floor plan yet again. The new style of regional event, to be held 22-23 February 22-23, 2012 at the Renaissance Austin, Texas, has doubled its footprint in the past week, with over 25 companies committed to taking part and as many applications being processed.

Joining confirmed exhibitors ETC, Barbizon, Philips Color Kinetics, Doug Fleenor Design, Strong Entertainment Lighting, Chauvet, A.C.T Lighting, Global Design Solutions, CommuniLux Productions, GLP German Light Products, Daktronics Rigging, Total Structures, Arri, Rosco, Rose Brand, Robe, High End Systems, Secoa and Clay Paky, amongst others, are new exhibitors; Elation, White Light, LSC, James Thomas Engineering, Creative Stage Lighting, Inlight Gobos, Mainstage Theatrical Supply, Martin Professional and TMB.

PLASA Focus' much t

UK - With the live music industry heading indoors for the winter, Yamaha UK has had time to reflect on the company's most successful summer yet. As well as the major events like Glastonbury, T In The Park and many others, Yamaha technology allows many smaller productions to take place outdoors. Christchurch-based CPS Group used the company's equipment to provide a highly innovative audio system at a series of orchestral shows.CPS Group and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra spent several weekends staging seven outdoor shows at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight, Mercedes Benz World in Weybridge, Meyrick Park in Bournemouth and Broadlands House, Romsey. All featured a Classical Prom, with the latter three venues adding a second night titled Symphonic Disco, featuring West End artists performing numbers from shows such as Mamma Mia and Saturday Night Fever.&quo

UK - Powered by the Roland V-Mixing System and billed as A Night of Power and Romance, the recent performance at the Birmingham Symphony Hall by The Enid promised to be both technically and musically challenging for the musicians and audience alike.

Taking on the task of providing the audio equipment for a show which included more than 80 instruments, Simon Kenning and Phil Palmer from Roland Systems Group took full advantage of the flexibility of the V-Mixing System.

For the performance, which needed to be recorded as well as having many live considerations, they chose two M-480 Live Mixing Consoles in cascade mode, one S-4000 Rack with 40 inputs, 10 M-48 Live Personal Mixers for the band, conductor and organist and two of the new R-1000 Audio Recorders to do synchronized 80 track recording in 24bit 48kHz. Abbey Road provided a digital split from their recording truck

USA - Barco teamed up with Clair Brothers Audio Systems to provide Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas with an upgraded, turnkey video system built around its latest FSN presentation system and FLM HD20 DLP projectors.

When Watermark Community Church decided to relocate to a new, larger facility to accommodate its growing congregation, it seized upon an opportunity to upgrade and expand its audio visual platform with the latest technologies. The church desired a more robust, flexible system featuring today's advanced capabilities in video, audio and lighting.

Clair Brothers' understanding of modern technical worship environments was a critical factor in developing a plan that would fulfill the church's desire to inspire its members with thoughtful media support for its sermons. Barco was the clear choice for executing their vision, meeting their needs with two of its f

Germany - IOSONO, a provider of spatial audio systems and Berlin-based AFMG, creators of EASE, the industry-standard for simulation of room acoustics, recently teamed up to develop a new approach to making virtual acoustical environments audible.

"Architects, their clients, engineers or even movie sound designers will enter into a new world of possibilities to engulf listeners in the sound of a virtual surrounding," says Frank Melchior, CTO at IOSONO.

"Just imagine that a number of listeners can all enjoy an identical acoustical experience at the same time, no matter where in the room they are sitting," adds Stefan Feistel, manager of AFMG. "Architects will hold their presentations not only with a slideshow of photo-realistic pictures but talking live within the acoustical situation of the room simulated in EASE. Designs of concert halls, cinemas, soun

UK - Sysco AV has been awarded the contract for the detailed design and development of the entire audio visual system requirements for the new Mary Rose Museum, currently under construction in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

At a total project cost of £35 million, the new attraction is due to open in late 2012, 30 years after the nation watched as the hull of the 450-year old Tudor warship was lifted from the Solent. Visitors will be enticed with the promise of being able to look into the glass hotbox where the final stages of the 30-year conservation process of the ship are taking place. Alongside this, there will be the opportunity to view a huge array of previously unseen personal, domestic and military artefacts. In 2016, the final phase of conservation will be complete and with the glass removed, visitors will be able to pass through the viewing galleries containing the

Sweden - Audiorama is a new facility in Stockholm, dedicated to staging innovative productions of sound art and electro-acoustic music. Said to be the only venue of its type in Northern Europe, it is located in an old torpedo workshop in Skeppsholmen and puts on a diverse range of events, from audio drama and sound art, through to special children and youth productions. All the events are different in their own way, but connected by their use of sound.

The venue is able to hold a seated audience of between 70 and 100 people. These audiences are entertained by productions that are exclusively audio, so a dedicated sound system has been designed for an exclusive listening experience. The system is made up of 21 loudspeakers in discrete channels, that surround the listener from floor to ceiling.

Designed by Marcus Wrangö, technical producer at Audiorama, the soundscapes are proj

UK - A bespoke lighting system supplied by A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) took centre stage for the high-profile launch party of London's revamped The Arts Club, a private members club on Dover Street. The re-launch of the historic Club - which was founded in 1863 by, amongst others, Charles Dickens - was attended by HRH Duke of Edinburgh and a host of artists.

The Arts Club was reopened by restaurateur Arjun Waney and property entrepreneur Gary Landesburg to provide an exclusive meeting place for actors, writers, musicians and other creative artists.

Lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe was amongst several high profile names in the performing arts commissioned to help craft a special ambience in the venue. To create the lighting scheme for the basement's intimate 100 capacity Club Nouveau, Woodroffe approached A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) to collaborate in sourcing and installin

UAE - Melody House, distributors of HK Audio speaker systems in the United Arab Emirates has recently supplied the InterContinental Hotel in Dubai Festival City with the new Elements speaker system. The hotel intends to use the system for various themed nights at their Mediterranean cuisine Zaytoun Restaurant where a DJ will perform throughout the night.

"The success of the Elements can be attributed to its modular design, the fact that the system can scale as per the client's requirements and most importantly it sounds good," commented Dino Drimakis, business development manager at Melody House. "The hotel will surely be pleased with their investment and will see immediate return as it can be adapted to any other events or activities in the hotel property."

(Jim Evans)

Australia - 2011 has been a big year for the Ten Network in Australia. Having instigated a number of adjustments to its programming line-up and increased its airtime, the Network recently invested in a significant revamp of its Sydney newsroom and studio.

As part of this refurbishment, Network 10 lighting director Pete Koole examined ways to make his lighting rig more cost effective, reliable and easier to use. During his research he came across the Philips Selecon PL1 LED luminaire. "I could see straight away that the PL1 LED had great potential as keylight in the news studio", he says. Koole now owns 18, all fitted with wireless receivers and he is delighted with them.

The PL1s have addressed a number of issues. Koole's newsroom is situated at the bottom of a five-story atrium and vulnerable to fluctuating colour temperatures from the changing ambient natural light

USA / Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has confirmed Josh Thatcher as the winner of their Call for Entries contest which ran from August through October. Thatcher won a new iPad2 at the W-DMX Swedish meatball and vodka party held on Saturday, 29 October during LDI in Orlando.

The contest began with a call for entries posted on the W-DMX Facebook page and various trade e-newsletters. The challenge was to submit the most interesting use of W-DMX, with the best story to win an iPad2.

Hollywood-based Thatcher won for his use of W-DMX on the movie Super 8, a Steven Speilberg film released in June 2011. Thatcher has also used W-DMX in other major feature films including Cowboys & Aliens and Pirates of the Carribbean.

"This was a nice surprise," said Thatcher, "I use W-DMX on a lot of motion pictures but Super 8 was special. We wer

Italy - One of the best known brands in retail, athletic footwear giant Foot Locker, has installed an eye-catching Martin Professional LED display in the main front window of its flagship store in Milan.

Located in the fashionable Corso Vittorio Emanuele shopping district in the heart of Milan, the store opened in June showcasing a dynamic front window LED display made up of 39 Martin Professional EC-20 LED panels.

Lead designers for the Foot Locker brand across Europe is design and consultancy company rpa:group. James Breaks, associate director of rpa:vision's design division, comments, "I was at Euroshop earlier in the year together with the client who saw the EC-20 panels at the Martin stand. Foot Locker wanted the potential to create something startling and bold. They were looking to stand out and make a massive impression. The EC-20 display was just what they were lo

UK - The Euston Underpass is one of the UK's busiest thoroughfares, with an estimated 100,000 people travelling its length on a daily basis. It also boasts the latest digital advertising installation from turnkey solutions provider Solutions In Steel (SIS), which has installed two Lighthouse Technologies LED screens, located on either side of the bridge spanning the underpass and visible to traffic travelling in either direction.

Solutions in Steel has considerable experience with Lighthouse screens, having worked with them on projects such as the Two Towers on London's Hammersmith Flyover, Eat Street and Ariel Way at West London's Westfield Shopping Centre and the H Junction Bridge at Shepherd's Bush.

"We provide a 100% turnkey solution, from initial design, through structural engineering, to finished installation and even finance, which makes things as simple as possibl

UK - Audience, performers and crew are unlikely to forget this year's bonfire night celebrations at Dunorlan Park, where a new dBTechnologies DVA T12 rig enabled all 14,000 visitors to hear the Rock Choir perform, before the evening culminated in a spectacular 30-minute long firework display.

The Dunorlan Park firework event was the first outing for the dBTechnologies DVA T12 system supplied by rental company Phonophobia. "We have been in this industry for many years now, and once you are established you tend to think the tool box is full of everything you will ever need," said Phonophobia's Mark Chant, initially sceptical of what dBTechnologies and its largest line array system could add to his inventory. On 5 November, however, it was a different story. "It was a total success! We provided clear, clean audio at high SPLs across a large audience area, flying a to

Australia - The X Factor is the hottest TV franchise around the globe with the second Australian series currently underway and drawing large audiences every week. The set and lighting for this series is very similar to the first series with a few exceptions such as the addition of 28 Vari*Lite VLX LED wash lights.

"The VLX fixtures in the system replace the VL3500 wash and VL2000 wash fixtures that I used last year," commented Ian Anderson, production lighting director for the show. "There wasn't a specific reason for choosing them this year other than I really just wanted to give them a go."

This is the first time that he has used an LED source as one of the main workhorses in the rig and he is delighted with the result.

"The VLX fixtures provide the entire colour wash on the stage," he explained. "They have been working very reliab

UK - Artichoke, producers of extraordinary live events, have unveiled the full programme of artworks, installations and events for this year's Lumiere festival in Durham, 17-20 November 2011. Artichoke returns to Durham at the invitation of Durham County Council who are providing significant funding for the event along with Arts Council England, and a raft of sponsors and funding bodies. Lumiere will bring together more than 30 British and international artists working with light in every conceivable way. From dramatic installations, vast animated projections and human rivers of light, to quieter, more subtle interventions on buildings, streets and bridges, the artworks in Lumiere "will re-invent the familiar in a city-wide nocturnal trail that will surprise, delight and stop people in their tracks".

In a new commission for Lumiere, French fire alchemists Compagnie Car

Italy - The Venice Jazz Festival included an impressive series of concerts in San Marco Square, where Hollywood Service was engaged for the second consecutive year to provide audio production services with its inventory of Turbosound loudspeaker systems.

Among the performers this year were the Italian Navy, James Taylor, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Venice La Fenice, and the well-know Italian singer Biagio Antonacci.

But the highlight of this year's event was the appearance of Sting on 29 July in Piazza San Marco. This was just one date of his worldwide Symphonicity Tour which has seen Sting and his band accompanied by the 50-piece Philharmonic Orchestra La Fenice.

The festival organiser's intention was to highlight as much as possible the stunning architectural values of San Marco square, and this meant that the stage had to appear less invasive than the previous ye

USA - Clay Paky scored a remarkable string of wins at the LDI show in Orlando, Florida. The company secured a total of four awards: a Parnelli Award, two LDI Awards, and a PLASA Rock Our World Award.

The Sharpy won a fourth Rock Our World Award at a reception organized by PLASA in connection with the annual LDI show. The jury, chaired by Mike Wood, gave the Sharpy their enthusiastic backing. Designer Natasha Katz said, "This is the beginning of more lights that have to be like this - efficient and green," while Nick Jones said, "Absolutely brilliant - an amazing amount of light coming out of such a small piece of kit."

Two days later success struck again when the Sharpy won a Parnelli Award in the category for Most Indispensable Technology. The award is often seen as an accurate barometer of public opinion and shows the extent to which the Sharpy has establ

UK - Digital network operator Ram Vision has extended its Iconic network, signing a five year contract as the exclusive media sales partner for the new 21sq.m LED screen at Glow, Bluewater, installed by ADI which went live on 10 November 2011.

The LED screen will join Ram Vision's large-format screen network and is located on the wall of the cinema in the r new Plaza space. The 3000m² leisure area acts as a hub between the mall, cinema, restaurants and Glow.

The screen has been installed by LED specialist ADI and is a 6mm SMD indoor product from the company's proprietary Virtuality range of screens. ADI worked closely with Bluewater in order to specify the screen - which has a high resolution and close minimum viewing distance - to give a stunning picture whether viewed from across the new Plaza or from a couple of metres away, ensuring that the messages of brands are accurat

Sweden - Lighting designer Mikki Kunttu is using Martin Professional's MAC III Performance luminaire on Malmö Opera's current production of Les Miserables. Presented on one of Europe's largest opera stages, this latest staging of the Victor Hugo classic premiered in September and plays until February 2012.

"The MAC III is really the workhorse in this production as most of the scenes were built around the looks created by the MAC IIIs," says Kunttu. "It was chosen because it's perfect for the high contrast looks needed in this production."

Kunttu placed the MAC III Performances on two simple backlight trusses, upstage. "I've got nothing to complain about," he says. "They definitely get the job done."

Also used on the show are Martin MAC 2000 Washes and MAC 600 wash lights, as well as Martin's PAL 1200 moving mirror spot. The Mar

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