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Belgium - Lighting director and lighting op Jesse Blevins directed this summer's Lenny Kravitz light show at the TW Classic festival in Belgium from a Martin M1 lighting console with high res custom video content played back on a Martin Maxedia Broadcast.

"The M1's footprint has been very convenient for us," Blevins says of Martin's full-featured yet compact lighting desk. "It's a big console in a small frame and very easy to get in and out of small, cramped FOHs, at festivals and theatres especially. It's great to have something this size and still have the processing and surface space to produce what you need."

The M1 console for the Lenny Kravitz performance was supplied by Steve Cohen Productions with Martin support engineer Kris Van Hullebusch on site for any support needs, such as an upgrade to the new SSD drive, which improves console speed and react

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Switzerland - Gurten festival takes place annually on a clearing a top the Gurten foothills on the Swiss Alps by the capital city of Bern. The four-day festival originated in 1977. Access to the festival site up on the mountain is via one street, which can only be travelled in one direction at a time. The entire festival set-up takes about a month, and another two weeks for the teardown.

Artists travel in special shuttles with priority on the road, there's also a heli-pad set up for medical emergencies. The general population also arrives by 'Gurtenbahn' a local equivalent of a cable car. Some people choose to hike the 45 minute trek to the site. Practically all choose to stay and camp for the duration of the show. Due to the site's constraints and access, a limit of 18,000 people per day is set for the festival.

Notably, Gurten Festival has made some efforts to be 'green'. Th

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Russia - Euroshow Moscow deployed its L-Acoustics K1 WST line source system at Rock on the Volga, a one-day festival in the city of Samara.

The June event, which drew a crowd of more than 270,000 people, has been confirmed as the biggest open-air festival in Europe and Asia. It featured eight of Russia's leading bands including Leningrad and Alisa, and was headlined by ZAZ, Garbage and Limp Bizkit.

Euroshow used 16 K1 and four Kara per side as the main system, supplemented with eight K1-SB subwoofers flown per side behind the main array. Out-fills were a further eight K1 with four K1-SB per side, front-fills were four stacks of two Kara cabinets with six stacks of four SB28 subs per side in cardioid mode. Stage monitors were provided by ZAZ alone in the form of 12 115XT HiQ, three ARCS and three SB218 subs per side performed as stage side-fills. The entire system was powered b

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South Africa - Le Grand Cirque de Adrenaline thrilled a South African audience with breathtaking performances at the Joburg Theatre. While the show pushed acrobatics to the limit, the technical was equally impressive. Much of the gear, including 12 new Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500s, was supplied by MGG Productions.

"The Alphas were just amazing," commented Renaldo van den Berg from MGG. Renaldo and Kevin Rieck were part of the MGG team who helped set up for the show. Renaldo also assisted with the programming of a DVD shoot.

Three new Prolyte Circle trusses were purchased for the show and MGG's faithful Robe fixtures, 24 Robe 700 ColorSpots, 16 Robe 700 ColorWashes and 26 Robe 600 LED Washes, 19 Robe LEDForce 18 and five MMX Spots formed part of the equipment list, along with 12 MAC 700 Spots, one 8 Way Molfey, six Philips Selecon PL TR2 RGB Striplights, two Reel FX

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UK - Lighting and sound finance company specialists Azule Finance reports a string of high profile deals with some of the UK's leading hire companies, as they stocked up ahead of the busy festival and events season. Faced with increased demand for Clay Paky Sharpy, L'Acoustics and Martin lighting and audio kit at some of the UK's biggest festivals, hire companies NiteLites and Colour Sound Experiment enlisted the services of Azule Finance to stock up in time for a busy summer.

The Summer months see the live events production industry go into overdrive to meet the demands of touring artists as they hit the festival circuit. Colour Sound Experiment and Nitelites needed quick, competitive finance options to invest in kit on the riders of some of the most popular touring artists and Azule were on hand to deliver.

Specialist lighting and sound designers, Colour Sound Experiment, in

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UK - Staged annually at Turnpost Farm, the Glastonbudget Festival is Europe's largest and best-known festival for tribute acts. Every year, around 9,000 fans make the pilgrimage to the farm in the East Midlands between Leicester and Nottingham for the three-day event. There they are regaled by talented and often authentic-sounding clones of Bryan Adams, Queen, David Bowie, Michael Jackson and other top acts. Since its inception in 2005, the festival has also established itself as an attractive platform for up-and-coming acts in other genres.

As in previous years, the 2012 organisers commissioned OneBigStar of Nottingham to implement the sound, video and lighting solutions for the event. "With 160 bands over the three days, we had our hands full," says Simon Taylor, OneBigStar's commercial director, "so we needed a sound system that would sound great, was utterly r

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USA - As a dancer, actress, music artist, producer, and fashion designer, Jennifer Lopez has sold over 55m records worldwide. With a celebrated career spanning over 17 years, she has taken on many challenges in many different industries, except for one. With the launch of her 2012 world tour, Lopez is embarking on her first headlining live tour and behind the scenes lighting designer and programmer Sean Burke has created an energetic and dramatic lighting design using Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX and VL3000 Spot luminaires provided by Upstaging.

"This is the first live tour for Jennifer so director Jaime King brought everyone into the process very early," began Burke. "It was very interesting to watch as he took the production from a normal touring show to quite an extravaganza in terms of the dancers, choreography and all the things that he brings to the table. His t

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UK - Manchester based lighting and rigging specialists dbn have installed a subtle trussing infrastructure and produced a creative rigging solution at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester to showcase the work of Pascale Martine Tayou.

Tayou is one of 33 artists and a host of musicians from 11 West African countries featured in We Face Forward, a season of contemporary art and music from the region taking place across three galleries, two museums, four music venues, libraries, community spaces and one art bus in the city.

The World Falls Apart, Tayou's new work specially for this exhibition, is an interior forest that spills out into a neighbouring park, inspired by the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achibe.

It is displayed on a series of 25 six-metre high wooden poles in the Whitworth's South Gallery, and blurs the distinction between trade goods a

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UK - Alfie Boe is the English tenor who has achieved popular success bringing opera to new audiences as well as giving Tony-winning performances in musical theatre. From Les Miserables to La Boheme, from London's Royal Opera House to a full UK tour, Alfie Boe is that rare creature - a true crossover artist from classical to pop music.

For his current British tour, playing festival and outdoor dates as well as theatres, Boe is carrying a Nexo 45°N-12 stage monitor system for his own use. Whether he's performing in front of his 32-piece orchestra, choir or a small band, Boe is happy with a cluster of the distinctive N-12 wedges, arrayed four wide.

The Nexo N-12s were suggested by Boe's monitor engineer Paul Hatt, whose company CS Audio is the sound rental provider for the tour. Hatt was tipped off about the radical line monitors by Tristran Mallett and Chris Wi

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UK - Star Events Group, the first UK purchaser of the new CyberMotion stage automation system from XLNT's UK sales partner Lift Turn Move, has given the system a début on three weeks of BT London Live shows in Hyde Park which ended Sunday 13 August.

The systems were bought by Star Events Group which had been tasked to supply their services for the BT London Live events in a sun-drenched Hyde Park.

Fifty-one metres of CyberMotion C-Track, along with four active and two passive C-Trolleys, were used to safely lift and split a giant 144m² screen weighing 5200 kg, at Hyde Park between 28 July and 11 August 2012.

The versatile C-Track and C-Trolley wide beam track systems are part of XLNT's new CyberMotion integrated motion control system.

The screens offered thousands of spectators who visited London's Hyde Park this summer a sublime mix of live sports an

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Germany - Wireless LED system manufacturer Astera has forecast significant medium-term growth of the market that it helped to create, predicting that the demand for wireless LED products could double by 2014.

The company - which pioneered wireless LED technology in 2005 with the development of remotely-controlled LED tubes - has observed a sharp increase in the sales of its products in recent months. This, combined with a steady rise in the number of competitor firms launching development of their own wireless LED products, has led the brand to make its projections amid preparations for the forthcoming PLASA show in London next month.

Sebastian Bückle, head of international sales and marketing at Astera, commented, "We've seen something of a spike in the demand for wireless LED products of late. It's hard to talk numbers, but let's just say that the market has grown expo

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USA - Chicago-based Reed Rigging provided production rigging support and hardware for the series shooting and promotional campaign for season two of the award-winning Starz drama series Boss starring Kelsey Grammer.

Season two of Boss wrapped at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios last month and premiered last night on the Starz channel. "There's no better city in the world than Chicago," said Michael Reed, Reed Rigging's founder and owner, "to portray the ruthlessness and drama of the political machine."

Boss stars Kelsey Grammer as Chicago's fictional mayor Thomas Kane. Grammer won a Golden Globe for his portrayal. The city of Chicago provides the backdrop for this dark political drama.

"Reed Rigging is pleased and honored to be able to support the production of this show as well as to provide the rigging hardware for the menacing a

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UK - Stage Electrics has been appointed as a distributor for new British LED fixture manufacturer Lumonic. The first product launched in a planned new stable is the ilumo Zoom Led spot/wash.

Davie Bell divisional sales manager at Stage Electrics commented, "Lumonic are a new company, but their team has a huge experience of entertainment lighting and product design. Their first product in the ilumo range has a number of exciting features and superb colour mixing optics with an extremely clever Colour Crossfade Engine which means the unit can fade from one colour to another without going via intermediate colours in the palette."

Responsible for product development is Dr James Powell who is no stranger to the entertainment industry. He has developed a very powerful colour control engine for the ilumo product in addition to standard DMX control of the units colour. This

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Operatic Moves - The arm of the Royal Opera House dedicated to commissioning and producing contemporary opera and dance is to close. The company revealed it had decided not to continue with ROH2 as a distinct entity after Deborah Bull, who had creative responsibility for the strand, and Alison Duthie, the department's head, left to take up positions with King's Cultural Partners earlier this year.

Two positions from ROH2's eight-strong team have been made redundant, including that of head of opera development, a role held by John Lloyd Davies. The post of manager of the On the Road programme, which oversaw projects around the UK, has also been axed.

Following Davies' redundancy, an ROH spokeswoman said director of opera Kasper Holten would head the team responsible for new operatic work, to run in the Linbury Studio Theatre and Clore Studio - spaces traditionally associ

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Be the first in line to get 'hands on' with some exciting new technology from Roland Systems Group. Designed to give visitors to the show a truly interactive experience with live, recording and video product, five 'Hands on Live Sessions' will take place on the RSG stand each day, with up to twelve places available at each. You will have the opportunity to mix an exciting four camera shoot in HD of a live recorded band including immersive visuals on the Roland V-800HD Multi-Format Live Video Switcher as well as mix up to 40 channels of audio on the Roland M-480 Live Mixing Console.

Speaker(s):

Mike Kent from Roland Systems Group US will also be speaking live at the show and live webcast to an internet audience regarding our latest product and software launches.

Audience:

Live Audio Engineers, AV Engineers, Vision Switching / Mixing Engineers, Ren

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Japan - Martin Audio's award-winning MLA system is continuing to wow audiences in the Far East, having completed a successful tour of duty at Japan's largest festival, Rock in Japan.

Promoted by music magazine publishers, Rockin'On, and an annual event since the year 2,000, this three day extravaganza pulls over 100 of Japan's leading rock bands and artists and draws a crowd of around 60,000 daily to the venue (the Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachinaka).

Rental company, MSI Japan, who provide front line sound reinforcement for the event every year, now has the luxury of fielding the MLA for the largest of the six stages (Grass Stage) - specified by the company's president, Shuzo Fujii.

The promoters were already aware of the power of the MLA system, having experienced it on the second stage (Lake Stage) at last year's festival, where the system enjoyed its Japanese debut. Such

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UK - Billions of people worldwide watched the 2012 London Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies, where producer Danny Boyle masterfully deployed mystical elements of the gods - light, colour, and fire - in a celebration of British culture and history, depicted using a huge rig featuring all the latest in entertainment technology from around the world.

The prodigious system of LEDs, lasers, lighting, projection, audio, motion control and pyrotechnics was flawlessly controlled and synchronised over a stadium-wide network using more than eight kilometres of fibre optic cable. A significant element of the network was a system of ProPlex GBS.

"There is no greater AV event in the world than the Olympics," says Fred Morgenstern, product manager at Neutrik USA. "Every four years, Neutrik supports the games with tens of thousands of our connectors. We were delight

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From a Wobbly House to the Moon the Projection Challenges on the Olympic Ceremony

The Olympic Tender arrives and you wade through it to the Scope of Works, you bid, you win, then you discover that reality is a very different thing. Within months we are designing a system with 645 square meters of LED, 24 Dual Task Video Servers, 6 HD Camera Channels, 26 Projectors and wondering where did all this come from! Then when you think you have it all covered, the "why don't we project on this" arises, that is another 6 projectors and "what about the stage" that is another 2 projectors. Fortunately we have some of the best Engineers in the World based in Britain, who where able to turn the Dream into Reality.

Speaker(s):

Scott Burges (Director of Special Projects, Creative Technology)

Audience:

Video and Stage techno

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MIDAS would like to offer visitors the opportunity to take part in an exclusive free training course on their stand in a private air conditioned VIP room. The course will cover the operational aspects of the PRO1 and PRO2/C Live Audio Systems coupled with practical hands on sessions.

The courses will run every day between 12:00-13:00 and 16:00-17:00 on the MIDAS and KLARK TEKNIK stand 1-F19. Places are limited to 8 to 10 people per slot, so please pre - register using the form on the MIDAS website; http://www.citizen-sandbox.co.uk/midas/plasavip/

Places are available on a first come first served basis.

presented by: MIDAS
Sunday 9 September, Monday 10 September, Tuesday 11 September, Wednesday 12 September, 12.00pm - 5.00pm

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Switzerland - The train journey to the Jungfraujoch station in the Swiss Alps is one of the world's most spectacular. Stunning views from the platform, restaurants and a geological station greet visitors when they finally reach the top. And now, with the help of ETC Selador Desire LED lighting fixtures, a large section of tunnel has been turned into even more compelling tourist experience.

Up to 5,000 people visit Jungfraujoch per day, from around the world, normally leaving within an hour. Now the streams of people can explore six special attraction areas as part of a new museum-like exhibition. The new Alpine Sensation creates a 250m-long round 'experience subway,' with moving walkways transporting guests on steeper sections.

Dynamic exhibitions include A Longing for the Mountains and Construction of the Jungfrau Railway. Communications company Steiner Sarnen A

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Making it all Possible!

Large-scale events like Olympic Opening Ceremonies are at the forefront of event and entertainment technology. This session explains the integrated signal distribution and communications infrastructure that enabled the smooth execution of the London Ceremonies and shows how even small theatres and event productions can profit from these innovative approaches.

Speaker(s):

Marc Schneider (Riedel Communications' Director, Global Events)

Audience:

Consultants, technical managers, production managers, venue owners and rental companies.

presented by: Riedel
Sunday 9 September, 2.00pm - 3.00pm

To book these sessions and check out other session in the programme, please click here

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UK - A full-volume demo area dedicated to the demonstration of loudspeakers will give visitors to PLASA 2012 the chance to listen to products in a real-world environment.

"The famous Funktion One demo room has got some company at this year's show as we take over a whole new space at Earls Court for large scale demonstrations of the latest loudspeaker technology," comments event manager, Sophie Atkinson.

Martin Audio took huge strides forward with the launch of the award winning MLA System at the PLASA Show two years ago. They return this year to take over the AudioLab, on Monday 10 September.

Approaching the problem of controlled coverage in poor acoustic spaces, Martin Audio Engineers came up with the concept of OmniLine, where rather than applying DSP to a traditional column loudspeaker, OmniLine's vertical beam-forming is achieved by physically articulating indi

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UK - Two Robert Juliat Lancelot 4000W HTI followspots, supplied by exclusive UK distributor White Light, illuminated a spell-binding rainfall that fell on London's Jubilee Gardens in June.

A 'Rain of Poems' fell from a helicopter as it hovered above Jubilee Gardens for 30 minutes, distributing 100,000 bookmark-shaped poems onto large crowds as they scrambled excitedly to catch and collect them all.

The Lancelots' powerful beams swept the sky, roof tops and the magnificent London Eye, which formed the backdrop for the deluge of poetry, picking out the spinning poems from the darkness as they descended through their long shafts of light.

The event, which marked the launch of Southbank Centre's Poetry Parnassus festival, was the brainchild of Chilean art collective, Casagrande, which has created similar events in Santiago, Berlin, Guernica, Warsaw and Dubrovnik, cities which ha

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UK - On Friday the 27 of July the London 2012 Olympic Games were officially opened with a spectacular Opening Ceremony which took place in the Olympic Stadium located at the London 2012 Olympic Park. Prior to the parade of more than 200 competing nations, visitors seated in the vast stadium, which has an 80,000 person capacity, along with millions of television viewers worldwide were witnesses to 'Isles of Wonder'. A spectacular show unfolded that reflected the key themes and priorities of the London 2012 Games, based on sport, inspiration, youth and urban transformation. 'Isles of Wonder' was a Ceremony 'for everyone' that celebrated the contributions the UK has made to the world through innovation and revolution, as well as the creativity and exuberance of British people.

The show was backed up by a host of staging technologies using latest audio visual equipment. Panasonic, a

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