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South Africa - Carefully orchestrated from the invitations to the final classical rock production, the EOH Spring Ball was an outstanding banquet held at the Sandton Convention Centre's Pavilion Venue in Sandton. For the second consecutive year, AVL Productions supplied the technical including set and AV content while Keystone Productions provided the lighting requirements including 16 Philips Vari-Lite VLX fixtures.

Johannesburg based EOH, who provide business and technical solutions and systems, annually host a Spring Ball for their valued staff and clients. Sam McGrath from Jam Events was pivotal in putting it together and featured songs of Queen with a classical twist.

The master of ceremonies was South African Idols judge, Randall Abraham. The performers were outstanding and included Joseph Clark who does a remarkable impression of Freddie Mercury, Lauren Laing and

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Europe - Touring a mixture of arenas and stadiums in Europe and North America since the later part of 2011, Coldplay's desire to get close to their fans in such large venues could have caused a number of problems for their wireless monitor systems.

The shows are performed on a main stage with a centre runway projecting out and ending in a second, smaller 'B' stage. In addition there is also a C stage at the back of the arena, right amongst the audience. The entire band wears Sennheiser 2000 series in-ear monitors (IEMs) and in arenas all three stages are usually coverable from the main stage RF equipment. But when comes to stadiums, this hasn't always been possible.

"In stadiums, the 'C' stage is usually at the opposite end of the pitch to the main stage. This, along with location specific radio pollution, meant we needed to come up with a solution for local RF transmissi

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World - Madonna's MDNA Tour currently wowing sold out stadiums and arenas across several continents features 11 musicians, 22 dancers, multiple costume changes, ground breaking graphics and an audio system that includes two DiGiCo SD7s at Front of House and another on monitors.

The SD7 is a step up for monitor engineers Matt Napier and Sean Speuhler, who were using a D5T on Madonna's previous Sticky & Sweet Tour.

"There are two of us because Sean exclusively mixes Madonna's vocals and her vocal effects, all of which she insists be done live," Napiert explains. "We effectively share the console - I use the SD7's control surface and Sean uses an EX-007 expander unit to mix on."

In total the SD7 has 114 inputs coming in from the stage rack. including effects, Napier is using 100 channels, with Sean using over 30 more.

"I think the SD7 is

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UK - Bristol's historic Theatre Royal has reopened its newly refurbished auditorium to rapturous applause following a £12m redevelopment, which drew on the expertise of design consultancy Charcoalblue LLP.

The Grade I-listed 1780s Georgian theatre, which is home to Bristol Old Vic, has been sensitively refurbished to upgrade and install modern technology into the original auditorium.

A major element of the brief for the works was to provide up-to-date technology, comfort and improved sightlines whilst working around the original timber structure and delicate plasterwork.

Charcoalblue's work on the theatre involved designing new technical systems, significant refurbishment of the scenery flying system, replacement of the stage grid, new architecturally-integrated lighting positions in the auditorium, completely new lighting and sound installations and new technical cont

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UK - XL Events provided audio and projection in a very neatly tailored technical package for a recent UK Roadshow presented by the Port of Felixstowe.

XL was working for London based production company Lodestar, and their project manager was Rich Pow. The brief included providing rear projection and control for the Keynote presentation plus a short concluding video, together with a full sound system and radio mics for the presentation speakers.

The Roadshow was specially tailored to an exclusive audience of around 70 key clients in each city. It highlighted the many facilities, advanced technology and excellent transportation links offered by Felixstowe - 'Port of Britain', one of the UK's leading and busiest container ports.

The clean, contemporary, aesthetically pleasing setting for the event was designed to be installed in a few hours by two XL Events crew and others, and

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Iceland - Staff members at the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Reykjavik rely on Clear-Com's Eclipse digital matrix system and FreeSpeak wireless intercom to help coordinate their avant-garde productions, which involve famous musicians and cultural icons. Installed by Exton, a full-service sales and rental company, the Clear-Com intercoms ensure reliable interconnection among highly productive and collaborative staff members and offer flexibility for adapting to shifting production needs.

Clear-Com's intercom systems enabled the production team to communicate across multiple spaces within the brand new Harpa facility, including one main concert hall and three additional multipurpose rooms, which are reserved for musical events, international conferences, conventions and meetings.

A 48-port Eclipse-Median digital matrix was seamlessly integrated with 22 FreeSpeak di

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South Africa - Philips Selecon is to sponsor this year's Stage Lighting Master Class (SLMC) event in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Grant Bales-Smith, sales manager for Strand Selecon Europe, will join event host and international lighting designer, Declan Randall, South African lighting designer Mannie Manim with renowned New York-based lighting designer Richard Pilbrow completing the expert panel.

The two-day event, due to take place on 27-28 September in Johannesburg and 2-3 October in Cape Town, will celebrate the art and craft of stage lighting.

SLMC, which was first held in 2001 and then again in 2004 and 2007, returns this year with a number of interesting and informative seminar sessions as Randall explains. "This year the event will focus on new lighting technologies, including LED and energy efficient lighting design. I think that it's important that we embrace thi

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Canada - The Quartier des Spectacles is a roughly 1 square kilometer area downtown of Montreal. This area of the city had historically been filled with theatres and cabarets, but in the last 40 years, it had fallen into blight and become an unfavourable, and sometimes dangerous, area of the city. The Quartier des Spectacles Partnership was formed in 2003 to revitalise this once vibrant cultural heart of Montreal. Now, it is the home of not only theatres and cabarets, but restaurants, shopping centres, and many outdoor music and art festivals every year.

Eight main sites and many more to come have transformed buildings into canvases for architectural projection artwork. One of the rules of the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership is that the artistic projects should only be used for public art, not for commercialism, so advertising and logos are not allowed as part of the building

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UK - Auralisation - designing with sound will be the theme of this year's Reproduced Sound conference, which takes place on 14-16 November at the Thistle Hotel, Brighton.

Paul Malpas, event chairman, said, "Having explored the role of the audio and electro acoustic specialist within the context of the project, we will spend time this year considering the opportunities that auralisation techniques offer to the task of representing sound in the design of buildings and systems.

"Whether the end product is a piece of technology or an architectural statement, we all know the importance of what we hear and how that contributes to the broader success of the project or product. However, it is our colleagues and clients who need to be convinced, and sometimes numbers just don't tell the right story.

"Following in the same year as the 4th International Symposium

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Germany - Frankfurt University is currently halfway through a major and ambitious renovation, which is set to increase its student capacity from 10,000 to 45,000 by 2014.

Consultants Detlef Hartmann and Stephan Mathias (of the Hartmann & Mathias Partnership) were given the challenging brief of designing and implementing a high quality AV solution that would allow both faculty and students access to a full range of media, including recording, at the University's Reidberg and Westend campuses.

Both campuses were equipped with a 10 Gig fibre-optic network backbone, and up to 96 audio channels would be required for a single location on campus - that number would increase to several hundred for the campus as a whole. On top of this, the audio had to be matrixed with video distribution hardware, therefore a flexible solution that could deal with a mix of analogue and digital I/O was

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UK - Nick Gray, from London based visual design practice Renegade created a stunning 50m long video sculpture for the entranceway of the 2012 100% Design exhibition at Earls Court.

The innovative work, which resembled an intricate DNA wire-frame structure in architecture and appearance was fed with video content from a media server, and amazed anyone entering the exhibition, drawing people into a completely immersive experience.

Gray was asked to create the piece by Media Ten, the new producers of 100% Design, and worked directly for Studio Design who co-ordinated the various art installations in and around the exhibition space.

Gray took a visual brief from Studio Design and based the sculpture on a fusion of graphic design and promotional artwork produced for 100% Design 2012.

He commissioned scenic specialists Firecracker Works to collaborate in realising the project, a

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China - Music Group founder and CEO Uli Behringer has revealed the company's plans to construct a massive new campus that will house its operations in China.

Modelled on the corporate campus typical of Silicon Valley, the sprawling 50-acre complex will include R&D, manufacturing, a residential village and "abundant green space cultivated around the site's natural wetlands" and is to be completed by 2014. The investment comes at a time when the company's current Music Group City site is stretched to capacity with overwhelming demand for new products, including the l X32 Digital Mixer.

"It is my distinct pleasure to announce the fulfilment of a major objective of our group today with the start of this incredible undertaking," announced Uli Behringer to the gathered employees and dignitaries. "This new home will bring together our people from several diff

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USA - LSC Lighting Systems has opened a fully-staffed office in the United States of America. The move is a step in its on-going commitment to customer support from both a sales and technical perspective demanded by this vital market sector, says the company.

Based in Knoxville Tennessee the office will be headed up by well-known industry icon Rob Steel. "Most people will know Rob from his days running Avolites America and his industry knowledge and experience as well as his impeccable reputation are widely known," says LSC.

Rob commented, "I am so excited to be involved with LSC. I have had dealings with them in the past and have found them to be a great bunch of guys with a fantastic product range. They have been manufacturing products for the industry for the last 30+ years and selling those products worldwide. That experience shows in their product designs a

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South Africa - Johannesburg- based rental company AV Unlimited supplied full technical production to show producers VWV for the finale of the recent Red Bull Beat battle competition.

This was staged at the Bassline, downtown Johannesburg's hottest live music venue, right in the heart of the City's buzzing Newtown district, with eight top dance crews battling it out for the title, and Robe LEDBeam 100s providing a perfect lightweight lighting effects solution.

Several challenges faced the technical production. One was a very low weight loading in the venue's roof - and another was delivering the high show production values demanded by one of the world's leading brands - in a relatively tight space.

Robe's new Robin 100 LEDBeams were a complete winner with their ultra light weight, power, intensity and wide array of eye-catching effects.

AV Unlimited's technical production m

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Lebanon - Lebanon's latest hotspot is called Veer, a luxurious boutique hotel and resort, which opened recently in the region of Kaslik north of Beirut. This exclusive complex beside the beach of Zouk Mikael offers visitors not only exquisitely furnished rooms but also villas, apartments, and even underwater suites.

The client demanded a high-end solution for every component of the project, and that is exactly what the client received. The invitation to tender stipulated that the audio system be suitable for all eventualities, from the provision of quiet background music to catering for DJ sets and even live concerts, with audio inputs as well as outputs distributed throughout the entire complex. In the fierce competition, Electro-Voice's distribution partner AMAC was able to prevail and secure the contract for this prestigious project.

"Absolutely everyone fought for thi

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Russia - French tenor Roberto Alagna recently opened the second International Kazan Autumn Opera Festival with a stunning performance alongside Bolshoi Theatre soloist Venera Gimadieva, accompanied by the Tatarstan state symphony orchestra conducted by Alexander Sladkovsy.

Held against the impressive backdrop of the Kazan Agriculturalists Palace, thousands of spectators braved the rain to enjoy what turned out to be a wonderful event, despite the inclement weather conditions. Innovason distributor Imlight (who also have a rental division) were charged with handling the AV requirements. At the heart of the PA system was an Eclipse GT digital mixing console handling the FoH mix.

FoH engineer Vladimir Ryabenko, who was employed at the behest of conductor Alexander Sladkovsky to mix the orchestra, first came across the Eclipse in at the recent Szgezed festival in Hungary, where he

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France - SIEL 2013 is scheduled for Monday 4 to Wednesday 6 February 2013 at the Grande Halle de la Villette - Paris.

SIEL is a showcase for 'products' but it is also the coming together of an entire profession in all its business sectors - audio, lighting, video, special effects and stage equipment.

The event features 11 demonstration workshops, four classrooms for training sessions and nine Lighting Showrooms for checking out lighting effects. Confirmed exhibitors include Chromlech, Soundcraft, JBL, Sennheiser, Yamaha, Robert Juliat, Clay Paky and more.

For the second consecutive year, innovations will be rewarded with an 'Etoile du Siel' prize by a jury of experts.

A friendly, convivial gathering is promised, and the opportunity to meet and talk in a setting that is unanimously popular.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Visual Connection (VCL) has announced it is expanding its operation with a move to new premises in Butler Works, Lancaster, UK. VCL supplies specialist lighting and media equipment, as well as being a leading designer and installer of visual technology for its entertainment clients all over the world, including cruise lines, TV networks and stage shows.

VCL will be relocating to share office and workshop space at Mainstage Ltd, cementing its long-standing relationship with the firm, one of the UK's foremost suppliers of stage equipment and effects.

The two companies have already worked together extensively, collaborating on projects for existing VCL clients, with Mainstage engineers building bespoke equipment to VCL specifications for cruise client Holland America Line. With VCL's move, the two firms look forward to working on future projects where clients can benefit fro

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France - For the sixth consecutive year, French rental company, Polygone Equipement provided production support for the Foire de Douai at the Gayant Expo.

The 68th edition was held at the beginning of September, and inside Hall 3000 (at the Carré Brasserie) Polygone provided a premium RCF TTL-33A line array system for 10 nights of performance - commencing with Italian legend, Umberto Tozzi.

Polygone Equipement has been using RCF solutions for 30 years and managing director Ge?rard Coucke has enjoyed a passionate relationship with the brand throughout that period. "We were RCF's first pro partner for France back in 2006 - and probably the first in Europe - with our investment in TTL33-A line array and TTS28A subwoofers," he states.

"In 2011, we added the big TTL55-A and TTS56-A- and are presently thinking about adding to this system."

To cover a s

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USA - For Mike Ross, creative arts director at The Pointe Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, choosing the right audio equipment is an important part of his mission. In addition to great sound quality, Ross requires solutions that are flexible, reliable and easy for multiple singers, musicians, pastors and volunteers to use. With Line 6 microphones and digital instrument wireless systems, Ross and his team experience the hassle-free setup and crystal-clear audio they need to stay on message.

Ross' first exposure to Line 6 digital wireless was the Relay G50 instrument system, which he has been using for two years now. "It started with a demo," he recalls. "I was blown away by the accuracy of the sound. I got one immediately, and my bass player and second guitarist got Relay G30 systems. Not long after that, Line 6 introduced their wireless microphones, first the XD-V70

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UK - The festival season drew to a close recently after a disastrous summer when many of the major festivals were cancelled due to the terrible weather. Luckily the rain stayed away for the final two major events in London's Hyde Park- the Proms in the Park and Radio Two's Festival in a Day.

Blinding Light Ltd, based in Reading, was chosen to supply lighting for both events. Part of the requirement was to light the huge windows in the Proms set. For this, they used 32 of MilTec's LEDHead Batten2 units (two mounted in the base of each window). Fitted with 18x 8W quadcolour LEDs and Powercon mains connectors and weighing only 6kg each, they proved a very effective yet lightweight and low powered solution.

Tony Hall, Blinding Lights' lighting designer commented, "The MilTec battens have proved to be extremely reliable, and pack a great punch for their size. I was extremely p

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UAE - After initial enquiries and a visit to the PLASA trade show in London in September, Dubai-based event production supplier Eclipse has made an investment in the new Martin Professional MAC Viper Profile, winner of a PLASA Innovation Award.

Eclipse is the first in the Middle East to purchase the Vipers and are confident they will become a sought after item by event organisers and promoters.

The purchase of the Vipers increases the already large range of Martin lighting stocked by Eclipse which includes the MAC Aura, MAC 2000 Profile and Wash, MAC 301 Wash, MAC 401, MAC 700 Profile and Wash, Atomic 3000 strobes, Atomic Colors scrollers and popular Martin LC Plus LED screens.

Nour Assafiri, CEO of Martin Professional Middle East, says: "Martin Professional UAE LLC started collaborating with Eclipse since it was first launched in the UAE. The Eclipse team is known for

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UK - West Midlands- based technical solutions provider Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supplied a lighting and camera/visuals/projection package for the 2012 Boomtown Fair's Lion's Den Stage.

The event was staged at Matterley Bowl near Winchester - a location kept secret until the last possible minute - all part of the boutique style festival's aura of anticipation and surprise.

The Lion's Den was a large tented arena with a capacity of nearly 5300, supplied by A&J Big tops. Line up wise, it featured the very best of reggae, roots dancehall and dub music and culture all under one roof.

The eye-catching lighting for Lion's Den was designed by Rob Barnaville together with CPL's project managers Nick Diacre and Jimmy Smith. It was based around maximising all the available stage space and the variable headroom, providing eye-catching and 'buskable' lighting.

The look and style

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UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of Shure microphones and audio electronics in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman have recently obtained Axient certification for the region. As part of a regional distributor certification programme hosted in Dubai by Shure EMEA, distributors from South Africa, Turkey and Russia participated in a two day program which covered technical and sales oriented training for the new ground breaking Axient Wireless System from Shure.

NMK took the opportunity to immediately introduce Axient to the UAE market by holding very first Axient Preview Event in Middle East to customers from across the country that included professionals from the installation, live sound and broadcast markets.

"NMK is proud to finally be Axient certified, we look forward to carrying out further demonstrations of the power of this

  1. Small digiFLEX fits Squarepusher
  2. d&b V-Series on debut in Japan
  3. Robert Juliat launches new web site
  4. XL Video on The xx 2012 world tour
  5. UEP establishes sales division
  6. Taiwan's Novel Hall selects ETC lighting
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