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UAE - Palme Middle East has announced that it will host Soundcheck, a dedicated product demo area, for the first time when the show's 2013 edition opens for trading at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre on 21-23 May.

In a dynamic response to exhibitor requests for a working environment in which to showcase their new technology, organisers Informa Exhibitions have created Soundcheck, which will be located in a purpose-built (and fully air-conditioned) temporary structure in the plaza area outside the Ibis Hotel.

Announcing the move, exhibition director, Richard Brook, said, "This will provide exhibitors, especially manufacturers and distributors of audio equipment, the opportunity to present their products in a live environment alongside the show.

"Taking this feature to a purpose-built outdoor environment means there's more flexibility for exhib

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Europe - After spending more than a year touring North America, Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour has finally touched down in Europe. After a run of nine shows at London's O2 Arena, this production, which fuses the King of Pop's greatest hits and Cirque's trademark acrobatic prowess, will then head into Europe for an extensive six-month stint, returning to the UK again in March 2013 for several shows in Manchester and Birmingham. For the whole tour, two DiGiCo SD7s are in control of everything audio at both FOH and monitor positions respectively.

"This isn't a typical monitoring position, but it's great, as I am in the perfect place to see the stage and the people," smiles monitor engineer, Renato Petruzziello, whose SD7 is positioned on the upper tier of London's O2, looking down on the stage, and boasting a panoramic view of the arena.

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UK - Preparations are now underway for the inaugural Edinburgh Guitar & Music Festival, the largest of its kind to be held in Scotland. The three-day festival takes place in Edinburgh's historic Corn Exchange from 25-27 May 2013 and aims to attract participants and visitors from all over the world with an extensive programme of performances, seminars and competitions, as well as a trade exhibition.

Performances will embrace a variety of genres and styles, featuring an international line-up of artists that includes acoustic guitar virtuoso Peter Finger from Germany, Italian fingerstyle guitarist Daniele Bazzani, swing jazz guitarist Anth Purdy and Scotland's jazz virtuoso Nigel Clark with many more to follow.

In the Festival's seminar programme, visitors can learn skills, tips and tricks from leading performers and practitioners. With something for every guitarist, sessions inc

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UK - Live Experience has announced its education programme for the 2013 exhibition featuring new theatres, influential speakers and interactive areas. The exhibition runs alongside sister show International Confex on 19th - 21st March at ExCeL, allowing for one education experience across two shows.

New areas for 2013 include Live Lounge which as well as hosting the final stages of the popular industry talent competition The Next Big Thing, will be a technology hub with demonstrations of the trends set to impact the industry in 2013 such as holographic technology.

As the social media phenomenon continues to grow, the Status Update theatre explores the latest innovations and trends, with a specific focus on how they can be maximised for the events industry.

The Brand Activation Bubble will cover all things experiential featuring headline speakers Liz Richardson, Director at C

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UK - Hertfordshire's Radlett Centre is smoothly gearing itself up for a busy autumn season after investing in a Unitrack system from pioneering entertainment engineers at Triple E.

The venue - which provides theatre, art and music, and kids' entertainment in affluent Radlett - upgraded to Triple E's Unitrack following seven years of using outdated standard theatre tracks.

"The tracks we were using were bolted together with small nuts and bolts making them time consuming to change and move, the bobbins tended to get jammed in the joints and the whole thing was pretty unreliable," says the Radlett Centre's Myles Robinson. "I instantly saw the benefits of the Triple E track design: quick to assemble and dismantle, quick to move the entire track using G clamps to rig it rather than fixed bolts as with our old track; the joints are less of an issue due to the sturdy

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UK - Buckinghamshire-based live event technical solutions provider, Universal Event Productions (UEP) has made a major investment in new 12 mm pitch LED screen.

UEP already stocks its own 40 mm and 18 mm LED screen products which are used extensively on a whole variety of shows, which include live events, brand experiences, corporate presentations and conferences, awards shows, concerts and live music.

UEP's Steve Butcher says, "We wanted something that offered a higher resolution but that also complimented our existing ranges, and above all something that was versatile, lightweight, quick to assemble and generally user-friendly."

The initial purchase is of 60 tiles / 30sq.m of the bespoke screen that has been specially developed for UEP.

Devon based drapes, soft goods and LED specialist S+H Technical Support has also purchased a quantity of the same 12 mm screen

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Australia - Stage Technologies has increased its Australian rentals presence substantially with two major projects. Saturday's official opening of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney marks Stage Technologies' second rental in Australia in as many months. The company also provided an automation system on Legally Blonde, currently playing at Sydney's Lyric Theatre.

Having automated the shows in London's West End and on tour, Stage Technologies has designed rental automation systems that allow both productions to repeat the magic for Australian audiences.

Before landing in Oz, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ran at the London Palladium from April 2002 to September 2005, and was followed by tours in the UK and internationally. Stage Technologies designed a sophisticated automation and control system to cover everything from simple scenery moves an

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Russia - Set up in 1957, the Rostov State Circus, based in the southern Russian city of Rostov-na-Donu, has numerous circus troupes and shows.

Recently, they decided to illuminate one of these international programmes, Dreams of Egypt, with PR Lighting fixtures, having first started using the Chinese company's effects - supplied by Russian distributors, Asia Trade Music - in Autumn 2011.

The company's Rostislav Serishev explained that the circus owns all its own equipment - including PR Lighting discharge and LED heads. "They have been using 12 of the XL 700E and XLED590s on this show, and are so delighted with the effects that they will now be buying a further four of each," he confirmed.

The XL 700E has proved popular with customers around the world, using a 700W short arc discharge lamp, and optimising its full feature set thanks to an advanced optical pa

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UK - Forward-thinking problem solving theatre design consultancy Charcoalblue has provided full planning, technical systems design service and business planning for one of the most up to date, technically sophisticated UK training facilities for the entertainment industry.

The Charcoalblue team has used its hands on theatre and training talents to help develop The National Skills Academy (NSA) in Thurrock, Thames Gateway, which delivers industry-endorsed training for young people and professionals as well as a national centre, rehearsal and administrative space.

The £13m scheme is currently supported by more than120 leading employers working in the theatre and 'live' music industries and signifies an ambitious vision to provide world-class training for the world's greatest stages.

Charcoalblue's responsibilities included developing alternative master-planning proposals

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UK - In an agreement that celebrates a melding of technology, people and shared values, Autograph Sales & Installations has announced a new collaboration with the Barbican.

Located in the heart of the City Of London and opened in 1982, the Grade II listed Barbican complex comprises a large concert hall, two theatres, a cinema, two art galleries, a library, a roof top tropical conservatory, three restaurants and numerous public foyers and spaces.

Referred to by the Guardian as 'A building where there is always something rich and strange going on', the Barbican is Europe's largest multi-arts and conference venue presenting a diverse range of art, music, theatre, dance, film and creative learning events. It is also home to the London Symphony Orchestra.

The association between Autograph Sales & Installations and the Barbican dates back some years, and includes the installation

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Taiwan - The Buddha Memorial Centreof Taiwan's Kaohsiung City is a symbol of tranquility and spiritual exploration. As a meeting place for Buddhists from around the world, the memorial centre must be prepared to host any number of events. Covering more than one thousand hectares, the Centre faces east and is built along a central axial line. It consists of a Welcoming hall, eight Chinese styled pagodas that stand for the Noble Eightfold Path, photo terrace, Bodhi square, Memorial hall, four stupas that symbolize the four noble truths and the Fo Guang Buddha.

"It is not an easy task for us to find a system that can meet our requirements, as we launch a wide variety of activities in the hall such as seminars, conferences or concerts," explains Master Miao Zhi, who works with the Memorial Centre. "The Grand Enlightenment Auditorium (GEA) alone covers around six hundr

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France - The largest MLA Compact rig to date made its French debut at the Paris Bercy recently, when a capacity 17,000 crowd attended a six-hour marathon concert, called La Nuit de l'Outremer (the Overseas Night).

This technical deployment could hardly have provided a more exacting challenge for production company Franck Sono, who have become the first French customer for the new MLA Compact Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array, by investing in a System 36.

This French Caribbean festival saw the appearance of a succession of artists highly popular in the black community, including Admiral T, Kreyol La, Akiyo, Daly, Esy Kennenga, Desiré François, Stony, Princess Lover, Jean-Marie Ragald, Tanya St Val, Jean-Marc Ferdinand, Daddy Yod, Tiwony and many others.

Since Franck Sono wanted to achieve coverage over the vast space without setting up delay points, they rigged

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Hungary - One of the largest contingents of pro audio professionals working across Eastern Europe assembled in Budapest recently for a Martin Audio MLA and MLA Compact system presentation.

Earlier this year the manufacturer had hosted a customer convention for MLA at Wembley Arena before formally launching the MLA Compact with an event at The Apollo, Hammersmith. And it was the success of these events that Martin Audio recaptured by rolling both events into a single day at the 17,000 capacity Papp László Budapest Sportaréna in Hungary for the benefit of the East European technical community.

The event was hosted by Martin Audio's territory distributors, RMS Audio, run by Tibor Kiss and Gergo Szentivanyi, and was supported by Martin Audio's top brass - headed by MD Anthony Taylor, and including Simon Bull, Jason Baird and export sales manager, Martin Kelly, who is resp

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UK - The new Dolby Atmos implants cinema into a more natural and realistic sound field - providing total immersion for the audience and transporting them into the story with a lifelike sensory experience.

Supporting this dynamic shift in audio, which reinvents the traditional surround sound methodology by offering a new 'objects based' (rather than channel) concept have been Harman JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown Audio amplification and network technologies, which are already declaring themselves Dolby Atmos ready.

Supplied by Bell Theatre Services Ltd, Dolby Atmos solutions, consisting of multiples of Harman's JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers, are already being installed at key sites in the UK with Dolby overseeing the installations.

Two of Dolby's own facilities have been equipped - Screen 1 at Royal Wootton Bassett and the Ray Dolby Theatre at the company's new

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UK - Strictly Come Dancing decamped to Wembley Arena for the second year running during Children In Need weekend. LD Mark Kenyon reports, "Having an extra two load-in days provided more time to set up, rehearse and fine tune the look for each individual dance act."

Last time round crew chief Joe Sherno and his six man team performed miracles to have all the lighting set up in under two days. This time they had an extra couple of days on site and also spent several days prepping gear at ELPs main distribution warehouse in Alconburry before load-in. Shemo worked closely with ELP project manager Barry Denison on the technical drawings and specifying a vast amount of ELP truss for the job.

"There were 850 lighting fixtures on this year's Wembley show. That's about 50 more than last time round." calculates Denison. "The main difference on this produc

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USA - Sinsinawa is a Native American term for 'rattlesnake' or 'home of the young eagle'. But Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin is better known as the home of the Congregation of Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters. Since 1847, more than 3,200 women have ascended the Hill of Grace to take their vows as Sinsinawa Dominicans. Today the village is still home to their worldwide headquarters, including more than 600 current and retired sisters of the Order.

In 1964 the campus, with its 1850s-vintage fort, was expanded with the construction of an 800-seat crown chapel, replete with massive 45-foot dome and transept wings. The building's marble and plaster interior creates an acoustical environment that works magnificently to enhance the Order's celebrated pipe organ. But as their needs have changed over time, those same acoustics have created a whole new set of challenges.

"It's a beautiful f

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UK - XL Video, commissioned by Limited Edition Events, recently supplied 300 tiles of their bright and vibrant Pixled F-12 LED for the Royal Premiere of the new James Bond film, Skyfall.

The star-studded red carpet event, held at London's Royal Albert Hall, was attended by HRH Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and the stars of the film along with a host of other celebrity guests.

After attendees arrived on the red carpet and ascended the stairs towards the Royal Albert Hall they were met with the sight of the classic Aston Martin DB5 with a backdrop of 75 tiles of Pixled F-12.

This stage was used for interviews with the stars of the film hosted by David Walliams and Natasha Kaplinski.

To the right and left of the stage two additional tall LED displays, each with 141 tiles of Pixled F-12 displayed pre-programmed content including movie logo animations, and phot

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UK - Live music events at Epsom Downs, Kempton Park and Sandown Park Racecourses over the summer of 2012 drew collective crowds of over 73,000 people, according to figures released by the three London venues.

All 15 racecourses in the Jockey Club Venues portfolio hosted live music nights between July and October 2012; the format offered entertainment for avid race-goers and keen music fans, with live horse racing preceding music performances.

Over the three-month period, stars including Olly Murs, Will Young and Alfie Boe were the highlight of the racecourses' live music season, with Sir Tom Jones and Jessie J (who both performed at Sandown Park Racecourse) proving to be the most effectual for pulling in the crowds. Total attendance for the Tom Jones Music Night on 18 July 2012 stands at 11,933 fans, while Jessie J drew crowds of 16,057.

Simon Kershaw, commercial director at

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UK - Ice Age Live, a new stage adaptation based on the characters of the four hugely successful Ice Age animated movies, features Robe's powerful Robin LEDWash 1200 moving lights which were specified by lighting designer Luc Peumans.

Peumans' creative lighting and visual design practice Painting With Light is based in Genk, Belgium. The show has just premiered in London and embarks on a five year international tour, produced by Netherlands based Stage Entertainment Touring Productions.

Peumans was commissioned to create the lighting design having worked on previous Stage Entertainment projects including Holiday on Ice. He worked closely with others on the visual team including set designer David Shields and video and motion graphics creator, Jean Luc Gason.

Last year, during a lighting upgrade for Holiday on Ice's 'Speed' show, he specified Robe's LEDWash 600s for the

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UK - Key members of the Swedish House Mafia (SHM) crew are moving with the groove and becoming Movember Mo Bros, sprouting creative, wacky and wild selections of facial hair in the process of cultivating of eclectic array of moustaches to raise money for the Movember men's health awareness initiative.

The point of Movember is to have fun, raise money and get people talking about the often overlooked issue of men's health, specifically in relation to prostrate and testicular cancer.

The eight-strong SHM Movember team were energised by tour manager Michael 'Curly' Jobson, whose attention was drawn to the issues when his father in law was diagnosed with prostate cancer - the most common cancer in men in the UK.

Joining Curly as Mo Bros are lighting designer Ian Tomlinson, FOH engineer Wayne 'Rabbit' Sargent, monitor engineer Carlos Herreros, production manager Mark Reuben, adva

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Sweden - Covering 1080 acres across four adjacent skiing areas, Sweden's Åre ski resort is not just one of the largest in Scandinavia, but in 2009 was judged the best in the world by Conde Nast Traveller magazine. A recently completed major upgrade of the resort included the installation of some 240 luminaires on a 3.5km ski run, enabling longer opening hours in the depths of winter and so boosting revenue.

The lighting is designed to attract more visitors, creating an experience unlike any other ski run and appealing to skiers of all ages and abilities. Controlled via DMX by a network of six Pharos LPC1s and a Touch Panel Controller, the light intensities and colours of the IP-66 rated Lumenbeam family luminaires can be modified along the route of the ski slope. Both the luminaires and the control system had to be rugged enough to withstand the tough weather conditions and fre

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Kuwait - Optocore network units played a key role in Kuwait's 50th Constitution Day celebration which took place recently along nearly 5km of beach in the heart of Kuwait City. The final act of the show lasted almost an hour, with a total of 77,282 fireworks, which broke the Guinness World Record for the largest fireworks display ever.

French-based rental company, Gilles Bouvard Events and Entertainment (GB4D) was contracted by the Kuwaiti government to deliver the audio and lighting system as well as video transport for one of the largest shows ever staged in the Middle East. The biggest challenge facing GB4D was the coverage distance along the beach and the associated problems posed by a sand and water environment.

Since production had stipulated that sound and light needed to be delivered to any point along the beach, the obvious solution was to use an Optocore redundant fi

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Czech Republic - As plans advance for Showlight 2013, more top line companies are signing up as exhibitors and sponsors at Showlight 2013.

With just six months to go before this quadrennial event opens in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, manufacturers and distributors alike are looking to take advantage of three days during which they will meet and socialise with many of the world's leading lighting designers.

Showlight is unique in that speakers, delegates and exhibitors mingle throughout the three days of the event - during the paper presentations, at tea and coffee breaks, over meals and during the visits programme - allowing plenty of time for discussion and exchange of ideas.

Durham Marenghi, who is presenting a paper on this year's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, says, "No matter how much you think you know, there's always something to be learned

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UK - Those walking down Store Street in the forthcoming weeks are in for a visual treat. Every year, Imagination demonstrates the agency's creativity and flare by transforming the building's imposing edifice into a tribute to the festive season.

This year, the lighting team looked to the past for inspiration, choosing to create a giant wreath complete with blue ribbon. The classic design is made from a large circular truss packed with real trees adorned with more than 3000 tungsten lights. Behind the design, the red brick Imagination building is lit a deep magenta colour, proving a warm background glow which complements the elegant motif.

Unlike many of the lighting displays that appear at this time of year, Imagination's efforts are always privately funded and created using lights already existing in Imagination's stores. This allows Imagination's lights to be a true manifest

  1. The Week in Lighting & Sound
  2. Robe at the 2012 Australian Motor Show
  3. James River Assembly upgrades with Outline
  4. Meyer Sound MINA reinforces Kutless tour
  5. Dimatec invests in Philips Selecon LED luminaires
  6. Sharpys showcase Saatchi spectacular
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