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UK - When BBC One's The One Show was chosen to launch the BBC One Christmas line-up, they commissioned arts and technology collective seeper to produce a large scale projection on to the front of the BBC.

The projection was used to map seeper's specially-produced promo film of the BBC's upcoming Christmas shows including Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who, Miranda, and EastEnders on to the building in Wood Lane, west London.

In the weeks running up to the launch, seeper brought in XL Events to specify and supply the projection element of the project. Several meetings and site visits were required to select the most effective placement for the projectors.

With companies such as Network Rail and Marks and Spencer in the close vicinity, great consideration was taken as to how the rigging of the projectors would affect the neighbours of the chos

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USA / Europe - 2012 has been a banner year for the Meyer Sound MINA line array loudspeaker, the smallest and youngest member of the MILO family line array loudspeakers, the company reports. Dozens of new installations in small- to medium- sized theatres have come online around the world, and MINA's exceptional power-to-size ratio has made it a highly adaptable workhorse for Meyer Sound rental companies in a range of applications.

European AV companies including PRG, POOLgroup, Creative Technology Germany, Dushow, and Blue Noise have deployed MINA as the main, front-fill, side-fill, and under-balcony systems in their work of all genres and scales. To name a few examples, MINA has been used during an auto show in Paris, symphonic showcases, a soccer season opening, numerous corporate events, and on tour with Udo Jürgens and Michel Sardou.

In North America, MINA provided support

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Australia - Music Group has announced the appointment of Galactic Music as their distributor for Behringer, Bugera and Eurocom products in Australia. Effective immediately Galactic will assume all responsibility for sales, distribution and service to a network of dealers across the country. In order to better serve their dealers, as of 14 January, 2013 Galactic will relocate to larger premises in Melbourne.

"We remain fully committed to providing our customers in Australia with outstanding service and support, and the appointment of Galactic Music will allow us to provide a 'best practice' customer experience," commented Music Group's VP of sales David O'Kelly. "Having served the Australian market directly for the past decade, we want to ensure the smoothest possible transition; and with Galactic we feel we have made the very best choice of successor."

Gene

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Slovenia - Slovenia welcomed the 2012 Festive season in huge style at the Red XMas Party, the country's largest and hottest dance event, headlined by Armin Van Buuren, staged at the Arena Stožice, Ljubljana by Black Pony Entertainment and enjoyed by 12,000 wildly enthusiastic fans.

At the core of the lighting rig - a design based on a plot by Van Buuren's LD André Beekmans, and operated by Michael Seeverens both from Dutch based company The Art Of Light - were 70 Robe moving lights supplied by Slovenia's largest lighting rental company, Event Lighting.

The Robes were positioned all over a series of 12 trusses hung above the stage and comprised Robe Robin 600 LEDWashes, Robin 600 Spots and ColorSpot 1200E ATs.

As well as forming a dynamic nucleus for Van Buuren's high energy set, they were the workhorse lights for the other DJs in the eight hours of non-stop performan

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USA - Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures are living up to the name of Kelly Clarkson's Stronger Tour with their punchy performance on the road. "With their very bright concentrated beam and fast effects, the Sharpys hold their own for such a little light," reports lighting designer Roy Bennet. "They really add another layer to the picture."

Clarkson has been headlining her fourth tour in support of her latest studio album, also called Stronger. She has played dates in North America, Europe and Australia.

Bennet equally divides his complement of Sharpys in the air and on the floor upstage in vertical racks. "I use them primarily for effects," he says. "I key people with them to play around with the prism and the frost, which is an interesting effect on people. The overall look of the show is very clean; there are a lot of soft goods on th

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USA - California's San Mateo Union High Schools District is currently in the process of remodelling - and, in some instances, totally replacing - the theatres of six of its high schools: Aragon, Burlingame, Capuchino, Hillsdale, Mills, and the flagship San Mateo location. Theatre consulting for each of the venues was provided by San Francisco's Shalleck Collaborative, which specified L-Acoustics loudspeaker systems throughout.

Two of the projects - the new 614-capacity Aragon venue and refurbished 90-year-old Burlingame space with 593 seats and reopened balcony - have already now been completed. Both rooms feature left and right arrays comprised of six Kiva elements flown beneath a single SB18 and driven by LA4 amplified controllers.

The remaining four theatres are all scheduled for completion prior to the start of the 2013-14 school year. Two of the schools boast nearly 800 s

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USA - For the upcoming January sweeps of ABC's new hit series Nashville, fading country star Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) and rising country ingénue, Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) find themselves on a co-headlining stadium tour.

Since Bandit Lites provides concert lighting for some of country music's biggest stars, including Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, it made sense that the producers of Nashville trusted Bandit Lites to provide the rig used at the Bridgestone Arena for the country rivals' concert.

Earlier episodes took place at The Grand Ole Opry, country music's most famous stage, and the historic Ryman Auditorium. Bandit provided both venues with permanent installation systems and fixture packages for their in-house lighting systems.

Viewers will have to wait until the show returns 9 J

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UK - London-based projection artist Ross Ashton, returned to Gateshead's Saltwell Park for the Enchanted Parks 2012 event, with a large format show Glass House celebrating the work of Victorian stained glass artist, William Wailes.

The six and a half minute piece was projected on to the front face of Saltwell Towers, Wailes' magnificent former home in the grounds of the Park, and ran every evening for the duration of the after dark experience.

It was accompanied by a soundscape created by Karen Monid and the whole work was designed from the start as an integral visual and audio narrative.

A single PIGI 6Kw projector with a double rotating scroller was used to project the images, fitted with a 25cm lens and located 35 metres away producing a 20 metre wide picture.

Challenging environmental conditions included temperatures down to -5ºC and 15 cm of snow on the ground

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China - Recording at high altitudes is not something most sound engineers tackle every day, so when Danish producer and engineer Hans Nielsen, of Focus Recording Studios, was asked to record a choir of 500 monks in a Chinese temple that was over 4,000m above sea level, he knew he would need a very resilient microphone to cope with the challenging conditions.

"I've always been a big fan of DPA Microphones and have used them regularly for over 25 years," Nielsen says. "When I realised this project involved recording at high altitude I knew I had to take my DPA microphones with me because they were the only mics I could rely on to capture the high quality sound I wanted in such extreme conditions."

Hans Nielsen was recording the album with internationally acclaimed folk singer and song writer Sa Ding Ding. A mix of Han and Mongol ancestry, Sa Ding Ding sings i

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Australia - As the big international acts start to head down under for the busy summer season there is one thing many of them have in common - Vari*Lites.

Elton John's lighting designer Kevin 'Stick' Bye, a former Vari-Lite technician, prefers to use Vari-Lites and for this run he preferred to have around 52 VL3000 and 12 VL2000 washes. Lighting was supplied by PRG.

Nickleback's lighting designer Butch Allen also used PRG's Vari-Lite 3000 fixtures as well as six VL2500 washes with Chris Maeder in control.

The most talked about concert was Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto World Tour where lighting designer Paul Normandale used Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX units to create a lighting experience to perfectly complement the band's ultraviolet spectacular.

"The band wanted a vivid ultraviolet feel, with a sphere of energy that could transform from small to massive," explained

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Europe - Deep Purple lighting designer Louis Ball has just given Martin Professional's new MAC III AirFX lighting fixture a thorough workout on the definitive rock band's November / December arena outing across Europe.

A classic rock 'n' roll show it is, complete with guitar and drum solos and row of on-stage Marshall amps. Once recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as 'The globe's loudest band', Deep Purple can still put on a powerful, energy-filled show, and that goes for the lighting rig as well.

Deep Purple's latest tour may not be as ear-splittingly loud as year's past thanks to sound exposure limits but there are no limits on how bright or active a lighting rig can be. And Louis Ball takes full advantage.

"They really take a hammering," he says of the 1500-watt moving head fixtures, supplied for the tour by TDA Rental. "The show is evolving ev

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USA - Mixing veteran Jeff Peterson wrapped work recently on two high-profile gigs: Spike TV's Video Game Awards and CNN's Heroes: An All-Star Tribute. Peterson mixed both the production elements and live bands on an SD5 console provided by Hi-Tech Audio in conjunction with ATK. Peterson landed 112 inputs from two 56-pair splitters into two DiGiCo SD racks, with signals traveling to and from the consoles via an Optocore fiber optic network. Two 56ch ATK splitters were used on both shows to split signals between the SD Racks, monitors (in the case of CNN) and the broadcast trucks.

"On CNN Heroes, I had the only DiGiCo console," Peterson recalls. "Monitors were handled on a PM5D. On The Video Game awards, my FOH SD5 and a [stage monitor] foldback SD10 shared two DiGiCo SD Racks backstage for 112 inputs and 64 outputs divided between the two consoles. Wh

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UK / Venezuela - Wisbech UK based 5 Star Cases has supplied a substantial quantity of cases to OB specialists Megahertz.

The cases form part of a shipment of eight vehicles that have been dispatched from Ely, Cambridgeshire based Megahertz to South American broadcaster, Vision Venezuela (ViVe), a government owned cultural broadcasting organisation.

The project comprised two complete Mercedes 2532 OB trucks and two 2532 Tender vehicles which carry all the flightcases containing the 'loose' gear, plus four further vehicles, two for satellite news gathering and two for production - all built on Toyota Land cruiser bases.

Megahertz has been using 5 Star for at least the last 10 years for its case requirements. Megahertz Production Manager, Bill O'Flynn comments, "5 Star are excellent, always reliable, the products are well made and quality engineered while the turnarounds a

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Europe - The Nitro Circus Live show is an action fuelled performance led by Freestyle MotorX star Travis Pastrana. It features a star studded array of like minded friends who push the envelope of freestyle trickery. Recently the show was back touring Europe. Lighting designer Paul Collison relied on two grandMA2 light consoles to control the show's lighting.

Collison commented: "The biggest advantage of the grandMA2 platform on this project was the simplicity of the networking. Being able to have a control surface on the floor and one in the arena grandstand really helped manage the plotting. The show is viewed around 270° and covering the riders evenly from both sides on the ramps was of paramount importance. Having control surfaces on both sides of the arena also really helped with achieving this in the short timeframe. The show producers wanted a really simplistic lo

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USA - Free registration is open now for PLASA Focus: Orlando 2013. The first PLASA Focus show to hit the Sunshine State, it will bring the world's latest entertainment technology to a local Florida audience, taking place on Wednesday 15 May and Thursday 16 May, 2013 at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, Florida.

Companies already signed up to exhibit at the show include Elation, Group One, CAST Software, A.C.T Lighting, Chauvet, Robe, Tomcat, SEAL, High End and TMB. With many other applications currently being processed, companies interested in exhibiting are advised to move quickly to secure their spot.

The show will play host to Florida's most talented production professionals and features game-changing technology, world-class speakers, live product demos, free training sessions and unparalleled networking opportunities.

Running alongside the exhibition is the Orlando edition of

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Benelux - Italian loudspeaker manufacturer RCF has announced that it has appointed Electric Sound Benelux BV as distributor of its Commercial Audio, Installed Sound and Forum product lines in the Benelux region. Electric Sound will take over distribution of the lines - which include RCF's VSA and voice-evacuation products.

Lars Yoshiyama, RCF sales manager for Commercial Audio and Congress Systems, comments, "Electric Sound is a distributor with decades of history and we are very proud to be represented by such a renowned and successful company in this key European region."

Mr Yoshiyama concludes, "Electric Sound's breadth and depth of experience are such that as well as being a partner in RCF's distribution network, the company will become a valuable resource for our R&D programme, contributing unique insights that will allow us to develop and promote new produ

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Germany - Nearly 200 Robe moving lights added glamour, sparkle and dynamics to the lighting design by Manuel da Costa for The Voice of Germany (TVOG) 2012.

The popular talent show was produced by Schwartzkopff TV Productions GmbH & Co KG and Talpa Distribution B.V. and recorded in Am Studio 20 of Studio Berlin. It was broadcast on ProSieben and SAT.1, and featured a live audience of 1200.

Da Costa also lit the first TVOG series in 2011, for which he also used Robe fixtures at the heart of his design. He had a relatively open brief on lighting this one, and had to fulfil all the main criteria of a high profile TV show - being flexible enough to give each artist an individual look for their different performances and to ensure it worked well on camera and looked good to the studio audiences.

Also, there needed to be a visual harmony with Florian Wieder's impressive mode

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UK - Cinimod Studio in conjunction with Prolyte Group's Special Projects Division, Litestructures, have delivered the most epic of public lighting installations to mark the highly anticipated launch of the Halo 4 Xbox 360 game.

Agency AKQA (acting on behalf of Microsoft/Xbox) commissioned Cinimod Studio to create this spectacular illuminated structure - based on the Halo 4 Glyph symbol - which would be one of the largest and brightest man-made structures to ever fly over a capital city.

Cinimod Studio turned to Litestructures to help bring their concept to life. The solution drew on Litestructures' experience of creating 'impossible' structures using aluminium components. To fulfil the brief, a selection of proprietary products from the Prolyte range were specified, including the main structure frame created from a combination of S36R truss straights and custom corners. The in

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Canada - Constructed in 1923-24 and designed by Montreal architect Joseph-Raoul Gariépy, who specialised in theatre and hospital projects, the Rialto was inspired by the Neo-baroque-style of the Paris Opera House. The Rialto Theatre is one of the most iconic buildings in Montreal, and is a former movie palace which today is designated as a 'National Historic Site' of Canada.

Today the main floor supports 708 people in standing mode, 450 people in theatre row seating, 350 in cabaret style seating. The newly opened balcony holds an additional 450 seated people.

Recent technical upgrades include a new Adamson SpekTrix loudspeaker system powered with Lab.gruppen PLM with Dolby Lake processing. In order to preserve the architectural beauty and clean sightlines, the ground stacked PA system is made up of four Spektrix 5 degree boxes mounted atop a double 18" cardioid Sub

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UK - Liverpool based rental specialist Adlib supplied lighting and audio for the most recent tour by vocal harmony group, The Overtones. The Higher tour played a variety of venues in a six week stint around the UK in the run up to Christmas, and resumes in Europe in early 2013.

Adlib's Alan Harrison was systems tech for all things audio, and ensured that Adlib's new Coda Audio ViRAY system was optimised to perfection daily for FOH engineer Mark Clement.

Ian Tomlinson designed the lighting and set for Adlib, with Neil Holloway taking it out on the road as lighting director, bringing a suave and a very cool look and feel to each performance as the band doo-wopped their way into the festive holiday.

This was the second tour outing for Adlib's new ViRAY system purchased shortly after its official launch in October, it follows the outstandingly good results that have been

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South America - Armenian symphony orchestra and choir Kohar has enjoyed remarkable success since it was formed 15 years ago. Performing across the world, the ensemble recently returned from a series of shows in South America, at which three Yamaha CL5 digital consoles starred.

With over 140 musicians, a choir, 12 solo singers and a dance troupe of 11 to accommodate, the shows required a flexible audio system with a large channel capacity and reliable connectivity, but which was easy to implement. Hamburg-based Pinguin Ing.Büro for Audio Production asked Arthur Koll from Yamaha Music Europe GmbH to act as the tour's live and broadcast audio consultant, supervising the system design and deployment for the elaborate show.

The system comprised one CL5 at the monitor position and two more at front of house - one doing submixes which were fed via Dante to the other two consoles. Th

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USA - Improving safety conditions for technical staff members has always been a primary goal at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. When timing and budgets came together after the annual production of A Christmas Carol opened in November 2012, they called Sapsis Rigging, Inc.

Sapsis installed fall arrest equipment in both performance spaces at the Goodman - the 856-seat Albert Ivar Goodman Theatre's proscenium stage, and the flexible thrust-style stage in the (maximum) 450-seat Owen Bruner Goodman Theatre.

Daniel Porter, one of the ETCP-certified rigging professionals on the Sapsis staff, supervised the entire installation. He and his crew placed eight ProPlus horizontal lifelines on the Albert's catwalk, balcony rail, and loading bridge, as well as 36 ProPlus self-retracting lifelines (SRLs). These SRLs feature a dual inertia braking system, which stops a fall with minimal

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UK - Viva Forever!, the musical based on the songs of the Spice Girls, had its World Premiere in London's West End on 11 December and has the audiences dancing in the aisles and happily humming the whole way home.

For Lighting Designer Howard Harrison, it has provided a glorious opportunity to juxtapose almost every conceivable genre of performance lighting in one show. Choosing to use two grandMA2 consoles to programme the lights and AV elements was a first for him. "The only restriction to programming with these consoles is your own imagination. As an end user, I have nothing but praise for the possibilities that the grandMA2 provides and that extends to the support we received from Ambersphere's sales director, Phil Norfolk, who has been incredibly helpful in facilitating all this. It's been a great experience - I get exactly what I want from the design."

M

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Finland - Veturi shopping centre, Finland's sixth biggest shopping centre, was before its opening 13 September 2012 illuminated with new energy efficient and eye catching LED lighting.

LumenRadio's long-term Finnish distributor Sun Effects together with lighting designer Jari Vuorinen from Olof Granlund Oy, installed 82 Traxon Wall Washers and an e:cue control system with eight CRMX Slim receivers and one double universe CRMX Nova transmitter to light up a special oval-shaped suspended ceiling in the main corridors. Sun Effects also installed an extensive wireless CRMX system, containing one CRMX Slim and multiple CRMX Nova receivers on an advertisement tower located just right outside the shopping centre.

The barrier-free shopping centre is 48,000 m² and has stores from over 80 companies.

"A public project of this magnitude in the presence of thousands of visitors on

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