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South Africa - The South African Broadcasting Corporation has invested in three powerful touch screen Avolites Tiger Touch consoles.

Avolites' South Africa partner DWR Distribution and entertainment lighting service company Blackmotion oversaw SABC's Tiger Touch investment for its Auckland Park, Johannesburg, studios.

The upgrade was part of a major enhancement of the Corporation's TV lighting facilities.

"The SABC has been using an analogue console for decades which was an impediment for their LDs to achieve anything other than generic lighting," says Kagiso Moima, managing member at Blackmotion. "With the new era of lighting technology in South Africa and the Digital space every Broadcaster has moved into, it was imperative for the SABC to introduce this technology to its employees.

"Avoites' Tiger Touch touch screen, the fact it's such a user friendl

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USA - Kansas City, Missouri's World Revival Church, a 1,000-seat house-of-worship facility that ministers to a live congregation and broadcasts services globally, recently upgraded its sound system with components from Bose Professional Systems Division.

RoomMatch loudspeakers and PowerMatch amplifiers, along with other Bose products, were installed to deliver the clarity and intensity of the church's services. The challenge was to provide a system that could deliver uniform coverage, consistent volume levels and optimized sound at every seat, and by all accounts, the new Bose system more than did its job.

Ten years ago, with demand for the church's services on the rise, World Revival moved from its original meeting house to its current 1,000-seat auditorium, with stage space for a full band, professional lighting rigs and multimedia capabilities. Soon, World Revival began liv

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Belgium - The PARTS contemporary dance and performance school in Brussels has an international reach, holding auditions in countries around the world and accepting only the most talented students.

PARTS was founded in 1994 by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, one of the world's most prominent choreographers in contemporary dance, and Bernard Foccroulle, director of the Belgian national opera De Munt/ La Monnaie. It is closely allied to De Keersmaeker's dance company Rosa's and increasing dissatisfaction at the quality of the audio systems in two of the PARTS studios led to a better solution being sought.

"As well as teaching, we regularly hold performances in the studios and the existing system was not coping with the demands," says Steven Peeters, house technician at the school. "What we needed was a system that could cope equally well with playing a wide range of di

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UK - Lighting rental company Neg Earth Lights invested in five new Kinesys DigiHoist controllers and two remote handsets which went directly out on Muse's The 2nd Law world tour, together with a Kinesys K2 control and Elevation 1+ automation system that they already owned.

The Kinesys system on Muse - currently touring the US - was specified by the band's stage and visual designer Oli Metcalfe and automation guru Gareth Williams - who has been an advocate of Kinesys innovations for many years. Williams is operating the K2 on the tour.

They needed the K2 control package due to the complexity and accuracy of the automation cues, and also because these had to be linked to the Catalyst media server feeding video content to the moving LED screens. This allows the video images to be mapped and sized / re-sized in real time as the video surfaces are moving.

A major part of M

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USA - John D. Millett Hall on the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio is best recognised as home to the school's popular RedHawks basketball and volleyball teams. But the 9,200-capacity venue is also well known as the site for the school's commencement exercises, as well as concerts and other events from a list of guests as varied as Yo-Yo Ma, Beck, Bill Cosby, The Fray, O.A.R., Béla Fleck, Jay Leno and the Dalai Lama.

With the facility's aging distributed PA system struggling to even accommodate announcements at sporting events, the school hired Cincinnati-based L-Acoustics certified provider Loud & Clear, Inc. to supply a sound reinforcement system each time it hosted a concert. Now, Loud & Clear has turned a satisfied rental client into an even happier fixed install client with the recent installation of an L-Acoustics Kara system.

Used for concerts and games

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UK - Lighting Design students from Rose Bruford College have been working with the new Martin MAC Auras on a concert lighting project in the college's Rose Theatre. The equipment had been made available by Mike Walker, UK sales director for Martin Professional.

The college and Martin Professional are collaborating on developing a close partnership, working together to provide the best possible training to the next generation of lighting professionals. This new partnership has been made possible by lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, who is a Fellow of the college and regularly visits the Lighting Design programme to run master classes and seminars.

Hansjorg Schmidt, programme director lighting design, says, "Patrick has been a fantastic supporter of the programme and the college. He knows our students well and some of them have been working for Patrick during the London

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UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors for Neutrik across the GCC (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait) as well as Iraq and Iran have recently supplied Dubai based production company Eclipse with OpticalCON fiber reels for their video department's requirements. Used for connectivity to LED walls, Eclipse can now reliably send fibre video signals over a portable and rugged medium over long distances for their various corporate shows and concerts in the United Arab Emirates.

"The feedback from Eclipse has been extremely positive," commented Pavel Aheunin, Neutrik sales specialist. "Whether the application is audio, lighting or video - transporting signal over fibre is becoming more and more possible in the live market due to Neutrik's OpticalCON range which can both protect and provide consistent results."

(Jim Evans)

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UAE - Melody House, distributors of HK Audio speaker systems have recently supplied the Event Services division at the Dubai International Exhibition and Conference Centre with a large batch of PR:08A HK Audio speakers.

DIECC's Event Services division provides various audio, video and lighting services to clients at the center, which boasts the largest number of exhibition halls, conference and meeting rooms. The recent purchase will be used to bolster the equipment offering of their new conference rooms.

"DIECC have been using the PR:O Series since the beginning of the year," commented Grayson Soares, operations manager at Melody House. "The feedback has been absolutely positive especially due to their compact size which is essential in the conference market. The fact that there is no compromise on the audio for the size and cost of the PR:O8A makes it a great

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UK - Glastonbury Festival impresario Michael Eavis will be helping UK trade distributor Batmink Ltd celebrate its 30th Anniversary by holding an open forum Q & A session during Batmink's forthcoming week of free professional workshops and training (18-23 March)

These workshops are designed to provide useful 'hands on' experience and core skills and will be presented by some of the industry's foremost companies, says Batmink.

During the week, representatives from manufacturers such as Pioneer, Martin Audio, Cloud, Le Maitre, Shure, Audio Technica and Sennheiser will be conducting presentations on subjects including pyrotechnics, production and installed sound and lighting, signal processing, wireless regulations and providing certified training on Zero 88 lighting desks.

The Batmink team will be supplementing this with daily workshops covering subjects such as an introduction

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Germany - Fohhn Audio, together with leading spatial audio solutions provider IOSONO, has opened Europe's largest state-of-the-art 3D audio demonstration facility in its Nürtingen-based SoundLab. The system offers a spectacular three-dimensional audio experience that places the listener at the very heart of the sound image.

Eighty system integrators and sound designers recently attended a launch event in the SoundLab, where they were transported into a jungle soundscape to experience tigers stealthily moving alongside, monkeys swinging from tree to tree behind and parrots flying overhead. The additional sound of a tropical rain shower made everyone feel they were directly experiencing its effect.

The new SoundLab facility has grown out of the planning stages of another IOSONO project, during which the company tested loudspeakers from different manufacturers. Fohhn's Linea LX-

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Italy - The Sanremo Music Festival 2013 recently took place at the Teatro Ariston, in the picturesque Ligurian town on the Mediterranean, and was broadcast by Rai 1, Italy's national broadcaster.

Presented by Fabio Fazio and Italian comedy actress Luciana Littizzetto this famous event, now in its 63rd year, has always enjoyed high production values, and working in cooperation with the scenic director, the RAI's experienced lighting designer (and DoP) Ivan Pierri created different looks and stage personalities for each of the main performers, using 30 of SGM's new SP-6 ('Six Pack') LED blinders to bring the 1900-capacity venue to life. The lighting was supplied by Di.Bi. Technology Srl of Rome.

"Each individual scene had its own identity and the lights needed to be in complete harmony," said the LD. "I tried hard to realise a three-dimensional feeling, working wi

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Sweden - Leading Swedish Television lighting designer Örjan Fjällström recently used Robe LEDWash 1200s for the first time to light a super high profile special broadcast, recorded by Swedish Television to celebrate the first birthday of HRH Crown Princess Victoria's daughter and second in line to the throne, HRH Princess Estelle.

The Sunday morning service took place in the Royal Chapel in Stockholm, a beautiful church dating back to the Rococo period located in the east wing of the royal palace, which was key lit by Fjällström using six Robe Robin 1200 LEDWashes.

The Royal Chapel is a heritage site complete with white marble altar piece extending up to the ceiling which enhances its grandeur with great flourish. Nothing can be flown from the ceilings or attached to the walls. The only options for lighting positions are on floor stands - and even these are limited - or a

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France - This year, during SIEL 2013 in Paris, Adamson Systems Engineering continued to grow their partnership with French touring powerhouse Audiolite. DV2 brokered the deal that has added the E15 system to their roster.

Audiolite has already set off on the road with the E15 system, with Sylvain Turpin behind the board for the new C2C Tour. They wanted to put it to use right away because of its low maintenance rigging system and nearly unbelievable headroom.

The addition of 48 E15s complimented by 16 T-21 subs will bolster their inventory of Adamson line arrays which already included 24 Adamson Y-18s and 16 Y-10s which had been their principle sound system. They will pair the new E15 arrays with Lab Gruppen PLM20000Q Amplifiers and will be networked through Dante.

(Jim Evans)

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Cyprus - S&V Megasound won a highly competitive bid, beating a large number of companies (mainly based in Cyprus). They were selected to develop the AV infrastructure for this new leisure project Cyprus' capital city - chosen for their ability to provide reliable up-to-date technology and support, and based on their reputation of being able to deliver challenging projects such as this.

The RCF distributors were tasked with providing sound reinforcement for live and club performance down to low level, high reference background music across the three functional floors.

The ground floor, which contains the main restaurant, with a seating capacity of 250 people, also hosts the main stage area. On the weekly band nights the restaurant transforms into a huge rock concert with a standing capacity of around 500 people.

To provide potent, even coverage S&V Megasound have specified fo

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UK - Technical solutions specialist Adlib supplied sound and lighting for recent solo shows by rising young Australian pop star Cody Simpson, who took time out from his busy schedule opening for Justin Bieber to perform in the key cities of Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester promoting his first studio album, Paradise.

Adlib was asked by AEG Live to supply full technical production to the shows which played true theatre / concert halls rather than traditional pop-orientated venues.

Adlib's Sam Proctor was systems engineer and worked closely with Cody's FOH and monitor engineers, Justin Sinclair (also production manager) and Ryan John. They used Adlib's Coda Audio LA12 system with SCP-F subs. For the largest show in Glasgow, this was configured as 12 x LA12s a side and four SCV-F Subs ground stacked and run in cardioid mode.

This robust set up was completed with Coda Vi

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Czech Republic - Following the announcement of a truly international line up of speakers for Showlight 2013, the organisers report that exhibiting companies represent more countries than ever before.

With the event taking place in the Czech Republic, it is not surprising that this and other countries such as Latvija and Slovakia are among the 14 countries represented. Most recent sign-ups include Coemar of Italy, Dedo Weigart Film and JB-Lighting of Germany, AC Entertainment Technologies, Chauvet and Hawthorns from the UK, High End from the USA and Company NA of Latvija, plus the international trade show ISE.

Among the highlights is the evening meal on the Sunday night, when the delegates are entertained by the exhibiting companies at private tables in selected local restaurants. These intimate dinners provide both parties the opportunity to get better acquainted and discuss -

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Australia - AV company Scene Change has added a dozen GLP Volkslicht Zoom LED moving head fixtures to its lighting stock.

"We needed a small moving LED fixture that was fast and had a zoom," commented Vicken Hekimian, Scene Change Sydney director. "The GLP Volkslicht Zoom was bright, fast and compact plus it was provided by Show Technology who supply great after sales support and have always been very supportive of Scene Change. Having Show Technology as the supplier gives us a lot of a lot of confidence in the product."

The Volkslicht Zoom uses 60 Luxeon Rebel LED's in an RGB configuration to give a broad mixing palette of colours from its primary saturates, through to the more subtle pastel shades.

"The colour mixing is very good and the dimmer curve is great," remarked Vicken. "Plus it has a white mode which can be useful."

(Jim E

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The Netherlands - The new multi-use indoor arena Ziggo Dome has been fitted out with over 400 ETC Selador LED fixtures, in a bid to make its house lighting among the best - and greenest

Traditionally, arena house lighting has been harsh, using unpleasant sodium or fluorescent fixtures, which do little to reflect the stunning lighting often found on stage. But with 80 ETC Selador Desire Lustr+ LED fixtures above the main arena, and 370 ETC Selador Classic Vivid-R LED fixtures in the surrounding corridors and foyer areas, the Ziggo Dome is very different.

Named after Dutch communications company Ziggo, the 17,000 seat venue in Amsterdam hosts a range of different types of events, from Peter Pan, Rihanna and Mumford & Sons, to the music from the BBC's nature documentary Frozen Planet, the MTV European Music Awards and Top Gear Live.

Ziggo Dome's facilities manager

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USA - Three new sessions have been added to the PLASA Focus: Orlando 2013 Professional Development Programme, a two-day program of free educational seminars and workshops running alongside PLASA Focus: Orlando, at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, on 15-16 May, 2013.

In Innovation in Disney Entertainment: Technology Meets Storytelling, Matt Conover, vice president at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Creative Entertainment, explains how at Disney Parks Creative Entertainment the story is the foundation to every show. No matter what techniques are used - from cutting-edge high-tech to interactive high touch - everything that Disney Guests experience helps to immerse them in the many worlds brought to life by Disney's classic stories. In this session Conover will discuss the challenges of creating and utilizing the most advanced technologies and equipment without losing sight of the

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Eurovision Update - Bonnie Tyler has been confirmed as the UK representative at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The 61-year-old, best known for her 1983 hit Total Eclipse of the Heart, said she was "honoured" to be asked. "I promise to give this everything that I've got for the UK!" she said in a statement.

Tyler will be performing the song, Believe in Me, in front of an estimated 120m viewers in Malmo, Sweden, on 18 May. "I am truly honoured and delighted to be able to represent my country at Eurovision, and especially with such a fabulous song," said Tyler. The UK entry for the 58th Eurovision Song Contest was written by American songwriter Desmond Child with British songwriters Lauren Christy and Christopher Braide.

WWF Earth Hour - For the third consecutive year, on 23 March 2013 at 8.30pm, Birmingham Hippodrome will onc

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UK - The PLASA Show, a driving force in the development and promotion of the professional entertainment technology industry for over 35 years, is preparing to launch the most important edition in the show's history this Friday 15th March 2013. Taking place at Excel London for the first time this year, the show will open under its new name PLASA London 2013, in its new dateline of the 6-9 October.

PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths explains; "PLASA London 2013 reflects a new focus on international visitors, which is the number one reason we moved to Excel. Excel London is just five minutes from London City Airport, which handles 350 flights per day from over 40 international destinations. London is already the best connected City in the world and this October, PLASA London 2013 will take place in one of the best connected venues in the world, and that's a fact."

With seven o

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UK - Lighting and visuals rental company HSL is supplying all lighting equipment to the current series of the Googoosh Music Academy, which features a spectacular lighting design by Steffan Jones.

The show, produced by Manoto TV is recorded in Capital Studios, Wandsworth, south London and broadcast on primetime via the Marjan Television Network. It is a massively popular voice competition - Up to 1.3m public votes have been cast per show - inspired by Iranian pop superstar Googoosh, who is also one of the three judges. The judges act as mentors for the ten finalists appearing in the TV series, all aspiring Iranian singers selected from hundreds of hopefuls.

Simon Stuart and Sean McGlone are project managing for HSL. Stuart comments, "We are really happy to be working with Steff again who is one of the rising young talents of our industry. His designs are always fre

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France - With 320m records sold since launching his career almost 50 years ago, French singer Michel Sardou shows no signs of slowing down. Frequently filling concert halls and arenas, Sardou is the latest artist to tour with the new Meyer Sound LEO large-scale sound reinforcement system as he brings his spectacle to France and Belgium.

With the goal to give fans of Sardou the best sound quality, FOH engineer Jean-Marc Hauser and long-time Sardou supplier Dushow set their sights on a Leo system following an impressive demo.

"Leo delivers a bigger sound even at low levels," says Hauser. "Enormous and precise low/mids and amazing vocals which are loud and clear are just a few of its characteristics. Coverage is consistent and my shows are benefiting from a great stereo image with every detail well represented."

Engineered specifically for long-throw applica

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UK - As a longtime monitor engineer to many high profile artists, including Florence And The Machine, Phil McDaniel knows exactly what facilities a good monitor console needs. He has recently invested in a pair of Yamaha CL5s for his audio rental business.

McDaniel was first able to get hands-on with a CL5 in the USA last year, when a local dealer set one up next to the PM1D he'd been using long-term for Florence and the Machine. Because of the band's busy touring schedule he was unable to make the switch straight away, but was impressed enough to do so as soon as practically possible. This turned out to be a February Florence and the Machine show in Barcelona, part of the Mobile World Congress event.

"For the past decade or so, there was the process of engineers moving from analogue to digital, so they were keen for digital consoles to work in a familiar way to the analo

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