UK - Gary Barlow's recent solo tour was of a more intimate nature than those he undertakes with his fellow band members, but the quality of the audio is no less important than it is for Take That's stadium shows. The requisite equipment inventory boasts DiGiCo consoles, supplied by audio rental company Delta Sound, at both Front of House and monitor positions, a combination that is as sure to please as Gary himself.

Front of House engineer Gary Bradshaw, who also engineers for Take That, opted for a DiGiCo SD8 to take into account the restrictions on space presented by the tour's choice of venues.

"The gigs were very varied in their size," Bradshaw explains. "The biggest being the Brighton Centre, going down to a tiny seaside theatre in Scarborough where there's not much space at all. So I went for a nice, compact package, for which the SD8 fits the bill perfect

UK - Surrey-based electrical contractors, The Technical Department has achieved the internationally recognised ISO9001, establishing it as one of the leaders in its field.

This independent assessment was conducted by the leading Certification Body, the British Assessment Bureau and demonstrates The Technical Department commitment to customer service and quality in delivery.

The Technical Department has now earned the right to display the coveted British Assessment Bureau ISO 9001 certification mark to demonstrate its conformance to the standard.

ISO 9001 was first introduced in 1987 and requires organisations to demonstrate that they do what they say they do and that they have a quality management system in place to ensure consistency and improvement; leading to high levels of performance and customer satisfaction. Certified organisations are committed to continuous improvem

UK - NBCUniversal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies, has recently completed the refurbishment of its Central St Giles offices in London. The project included the creation of two state-of-the-art preview theatres for executive and private screenings. Alcons cinema specific C-series loudspeakers were chosen as an integral part of the installation.

"For NBCUniversal's new facility at Central St. Giles, we wanted to achieve the highest quality environment for sound and image," says cinema optics consultant Laurence Claydon, who engaged acoustic consultancy company White Mark on the project. "We already had experience of Alcons CR1, having achieved excellent results at Universal's original Oxford Street facility, and retained some of these components for the smaller screening room."

The larger room has a CR4 three-way screen system, c

Australia - ARX has recently shipped 112 units of their MSX 12 four channel mic / line splitters for a substantial A/V install at a 'Government Facility' in Australia.

The MSX 12s were supplied to the Installation Contractor by ARX's Australian distributor the Resource Corp Pty Ltd.

The ARX MSX 12 transformer isolated microphone / line splitter delivers noise-free audio splitting and is a totally passive device requiring no power, and consists of Four channels of transformer isolated ultra low noise microphone/line splitter.

Each of these channels has a direct looped Main / FOH feed allowing phantom power to pass through the unit with a transformer isolated monitor split on the front panel and a transformer isolated aux split on the rear.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Given the inherent challenges presented by the 2012 upgrade of Sacred Heart Church's sound system in Bellevue, Washington, specifying Tannoy loudspeakers and Lab.gruppen amplifiers for the project was an appropriate choice.

"Previously, they had no real high-end in the room. There was no intelligibility. The room sounded muffled and speech was indistinct, so the priest always felt like he wasn't loud enough," said Morgan Sound A/V consultant, Stephen Weeks. "Tannoy's dual concentric technology is very helpful for keeping things coherent. The speakers are very clear, very clean and very warm in the low end and there were no smear issues like you might experience with a more traditional box, which was critical."

The 750-capacity sanctuary is a decidedly modern and elegant space. "Although impressive, it's also very reverberant," Weeks continue

China - The processing power and ease-of-use that Apex Intelli-X2 processors deliver mean that they are being adopted in high end audio installations across the globe. Seven of the units have recently been installed in two of China's most prestigious nightclubs, with six more installations to follow.

Club TNT in Xi'ang is an 850sq.m venue which features a diverse array of live music and DJ sets, including pop, rock, electronic and hip-hop. The audio system was designed and installed by Real Music Acoustic & Lighting Technology, one of China's leading production technology houses, who specified four Apex Intelli-X2 48 processors to control a comprehensive Adamson audio system.

"We designed the system with a matrix of loudspeakers, to ensure that all guests are covered by audio from at least two different directions wherever they are," says Real Music managing director

UK / Ukraine - Devon-based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H Technical Support (S+H) is again supplying its innovative LED Video Floor product to the latest UK series of BAFTA Award winning games show, The Cube - via producers Objective Television.

Presented by Philip Schofield, Cube contestants can win up to £250,000 of prize money by completing straightforward tasks within a 4x4m Perspex cube, which becomes extremely challenging with the addition of disorientating visuals and sonic effects coupled with the pressure of performing in front of a live audience.

The video floor is an integral element of the show's overall concept

S+H also supplied the same quantity of 36 x Video Floor panels making up a 3.6sq.m surface area to the latest Ukrainian series of The Cube, which has now finished being filmed in Kiev. It is the fourth series

Finland - SGM has made an important breakthrough with its revolutionary LED products in Finland, notably with Jaakko Peltomäki Ltd. After the Helsinki-based events company saw the Danish company's impressive display at Prolight+Sound 2012 Jaakko Peltomäki himself made the decision to invest, after being particularly impressed by the LB-100 LED Balls.

"We were looking for some new ideas for our productions - and these were perfect," he said. Seeing how they could be formed into curtains to deliver alluring 3D spatial effects, they invested in 550 strings, each containing seven 34mm Balls, 20 TLD-612 pixel drivers to run it ... and some extension cords.

The 21-year-old company has a versatile work roster, ranging from fashion shows to retail, and they have full turnkey capability, with sound equipment, trussing, video and LED screens. "In fact I was looking for

UK - When St. Andrew's C of E Church in the Gloucester village of Churchdown decided to re-orientate its interior through 90° to better accommodate its growing congregation, it presented a real audio challenge for Kelly Gibson's locally-based integration company Revolution Multimedia. And it was one he was able to meet with a Harman Professional solution.

Long established in both the education and HoW sectors, he has worked with this church for many years. Despite the complexity of this latest project, and the fact that the committee had invited much larger audio companies to tender, his bid was comfortably the most competitive and he was awarded the contract.

"The church is growing at an enormous rate," he confirmed. "The building is extremely wide, with what are almost transepts on the side, so they decided to tear out and replace the floor, using under-fl

UK - Following the successful opening of SW19, London's newest rehearsal facility, the SW19 team has launched a complementary production company to provide turnkey solutions to the live events industry,

To provide a high level of knowledge and expertise, SW19 employs the skills of a team of production managers, headed up by Kevin Hopgood, who has spent many years touring the globe to produce world-class concerts for Kylie Minogue, Mark Knopfler and The War of the Worlds stage show.

"The requirements of each production vary according to the client or the artist," says SW19's Hopgood. "To accommodate this, SW19 is all encompassing, allowing access to the latest in audio, lighting, video and staging technology, logistics planning and financial administration, from a single source."

Other key members of the team are Charles Ellery and Lisa Santos Hanna

Greece - Turbosound loudspeakers are a key part of the ambience in Athens's luxury Catwalk Café-Bar. The bar, situated near the seafront in Greece's capital, invited local suppliers Metro Audio Systems to install a Turbosound system consisting of ten Impact 65T two-way loudspeakers and two TSB-110 sub-bass speakers.

"Catwalk Café-Bar features a warm, inviting, but timelessly classy atmosphere," comments Pavlos Symperas from Metro Audio Systems. "The bar is open day and night so the flexibility of the Turbosound speakers are an important part of this changing feel. They help to set the tone with their clear, high quality sound reproduction."

The biggest challenge for Metro Audio Systems was to deliver powerful quality sound, yet ensure that the system had an elegant and distinctive design. "We believed that the Impact series was the best f

Switzerland - A new permanent audio system structured around the Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker is destined to bring even greater versatility to City Casino Basel.

Part of Switzerland's cultural landscape since 1824, City Casino Basel occupies two multipurpose spaces in addition to the Musiksaal, its principal concert hall. Musiksaal regularly hosts 1,500 people with performances from the world's leading orchestral ensembles, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony. Until recently, there was little call for sound reinforcement because the programming was dominated by unamplified music.

In the past few years, however, interest in jazz, blues, and stand-up comedy has grown, highlighting the inadequacies of the Musiksaal's long-serving loudspeakers. With many touring productions bringing in their own sound reinforcement equipment, the Musiksaal team dec

Slovenia - Ljubljana's Top 6 night club has just had a complete refurbishment and technical lighting upgrade which features the first Robe Robin DLX Spots and LEDBeam 100s in a club installation in Slovenia.

It was a "Logical" move for Ljubljana based specifiers and installers MK Sound Light to suggest some of Robe's latest Robe moving light technology for this installation explains project manager Dean Karov.

Apart from hosting the beautiful people in the metropolis, the venue has stunning views across the centre of the city and up to Ljubljana's historic Castle from the glass fronted lift that whizzes seamlessly up and down the six floors to the top of a high profile downtown apartment store.

Top 6's owner, local entrepreneur Anthony Tomzin, asked MK Sound Light - who also supplied the sound system - to come up with 'something special and cool' for his 700 capaci

Austria - Wireless Solution Sweden AB, manufacturer of the award-winning W-DMX wireless DMX technology, worked with Ampco Flashlight Rental, based in Utrecht the Netherlands, to use the new Wireless Solution W-DMX G4 system to control dozens of moving lights, LED fixtures and conventional lighting fixtures at the FIS Alpine Ski World Championship 2013 Opening Ceremony in Schladming Austria on 4 February 2013.

Lighting designers Frank Lischka, Daan Oomen and Jeffrey Goes from The Unit Showcontrol placed lighting fixtures over a very widespread area along the ski slope and the finish area. Some of the many lighting positions were only accessible by helicopter. W-DMX transmitters and receivers were placed in distances from 50m to 500m of each other. W-DMX allowed the lighting team the opportunity to get DMX512 at places that were impossible to get to with hard-wired connections.

Sweden - Leading Swedish technical solutions provider AV1 has invested in its first Robe MMX Spot moving lights to add to their growing lighting rental stock.

They have been using Robe products since around 2004, when the Göteborg based company purchased its first Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot 575E AT units ... which are still in constant use and have proved exceptionally reliable over the years.

AV1's owner Kristian Kavale first saw the MMX Spots when he visited Prolight+Sound Frankfurt last year with one of his clients. The client was very keen on using them on an upcoming project and so he knew already that he was guaranteed a quick ROI.

Since then, the MMX's have been out on a whole string of different jobs, many of which have been LD'd and operated by AV1's Albert Engvall.

Engvall comments, "Robe was the first manufacturer to come out with a smaller, brighter and

France - West Evenement has become the first French PA rental company to supply Nexo STM, moving away from its regular brand to purchase the new modular line array system. Based in Rennes, Brittany, West Evenement will carry an inventory of 24x M46 Main, 24x B112 Bass and 24x S118 Sub modules, powered by Nexo's NUAR universal amp racks.

"We love to be first!" jokes West Evenement's sales and integration manager, Ismaël Hifda. "At the end of 2011, we decided 2012 would be the year of change. We went round the world as we considered the major players of the industry in our quest to find a new partner. Responding to our urgent challenge, Nexo presented us with the STM project."

West Evenement's main criteria in its global search for a new PA system were more than matched by Nexo's STM Series, which displayed versatility, modularity and innovation as well as a

Regional Support Plea - BECTU general secretary Gerry Morrissey has called on the West End to "give more support to regional counterparts", in a bid to prevent theatres closing as a result of cuts. The backstage union's head also called on local council funding for the arts to be a "statutory obligation rather than an optional extra". His plea comes as councils around the UK slash their arts budget, which is resulting in less funding for many regional theatres.

Earlier this month, Sheffield Theatres was hit with a £106,000 cut to its £529,000 grant from Sheffield City Council, while Stoke-on-Trent City Council has said it will reduce its annual grant of £67,500 to Staffordshire's New Vic by £23,000 in the next financial year. Meanwhile, Moray Council in Scotland has announced it is to cut its entire arts budget. Morrissey said, "N

USA - Chauvet Professional kept the crowds energized at the main performance of the College Invasion Tour headlined by Tiësto and featuring Tommy Trash and Alvaro, at the Staples Centre. Los Angeles.

Creative director for Tiësto Koen De Puysseleir specified 26 Nexus 4x4 eye-candy wash lights to build the booth façade. The Nexus 4x4 wall of two fixtures by 13 worked for a powerful visual impact and became the centrepiece of the stage, visible from the back of the venue.

"In my search to a new and unique effect to use as a centerpiece DJ-booth design I stumbled on this product on the ArKaos website," Koen said. "After reviewing the Nexus 4x4 I was very confident this product would give me the high-end look I wanted for the show. Used in the right way this product has infinitive ways to create mesmerizing new effects. To achieve the desired looks I used t

UK - Willow SoundVision, a specialist integrator of audio visual systems and digital media solutions, has recently completed the audio and video installations for The Hippodrome Casino in London's Leicester Square, incorporating over 200 Community loudspeakers.

The former Hippodrome Theatre and adjacent buildings have been transformed into The Hippodrome Casino by father and son team Jimmy and Simon Thomas, who have invested more than £40m creating a high-end, opulent casino, blending theatrical history with contemporary, luxurious furnishings.

The complex comprises three floors of gaming with the main gaming floor based in the original 60ft theatre atrium. What truly sets the venue apart is its further facilities, which include a 180-seat cabaret theatre, an impressive restaurant, four private dining rooms, five bars and a number of lounges and events spaces. With aroun

UK - The Royal Armouries at Leeds is the venue for the first ever Riggers' Forum to be held outside of London on Tuesday 30 April. Building on the success of the Riggers' Forum held at Earls Court in 2012, PLASA Events will host the Forum alongside the consistently popular PLASA Focus: Leeds trade show event.

The Forum will provide a unique opportunity for members of the rigging community to discuss all things rigging and to exchange their views and experiences of the industry. The Forum will open at 2pm with a short presentation entitled The Dunning Kruger Effect - The Dangers of Unconscious Incompetence. This will be followed by a chaired question and answer session led by a panel of experts from the rigging industry, including members from the National Rigging Advisory Group.

Also on the panel will be Paul Rowlands, rigging development manager at NEC Group Arenas. Ro

UK - A giant multi-touch glass screen, purpose manufactured by Bedford-based specialists, Paradigm AV, has taken centre stage at the University of Wolverhampton's new six zone Visualisation Centre.

Opened in mid-March, and the brainchild of the University's Innovation 1st project team, this futuristic technology suite has been repurposed out of existing space in the Business Solutions Centre on the Wolverhampton Science Park.

While AVM Impact won a competitive EU tender to install the six rooms, they chose projection specialist Paradigm AV to design, manufacture and install the glass display - measuring 3545mm x 2232mm, and billed as the largest Windows 8 touch-screen in the West Midlands - which will allow the local business community to interact with it collaboratively. The facility is designed to provide local SMEs in the West Midlands with a minimum two days (12 hours) of

Sweden - Singer songwriter Petra Marklund, who also performs under the name 'September', has been touring the country's concert halls this spring with one of the most dynamic stage sets imaginable - fabricated largely from more than 3,000 SGM LED Balls (LB-100) ingeniously rigged as an overhead, interactive spatial canopy.

The design is the brainchild of top lighting designer Henrik Lundin, of Stockholm-based company Satellite Live.

With a quest to constantly provide different solutions to inspire his creativity, Lundin has bought into SGM's pioneering LED products immediately. Having used the new X-5 LED strobes on tour with Veronica Maggio and Maskinen last year, he has now conceived his most outrageous design yet for the beautiful Ms. Marklund. When the tour opened in Stockholm the impact of the pixel-mapped 3D LED balls, and the way in which the artiste interacted with the

UK - As boy band sensations One Direction (1D) embarked on the much anticipated 117 date Take Me Home world tour, the tried and trusted production team of Production North, Lite Alternative and Wigwam were brought in to turn the cityscape arena concept of creative designer, Elizabeth Honan, into reality.

Lite Alternative's highly creative production designer Paul Normandale used 30 of SGM's new X-5 white LED strobes for the first time, replacing conventional xenon-driven devices. And after evaluating them over the first leg of 34 shows stretching across the UK and Ireland, he vowed that it certainly won't be the last.

Supplied by SGM's UK and Ireland distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd., the strobes are largely mounted on vertical pipes and bases, positioned under two special ramps, stage left and right, and used mostly for "impact and accent&q

UK - After playing festivals last summer, multi award-winning Scottish singer/songwriter Amy Macdonald has spent February and March on a European tour to promote her latest album Life In A Beautiful Light. Front of House engineer Fabrizio Piazzini is mixing the shows on a DiGiCo SD8.

Fabrizio is a long-term DiGiCo user, having started on the D1, not long after the company was founded. "DiGiCo consoles are my favourites," he says. "They go to places where other consoles don't. The automation is so in-depth and so easily editable that I can edit it during the show. Even at a really busy gig, I can still do really geeky things and make sure they work. It's very simple to do."

Fabrizio's choice of the SD8 has been based on a number of factors, all of which he believes the SD8 excels at.

"I love the SD8 for many reasons. Firstly it is a very clear,

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