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Europe - Nuage, the flagship integrated system from Yamaha and Steinberg, has brought a new and very welcome approach to audio post-production. Some of Europe's premier post-production studios have invested in it and are enjoying the many benefits that it brings.

"Nuage seamlessly marries dedicated Yamaha control and interface hardware with Steinberg's Nuendo 6 DAW software, delivering unprecedented creativity for professionals in the broadcast, advertising, film and games industries," says the company. "Combining cutting-edge technology from two of the professional sound industry's biggest hitters, Nuage signifies a radical re-defining of what is possible in audio post-production."

Studios which have recently invested in Nuage include The Soundshack in Hamburg, Germany; Stone Post production in Bratislava, Slovakia; Mediaset in Cologno Monzese, Italy; Temp

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USA - Headquartered in the heart of the nation's capitol, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is committed to reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America and Caribbean countries by providing much needed loans, grants, technical assistance and research.

In 2005, when the organization first opened the IDB Conference Centre at 1330 New York Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., its 500-seat Enrique V. Iglesias Auditorium was slated to host films, seminars, lectures, and town hall meetings, so the original PA system was primarily designed to accommodate spoken word and cinema playback.

In 2012, however, the decision was made to better utilise the facility for the presentation of concerts and other cultural events featuring live entertainment by Central and South American artists, musicians, and dancers.

Tasked with transforming an existing auditorium into a place for colorful li

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UK - POLARaudio has launched a new website in keeping with its recent expansion. Having secured distribution for more major brands such as Mackie and Ampeg to complement existing giants like beyerdynamic and Biamp, this timely move reflects POLARaudio's determination to move forward on every front with the emphasis on quality, says the company.

With a completely fresh look, the new site offers a full online catalogue for both MI and installation product ranges. The catalogue offers detailed information and pricing and is browsable by product type, brand or application. This intuitive navigation characterises the user-friendliness of a site that possesses a high degree of functionality. Further to this, the site's advanced search facility ensures that every possible angle is covered in ensuring immediate access to specific information.

Fundamental to the core business is a full

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UK - This year Richard Martin Lighting (RML) will be celebrating 30 years in the Industry. Part of the key to the company's success has been evolving with changes in the Industry and building relationships with other rental houses and their staff.

"Those relationships have always been something that is very important to us, as is the whole ethos of working together to get the job done well," says the company. "So when we were approached by Wise Productions to assist them in lighting a special anniversary dinner at the British Science Museum, we jumped at the chance.

Pixel Par 90's were used to wash the walls, in fact almost every surface, and, they gave a real depth of colour and richness to the room.

The Pixelrange Pixel Par 90 is a high output solid state lighting projector designed to deliver a symmetrical beam angle. The Pixel Par 90 contains 30 red, green

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Germany - Major has introduced its new dedicated website (www.major-lighting.com)

to make finding all details of products and custom-made solutions quick and accessible. For example, the product section has a concise overview of all major product segments (Dimmers, Luminaires, Rigging + Safety Ropes, Power Distribution, Cables + Connectors and Colours + Effects), or in the Navigation header visitors can discover more about the company and its renowned service.

Major puts a main focus on clarity and accessibility. By clicking on the website's multiple links, visitors can drill deeper into a subject and get additional information.

Major is Lightpower's own brand. Major products are built in Germany and have earned themselves a great reputation on multiple international projects over the years. They offer bespoke solutions where no appropriate products are available. "Rega

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UK - With the programme for Theatres Trust Conference 14: Community Theatres in place, and a strong line-up of contributors confirmed, including Stephen Williams MP, Peter Stark OBE, Chairman of Voluntary Arts Network, and Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chairman of Arts Council England, momentum is building as delegates take advantage of the generous Early Bird delegate rates.

This year the annual conference is taking place on Monday 28 April 2014 in Leeds, at the famous Grade II* listed City Varieties Music Hall. Early Bird delegate rate runs to Friday 28 March. The community theatres conference is co-locating alongside PLASA Focus: Leeds, the popular regional entertainment technology trade show that runs the following day at the Royal Armouries on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 April.

Mhora Samuel, Director of The Theatres Trust sa

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Germany - Elation Professional enjoyed an "outstanding" Prolight+Sound show in Frankfurt with a bustling stand that was on the go from start to finish thanks to a broad line-up of attractive products that included a few surprise world premiere preview products, as well as an exhilarating light show that attracted throngs with every showing.

A range of new products for professional stage applications included the unveiling of four all-new luminaires in Elation's popular Platinum and Satura range of professional moving heads - two discharge lamp-based and two LED-based - the Platinum BX, Platinum SBX, Platinum Profile LED, and Satura Spot CMY Pro.

Both the Platinum BX and Platinum SBX are compact fixtures that combine new lamp technology from a Philips MSD Platinum 17 RA 350W lamp with a new optical system to kick out 20,000 lumens of power. The Platinum BX is a beam l

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Germany - TUI Cruises, Europe's leading travel group, began its operations in spring 2009 with the liner Mein Schiff. The second cruiser liner was commissioned in May 2011 and is named Mein Schiff 2.

Further growth is now signalled by the subsequent expansion of the fleet with two new vessels. Mein Schiff 3 will be launched in May 2014, with sister ship Mein Schiff 4 following one year later.

For the cruiser liner MS2 the evacuation system design was carried out by the engineering company Michael Creydt in co-operation with the acoustical design company, Carsten Fromm and installed Lellman.

To assure a high quality speech transmission, the operator decided to install salt-waterproof digital steerable loudspeakers. After testing several different systems the final decision was made for the Pan Beam series of Pan Acoustics, the Pan Beam PB04-SW.

(Jim Evans)

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Switzerland - At the Berner Rathaus (Bern Town Hall) in Switzerland, voice intelligibility has been greatly improved with the installation of two steerable Meyer Sound CAL 64 column array loudspeakers. The system is implemented in the Grossratssaal, the acoustically challenging main legislative chamber of the 15th century Gothic structure. Project design was handled by Daniel Zurwerra of Suhr, Switzerland-based Virtually Audio.

"Voice reinforcement in this space is challenging for several reasons," recounts Zurwerra. "First, the reverberation time is more than two seconds, and even higher at some frequencies. We have high background noise levels, and because of aesthetics and historic preservation requirements, loudspeaker placement and positioning is highly restricted. It was clear that beam-steering columns would offer the best results.

"The sound quality

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UK - A new version of the Purple Guide, which aims to help organisers deliver successful events safely, has launched this week. The Guide, which was originally published in 1992, is expected by The Events Industry Forum (EIF) to be indispensable to regulators at local authorities, emergency service personnel, and the various contractors and sub-contractors who help make events happen. Like its predecessor, it is also expected to help keep Britain's expertise at events at the forefront on the world stage.

"The original Purple Guide, published by the HSE in the 1990s, had a huge impact in helping to bring a safer and more cohesive approach to event management," says Jim Winship, Secretary of the EIF and who has been co-ordinating the project. "It also helped to put the UK events industry on the map worldwide as the standards set in the Guide rapidly became adopted a

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Russia - Housed in an impressive purpose built complex in the North of Moscow, Russia's CineLab SoundMix studio complex is considered the flagship for sound in the Russian cinema post-production industry. The complex boasts a variety of studios including three Dolby Premier mixing theatres, built around Avid System 5 consoles and Pro Tools DAWs. One of the mixing stages was recently upgraded to the new Dolby Atmos format.

O M Network owner Michael Tovkalo, responsible for the installation, explained, "The whole setup demanded uncompromising signal quality. We have always found Van Damme cables extremely reliable which is why we immediately decided to use Van Damme cable solutions."

The installation required connected patch panels and dynamic processing devices using digital multicores for which Van Damme Green Series Digi Grade AES / EBU 110 Ohm UP-OFC was chosen. Fo

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UK - Lighting and visuals designer Cate Carter and Pablo Beckett of Bryte Design expanded their innovative, eye-catching video set design concept for Ellie Goulding's recent UK arena tour, in the process utilizing three of XL Video's newest LED products - Radiant MC-18 Hybrid, Radiant MC-7T and Radiant MC-18T - plus their popular Pixled F-12 screen.

XL Video also supplied cameras, a Catalyst media server for playback and PPU and crew. The account is being project managed by XL's Phil Mercer.

Carter, who operated lighting for this section of the tour, was the first person in the UK to tour the brand new Hybrid 18mm screen on Goulding's UK theatre tour - part of the same Halcyon Days album campaign - in October 2013. It features a standard medium 18 mm pitch comprising 32 x 32 pixels per panel, with 4 x 4 higher brightness (7700nit) low resolution pixels also embedded in

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Germany - Music & Sales, German manufacturers of both Hughes & Kettner and HK Audio, held their annual International Distributors Meeting with all their worldwide partners in St. Wendel, Germany last week.

One of the highlights is the annual awards ceremony, and JHS received two Outstanding Achievement Awards - Best New Distributor 2013 for Hughes & Kettner, and Best HK Audio Elements 2013 Distributor.

Alan Smith, JHS sales & marketing executive director said, "The product ranges from both HK Audio and Hughes & Kettner are truly outstanding and we're pleased our dealers are doing so well with them. There are new products from both families on the way too, so plenty more to look forward to."

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Having presided over international trade fairs at the highest level spanning four decades, SGM boss Peter Johansen was able to declare that the recent Prolight+Sound 2014 in Frankfurt was unquestionably his best trade show experience ever.

There were numerous reasons to celebrate, not least being because LD Michael Rahr's inspired lighting concept was one of the most dynamic and interactive seen in the lighting segment of the show; it enabled visitors to address directly the cornucopia of ground-breaking LED effects.

Specifically, SGM passed several milestones. First, Michael Herweg, head of SGM Deutschland GmbH, was able to present Fürth based dry hire company, Motion Light with a special golden P-5 to mark the 1000th sale of the high-selling/high-powered energy efficient wash light.

Then another mighty company, PRG, which has already embraced the P-5, placed a m

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UK - Leading lighting designer Jonny Gaskell chose Robe moving lights to be right at the centre of his design for the latest UK leg of BRIT Award winning band Rudimental's ongoing tour.

Gaskell has been working with the chart-topping rising stars since 2013. This tour has been ongoing since last summer as their success and popularity continues to rise exponentially on the back of their debut studio album, 'Home' and their energetic live performances.

The Robe count on this tour which played theatres and arenas included 28 x Robin MMX Spots and 34 x Robin LEDWash 600s which were the backbone of the rig.

His starting point for the design was again the famous Hackney Peace Memorial mural backdrop, created for stage by Hangman using a special new technique involving two images, one on the back and one on the front of the cloth, which represented day and night versions of the mai

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USA - Derek Parker has handled lighting design for country music singer Travis Tritt for seven years and after years of using discharge spot fixtures on a steady regimen of shows, now enjoys the benefits that the 300W Satura Spot LED Pro moving head from Elation Professional brings.

"I originally stepped into the LED world for the power savings," Derek states, "but then I started to really like the brightness of some of the LED spots that are coming out, especially the Satura Spot, and decided to use them on the show."

Tritt is a multi-Grammy and CMA award-winning artist and plays anywhere from 80 to 100 shows year in and year out. His latest outing started 10 January with a series of acoustic shows before getting the full band involved for a run of shows that has him touring through September and likely longer.

Although he enjoys the Satura Spot LED's br

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UK - Saville Audio Visual provided the complete audio visual facilities for the Royal Television Society's North East awards night at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead - for the 27th consecutive year.

Over 450 programme makers, commissioners, supporters and executives attended the event alongside a host of presenters and celebrities. The ceremony and dinner celebrated all aspects of media production in the region - from television shows to on-line programmes and video games.

The RTS North East and Borders Awards is the biggest media event in the region, honouring achievements in TV production, online programmes and video games and were expertly hosted by Steph McGovern, popular business presenter on BBC Breakfast.

Among those presenting awards was Teesside-born Stephen Tompkinson and winners included Robson Green's Tales from Northumberland, which took the best factual award. G

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UK - Adastra will be exhibiting a selection of new products from their wide range of audio equipment at the PLASA Focus in Leeds (29th - 30th April). During the event special introductory offers will be available to Adastra trade accounts opened at the show.

"We look forward to meeting up with friends old and new," the company says. "Visit Adastra on stand R-C05, leave your details to receive a free gift and collect a catalogue whilst you're there!"

Adastra is an AVSL Group Ltd brand that has been supplying public address systems for over 60 years. Synonymous with quality and reliability, Adastra offers the latest in 100V line, public address and background music systems. The diversity of the range makes Adastra a flexible, affordable solution.

Register now to attend PLASA Focus: Leeds.

(Cla

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Denmark - The former Kino cinema in Odense has recently begun a new lease of life as the Danish city's latest and most modern cafe, bar and nightclub. Whether it's quiet background music during the week or loud party tunes at weekends, a Yamaha CIS series system serves up the best taste in sound.

Opened in late 2013, the cinema's new identity as UBN One is intended to deliver a completely new alternative to more traditional 'going out' places in Odense. The 900m2 venue is designed to be very versatile, giving people the opportunity to enjoy a quiet coffee or beer with friends during the day, through more lively evening socialising to committed partying at weekends.

Featuring three floors - a café and bar on the ground floor, a nightclub on the first floor and a space for parties, meetings and other events on the second, the audio system had to be both comprehensive and

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Germany - GLP (German Light Products) celebrated a landmark birthday at this year's Prolight+Sound Show in Frankfurt, when Udo Künzler, who founded the company in 1994, invited the massed ranks of international press and distributors to raise a glass and toast the company's first 20 years.

As he stood on the riser, he was surrounded by all the milestone products that have marked this evolutionary journey over two decades, commencing with the Patend light and leading up to the birth of the ground-breaking impression series in 2007. They even displayed the ill-fated 'Blue Tools' - a product that never got completed, and was described by Künzler as 'the world's most expensive coffee machine'. Hilariously, it was profiled to resemble precisely that - with a plastic coffee cup underneath lending authenticity.

Two high profile industry professionals who have contributed to sales o

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Germany - Following the development of new software, enabling Optocore devices to be connected directly to the Optocore-DiGiCo fibre loop, the German specialists created an ambitious network at this month's Frankfurt Prolight+Sound which threatened to steal the show.

The two companies - along with Clear-Com - certainly ring fenced the opening morning with successive 'virtual' press conferences, where the media thronged to the stands - first to see DiGiCo MD James Gordon hosting, with marketing director Dave Webster speaking remotely from the Optocore stand, followed by Bob Boster, MD of Clear-Com, who was beamed in from the Optocore stand as Simon Browne anchored the press call from Clear-Com's stand location.

The three stands were connected via single mode fibre - all made possible by the new DiGiCo implementation. Visitors were clearly able to see the remote X6R mic preamp o

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UK - Two Midas PRO6 digital mixing consoles were recently employed to mix the first in a series of "secret" performances by Prince, at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. The PRO6 consoles were supplied by LMC Audio Systems Ltd., and operated by the well-established production company - DB Audio.

DB Audio and the Electric Ballroom have enjoyed a nearly 30-year relationship, and have seen several digital boards rotate through the historic venue over that period. Most were not able to live up to the company's high demands on sound quality and usability, forged from years of working with state-of-the-art analogue equipment.

DB Audio owners Richard and Steve Waterhouse consulted with Will Hinkly, technical field sales at LMC Audio London, to determine which console would best suit Electric Ballroom's diverse requirements. Hinkly had this to say, "We took them through t

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UK - This February saw Avolites technology at the heart of The Show: R&B Superstars Valentine's Special - a night of performances by a nostalgic line-up of 90s R&B legends at Wembley Arena in London.

Headlined by En Vogue with Blackstreet2, for the third-year running the evening was an exciting celebration of the best American artists. The show was managed by Birmingham-based production company DMX Productions, headed up by production manager SJ Grevett.

Lighting designer Tom Grant from design house and rental company Siyan Ltd worked alongside programmer Jack Sayer to construct a powerful show design, specifying Sayer Lighting Productions' high performance Avolites Expert Pro with Titan Mobile Wing to control the entirety of the lighting and media, which was run from his Avolites Media Ai T4 Media Server.

Tom Grant explains the concept behind the design: "I was tasked

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Belgium - Versuz in Hasselt, Belgium is one of the best known club phenomena in Benelux, regularly attracting a devoted crowd of dance music enthusiasts from Belgium, The Netherlands and many regulars who think nothing of travelling from France and Germany to catch the vibes and grooves courtesy of resident DJ Laurent Wery and a selection of special guests.

Versuz has recently re-opened in a new 3000 capacity venue with even more style and buzz plus the very latest sound, lighting and video technology including a large and spectacular moving light rig from Robe, and three massive custom elliptical trusses in the ceiling made for the space by Wicreations.

With over 140 moving lights in the rig, it's one of the largest Robe club installations to date and arguably the most spectacular in Belgium.

Yves Smolders is one of the three owners. They knew what they wanted, which was a

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