UK - Winchester-based AV integrator Whitwam recently installed two Shure SCM820 eight-channel automatic audio mixers and three Sound Devices PIX260 AV recorders at the headquarters of The Royal Society in London. The mixers and recorders were supplied as part of a comprehensive refit of the audio-visual facilities in two of the Grade 1-listed rooms at the Society's headquarters at Carlton House Terrace, Central London.

Presentations by members of the Royal Society take place throughout the year in its lecture theatres; most of these are amplified and some are recorded or broadcast for posterity. The Sound Devices PIX260s were installed in the largest gallery, the Wellcome Trust lecture theatre, to capture the output from the four cameras situated there, while the Shure mixers were installed in the Society's dining rooms, where microphones and sound reinforcement are also often u

UK - Three JoeCo BlackBox BBR64-MADI recorders are capturing audio from some of the world's best-loved sketches and catchphrases at the Monty Python Live shows in London's 02 arena. The 64-channel MADI systems form part of recording engineer Matt Bainbridge's arsenal of equipment that is being used to record 168 channels of audio split over three MADI streams.

Bainbridge, of BlueCat Professional Audio Consultancy, who is responsible for the multi-track recording of each show commented, "We needed units that would be reliable, easy to set-up and leave unattended at times. The JoeCo's fitted the bill perfectly. In addition to their audio quality, the ability to use just one unit as a master device has also proved very useful."

JoeCo's BBR64-MADI Recorder is widely used for live audio capture and acquisition in a range of performance, broadcast, film & TV sound a

Germany - The final of Germany's 2014 Next Top Model talent show provided an opportunity for lighting designer Manuel Da Costa to put Robe's Robin CycFX 8 fixtures through their paces. Staged in the Lanxess Arena, Cologne and attended by 15,000 people, it was also broadcast live on German TV Pro7.

Manuel was lighting the series for the fourth time and was also the director of photography, so getting the right mix of lighting for both TV and live elements was crucial. While it's a 'given' for these type of shows that the runway has to be optimised for naturalistic flesh tones and shadow-less illumination of faces, it was also an interesting mix of aesthetics - fashion meets live arena show!

He used 44 x CycFX 8s in total, mostly rigged to the side stage wings and used to wash parts of the catwalk as general illumination and also to create some bold and distinctive effect

UK - Track and motor systems specialist Triple E has presented London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a powerful TDRIVE motor following the school's victory in Triple E's speed-rigging challenge at the ABTT Theatre Show in June.

Triple E's managing director David Edelstein awarded the TDRIVE prize to two Guildhall students, Seb Matthews, and Sam Gosling, who rigged one of Triple E's popular motorised Unitrack systems the fastest. The ABTT competition was held as part of Triple E's 30th birthday celebrations, and attracted a lot of interest. Other participants included the Brit School, Imperial College, and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and teams from Flint Hire and Supply and Northern Light.

Guildhall's Seb and Sam completed the rigging challenge in 11 minutes 50 seconds - a full one minute 10 seconds faster

UK - Franz Ferdinand's monitor engineer, Tom Howat, selected an iLive modular system for the band's recent tour of European and USA in support of their fourth album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action.

Comprising an iLive-112 Surface and iDR10 Mixrack with additional PL10 remote controller, the iLive monitor system manages six wedge mixes, five stereo RF IEM mixes and one stereo hardwired IEM mix, three effects sends and two mixes for FOH.

"I came across the iLive systems while working for Morrissey over the past couple of years," he explains. "The iLive system is snappy and responsive. The 'networking' side of it is powerful and, when coupled with the flexible nature of the surface and their approach to scene storage, it makes for a very versatile environment. Of course, it sounds great, too."

Howat's approach to mixing for the band is manu

UK - The Tesco agricultural trade stand has just been awarded gold at the Royal Three Counties Show and reserve trade stand champion at the Royal Norfolk Show.

This interactive exhibit currently touring major agricultural shows across the nation, is focused on demonstrating how Tesco works with suppliers and farmers on a local and national level. The stand aims to help the public to understand more about where their food comes from and demonstrate the high quality of the products. Within the stand there is a range of food sampling areas as well as cookery demonstrations, that showcase how the products can be used simply at home.

The event technical team from Saville Audio Visual have been involved in making this tactile experience a reality and have been closely involved in the design and delivery of the event. The exhibition features a series of engaging interactive displays

UK - Soundcraft's next generation Vi3000 digital console has successfully blasted off in both the rental and installation sectors within the UK.

UK and Eire distributors, Sound Technology confirm that their premier dealers, SSE Audio Group and Adlib have already successfully conducted dedicated demo days, introducing the facilities of the desk to enthusiastic audiences of sound engineers and touring and venue personnel, while Kent-based Phonophobia's Mark Chant says he expects his new Vi3000 to be permanently out this summer.

On top of that, Adlib has also confirmed the first installation desk to the University of Liverpool's Guild of Students - one of a suite of Soundcraft consoles and racks supplied to the Students Union as part of an extensive refurbishment of its technical facilities.

With MADI and Dante fitted as standard, and swappable I/O ports available, the Vi3000 e

Europe - Liverpool-based technical solutions specialist Adlib supplied an L-Acoustics K1 sound system and leading systems engineer Tony Szabo for the recent UK and European legs of Nine Inch Nails 2014 European tour.

It's the third time that Adlib has supplied the epic industrial rockers with audio when playing in Europe. This time around, Szabo worked with NIN monitor engineer Mike Prowda, FOH Engineers Gary Bradshaw and Antony King, together with Firehouse Productions' Tim Fraleigh who looked after monitor world and systems designer Jamie Pollock who oversaw the FOH set up.

There are many strands connecting Adlib, the band and their various crew members over the years, and for Tony Szabo - joining this tour entailed going back on the road with many familiar faces in the audio department.

The sound system was specified by Jamie Pollock and Gary Bradshaw at the start of the

The Netherlands - The Ampco Flashlight Group has taken a strategic interest in the Purple Group.

This participation is in line with market developments and fits within the current view of the Ampco Flashlight Group as a leading service company within the live entertainment industry: from one's own strength it is working closely together with its fellow 'full service' businesses. As a result, the cooperation supports the great demand for tailor-made solutions from the broadcast, theatre, live and corporate event market.

The varied assortment, the huge stock equipment and the knowledge and expertise of large teams of dedicated professional employees of both companies suit each other very well, whereby customers will be better served in the future.

Dick van Berkum, CEO Ampco Flashlight Group, comments: "The Purple Group has over 20 years experience as a full service rental

USA - In the process of replacing the sound and broadcast video systems at the First Baptist Church in Lawton, Oklahoma, AV integrator and systems designer FBP Systems (a subsidiary of the Morse Group family of companies) looked to Bose Professional Systems and its recently introduced RoomMatch asymmetrical array module loudspeakers to solve the church's audio challenges.

With a large balcony that completely wraps around the sides and back of a 1,000-seat sanctuary, this church required a sound system that was able to throw sound clearly and intelligibly over a long distance, and at the same time cover a very wide area. A typical line array wouldn't be able to fulfill all of these requirements without numerous adjacent hangs and then would still run the risk of interference between arrays. Fortunately, by installing the RoomMatch asymmetrical array module, First Baptist Church g

USA - Bulgarian International Television (BiT), a Chicago-based TV station serving Bulgarians in the US, is using DPA Microphones to fulfill the audio requirements for all of its programmes. With several of the company's d:screet 4061 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphone integrated into its live production process, the station relies on the mics around the clock to ensure clear audio for every show.

As their name suggests, the DPA d:screet mics were selected for their ability to be easily concealed on the wardrobes of news reporters, television personalities and guests. According to George Simeonov, technical director at BiTelevision, the station had no immediate urgency to update its audio equipment, but the sound of the d:screet 4061 mics during a recent live demo was impressive and noticeably clearer than what he had been using at the station, and thus quickly became a must-h

UK - Sound Technology, UK/ROI distributor of JBL Professional has announced UK availability of the new VTX V20 mid-size line array system and details of a UK listening event to be held at London's LH2 Studios production facility on Tuesday 15 July presented by the VTX Series designer himself Paul Bauman. The event will feature a full VTX V20 performance system, powered by Crown i-Tech 4 x 3500 HD V-Racks.

Presented by JBL Professional's Paul Bauman this will be an opportunity to hear the system, see the new fast suspension system, and discover first-hand the story behind the VTX Series design. Paul has been a member of the JBL Professional team for the past eight years and has been responsible for the product development of the acclaimed JBL VTX Series. Paul previously held key positions at L-Acoustics, Maryland Sound International and Adamson Systems Engineering.

The event, o

Australia - Award-winning Australian lighting designer Flynn Talbot utilised the intense colour of three Philips Selecon PLprofile1 LED luminaires to add another dimension to his latest light installation Primary at the PSAS gallery in Perth.

A three-sided triangular wall installation made from cardboard, Primary explores the three primary colours of light - red, green and blue, with the structure designed to fragment the light and demonstrate how coloured light is mixed.

"For this project I needed intense colour and absolutely pure light," explains Talbot. "The installation is purposefully designed to break up light into many shadows but unless the light source was completely even, the effect and the magic would have been lost. I needed a smooth and colour-rich shift between primary colours, so I chose the Philips Selecon PLprofile1 LED luminaires

Germany - The Turkish-German Cultural Olympics arose from the need to put the existing understanding between the two peoples under the spotlight, and at the same time bring Germans and Turkish relations closer to further promote their inter-cultural exchange. For this reason, the Cultural Olympics are not just a national language competition, but also celebrate traditions and are an opportunity for dialogue and reciprocal cultural exchange for young people and children.

The most recent Turkish-German Cultural Olympics took place in Munich's Olympiahalle. Show lighting designer and operator Chris Schatz (Klinkertorstudios) used an MA system to manage 60 Clay Paky Sharpys and 20 Alpha Spot HPE 1500s. The MA equipment consisted of two full-size granMAs, three Network Processing Units (NPUs), two Network Signal Processors (NSPs) and one 2Port Node onPC. The production was broadcast

Czech Republic - Czech rental company TD Promo supplied Robe moving lights for three popular Czech bands this spring - all of whom toured simultaneously throughout the Czech Republic with some shows also in Slovakia.

The bands were pop rockers Mandrage from Pilzen (LD Tomas Karban); Divokej Bill a well-established folk-rock band from Uvaly near Prague (LD Matej Mantlik) and loud-and-proud thrash metal outfit SKWOR (LD Martin Samecky).

Three very distinct bands embracing three different genres of music, all enthusiastically received around the country at average 1000 capacity venues over two to three months - and three innovative Czech LDs all loving their Robe fixtures!

The Mandrage tour used 14 x Robe ROBIN Pointes, five MMX Spots and eight ROBIN LEDWash 600s; Divokej Bill had eight ROBIN 600E Beams on their rig, while the SKWOR show made great impact with four Pointes and

Japan - Hachiko Square, sometimes called Hachiko Plaza, is probably the busiest and best-known meeting place in Tokyo. Named in honour of the famous statue of the Faithful Dog Hachiko, the square is bordered by a department store, two train stations and the well-known Shibuya pedestrian scramble crossing that is reputed to be the busiest in the world.

The plaza is usually teeming with people, especially during evenings and weekends. It is a prime people-watching spot and a very popular meeting place. Most people, locals and tourists alike, gravitate toward the bronzed Akita Inu statue referred to as Hachi or Hachiko. The original statue was erected in 1934 to honour the dog who met his master, Professor Ueno Hidesaburo, every day at the station after work. When Professor Ueno died in 1925 and did not return, Hachiko continued to wait for him daily for the next nine years, appear

UK - Two different elements of Kinesys automation are in action on Robbie Williams' highly acclaimed Swings Both Ways tour, one for lighting and the other for the set / drapes department, both being controlled by a single Kinesys Vector system operated by Gareth Williams (no relation!).

The tour's spectacular scenic aspects and lighting have been designed by show directors Lee Lodge and Willie Williams and LD Mark Cunniffe.

Lighting includes three eye-catching chandeliers above the stage, each constructed from three concentric semi-circular trusses and flown on a total of nine points per chandelier. These are driven into numerous different positions by Liftket motors fitted with Kinesys Elevation 1+ drive units - giving 27 axis of automation in total.

The chandeliers are made from custom HUD style trussing manufactured by Thomas, which allows all the attached lighting

UK - The ROLI Seaboard is creating many big - and very new - noises in piano and synthesiser circles, with its re-imagining of the traditional keyboard as a soft, continuous surface. Late May saw the instrument's official launch at the legendary Abbey Road studios, where Capital Sound helped to show off its potential.

The Seaboard is designed to allow its players to apply dynamics, slurs, portamento, pitch bend, vibrato and other forms of expression with the fingers in a new and natural-feeling way. Or, as its inventor Roland Lamb says, it's a way of finding the space between the black and white notes on a traditional keyboard.

The launch event saw a trio of Seaboard players - Marco Parisi, Heen-Wah Wai and Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess - accompanied by drummer Raymond Hearne, playing a set in Abbey Road's Studio 2. Capital Sound supplied a DiGiCo SD9 mixing console,

UK - d&b GB sales partner Wigwam Acoustics Ltd will hold a d&b Remote network and ArrayCalc workshop on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th August 2014.

Both events will be hosted by SSE Audio Group, at their head office in Redditch.

The d&b Remote network workshop is a step by step, hands-on introduction to the d&b control software. The d&b ArrayCalc workshop covers the basics of line array theory and explores the ArrayCalc simulation software for system planning. To gain maximum benefit, participants should have a good basic knowledge of the D6 and D12 amplifiers and be experienced with d&b sound system setup and management. Attendees are required to bring their own laptops.

Spaces are limited so it is advisable to book as soon as possible. To register visit the web address below.

(Claire Beeson)

UK - The Guildhall School and Stage Technologies have joined together to deliver a 5-day

Automation CPD Training course: Automation for the Entertainment Industry in one of the newest, fully-automated theatres in the UK - the Guildhall School's new building Milton Court. The training is delivered by practicing automation specialists from Stage Technologies and comprises a mixture of hands-on practice and theory.

The Automation for the Entertainment Industry course is suitable for those pursuing a career in automation as well as technical theatre graduates and professionals in other backstage industries, such as lighting and sound, who are looking to increase their skills and knowledge.

The course aims to provide students with a thorough introduction to automation and eChameleon software: from control basics and theory through to grid work and complex moves, and two dimension

Belgium - Multi-talented theatre-lighting professional Luc Peumans of creative design practice Painting With Light has produced the set, lighting and video for rock'n'roll feast for the eyes Grease: The Arena Spectacular, specifying the exceptional power of 35 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash luminaires to flood the stage with stunning and vibrant colours.

Taking place in some of Belgium's biggest arenas, the show was a fresh and contemporary take on the 50s classic high school romance story, injecting it with energetic dance routines and huge visual effects. Peumans therefore needed a wash light powerful enough to hold its own against the video elements, flooding each massive stage with intense colour in a range of stunning hues.

"The concept behind the design was to create a big, modern and powerful look with vibrant colours that united the video and lighting and fo

USA - While last year's festival may have been soaked in rain, this year's Governor's Ball basked in both sunlight and Bandit's lights. The three day music festival took place once again on Randall's Island, where 150,000 fans gathered over three days for what The New York Times called "A festival with a New York heart."

In its fourth year, The Governor's Ball features a wide variety of musical styles, from electronica, to indie, to rock, hip-hop and Americana. With a line up including OutKast, Jack White, Vampire Weekend, The Strokes, Axwell // Ingrosso, and Foster the People, there was something for everyone.

In addition to fantastic musical acts, the festival also boasts a multitude of hip New York food, a silent disco, photo booths and lawn games.

Founders Entertainment hired Bandit Lites to provide the lighting and rigging for two of the stages. Bandit

USA - Known for its high-quality entertainment, Oceans Ten is a popular night club and tourist destination in Miami Beach, Florida, with indoor and outdoor dining areas, live music and DJs and a great location on the beach front.

Unfortunately, the audio in the club's outdoor dining area wasn't up to the quality standards of their indoor areas. In addition, the outdoor loudspeakers had deteriorated from continuous exposure to the beach-front, salt-air environment.

Last year, Oceans Ten asked James Reed and Michael Callahan of Audio Video Lighting Innovations (AVLI) in Miami to propose a new loudspeaker system that would survive the salt air whilst providing high-quality audio for its outdoor dining area customers. AVL Innovations had installed the club's indoor system and understood their commitment to high-quality sound. Reed recommended Community's WET Series loudspeakers be

France - Before American blues-rock titan Joe Bonamassa hit the road this spring for the initial North American leg of his latest world tour, the production team at Special Event Services (SES) knew they needed a highly versatile loudspeaker rig that could handle anything they could throw at it over most of a year and three continents.

To ensure that they were well prepared for everything - acoustic sets, electric sets, large theatres, small arenas, the U.S., Europe, and Australia - SES specified L-Acoustics' brand new K2 system for its first official tour as a main PA.

Jason Farah of SES says that the venues on this tour made K2 the right rig for the gig and that there are zero sonic compromises due to the K2's smaller size compared to the vaunted K1. "The K1 with its 15s can feel a bit deeper, but there is no shortage of low end in the K2. In fact, the 12s in the K2 are

Latest Issue. . .