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UK - In conjunction with live sound equipment company Tour Supply, Shure Distribution UK has been supplying equipment and technical support services at a number of the UK's biggest festivals during the summer period.

Tour Supply's distinctive cabin could be found backstage at the Radio 1 Big Weekend, Parklife, Wireless, Sonisphere, Bloodstock, Download, London Calling, Lovebox, and the V Festivals. Shure UK technical experts were on hand at select festivals with Tour Supply providing technical assistance to engineers and crew members offering trials of new products such as Shure's new Beta instrument microphones and the SE846 quad driver earphones.

A range of Shure products was available for purchase from the Tour Supply cabin at all of these festivals, including wired and wireless microphone systems and supplementary RF antennas and accessories. A large selection of Radial En

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UK - West Midlands-based technical solutions and video specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) has invested in its first apprenticeship scheme in conjunction with Birmingham based Creative Alliance, and its first apprentice is 16 year old Cameron Preussner who has joined the team at CPL for a hands-on training in 'Technical Theatre Studies' (TTS) for the next 12 months.

CPL's MD Matthew Boyse says, "For some time we been considering the harnessing of fresh new talent at school leaver age rather than after University, with the idea that they can then grow and develop their career at CPL, which offers a diverse range of job opportunities in many specialist fields."

CPL devised the module-based course that will incorporate all elements of TTS including audio, lighting, AV, project management, stage management, administration, etc. It's been designed to offer a basic

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Belgium - Belgian celebrity and TV host Marcel Vanthilt took his popular summer 'pop-up' magazine show concept to two cities this year - Roeselare and Knokke-Heist - both of which staged Hotel M for a number of weeks throughout the summer.

An elaborate Hotel M set designed by Piece Montée was constructed as the studio facility and backdrop to the daily magazine programme broadcast on national TV channel EEN, concluding each evening with a live music performance.

Lighting for the stage area on the set comprised 35 x Robe Robin LEDWash 300s.

These were specified by the show's lighting designer Michiel Milbou, one of Belgium's leading TV LDs. This was the fifth edition of this show that he has lit and the third year running that LEDWashes were specified to light the band stage.

The fixtures were arranged in a 5x5 matrix in the ceiling of the band stage, which wa

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USA - The Denver Centre for the Performing Arts (DCPA) has selected the RC4Magic Series 3 Wireless DMX and Dimming System to enhance their wireless needs.

When looking at the technical needs for the Theatre Company's upcoming re-imagined production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, (featuring lighting design by Don Holder), DCPA lighting director Charles MacLeod knew the DCPA would need to expand their wireless DMX and dimming capabilities.

The Denver Centre for the Performing Arts was an early adopter of wireless DMX technology with RC4's rack mounted systems in the 90's and then the RC4 Magic Series 2 system more recently. "I've come to depend on the flexibility and stability of the RC4Magic," said MacLeod "The tiny size of the DMX2micro solves challenges that we face on many productions. We are really looking forward to the expanded functionality of the S

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UK - Biodiesel specialist Midas will power the first Technopop Festival this autumn, a four-week pop-up science, technology and innovation experience in London's East End.

Caroline Johnson, Technopop's production manager, comments, "Environmental and social considerations run through the core of the Technopop concept and the Midas team identifies with that. Midas has proved itself in all sorts of environments over the years, so getting them on board to support our approach was one of the easier decisions."

Held in a Neptunus structure, Technopop, a partnership with Oxley International Holdings, will highlight the breadth of opportunity, and intrigue, in the world of science and technology to young people, with a focus on some of the capital's less affluent areas.

(Jim Evans)

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Europe - The first product to prove the Open Control Architecture (OCA) in the field, the D80 amplifier from d&b audiotechnik, was already at launch in January an innovative product with many features and benefits making it immediately attractive to the d&b user community. Why the addition of OCA? "You might call this parallel evolution," explained Marc Weber, the driving force in product management behind the development of the D80 at d&b. "The new amplifier was designed to include sophisticated functionality and control, the future possibility of interoperability with other manufacturers was also a consideration, this is where OCA fits in."

In essence OCA, developed by the OCA Alliance of companies that includes Bosch, Yamaha and d&b audiotechnik, is a method of 'talking' over Ethernet. Being an open public communications standard, the target is for a commo

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UK/Serbia - Trilogy has announced that N1, a new news channel that will cover the Balkan countries of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina has selected Trilogy's Gemini distributed matrix intercom system.

Sold by Amisys, a broadcast systems integration company covering Serbia and neighbouring countries, to Balkan DTH and cable operator United Group, which will run N1, the Gemini system will provide critical communications within the channel's main production facility in Belgrade, Serbia, plus local news centres in Zagreb, Croatia, and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Taking advantage of Gemini's integrated IP capability, the system will link production staff and presenters at each of the facilities, with backup circuits provided by the system for VoIP & PSTN telephone services.

Based on a distributed, IP-based architecture rather than a single central matrix, Gemini intercom sy

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Germany - The Rock im Park and Rock am Ring festivals are the most popular music festivals in Germany, attracting an audience of 150,000. The two festivals are held simultaneously in Nürburg and Nuremberg, in the West and South of Germany. The events each boast an almost identical artist line-up, with headliners this year including Metallica, Linkin Park, Iron Maiden, and Kings of Leon.

Both concerts are outdoors, but pose different challenges for sound crews. Rock im Park's Zeppelinfeld has neighbouring residential areas so sound restrictions are a big consideration. Rock am Ring takes place at the world-famous Nürburgring racetrack, a narrow and very long audio field that requires a powerful, directional PA system to deliver the best coverage for an extended audience.

Premier event production services provider satis&fy AG created two distinct sound designs and system deplo

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UAE - Melody House Musical Instruments LLC, a sole distributor of HK Audio in the Middle East, in cooperation with NMK Electronics Enterprises, the distributor of Rane products, has started a close relationship with DJ Academy based in Dubai. As part of a newly formed relationship, two of DJ Academy's teaching rooms have been outfitted with HK Audio and Rane equipment.

"DJ academy is doing something very unique in the region. They groom enthusiasts and transform them into professional DJs. Therefore during the training period it is crucial that students know what good audio gear feels and sounds like. I am pleased with their decision to select HK Audio as the loudspeaker brand for their course," commented Grayson Soares, operations executive from Melody House Musical Instruments.

Melody House supplied HK Audio Icon Series including two IC112LA speakers, four IC118BA

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USA - Quil Ceda Creek Casino, located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation north of Seattle, had one overriding requirement for Agility AVL for the lighting and video package in their new Qzone entertainment venue - make it high tech. And that they did, installing an Elation Professional EZ4 LED video screen along with Elation Platinum Spot LED II moving heads and EPAR Series LED fixtures.

Opened in April 2014, Qzone is a new multi-purpose venue that functions as sports bar, café and music venue and even holds corporate meetings from time to time. The space, which originally started as a nightclub before being converted to a gaming room and now Qzone, is located just off the main Quil Ceda Creek Casino gaming floor. The client wanted to use the space to provide different options and events that appealed to customers in order to draw them onto the property.

Six months prior

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The Netherlands - The Theater Markant in Uden, Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands is a busy producing and receiving theatre run by the city, which also has an integral but independently run event space that is equally active ... and has recently been refurbished.

This has included a full technical upgrade - for which the lighting elements were supplied by Controllux.

The new lighting rig was designed by Controllux's Kuno Van Velzen and includes Robe's Actor LED fixtures, LEDWash 300s, LEDWash 600s and LEDBeam 100 moving lights - all from Robe's Robin series - together with Robe LEDForce 18 PARs.

Once the renovation project was underway, the original lighting proposals for the 'new' event space were revised by Chief LX Rob de Gier and Technical Director Maarten Prinssen who looks after technicals for Markant's event area.

He especially wanted LED lighting installed to make the

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Canada - The Westgate Collegiate & Vocational Institute in Thunder Bay, Ontario, was due for a change. A 1970s-era sound system resulted in lots of echoes and reflections but little in the way of intelligible sound.

When Randall Anderson, Regional Representative for Thunder Bay-based Evolution AV was called in to evaluate the gymnasium's audio needs, he encountered more than the usual acoustical challenge of hard, reflective surfaces that smear sound - an ongoing problem for the space's many applications, including sporting events, performances, convocation and more. The situation called for a flexible, innovative solution - exactly what is offered by a RoomMatch system from Bose Professional Systems.

Personnel from Bose and Evolution AV had the gym's measurements input into Bose's Modeler software, which produced three distinct possible solution paths. Anderson and Bose field

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UK - Britain's longest continuously-running game show, Question of Sport, is back for another series. Remarkably it was aired for the first time in 1968 and is still considered prime time TV. Having run almost uninterrupted since 1970 they have filmed over 1000 episodes.

Each week two teams of sports stars, headed up by resident team captains Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson, battle it out in numerous topical rounds which include Picture Round, Home or Away, What Happened Next and On the Buzzer.

LD Roger Williams continues to light the show. Richard Martin Lighting (RML) have been providing the lights for this show for a number of years now and have worked hard to make sure the transition from filming in London, to Dock 10 in Salford has been a smooth one.

Roger's rig is relatively basic in terms of moving lights but the effect is has with the vibrant set work brilliantly

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USA - The Grateful Dead maintain a following that's as large and passionate as ever 49 years after the band's founding. This devotion was on full display at Gathering of the Vibes, an annual festival celebrating the iconic band, which this year featured performances by Widespread Panic, Umphrey's McGee and John Fogerty, among others, including the 'Dead' tribute band Dark Star Orchestra, all performing on a stage illuminated with a rainbow of colours that would have done Jerry Garcia proud, courtesy of moving fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

One of the most successful tribute bands, Dark Star Orchestra has been covering Grateful Dead concerts song for song, often joined by members of the original band, since 1995. Dark Star has performed well over 2,000 Dead Tribute concerts, each one as free flowing and colourful as the next, thanks to the quality of their music and some ric

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USA - The Behind the Scenes Happy Hour, hosted by PLASA will go on sale to the public on 2 September 2014. The biggest pre-LDI party of the year will take place on Thursday, 20 November, from 6pm-8pm at the Westgate Las Vegas (formerly The Las Vegas Hotel). Tickets are $50 each and includes an open bar, hors d'oeuvres and music and all proceeds go to benefit the Behind the Scenes charity, the only industry charity that provides grants to ill or injured entertainment technician professionals. $30 of each ticket is tax deductible, and tickets are expected to sell quickly.

Starting 2 September, tickets can be purchased online. They can also be ordered through your LDI registration.

Current sponsors for the Behind the Scenes Happy Hour include: 4Wall Entertainment (Diamond), Altman Lighting (Diamond), CHAUVET Professi

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USA - Over 100 Robe moving lights made a serious impact as part of Tom Kenny's lighting design for the 2014 Teen Choice Awards (TCA). The show, produced by Bob Bain, Greg Sils and Paul Flattery was staged at the Shrine Auditorium, adjacent to the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles, California.

The prominent event honoured the best teen movies, music, fashion and (new this year), web stars, and attracted many rising young stars and celebrities. This year's presenters included Modern Family's Sarah Hyland and Teen Wolf's Tyler Posey, and a staggering 164m plus votes were cast by young fans through various social media channels. The show was broadcast live on the FOX Television Network.

This is the fourth TCA that has been lit by Kenny and his team and again, this year, he worked closely with Set Designer Steve Bass and Video Designer Eli Kinney

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USA - With more number one hits over the past 20 years than any other artist in Latin Music, Mexican crooner Marco Antonio Solis has earned the appellation "living legend" throughout the Americas, both South and North. A key reason for his enduring popularity can be found in the heartfelt connection he establishes with audiences. This emotional link was very much supported by LD Oscar "El Bro" Florez's lighting design for Solis' current tour, which features 16 Chauvet Professional Nexus 4x4 panels supplied by Visions Lighting of Brea, CA.

"It was very nice to be able to illuminate the audience with colour coordination based on the mood of the show," said Todd Roberts, president of Visions Lighting. "As an artist Marco Antonio Solis is very one-on-one with his audience. The Nexus 4x4 panels were extremely helpful in allowing us to highlight diff

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Germany - As one of Europe's most important institutes of higher education, as well as one of the world's leading research-based universities, the University of Bonn holds Bonner Wissenschaftsnacht or Science Night Bonn biennially in cooperation with the City of Bonn. The goal of the special science-themed evening, held this year in late May, is to give the scientific institutions of Bonn as well as the University the chance to present themselves while highlighting their research and teaching.

In order to best illustrate this year's Science Night slogan, which was Digital Society, the University's Event Management Department decided to illuminate the institution's main building, a beautiful renaissance castle where much of the University's activities take place, as well as the University's Academic Art Museum. Separated from each other by a 250m long

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USA - Located at Dyckman Marina in upper Manhattan, the newly rebuilt La Marina NYC sports a restaurant, bar, lounge, and events space that covers more than 75,000sq.ft of Hudson River waterfront. With world-class facilities and a breathtaking waterfront view, it is rapidly becoming the place to see and be seen.

La Marina NYC's waterfront area is where all the high profile live activity takes place and, to ensure a high level of speech intelligibility and music reproduction for all their events, the venue's management recently took delivery of a new sound reinforcement system drawn from the WR Series catalogue of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

North Bergen, NJ-based E&A Sound LLC, which in addition to its design / build services also runs an audio and video rental operation, was contracted to design and install the sound system for La Marina NYC's waterfront area. After m

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South Africa - Carol Thorns and her special bubble, a clear glass-like luminescent sphere attached to a glowing stage base, created a magical contribution to the Slots Factor media launch, hosted at 3 Sixty° Liquid Lounge at Montecasino. MJ Event Gear used Robe Robin fixtures to enhance the lighting already in the venue.

The Slots Factor is Tsogo Sun's annual national championship takes place across all 14 of its casinos with R1.8m in prize money up for grabs.

Theo Roodt from MJ Event Gear and his team added six Robin 100 LED Beams, eight Robin 600 LED Wash fixtures and two Robin 200 E Spots to compliment the ambience. Prolyte H40V Goal posts were used as pedestal on which some of the fixtures were placed.

Lighting was controlled and operated by Olebogeng Boinamo on an Avolites Tiger Touch 2.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Southampton-based live hire company BCS replaced all of its wireless in-ear monitoring on James Arthur's recent European tour with Shure's PSM1000 system. The move came following on-going problems experienced by James Arthur and BCS's monitor engineer Matt Williams during the early dates with the artist's previous IEM system.

"We kept having RF issues with our previous system," comments BCS project manager Dave 'Boxx' Cann, "and it became a real problem during the tour. All of the wireless mics Matt was using were Shure and were working without any trouble, so eventually he asked us to try a Shure in ear system instead. We got a few channels of PSM1000 in to replace the other system."

For the remaining tour dates, Arthur and his live band used 10 channels of PSM1000 in total. The IEM system comprised five dual-channel transmitters and 10 bodypack recei

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UK - Pearce Hire has announced its first time sponsorship of the 2014 Technical Theatre Awards. The Technical Theatre Awards were launched in 2013 as a way of formally recognising the outstanding achievements and dedication of the backstage 'unsung heroes' of the technical theatre industry. The awards are presented annually at the PLASA London exhibition at ExCel each October. The nominees are shortlisted from individuals elected by their industry peers at the beginning of the year, and then voting conducted between June and September decides the final recipient of each award.

This year there are a total of 17 awards and Pearce Hire is sponsoring the 'Outstanding Achievement in Stage Crew' award. This award highlights an individual within any role of the Stage Department, who is renowned for their dedication and effort to this discipline and respected amongst the technical theat

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USA - For its first location outside of the Northwest, the Cinetopia theatre chain has built three massive GXL screens, each equipped with a Meyer Sound cinema system and Dolby Atmos. Named Overland Park 18, this eastern Kansas theatre complex boasts close to 200 Meyer Sound cinema loudspeakers.

"When we played our demo reel, we would hear a gleeful chuckle and hear comments like, 'I've never heard anything like that before','" says Rudyard Coltman, owner of Cinetopia. "We pride ourselves on the fact that we've been told this theatre is 10 to 15 years ahead of the industry in the technology and amenities it offers."

The local media also noted the life-like detail of the Meyer Sound cinema loudspeakers. "When I heard the rain falling on screen, I could make out the drops, not just a swoosh," writes Jeneé Osterheldt, lifestyle columnist for <

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UK - London's Wilton's Music Hall welcomeded brother and sister folk-pop duo Angus and Julia Stone for a pair of sold out shows, featuring LD Toby Hoggarth controlling lights from an Avolites Titan Mobile and Fader Wing.

The Stone siblings, hailing from Australia, delivered a powerful and emotive set that, when paired with Hoggarth's intense imagining of Ed Warren's design, entranced an audience that at times fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.

"The design for the show was very theatrical," says Hoggarth, "All the lights that we used on the show were mounted on the sides or at the back. There was absolutely no light coming from below. It was all incredibly dramatic."

Hoggarth's rig for the show was comprised of an LED star cloth that hung as a backdrop, four boom lights, four Robe Robin 300 washes, four Fresnel spotlights, and a set of festoon light

  1. Gabalier tours with Meyer Lyon system
  2. Shri Krishna temple switches to Chauvet Professional
  3. A Taste of Broadway in Hong Kong with DPA
  4. XL for Massive Attack summer tour
  5. Bwefar invests in Robe LEDWash 800s
  6. San Antonio's Tobin Centre chooses Clay Paky
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