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USA - The 67th annual Parsons Benefit fundraiser-fashion show took place at the River Pavilion at Manhattan's Jacob Javits Convention Centre. A multi-faceted lightshow energized the runway during this prestigious event, thanks in no small measure to a collection of Chauvet Professional Next NXT-1 panels provided by WorldStage.

Lighting designer Shawn Kaufman of CS Lighting arranged 44 of the moving LED panels on the sides of the runway to heighten the visual impact of the fashion show and benefit dinner, which raises money to support scholarships at the New School which has served as an incubator for many famous fashion designers at the start of their careers. The New York-based LD used the intensely bright moving fixtures to accent the models on stage, change looks to fit the varied moods of the show and create aerial effects that dazzled the audience, which included A-list fas

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UK - Working with producers Vision Nine Arts & Entertainment, XL Video supplied a multi-channel camera system and video projection for the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular UK live concert tour.

The tour, which showcases the compositions of Murray Gold for the much-loved TV show includes the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and performers from the BBC National Chorus of Wales, conducted by Ben Foster.

Hosted by Peter Davidson, who played the fifth Doctor, the tour includes live appearances from an array of Doctor Who monsters including Daleks, Cybermen, and the Ood.

The show design aims to immerse the audience via the music, coupled with the big screen footage of Doctor Who, and live action appearances by a multitude of monsters in the arena. To help achieve this across a variety of large-scale venues, XL Video supplied a video projection system and accompanying cameras, which

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UK - PFS Group Ltd (PFS), a Baldwin Boxall Gold Status customer, was chosen to replace the voice alarm system in the Odeon Birmingham Plaza.

Located in the heart of the city, the Birmingham Plaza is a comprehensive family leisure and entertainment centre. The site offers several options for entertainment for the whole family - making it a key destination for many. Among these is the UK's biggest cinema chain - Odeon. The Birmingham Plaza Odeon has an impressive twelve screens - including a "big screen, big sensation, isense 4K screen".

Odeon approached PFS regarding the replacement of the voice alarm system installed on the premises and PFS was delighted to win the project. A full site survey and an assessment of the necessary works was produced. PFS then placed their order with Baldwin Boxall for their VIGIL2 voice alarm system.

A phased installation was planned t

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USA - Country super group Rascal Flatts is back on the road for their latest headlining tour with lighting provided by Bandit Lites. As one of the hottest-selling acts on tour in any genre, the trio recently kicked off their Riot Tour 2015 with special guests Scotty McCreery and Rae Lynn.

Drew Gnagey of Magneto Live Design and Raj Kapoor of Raj Kapoor Productions collaborated on the production design, where the core concept focused on everything wrapping around the band. By utilizing curved trusses, curved band risers and a curved video wall to encapsulate the band, they mimicked an engrossing look that could be communicated to audiences even in large arenas.

"Since the band was looking for a more intimate looking show, it really changed how we had to look at the design," Gnagey explained, who acted as lighting designer and Co-Production Designer. "Instead of be

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Poland - ARAM Poland was in charge of the design and technical production of the largest gaming event in the world, the ninth World Final of the Intel Extreme Masters, and Clay Paky Mythos played a significant role in lighting this game show for the first time ever.

The event was held in Katowice for the second year in a row, but this time it was split between two venues: the Spodek arena and the newly built International Convention Centre. The show broke all audience and visitor records. The official figures will be released shortly, but it is said that more than a hundred thousand visitors attended and millions of others followed the games online.

ARAM was in charge of designing and putting on the four-day show, and dealt with its production, full logistics, supervision and implementation.

The company has several years' experience in successfully producing events "fro

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Italy - Notti di Maggio (May nights) is a popular, continuously evolving, big event, conceived and produced by the Associazione Notti di Maggio Sagraioli and coordinated and organized by Andrea Widmann. It consists of three days of music, concerts and DJ sessions with a busy programme of live events, all illuminated by Clay Paky lights.

Several Sharpys were arranged along two battens in the centre and at the back of the stage and various Aleda B-Eye K10s were hung on four tubular supports as backdrop lighting with the precise aim of enhancing the beautiful effects created. All the lights were programmed by Mario Zanella and Bruno Maffei using a Chamsys MQ 200.

On the Friday night, Notti di Maggio turned into an important cultural showcase for local 'Trento music' and the stage was given over to several Italian tribute bands.

On the Saturday - the true heart of Notte di Maggi

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Ireland - A major JBL Intellivox digitally controlled beam steering sound system has been installed in the restored St. Mel's Cathedral in Longford, Ireland by Sound Productions.

Originally built between 1840-1856, and situated in the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, this flagship cathedral is considered one of the finest Roman Catholic churches in Ireland.

On Christmas Day 2009 it was completely destroyed by fire, leaving only the perimeter wall intact. A long rebuilding process, true to the original, began and the new altar was finally consecrated in March last year, with the reopening on Christmas Eve.

In charge of the project was the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Colm O'Reilly.

AWN Acoustic Consultants were engaged to acoustically model the proposed rebuild and make predictions and recommendations in respect of materials that might be used to reduce the previous

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UK - ProQloud is a new web-based service designed to make website construction and business management easy for freelancers and studios in the audio, film and broadcast industries. Aimed at studio owners, sound engineers, record producers, session musicians, location sound recordists, editors and cameramen, ProQloud offers "an easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder, allowing users to get a site up and running quickly with their own branding, leaving them more time to be creative".

The new business has been set up by a group of Welsh audio professionals, who have faced the problem of creating a convincing on-line presence for their studio. "Ten years ago we simply had to commission and build our own website," explains Donal Whelan, managing director of ProQloud. "These days, while there are countless companies offering easy website construction tools,

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UK - Recently, the National Theatre organized a fundraising gala evening, Fast Forward, with the goal of raising money for the NT Future foundation, which been established to ensure the theatre's future by providing new facilities for audiences, artists and young people.

The venue was the largest of the National's three theatres, the Olivier Theatre, where the dinner took place on the stage leaving the remaining auditorium free for the surprises of the evening, which included performances from Damon Albarn, James Graham, Patrick Marber as well as the Southbank Sinfonia and the London Community Gospel Choir.

Alongside the team from National Theatre worked London-based lighting specialists, White Light, with the support from event production company, Blueprint, who supplied LED tubes from SGM.

The full kit provision from White Light incorporated new LED equipment, which had pr

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UK - Unusual Rigging has opened a new warehouse at its headquarters in Northampton as the business continues to grow.

The 22x48m building, which is 12m tall and provides additional 1056sq.m of space, will be used to store the company's ever increasing rental stock. It also enables Unusual to build and test rigs more easily than before, as well as allowing for continued expansion. In line with company policy, Unusual has made every effort to ensure the new unit's 'green' credentials, constructing the building from an existing truss structure, cladding it in composite paneling and employing solar PV panels.

Unusual's Jim Dugan, who was behind much of the planning and overseeing of the new building, said, "As a company, Unusual Rigging aims to operate an environmentally friendly policy and we immediately saw potential to create a new space that would meet our green criteria.

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UK - The School of Creative Arts at Queen's University in Belfast boasts some of the most desirable undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the country. With demand for spaces on the practical film making course drastically outstripping supply, the University recently built a new centre for students on the film studies pathway, complete with a purpose built 'black box' to give students the opportunity to film in a multi-purpose, professionally equipped studio.

"The facilities used by the School of Creative Arts are regarded as among the best in the British Isles while certain facilities within the School (such as the Sonic Laboratory) are unique in the world," explained Ross McDade, production manager of the Brian Friel Theatre within the School.

With this in mind, Ross called on the expertise of Doughty Engineering to supply a system of 15 lighting hoists for a

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UK - Although the weekend of 6-7 June won't have been the first time Capital Sound have deployed almost 200 Martin Audio MLA elements simultaneously on major festival duty, it will have been unique in that one of those two events took place on a virgin festival site at a major inaugural event.

Billed as Disclosure & Rudimental Present Wild Life, the four-stage, two-day event was staged at Brighton City Airport, a general aviation facility in Shoreham where, as the title suggests, Disclosure and Rudimental were the headline acts.

Winds gusting up to 30mph on the opening day were an easy match for the power of MLA and the system optimisations comfortably satisfied the 75dB offsite sound requirements of consultants Vanguardia, while at one point achieving a staggering SPL of 105dB at the sound desk during Disclosure's set.

As Capital general manager Paul Timmins observed

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Sweden - The magic stage of Melodifestivalen, the local song contest to decide Sweden's representative song at Eurovision, was once again alive with Clay Paky fixtures. The powerful Mythos played a crucial role in the six-week tour of Melodifestivalen 2015 visiting six cities across Sweden with the Finals held at the massive Friends Arena in Stockholm. Viewed by approximately 4m in the television audience, it is Sweden's most popular television programme.

Lighting designer Fredrik Jönsson of Eyebrow Designs in Stockholm designed the lighting of 28 songs in a total of 6 live broadcasts by SVT (Sveriges Television), the host broadcaster of Eurovision 2013.

Jönsson explains, "Once again, Clay Paky provided the backbone wow fixtures, including 51 Sharpys and 24 Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures, but this year we had a new cat among the usual suspects - the mighty Mythos from Clay Pa

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France - During Prolight+Sound, Visual Productions and ESL France confirmed the new French distribution agreement. ESL will distribute the full range of Visual Productions lighting control products to all areas of the entertainment and architectural markets.

ESL France, established in 1992 has offices in both Montpelier and Paris. They introduced one of the most comprehensive catalogues of stage and entertainment lighting products to the French market which continues today to be a staple requirement for industry professionals. Coupling distribution and excellent technical service ESL have built a strong network of dealers and customers throughout France. In 2013 they introduced the architectural devision of ESL in the Paris based office.

The teams at Visual Productions and ESL have long standing business friendships with each other, that over the years have allowed both compan

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UK - Entertainment production supplier White Light has reached a deal with video and lighting technology firm Shock Solutions that will expand the company's offering of video, media and projection services for clients in the broadcast, event production and commercial markets.

Founded in 1971, White Light is a leading supplier of technical production solutions throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide. Shock Solutions has over 10 years in the industry and is a forerunner in the field of LED lighting and audio-visual equipment solutions. The two companies will combine staff and assets under the name White Light and will be based from White Light's current offices in Wimbledon, London. Shock Solutions managing director Andy Hook will join White Light as technical solutions director.

He comments on the partnership, "We are proud to be joining forces with White Light after many

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Norway - Lars Bakke and the sales team from Robe's Norwegian distributor Norsk Sceneteknikk based in Spydeberg, seized the opportunity to actively support local prog-rock band Sørgekape with additional lighting when lead singer Kim Lunde started working with them about a year ago.

They saw several opportunities in this. Firstly to learn more about the Robe fixtures they are selling, secondly, the gigs provide an opportunity for inviting potential clients to real 'live' demos of the products working in situ ... and thirdly, they were really happy to be supporting an excellent artist. It was a win-win scenario all round!

Sørgekape recently launched their new album Intelligent Kjaerlighet with a special showcase performance at Askim Cultural Centre (in their home town), which was also recorded for a DVD. Lars decided to 'push the boat out' with his creative l

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Europe - Following the opening of its Middle East Africa regional office in Dubai last year, Shure EMEA has announced the opening of two market development offices in Switzerland and Austria this summer. The new offices will be responsible for strategic market development in these countries.

In addition, Shure has established a regional office in Moscow, Shure REE LLC, responsible for strategic market development in Russia as well as distribution management for the Russia Eastern Europe region.

Herbert Muff will head Shure's market development office in Switzerland, while Gerd Kostial will run the office in Austria. Angelika Oernfelt will lead the regional office in Moscow.

All new offices will report to Ron Marchant, general manager EMEA Sales, based at Shure EMEA's headquarters in Eppingen, Germany.

Markus Winkler, managing director of Shure EMEA, commented, "Establ

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Worldwide Appeal - Foreign music fans visiting the UK for gigs and festivals boosted the economy by £3.1bn in 2014, a report by industry body UK Music says. The report said foreign visitors spent an average of £751 and helped sustain almost 40,000 full time jobs. Across the UK 9.5m people travelled to music events.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said the news was "fantastic" but not surprising as "British music is legendary around the world". He added, "Festivals like Glastonbury hold an iconic status on the world music scene and are one of the reasons why international tourism is booming in the UK, drawing in streams of visitors to all parts of the country. We know our UK creative industries contribute an astonishing £76.9bn to the UK economy but this report confirms they are truly world-class and a powerful advert for the UK.&quo

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UK - Following the successful launch of Quantum of the Seas in November of last year with Elation lighting and video systems onboard, the second luxury cruise liner in Royal Caribbean's Quantum class of smartships, Anthem of the Seas, set sail in April, also brimming with a full complement of energy-efficient Elation Professional products. The third in the class, Ovation of the Seas, is planned for 2016.

As a sister-ship to Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas boasts the same lighting and video package template. "The ships mirror each other as far as entertainment lighting," says Christopher Vlassopulos, superintendent SLVR & architectural lighting for Royal Caribbean International, who coordinated the design and specification for all the entertainment equipment in the ship's public spaces, including the ship's entertainment lighting systems. "There was actuall

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Australia - Show Technology provides cutting edge service and support to the professional lighting industry and has been doing so for the 21 years it has been in business. Industry leading figures rely on the company's support team for major projects on concerts, tours, arena shows and installations. The team not only provides training, advice, design, product recommendations and problem solving in both Australia and New Zealand but also has a dedicated service and repair facility at the company's headquarters in Silverwater, NSW.

"Show Technology has a wonderful service department," commented Jared Hawke, managing director of Frontier Lighting, Perth. "We deal mainly with Gino Lombardi in Perth and he is absolutely the number one rep in the business. He'll go above and beyond to help, such as opening up the warehouse at the weekend when we have an emergency. And

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Argentina - Robe moving lights were chosen to light the stage and spectacular set that was the central event for the 2015 Vendimia grape harvest festival at the Frank Romero Day Greek Theatre in Mendoza, the heart - and soul - of Argentina's wine producing region.

The Robes - delivered to the event by Tecnica Vidal with the assistance of OVA Iluminacion and Prisma Luces - included 12 x BMFL Spots, 66 x MMX Spots, 12 x ColorBeam 2500E ATs, 14 x MMX WashBeam, 66 x Pointes, 56 x LEDWash 600s, 24 x LEDWash 1200s, 40 x CityFlex 48s, 60 x LEDForce 18 LED PARs and four CitySkape Xtremes.

These, together with some 526 conventional lights and six follow spots were deployed all over the massive stage -designed by Alejandro Rodriguez- comprising nine different areas, including one water stage.

Trussing superstructure was hung on a huge crane - with a 65m reach arm, and all lights on th

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Belgium / USA - Barco has announced two new products in its Event Master series of screen management systems: the S3-4K, a compact processor, and the EC-50, a lightweight, Event Master Toolset-compatible controller.

Exactly one year ago, Barco unveiled the E2 image processor to rave reviews at InfoComm in Las Vegas. Supporting native 4K input and output, the E2 screen management system instantly raised the industry bar for live event processing, as the only solution capable of managing a 4K projector blend with refresh rates of up to 60 Hz.

S3-4K, the smaller version of the E2, boasts the same processing performance and image quality. Featuring 12 input channels, four programme outputs, four AUX outputs and two dedicated Multiviewer outputs, it is suited for the rental and staging market, broadcast studios and mid-sized performance venues. "The S3-4K is the E2's more comp

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Switzerland - Microphone manufacturer Shure is continuing its long-established and successful partnership with the Montreux Jazz Festival, this year taking place from 3-18 July, as technical partner and also as headline sponsor of the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition.

"We are delighted, as ever, to provide our usual support to the Montreux Jazz Festival in terms of equipment and expertise," explains Nils Proesser, marketing director at Shure Europe. "And as every year, we're very excited to see so many great and varied entrants to the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice competition from countries all around the world. We wish all the participants the best for the semi-finals."

Established to encourage talented young vocalists internationally, the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition was founded in 2002 and has been sponsored by Shure since its inception. The fi

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Vietnam - Photo journalist Martin Edström and National Geographic have shared an extraordinary expedition for everyone to experience: they have explored one of the world's biggest caves, the majestic and recently discovered Son Doong in Vietnam's Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park. Martin and his team of six - assistant photographers, logistics, communications and lighting specialists - took breathtaking 360° photos of the almost untouched cave and recorded its sounds with Sennheiser stereo and shotgun microphones for a fully immersive online experience.

Son Doong, also called the "Infinite cave" because of its massive size, was discovered by a native of the area in 1991. However, as the entrance to the cave is as unobtrusive as it is steep, it took him until 2009 to actually relocate the cave in the jungle and explore it with a group of British scientists. The 5k lo

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