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UK - ITV Studio One has just hosted its biggest ever production, announcing for the first time the nomination shortlist for February’s Brit Awards show at the O2 London. As well as being broadcast live, the Brits Launch (Sat 14 January) featured, amongst the many artists, over 400 moving lights from PRG and an audio set-up provided by Britannia Row Productions.
“From a sound point of view the PA we put in was simple, three hangs of L-Acoustics Kara which was more than big enough for Studio One,” explained Colin Pink who provided that critical interface between the broadcaster and Britrow’s live sound team.
“But it was in the control room where things were a little out of the ordinary. With the exception of Rag & Bone Man, we put all the performers on the Digico SD11 ‘presenters’ board and doubled up the live vocals and tracks to a second SD11 in mirr

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UK - PLASA has collaborated with some of the industry's leading experts, brands and production teams to expand its free-to-attend seminar programme for PLASA Focus Glasgow, which returns to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) on 18th and 19th January 2017.

Production services supplier, Adlib, has partnered with two of its biggest brands, Martin Professional and L-Acoustics, to deliver both a video and audio seminar respectively. Martin Professional will demo the ease of setting up and mapping creative LED fixtures including using their VDO FACE 5, Sceptron, and VC video ranges. On the audio side, L-Acoustics Application Engineer & Educator Fran

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USA - Dierks Bentley was up at dawn to kick off the morning of the 50th Annual CMA Awards with a live performance on the streets of Nashville with Good Morning America. The televised concert featured a lighting package designed by Mark Carver and provided by Bandit Lites.

The crowd was not only treated to hearing Bentley's new single Black, but GMA host Lara Spencer also took the stage to announce the first two CMA Award Winners: Music Video of the Year to Chris Stapleton for Fire Away and Musical Event of the Year to Dierks Bentley and Elle King for Different For Girls.

In addition to ensuring that the lighting aided in energizing the early morning crowd and conveyed excitement to the millions of viewers watching at home, lighting designer Mark Carver took special consideration that the performance, while early, would still be taking place with

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Europe - Midas has recently taken its console training across Europe with courses completed in the UK, Germany and Spain. The events, designed and delivered by Midas senior solutions manager Daniel Paine, were hosted in partnership with local Midas distributors Amplified, thomann Audio Professionnell and Adagio respectively.

Tailored for a range of mixed-ability users, from beginner to advanced, the training covers the entire Midas and Klark Teknik product portfolio and includes configuration solutions for a range of applications. Trainees are taught basics such as; linking front of house and monitor desks, transferring audio between different desks and recording features using Klark Teknik's DN9650 with Dante card.

The course then advances into more specific mixing skills such as automation which is covered in detail. This shows users how to move between different show sc

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UAE - Production Resource Group LLC (PRG) worked with Balich Worldwide Shows (BWS) to supply a huge multi-surface video projection for the United Arab Emirates National Day celebration in Abu Dhabi.

The event, held at the request of the Crown Prince's Court, celebrated 45 years since the unification of the United Arab Emirates, and took place in the presence of a selected crowd of dignitaries. Tom van Hemelryck, VP global sports and special events was contacted by Balich Worldwide Shows to provide both the technical expertise and technology for this special commemorative show. Tom brought together video and technology specialists, Yves Winand, from PRG in Belgium and his counterpart Bill Ainley from the group's UAE operation to work with the design specification from Balich Worldwide Shows.

Starting with the mapping of the surfaces, d3 was identified as the media server fo

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UK - Adlib renewed its excellent and long term working relationship with Grammy nominated US rock band Panic! at The Disco, providing sound, video and lighting production, plus crew for their recent UK and European tours. Once again Tony Marino was at the helm as the highly-respected tour manager.

The band released their fifth studio album, Death of a Batchelor in January 2016 and have had a mega busy year.

Lighting designer Alex Specht took a floor package for the European dates, which was supplemented by a full overhead rig and video for the high-profile UK gigs in Manchester, Cardiff and two sold out nights at London's Alexandra Palace where this leg of the tour came to an exhilarating end.

The high-impact floor package comprised two grids of 3 x 5 Ayrton Magicdots which were built into special roll-on-roll-off dollies designed by Adlib and streamlined for qu

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USA - Soaring four stories high, the elegantly appointed Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria creates an awe-inspiring impression. Its 44' high ceiling, custom made 16' diameter chandelier and ornate carved balconies provide a dramatic setting for any event.

To stand out against this backdrop, a stage presentation has to be as bold and dramatic as the ballroom itself. Chris Hubbard and his team at Emergency Production provided just such a presentation recently for buildOn, a global charity, with help from 117 PVP S7 panels from Chauvet Professional.

Hubbard and his team used the LED video panels to build walls across the ballroom's Broadway-sized stage. The centre wall measured nine panels wide by five panels high. It was flanked on either side by vertically oriented walls measuring two panels by five panels, two panels by six panels and two panels by seven panels. There

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Germany - Built in 1911 and former home ground to local football teams 1860 Munich and Bayern Munich, the multi-purpose Gr

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UK - ISCE, the Institute of Sound and Communication Engineers has announced the seminar programme for ISCEx 2017. Taking place at Coombe Abbey on Wednesday 8 March 2017, ISCEx 2017 combines educational seminars with leading networking opportunities and a table-top manufacturers' exhibition from more than t20 commercial audio market leaders.

Topics for the 2017 seminar programme include Digital Amplifiers - are they too well designed?, Hearing the Invisible and Taking Noise off the menu presented by industry experts Dr Peter Mapp, Alberto Fueyo, Tony Stacey and Gillian Rollason.

If you're working in commercial audio system design, integration, project management or sales, ISCEx 2017 provides excellent opportunities to learn, engage and discuss commercial audio solutions in an intimate, non-imposing environment.

Attendees can expect to learn first-ha

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UK - The Broadway hit musical Disney's Aladdin opened this summer at the Prince Edward theatre in London's West End, with TiMax vocal imaging and effects spatialisation firmly in situ at the heart of the Ken Travis sound design.

Three TiMax2 SoundHub-S64 units (including a hot spare) were purchased by audio provider Autograph Sound, and linked to a DiGiCo SD7T console and d&b amplification via MADI and Optocore. Autograph also provided a TiMax Tracker system which follows the actors around stage to automate the magic of spatial amplification delivered by the TiMax dynamic delay-matrix.

Seven TiMax Tracker (TT) Sensors from the Touring version range, (with ethercon interconnects, rackmount POE Hub and two 1U TiMax Tracker PC's including backup), are mounted in pairs upstage and at the proscenium while a further three sensors reside on the balcony front. These are map

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UK - Each year, as the Salvation Army gears up for one of its busiest annual periods, the Christian charity puts on a special Christmas carol concert at London's Royal Albert Hall. This year's sold-out, multi-artist event saw production company b+h relying on Yamaha and Dante.

Although brass bands tend to feature heavily in the Salvation Army stereotype, the Christmas carol concert features a range of different performers. This year's event took place on 24 November with a cast numbering over 150 - including choirs, a contemporary praise band, readings and a guest performance by prominent supporter Shakin' Stevens.

"It's a traditional carol concert, but on a grand - and far more technically complex - scale," says Sam Lynam, business development and project manager at b+h. "As well as managing the live sound production, we assist the Salvation Army's recording and broadcast

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The Netherlands - 2016 marked the 20th year Britannia Row Productions has supplied audio services to the MTV European Music Awards. Rotterdam's Ahoy provided the setting for the event.

Project manager Lez Dwight explains the set up. "This year we had three stages side by side, straddling the Ahoy at 40 degrees playing to two thirds of a full house. It was an overwhelmingly L-Acoustics K2 rig with four main hangs. We used Kara for a few fills and flew most of the KS28 subs; in fact, we only had four of the subs on the floor.

"For control, we had two Digico SD5s FoH along with an SD10 for the presenters and two SD7s on stage for monitors. Two acts bought their own consoles as they had complex internal patch set-ups and they were integrated into our overall patch and splits system. Our team included Colin Pink who coordinated the essential 'live to broadcast' interface, while

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Europe - Folk balladeer Passenger is on tour in support of his latest album, Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea. For sound reinforcement, he is relying on support from a Meyer Sound Leo Family system provided by UK audio hire company Major Tom Ltd.

The majority of shows are in large auditoriums and smaller arenas, where the system employs main hangs of 34 Leopard line array loudspeakers with bass support from eight 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements.

For the largest venue of the tour, Amsterdam's 17,000-capacity Ziggo Dome, the main hangs comprised 12 Leo and six Lyon line array loudspeakers, with the Leopard loudspeakers re-configured as side hangs. Completing the Meyer Sound roster are four M'elodie line array loudspeakers, four JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers, four UPA-1P loudspeakers, and two Galileo processors.

FOH engineer and production manager Simon

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Sweden - Robe moving lights continue their run on high profile theatre shows worldwide, with the new Phantom of the Opera production in Stockholm utilizing DL7S and DL4S Profiles and DL4F washes - from the DL LED range - plus Pointes and ColorStrobes, over 50 fixtures in total.

The Really Useful Group (RUG) licensed production of the Andrew Lloyd-Webber blockbusting musical has just opened and is scheduled to play the 1650 capacity Cirkusteatern arena for a year, for which the Robe lights were specified by associate lighting designer, Mike Odam.

Mike's history with Phantom dates back to 1986 when he was the production LX on the original stage adaptation in London along with Howard Eaton, and they helped facilitate Andy Bridge's highly memorable Tony Award winning lighting design for the show's opening at Her Majesty's Theatre. Stockholm was Mike's 58th Pha

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Portugal - The long-standing relationship between Martin Audio MD Dom Harter, and the highly-experienced Carlos Cunha, who runs Portuguese distribution company Boomerang, has resulted in the Oeiras-based company being awarded territorial distributorship.

After a long career in pro audio Carlos formed Boomerang at the end of 2008, adding Martin Audio to a portfolio that also includes SGM Lighting.

"I started negotiating with Martin Audio about two years ago and the whole process sped up when Dom joined the company," he said. "Martin Audio's range of products covers almost all segments that a speaker manufacturer can, with exceptional high quality.

"The main advantage we have is the fact that we only need to focus on two brands as opposed to other distributors that have 10 or more. We can implement an individual strategy and so it is vitally important to have such a well

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No Surprise - Reports from the US suggest Donald Trump is struggling to find A-list stars to perform at his inauguration. When President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, he was serenaded by Beyonce and Aretha Franklin. During his stay in the White House, he's had audiences with the likes of Rihanna, James Taylor and Kendrick Lamar.

According to US news website The Wrap, Trump's inaugural committee is scrambling to find stars who are willing to play at his swearing in ceremony on 20 January 2017.

"They're calling managers, agents, everyone in town to see who they can get and it's been problematic," an unnamed source told the site. Grammy-winner John Legend, who has been a guest of the Obamas several times, says he is "not surprised at all". "Creative people tend to reject bigotry and hate," he told the BBC. "We tend to be more liberal-minded. When we see somebod

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World - Underground electronic music duo, Dusky are steadily building a cult following as they play sold out dates, taking in numerous venues in the UK, North America and continental Europe.

Double Knight of Illumination winner, Will Potts designed the visual element of the show, with assistance from lighting director Adam Power. Will said, "Designing a rig which fits into numerous venues was the main consideration for this project. I chose to leave the physical design work flexible and in Adam's hands for the shows. He knows what each fixture has to achieve, so it's up to him to use the spaces and characteristics of each venue to the design's advantage. Having such a flexible approach is the most economical way of scaling the show up and down."

Will and Adam knew exactly what they wanted to achieve with the design, and were open to discussion on which products and process

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UK - Freelance recording and concert engineer, Gavin Tempany has bought himself a couple of Audient USB audio interfaces, iD22 and iD4. The latter - and smaller, more portable of the two - has already become a fixture in his mobile gig bag.

Finding himself busy doing monitors for Will Young and David Gilmour, some high profile, one-off shows with Britannia Row Productions, including FOH at Children in Need Rocks at the Albert Hall, Centrepoint foundation charity event at Kensington Palace and the Evening Standard Theatre awards over the last few months, it's a surprise that he's had time for his studio projects.

Yet the bus powered iD4 with its versatile feature set was built for life on the road. "We've been working on a record for a new pop artist at the studio for a while now, and I had some time before shows and days off to do some editing and pre-mixing in the hotel r

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UK - Working closely with scenic designer Sarah Milton, illumination specialists LED Creative has supplied their Alpha 60 RGB system to help keep the vibrant set for ITN's The Agenda, clearly defined and looking sharp.

Lighting director Dave Evans has used plenty of strong colours to complement the set with high contrasts and clean lines to keep the viewer free from distraction and focussed on the discussion.

The LED Creative Alpha 60 RGB system, paired with the company's silent running BIT1200 controllers, has been cleverly combined with the clean architectural lines of the set pieces, to add intense illumination along its edging to provide a modernistic neon glow.

Flexibility is at the heart of the design as the show will broadcast from a selection of studios around the London area, with the layout changing weekly. The set and the lighting therefore need to be

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USA - In partnership with NAMM, Audinate will conduct multiple training sessions at the 2017 NAMM show about Dante, the industry-leading audio networking solution.

The NAMM Show annual conference will be held in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Centre. Starting on Thursday 19 January, Mark Frink will moderate a Tec Track Master Class called Dante: Practical Uses in Live Sound and Recording. In this 45-minute panel discussion, representatives from Yamaha, Shure, Focusrite and Mackie will talk about how they use Dante in their products. They will also feature real-world applications that involve their Dante-enabled equipment, as well as Audinate software including Dante Virtual Soundcard and Dante Via. As an added bonus, a free copy of Dante Virtual Soundcard will be given to everyone attending the panel discussion. This session will be held at the Convention

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South Africa - When Menlyn Main Central Square in Pretoria wanted a Christmas tree to coincide with the festive season they had little idea that a seed of imagination would bud into a 1.6 ton steel artistic structure - which would now be permanent feature all year round - and which would bring much delight to visitors at the shopping mall.

In front of the huge tree, created from steel squares with a strong African influence, is a red mailbox for donations. Each time a person approaches the mailbox, the tree comes to life.

The designer of the tree is Marcelle Gunter. "Our client had an idea of what they wanted," said Marcelle. "I showed them a previous tree sculpture I had made and they initially wanted to add solar lights to the branches." As the project went on, and without knowing how he would implement the plan, Marcelle had an idea. 'What if he could create something w

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Russia - Lighting designer Marina Larikova dubbed Claypaky fixtures as "the best creative devices" after using 125 of the leading Italian brand's moving heads and strobes in her lighting design for cutting-edge electronic dance music (EDM) festival Alfa Future People, Russia.

With global audiences of 50,000, the two-day festival celebrates the latest in EDM and consumer technology. Larikova worked with video designer Yury Vorontsov and set designer Shlyamin Pavel to bring alive the festival's nine-storey high main stage. A giant female cyborg set piece complete with heart-shaped DJ booth provided the focal point of the main stage, where world famous DJs Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike played headline sets.

"I needed versatile lighting tools to maintain a diverse range of looks and keep the audience absorbed in the performances," says Larikova. "Alfa Future People celebrates inno

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USA - Broadcast live on MSNBC, the fifth annual Global Citizen Festival (GCF) took over New York City's Central Park in late-September for a star-studded concert that featured headliners Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Ellie Goulding, Metallica, Demi Lovato, Major Lazer and many others sharing their voices and music to help reduce world hunger, poverty and other pandemic social issues.

Firehouse Productions once again served as the concert sound provider for GCF and this year switched over to an L-Acoustics K1/K2 PA system for the stage on the Great Lawn, where the 60,000 concert-goers in attendance also got to see guest appearances by Usher, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Yandel, Yusuf/Cat Stevens and Coldplay's Chris Martin, creative director and curator of the festival, which is organized by the Global Poverty Project.

According to Firehouse system tech Jamie Pollock, "I had not do

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