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USA - Motion control systems manufacturer Kinesys hosted a highly successful training event and open-house in its Lithia Springs, Georgia, USA facility, which was attended by over 50 people connected to the world of rigging automation and its application in the live entertainment industry.

The format included two days of technical and operator training on Kinesys products, presented by David Martin (head of training - Kinesys USA), which catered for a range of ability and experience levels. This was followed by two days of general 'open-house' product awareness sessions for potential clients, existing customers and associates.

The objective was to increase familiarisation with Kinesys' capabilities, methodology and interfaces, and to expand the pool of Kinesys-trained technicians in the United States.

David Bond (head of sales - Kinesys USA), says, "We were extremely h

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UK - PLASA members enjoyed a unique opportunity to take part in an informative and fun day backstage at the recently refurbished Sadler's Wells theatre last week.

The venue - one of the most respected and important receiving and co-producing dance houses in the world - recently underwent a major refurbishment, as detailed in the June 2015 issue of LSi.

Emma Wilson and Christian Wallace from Sadler's Wells, plus the specialist teams from Stage Electrics, Stage Technologies, Carr and Angier and GDS led the tours from the impressive auditorium up to the dizzying heights of the grid and flying system. Members then reconvened for a lively networking lunch before taking the opportunity to further explore areas of specific interest. The busy and insightful day finished with tea and cake.

Look out for details of the next PLASA B

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China - Allen & Heath's GLD-112 digital mixer has been installed in the new Wanhe Grand Theatre, the first of its kind ever built inside a big shopping mall in China.

Situated in the Wanhe Shopping Mall in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, the venue covers an area of 1500m

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USA - Even with the chill of winter still hanging in the February air, the Music City Centre was a bloom with more than 150 exhibitors of luscious gardens, long sought after antiques and illustrious guest speakers from the design world for the Antiques and Garden Show of Nashville.

The keynote speaker for the multi-day event was Academy Award winning actress and lifestyle maven of GOOP Gwenyth Paltrow. Bandit Lites provided the lighting package for the horticultural happening with Chris Lisle Lighting Design.

Using an array of par cans and lekos with varying lenses, associate designer Erik Parker worked with vendors to learn what aspects of their gardens to enrich with illumination.

"Often the gardeners would have a piece that they would like to stand out, or a vibe that they were going for in their garden, but otherwise very little direction was given," said Parker. "

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USA - Barco, the official projection provider for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, brings to life several key virtual reality and art installations at the New Frontier exhibition with its large venue projectors and presentation switchers. The world's largest independent film festival also uses Barco digital cinema projectors in all 23 of its movie theatre venues for official screenings.

For more than 30 years, Sundance Institute and its Sundance Film Festival (SFF) have served as a springboard for independent filmmakers. Its New Frontier exhibition showcases innovative installations that explore the expansion of cinema culture and new forms of storytelling in today's rapidly changing media landscape. At this year's Festival, New Frontier delivers an engaging exploration of the intersection of art, film and multimedia technology, relying on Barco projectors and image processing

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USA - As one of the few NFL football teams to own its own broadcasting network, the Carolina Panthers are well equipped to serve their fan base. The Panthers Radio Network broadcasts game day programming, a post-game show and a variety of special programs. Selected programmes are also streamed at panthers.com.

Broadcasts are mixed on an Allen & Heath Qu-16 digital mixer which travels with the team to away games. Technical Producer Harrill Hamrick sets up the system and mixes the broadcasts. His goal is to create an engaging live program by seamlessly combining local sources like the play-by-play announcer, locker-room interviews and crowd microphones with remote announcements and advertisements fed over a tie-line from the Panthers' broadcast station.

Hamrick had used a 16-channel analog mixer for several years. "The analog mixer was old enough that I knew I needed to repl

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UK - Aurora Lighting Hire is working alongside lighting director Chris Rigby as the award winning Chatty Man returns with another golden sofa full of celebrity guests.

Now in its 16th series, the show continues to be recorded live in front of a studio audience at the ITV London Studios and features a flexible lighting installation, easily adaptable between interview, comedy skits and cutting edge musical performances.

Aurora has once again provided Chris with and array of fixtures, including Martin Aura Wash units used to illuminate the guest sofa area and provide additional wash across the set flats. The LD is also making good use of an extensive LED package that has been incorporated throughout the set, with Pulsar Chromabatten 300 and Chromastrip X3s used to full effect, perfectly complimenting the glamorous look of the show.

To highlight the action on the pe

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Thailand - Popular with tourists worldwide, Pattaya is home to some of the most renowned nightlife in Thailand, as a result of which venues need to deliver the best quality entertainment to ensure they stay ahead of the pack. L-Acoustics pulled out all the stops to ensure that Bone, a brand new nightclub and live venue, would enjoy optimum sound quality.

Tanapat 'Tony' Mongkolkosol of Vision One, L-Acoustics' Thailand distributor, first became aware of the project in 2014. Along with the local representatives of three other leading audio manufacturers, it wasn't until a year later that Tony was invited to submit a design for the club's audio system - and he was given just three days.

"When I first heard about the plans for Bone, I invited the owner to see our L-Acoustics installation at Siam Pic-Ganesh Center of Performing Arts, which he was very impressed by," says Tony.

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USA - Waves Audio has announced a series of hands-on training sessions for the new Waves eMotion LV1 software mixer, taking place at the new Wavesland facility in Franklin, Tennessee. The Wavesland complex is a new centre for coaching programmes in professional audio. The ground floor of the complex, an LV1 mixing facility, is now open for hands-on training sessions on five eMotion LV1 consoles.

eMotion LV1 is a digital mixing console for front-of-house, monitor and broadcast engineers. Powered by Waves SoundGrid technology, this software mixer "delivers the superior sound quality for which Waves is renowned, as well as the quick workflow needed in demanding live environments"

Starting March 28, 2016, Wavesland will host small-group, hands-on workshops on mixing live with eMotion LV1. This is billed as "an exclusive training opportunity for select live engineers who can le

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USA - Genelec recently hosted the Boston Section meeting of the Audio Engineering Society at its USA headquarters in Natick, MA, on Tuesday, 8 March. The meeting featured a presentation titled 3D Audio - An Intro, From the Bottom Up to a standing-room-only crowd, which included AES president John Krivit and president elect Alex Case, among other AES members, students, and Boston-area engineers and producers.

3D Audio has become one of the most widely popular topics among audio engineers and industry professionals in recent years, and this latest AES event to delve into the topic was led by Genelec USA marketing director Will Eggleston, who discussed the changes and challenges in the delivery of multichannel audio and the future of 3D audio. The evening's demonstrations featured a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 monitoring setup including multiple Genelec subwoofers, Genelec Smart Act

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UK - Lighting designer Jon Smith turned to an Elation Professional lighting package of ACL 360 Bars, Platinum Series moving heads and Cuepix blinders for Texas pop punk band Bowling for Soup's 'How About Another Round' UK Tour in February. The tour, basically an encore tour to the band's farewell tour of two years ago, sold out at every stop with crowds of up to 3,500 fans.

Jon Smith has worked with Bowling for Soup for the last five years, but took the reigns as lighting designer for the first time on this tour. "My idea was to create a pub on stage, an idea that the band really liked," he said. "We used lighting effects and had customized beer barrels that shot out flames. It was a unique set that made for an intimate pub feel." Jon worked with set builder Mair Burgess to put the set together, using local businesses and suppliers to create the touring show.

Although the

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Belgium - Painting with Light's Luc Peumans energised a creative team to deliver video content for a striking 3D digital set and lighting design for the highly acclaimed Judas TheaterProducties staging of Helene Fourment, a new musical centred around Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens' young muse, which played at the Fakkeltheater, Antwerp, proving a big hit with both critics and the public.

Luc had previously worked with director Martin Michel, and was delighted to collaborate with Judas TheaterProducties whose award-winning work is recognised for its innovation and original style. Painting with Light's Michael Al Far created the video content and Jeroen Opsteyn was associate lighting designer and also programmed the lighting with Luc. All worked very closely with set designer Arno Bremers.

The production had already decided they wanted digital scenery, so needed th

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New Zealand - The 53rd Halberg Awards - recognising New Zealand's top sporting achievements - was a collaboration between the event's lighting, audio and LED screens supplier, Oceania, broadcast partner OSB and broadcaster SKY TV which runs the show and manages content for the three-hour live telecast.

Thirty Robe BMFL Spots and 20 x Pointes graced the lighting rig this year among other fixtures, all of which were rigged in the Vector Arena, Auckland.

The red carpet came alive with the great and the good of New Zealand's sporting community, 1,400 of whom rocked up for the occasion to see the All Blacks rugby team, cricketers Kane Williamson and Brendon McCullum, golfer Lydia Ko, all Blacks coach Steve Hansen and many more collect their prizes and accolades during a fun and emotion filled evening.

The BMFL Spots were right at the heart of the lighting scheme which in tu

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Austria - The Vienna Konzerthaus is the latest addition to a select group of world-renowned European concert halls that have chosen steerable Meyer Sound CAL column array loudspeakers. The Konzerthaus will use its new CAL systems for voice announcements, concert narrations, and incidental music. Other venues installed with CAL include Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Konzerthaus Berlin, and another esteemed Viennese institution, the Musikverein.

"With CAL, we have excellent coverage of the entire hall with installation at one point," says Ingeborg Doblander, head of technical production for the Konzerthaus. "By placing both CALs behind the golden leaf grilles at the center of the venue, we solved the time alignment problems that were present in the old system. This resulted in in very good STIPA [Speech Transmission Index for Public Address] measurements."

The CAL systems were c

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Romania - Prolyte Group, renowned manufacturer of trussing and staging systems, officially open its new purpose-built factory in Piatra Olt, Romania, with a series of opening ceremonies this week. Distributors, press, governmental authorities and stakeholders were invited to join the celebrations at the new, ultra-modern manufacturing location.

"Prolyte started to translocate all its manufacturing facilities to Romania as part of a long-term plan in 2010. The commissioning of the new factory is the final and most important phase of this plan, consolidating all its European manufacturing capacity into a 5.000sq.m facility, with scope to expand to 16.000sq.m," the company says.

The new production facility features brand new automated production equipment, new welding jigs and state-of-the-art product lines. In addition, the building contains industry-leading employee welfare

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Germany - Contour Veranstaltungsservice has just invested in 30 Clay Paky 100 Show Batten AS units. Besides the AS units, the company also used 14 new Show Batten 100s, with symmetric optics, at Wirtschaftstag 2015.

The Wirtschaftstag is a business forum that takes place annually at the Frankfurter Jahrhunderthalle. It is considered the barometer of the German economy and this year's theme of Wealth - Freedom - Security: scenarios for a changing world brought together - once again - prestigious speakers such as Jean-Claude Juncker, Sahra Wagenknecht, Niki Lauda and others. The event was moderated by Sandra Maischberger and Udo van Kampen.

The moving Show Battens were used to illuminate the horizon of the highly original stage, designed by Contour for this event. Project manager Stefan Kevenh

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USA - For members of the burgeoning computer and video gaming industry the highest honour is to win a D.I.C.E. Award. Founded in 1992, the award, which is determined by ballots cast by the 23,000 members of Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, has the likes of Super Mario as well as newcomers like Dragon Age Inquisition.

Its acronymous name stands for "Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain." The four words aptly describe the games that were up for D.I.C.E. Awards at this year's ceremonies. They also reflect the spirit of the lightshow created for the event by creative designer Chris Wu and lighting designer Chris Lose.

The two designers turned the D.I.C.E. Awards stage at Mandalay Bay into an all-embracing immersive environment that was evocative of a scene from the most transformative computer game. A collection of heavily pixel mapped ÉPIX Bar 2.0 LED fixtur

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USA - When fire swept through the offices of Chicago's Second City comedy club in August 2015, it was no laughing matter. While most of the damage was front of house, the comedy club that gave a start to the careers of Tina Fey, Dan Aykroyd and Stephen Colbert was facing a long closure and loss of revenue.

Then came the serious business of restoring the lighting systems on the five stages that - while not directly damaged by the fire - suffered the secondary effects of smoke and water. DesignLab's CEO Larry Schoeneman reports, "We were already working on an architectural design for them, so we put a rush on bringing the stages up to code. After the shows closed each night, we would bring in new plugging strips."

"We needed to come up with dimmers in a hurry, and fortunately we now stock a lot of Unison packs, so we were able to come through quickly," says ETC Midwest regio

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China - Powersoft amplifiers were recently installed at Wanhe Grand Theatre to power the EAW KF720 PA house system. Situated in the Wanhe Shopping Mall of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, the theatre distinguishes itself as the first of its kind to be housed within a big shopping mall in China.

The 1500m

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World - Folk-punk singer-songwriter Frank Turner is on a world tour in support of his latest album Positive Songs for Negative People with a punchy rock and roll lighting design by Shaun Moore using 30 Clay Paky Mythos fixtures.

Moore of Nitelites, who has worked with Frank and his backing band The Sleeping Souls since 2010, is using the high advanced beam and spot hybrid for large backlight gobo looks and dynamic aerial work.

"The Mythos was ideal for this tour as it's one fixture to do two jobs," he explains. "Its incredible zoom made it perfect for achieving the looks I wanted in varying sizes of venue."

The Mythos, supplied by Nitelites, are positioned on the mid and back truss and on the floor wrapped around the band. This set up provides Moore with three layers of beams to work with, adding great depth and perspective to his design.

For a special date

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USA - Last month, the American National Standards Institute's Board of Standards Review approved four ESTA standards: two brand-new, safety-related documents and two control protocol documents that were reaffirmed. These and all of ESTA's published standards are available for free download to everyone, courtesy of ProSight Specialty Insurance, at tsp.esta.org/freestandards, or they may be purchased from ANSI or IHS.

ANSI E1.46 - 2016, Standard for the Prevention of Falls from Theatrical Stages and Raised Performance Platforms

The users of theatrical stages and raised platforms can suffer debilitating injuries from falls into orchestra pits, open stage lifts, and similar openings in stage floors. Health and safety regulations require action to prevent these falls by employees, but offer little guidance that is suitable for theatrical environments. This document provi

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USA - Five documents are available for public comment, reports ESTA. The drafts, review forms, review instructions, and prior public review resolutions, if applicable, may all be downloaded at estalink.us/pr. Comments are due before the end date on the website. The documents will no longer be available when the date on the website is reached.

Control Protocols Working Group

BSR E1.33, Entertainment Technology - (RDMnet) - Message Transport and Device Management of ANSI E1.20 (RDM) over IP Networks

This standard describes a method of implementing ANSI E1.20 Remote Device Management messaging over an IPv4 network. The primary anticipated use of the standard would be to complement ANSI E1.31 on an IPv4 entertainment lighting control network. This project was originally described as offering extensions to E1.31, but in fact the messages work alongside E1.31 in the s

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Russia - Last year Russian rental company, Marinov&Merkulov, decided to upgrade their lighting department with new fixtures. They set forth on a technology journey investing first in the SGM X-5 strobe, then the G-Spot moving head - and finally the SixPack blinder and more strobes.

Co-owners Oleg Smirnov and Eugene Merkulov first crossed paths with SGM eight years ago working with small moving heads and consoles. Rediscovering SGM years later, they were positively surprised by the new SGM. "A modern, well-organized company with a fresh perspective and perfect quality products", said Oleg Smirnov and added that SGM soon became their first choice of manufacturer for upgrading their inventory.

"We loved the new design and form factor together with the technical specifications of the fixture, which demonstrated the result of the philosophy and vision for the renewed SGM brand.

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UK - Robe BMFL Spot moving lights created an impact for the arena section of Simple Minds' Big Music tour for which lighting designer Steve Pollard expanded and scaled up the stage set and lighting rig he used in theatre venues last year.

UK lighting and visuals rental company HSL invested in 50 x new Robe BMFL Spots just before the tour went out, 24 of which were used by Steve.

"I basically needed a bright, big, light that would cut thought everything - including video - and BMFL was it," says Steve.

Much of the show was about beam-work so the BMFL Spots were ideal for creating beam 'structures' and frameworks as well as for those all-encompassing gobo sweeps, for which they were fitted with custom gobos tailored to Steve's design.

"The saturated colours are amazing," commented Steve. "Saturated reds, greens and all those hues that are hard to get a properly brigh

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