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The Netherlands - After releasing its latest album, All In Good Time, last year, and playing several large festival and one-off arena gigs, award-winning Dutch band Racoon has been on an extensive but intimate theatre tour around The Netherlands.

Front of House engineer Marty Brugmans and monitor engineer Jelmer Dijkstra both specified SSL Live consoles for the tour, with Brugmans taking an L500 for FOH and Dijkstra using an L300 on monitors. Both consoles have been supplied by Dutch hire and events production company, Stagelight, and are using Dante AoIP network technology for audio transport.

Brugmans was an early adopter of SSL Live technology, having already used the L500 on several large-scale events. His move to the SSL platform was triggered by dissatisfaction with the quality of summing and processing on other live consoles. "The first time I used it, everyt

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USA - In what has been hailed by Rolling Stone Magazine as 'the most adventurously programmed music festival in America,' The Big Ears Music Festival returned for its fifth year.

Created and produced by AC Entertainment, Bandit Lites provided the lighting package for one of Knoxville's newest venues, The Standard Presented by Red Bull Music Academy.

Bandit lighting programmer Wayne Lotoza used VL 2000 washes, VL 2000 Spots, S4 Lekos and Atomic Strobes programmed with a Road Hog console at the venue to create looks that would be conducive to the wide range of performing artists, which included Wolf Eyes (a postindustrial noise band), saxophonist Anthony Braxton, musician Marc Ribot's interpretation of organ music transcribed for guitar and Lou Reed's installation piece entitled Drones.

"The Drones project included GRNLite Washes, ETC S4 LED units, R

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UK - The Olivier Awards with MasterCard are held annually and recognise the very best in London theatre. Organised by the Society of London Theatre, the awards are presented to individuals involved in West End and other London-based productions. This year's event took place on Sunday 3 April at the Royal Opera House. With its reputation as the leading lighting supplier to West End theatre, White Light provided the lighting equipment for the sixth year running.

2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the Olivier Awards and this year's ceremony was attended by some of the most high-profile names in the industry. WL was asked to provide the production support across four areas: the Piazza ITV Stage, the red-carpet entrance, the main awards presentation and the after-show party.

The main awards presentation took place on the historic Royal Opera House stage. The lighting designer w

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UK - To mark World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April 2016, PRG XL Video partnered with The Jigsaw Trust to light Guildford Cathedral blue for the Light It Up Blue campaign.

The campaign sees buildings and landmarks around the world changing to blue to raise awareness for Autism globally and to kick off International Autism Awareness Month during April.

From the evening of 31March to Monday 4 April 2016, the night-time floodlights which accentuate the modern Guildford Cathedral building were changed from orange to blue - the signature colour of the Autism Awareness campaign.

To achieve this change, a team of staff from PRG XL Video visited the cathedral on 31 March to switch lamps in the floodlight fixtures in the grounds of the building, and up on the roof.

This is the fifth year PRG has worked with The Jigsaw Trust to make this change at Guildford Cathedral,

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Germany - Coda Audio's AiRAY system is making waves. Since its launch in July 2015, sales have been strong and orders are being placed in increasingly high volumes. AiRAY's impact is nowhere better illustrated than at this year's Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt where Japanese giant, Hibino Sound Division, placed a substantial order for AiRAY, increasing its holding of Coda boxes to over 300 (including AiRAY, TiRAY, ViRAY and others).

Hibino Sound Division, head of sound, Hiroshi Inoue comments, "Firstly, as with all Coda line-array systems, we see that AiRAY achieves very high sound resolution with good separation of each instrument's sound. Sound shape is maintained over a long distance meaning that the required SPL can be obtained using fewer cabinets. AiRAY's functionality is also excellent for both flown and ground stack applications - cabinet angles can be quickly and easil

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USA - Southern California's newest event, meeting and production space, AV, in southern California's Orange County, has installed a large Elation Professional automated lighting system. Designed by leading industry professionals to be the ultimate one-stop for events of all sizes, nearly 200 Elation lights are used to create virtually any atmosphere a client desires.

Located inside entertainment production company N-EFFECT Productions' new design studio and headquarters in Irvine, AV is a customizable event space that encompasses 25,000sq.ft of space. The latest in event technologies - an intelligent Elation lighting system, 30 ft. LED wall, and full concert sound system as well as an in-house event and production staff, make it a suitable space for corporate meetings, weddings, galas, social and civic events.

"People are really blown away by what they see when they walk i

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USA - Sometimes the tranquil leisurely pace of a small town can belie a tradition of change and innovation. At least that's the case in New Stanton, home of New Stanton United Methodist Church, a house of worship with a new campus that has a state-of-the-art audio system and a versatile all-LED lighting rig made up of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Good Sounds.

The dynamic church's forward-looking sound and lighting systems are in keeping with the history of New Stanton. Tucked away in southwestern Pennsylvania, this picturesque community of 2000 has seen its share of trend-setting developments. Over 200 years ago it was the site of some of America's earliest commercial grain mills. In 1978, when Volkswagen opened a facility outside of town, it became home of the first mass production foreign automobile plant in the US. Today companies making a variety of high-tech

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USA - When Audio Formula / Tour FX CEO Nick Assunto and his team were hired by the City of Doral and The Knight Foundation to produce an evening of music at Downtown Doral Park, he turned to DPA Microphones for all of his amplification needs. The free concert, which took place on a cold Miami evening with the breath-taking Doral City Hall as the backdrop, featured the world-renowned Forbidden Saints and a special guest performance by the Miami Symphony Orchestra.

Assunto, an avid user of DPA microphones, was confident the mics would be capable of handling the challenges that come with miking a large number of performers in a temporary outdoor venue.

"Amplifying a symphony orchestra with 70-plus musicians on stage in a windy environment is not an easy task," says Assunto. "We had to give care and consideration for the microphone placement with the addition of windscreens, a

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UK - Baldwin Boxall has launched a new logo and refreshed look, reflecting the company's ethos of ongoing improvement and evolution of the brand. The new logo has an updated look, whilst keeping its traditional, and highly recognisable, blue triangle. The rebranding exercise has included a fully responsive website (www.baldwinboxall.co.uk) and modernised exhibition stand.

During the website redesign Baldwin Boxall insisted that there must be no loss of content as the company has always been keen to ensure that it is as informative as possible. To give you an idea of size, the site itself consists of well over 100 pages and contains over 200 items of downloadable content. In addition there is a project profile area, a news blog, customer log-in area and staff news blog.

Despite its size, the website is straight-forward to navigate, with plenty of interesting content, and in

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UK - Blackout donated a wide range of drape and rigging equipment to the 2016 National Student Drama Festival (NSDF) which took place in Scarborough, 19-25 March.

Taking place across the seaside town, NSDF featured a range of technical workshops for theatre and the wider entertainment industry, and showcased productions made by young theatre makers aged 16- 25. Established in 1956, this year marked the 60th anniversary of the Festival, which welcomed youngsters from all over the country.

This year 25 volunteer crew members joined the NSDF Technical Team to gain hands on experience with everything from drapes and rigging, sound, lighting, video, stage management and special effects. Blackout donated a range of equipment from its extensive stock list to dress all five venues; The Grand Hall, Ocean Room, Training Room, Spa Theatre and the two performance spaces at the Univers

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USA - Some 165,000 people jammed into Miami's Bayfront Park March 24-26 for Ultra's 18th incarnation with unparalleled production backing performances by some of the world's best DJs. Elation dealers AG Lighting, Zenith Lighting and Beachsound & Lighting were involved, supplying an abundance of Elation lighting for this year's festival.

Both the popular Carl Cox & Friends Stage and Ultra World Wide Stage featured Elation gear with lighting design by SJ Lighting, Inc. and structure and production by AG Production Services. SJ Lighting owner Steve Lieberman delivered another memorable Carl Cox stage lighting design and used 111 of Elation's six-foot Colour Chorus 72 LED batten wash lights throughout the setup to highlight the spectacular truss design. Also for the Carl Cox stage, Zenith Lighting, Inc. supplied Colour Chorus 72 fixtures used as wash lights and to outline video po

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UK - Dance band Underworld delighted fans with a short UK and European tour to kick off the live campaign supporting their much anticipated new album - Barbara Barbara We Face A Shining Future.

H has worked with the band - whose music has stayed edgy despite their commercial success - for an impressive 23 years ... he was first hired after an early tour with pioneering club and dance touring phenomenon, Megadog. Right from the start Underworld embraced multi-media visuals, a trend that's continued throughout their live performance career.

Creatively, lighting the show has been an evolution over that timespan explains H, with some underlying elements remaining basically the same while others have morphed and developed along with the sounds and moods of the music, all delivered with that distinctive Underworld raw groove.

"It doesn't so much matter where the light

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UK - Recently opened at The Vaults in London, All or Nothing is a musical based on the life and music of The Small Faces. Set in the Swinging Sixties, it is a poignant and bittersweet tale of four charismatic young musicians whose humour, attitude and passion propel them to mega-stardom. Yet not all of them are ready for what awaits when they hit the big time... White Light has provided the lighting equipment for this exciting production.

All or Nothing is written by renowned British actress Carol Harrison and directed by BAFTA-winner Tony McHale. It first previewed on Brighton Beach back in 2013 and, following a series of development, is now making its London debut.

The musical is lit by Peter Small. He comments, "The show is set in the Sixties and I really wanted to capture a sense of this time. I opted for a more visual design of rows of Parcans that could

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UK - A new venue has just opened its doors in Chavasse Park in Liverpool, with décor inspired by a New England-style Hamptons beach house, so it is fitting that the sound system that was chosen by systems integrator Adlib was Bose. Coincidentally, Bose has its global headquarters in Boston, New England's gateway city in the US, so whilst it may seem unconnected, there is a neat synergy to the coming together of style and sound.

The Club House, a flagship venue owned and operated by New World Trading Company (NWTC) comprises a 200 capacity split level restaurant, bar, private dining, beer tasting room, and a huge outdoor area with a bar and BBQ, catering for an additional 400 covers, so the audio system had to deliver on looks, coverage and audio quality both inside and out. The striking interior features white panelled walls and an entrance foyer leading to a grand stai

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UK - TAIT Stage Technologies provided the automation for a revival of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker as it begins its run at the Old Vic London.

When it premiered in 1960, The Caretaker helped change the face of modern theatre. Now, Harold Pinter's ground-breaking classic comes to The Old Vic in a new production directed by Olivier and Tony Award winning Matthew Warchus.

Ensuring the artistic vision of Rob Howell and Simon York, (set designers) the show makes full use of TAIT Stage Technologies BT2-290 winches to raise the roof of Aston's eclectic, junk-filled flat on one miserable rainy evening. Rising 5 meters above stage the specially crafted roof weighs 750 kg and is suspended over the stage throughout the entire production.

Ted Moore, director of rental services at TAIT Stage Technologies, comments, "Whenever we are approached by the Old Vic we know i

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UK - PRS for Music Foundation, a leading charitable funder of new music and talent development across all genres, has launched the latest initiative in its Flash Funding programme.

Last week, music creators were able to apply for The Performance Fund, which is in association with Wigwam Acoustics and Musicians' Union and offers four emerging UK artists and bands access to bespoke monitoring packages (such as in-ear monitoring, microphones, control systems) worth up to £10k to ensure consistently great sound across live dates, plus advice and training on touring, promotional support and an additional £375 for touring costs.

This edition of Flash Funding recognises that the costs of touring for emerging musicians are not always being met by live income streams. In offering financial tour support, The Performance Fund will fast-track careers at a crucial early sta

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South Africa - The vibrancy and creativity of African fashion designers adorned the runway at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg, by African Fashion International (AFI), from 10 to 12 March at the Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton. Lighting designer Mauritz Jacobs from Dream Sets has become part and parcel of this anticipated event for the past eight years.

"This year I tried something completely different," explained Mauritz. "We used 16 Robe ColorWash 2.5 K and 16 Robin 800 LEDWash to do the job, enabling the correct lighting for photographers while still adding colour changers and strobe effects." Programming was on a grandMA2 full size.

Mauritz used colour for backlighting. "We purely outlined the models from the back which worked very well while still using the desired colour temperatures, particularly for photographers, for the front."

With the audience sitting

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Europe - French loudspeaker manufacturers Active Audio and APG confirmed at ProLight+Sound 2016 the signing of a strategic alliance. While both brands will remain independent in their respective activities - and through distribution channels - Active Audio will continue to focus on the Public Address market while APG will still cater for live events and large venue installations. The decision to join forces will foster critical synergies between both companies in R&D, production, financing and ultimately global reach.

As a result, with immediate effect. Active Audio will now hold 60% of APG shares while APG's historical shareholders, Jean-Luc Moncel, Philippe Frarier and Grégory Dapsanse, will hold the majority of the remaining shares.

Commenting on the agreement, Régis Cazin enthused, "All stakeholders at APG and Active Audio feel elated to have this new all

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UK - No less than nine DiGiCo SD series mixing consoles formed the backbone of the audio production at the annual Brit Awards, held at London's O2 Arena on 2 February.

The event's audio production management - headed up by Colin Pink - crew, control and loudspeaker systems were provided by Britannia Row Productions. The complex sound requirements of a televised major awards event, with performances by some of contemporary music's highest profile acts were handled easily by the DiGiCo consoles.

Not only were DiGiCo consoles chosen to mix the live performances, as well as the presenter and warm up acts, but seven of the 11 winners on the night are regular DiGiCo users.

Two SD7s were installed at the Front of House position, which were used to mix live performances by Adele, James Bay, Coldplay and Justin Bieber, with all four regular DiGiCo users winning awards on the ni

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UK - Located just a stone's throw away from the hallowed turf of Nottingham Forest Football Ground, Trent Bridge cricket ground, Nottingham Rugby Club and Notts County's Meadow Lane Ground, The Southbank Bar in Nottingham is a mecca for any sports fan heading into Nottingham's city centre. Part of the Great Northern Inns group, The Southbank Bar is the latest within the group to receive a sophisticated AV refit in order to provide the best quality sports coverage.

As part of the recent refurbishment, Great Northern Inns turned to local AV specialists Cable Guys to provide an audio visual experience that would impress customers. The AV needed to deliver outstanding sports coverage and live entertainment to every inch of the bar. Cable Guys exceeded the client's expectation by installing over 24 screens, video walls and televisions to distribute high definition live sports cover

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USA - The Media Networking Alliance (MNA) - the professional AV industry alliance established to promote awareness and uptake of AES67 - has announced that Calrec, Cymatic and NTP Technology are the latest leading international pro-audio and broadcast technology companies to join the alliance.

Celebrating 50 years in the audio industry, Calrec Audio is a leading manufacturer of audio broadcast mixing consoles, relied upon by the world's most successful broadcasters.

Calrec technical director Patrick Warrington explains the rational behind the company's decision to join the alliance, "AES67 is a call to arms for technology manufacturers in the crowded AoIP community. The adoption of AES67 is about giving our customers tools to do their jobs more efficiently, and the Media Networking Alliance exists to help promote that vision, as well as to provide education in this new are

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UK - Leading provider of professional AV equipment, Audiologic has secured the exclusive UK distribution for Ely-based Spectra Displays. Spectra manufactures an extensive range of LED displays, signs, video displays and LCD media panels suitable for a large range of applications.

As Audiologic continues to expand the scope and facility of its AV operation, this relationship adds a significant and high-quality range of products to its visual provision, whilst for Spectra, entering a partnership with an established, well-connected AV distributor is set to open up and grow new markets. Audiologic's engineering and technical focus on customer needs and correct specification aligns perfectly with Spectra's own ethos in this respect and the potential for mutual advantage is clearly evident.

Andy Lewis, Sales & Marketing Manager for Audiologic comments on what he clearly sees as

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Germany - Lawo's VSM Broadcast Control System is heavily used as part of the TV and entertainment system on board of the cruise ship Ovation of the Seas. US shipping company Royal Caribbean International is currently building this third member of its Quantum Class vessels at Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany.

On board, VSM is used as the overall control system for the vessel's own TV system with 36 IPTV channels as well as routing of all cameras of the entertainment areas, like musical theatres or night-clubs. The Finnish systems integrator TV Tools Oy is responsible for the implementation.

It is common to all Quantum Class ships that all TV signals on board are processed in HD quality. As an independent control system, VSM easily integrates with all relevant technology on the ship in order to produce, route and transmit the TV-Signals as well as providing material in the th

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India - International theatre consultancy practice, Theatreplan, has been selected to provide auditorium, conference centre and technology design services for Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir (VCM), the world's tallest temple under construction in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Vrindavan is the birthplace of Krishna and the spiritual capital of India. The project is the result of 30 years of work and investment by ISCKON (The International Society for Krishna Consciousness) who are managing the design and construction process.

ISCKON has built a design team with some of the world's leading design firms. Theatreplan was selected for its "world class pedigree, collaborative and creative approach" to auditorium planning and technology design.

According to Theatreplan's project director for VCM, Brad Maiden, "This project presents a unique opportunity for Theatreplan to emba

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