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USA - Like many contemporary churches, First Baptist Church of Manchester, Tennessee has undergone a transformation in the style and energy of its services. Years ago, services centred on sermons augmented by music played by organ, piano or choir. Thus, in a room that seats 900, the demands on the sound reinforcement system were rather light. But that has changed - and dramatically.

These days FBC punctuates sermons with a full band comprised of rock 'n roll instruments. The church's old sound reinforcement system couldn't keep up! Audio/video integration firm Centerline Audio Visual, of Hendersonville, Tennessee, stepped in to design simple, yet powerful, stereo reinforcement consisting of two Danley SM-100B full-range loudspeakers buttressed from below by a Danley BC-218 subwoofer, with Ashly Audio nXp-Series network multi-mode amplifiers providing power, integrated DSP, and

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UK - Described as a "festival within a festival", The Field of Avalon at Glastonbury has built a passionately loyal following with its comfortable soul nourishing mix of folk/ roots music, wholesome food and communal vibes. This year, that welcoming atmosphere was enhanced by warm and engaging lighting, thanks to a carefully crafted kit by GLS Lighting that utilised a collection of Rogue and STRIKE 4 fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

"As the Avalon Stage is a key focal point not just within the Field of Avalon, but also within the Glastonbury festival itself, we felt it our duty to create huge engaging looks for the performers on stage," commented Ian Turner, project manager of GLS Lighting. "With our selection of Chauvet fixtures, we were able to combine big looks and versatility in one complete package for some big bands such as The Feeling, Will Young and KT Tunstall, whi

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UK - With the festival season under way, the team at PRG XL Video is in full swing supplying a wide variety of festivals with event technology. Continuing its long-term relationship with live event production company LarMac Live, with whom it also works on the country's largest EDM event, Creamfields, PRG XL Video supplied live video technology including outdoor LED screens and camera system for Field Day.

The two-day event takes place at Victoria Park in East London, and featured an eclectic line-up including Air, John Grant, Anna Meredith, The Avalanches, and headliners James Blake and PJ Harvey.

To ensure the capacity audience of 30,000 had the best view of the main stage, PRG XL Video were called in to supply an IMAG package which consisted of three HD cameras and Panasonic AVHS-450- based PPU system, together with two high resolution LED side screens each measuring 5.

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Australia - Every year for the past seven years, Sydney's streets and skyline have come alight with the beautiful, inspiring, interactive festival that is Vivid Sydney. The lights and installations of Vivid Sydney illuminate some of Sydney's most iconic landmarks, including the Sydney Opera House, Customs House, Maritime Museum and The Star casino.

For Vivid Sydney 2015, The Star temporarily installed 44 Clay Paky Sharpys and 10 Mythos fixtures onto their roof as part of an installation entitled Mission Control. The resulting light display was so stunning and popular, the venue realized there was potential beyond Vivid Sydney.

To celebrate VIVID 2016 a total of 36 Clay Paky Supersharpys were chosen for their enhanced optical design.

"We chose Clay Paky due to past positive experiences with the brand," commented Bruce Dwyer, head of lighting at The Star. "We did look at

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Dominican Republic - The 2016 Barbarella Festival by Presidente Black, one of the fastest-growing and most popular events in the Caribbean, recently took Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic by storm. Thousands of electropop fans packed into Quisqueya Stadium to see performances by some of the world's biggest DJs, which ran the gamut from David Guetta and Steve Aoki to Afrojack and Jack

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UK - Another wave of thought-provoking seminar sessions have been launched in the run up to PLASA Show 2016 (18-20 September, London Olympia). The latest offering includes sessions focussed on 'Broadcast Meets Live Sound'; the Rio Olympics; 'Sadler's Wells: New Technology for the Stage'; and a production masterclass from the team behind the Eurovision Song Contest.

Innovation and collaboration is at the heart of the entertainment technology industry, and is therefore a hugely important element of the PLASA Show. 'Sadlers Wells: New Technology for the Stage', on Tuesday 20 September at 1pm, is a great example of this, highlighting significant improvements of the theatre's systems through technical innovation and collaboration. This session will be presented by Emma Wilson, Sadlers Wells' director of technical production and Christian Wallace, technical manager.

Wilson says:

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UK - Audient has revealed its new-look, responsive website at www.audient.com, showcasing its full product range from the newly launched compact audio interface iD4 right through to the flagship ASP8024 Heritage Edition mixing console. Featuring an intuitive new design, it brings all aspects of the brand into line, and can be accessed easily on any device: computer, tablet and mobile phone.

"Everything you need to know about our products and audio heritage can be found on the new site," explains marketing manager, Andy Allen. "We have made the new website as informative and helpful as possible with a view to enabling new and existing customers access to helpful videos, audio examples, product demos and more - allowing customers to get the most out of their Audient products."

In addition to its easy-to-navigate, intuitive design, the website features brand new 'store finder

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UK - Audio specialist tube UK, working for outdoor arts experts Walk The Plank, provided nine different sound systems in six locations and on two parade floats around Manchester city centre for Manchester Day 2016.

The high profile event was enjoyed by huge crowds who were thrilled by the elaborate floats, costumes and vibrant array of music on the parade section of the day, as over 80 community groups snaked their way down Deansgate via Albert Square and on to the finish at Exchange Square.

tube supplied the first float in the parade - the Orrery - and also the final one which was a very special show-stopping collaboration by local hero, dance music producer and icon Graham Massey (808 State, etc.) and brass collective Mr Wilson's Second Liners.

The overall event theme of EUREKA! celebrated the city's achievements in science and discovery with Walk The Plank commissio

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UK - Based in North London, Fourth Monkey Theatre Company offers innovative and inspired actor training for the contemporary world of performance. It is also a repertory theatre company, with productions being performed throughout the UK and overseas. Its original and alternative approach to teaching drama has made it one of the most reputable drama schools in the UK. Last year, the company set up its own premises in Finsbury Park to house both its training and productions. They recently approached White Light who worked with them to supply a range of state-of-the-art lighting equipment.

Fourth Monkey has been running for six years and was formed by current artistic director Steve Green. He comments, "With Fourth Monkey, I really wanted to create an alternative approach to actor training. As a student myself, I found that traditional acting methods were missing something. Ever

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UK - dbn Lighting were back in Heaton Park, Manchester for the 2016 Parklife Festival, where they supplied lighting, rigging and LED screen to five out of the eight main performance areas - including the Main Stage, Stage 3 (The Rotunda), Stage 5 (Elrow), Stage 6 (The Colonnade) and Stage 8 which was hosted by two pumping club nights MTA and MK.

Pete Robinson led the dbn crew of 28 who commenced the get-in on the Wednesday ahead of the opening on Saturday morning, and once again, their mission was to ensure that every stage looked individual and interesting and different from anything in the past.

The project entailed the supply of approximately 580 lighting fixtures including 224 moving lights and 75 strobes which were deployed site wide.

For the Main Stage, dbn's Stephen Page designed a house lighting rig that allowed for the two headliners - The Chemical Brothers an

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Australia - Event and PA company, DURT Pty Ltd, chose their Qu and ME systems to manage sound reinforcement for the recent National Mountain Bike Championships in Victoria.

"The location for a major mountain bike event can be the size of 10 football fields, there will be several concurrent events, each with their own audio requirements, plus briefing, meeting and conference areas which require audio but also minimal background noise. The trails can be upwards of 8 square kilometres, and the audience, often well over 10,000 capacity, can be spread over several mountains, with local areas attracting their own large crowds all needing entertainment, race information and atmosphere," explains DURT MD, Russell Baker.

A Qu-32 was stationed in a control cabin, with AR2412 and AR0804 IO racks as two external connection points, an aerial farm and router on the roof, plus iPad and i

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USA - No sooner had Fresno's Live Light, Inc. taken delivery of 50 new Clay Paky Mythos fixtures than the company was sending them out the door to the 2016 California State Future Farmers of America (FFA) Leadership Conference. Mythos played a key role in the entertainment component of the annual conference where they upped the excitement quotient for more than 6,000 high school agriculture students attending the event.

Live Light, Inc. offers a full line of equipment sales and rental services as well as complete range of entertainment production services. It has a long history with Clay Paky products and acquired 50 Mythos hybrid spot and beam lights for its rental inventory.

"Mythos is very versatile, and rental inventories have to be somewhat timeless and cover all the basics of lighting," notes Live Light CEO/president, Reggie Rush. "Mythos is a pretty darn good little

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Portugal - The creative manager of the agency Newtonlab, Lucio Ferreira, designed and developed the creative idea/guidelines for the world launch of the Pirelli's new high performance tyre range, on the roads of Portugal and at the historic Estoril racing circuit.

Newtonlab developed all the architectural solutions needed to organize the interior spaces together with its creative manager: the reception, meeting, conference, lounge, exhibition and product presentation show areas. It was a début in grand style, which required much technical effort.

Newtonlab gave the task of illuminating the various areas assigned to guests and international press representatives to lighting designer Giovanni Pinna, who also designed the lighting for the show. Clay Paky's Sharpy lights performed like true stars on this occasion.

"The audience arrived, aboard three helicopters, at

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UK - Philips Lighting reports that Peterborough's Key Theatre has replaced its existing tungsten Fresnels with 36 energy-efficient Philips Selecon RAMA LED Fresnel luminaires to save on power and breathe new life into the popular venue's lighting system.

The new fixtures were supplied and fitted by entertainment technical specialist Stage Electrics, with whom the Key Theatre has a long standing relationship. Stage Electrics' technical sales consultant Andy Elsegood recommended the RAMA LED Fresnels as a crisp, white LED solution for the theatre's range of stage lighting requirements.

"We specifically wanted LED Fresnels with a clear white light," explains the Key Theatre's technical manager Gary Linley. "The Philips Selecon RAMA LED Fresnel seemed to be the only luminaire on the market specifically designed for that purpose."

The majority of the RAMA LED Fresnel fixtur

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Germany - In the North Rhine Westfalia region, Sound Linear has completed two very different sound reinforcement installations using Nexo's Geo M6 compact line array system. One indoor, one outdoor - one a house of worship, the other a volkstheater; the projects showcase the quality of the M6 for SPL coverage and speech intelligibility.

In the calm and elegant modern interior of Willebadessen's Baptist Church, a high-flying Geo M6 line array is almost invisible in its custom grey colours. The church approached Kalle Hogrefe of Sound Linear, the Paderborn-based installation and rental company, to design a system that would provide smooth and even SPLs to each of the 1500 seats in the sanctuary.

After spending a test weekend with Nexo Geo M620 full-range cabinets, pole-mounted for the evaluation, a favourable decision was made. Hogrefe used Nexo's NS-1 proprietary modelling

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UK - Pro audio provider The Warehouse Sound Services Limited has been awarded certification to BS EN ISO 9001 and BS EN ISO 14001 for its Quality Management and Environmental Systems.

These internationally recognised standards are awarded to companies that demonstrate to its clients and customers that they are committed to delivering quality services and reducing its environmental impact while driving down costs, improving productivity and boosting customer satisfaction.

Derek Blair, director, of The Warehouse said, "This award is a reflection of the hard work and excellent performance of all our teams and a starting point in this continually improving process.

"Having certification is a positive step forward in positioning The Warehouse external markets as well as further assuring delivery of quality services to our existing customer base. For the Warehouse, it's real

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UK - Hyundai's Football Heaven, in an upgraded Star Events' Orbit structure, was exactly that for expat Portugal fans. They took to the North London temporary venue on Sunday to see their team defy the odds and win the European Championships from favourites France.

A first event for Lewis Cubitt Square, the new civic space behind King's Cross station, production company Produce called on Star to design and deliver the structure, enveloping a 360° screen, to broadcast live coverage from 45 Euro 2016 matches. Forty five thousand tickets were available free via Ticketmaster over the course of the tournament.

The Orbit Flexidome's modular design brought the best out of the small site, its roof comfortably accommodating over 500m2 of projector screens, lighting and sound. In a major first, Star treated the whole building with a new acoustic barrier system, lowering the exte

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USA - Jam bands expect their lighting designers to be ready to punt at the drop of a hat and come up with a fresh look for a new guitar riff that just pops up in the middle of a set. At the recent Domefest, however, funk rockers Pigeons Playing Ping Pong asked their LD Manny Newman to go a step further. The popular group, which started the annual three-day jam festival in 2010, wanted Manny to create a flexible punt-ready lightshow for an eclectic mix of over 20 bands.

Manny and lighting tech Danny Katz met this challenge with a lightshow that seemed to unfold effortlessly over an extended weekend of jam and funk music, serving up ever more opulent, colourful and free flowing looks. A big help in accomplishing this feat was provided by a powerful and flexible rig that featured a collection of Rogue fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment.

"This

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New Zealand - When the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo came to the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand in February 2016, production supplier, MJF Lighting, decided the scale of the production warranted new followspots and invested in four Robert Juliat Merlin 2500W HMI followspots specifically for the spectacular show.

"There were no quality 2kW HMI followspots available in New Zealand to match this event, with all previous shows of this scale and high production standards having relied on units out of Australia," says MJF's CEO, Michael Farrand. "It was time for a change."

Farrand had previous experience with Robert Juliat followspots on the AC/DC tour, which UK-based Neg Earth had supplied with 4kW RJ Lancelot followspots. "I had the opportunity to talk to the touring tech, and find out first hand just how reliable the RJ product was," Farrand says. "Feedback from

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Italy - CODA Audio recently engaged Decima as its distributor in Italy. Decima has a near 70-year history as a distributor and integrator on every scale. The relationship came about as a result of one of Decima's customers remarking on the quality of CODA system they had heard in action. Curious to find out more, Decima representatives approached CODA Audio and were invited to a system demonstration in Hannover.

Enzo Trovato CEO of Decima commented, "We were blown away by the power and clarity we experienced at the demo. In theatre installations audio is not necessarily something that is a regular feature of every job but we work on a variety of other fixed installations and we knew immediately that with CODA Audio systems at our disposal, this aspect of our offer could be expanded. Decima now has an experienced audio-specialist to take care of this side of the business. In ou

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India - Cloud Electronics has announced Acoustic Arts as the exclusive distributor for India for the full range of Cloud products including audio mixers, zoners, multi-channel amplifiers, audio distribution systems and speakers, effective 1 July 2016.

Acoustic Arts was founded in 1999 and specialises in providing state of the art, innovative and integrated AV solutions to more than one hundred and fifty systems integrators and dealers across India, providing design, project management and turnkey solutions including the provision of EASE (Enhanced Acoustic Simulator for Engineers) modelling and simulation.

Sidharth Chhibber, director for Acoustic Arts commented, "The heritage and reliability of Cloud products sits nicely with Acoustic Arts' longevity in the Indian market. We pride ourselves on providing excellent value, the latest technologies and delivering projects ahead

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Council Concern - Arts Council England has admitted it is "hugely concerned" about the future of artists' free movement within the EU following the Brexit vote last month. National director of communication Mags Patten said the council was "really, really worried" about the issue following the UK's vote to leave the EU, and confirmed ACE was preparing to lobby the government in favour of free movement. Speaking at a London Writers' Week event about the state of the theatre industry, Patten said ACE was uncertain whether UK arts organisations would still have access to European culture funds. She stated, "The other area which really really worries us is freedom of movement. It's a huge concern to us that that is clearly not guaranteed at the moment...We have to be open, we have to be international in our outlook, and the free exchange of artists and ideas is absolutely critical to

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USA - Here Come the Mummies, an eight-piece funk band from Nashville is touring the US beneath a lighting rig of Elation Professional effect lights.

Lighting designer/director and programmer Thom Roberts has been working with the band for the past three years and is out on their current LoveFest tour, which runs until the end of October.

The band has been playing dates across the US since February, mostly weekends and mostly in large clubs and theatres with a few festivals and casinos on the schedule. Augmenting house or local lighting systems at each gig is an Elation lighting floor package of Rayzor Q7 LED moving heads, Sniper 2R multi-effect lights, Cuepix Blinder WW2 white light LED blinders, and Protron 3K strobes.

"The role of the Elation gear is to bring the 'wow factor'," says Roberts. "But there are specific features on every fixture we have that are important

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Germany - The Milla club in the heart on Munich is a destination for upcoming bands from around the world. The club - which offers space for an audience of up to 250 persons - offers its musical guests state-of-the-art lighting and sound technology. Now, stands from Adam Hall Group's brand Gravity are also ensuring a secure position for microphones and keyboards on stage. Additionally, the stands, which recently received iF Design and Red Dot Awards and are currently nominated for a German Design Award, also provide visual stimuli in the stage set-up.

"There are times when we have a different band here each day of the week, and not all of them bring their own equipment," says Peter Sp

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  5. Clay Paky lights Sascha Grammel's dancing puppets
  6. Stage Electrics hire & events division rebrands as SLX
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