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UK - The decision to relocate the PLASA Show back to Olympia proved to be a great move, securing the show's continued future as a key event on the industry's calendar. The quality of the audience was strong across all three days, with 60% being final decision makers and specifiers. Exhibitors also reported an increase in international visitors, further validating the decision to move the event back to West London.

Once again, PLASA's high quality free to attend seminar programme was a key element of the show and featured extremely well attended presentations by Durham Marenghi on lighting the Olympic ceremonies in Rio as well as a Production Masterclass from Ola Melzig and Fredrik Jönsson on Eurovision 2016.

This year's content-rich show also featured the seventh edition of the Rigging Conference, hands-on console training opportunities, the Innovation Gallery, and an exp

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UK - After a highly successful year with their new product portfolio - notably on the London West End stage - GLP's inventive solutions continue to evolve, as was evidenced at this year's PLASA Show at Olympia.

Visitors to their booth saw the new GT-1 hybrid, which has been causing such a stir on the international circuit in 2016.

GLP marked the PLASA Show's 39th edition with the first presentation that the German manufacturer has fronted under its new UK operation.

Led by head of operations (UK & Ireland), Noel 'Roly Smith, with full support from senior international representatives, GLP could not have been more effusive about the response to their new LED fixtures, expertly integrated into a centrepiece lightshow by KOI award-winning LD Tom Campbell.

Campbell, who was accoladed last year by the Knights of Illumination for his touring work with Anna Calvi, again d

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USA - Bandit Lites continued its summer of stellar festivals with a lighting package provided for a weekend in the woods at The Firefly Music Festival, and while the weather may have put a damper on last year's festivities, the elements cooperated this year to give the 90,000 attendees nothing but good vibes and great performances.

Headliners for the 16-19 June event featured a wide variety of artists such as Mumford and Sons, Blink 182, Florence and The Machine, Death Cab for Cutie and Kings of Leon.

The ethereal atmosphere for Firefly comes from the woodland surroundings, which boasted a hammock hangout area, draughts from Dog Fish Head Brewery, a silent disco amongst the foliage and four stages of top tunes.

Bandit provided lighting for the Main, Lawn, Backyard and Porch stages, where lighting looks had to pop during the daytime shows and compliment artists who util

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USA - With over 22 years of experience in motion picture production, MediaLight Inc. is a New York City-based lighting and video design firm in the Motion Picture industry who has seen a number of revolutionizing technology innovations.

As LED video has continued to evolve its technology, designer Frank Blasko has been creating exciting applications that range from dynamic LED video backgrounds to LED video lighting. Now needing a solution that can work within all the parameters of his lighting and video designs, Blasko and MediaLight Inc. have made an investment in FLEXLite NXG 3.9mm and 8.9mm LED video technology becoming the newest PixelFLEX production partner.

"I've been working in the motion picture industry for over two decades and we are now seeing multiple opportunities emerging for the application of LED video lighting, so we wanted to be at the forefront of that

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USA - As a live and studio sound engineer, one of the challenges that John Buitrago faces daily is maintaining balance between the final studio production and the live elements of the band on tour, especially the drums.

For Latin American Superstar J. Balvin, the drummer is an essential part of the rhythm. As Balvin's FOH Engineer, Buitrago knows the drums should not disturb the sound spectrum that allows the public to immediately identify the song. In order to find the space for a kick, snare and toms, Buitrago relies on DPA Microphones' d:vote 4099D Instrument Microphones for Drums.

J. Balvin is the stage name of José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, from Medellín, Colombia. Balvin is a reggaeton singer, whose polished urban singles and best-selling albums have made him a top-tier Latin pop artist. Balvin's music is electronic, yet it is very rich in the low end where the

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Norway - Audio dealer and rental supplier, Kultur Support, has chosen Allen & Heath's dLive as its leading rental system.

Based in Sandefjord, the company purchased the dLive S7000 Surface and DM64 MixRack system.

"Having many years' experience with iLive and GLD as reliable big players in their portfolio, choosing dLive was a natural step forward. Stability and reliability are extremely important factors for our business. After seven years with iLive never once letting me down, it wasn't a difficult choice," explains CEO Lars Petter Kristiansen. "I love the uncomplicated layout, and the fast access to all important features, combined with the great flexibility and also probably the best on-board FX suite on the market."

The new dLive system has already been employed as the monitor system for the two-day GIT KAM festival, featuring some of Norway's most popular artists

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UK - The Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers has announced details of its latest training initiative. Voice Alarm System Fundamentals is an engineer's introduction to the requirements of BS5839-8:2013, detailing the requirements for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of voice alarm systems, along with practical advice and examples.

Voice alarm systems form the sounder circuits for a fire detection system, not just an expensive public address system. For them to operate in the intended manner, saving lives, they must be designed and installed correctly. This course deals with the concepts involved, standards requirements, equipment and the duties of those during the implementation.

The presenter is Bob Howard MInstSCE, who has a wealth of experience in both the commercial and professional side of the audio industry and brings a relaxed style

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USA - An increasing number of lighting designers have turned to Capture lighting design software to visualize their designs and help sway clients. One advocate is LD Jason Robinson, who uses Capture to create virtual designs for WWE professional wrestling and has designed lighting for Top Rank Boxing using Capture software.

"I now use Capture in my daily work and it has changed the way I think about the design process," he stated. "After I finish a drawing in SketchUp I just drop it in Capture. It's a seamless import and then it's simple to place the lights and turn them on. I can get all the attributes of a fixture. It's very intuitive, has an easy work flow and has become part of my normal work procedure."

Top Rank Boxing is the country's premiere promotions company for boxing with events that feature some of boxing's biggest stars like Manny Pacquiao. Robinson has been

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USA - Country music artist Kenny Chesney has completed his fifteenth concert tour, and his third with Nexo STM modular line array systems, supplied by Morris from Nashville, TN. This year's Spread The Love tour started back in April, and has included 14 stadium dates, supported by Miranda Lambert. The final two nights in Boston's Gillette Stadium entertained more than 120,000 people.

Selling out 50+ dates on last year's Big Reviva tour, and grossing more than $100m in ticket sales, put Chesney among the Billboard Top Five touring artists of 2015. The country legend's last three tours have confirmed the standing of Nexo's STM Series in the hierarchy of large-format PA systems, capable of handling the biggest venues in the USA and flexible enough to scale up and down through different sizes of venue.

Outlining his artistic objectives for 2016's Spread the Love, Kenny Chesney

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USA - The Dave Mathews Band is playing its 25th anniversary tour in the US and Canada this summer. The lengthy annual DMB summer tours have actually acquired legendary status and are known for improvised renditions of their regular songs as much as for their stunning visual shows which have been designed by Fenton Williams since the early 1990s.

Fenton and his Charlottesville-based design company Filament Productions are still responsible for the production design and this year he and co-lighting designer Aaron Stinebrink specified Robe BMFL Spots and PATT 2013 fixtures.

Aaron also works for Theatrical Media Services (TMS) based in Omaha, Nebraska, the tour's lighting vendor and he's been involved with Fenton and DMB in various lighting capacities since 2003, the last four years as joint LD and lead programmer.

The design process between the two men is always "a lot of

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Canada - From 6-8 October, Montreal will host its first festival dedicated to video mapping. With the support of numerous internationally acclaimed creative studios from Montreal, the first edition of MAPP_MTL will emerge at the convergence points of Montreal's renowned Mile End and Mile-Ex neighbourhoods, proposing circuits of both exterior and interior installations, exploring as an open laboratory - -a vision of the future of video mapping.

Thien Vu Dang, the co-founder and artistic director of MAPP_MTL, explains, "Mapping is a fascinating medium that uses video projection to reinvent spaces. It's a form of art that is gaining more and more notoriety, but still has plenty of untapped potential.

"The festival brings life to a number of structures throughout Mile End and allows the public to reclaim their neighbourhoods, see the environment through new eyes and completely

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Crucial Opportunities - Policymakers in the UK and China are being called upon to exploit possibilities for cultural collaboration, as part of a report claiming "crucial opportunities" exist for both countries. The report, published by the Department for International Trade and cultural organisation BOP Consulting, claims that the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote has moved collaborations with non-European countries such as China further up the UK's agenda.

However, fostering short-term or profit-led relationships are unlikely to succeed, the report argues, highlighting the emphasis should be on building a long-term, sustained collaboration between the two nations. Recent projects to build collaborations between the UK and China have included a Chinese-language production of War Horse, produced by the National Theatre of China in collaboration with the UK's National Theat

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USA - High-profile lighting designers, Rob Sinclair and Chris Reade have been nominated in the 2016 Parnelli Awards Lighting Designer of the Year category, for their Peter Gabriel and Dierks Bentley concert tour designs utilizing show lighting and media control by Jands Vista.

Longtime Vista user, Rob Sinclair's show design for Peter Gabriel was part of the Rock Paper Scissors summer co-headline concert tour in North America with Sting. It featured both artists on stage for the whole performance, alternating between and sharing singing duties on each other's songs.

Rob designed and programmed the lighting for songs written by Peter Gabriel - with the occasional song being performed by Sting. He commented, "The Vista showed strength as a team player. Working closely with Danny Nolan, Sting's LD, we alternated songs and consoles. What could have been a control nightmare was

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USA - Rock band O.A.R. recently wrapped their summer tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. The tour coincided with the band's 20th anniversary complete with a double compilation album entitled XX released 5 August.

Tour manager and lighting designer Chris Wrightsman evoked the double 'X' symbol within the look of the show creating a truss design of two interlocked X's. VL 2500s and MAC 2000s spread throughout the rig, providing maximum coverage and tight shots, and coupled with ACL floor bars placed upstage of the riser line, four cell mole lights in front of the riser line and four restored old time fresnels for side glow, the result was a production that was unique and memorable.

"We wanted to create a great "big arena" concert experience in smaller venues, specific to OAR, and emphasize on the band's history," Wrightsman explained.

Bandit als

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UK - Event technical production solution specialist PR Live supplied large format projection - using a combination of their new d3 server and six Christie 20K high powered projectors - which was applied to the side of a large house as the finale for an exclusive private party in the UK.

PR Live's Dave Gillett led the team, designed the projection system and applied his experience in the specialist area of projection mapping which caught guests' attention as they exited a big marquee that was erected in the garden for the event.

PR Live also commissioned the custom video content for the four-minute looped show, created by artist Jack Beccegato, which was mapped to the 30m wide by 8.5m high side for the house.

The projection surface involved a number of bay windows, decorative brickwork and a raised surfaces at different depths, all of which had to be taken into consider

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France - In July, Paris hosted the Japan Expo, a full-scale video game show dedicated to the Japanese culture.

Square Enix, a Japanese video game company best known for developing role-playing video games such as Final Fantasy was one of the major exhibitors. For the audiovisual design of the booth, Square Enix contracted NEXXT France, a young French company that provides audiovisual services through innovative solutions. In the middle of the 550m² booth, NEXXT France put a 30m² LED wall and two LCD side screens above the main stage which was intended for host conferences and signing sessions.

Marc Gloria, CEO of NEXXT France, explains the concept of the booth, "The LED screen was the main element of the booth. No one could miss it. Our client wanted visitors to test games and watch live demos on a large display."

To feed the screens, Marc Gloria chose the Eikos², a

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USA - Many of baseball's legends have experienced butterflies in their stomachs the first time they entered the colossus that is Yankee Stadium. Apparently so too do country music superstars. "I'm nervous as hell," Garth Brooks, the best-selling solo album artist in the history of the US, said at a press conference before his two-night performance at the fabled ballpark.

Brooks needn't have worried. From the moment he began his set with Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up), he captivated the New York crowd with the raw power, enthusiasm and heartfelt country passion of his performance. Keeping pace with Brooks as he led the sell-out crowd through singalongs and romped around a massive circular runway, was a high octane lightshow created by Robert Peterson of Real World Lighting with a stage rig supplied by Bandit Lites that included Rogue RH1 Hybrids from Chauvet Pr

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USA - Ben Rector's career is a textbook case of what the new music industry landscape looks like: a sea of independent musicians touring and working hard to break through public consciousness when up against major label-backed artists. The Tulsa-born, Nashville-based Rector has put out seven albums on his own indie label, Aptly Named Recordings, selling over 450,000 albums and four million singles in nearly a decade - a considerable accomplishment for an indie artist.

Jake Hartsfield, Rector's FOH engineer and production manager, has added a new tool in Rector's road ki,t helping him perform in that crowded field that is the music business: a compact pair of DiGiCo SD9 digital consoles, used for FOH and monitors. The DiGiCo SD9s give Rector and Hartsfield the power and performance to help stand out on the road, plus the economic effectiveness to stay out there profitably.

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Canada - CBC's Studio 42 at Maison Radio-Canada in Montréal is to Canadian television what a legendary room like Studio 8H in Rockefeller Centre is to US broadcasting history. Coincidentally first opened 42 years ago, the flagship studio has been used for countless awards ceremonies, talk shows, concerts and other live-event programmes over its four-plus decades.

Earlier this year, Le Studio, as it's known to millions of Canadians, underwent a significant technical upgrade. Included in that was a new L-Acoustics ARCS WiFo, sound system for Studio 42's audience seating, which Radio-Canada systems designer Michel Desjardins first heard at AES 2015 in New York City.

Designed by Radio-Canada's technical service team and installed by Solotech, the new sound system comprises one L-Acoustics ARCS Focus enclosure plus one ARCS Wide flown under two SB18 subwoofers per side,

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UK - You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966 - 1970 is a brand-new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum that explores the era-defining significance and impact of the late 1960s. The era is relived though photography, posters, music, film, fashion and artefacts in this immersive exhibition which draws connections on the way we live today. Having a long-lasting relationship with the V & A Museum, White Light was called upon to provide the creative and production support for the exhibition's launch.

Bethan Garland, senior museum events manager at the V & A Museum, comments, "This is one of this year's biggest exhibitions so we wanted to make sure it received the launch it deserved. This meant capturing the spirit of the exhibition whilst remaining sensitive to the building."

Richard Stirzaker, WL's creative producer, comments, "We were approached

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UK - Live audio specialist tube UK enjoyed the sun and the great vibes at the 2016 Ramsbottom Festival for which the company designed and supplied d&b sound systems for the main and second stages.

The boutique, family-friendly three-day event is staged in the picturesque Lancashire town of Ramsbottom which runs alongside the River Irwell nestled in an attractive Pennine valley. The event features a vibrant mix of music, food and artistic / creative engagements, and this year the main stage headliners were Public Service Broadcasting, former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes and Fun Lovin' Criminals.

tube - along with Manchester based lighting company dbn - has been involved in the Ramsbottom Festival since it started in 2011, when they were asked on-board by production manager Roy Fernley.

This year for the first time tube also supplied a PA the second Smaller Spaces sta

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USA - The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum. Located on the National Mall, it has close to 37,000 objects in its collection related to such subjects as community, family, the arts, religion, civil rights, slavery, and segregation.

The museum opened 24 September 2016 in a ceremony led by U.S. President Barack Obama. As part of the grand opening festivities, the Freedom Sounds show - a concert featuring The Roots, Public Enemy, and Living Colour - took place before a huge audience. To provide sound reinforcement, loudspeakers from the Aero Series 2 and Road Series catalogues of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio were placed into service.

Audio & Light of Greensboro, NC, a full service A/V design, installation, and production company, was contracted to handle sound services for the event. Company president Jim

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Poland - Allen & Heath's Qu-Pac digital rack mixer has been installed in the new COS sports complex, constructed as a training centre for Poland's Olympic athletes.

Situated in Zakopane, the centre comprises a 46m x 28m hall, 15m climbing wall, running track, gym, judo training room, wrestling training room and fitness hall. The venue was recently opened by the Minister of Sport & Tourism, and top Polish athletes, cross country skier, Justyna Kowalczyk and ski jumper, Kamil Stoch.

Zakopane-based installer, Future Tech, installed the sound reinforcement system, which manages sources such as, microphones for announcements and coaches' commentaries, and music playlists.

"Qu-Pac is at the heart of the sound system," explains Marcin S?odyczka, owner of Future Tech. "The great thing about this compact mixer is it provides independent control of seven zones, and EQ and dynami

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Norway, The Concert Hall in Oslo has installed the largest console to leave the Audient factory. Delivered in September, the 48 channel ASP8024-HE Heritage Edition comes with all the trimmings, including patchbay, Dual Layer Control (DLC) and producers' desk. With nine bays, it's officially the largest Heritage Edition ever made.

"We were looking for an analogue console that doesn't lie," says production manager, Jan Olsen Skare, explaining their decision. "Obviously the room has to 'help' the music, but we wanted the console to have a true dynamic and good preamps." When introduced to the Audient brand by Norwegian distributor, Prolyd, he wasn't disappointed. "The mic pres are so quiet and respond amazingly. The EQs are just wonderful and very accurate; I've never heard anything sound this good."

Launched earlier this year, Heritage Edition is billed as the 'definitive ve

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