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UK - Setsquare Staging worked with Star Events and Bright Bricks to build a fully functional scale model of Tower Bridge, clad in a record 5,805, 846 pieces of Lego, for the Land Rover Discovery 5 launch at Packington Hall, near the manufacturer's Solihull plant.

Delivered by creative agency Imagination, the event was designed around the seven seat Discovery's family and adventure priorities, action man Bear Grylls descending from a helicopter to place the final brick on the structure.

Twelve months in the planning, the Tower Bridge model had to lift and support two Land Rover Discoveries while Ben Ainslie, the most successful sailor in Olympic history, drove his team underneath, pulling a Lego replica of their Land Rover BAR racing boat.

John O'Gorman, director of Setsquare Staging, comments, "Our relationship with Imagination has been getting stronger over the years

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UK - A Jands Vista console was at the heart of Fall Out Boy's headline performances at the recent Reading and Leeds Festival main stages.

The Chicago band have spent the past decade working their way up the festivals' bill, and their strikingly visual performances on the consecutive nights, created by production designer Robb Jibson, garnered rave reviews in the media.

Robb, who also helms Chicago-based So Midwest Inc which provided the Vista control package, has been touring extensively with the band, and the Leeds and Reading shows were the culmination of the 18-month American Beauty/American Psycho album cycle. The custom setup, which has accompanied him throughout, consists of a Vista S3 control surface run on OSX via two Mac Minis with stacking dongles, providing an active/backup system with the footprint of just one desk and a total of 16 cores of i7 processin

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USA - Lighting designer Zach Bunner admits that some of his LD brethren might think that designing an arena tour for a two-time Grammy winner "without a rig full of beams and profile fixtures" would limit the looks of a show.

However, Bunner proved otherwise by creating an intimate and immersive club-like feeling at venues from The Forum in Los Angeles to Madison Square Garden with a rig that relied heavily on the Rogue R2 Wash and STRIKE 4 multi formatted fixture from Chauvet Professional.

Bunner of Showtime Sound worked his magic on the just-concluded Louis C.K. summer tour. The comedian-actor-director, who has won six Emmys and a Peabody Award in addition to his pair of Grammys, wanted a lightshow that engendered the feeling of a comedy club or small theater, despite his tour's outsized venues. Aerial washing from the Rogue R2s was instrumental in creating this environm

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UK - Creative technical production expert Hawthorn is continuing to expand its video department and increase its presence in the dry hire sector with a recent investment in d3 server technology.

Due to an increasing demand for projection mapping and large-scale content, Hawthorn has added four d3 4x4pro media servers to its already extensive hire inventory, representing an investment of £200,000.

The d3 4

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USA - In its continuing support of arts education, ETC is once again giving six students who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the fields of lighting design and stage technology an exclusive opportunity for professional development.

As recipients of ETC's annual LDI Student Sponsorship, the students will enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to the LDI tradeshow, a full conference pass to experience the newest technology and benefit from LDI seminars and trainings, and the chance to network with professionals throughout the industry at special events.

ETC will match the Student Sponsorship recipients with industry luminaries who serve as mentors - giving advice, inspiration and support to the students as they embark on their careers. The 2016 ETC LDI students are:

Ben Clark - Currently a graduate student studying technical design and production at the Yale School

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The Netherlands - The latest in Talpa Media's string of hit TV talent shows is about to hit the screens this autumn when The Next Boy / Girl Band is broadcast by SBS6.

The imaginative stage set has been lit by Light-H-Art designer Bas de Vries and his assistant, programmer Joost Wijgers.

Having collaborated on a number of similar TV talent shows for Talpa in the past, including The Voice, Dance Dance Dance and It Takes Two, the two men this time turned to 12 of GLP's GT-1 hybrid Spot / Beam to dominate the set, which has been built at the giant Studio 24 on the Media Park in Hilversum.

"We got to test a GT-1 when we were recording Dance Dance Dance and thought it would be a great fit for The Next Boy / Girl Band," admits Joost.

The show itself is recorded in front of a live audience. The main elements of the scenography are

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Belgium - Held in the aptly-named Belgian town of Boom, Tomorrowland is one of the biggest electronic music festivals on the planet. The 2016 event attracted 60,000 people on each of three days in July, with almost 600 cabinets of L-Acoustics loudspeakers specified for no less than eight areas, including the huge Main Stage.

The system is owned by Phlippo Productions, an L-Acoustics partner for the past four years, who also supplied eight technicians for the build. Design for the audio systems was by Noizboyz, a group of freelance audio technicians who specialise in live sound for electronic dance music (EDM). They have specified L-Acoustics systems for Tomorrowland since they first became involved with the festival in 2011.

"Back then we started with a V-DOSC / SB218 rig. With the arrival of K1 we changed it to K1 / SB28 and this year we upgraded the main systems to KS28

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USA - With over four million records sold in the US, a Grammy nomination, and songs on soundtracks for hits like Game of Thrones to their credit, heavy metal masters Killswitch Engage have achieved much. Seventeen years after their founding, the band from Westfield, Massachusetts continue to push the musical envelope out a little further with each passing show.

This passion for defying comfortable expectations is shared by the band's lighting designer Freddy Thompson of JDI Productions. Working on the group's current tour in support of their album Incarnate, Thompson tore up his old playbook and rewrote the rules to come up with a lightshow that matches his client's evermore ferocious sound with an explosive mix of fresh new looks. Key to helping him accomplish this feat is a collection of eight Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures from Chauvet Professional that he added to th

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Belgium - Founded in 1985 by youth organization, the Young Humanists of Leopoldsburg, Pukkelpop started life as a small, local music event before evolving into the huge three-day outdoor festival that it is today. This year, the festival organisers asked Total-e event support specialists to supply audio, lighting and room control for their extensive VIP/Press area. Total-e immediately suggested a Liviau S from Apex.

Held just outside the city of Hasselt in Belgium, the Pukkelpop now attracts some 180,000 festival-goers over the three days. A festival with a distinctly alternative flavour, the event is not just about music - the Baraque Futur space hosts a variety of lectures and discussions all focused around the theme of sustainability - although if it's music you're looking for, with ten stages to choose from, visitors won't be disappointed.

The VIP area for such a major

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UK - Held on 14-15 September at the Science Museum, London, Space for Inspiration provided an opportunity to show how the environment of space can help overcome key challenges here on earth.

The two-day event involved expert speakers, live demonstrations and the opportunity to create relationships in one of the world's most renowned science venues. With a strong reputation in providing production support on a range of conferences, WL was called upon to provide the complete technical solutions for this event.

Space for Inspiration was hosted by the European Space Agency who approached WL to help bring their event to life. WL's conference account manager Shrenik Singhavi comments, "Upon meeting the ESA, it became clear that they wanted to host an extremely ambitious event. Alongside the lighting and AV support, there would also be interactive Q and A's, live audience respons

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UK - Bestselling children's author and McFly band member Tom Fletcher launched his children's fiction novel The Christmasaurus at the Natural History Museum. The Earth Hall was transformed into a Christmas extravaganza with seasonal lighting, canapés and a Giant Crumpet Christmasaurus made from 2500 Warburtons crumpets.

Published by Penguin Random House Children's, The Christmasaurus is Tom' s first novel aimed at 7-11 year olds, inspired by his love of all things Christmas and dinosaurs. Set on Christmas Eve, the story is about the magical adventures of a boy named William Trundle and a most unusual dinosaur called the Christmasaurus.

Magical Christmas scenes from the novel were reconstructed by Bespoke Events, from architectural lighting themed to match the book jacket in winter wonderland colours blues, white and purples to snow flake projections on

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Sweden - Gothenburg's renaissance style Stora Teatern was originally built in 1859 and is one of the most popular historical buildings in the bustling Swedish port city. It now presents a lively mix of concerts, theatre and dance shows and is also weekend destination during the summer season as Backstage, a popular club / DJ performance experience in the region.

Owing to its truly multi-purpose entertainment programme and many different configurations depending on the event, the show lighting rigs are constantly changing.

Saving time and hassle, head of lighting Joel Karlberg has installed a LumenRadio wireless DMX system which enables data signals between the lights and the control desk to be re-routed quickly and easily.

Joel co-ordinates all the lighting technical elements and has found the wireless DMX system to be a flexible and practical solution for addressing a

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China - Flightcase manufacturer 5 Star Cases has opened a new factory in Fenggang Town, Dongguan City, Guandong Province, China.

Established to run in parallel with the UK manufacturing base in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, the new 5 Star China operation will primarily service the burgeoning domestic Chinese and wider Asian markets which are demanding high quality products - for which it's simply not practical to ship from the UK.

The idea has been on the horizon for some time explains 5 Star's MD Keith Sykes, but several elements needed to fall in line before the plan could be successfully implemented.

Running the new 1000 metre plus production facility will be 5 Star's local business partner James Zhang, a well-known, respected and highly successful entrepreneur who manages other manufacturing companies in the town, including travel bag / handbag and polythene carrier bag

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UK - The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) will present their second International Fellowship to South African lighting designer Mannie Manim on Friday, 14 October, 2016.

The presentation ceremony will take place at the Young Vic Theatre, where Manim's latest production, A Man of Good Hope is playing. The show is based on the classic novel by Jonny Steinberg and depicts the true story of one refugee's epic quest across Africa, brought to life with music from the world-renowned Isango Ensemble.

ALD vice president, Rick Fisher, states, "It is an honour for the ALD to present Mannie with the ALD International Fellowship award."

The Association extends a very warm invitation to the UK's LDs and lighting industry practitioners in anticipation of many being able to join with Manim to celebrate his career and the art and craft of Lighting. The audience is invited

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USA - Ben Rector is out on his biggest tour to date which he has whimsically named 'The Biggest Tour I Have Done So Far' tour. The title alone alludes to the increasing popularity of the artist, whose brand of pop/rock 'music with a purpose' has resonated with fans.

Lighting and production designer is Chris Lisle who is using Elation Professional ACL 360 Bar LED battens to colour the singer-songwriter's show, which is playing dates in the US through October.

The versatility of the ACL 360 Bar has been on show on several festivals, events and tours this past summer, including the likes of the Rascal Flatts tour, the Nocturnal Wonderland and Hard Summer festivals and more.

On Rector's The Biggest Tour I Have Done So Far outing, Lisle, who is working with the artist for the first time, has the colour-changing battens working from a row along the upstage edge behind the ba

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Australia - Lighting designer Tom Wright had the difficult task of lighting the pre-match entertainment at this year's NRL Grand Final at Sydney's ANZ Stadium. Fortunately, he had done the job before, as well as several State of Origin pre-match shows, and knew how to overcome the complexities associated with the production.

Working for creative director Tony Assness of The Spark, Tom had to please multiple people with a budget and acts that changed daily.

"You never really know where you are until one to two weeks out," he admitted. "I have to give huge thanks to the Chameleon Touring Systems team for riding that with me. Chameleon's Luke Cuthbertson is one of the calmest account managers I have ever worked with! I think I sent seven versions of the plot and the seventh was only a week before the event."

Keith Urban was hesitant about playing in the round so although

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China - Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing systems were recently employed at several important festivals held in China's Yinchuan City, following the purchase of S7000 and S5000 Surfaces and DM64 and DM48 MixRacks by Beijing PA company, Knocklive.

The dLive systems managed FOH and monitors at the 14th Singing Festival of Chinese Western Folk Songs and The Flower Elf Game & Animation Music Festival both held at the city's Park of Customs and Culture.

The folk festival was staged near the Najiahu Great Mosque, with the S7000 and DM64 at FOH and S5000 and DM48 for monitors. The animation festival was held in the Park's newly-built Music Beach, and featured performances by top artists including Jolin Tsai, Second Hand Rose and Black Panther. This time, the S7000 with DM48 was used for monitors, and the S5000 was employed to manage FOH and recording, with the FOH DM64 fitted wi

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USA - Founded in 2002, Sonos was created to fill every home with music, and the whole home audio system is now sold in more than 60 countries, through thousands of retailers, custom installers and audio/video specialty stores.

With its recent decision to open a retail location of its own in New York City, general manager of Stores Whitney Walker was asked to oversee the creation of a listening experience in which customers could discover Sonos just as they would in the comfort of a friend's home. Needing a finishing accent for the downstairs lounge, Walker called upon Rethink Innovations to help create a warm and engaging 30ft fireplace display, and they did so using FLEXLite 6.9mm LED video technology from Nashville-based PixelFLEX.

"Our objective for the Sonos flagship retail location was to build the best place for someone to discover and fall in love with whole home au

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USA - Singer-songwriter Ben Rector is out on the aptly named The Biggest Tour I've Done So Far, with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. His sixth studio album and eponymous hit single Brand New has been dominating the airwaves and climbing the charts, and his enthusiastic fans are turning out to celebrate.

Lighting designer Chris Lisle collaborated with Rector to establish what the overall look of the production would be, with emphasis on using 2K fresnels on grip stands in addition to how Martin MAC Vipers would be utilized during the show.

"Ben actually sat with us during rehearsals and gave us some notes on a couple of cues he wanted to see," added Lisle. "He was very good to work with and had a lot of great input and ideas himself."

Utilizing Venue One, Bandit's in-house rehearsal and design studio, Lisle was able to set up the entire rig, allowing

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USA - Cleveland Indians Stadium, aka Progressive Field, recently replaced the original EAW distributed loudspeaker system with clusters made up of new EAW MQX and MK2391i loudspeakers.

Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams (WJHW) designed a system that utilized the existing loudspeaker locations while dramatically improving system performance. Pro Media, recently acquired by Panasonic and now part of the Panasonic Enterprise Solution Company (PESCO), provided installation and tuning of the system.

"One of the goals was to use the existing design but install new loudspeakers that would improve the game day experience," explains Kevin Day, associate principal at WJHW. "EAW's MQX loudspeakers fit in the same space while utilizing new technology that provides much greater output capability. They also go lower in frequency for a more full and contemporary sound with an enclosur

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South Africa - Classics is Groot is a new musical performance extravaganza staged at the 6,500 capacity Moreleta Auditorium in Pretoria, South Africa, produced by the same creative team from Coleske Artists who deliver the massively successful Afrikaans is Groot phenomena each year. Classics is more focussed on crossing over to the English speaking market and the first completely sold-out event saw "an explosion of song and dance" unfold in classics from several eras and genres of music performances by some of SA's finest artists.

The full technical production - lighting, sound, video, staging and rigging - was supplied by leading SA rental company, MGG, project managed for them by Denzil Smith. Lighting was designed by Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier who specified several types of Robe moving lights including BMFL Blades and WashBeams.

The show featur

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USA - Wenger Corporation of Owatonna, Minn., and SECOA, Inc. of Champlin, Minn have announced that they are in advanced talks to combine the two companies.

Under the proposal, the combined entity would be wholly owned and operated by Wenger. The shared vision of Wenger - including its subsidiary J.R. Clancy - and SECOA is to "provide a superior value proposition featuring the highest quality products and services for all stakeholders in the performing arts industry".

A statement continues, "After conducting exploratory conversations, the leadership teams of both organizations became excited about the synergies that exist, both strategic and tactical, with the combination of the businesses. By aligning the SECOA, Wenger and J.R. Clancy brands, Wenger expects to reinforce its position as a unique global provider of the broadest array of solutions in the industry. This transa

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USA - Calrec has confirmed the appointment of Group One as its distribution partner for the U.S., effective from October 3rd 2016.

This move will enable Calrec to expand its market breadth across the USA and continue to maintain high levels of service as business increases with the expanded portfolio, including the newly launched Brio36 compact broadcast console and Remote production RP products.

This will not affect Calrec's relationship with Studio Consultants Incorporated (SCI), who have worked with Calrec for many years and will continue their dedicated Calrec sales and support work in the East coast regions in conjunction with Calrec and Group One.

Says a statement, "In recent years, Calrec has delivered the highest levels of customer care and service in the USA through the operations of Calrec America. With the new arrangements, it is pleased to announce that the

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