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UK - It may not have been a particularly 'illuminating' result for the home side as Nottingham Rugby were defeated 7-29 to newly-relegated London Irish. But no one could deny there were highlights of a different kind on the pitch, as Nottingham-based company and team sponsor, McCann, demonstrated its floodlighting expertise at the first night match of the season.

McCann - the company also behind the impressive lights on the tram bridge joining Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre with the University of Nottingham - is a long-term supporter of the 'Green n Whites'. When the team moved last season from its shared Notts County FC ground at Meadow Lane to its new home at Lady Bay, they looked to the leading civil and electrical engineering company for help in building its entire electrical infrastructure - including those all-important floodlights.

Tasked with designing and upg

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UK - The Progress 1000 Awards, in partnership with Citi, is an annual event hosted by the London Evening Standard. It recognises the most influential people in the capital who work across a range of fields, from theatre to film to medicine to architecture. This year's event took place on Wednesday 7 September at the Science Museum and White Light was approached to provide the complete technical solutions.

This is the second year that WL has worked on the event, following last year's celebrations at the Canary Wharf Crossrail Station. Richard Stirzaker, WL's creative producer, comments, "The Progress 1000 is one of the most important dates in the capital's social calendar therefore the expectations of those in attendance are always extremely high. The brief was to make the evening as visually impressive as possible while accentuating the features of the Science Museum an

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France - Puy du Fou is a historical theme park based in France and is home to some of the most extravagant shows in which thousands of actors and animals recreate historical stories.

Now, Puy Du Fou has taken things to the next level once again with their newest production - Le Dernier Panache - probably one of the most daring shows they ever created. The team at Puy Du Fou commissioned ShowTex with the production and installation of all masking drapes, printed fabrics, projection screens, rails and motion control systems that brought Le Dernier Panache to life.

Performed in a completely custom-built and 360° rotating theatre, the 2.400 members of the audience are immersed in the story on a multi-sensory level, smoothly rotating to watch the performance taking place on six different stages.

ShowTex rose to the challenge and installed the most solid an

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UK - Midas will power Weli Creative's Magical Lantern Festival in three cities this winter after the launch event, a riot of colour and creativity at Chiswick House, London in February/March, attracted more than 110,000 people.

The Magical Lantern Festival hits Roundhay Park, Leeds and Birmingham Botanical Gardens from 25 November to 2 January, and Midas generators will provide for 40,000 bulbs at each, illuminating a trail of spectacular handmade lanterns. The displays then combine for a return to the capital ahead of Chinese New Year.

Ian Xiang, the festival's co-founder and Creative Director, said, "Most of the lanterns are actually made in my hometown, so it makes me incredibly proud to see them come all this way across to the UK. This festival will show many people something they've never seen or experienced before. It has the potential to increase understanding of Ch

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Europe - Beyoncé's Formation world tour is one of the highest profile and most talked about of the year so far, with everyone wowed by the massive 'Monolith', a 4-sided LED / video sculpture that moves and rotates and is right at the heart of a spectacularly elegant production fusing expressionist art and innovative stage technology.

The 20m high by 20m wide Monolith is 10m deep and was created by production designer Es Devlin working in close conjunction with Beyoncé herself who is involved in all the major details of her stage presentation. It takes the striking beauty, isolation and simplicity of a Monolith design concept to amazing new levels.

The object opens 7.3m in the middle, tracks - as two sections on sliding grids - and rotates 360 degrees, a feat of engineering enabled by Belgian automation specialist WIcreations who designed the rotation and slid

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Italy - The Colosseum in Rome - world famous heritage site and one of Italy's most popular tourist attractions - was originally constructed in 70 - 80 AD and is the largest amphitheatre ever built. This summer it was reopened after three years of extensive refurbishments - the first in its history.

The momentous occasion involved a high profile gala event. A special classical programme was played by the Accademia Teatro alla Scala conducted by Zubin Mehta, and the Colosseum was lit by lighting designer Giancarlo Toscani who utilized 20 Robe BMFL WashBeams for this special occasion.

Giancarlo was asked to propose a lighting scheme by the show director, Fulvio Michelazzi, working for event producers Studio Exhibita for end client Grupo Tod, one of the co-sponsors of the restoration project along with the Italian government working in a PPP arrangement.

The brief was to l

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UK - Channel-16, specialist providers of license-free communication systems, has recently utilised an array of Green-GO Digital Intercom products for Muse's Drones tour. The tour, which has toured stadiums of the UK and Europe, pushes the limits of what a live production can be.

When a show contains such a level of technical production as Muse's, with it comes the requirement for an equally high standard of communication. For a flexible and reliable system, Channel 16's managing director, Paul English, turned to Green-GO's Digital Intercom system. The dedicated and independent talk back system ran via PoE switches, which formed the fibre-backbone for the configuration.

Show Caller for the performances utilized a 12-channel MCR12 desk unit, as did playback operator/backline manager and monitor engineer for the tour. Lighting designer and content designer both utilised an ei

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USA - Washington University in St. Louis hosted the second debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The school, which has hosted five debates in the past, was buzzing with excitement in the days leading up to the 2016 contest, including a parade through campus by the famous Budweiser Clydesdales and a colourful red, white and blue lighting display anchored by a collection of fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Chip Self, owner of Logic Systems Sound and Lighting, created the patriotic display on the exterior of Brookings Hall, the sprawling Gothic structure that serves as the symbolic heart of Washington University's Danforth Campus, where the debate took place.

Logic Systems used 40 COLORdash Par-Quad 18 RGBA LED par style fixtures, six COLORado Ridge IP RGBWA LED wash panels and two ellipsoidal units to bathe the iconic building's north side in colorful light.

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UK - The 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London was commemorated in spectacular style last month as Artichoke's London's Burning festival transformed the capital with a week of extraordinary art events and brought Unusual Rigging on board to handle aspects of the technical production.

The festival invited audiences to rediscover the City of London and beyond, past and future, through a series of art installations and performances. Jim Dugan who headed the event management team at Unusual Rigging said, "This event offered an opportunity to understand just how much of an impact the fire had on the architecture, outlook and infrastructure of the City, including some of its most iconic buildings and landmarks, and we worked with Artichoke to demonstrate this through their very unique perspective."

He continued: "Unusual was brought on board just eight weeks before the i

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Sold Out - Glastonbury 2017 sold out in 50 minutes on Sunday morning - with a reported 2m applying for the 135,000 tickets available - and the usual complaints regarding problems in access-ing the ticket website. "We have, once again, been blown away by the incredible number of people from around the planet who hoped to come to the festival, with demand significantly outstripping supply," said the organisers in a statement. Next year's event will take place from 21-25 June, with the line-up not being announced by organisers until early 2017. Daft Punk and Kraftwerk have been tipped as potential headliners.

Old Gold - The first leg of the much-hyped Desert Trip festival took place over the weekend, with The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roger Waters, Paul McCartney and Neil Young taking to the stage in California. Organised by the people behind Coachella - and dubbed #Oldchel

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Australia - GDS has appointed Jands as its exclusive distributor in Australia. With a head-quarters and manufacturing facility in Sydney, a factory in Melbourne and offices in Brisbane and Perth, Jands is an established manufacturer and distributor of lighting and staging products and also distributes top international audio brands. As well as designing and manufacturing its own lighting products, Jands identifies and sources the best lighting products from around the world in order to supply its customers with the most comprehensive choice possible. Established for well over 40 years, Jands enjoys a strong reputation for delivering high quality solutions across every area of the entertainment technology industry in Australia.

Tim Kennard, Lighting Sales Manager at Jands was upbeat: "GDS lighting products complement our extensive lighting offering perfectly. This distribution

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USA - Nestled below the inspiring summit of Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountain front range in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Family of Christ Lutheran Church has grown tremendously in the two decades since its founding. Indeed, the church recently raised money to build a new 700-seat sanctuary to accommodate its expanding family and to better support its popular contemporary-style services.

FCLC hired local A/V integration firm Sight and Sound Technologies Inc. to design and install the new sound, video, and lighting systems. Repeating a strategy that had succeeded in the past, Sight and Sound Technologies COO Kris Johnson partnered with Danley Sound Labs, whose expert engineers helped design an impactful Danley loudspeaker and subwoofer system with transparent fidelity and even coverage.

"Although Family of Christ still has a classic Lutheran service, its contemporary service

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USA - The Music Engineering Technology programme at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music is regarded as a pioneer in the arena of academically based audio production programs. Since 1975, the programme there has set the standard by which the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) accredits other such programs around the United States.

Alumni of the programme, including Will Lee, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Morse and Jon Secada, have contributed significantly to the music and audio industries. Much of the programme revolves around the L. Austin Weeks Recording Studio, one of the best academic recording studios in the world, where students participate fully in the maintenance, modification, installation, and design of all systems.

After a year-long renovation, the studio's control room now houses three cutting-edge audio consoles: a 48-channel SSL AWS948 with De

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Germany - In front of a unique backdrop in Losheim am See, the second edition of the Lucky Lake Festival took place this year. For the second time, sound reinforcement was provided by a VT20 System and other systems from ProAudio Technology such as SW18, HT16 and MT12.

On two stages, there was a steady flow of stars of the electronic dance music, among them Marek Hemmann, Oliver Koletzki, Format:B, Felix Kroecher and then some more. An interesting fact was that the visitor figures had almost doubled, compared to the previous year, which the organizers sometimes ascribe to the "fat sound".

The feedback from many visitors, the organizers and the on-site techs speaks for itself. Sound engineer and technical manager Jan Leyendecker describes his impressions as follows: "Already on the first job with the VT20 System at the Lucky Lake Festival 2015, we realised that this line ar

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South Africa - DWR Distribution is hosting aRobe LED Theatre Workshop presented by renowned international lighting designer, Andy Webb. The workshop will be hosted at UJ Arts Centre Theatre in Johannesburg on 9 November. There are two sessions and delegates are either welcome to attend from 9am to 12 noon or alternatively from 2pm to 5pm. The workshop is free of charge.

Freelance UK theatre lighting designer, Andy Webb, presents Robe's LED range of fixtures with the context of how to use these fixtures within theatre show designs while incorporating examples of productions he has designed. Andy explains why LED is so useful within his theatre designs, describing key factors such as fan noise (being super quiet), Power consumption (being able to link multiple fixtures together on power runs), colour mixing (having endless colour options and not just a single LEE colour filter o

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Spain - Fluge Audiovisual is one of Spain's most prolific AV rental companies. It also has one of Spain's biggest stocks of DiGiCo consoles, most recently purchasing a further two SD10s.

Fluge first started investing in DiGiCo when the company launched its D5 Live consoles back in 2002.

"When the D5 arrived here, it surprised us," says Fluge's technical director, Raúl Mendez. "It was easier and faster to use than other digital consoles on the market in those days and it had a really good sound that was very close to that of the big analogue consoles."

Raúl is convinced that working with DiGiCo has helped Fluge to become a reference in Spanish live audio, theatre productions and installations. This year alone, the company has worked on an extremely impressive list of projects that includes tours for Alejandro Sanz, Manolo Grazia, Malu, Migue Bosé, musicals such

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Italy - IntelliGent Store is a new Italian retail chain which has recently opened five clothing stores across Italy. A brand of multinational clothes retailer Piazza Italia, IntelliGent shops feature Yamaha audio systems, which are delivering better and more flexible sound than those in the parent company's higher specification outlets!

Piazza Italia has nearly 200 stores across Europe, Asia and Africa. The company has now opened IntelliGent Store outlets in Aprilia (Rome), Afragola (Naples), Crotone (Calabria region), Beinasco (Turin) and Udine (Friuli region), with more scheduled to follow. The stores needed a high impedance audio system to distribute 'disco style' sound, but work seamlessly with a voice evacuation system, be easily controlled by non-technical personnel and fit within the development budget.

"Systems integrator AVL srl agreed that a Yamaha system would b

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Singapore - From 1 October, MA Lighting has appointed Total Solution as an exclusive distributor for Malaysia and Singapore. The Singapore-based company is one of the leading distributors for premium professional light, video and rigging products in Asia. Total Solution also started a regional service centre in 2005 to enhance its after sales customer support.

Riku Kauppinen, MA's director of sales, commented on the cooperation, "Strategic partnership with Total Solution will bring MA Lighting even closer to the MA users in the region. True commercial and technical competence as well as commitment that we can see and feel in the people working at Total Solution are in the very heart of both companies work ethic. We are really thrilled to start a new era in Singapore and Malaysia."

Managing director Glenn Wong said, "We are honoured and very humbled that MA Lighting has cho

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Australia / USA - To support the rapid adoption of Dante audio networking technology, Audinate has expanded its Australian global headquarters in Sydney, Australia and more recently its North America headquarters in Portland, OR.

The company recently completed an expansion of its global headquarters and Innovation Centre in Sydney, Australia, doubling the size of the office. The new North America facility is located in the historic Albers Mill Building in Portland, Oregon and triples the size of the previous office. The new facility also features Audinate's new North America training center.

"With Dante now adopted by more than 300 OEMs, and tens of thousands of Dante enabled systems being installed over the next 12 months, the expansion of both offices enables us to scale to meet growing demand," stated Lee Ellison, CEO of Audinate. "We are also excited to start offering

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USA - Console and automated lighting manufacturer High End Systems will once again be exhibiting their products at the 2016 LDI trade show (Booth #2215) in Las Vegas, held 21-23 October.

Key personnel from the company's executive, sales and engineering departments will be on hand at the show to meet with customers, LDs and programmers. In addition to displaying their Hog 4 range of lighting consoles, the company is introducing several new products in their SolaRange and FX lines of LED based automated luminaires.

Unveiled at the recent PLASA show, the SolaWash FX 2000 is the latest addition to the SolaRange family, joining the revolutionary SolaWash FX 1000 and SolaSpot 1000 launched earlier this year. High End is also introducing SolaSpot Frame 2000 to compliment the 2000 Wash and Spot range.

High End will also be displaying their full line of Hog lighting consoles -

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USA - When Tom Sorce, senior project manager and audio designer at PRG, is looking for a microphone that can capture the intricacies of an instrument with clarity, he turns to DPA Microphones for support.

Sorce has been using DPA microphones for over a decade. "The first time I used DPA, I was looking for a solution to use on an acoustic guitar," says Sorce. "Then, I started trying them on many different instruments; on bells, horns, woodwinds and percussion. I've been really pleased with my relationship with DPA. They are my go-to problem solver."

Most recently, Sorce used the d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphone on various instruments in Seattle during the live performance of Howard Shore's composition for Lord of the Rings. At this event, there was a massive symphony orchestra and choir playing live to the film. "It's a symphony concert that plays the original score

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UK - Penn Elcom has expanded the capacity of its specialist cable and 19 inch rack manufacturing facility in Hastings, east Sussex, UK, with a substantial investment in new cable cutting and stripping machinery from market leaders Schleuniger. This will bring the cable technology and production up to the highest levels.

A bespoke built laser etching machine has also been designed and installed for adding logos, letters, numbers and other customisations to aluminium and steel rack panels, giving Penn the ability to offer further flexibility to its clients.

The move is in response to an increased demand for both standard and bespoke cable and rack manufacturing products and services after the launch of the Penn Elcom Online global web portal in January of this year. A boost in international business is seeing cables, leads and racks being shipped worldwide.

"We want to e

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USA - Country crooner Frankie Ballard is out on tour bringing his classic country sound to fans across the nation. The Sunshine and Whiskey singer is known for his vintage style on tour, something Bandit Lites lighting director Patrick Sieg focused on continuing.

"There was no direction on design or concept from the camp or management when I first came on, so I studied the show, watched previous live concerts and pretty much threw ideas at the wall until something stuck," said Sieg.

Using a Bandit supplied GrandMA 2 Ultra-Lite console, he worked to carefully accentuate Ballard's four-piece band, a component Sieg calls a major part of the performance. "I wanted the audience to visually perceive the band and take notice of their involvement without highlighting a clear focus on the stage," he said. "I use a lot of saturating backlights on the band to achieve this, and

  1. Christian Daniel gets celestial look with Chauvet
  2. DLive systems in control of Turkish Voice
  3. EM Acoustics hits the NZ theatre market
  4. Avolites takes Latin America by storm
  5. Slipknot out again with Elation lighting and video
  6. Mojo Barriers' busy European touring summer
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