Australia - The J Noosa opened its doors in October 2006 and quickly became a functionally and versatile youth and commercial event space for the Noosa Community and the Sunshine Coast. Positioned in the heart of Noosa, The J offers flexible meeting spaces, conference rooms and facilities for hire, complimented by covered outdoor decks and stylish open foyers.
The centre’s J Theatre, a multi-use auditorium and theatre space has installed a Clair Brothers kiTCurve12 system.
The project was commissioned and designed by Wayne Grosser, Clair Brothers’ expert audio consultant in Australia, who worked directly with preferred integrator Jason Howley from Distinct Audio & Production for the install.
The complete upgraded system in the theatre’s 338-seat main floo

USA - SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, has filled many roles since it opened in 2001. Not surprisingly, being in the heart of the state that holds the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, it has hosted rallies for virtually every candidate in this century who’s aspired to take up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue not to mention sports, concerts, and conventions of every type.
On Wednesday 5 February, the spacious arena assumed a somewhat different appearance. Instead of swelling with crowds of 10,000 or more as it does for political rallies and concerts, it welcomed a more intimate gathering for a sales event for IT services provider Connection. Once inside the arena, the conference’s thousand or so guests were immersed in a welcoming environment that featured an Events United lighting, video, audio, and scenic design anchored by over 70 fixtures and 56

USA - Theatre lighting design specialist Tyler Micoleau recently collaborated with New York-based Public Theatre’s Public Works programme, lighting a production of the musical Hercules, a world-premiere presentation of a stage musical adaptation of the Disney film, developed in a collaboration between The Public Theatre and Disney Theatrical Productions.
To add poignancy, the venue chosen was the outdoor Delacorte Theatre in New York’s Central Park, and helping Tyler to achieve his objectives were 34 Fusion by GLP FP7 Par and 20 Fusion by GLP FS10 Stick battens, operating alongside the repertory house rig.
Tyler has a long history of working on productions with Lear deBessonet, founding director of Public Works, and has designed four productions for The Public Theatre at the Delacorte.
The LD said: “Musicals are not the typical production at the Del

UK - Marking the 15th year of Christie’s partnership with the National Film and Television School (NFTS), this year’s Christie prize for Most Promising Student was awarded to Michael Pearce, NFTS graduate in digital effects. Michael received a monetary prize, a certificate, and a crystal trophy to celebrate the win at the NFTS Graduation Ceremony. Already employed as a colourist, Michael has already gained vital experience having worked on numerous short films, music videos, commercials, documentaries and feature film credits.
John Rowe, head of digital effects at NFTS said of the win: “Michael has earned his reputation as a diligent and trustworthy ally, working tirelessly across every genre to help finish projects to the highest possible standards. His determination to succeed and his resourceful nature have resulted in him earning a full-time contract at world-leadi

USA - Vectorworks has partnered with the IATSE Entertainment & Exhibition Industries Training Trust Fund (IATSE TTF). The IATSE TTF facilitates training opportunities for IATSE workers to ‘achieve and maintain the skills, ability and knowledge necessary to meet the ever-changing technologies in the entertainment and exhibition industries’. Further, IATSE TTF develops state-of-the art training tools, resources and methods for their members.
“The IATSE Training Trust Fund is thrilled about this new partnership with Vectorworks, which will make additional training and craft skills development opportunities available to IATSE members and individuals working under IATSE agreements,” says IATSE Training Trust Fund executive director Liz Campos. “These types of endeavours that help expand career opportunities for our members are exactly what the Training Trust Fund st

Germany - Mega Audio is to take on the exclusive distribution of Point Source Audio’s products for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The distributor had been looking to add a miniature microphone brand to its portfolio having previously experienced success with this type of product and was keen to find a company that had the potential to grow substantially.
“I had heard of Point Source Audio as one of the top miniature microphone manufacturers in the USA and one of the major US brands in the theatre market,” says Burkhard Elsner, CEO at Mega Audio. “When we took a closer look at their product range, we found them to be very interesting and exciting. I am very happy and proud to be able to offer this brand and its fine products as our new distribution line, it means we can now offer some new and unique products to the market.
“We believe that Point Sourc

Germany - Prolight+Sound 2020 has been postponed due to coronavirus (Covid-19) concerns, Messe Frankfurt has announced.
The annual entertainment technology tradeshow was initially scheduled for 31 March - 3 April, but organisers have now said it will take place on 26-29 May. Musikmesse, the music industry show that runs alongside Prolight+Sound, has also been postponed, with new dates yet to be released.
Messe Frankfurt said in a statement: "The ongoing spread of Covid-19 in Europe called for a reassessment of the situation in close cooperation with the public-health authorities in Frankfurt who require that steps be taken to prevent event participants from high-risk regions coming to Frankfurt and visiting the fair when ill.
"Given that these participants could also be infected by Covid-19, it is necessary to conduct a health check to prevent the infection spr

Security Measures - A new law proposed by the UK government will require venues to put measures in place to protect the public from a terrorist attack. Security minister James Brokenshire has announced plans for the new Protect Duty, following a manifesto commitment to improve the security of public spaces. The new law, which is to be consulted on this spring, would require owners and operators of venues and public spaces to consider the risk of a terrorist attack and take “reasonable measures” to protect the public from such an incident. Venues can include concert halls, stadiums and conference centres.
Measures could include increasing physical security, staff training and incident response plans in case of an attack. According to the Home Office, the Protect Duty “reflects lessons learned following the terrorist attacks in 2017, as well as more recent attacks”. Br
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UK - Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Peter Mumford’s prestigious career, last December saw the ALD host an evening In Conversation with Peter Mumford where he was bestowed with a Fellowship of the Association, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the art of lighting design.
On presenting the award, Lucy Carter commented: “I’ve got a lot to thank Peter for, because 25 years ago when I was a dance and drama student, I didn’t even know about lights in performance and it was watching Peter’s designs for contemporary dance that I suddenly saw this new medium and is essentially why I’m a lighting designer now. I’m sure that Peter is still inspiring us all and inspiring a new generation as well.”
The event to reflect upon his career was held at the National Theatre on the night following his own press night as lighting designer for

USA - ADJ has announced the availability of its most compact wireless LED uplighter to date, the Element ST HEX. Building on the success of ADJ’s popular Element Hex, the new model features powerful output, and compact design as well as a full colour touch screen display for easy setup and DMX addressing.
Featuring four 6W HEX (red, green, blue, amber, white + UV) LEDs the fixture offers smooth colour mixing with an almost limitless palette. The inclusion of both amber and (cool) white LED elements means that it can be used to create white light with a wide variety of colour temperatures. Meanwhile, the UV LED element not only allows for the creation of the classic ‘blacklight’ effect where white and fluorescent materials glow vividly, but it can also be combined with the other primary colours to create hues such as hot pink, electric purple and lime green that aren’

UK - AVer Europe has launched its professional conferencing system, the VC520 Pro, in the UK.
The VC520 Pro has been developed by AVer Europe as a solution for various meeting room sizes, alleviating the challenges that teams face on conference calls. The VC520 Pro has an audio pickup range of 15ft and the ability to daisy-chain two additional speakerphones to reach up to 45ft, offering “ultra-clear unparalleled audio even throughout large meeting rooms”.
With Sony True WDR capability, AVer Europe’s VC520 Pro offers clear and high-quality imaging even in high contrast backlit environments. With up to 1080p and 60fps even in poor lighting, the conferencing system’s 12X optical zoom with precise detail enables teams to showcase items such as products or documents live in the room on camera.
The VC520 Pro’s SmartFrame technology uses face recognition to a

Europe - Brompton Technology has hailed ISE 2020 as “a resounding success” after showing its Dynamic Calibration technology in Europe for the first time and launching its latest LED processor, Tessera S8.
“Our demonstration stations were a big draw and the reaction to the Tessera S8 has been very encouraging,” comments Brompton’s senior business development manager, Rob Fowler. “But the reactions to our presentations of Dynamic Calibration, the enabling technology for Brompton’s HDR solution, were truly astounding.”
The Tessera S8 is a “cost-effective solution for high profile projects that do not require the large output capacity of the award-winning Tessera SX40 processor, but still want to benefit from the flexibility of Brompton’s Tessera feature set and easy-to-use software to produce stunning results”.
“HDR is what everyone wanted

UK - The Lastminute.com London Eye dazzled its vast visiting crowds this year with a first-of-its kind, eight-metre tall Christmas tree adjacent to the attraction. With plans to transform the tree every hour into an attention-grabbing light show to music, the Merlin Entertainments team turned to TLS Lighting, for a bespoke LED lighting solution that would fully pixel-map the tree’s surface.
Merlin Entertainment’s David Rigby explains: “We wanted large scale pixel-mapping and TLS Lighting created a custom-designed and manufactured lighting system in a conical shape that was supplied to us as plug and play. We know we can always trust TLS Lighting to create exactly what we need with the feature sets we are looking for. They don’t let us down.”
The tree twinkled with almost 4000 RGB LED light modules and was adorned with a total of 64 strings of lights, varying

World - For the current world tour by Charli XCX, lighting designer Elliott Mountford is enjoying the power and consistency of the VL2600 Profile luminaire from Vari-Lite.
The tour is in support of Charli XCX’s third studio album Charli. Having worked with Charli and creative director Jed Skrzypczak through the summer, Mountford knew what was required, but also the limitations. “Charli hates key light,” he says, “so most of my show is backlit, with a very silhouetted look. I love big, backlit looks in white, but they have to be super-wide for every audience member to see the effect.”
In achieving this, Mountford was impressed by the VL2600 Profile’s powerful output and wide zoom range. “I wanted great contrast between the lights and the rest of the rig - we had 100-plus strobes that they had to compete with,” says Mountford. “They cut through e

USA - Michael Brown is a lighting designer who loves to experiment and take some creative risks in the quest for imagining new and exciting performance environments and that’s exactly what he did for the US leg of Bon Iver’s recent tour, part of the campaign for new album i, i, where 49 x Robe MegaPointes and 25 x Kinetic Lights custom moving mirrors were at the core of his design combining the diverse visual disciplines of art, architecture and concert lighting.
Michael has worked with the band since 2012, following a chance backstage encounter a few years earlier with lead singer Justin Vernon. It’s been a fertile and stimulating partnership, for which they implicitly trust in his creative judgment.
He first encountered the Kinetic Lights winch system in 2017 while researching cool art projects for the Eaux Claires Festival in Wisconsin for which he was

USA - As the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs battled it out for the NFL Championship, the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show brought a little Latin flavour to Miami’s 65,000-seat Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday 2 February, thanks to an explosive show by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, aided by Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny and Colombian star J. Balvin, and a cast of near 170 musicians, dancers, and performers.
This massive production - an eagerly awaited annual event - was broadcast live by Fox to 100m viewers worldwide, all of whom witnessed a lighting show which had at its centre over 120 Ayrton Perseo IP65-rated multi-function profile fixtures.
The spectacular production was created by the Super Bowl team headed by show designer, Bruce Rodgers of Tribe, Inc. and lighting designer, Bob Barnhart of 22 Degrees. “We quickly decided the Ayrton lighting rig

USA - The Bronxville Union Free School District encourages their students to participate in a number of extracurricular activities including the performing arts programmes produced by the High School, Middle School and Elementary School departments.
Wanting to supply their student technicians with the latest in production technology used to accentuate the performing arts, The Bronxville School Foundation awarded a grant submitted by student technician AJ Radik for the addition of Siren Series LED followspots from Altman Lighting.
“I’m a junior at Bronxville UFSD and I started doing tech for the theatre productions back in the sixth grade,” began Radik. “I am mainly focused on the sound and lighting designs of the productions and last year as we were doing a production of Little Shop of Horrors, one of our old spotlights starting smoking and became inoperable fo

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has supplied two Green Hippo Hippotizer V4 Karst+ Display Port media servers to full-service event production agency, T.H.Collective, to provide flexible, high-resolution video playback for a myriad of client events.
T.H.Collective was looking to invest in a robust system for large-format video playback on high resolution LED walls and edge-blended projection. These applications required the screen content to be displayed at a higher pixel count than a single video port could carry.
Matt Emmerson, head of video at T.H.Collective approached AC-ET to recommend a suitable playback solution to meet the company’s technically demanding requirements.
He comments: “The decision to use Hippotizer media servers came down to the flexibility in operating them. Triggers can be run using programmed timelines, individual DMX ch

USA - A majestic ‘magical’ 50ft tree is at the heart of the Wildwood Grove Tree Experience, a multi-media creation from LifeFormations and The Imagination House at Dollywood in the The Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee.
A collection of 650 pixel-mapped and illuminated butterflies controlled by Weigel software animate the 50ft wide expanse of the venerable tree’s branches, while music by Mike Avila and an alluring story narrated by the park’s cofounder, Dolly Parton, add to the enchantment. Accentuating the entire scene is a vividly coloured Susan Rose lighting design that features 16 Chauvet Professional Ovation E-910FC ellipsoidal fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites.
Deftly mixing colours, light angles and slightly off focus gobo patterns, Rose creates a captivating vista that adds depth to the tree and its rocky surroundings, giving them a dreamy edge that conve

Norway - A 100-year old historical machine hall situated in Oslo is home to Norway’s Design & Architectural (DOGA) foundation, with DOGA responsible for facilitating collaboration between creative talents and businesses, as well as promoting innovation and new ideas on the role of design and architecture throughout Norway.
The large main hall, dating back to 1898, needed a versatile and dependable system suitable for conferencing or seminar purposes - from single stage solo presentations through to larger conferencing situations, with multiple presentations held across various locations in the building. For these reasons, Shure Microflex Wireless was selected as the system of choice.
The space at DOGA is 340sq.m wide and 8.5m high, which makes it a popular venue for hire when organising large conferences, seminars and parties. As a historical building steeped in

UK - Hundreds of television buyers from across the globe headed to ACC Liverpool on 9-11 February for BBC Studios Showcase 2020 international television market. For the 14th year running, creative technical event production company Hawthorn supported the distributor to showcase its premium programmes, delivering two evening events.
The events previewed some of the BBC’s top programmes including Doctor Who, A Perfect Planet and The Watch. Led by the BBC Studios team, Hawthorn’s head of creative technical Peter Harding helped to produce and deliver a production design for the two evenings.
This year’s format saw a considerable shake-up with the construction of a curve-fronted 1000sqm 5m-high platform over a section of the arena’s tiered seating and floor. Hawthorn worked with specialists Acorn Event Structures and Steeldeck to create the stru

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