UK - Cardiff based events specialist 11th Hour is beginning preparations for the opening of the flagship ice rink in the city centre on 9 November.
The rink is part of Winter Wonderland presented by Sayers Amusements, which is running for nine weeks and boasting a fairground with big wheel, rides, stalls and an authentic alpine village, complete with Bier Keller. Last year, 60,000 visitors attended the rink, so this year's rink will be larger to accommodate up to 290 skaters at a time.
The 11th Hour team is responsible for every aspect of constructing, maintaining, managing and staffing the rink, which is once again sponsored by Cardiff-based car insurance giants Admiral. A ClearSpan covering structure, capable of withstanding storm-force winds (closure is only necessary

France - Airstar became an official partner to the Régates Royales Cannes this year after five consecutive years of cooperation.
Airstar’s lighting solutions were once again installed at the heart of the historic classic yachting event - the 160th edition of which took place between 23 and 30 September.
Airstar’s Crystal lighting balloons took pride of place, with two 160cm and three 200cm envelope balloons in situ on the docks around the boats and at the stands in the exhibiting village in the centre of Cannes opposite the Palais des Festivals. Some were then relocated to Palm Beach for the evening’s festivities.
With a set up time of just 15 minutes, yet designed to withstand tough outdoor conditions including wind gusts of up to 70 km/h, the Crystal range is perfectly suited to an event of this nature and are maintenance free. The Crystal lighting ballo

New Zealand - MDR Sound and Lighting installed 12 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures to replace the incandescent fixtures in the Auckland War Memorial Museum
The Mavericks were deemed well suited for this project for their CMY + CTO colour mixing capabilities and their 440W output.
“We found that the Mavericks were the only fixtures we tested to render all colours perfectly even at 100% output,” commented Auckland Museum’s Liam Brown. He added: “This is a foyer space that receives indirect sunlight most of the day through its south facing glass ceiling, but the brightness and intensity of the Mavericks overcome this without any problem.”
He adds: “When they’re not providing general coloured wash lighting in the evening or early morning, the Mavericks function as pin sharp spot lights to focus on the objects on display at ground level,

USA - Altman Lighting is preparing a showcase of its theatrical and architectural lighting innovations at LDI 2017. At booth #2236, the company will present the complete family of Chalice LED recessed and pendant downlights, the line of Gallery LED architectural luminaires, and also the award-winning Pegasus LED Fresnels and PHX LED profile ellipsoidals.
The Chalice LED Series range of downlights is available with mounting options that include pendant, recessed, aircraft cable, wall and yoke mount; and dimming choices ranging from Mains Dimming to DMX.
Designed for museum, art gallery, hotel, restaurant and retail lighting, the Gallery LED Series offers a 92+ CRI and dimming options that include Mains Dimming, DMX, 0-10VDC and DALI. With variety of colour temperatures, this scalable family produces 4000 lumens of white light output, and can be used to build your soluti

USA - As Atlona prepares to celebrate its 15th year in business, the company has launched a series of Launch & Learn events for partners, including Atlona distributors and systems integrators. The goal of each event is to bring attendees up to speed on how recent Atlona innovations correlate with today’s most important industry trends, including AV over IP and networked control.
The first event, which took place October 19-20 at Atlona’s international headquarters near Zurich, Switzerland, offered two distinct educational tracks: Networked AV and Modern Meeting Spaces.
Attendees from 50 companies were provided with hands-on demonstrations of Atlona’s now-shipping OmniStream AV over IP and Velocity networked control platforms, along with detailed case studies on early installations. The event was rounded out with informative Q&A sessio
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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

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USA - Total Electronics Contracting (TEC) installed a sound reinforcement system for the gym/auditorium at the new Neosho Junior High School in Missouri.
TEC designed and installed a system based on Ashly Audio's nX-Series multi-mode amplifiers.
Nate Pugh, audio/video project manager at TEC, says: "Back in 2013, we installed a sound reinforcement system at the Carver Sports Complex, which shares the very grounds that the new Neosho Junior High School occupies. Warren Smith & Associates designed that system and spec'd Ashly Audio amplifiers. We had never used Ashly before, but I knew of their reputation so I figured we'd get set up with them.
“We were impressed by Ashly's performance and value, so we started designing their products into our jobs. Since then, we've been amazed at the reliability of this brand. So, here’s our oldest and newest installations

Czech Republic - Colours of Ostrava is the biggest international music festival in Czech Republic and one of the largest in Central Europe. With its unique location at the Dolní oblast Vítkovice, an old Czechoslovak mine with UNESCO World Heritage status, the festival draws some of the biggest musical acts from around the globe. This year, it treated fans to performances from the likes of Imagine Dragons and alt-J on five stages.
Tasked with creating a high octane lighting rig for one of the festival’s Absolut stage, lighting designer Martin Vocetka supplied a number of Chauvet DJ Intimidator Spot 375Z IRC and Chauvet DJ SlimPAR Pro H USB fixtures.
Vocetka used four Intimidator Spot 375Z IRC fixtures from Chauvet DJ to set the right visual tone for the intense musical performances on stage. Particularly stunning was the interaction between the Intimidators and the
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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

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USA - Grammy award-winning bluegrass singer Alison Krauss recently concluded a 21-city autumn tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. Lighting designer William Anglin held a singular focus in his design: make the artist shine. “Her talent and the talent of the band do not require a cue intensive show,” he said. “We treat her show in more of a theatrical style. It's always such a pleasure to work with a performer of her level.”
Bandit Lites supplied Martin MAC Viper Profiles, GLP X4S and GLP X4 Bar 10 fixtures, Elation CuePix WW2 Blinders, Robe Robin 600 LED Washes, Coemar Halos along with two grandMA2 Lite consoles.
“Alison is not a fan of spotlights, so it is very important to light her with two nice warm tungsten key lights,” said Anglin of the design. “We were really surprised by the Coemar IWash halos. They are a bit older fixtures but

Germany/Spain - DirectOut has entered into a distribution agreement with Spanish company SeeSound, covering Spain and Portugal. Effective immediately, the Spanish pro-audio distribution company is responsible for the complete product portfolio of the German networking, routing and conversion specialist, including sales and technical service.
SeeSound presents more than 25 of the leading brands dedicated to the live sound, broadcast, install, vision and acoustic treatment for the Spanish and Portuguese markets.
Nacho Alberdi, SeeSound’s CEO comments: “We are extremely pleased to have been appointed as the new distributors for DirectOut. Many professionals from the broadcast, install and live markets appreciate their products because they allow them to have solutions that make their life easier and can free them from their hassle when interconnecting digital devices

Lebanon - EDM festival Tomorrowland went global for the first time. Dubbed Unite, the concept connected Tomorrowland’s mainstage in Belgium with eight locations around the world, attracting in excess of 400,000 people.
L-Acoustics has been the choice of PA system for Tomorrowland in Belgium for many years and was also chosen for several of the new locations, including the Lebanese city of Byblos, where local rental company Loud N Clear provided the audio system.
The Byblos venue measured 120m deep by 50m wide, with VIP and VVIP areas to the left of the venue measuring 60m deep by 20m. To cover this, the main system comprised 32 K2 with 16 K1 SB, plus 32 SB28. For delays 16 K2 were positioned left and right with six Kara for front-fills. For the VVIP and VIP nine by nine Kara were deployed, with four ARCS and four SB18M for the DJ booth. The entire system was

USA - Prolyte Group has appointed Hawai-based ProVision Staging as a distribution partner for North America.
The company will be serving the Hawaii region.
Andy Boujikian, general manager of ProVision Staging comments: ”There’s a growing demand to raise the level of knowledge and creating awareness on safety issues within the local event industry here. With Prolyte as a partner we have the perfect package. We can offer a combination of high quality products and training events, like the Prolyte Campus. In my own work practise I have experienced how raising the level of knowledge can enhance workfloor safety.”
Distribution manager Matthijs Meijer adds: “Finding a partner whose intention matches our company’s philosophy so seamlessly is really rewarding. With this addition we have created better access to our product range, so more US based customers can b

Middle East - Protec has signed a MOU with German turntables and revolves manufacturer Bumat Motion Systems. The deal is expected to improve Protec's rental offering in the region.
Protec’s Founder and CEO – Stephen Lakin says: “Over the last year we have had more and more requests for revolves, particularly in the motor industry. We felt that working together with a world leader like Bumat would be the ideal solution to beef up our stocks with a quality product that we could offer our clients."
Bumat’s managing director Timo Burgmeier adds: "We are very excited and we are sure that our agreement with Protec will be a positive step - both for us as well as the Middle East region”, Burgmeier added.
Bumat’s modular system can supply turntables of any size and carrying capacity, made of aluminium or steel, in diameters ranging from 0.1 m to 5

The Netherlands - Philips Lighting has announced the availability of the new Philips VLZ range of moving head luminaires for professional show lighting applications.
The range improves on the Vari-Lite VL3000 Series and offers a smaller footprint, improved beam quality and additional features based on the latest LED technology with the familiar Vari-Lite colour performance and programming workflow.
The three fixtures - the VLZ Spot, VLZ Wash and VLZ Profile - are dedicated to their individual functions, yet designed to work in unison. All deliver fast, accurate and repeatable movement on all functions.
"With the VLZ we have kept the best features of the successful VL3000 Series, and brought them up to date with our latest light source technology," says Martin Palmer, Vari-Lite product manager at Philips Entertainment Lighting. "While each fixture is engineered f

Europe - Chilean composer Nicolas Jaar brought in Colourblind to design the lighting and video on his European tour.
The tour made its way through a host of venues and famous festivals, including Glasgow’s Barrowlands and Barcelona’s Sonar. Colourblind, headed by Lynden Gare, designed a show to compliment the Chilean’s explorative music creations, and centre to the operation was a Hippotizer Media Server. The Karst unit used both SDI outputs, as well as splitting the DP to feed the LED strips. Running Hippotizer, it also fed IMAG screens at a number of the festival appearances.
Scenarios covered during the run included projection at front of house on to a special 3m reflection surface (replaced with upstage LED at festivals); rear projection through smoke; LED strips by Light Initiative; and IMAG were present at festivals. The lighting team also used Marshall SDI

USA - The annual Lincoln Centre Festival in New York City festival featured 46 performances that covered dance, music, theatre, and film.
This year David Jensen and David Meschter, head of production and sound supervisor for the festival respectively, decided to utilise an Eastern Acoustics Works (EAW) Adaptive system to meet the needs of two of the events. To do this, they worked closely with Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Anderson Audio, who supplied the system and support for the festival.
The first event was a showing of the film Naked Lunch with live orchestral accompaniment at Alice Tully Hall. “Composer Howard Shore was adamant that the dialogue be localised on the screen,” explained Meschter. “This was challenging since the screen was upstage with the orchestra in front of it and the jazz quartet positioned even further downstage. I was look

UK - Harman Professional has appointed Sound Technology as its UK distributor for Martin.
The deal is hoped to streamline logistics for customers, with Sound Technology holding substantial Martin stock in the UK and a supply of spare parts locally.
The Hertfordshire-based company has distributed Harman audio solutions and services since 2008 and has now expanded its operations with a dedicated professional lighting team helmed by former Martin UK sales director Ritchie Reed as business development manager (professional lighting).
Jonas Stenvinkel, group director entertainment EMEA, HARMAN Professional Solutions, comments: “We are very pleased about this expansion of our partnership, Sound Technology has been our distributor in the UK for many years, and with their strong representation across the country, we believe the expansion of our great partnershi

USA - A cosmetology salon with 26 stations isn’t something you normally find at a high school. Neither are an industrial certified welding shop, nor a fully scaled commercial kitchen, but the $28m Career Education Centre opened this year by the Wichita Falls Independent School District is clearly not your ordinary high school. Dedicated to providing its 1,300 students with real-world experience in everything from microbiology to farming, the 123,000 sq. ft. school provides students with realistic learning centres in 26 different career pathways.
To round out the hands-on educational process, the school gives students an opportunity to market their newly developed skills. So, the cosmetology centre welcomes visitors who want their hair and nails done. The culinary centre operates a thriving bistro. And students in the AV programme get to showcase their work on a giant video

Germany - Audio rental company 8 Days a Week recently deployed a complete JBL by Harman VTX Series audio system for a major concert by German pop-rockers PUR at Veltins Arena.
PUR has played multiple concerts at the arena since it opened in 2001, and Frank Müller of 8 Days a Week has been the systems engineer for all of them. One of the biggest challenges at Veltins is the lack of good options for deploying subwoofers. When PUR played the arena in 2014, Müller hung the subwoofers in a 40-cabinet cluster above the centre of the stage, which created weight and placement issues for the video and lighting deployments. To avoid those difficulties at this year’s show, Müller forwent a traditional subwoofer deployment and instead relied on the superior bass response of JBL VTX V25-II loudspeakers to cover most of the bottom end for the performance.
"If you set up a VTX V

UK - Specialists illumination company LED Creative supported the Infinity Creative Events production crew with a variety of products at the 2017 Best FIFA Football Awards filmed live at the London Palladium.
Featuring a set designed by Dominic Tolfts built using clean, modern lines that added a dynamic sense of perspective and depth, the design created a tunnel like effect that cleverly drew viewers inwards, beyond the iconic theatre’s proscenium arch.
The sci-fi stylish installation included almost 400m of LED Creative Sigma flex controlled using the company’s proprietary BYTE Controllers. The designer’s smart utilisation of LC Sigma, which included framing the entire width of the stepped stage front, allowed the team full creative control of colour, intensity and movement over a host of key elements throughout the ceremony.
The flexibility of the LED inst

Korea - Furniture retailer IKEA has opened its second store in Korea, in the city of Goyang near Seoul, with Inter-M Corporation providing the background music and announcement system across the new 164,000sq m building.
Handling design, supply and commissioning directly, Inter-M used the services of Samjin Elex to assist with installation. For the high ceiling height of the warehouse-style store, Mr. Byoung Dock Choi from Inter-M’s SI Team chose Community pendant loudspeakers for their acoustic performance and aesthetics.
The system designed by Inter-M uses a combination of Community’s DP6 and DP8 two-way, high output pendant loudspeakers. The coaxial six and eight-inch designs use separate magnets for the LF and compression HF drivers, giving reduced distortion and sensitivity. In total, the system uses 105 x DP6 and 62 x DP8 loudspeakers, driven by Inter-M DPA

USA - Superfly, organisers of the inaugural Lost Lake Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, entrusted long-time collaborator Bandit Lites with providing the lighting for the event’s two mainstages.
The lighting company supplied the lighting package for the Camelback and Piestewa stages, where performances included The Killers, Chance the Rapper, Pixies, Huey Lewis & The News, The Roots, Dreamcar, Run the Jewels, Odesza and Major Lazer.
“The main brief for the two SAM575 stages was to make them individual, so they each had their own character, and to make them logistically friendly for changeovers and any band lights or scenic pieces that would come in,” said Bandit production manager Dizzy Gosnell.
The Camelback stage had over 130 fixtures and featured Magic Panels, Rogue Hybrids, Cuepix WW2, VL6000 Beams and Illumipanel architectural washes controlled w

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