USA - Genelec recently hosted the Boston Section meeting of the Audio Engineering Society at its USA headquarters in Natick, MA, on Tuesday, 8 March. The meeting featured a presentation titled 3D Audio - An Intro, From the Bottom Up to a standing-room-only crowd, which included AES president John Krivit and president elect Alex Case, among other AES members, students, and Boston-area engineers and producers.

3D Audio has become one of the most widely popular topics among audio engineers and industry professionals in recent years, and this latest AES event to delve into the topic was led by Genelec USA marketing director Will Eggleston, who discussed the changes and challenges in the delivery of multichannel audio and the future of 3D audio. The evening's demonstrations fe

UK - Lighting designer Jon Smith turned to an Elation Professional lighting package of ACL 360 Bars, Platinum Series moving heads and Cuepix blinders for Texas pop punk band Bowling for Soup's 'How About Another Round' UK Tour in February. The tour, basically an encore tour to the band's farewell tour of two years ago, sold out at every stop with crowds of up to 3,500 fans.

Jon Smith has worked with Bowling for Soup for the last five years, but took the reigns as lighting designer for the first time on this tour. "My idea was to create a pub on stage, an idea that the band really liked," he said. "We used lighting effects and had customized beer barrels that shot out flames. It was a unique set that made for an intimate pub feel." Jon worked with set builder Mair Burgess to put the set together, using local businesses and suppliers to create the touring show.

Although the

Belgium - Painting with Light's Luc Peumans energised a creative team to deliver video content for a striking 3D digital set and lighting design for the highly acclaimed Judas TheaterProducties staging of Helene Fourment, a new musical centred around Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens' young muse, which played at the Fakkeltheater, Antwerp, proving a big hit with both critics and the public.

Luc had previously worked with director Martin Michel, and was delighted to collaborate with Judas TheaterProducties whose award-winning work is recognised for its innovation and original style. Painting with Light's Michael Al Far created the video content and Jeroen Opsteyn was associate lighting designer and also programmed the lighting with Luc. All worked very closely with set designer Arno Bremers.

The production had already decided they wanted digital scenery, so needed th

New Zealand - The 53rd Halberg Awards - recognising New Zealand's top sporting achievements - was a collaboration between the event's lighting, audio and LED screens supplier, Oceania, broadcast partner OSB and broadcaster SKY TV which runs the show and manages content for the three-hour live telecast.

Thirty Robe BMFL Spots and 20 x Pointes graced the lighting rig this year among other fixtures, all of which were rigged in the Vector Arena, Auckland.

The red carpet came alive with the great and the good of New Zealand's sporting community, 1,400 of whom rocked up for the occasion to see the All Blacks rugby team, cricketers Kane Williamson and Brendon McCullum, golfer Lydia Ko, all Blacks coach Steve Hansen and many more collect their prizes and accolades during a fun and emotion filled evening.

The BMFL Spots were right at the heart of the lighting scheme which in tu

Austria - The Vienna Konzerthaus is the latest addition to a select group of world-renowned European concert halls that have chosen steerable Meyer Sound CAL column array loudspeakers. The Konzerthaus will use its new CAL systems for voice announcements, concert narrations, and incidental music. Other venues installed with CAL include Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Konzerthaus Berlin, and another esteemed Viennese institution, the Musikverein.

"With CAL, we have excellent coverage of the entire hall with installation at one point," says Ingeborg Doblander, head of technical production for the Konzerthaus. "By placing both CALs behind the golden leaf grilles at the center of the venue, we solved the time alignment problems that were present in the old system. This resulted in in very good STIPA [Speech Transmission Index for Public Address] measurements."

The CAL systems were c

Romania - Prolyte Group, renowned manufacturer of trussing and staging systems, officially open its new purpose-built factory in Piatra Olt, Romania, with a series of opening ceremonies this week. Distributors, press, governmental authorities and stakeholders were invited to join the celebrations at the new, ultra-modern manufacturing location.

"Prolyte started to translocate all its manufacturing facilities to Romania as part of a long-term plan in 2010. The commissioning of the new factory is the final and most important phase of this plan, consolidating all its European manufacturing capacity into a 5.000sq.m facility, with scope to expand to 16.000sq.m," the company says.

The new production facility features brand new automated production equipment, new welding jigs and state-of-the-art product lines. In addition, the building contains industry-leading employee welfare

UK - Martin Audio has appointed Dom Harter as Managing Director with immediate effect.

An experienced business leader with a deep history and passion for pro audio, Dom's remit will be to build on the success of the Martin Audio brand and help grow this success across multiple markets worldwide.

Dom has an impressive CV for someone still relatively young, with multiple pro audio roles including serving as both Director of R&D as well as Sales Director with Turbosound before joining Harman's Mixer Group with several roles including Global Sales Director/VP for Harman's Mixer BU.

"Pro audio has been my entire professional career having worked for some of the best known pro audio brands alongside a number of prestigious installations, one off events and tours", said Dom.

"It is an honour to lead the Martin Audio team", he continued. "It is a brand of tremendous pedigr

Germany - Contour Veranstaltungsservice has just invested in 30 Clay Paky 100 Show Batten AS units. Besides the AS units, the company also used 14 new Show Batten 100s, with symmetric optics, at Wirtschaftstag 2015.

The Wirtschaftstag is a business forum that takes place annually at the Frankfurter Jahrhunderthalle. It is considered the barometer of the German economy and this year's theme of Wealth - Freedom - Security: scenarios for a changing world brought together - once again - prestigious speakers such as Jean-Claude Juncker, Sahra Wagenknecht, Niki Lauda and others. The event was moderated by Sandra Maischberger and Udo van Kampen.

The moving Show Battens were used to illuminate the horizon of the highly original stage, designed by Contour for this event. Project manager Stefan Kevenh

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USA - For members of the burgeoning computer and video gaming industry the highest honour is to win a D.I.C.E. Award. Founded in 1992, the award, which is determined by ballots cast by the 23,000 members of Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, has the likes of Super Mario as well as newcomers like Dragon Age Inquisition.

Its acronymous name stands for "Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain." The four words aptly describe the games that were up for D.I.C.E. Awards at this year's ceremonies. They also reflect the spirit of the lightshow created for the event by creative designer Chris Wu and lighting designer Chris Lose.

The two designers turned the D.I.C.E. Awards stage at Mandalay Bay into an all-embracing immersive environment that was evocative of a scene from the most transformative computer game. A collection of heavily pixel mapped ÉPIX Bar 2.0 LED fixtur

USA - When fire swept through the offices of Chicago's Second City comedy club in August 2015, it was no laughing matter. While most of the damage was front of house, the comedy club that gave a start to the careers of Tina Fey, Dan Aykroyd and Stephen Colbert was facing a long closure and loss of revenue.

Then came the serious business of restoring the lighting systems on the five stages that - while not directly damaged by the fire - suffered the secondary effects of smoke and water. DesignLab's CEO Larry Schoeneman reports, "We were already working on an architectural design for them, so we put a rush on bringing the stages up to code. After the shows closed each night, we would bring in new plugging strips."

"We needed to come up with dimmers in a hurry, and fortunately we now stock a lot of Unison packs, so we were able to come through quickly," says ETC Midwest regio

China - Powersoft amplifiers were recently installed at Wanhe Grand Theatre to power the EAW KF720 PA house system. Situated in the Wanhe Shopping Mall of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, the theatre distinguishes itself as the first of its kind to be housed within a big shopping mall in China.

The 1500m

World - Folk-punk singer-songwriter Frank Turner is on a world tour in support of his latest album Positive Songs for Negative People with a punchy rock and roll lighting design by Shaun Moore using 30 Clay Paky Mythos fixtures.

Moore of Nitelites, who has worked with Frank and his backing band The Sleeping Souls since 2010, is using the high advanced beam and spot hybrid for large backlight gobo looks and dynamic aerial work.

"The Mythos was ideal for this tour as it's one fixture to do two jobs," he explains. "Its incredible zoom made it perfect for achieving the looks I wanted in varying sizes of venue."

The Mythos, supplied by Nitelites, are positioned on the mid and back truss and on the floor wrapped around the band. This set up provides Moore with three layers of beams to work with, adding great depth and perspective to his design.

For a special date

USA - Last month, the American National Standards Institute's Board of Standards Review approved four ESTA standards: two brand-new, safety-related documents and two control protocol documents that were reaffirmed. These and all of ESTA's published standards are available for free download to everyone, courtesy of ProSight Specialty Insurance, at tsp.esta.org/freestandards, or they may be purchased from ANSI or IHS.

ANSI E1.46 - 2016, Standard for the Prevention of Falls from Theatrical Stages and Raised Performance Platforms

The users of theatrical stages and raised platforms can suffer debilitating injuries from falls into orchestra pits, open stage lifts, and similar openings in stage floors. Health and safety regulations require action to prevent these falls by employees, but offer little guidance that is suitable for theatrical environments. This document provi

USA - Five documents are available for public comment, reports ESTA. The drafts, review forms, review instructions, and prior public review resolutions, if applicable, may all be downloaded at estalink.us/pr. Comments are due before the end date on the website. The documents will no longer be available when the date on the website is reached.

Control Protocols Working Group

BSR E1.33, Entertainment Technology - (RDMnet) - Message Transport and Device Management of ANSI E1.20 (RDM) over IP Networks

This standard describes a method of implementing ANSI E1.20 Remote Device Management messaging over an IPv4 network. The primary anticipated use of the standard would be to complement ANSI E1.31 on an IPv4 entertainment lighting control network. This project was originally described as offering extensions to E1.31, but in fact the messages work alongside E1.31 in the s

Russia - Last year Russian rental company, Marinov&Merkulov, decided to upgrade their lighting department with new fixtures. They set forth on a technology journey investing first in the SGM X-5 strobe, then the G-Spot moving head - and finally the SixPack blinder and more strobes.

Co-owners Oleg Smirnov and Eugene Merkulov first crossed paths with SGM eight years ago working with small moving heads and consoles. Rediscovering SGM years later, they were positively surprised by the new SGM. "A modern, well-organized company with a fresh perspective and perfect quality products", said Oleg Smirnov and added that SGM soon became their first choice of manufacturer for upgrading their inventory.

"We loved the new design and form factor together with the technical specifications of the fixture, which demonstrated the result of the philosophy and vision for the renewed SGM brand.

UK - Robe BMFL Spot moving lights created an impact for the arena section of Simple Minds' Big Music tour for which lighting designer Steve Pollard expanded and scaled up the stage set and lighting rig he used in theatre venues last year.

UK lighting and visuals rental company HSL invested in 50 x new Robe BMFL Spots just before the tour went out, 24 of which were used by Steve.

"I basically needed a bright, big, light that would cut thought everything - including video - and BMFL was it," says Steve.

Much of the show was about beam-work so the BMFL Spots were ideal for creating beam 'structures' and frameworks as well as for those all-encompassing gobo sweeps, for which they were fitted with custom gobos tailored to Steve's design.

"The saturated colours are amazing," commented Steve. "Saturated reds, greens and all those hues that are hard to get a properly brigh

Germany - TARM Laser Technologioes, which has been established in the laser industry for 35 years, has become a member of the Laserworld Group.

The history of show laser lighting and the TARM brand are closely linked together: Not forgotten is the era of the famous TARM Centre in Bochum, Germany - a nightclub mainly equipped with laser show lighting effects - over 25 years back, at a time, when laser show technology was far more complex and resource demanding than modern systems.

Richard Krumhus, CEO of TARM Laser Technologies, comments, "Joining the Laserworld Group, the largest manufacturer and distribution company of show laser light systems worldwide, offers us completely new possibilities in terms of synergies in product development, logistics, marketing and sales. Several development projects have already been initiated."

With TARM becoming a Laserworld company,

India - DPA Microphones has appointed Ansata Computer Systems Pvt. Ltd as its new distributor in India, with the responsibility of representing its entire range of products for the live sound, recording, broadcast and installation markets.

Based in Bangalore, Ansata has 26 years of experience in managing regional distribution for industry-leading manufacturers, all of whom are recognized and respected worldwide for their high-quality products and philosophy of capturing, processing or reproducing exceptional audio. Among the brands it currently represents are Avid Audio, RME, d&b audiotechnik, Barefoot Sound, API, JDK Audio, Shadow Hills Industries and Inward Connections in India.

"We are delighted to introduce DPA Microphones to our valued customers as a significant add-on to our current distribution portfolio," says Leslie Lean, CEO of Ansata Computer Systems.

"DPA c

Germany - Creative Technology (CT) has appointed Michael Grabinski as new business development manager for broadcast, event, sport and live entertainment. Grabinski will take responsibility for CT's new office in Berlin-Brandenburg which is located on the Filmpark Babelsberg site in the Babelsberg FX Centre.

Grabinski has had many successful years and experience in the media industry, most recently as business development manager of media event solution provider Gahrens+Battermann in Berlin.

He comments: "I am glad to contribute to the success of Creative Technology and to establish a new local office in Berlin-Brandenburg. I am convinced that CT can continue to expand the company's activities and that we can develop new regional markets with a strong local and personal presence. For Berlin this is especially important as more and more international clients choose Berlin a

UK - Baldwin Boxall is looking forward to welcoming visitors to their new look stand at International Firex (number E-14). International Firex is always a busy show for the company and staff on the stand expect to see many new faces, as well as catching up with contacts already well known to them.

The company is showing several new products at Firex 2016 and so are expecting even more interest than usual. New products include the VIGIL Eclipse4, VIGIL3 transformerless amplifiers, touchscreen control microphone and a four-way toilet alarm control unit.

"We at Baldwin Boxall are very excited about the show" commented Nick Baldwin, marketing director "The new stand is going to look stunning and, with the new products to demonstrate and our recent LPCB certification, we have a lot to talk about."

VIGIL Eclipse4, in common with its predecessors, is a wall mountable, voice a

Germany - Martin Audio has started to tease the launch of its widely anticipated CDD-LIVE! Series that will be fully announced and showcased at this year's Prolight+Sound in Messe Frankfurt.

Details of the series are being kept under wraps, but Martin Audio has released a teaser print image and an accompanying teaser video for the new product launch under the banner of "The Sound of Things to Come".

The range will build upon the successful Coaxial Differential Dispersion (CDD) technology and given the 'LIVE!' moniker is primarily targeting the live sound community.

Dom Harter, Martin Audio's recently appointed Managing Director, said: "This new product range will build upon our Patented technology that will further Martin Audio's credentials as the true innovator in the marketplace and will deliver our customers a clear competitive advantage. We are extremely excited t

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