UK - PRG XL Video, the UK operation of Production Resource Group, LLC has announced that media server and creative video technology expert Patrick Verhey has joined its team.

Patrick Verhey has taken on the newly created role of director media/creative, reporting directly to UK CEO, Lucas Covers. With media servers and control technology taking on ever-increasing importance, especially in the field of interactive and experiential events, this role is a key one within the video side of PRG XL Video's business.

Before joining PRG XL, Patrick worked as a freelance media server programmer and technical specialist, and prior to that was project manager and head of technical support at Coolux Media Systems GmbH. During his time with Coolux, he gained extensive knowledge of Pandora

UK - POLARaudio has promoted from within to fill the new role of integrated solutions director. Existing head of installation Stuart Leader takes the position and will relinquish his direct day to day management of accounts, taking on a wider responsibility across the whole installation sector, including coordinating system design and heading up the sales management.

As POLARaudio's business continues to grow, Stuart's team has been expanded accordingly, with new installed business development manager Adam Brown taking direct responsibility for key accounts in London and the South East. In turn, Jason Spooner and Matthew Farrugia have been appointed to expand POLARaudio's technical support team.

POLARaudio managing director John Midgley comments, "During Stuart's time at POLARaudio, he has established himself as an integral part of our business and this was a very straight

South Africa - Lighting designer Tim Dunn from Gearhouse South Africa has seen technology swiftly evolve during his career.

"I worked on some of the first moving lights, and we all evolved from bashing dents out of parcans to become electronic technicians," Tim says. "Now we are in the networking age and we all need to become network technicians, (not a job that I ever wanted on my CV). The new switcher from MA is quite something; literally plug and play, and keeps the focus on the job at hand."

Tim was asked to be the lighting designer at the South African Film Awards (SAFTAs) held recently. He worked on a grandMA2 full size. "The show required a fast network," said Tim. "So Nick Britz of DWR brought along a MA Switch.

"I'm always a bit nervous about networks, I've had network problems in the past and feeling helpless with show time fast approaching is no-ones idea of

South Africa - The Roast Café and The Goliath Comedy Club, in association with The Venue, opened in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg in May 2016. DWR Distribution supplied the Robe lighting installation and a DiGiCo S21 sound console.

Tony Raciti of The Venue, along with The Goliath Brothers were approached to take the space which was a former restaurant, and convert it into a comedy club where wholesome food with a touch of Mediterranean, Asian and Mexican, would also be served. The interior design was by Refined Existence In Space.

"We installed three lighting bars manufactured by Rob Young and his team at our office," explained Schalk Botha from DWR. "We incorporated two Robe Robin miniPointes, two Robin LEDBeam 100s, a Robin DLS, a Titan One control system, a Le Maitre MVS Hazer and a DiGiCo S21 for sound. A mixture of Longman LED fittings also forms part of the rig.

USA - Once again TDC - Technical Direction Company's technical wizardry is dazzling audiences of millions at Vivid Sydney. In 2016 the world's largest spectacle of light, video and music is extended from 18 days to 23 days, breaking records for city-wide video projections over nine sites including the Royal Botanic Garden and Taronga Zoo.

Michael Hassett, CEO at TDC comments, "TDC works on the latest in projection and interactive technologies for Vivid for a total of 11 months prior to the event collaboratively engaging with all project stakeholders in enabling the artists' creative imaginations to be writ across the skyline.

Destination NSW chief executive officer and executive producer of Vivid Sydney Sandra Chipchase says, "Technology is a key element to the festival as an enabler of artistic works. We're constantly amazed at what TDC achieves for us each year and this

UAE - 3db, a leading AV-rental company in Dubai, has upgraded its microphone inventory with the latest Speechline Digital Wireless microphone systems from Sennheiser. The new system is being positioned by the rental firm as the solution of choice for blue chip corporate events and conferences and has already been utilized at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (EAFOL) in Dubai with excellent results.

Commenting on the sale, which makes his organization the first in the region to offer the Speechline Digital Wireless for rental, James Ghamlouch, head of audio at 3db said, "We've found that the system's clear focus and USP of speech intelligibility is the perfect fit for our customers' needs. Not just this, the Speechline Digital system boasts automatic frequency management and interference avoidance, which coupled with the fact that it uses the less congested1.9 GHz fre

USA - When the Portuguese community met to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry by international artists of Portuguese ancestry, the occasion called for a design that could complement a variety of musical styles from traditional Portuguese Fado to dance music to rock.

East Coast Lighting & Production Services (ECLPS) turned to Elation Professional's EPT6IP LED video displays as the main visual element of the set design, creating a dynamic false proscenium and dazzling LED panel 'sunburst' for the 2016 edition of the International Portuguese Music Awards held 23 April at the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The EPT6IP panels were hung from a box truss with a set of video legs upstage of that left and right. "The EPT6IP panels are very rigid structurally, so the legs hung easily and went up fast," said ECLPS's Nate Almeida, lighting designe

USA - Nearly 17,000 attendees including 8,000 students from 21 countries poured into Knoxville for Global Finals, the culmination of Destination Imagination (DI). The non-profit organization works to motivate students to be visionaries in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Bandit Lites once again provided the lighting for the massive celebration, where teams from around the globe assembled to compete in challenges created to inspire creativity and promote logical skills.

A massive parade of nations, a dance presentation from Step Afrika! and the members of The Exchange, a pop vocal group performed at the opening ceremony where Bandit lighting designer Shawn Beaulieu and general manager Giff Swart utilized last year's success of an in-the-round design at Thompson-Bowling Arena.

Bandit's exclusive LED GRNLite moving head washes were placed on hexagonal tru

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UK - South London-based event technical production specialist PR Live supplied audio, video, lighting and staging for the 2016 Master Investor Show at the Business Design Centre in London, which attracted a record 4,500 delegates, 100 exhibiting companies and featured over 50 presentations by CEOs, founders and investment gurus.

PR Live has looked after the technical requirements for the last 14 years working directly for the client Ex Events and this year provided widescreen video and a sound system for the main plenary area and sound / AV systems for three breakout rooms and screens and control for many of the exhibition stands.

Ian Coull, PR Live's MD was delighted to be working on the show again. "It has been interesting and inspirational to see the event grow and expand and itself invest in increased production values over the years," he commented.

PR Live's crew

Germany - Snap, Culture Beat, Haddaway, Captain Hollywood Project and Right Said Fred are familiar names to people who went to parties in the 1990s. These and many other artists are on tour in Germany with an event called Die MEGA 90er Live. Atlantis Audio took charge of the technical lighting equipment on behalf of Dresden-based LTI, and once again requested products from Lightpower's stock.

Among the various lights used on the tour were 16 Clay Paky Sharpys and 15 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s, in addition to two grandMA2 full-size consoles, two MA 4Port Nodes, and two MA plus MK2 Video Processing Units (VPUs).

Volkmar Kusch, the owner of Atlantis Audio, was thrilled yet again with the performance of the products, commenting, "The MA system is simply extraordinary. We built the whole setup with two full-size grandMA2 consoles. Martin Pech dealt with the show lightin

UK - Lighting and visuals rental specialist HSL has invested again in more Martin Pro MAC Viper Wash DXs and MAC Aura XB moving lights, also more grandMA2 consoles for the latest Il Divo UK and European tour.

The tour sees the band present their smouldering Amor & Pasi

USA - LD Freddy Thompson of JDI Productions was looking for more than speed when he put together the rig for the recent national tour by Killswitch Engage. In keeping with the hardcore spirit of his clients, who were named one of "The Greatest Metal Bands of All Time" by MTV, Thompson wanted nothing less than full throttle power from his floor package. He got this with a high force rig that relied heavily on the intense output of Rogue moving fixtures, Nexus panels, Legend 230SR Beams and Vesuvio foggers from Chauvet Professional.

"Practical things always have to be on your mind when you create a floor package," said Thompson. "So everything we did had to be quick and easy, but that wasn't our only thought. We never want to go to a venue and just add lights to the house rig, we want to have a real impact on the set by creating a more dimensional look."

Thompson did this in

UK - Serious Stages kicked off the festival season with BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, at Exeter's Powderham Castle, 28-29 May 2016.

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend is the largest free ticketed music event in Europe and is held in a different UK location each year, with Exeter's Powderham Castle hosting this year's festival. Serious Stages supplied stages, decking and event structures to house production equipment and artists including Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Bastille, Biffy Clyro and Jess Glynne.

The main stage was a Serious Stages 25m Space Roof, with a 15m trim height, flanked by two 12m goalposts, from which video screens and PA speakers were hung. Serious Stages also supplied and installed a clear-span structure for the main stage front-of-house, along with delay towers, follow spot pods and the assisted viewing platform with accessibility ramps.

In other areas, Serious a

Vietnam - Proel's newly appointed distributor Viet Thai An Trading Co. Ltd. organised a product seminar and demonstration of Axiom professional loudspeaker products in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi in March. Technical sales support engineer Daniele Massaccesi, in a format that has proved successful in opening new markets to the Axiom brand, introduced the company's 25-year history in manufacturing, and the solutions offered by Axiom loudspeaker systems.

The first day was largely devoted to training of the internal sales and technical support staff, introducing them to an overview of the products in the Axiom range and their applications. The second day's proceedings provided a more detailed presentation of the entire Axiom product catalogue.

On the third day an outdoor demo was staged at the Cultural House of Thanh Xuan District, which has a capacity of 1500 people, with pr

Japan - Tokyo's New National Theatre (NNTT) has recently installed a 32-channel TiMax2 SoundHub-S32 and TiMax Tracker system with six TT Sensors and 32 TT Tags, for adaptable provision of automated vocal localisation and audio showcontrol in both the main Playhouse auditorium and also the smaller 'Pit' theatre.

The multi-tasking system was specified by Kunio Watanabe, manager of the NNTT's audio division, who contacted SCA Sound Solutions in search of effective and natural vocal tracking and immersive audio spatialisation.

Watanabe commented, "We now have a very natural and smooth sound imaging for the actors' voices, without the feeling of it being a sound 'effect', by which I mean, the audience could feel the individual voice at the exact position of the individual singer, not from left, right and centre speakers. This may sound obvious, but other systems do not give thi

UK - It is with great sadness that the ALD has announced the death of founder member and Fellow, Francis Reid who passed away on 9th June aged 86. Reid was a much-loved and respected lighting designer, author and teacher who lit hundreds of shows and shared his knowledge and experience of lighting in many popular books and publications and with countless students throughout the world.

A statement from the ALD reads: "Francis was a founding member of the Association, playing a key role in establishing the practice of stage lighting design and the role of Lighting Designer in the UK.

He was 86, and had spent all his working life in and around theatre, but was also an inspiring teacher and a prolific author, who made lighting and the arts of theatre making come alive for several generations of practitioners, at RADA, at what is now Central St Martins, the Royal Conservatoire

Germany - LaserAnimation's Lasergraph DSP is a laser show control solution that is in the market for many years already. The Lasergraph DSP got its reputation as a fail-safe controller and was mainly used by high end professional companies. As the Lasergraph DSP is designed as a de-central processing unit, it does not transmit demanding system control data, but can run on its own or only triggered by low-density control signals.

The Laserworld Group started the distribution of Lasergraph DSP in April 2016, and a new licensing model made the DSP show control systems more affordable. Due to "Master-Slave" licensing it is possible to combine several low priced slave-units with one master unit.

The Lasergraph DSP was known in the industry for a special user interface which may look a bit "old school". This has changed a lot with the latest release of the LG-Remote remote contr

UK - Artistic Licence, industry experts in lighting control, is inviting visitors to stand E41 at this year's ABTT show. Visitors can enjoy a special 20% discount on nanoScope DMX testers, including the newly launched variant, nanoScope tx (a DMX transmitter designed for test, configuration and fault-finding of lighting rigs). Also on display is a demonstration of the impressive capabilities of the versaSplit DMX distribution system.

Lightweight and battery powered with a translucent plastic casing, nanoScope features a built-in 5-pin XLR connector that enables it to be attached directly to the DMX512 cable. The device lights up in different colours to indicate its findings - this provides rapid, intuitive feedback that is hands-free and visible at a distance (handy for awkward positions such as plenum spaces or hanging off a truss).

Two modes of operation exist, selected

USA - Based in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Najafi Design Group prides itself on creating designs that truly complete the experience while immortalizing the moment. So when they were approached by Cleft Clips to create an entirely new technical design for Funny or Die, lighting and event designer Sohail e. Najafi was confident his team could completely transform The Historic Scoot Inn.

Wanting to consolidate two main elements of their typical production design, a detailed scenic backdrop and high resolution video wall for connect playback, Najafi found a new more cost-effective and dynamic solution, the FLEXCurve 8mm high resolution curved LED video wall from PixelFLEX.

"We first started designing for Cleft Clips in Los Angeles for various comedy specials over the past few years," began Najafi. "When they brought us back this year, they asked us to manage the technical produ

Belgium - Sound specialist 4ears is using a range of DPA Microphones to deliver "the perfect sound quality" for a diverse range of live music events. The company has also been working with Belgian band SX, who used DPA's d:facto Vocal Microphones with great success at a concert at the Ancienne Belgique concert hall in Brussels.

Headed by experienced broadcast/live sound engineer and production manager, Peter Vandergoten, 4ears provides sound mixing and recording equipment to many top Belgian acts and events, such as Salvatore Adamo, Ghinzu, Absynthe Minded, Night of the Proms and Rock Werchter. Over the years, Vandergoten has built up an impressive collection of DPA microphones, including eight d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones that are regularly used for both rock and classical productions.

"Many bands that I work with combine acoustic instruments in a 'rock' setup," say

USA - Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, has installed a comprehensive system of Focusrite RedNet Dante-networked audio converters and interfaces in its Full Sail Live 1 building, which is home to the university's Show Production Bachelor of Science degree programme.

Incorporating RedNet MP8R 8-channel Mic Pre and A/D converters, RedNet D64R 64-Channel MADI-Dante Bridges, RedNet HD32R Pro Tools | HD/HDX Bridges and RedNet 2 16-channel remote-controlled analogue interfaces, the new Focusrite system not only provides networking throughout the facility, but also offers students practical experience with the Dante Audio-over-IP protocol.

Full Sail Live 1 encompasses a large production space and a variety of ancillary show production-related rooms in a facility where students learn about sound reinforcement, lighting, live video and multimedia, automated lighting, co

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