China - PRG has announced the appointment of Simon Kayser as general manager for its Sourcing & Projects Centre based in Shenzhen, China. Simon will report to Gary Boyd, executive vice president and COO, EMEA. A Chinese-speaker, Simon already has extensive knowledge of the Chinese market from his role as technical director at PRG in China, where he has been the project manager for key inbound corporate and large automotive sector projects.

Simon will now take charge of the Shenzhen operation, which is instrumental in sourcing video and lighting technology in China. Simon will work closely with Frederic Opsomer and the team at PRG Projects, who specialise in the development of custom LED for special events, touring projects and installations.

"After spending the past eight ye

UK - To commemorate the 40th anniversary of probably the greatest era of music recording - the '70s - Court Acoustics who designed many of the top UK studio monitoring systems - have produced this recording/playback monitor system, hand built in the UK combining the best of both traditional and modern speaker technology.

The SN70 for 90-110 Hz bi-amp operation, has outstanding clarity and definition, with deep bass to the limits of human hearing from the roll surround 15" 27Hz bass driver, a new polished fibre 8" driver in its own sub enclosure for accurate midrange, combined with delicate & smooth transients from the aluminium diaphragm, edgewound ribbon voice coil, slot radiator HF.

Also available is the SN70 4 channel 1000w bi amplifier with integral electronic crossover.

"We auditioned the Internet's listing of the world's top 10 speakers and irrespective of price,

South Africa - Formative were once again contracted to provide expert technical management services to Aidan Bennets Design for the Paramount Ground stand at the 2016 Africa Aerospace and Defence Exhibition held at Waterkloof Air Force Base, situated on the outskirts of Pretoria.

The 2016 iteration of the stand was built on the solid foundations of the 2014 show, the major change being a transition from projection to LED technology, supplied by LED Vision in the form of two highly new ROE BP 3.91mm screens with a total resolution nearing 6k, all run via Brompton M2 Processing and fed from d3 Technologies v2.5 Servers.

The lighting, supplied by MGG, was designed to make the stand 'pop' and stand out, and given its close proximity to doorways and the serious weight restrictions on the venue, required ultra low-weight fixtures that could provide both vivid colour and adequate

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Strictly FX, Pushing Boundaries

Strictly FX was founded in 1996 by industry veterans Mark Grega and Ted Maccabee. Our expertise and knowledge of the world’s leading pyrotechnic, laser, and flame manufacturers allows us to curate astonishing live events. With over 500+ shows performed a year, there’s good chance you’ve seen some of our work!

UK - Mobile Technik unveiled a new venue concept in the form of 'pop-up solutions' at Event Tech Live to meet the ever-growing demands for flexible, imaginative and quick to appear event spaces.

Mobile Technik has developed this 'pop-up' solution to offer flexibility to event organisers, brands and delegates looking to make an impact directly in the footfall of their target market, without spiralling costs. Organisers can let their imaginations run wild when it comes to uses, from pop-up pubs, to discreet breastfeeding and nappy changing spaces, ticketing kiosks or product sampling facilities.

Logistically this has been designed with speed in mind, popping up in just 30 minutes so the element of surprise isn't ruined by long build times. Mobile Technik can provide the full installation service, from securing permission in the desired spaces, applying bespoke theme and bran

USA - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend Jackson Browne recently wrapped another tour with a lighting package provided by longtime vendor, Bandit Lites.

The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter who has sold more than 18m albums toured this summer with a full band, bringing his classics such as Running on Empty and Somebody's Baby to audiences across the country.

Building on Browne's last album, lighting designer Steve Comer made only a few changes to the previous design, including opening up the stage space by cutting side towers and placing the lights on the downstage truss. One important aspect for the lighting design for Browne's tour is the desire for an LED prominent rig such as Bandit's exclusive GRNLite Moving Washes, GRNLite Par 64s, Elation 2 Lite LED and GLP X4S, giving the production a cooler, lower power-consumption look.

"The flexibility the

UK - With the latest season of Prime Time BBC show Strictly Come Dancing well underway, illumination specialists LED Creative have been adding their own sparkle to sister show, It Takes Two.

To complement the glitzy flavour of It Takes Two, lighting director Gurdip Mahal and scenic designer Joshua Grace have created a true neon nightclub look, using concentrated violets and blues plus plenty of silver, mirrored sparkle to reflect the show's ballroom dancing heritage.

For additional effect, LED Creative SIGMA 30 wands have been vertically suspended around the stage perimeter. Perfectly placed to allow subtle movements in shape and colour without overpowering the shows content, the 1 metre LED wands allow accurate control of the speed and flow of the LED chase over an almost infinite number of sequences, either pre-programmed or executed live on set.

UK - Happy Mondays, sharing a bill with Cast and The Bluetones, played a one-off rock gig at the Derby Arena and Velodrome, supported by a rich mix of Nexo systems.

This was the first arena-sized music concert for the £27m venue. PA for the event was provided by local Derby company Sound of Music, which drew on its extensive Nexo inventory to supply a STM Series modular line array for main PA, and 45°N-12 line monitors on stage.

Sound of Music's Sash Pochibko notes that "it's great for us to be the first touring PA company to service a big show at the new venue, especially as we are based so locally. The Derby Velodrome is by far the best-sounding arena I've ever heard, as an engineer or as a concert-goer. They've installed black-box draping and it makes a massive difference to the acoustics of the building - the absorbent properties of a good audience completed

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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. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

Mexico - The fifteenth edition of the annual Las Lunas Del Auditorio - the Mexican live performance and music industry's most prestigious awards - was staged at the National Auditorium in Mexico City, a glittering, star-studded event honouring national and international talent with 23 awards and nine dynamic live artist collaborations.

Once again, the eye-catching lighting was designed by one of Mexico's best known LD's Tiffy (German Castellanos) with over 100 Robe fixtures on the rig, supplied by top rental company LED Project. Both are based in the pulsating capital city, CDMX.

It was Tiffy's ninth year of lighting the event which was broadcast live on four National TV channels Télévisa, Azteca, Channel 22 and Canal Once as well as being streamed live on You Tube.

To create a spectacular televisual and live experience, Tiffy worked closely with the rest

UK - A Buckinghamshire New University Audio and Music Production student is looking to boost work he is carrying out with schools after receiving a £1,500 scholarship from Sennheiser UK.

The scholarship is presented annually based on a student's academic performance in their first year as well as their performance in an interview with Phil Cummings, Sennheiser's marketing projects manager.

Scott Ramsell, 19, was shortlisted among six students and impressed after developing a business plan to go into schools assisting with live sound at productions, as well as educating pupils and students in audio technology.

He said, "The money will help buy professional equipment to take in to schools and provide good quality sound for productions such as Christmas concerts and talent shows.

"I am already working with two schools I attended myself and I am shortly going ove

UK - On its website, the Illusive Festival describes its mission as being "to create a magical world away from reality to immerse yourself within." The festival, which takes places in the rolling fields outside Corby, more than lived up to that goal in September with a mind-bending main stage design by Simon Wallwork that featured a towering 14m high by 8m wide robot that looked like it walked right out of a sci-fi movie.

In the belly of the gyrating robot was a DJ booth. Over each shoulder of the robot and along its sides was an asymmetrically arranged collection of Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Lighting designers Toby Lovegrove and Doug Alan Coppell, along with their team, used the Rogue fixtures to shoot rapidly moving and rotating beams of brightly colored light from behind the techno-beast in every direction. The varying shafts of light from the Ro

USA - Lighting designer Jeff Maker (All Time Low, The Dresden Dolls) turned to an Elation LED lighting package for American rock band Pierce the Veil's recent Made to Destroy tour, his second year with the band, and was delighted with the results. "Elation continues to impress me and many of my LD colleagues, which is no surprise," he said. "We were on tour for seven weeks (32 shows total) and I didn't have one issue with any of the units."

The Made to Destroy tour played dates across the US with lighting vendor JR Lighting Design, Inc. supplying an Elation rig made up of ACL 360 Bar LED battens, SixBar 1000 LED battens, SixPar 100 LED Par lights, and Protron 3K LED strobes along with Antari Z-350 Fazers.

"Recently we have added more Elation Professional equipment into our production rental inventory as we find that it offers high reliability, great performance, and value

Mexico - Chauvet has named Carlos Zamora de Martino general manager of Chauvet Mexico. Prior to joining Chauvet's rapidly growing Mexican operation, Zamora held senior executive positions at a number of global companies. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Geo Lite LED Lighting. In his new position, he will be responsible for managing all facets of the Chauvet Professional, Chauvet DJ, Iluminarc and Trusst business in Mexico.

"We're very excited to have someone of Carlos' calibre and experience join our team," said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. "Although we have been selling products in Mexico for 25 years, our business in the country increased dramatically when we opened Chauvet Mexico in 2013 and began distributing directly. Our goal now is to build on this success, which is why we recently opened an expanded showroom in Lerma outside Mexico City, and why we are committe

Sweden - Dataton has appointed Lars Sandlund as chief executive officer, effective October 2016. In this newly created position, Sandlund will be responsible for implementing the strategic expansion of the well-known AV manufacturer.

Lars Sandlund is no newcomer to the company or the industry, having worked at Dataton for seven years. His most recent position was as COO, responsible for the daily operation of the company.

"I'm looking forward to leading and developing Dataton, with its admirable reputation for innovation, great products and proud 43-year history. My goal is to ensure that Dataton maintains and reinforces its top position in the market for at least the next 43 years," comments Sandlund.

Dataton has expanded significantly over the last five years - appointing new sales partners, moving to purpose-built headquarters and doubling the number of staff on the

Europe - The latest catalogue from EXE Technology has just been released and is available for download at http://ow.ly/jaua3064WUI. Safety of its products has increased, while the legendary quality, precision and reliability you've come to rely on remains unchanged, says the company.

The complete offer from EXE Technology consists of the EXE-Rise range of chain hoists, EXE-Cell load cell interface, EXE-Drive controllers and EXE-DST dynamic stack tracks.

New in 2017: The D8 range now features an 8:1 safety factor as standard with new load capacities of 250 kg / 500 kg /1000 kg / 2000 kg.

The D8+ range has new load capacities of 150 kg / 300 kg / 600 kg / 1200 kg.

All EXE-Rise hoists feature a double brake, updated identification labelling and black plugs and sockets. A new 8 x 24mm chain brings added safety to 1000 - 2000 kg hoists.

Dynamic Stack Tracks from the

USA - Elation Professional's Emotion moving head digital light has won a WFX New Product Award in the Moving Light category at the recent WFX Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

The award recognizes the best new technology products for the church market and was chosen by an independent panel made up of individuals who currently work in a tech leader role at a church, along with Worship Facilities tech director Andres Caamano. Products were individually judged on multiple criteria including innovation, functionality, cost-effectiveness, competitive advantages, benefits to the end user and benefits to the integrator.

"We're thrilled that the Emotion has been acknowledged for its unique innovation," stated Elation sales director Eric Loader on the award. "Because it is easier to use than previous digital lights and is extremely flexible and creative, designers have really taken to

USA - As LDI 2016 got underway inside the Las Vegas Convention Centre, LED video manufacturer PixelFLEX debuted its new AR-LED technology. The AR-LED video design received an overwhelmingly positive response, and the technology is now preparing for its initial launch into the world of entertainment and commercial LED video design.

"We could not be more pleased with the response we received from the performance of our new AR-LED video technology," said David Venus, PixelFLEX director of marketing. "There were many times where viewers simply sat in amazement, mesmerized by what they were seeing. After such a positive response, we are very excited about launching the AR-LED into the market to see just how creative designers can truly be."

Utilizing the patented lensing found in the FLEXLite series if LED panels, the new AR-LED has a 6mm pixel pitch with a broad viewing angle

India - Xiaomi, a privately owned Chinese electronics company headquartered in Beijing, recently launched its new smartphone Mi Max with a big event in New Delhi's Nehru Stadium, India. The company sold over 60m smartphones in 2014 and has over 8,000 employees, mainly in mainland China, India, Malaysia and Singapore.

Lighting designer Dinesh Verma used one grandMA2 light for the event in New Delhi. "My design idea was to reflect the brand and its image and create a buzz for the new smartphone by combining the LED wall, lighting and sound to get a whole experience for the audience."

Sahil Wadhwa, owner of Modern Stage Service, MA's exclusive distributor in India, who provided the lighting and truss equipment for the event, commented, "Modern Stage Service has been a pioneer in the field of lighting and designing stagecraft equipment.

"Because of the intrinsic quality an

Germany - Award-winning production designer Tobias Rylander has created a dynamic and versatile light show for long-standing Texas post-rock five-piece, Explosions in the Sky - entirely from 16 of GLP's innovative X4 Bar 20 battens.

Knowing these could be used to create big fields of light from an economical package, the designer sourced the fixtures from vendors, VER.

The design and scenography evolved only after a number of conversations with the band, who specialise in elaborate guitar-oriented instrumentals, which they refer to as "cathartic mini-symphonies".

Tobias explains, "I visited them rehearsing in Austin many times and presented a couple of different versions of set designs that we all really liked. But we ended up agreeing that just the fields of colours and light created by the X4 Bar 20s and Solaris LED flares would carry the show and enhance the music p

UK - Illuminating York, supported by Arts Council England, is an annual event which sees a variety of designers create light installations across the historic city.

Across four evenings in late October, indoor and outdoor venues around York were transformed with light installations created by artists and designers including David Ogle, Helen Maurer, Studio PSK; and for the centrepiece at York Minster, Jason Bruges Studio.

For this year's Illuminating York, London-based Jason Bruges Studio created Light Masonry, a choreographed light work for York Minster. To provide the necessary lighting and rigging technology, Jason Bruges contacted PRG XL Video account director, Andrew Strachan.

With the brief that the lights needed to supply high brightness white beams and have moving heads, Andrew Strachan suggested PRG's own Icon Beam fixtures, 50 of which were used for th

USA - Electronic Theatre Control (ETC) is launching four new ETCP Recognized Courses that can be taken to provide points towards the continuing education requirement for ETCP renewals.

Each class takes about an hour to complete and one credit will be issued per course. "We're excited to offer a new set of resources to our growing number of customers," says ETC class creator, David Fox.

The classes include:

DMX Theory Operation and Troubleshooting - This intermediate level course covers the history of the DMX standard, signal architecture, and troubleshooting techniques. These six video chapters are for people with a fundamental knowledge of DMX as it relates to basic wire connections and data paths, as well as patching and addressing of devices.

Networking Fundamentals - An introduction to computer networking for entertainment and architectural lighti

India - Allen & Heath's dLive digital mixing system was employed on the main stage of the recent Bacardi NH7 Weekender, held in RBDSA Sports Complex in Shillong, India. The annual multi-city festival is one of the largest music festivals in India, hosting emerging local artists alongside major international acts, and attracting 12,000 visitors.

PA company, Sound & Light Professionals (SNL), has managed sound reinforcement for the main stage since the event's inception. This year, acts included Steven Wilson, Vertical Horizon, Farhan Akhtar, Dossier's Urge, Vir Das Allen Chutney, Fossils, Undying Inc, and Aberrant.

To meet the technically diverse demands for monitoring on stage, SNL deployed its recently purchased dLive S7000 Surface and DM64 MixRack, supplied by Allen & Heath's Delhi-based distributor, Sun Infonet.

One of the most anticipated performances of the festiv

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