Hong Kong - October was a busy month for TAO Group's personnel with events in Canada, Croatia, Dubai and latterly Hong Kong - providing production management for the AsiaHedge Awards 2008.

The event, held in the Grand Ballroom of The Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, acknowledges the achievements of the Asia-Pacific hedge fund industry; bringing together both international and Asian managers and investors to celebrate the best performing Asia-Pacific hedge funds.

TAO were contracted three weeks prior to the awards by Matt Stowe of London based design agency NewSubstance to provide production management and consultancy for the event.

TAO's Managing Director Andy Cotton started by liaising with the hotel's supplier, Simon Lam of Hong Kong based company Base Create, and hotel even

UK - Stage Electrics is supplying its biggest outdoor ice rink of the year to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway for its spectacular Winter Wonderland in Bristol. Stage Electrics is providing complete event management for the shopping centre's Christmas attraction, from installing the 1,000sq.m ice rink, to sound, lighting, ice marshals, chalets housing skating equipment, a Christmas market and catering, to health and safety management.

The rink, the largest outdoor rink in the South West, will be open from 13 November until 4 January 2009, offering hour-long skating sessions each accommodating 300 skaters. This year's rink is 50% bigger than last year and aims to attract even more skaters than before. Last year 30,000 skaters used the rink. A 30ft Christmas tree adorned with 2,000 LED lights, creates a stunning focal point in the centre of the rink.

Ian Tregaskis, live events

USA - The number one selling artists on Billboard's Christian/Gospel charts at the end of last year, the band Casting Crowns has secured a fan base spanning continents. Slated to return from Europe later this month just in time for the launch of the holiday season in the US, the contemporary Christian rockers will begin their Christmas Celebration Tour in Southeast Texas at the Berry Centre on 28 November.

The 14-city Christmas Celebration will travel with a 20-piece orchestra throughout the latter half of November and first half of December. Guest artists on the bill will include Natalie Grant, Denver & the Mile High Orchestra, Avalon, Michael English, and pureNRG.

Shure microphone products will occupy a prime place in the show as well, having been chosen by Casting Crowns FOH engineer Carter Hassebroek to fulfill wide duties onstage.

With UHF-R wireles

Lebanon - EvenLED, Martin Professional's bright system of LED panels for uniform projection, has been utilised in several TV studios around the world. One of those studios, Future TV in Lebanon, has implemented the modular system in its newsroom where two vertical columns of five EvenLED panels rise around a video wall to form a decorative background.

"Originally, the client wanted simply to change the set of the daily news show from a studio-based set into a newsroom environment set," says Ali Wazani, managing director of Wazani & Associates, an architectural firm responsible for some of the region's top television studio designs.

"Most of today's TV stations, international events and productions base their design on a branding and identity brief. It is the exceptional image that we are all striving to achieve. EvenLED can easily brand large surfaces with dyna

UK - The Fellow, a new dining room and cocktail bar in the Kings Cross area of London, opened this autumn with an array of APart and DAS speakers supplied by the British distributors of both companies products, Sennheiser UK.

After spending almost a year refurbishing the building, The Fellow's owners wanted all three of its floors to sound as good as they look. Which is why they got in touch with audio installation company Paris London. Their solution was nine black APart Mask 6 speakers on the ground floor dining area, four DAS DR8 speakers in the corners of the cocktail lounge on the first floor, and another pair of APart Mask 6 on the top floor's exclusive private dining room.

"The DAS DR8s sound good and are punchy enough to provide a proper party atmosphere," says Andy Noble of Paris London. "On top of that, the DR8s are the lightest unit of its power ratin

USA - LEDtronics has named Greg Krymer as product sales manager for architectural lighting. Krymer has been the company's Southern California district sales manager. In switching from a territorial to a product category focus, he will spearhead the outreach drive to a wider commercial market, to expand national and international sales activity, and accommodate customers with architectural LED lighting product solutions, says the company.

"Greg Krymer has an established track record of leading technical sales and business development efforts for both commercial and consumer products," said Adil Gandhi, vice-president and general manager. "His academic background in electrical systems enables him to provide customers assistance to solve complex lighting applications with state-of-the-art LED technology."

(Jim Evans)

UK - For 22 years, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom Of The Opera has been wowing audiences at London's Her Majesty's Theatre. Sound technology has seen many advances in that time and May 2008 saw a technical refit of the show featuring an all-new audio system, with a Yamaha PM1D digital console at front of house.

Chris Jordan, head of audio at Blitz Sound and Vision, was instrumental in the supply and installation of Phantom of the Opera's original Cadac analogue console, back in 1986. He was also key in supplying its 21st century replacement.

"The PM1D was the choice of Mick Potter, who designed the new sound system for Phantom," says Jordan. "He has a long history with Yamaha consoles, as we do at Blitz, so we were pleased to continue our association with both the production and Yamaha by supplying the new console."

Phantom Of The Opera's tec

Italy - Artemio Franchi Stadium, home to Italian premier division and UEFA Champion's League club ACF Fiorentina, has recently seen the installation of a new Lighthouse P12-ER LED screen to provide added interest for the club's supporters and visiting football fans.

Measuring six panels wide by six panels high (9.60m x 7.20m), the 12mm visual resolution P12-ER screen is being used as a scoreboard and to show advertisements during matches. It serves as a medium that can support new and interesting content and provide a valuable additional revenue stream for the club.

Lighthouse handled both the sale and integration of the screen. "P12-ER is an enhanced resolution product, which means more detailed information can be displayed on the screen than with a standard 25mm pixel pitch screen," says Alessio Giagnoni, Lighthouse's sales support manager for Southern Europe. &quo

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USA / Europe - Tina Turner is currently making her return to stages after an eight-year absence, with the Tina Turner - Live in Concert tour, spanning North America and Europe. There are currently 80 dates scheduled, with more being added.

Turner's new show features her career of hits, backed by a "spectacular" production. The stage includes an array of 80 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300 fixtures, as part of a massive LED wall grid upstage. The fixtures hide behind a motion-controlled video wall, which separates into sections, allowing the Alpha Beams to shine through. The fixtures are hung from custom brackets on the sides of a total of eight LED screens, with five fixtures hanging along each side, which become visible when the screens separate from each other.

Lighting designer is Barry Halpin, who lists Cher, Queen, Joe Cocker and Pink among his credits. "I c

Czech Republic - Hlinsko-based sound company Polanski Sound has invested in an Adamson system. The substantial set-up was bought through Adamson Czech distributors MediaTech.

Hlinsko, an 11th century Czech Republic town is located in the Pardubice Region. Polanski Sound counts various indoor and outdoor concerts of all sizes being their primary market, though they also do installation consultancy and design work across the region. Owners, Ji?í Polanský and technical director Jan Žampa a have been in the music business for 20 years and now have six full-time employees.

As the Adamson shipment arrived in the Polanski shop, Czech Republic's second largest festival, Sázavafest was about to take place about 60 km outside of Prague in Kácov, and would become the first opportunity to engage their new acquisition. The fast-growing festival has gone from the original a one-

UK - Adlib Audio's busy autumn continues with the supply of sound for the UK leg of Hot Chip's Made In the Dark world tour, for which they took the opportunity to debut their new Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q Powered Loudspeaker Management systems, utilised to drive 12 Adlib MP3 low profile monitor wedges.

Adlib's Richy Nicholson (FOH) and Marc Peers (monitors) are working closely with band engineers Steve Revitte and Mary Alafetich.

The main PA consists of JBL VerTec 4889 elements spec'd by Revitte. They are carrying 20 in total, which are fitted as appropriate into each venue depending on weight loadings and available space, utilising assorted methods - flown, ground stacked and combinations of the two. For in-fills, out-fills and foot-fills, they're using a combination of Adlib FD2 and AA122 cabinets.

The main system is primarily powered by Camco Vortex 6 amps, with Crown

Italy - Singer-songwriter Elisa, a multi-platinum award winning star in her native country - recently delighted 20,000 fans at the Arena di Verona, with a debut performance of her Mechanical Dream show - before embarking on her first tour of the USA and Canada.

32 PixelLine 1044s featured in show designer Mamo Pozzoli's lighting rig, hung side by side in groups of two - creating a giant frame around the whole set. The show infused many art forms including dance, cinema, poetry and music - resulting in a stunning performance portraying the two aspects of the name of the tour - mechanical and dream.

Pozzoli explains: "I needed a powerful LED fixture that would help me transpose the lighting language of the two souls of the show concept. The 1044s have got that unmistakable industrial character and that brilliant personality - able to combine fast graphi

UK - RTS Telex reports that its RTS ADAM (Advanced Digital Audio Matrix) intercom system is playing a key role in the presentation areas at BBC Wales. The 80-port system, with seven KP32 key panels, allows operators and producers to communicate with each other in the new play-out facility at Broadcasting House in Cardiff, as well around the complex's control room, television presentation studio and gallery.

The RTS system was chosen to replace the previous talkback system. It has to work with an existing four-wire router (not RTS), accepting inputs from that device and sending back inputs, in addition to connecting to the RTS intercom panels, in addition to third-party audio monitoring boxes and headphone points.

The RTS intercom was specified and installed by a BBC Wales team headed by broadcast engineer David Carnaby, as a separate 'mini-project' running alongside the main p

USA - Celebrating 10 years as one of the nation's premier venues for live symphonic music, Seattle's Benaroya Hall sound engineers chose to upgrade their sound reinforcement system with three Soundcraft Vi Series digital mixing consoles - two Vi6's and a Vi4 - for the 550-seat Recital Hall.

Audio director for the Benaroya Hall, Tom Akoury, states: "Installing the Vi6 was an unbelievable upgrade in sound quality and the sound engineers immediately commented on the intuitiveness and versatility of the Vi6. We were able to install the console without any difficulties and within 15 minutes we were very comfortable mixing on the board."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Stage Electrics supplied its first ice rink of the season to the annual Metro Ski & Snowboard Show, recently held in Olympia, London. Stage Electrics worked with DMG World Media to provide their client, Trespass (suppliers of outdoor clothing), who were exhibitors at the show, with a large 240sq.m ice rink. The rink was divided into two smaller rinks to allow one for skating and one with two curling lanes.

The ice rink including all pipe work, 200KW of chilling equipment and barriers, was installed in just three days. In addition, the Trespass sponsor logos and curling targets were painted using a soluble paint and frozen into the ice.

John Burgess, account manager at Stage Electrics commented: "Olympia is a difficult venue to install an ice rink in, because of the lack of available drainage for the ice and the issue of having very little control over the ambient tem

UK - Christopher Burridge has been promoted to sales manager of London-based Light Projects Group.

Burridge has been a sales engineer with the company for six years. Initially focusing on the company's core ranges, he subsequently specialised in Roblon's fibre optic ranges and has become an authority on the use of fibre-optics, working closely with lighting designers to help plan and create schemes across the residential, commercial, retail and specification markets. In his new role, he will coordinate the activities of the sales engineers and help drive the business forward into emerging markets.

Commenting on his new role, he says: "I've always worked in the lighting industry and it is an area I still find fascinating. Lighting has immense power to enhance or destroy a project and I enjoy working with lighting designers helping them to realise their most creative and ar

USA - BarlowGirl's Million Voices fall tour sees the sisters - Alyssa, Rebecca, and Lauren Barlow - using Shure UHF-R wireless systems. "Before Shure we used to be plugged-in," says guitarist Rebecca. Now we can go anywhere."

The trio has also reduced its stage volume and plugged into better monitoring practices with the aid of PSM 700 personal in-ear monitor systems.

Says Rebecca: "When we first got started everything was wedges, and as the rooms got louder, you had to turn them up. Every show we cried because we couldn't hear; I couldn't hear the drums. But now, everything is so clear."

(Jim Evans)

Ireland Dublin performance venue Vicar Street recently picked up Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO)'s awards for the Best National Live Music Venue of the Year, Best Dublin Live Music Venue of the Year, as well as the Hot Press Readers Award for Best Live Music Venue in Ireland. The awards acknowledge the country's top concert halls assessed on general ambience, staging, lighting, and sound. Vicar Street took the spotlight at the IMRO ceremony, which took place a year after the venue upgraded to a Meyer Sound M'elodie line array loudspeaker system.

Featuring a wide, shallow design, Vicar Street can hold up to 1,300 spectators, with no seat over 44ft from the stage. In talking about the creation of the sound system, designer Paul Aungier of Dublin-based Mikam Sound admits that the choice of the compact M'elodie loudspeaker was made after careful consideration.

"

Australia - TL Audio, manufacturers a range of professional valve audio products, has appointed Major Music Wholesale as exclusive distributor for Australia and New Zealand.

"Major Music couldn't be happier to welcome TL Audio into out product catalogue." Says managing director, Greg Cato. "TL Audio adds an award winning prestige range of valve audio processing solutions to our already comprehensive range of audio solutions. The TL Audio range work hand in hand with many of our existing digital recording products, offering the warmth, presence and smoothness that only high quality valve technology can give."

Sarah Yule, sales director at TL Audio adds: "We are very pleased to be working with such a respected and professional company like Major Music for our distribution in Australia. Their energy and vision will help us to enjoy a successful and exciti

Germany - Klotz Digital has strengthened its sales team. Thomas Klotz has appointed Trevor Spielmann to the position of sales manager for Europe.

"I am pleased that Trevor has joined our sales team for which he will be a valuable asset, as he possesses the ideal combination of expertise and strong knowledge in the field of broadcast, post-production and presentation business", says Thomas Klotz. "In all ways possible, Trevor is committed to top customer service, being the lead contact person for all our European sales and service partners. His hiring strengthens our operations and arms us to better service our existing partnerships."

(Jim Evans)

Ireland - The world premiere of Magick Macabre, an alternative "magic and horror" spectacular - staged by Moya Doherty and John McColgan's Riverdream Productions was staged at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin recently. OutBoard's TiMax Audio Imaging matrix dreated the appropriate soundscape.

Kevin McGing, production sound engineer for the show, called on Dublin-based MOSCO to supply and install the multi-channel sound system - including the TiMax audio imaging system - specified by Dublin-based composer, Denis Clohessy, to handle multiple on-stage and surround-sound effects localisation.

The music and effects montage, comprised of several hundred cues, was created by Denis Clohessy. The dialogue free production was entirely dependent on the soundtrack to provide the backdrop for master illusionist, Daemon Cordell, to carry out his macabre people-chopping, drilling

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