World - The Red Hot Chili Peppers have embarked on an epic World Tour with four grandMA full-size and a large complement of Clay Paky Sharpy lighting fixtures accompanying the band. The tour comes on the heels of the release of the band's tenth studio album, I'm With You.

Premier Global Production, which serviced the band for their last world tour, has returned as the lighting vendor for the new tour working with lighting designer Scott Holthaus.

Holthaus uses four grandMA full-size, one running video from Catalyst and D3 servers and the other running lighting, two grandMA full-size are back-up. "They are wonderful, powerful machines - I used the grandMA on every tour and they always work great, never a problem," he says. "Of the 275 shows I did on the last

UK - Ross Ashton and The Projection Studio's Crown of Light projected artwork on Durham Cathedral- created for the 2009 Lumière - is back by popular demand for this year's four-day festival of light event, which is curated and produced by Artichoke for Durham City Council.

Lumière 2011 features the work of dozens of artists, lighting designers and community groups in 35 installations, bringing a "sparkle of magic" to the medieval city.

Says Ashton, "It's a real testament to the piece and very flattering to be asked back with the same show. It's also extremely rare for the same creation to be requested again in its entirety, offering those who enjoyed the experience the first time around the chance to do so again, a new audience the opportunity to see it for the first time plus real value for the producers."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Sound rental company, RG Jones has been producing sound reinforcement infrastructure for the Raymond Gubbay Classical Spectaculars at the Royal Albert Hall since 1993.

With production harnessing cannons, pyro and lasers in a festival type 'Proms' atmosphere, it has taken all of FOH engineer Simon Honywill's expertise to keep the show's audio fidelity evolving with each generation of new technology.

Honywill is no stranger to Martin Audio proprietary line array platforms, introducing W8L Longbow systems to the Glastonbury Pyramid stage, and taking the new MLA (Multi-Cellular Loudspeaker Array) on tour with Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds.

Rigging the MLA at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time ever this month, he reports, "We've made a massive leap forward with the MLA ... the results were remarkable."

With MLA-certified systems engineer Mark

UK - Housed within the modern Radisson Edwardian Guildford Hotel, which recently arrived in the historic Surrey county town, the Market Kitchen & Bar describes itself as an all-day Mediterranean café, offering relaxed local bistro-dining from brunch and lunch, turning into a cosmopolitan evening destination. It also contains a relaxed bar lounge, with soft, colourful furnishing.

To help maintain its chameleon effect, a sound system was required that could provide hi-fi music at low level from an eclectic playlist stored on hard-drive during the day, pumping up the energy into the bar lounge during the evening when a fully-specified DJ front end comes into play.

Meeting the combined requirements of potency and aesthetic (the system needing to blend discreetly with Rabih Hage's interior design), the venue opted for a Martin Audio AQ architectural solution to underpin its

UK -The Buddah Lounge in Romford has been transformed into a vibrant nightclub. Brett Newton of Pro Effects installed 20 Chauvet fixtures to update the once drab location. Eight MiN Spot RGBW moving heads and four Intimidator Scan LED 200 scanners add energy and movement. Two Circus fill the dance floor with multi-coloured effects, piercing the fog generated by two Hurricane 1800 Flex foggers. SlimPAR 56 wash the stage in saturated hues.

Newton faced challenges often found in smaller clubs-low ceilings, which meant little head room for truss and lighting fixtures that are easily touched-as well as a tight budget. He divided the intimate space into four zones, placing two MiN Spot RGBW movers in each. To fill some awkward corners just off the dance floor, Newton utilized four Intimidator Scan LED 200 scanners. The compactness of these fixtures allowed them to remain discreet and

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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

Denmark - The provincial city of Herning in the heart of Denmark's Jutland peninsula is home to Jyske Bank Boxen, which, since opening in 2010, has become one of the country's premiere venues for concerts and events. The 15,000 capacity 'Boxen,' Denmark's largest indoor arena, opened with a Lady Gaga show in October of 2010 and hasn't looked back.

A steady stream of national and international stars has added Herning to their touring schedules. Seeking to support the wide variety of performances and special events, arena owners Messe Center Herning A/S (MCH) contacted Martin Professional Scandinavia about a new night-time lighting design.

"The whole idea was to create an arena of international status and capacity and MCH wanted a lighting scheme that would express this while creating a landmark for the entire region," states Anders Birch, sales manager at Martin Profe

In Harmony - The UK government has announced its first ever national plan for music education in response to Classic FM managing director Darren Henley's review of the sector. Henley's review, published earlier this year, made 36 recommendations for the minimum expectations of what any child going through the English school system should receive in terms of an education in music. One such recommendation was that there should be a comprehensive national plan for music education.

Launching the scheme, Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove claimed it "will deliver a music education system that encourages everyone, whatever their background, to enjoy music and help those with real talent to flourish as brilliant musicians" while culture minister Ed Vaizey said that the new resources would help "provide our fantastic creative industries with the next generation

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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.

www.cameolight.com/p6profile

UK - The website for the unique event that is Showlight 2013 has gone live. Whether you are a Showlight virgin, or a regular attendee, this is the ideal place to learn more about this three day quadrennial conference and exhibition, say organisers.

"For the first time, the website contains edited highlights of previous papers, capturing both the serious and the humorous side of Showlight. The clips bring the 2009 event to life for those who didn't attend - and are a great reminder of some excellent presentations for those who did. So, if you've thought about presenting a paper at Showlight, but weren't sure how it all worked, now you can see exactly what others have done!"

If you have an idea for a paper, you can register your interest at www.showlight.org/present If you are interested in being an exhibitor at Showlight 2013 and would like to know more, go directly t

USA - Registration is now open for Focus: Tech, the live event production workshop running alongside PLASA Focus: Austin 2012, at the Renaissance Austin, on February 19-22 2012.

The 4 day hands-on workshop offers a limited number of aspiring lighting designers, sound engineers, and video designers the chance to design and run a live concert, which will be performed in front of Austin's entertainment technology community, at PLASA's first North American regional event.

Beginners and professionals at the early stages of their careers are invited to take part in the event, which will see industry experts Richard Cadena, Brad Schiller, Chad Yeary, and Damon Lang pass on their tips and tricks for success to Texas' new talent, with prizes for the best designs.

Eminent production manager Ola Melzig, who's accolades include the Eurovision Song Contest, will be production-managing th

Tunisia - Housed in the Maison Blanche hotel in Tunis, Le Madison is a well-established bar and lounge. Centrally located, it is notable for the excellence of its service and the opulence of its interior design, which has a distinctly French flair - a combination that makes Le Madison a popular meeting place for both tourists and businessmen around the clock.

Tunis-based company Acoustic Design and Broadcast (ADB) were responsible for the planning and installation of the bar's new sound system. ADB's sound specialists opted for systems from Dynacord. The following components formed part of the September 2011 installation: D-Lite series loudspeakers systems (comprising 16 D8W cabinets and four Sub 118 bass units); two DSA 8212 amplifiers and a DSP 260 signal processor plus a compact, 10-channel CMS 1000-3 mixer.

"The Dynacord systems convinced our clients with both their s

Indonesia - LumenRadio's wireless CRMX technology played a major part during the opening ceremony of the 26th biennial South East Asian Games (SEA Games) held in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia. The games featured athletes from 11 nations competing in almost 600 hundred events in 44 disciplines ranging from well known international sports such as football, cycling, and tennis to regional favorites like Pencak Silat, Sepak Takraw, Vovinam, and Wushu.

The opening ceremony at the Gelora Sriwijaya stadium in Palembang on 11-11-11, the date chosen for its special numerical sequence, was held in front of more than 40,000 spectators in addition to the hundreds of millions viewing the live broadcast. The official presentation of the athletes and speeches by government officials and other dignitaries were accompanied by extensive segments of lively entertainment designed to display the

World - Mongolian band Anda Union are using DPA microphones on their current world tour to provide a powerful live sound for a large and wonderful variety of acoustic instruments. The band, who hail from Hohhot in China, formed in a mission to discover and perpetuate their Mongolian musical heritage, and have been performing worldwide for the past eight years. The mics were supplied by DPA's UK distributor, Sound Network.

"The main instrument I needed microphones for is the horse head fiddle, which is like a smaller, two-stringed version of the cello," explains the band's engineer, Tim Pearce. "One of the main problems I had using a mic on a stand is that they are so energetic it was impossible to keep them close to the mic. With up to eight of these playing at any one time, that is a lot of open condenser mics picking up a lot of ambient sound.

"The perfec

Germany - Theatre Bonn, a large repertory venue in the former German capital, has taken delivery of 50 of ETC's newest LED fixture - Selador Desire - and 10 Selador Classic Lustr LED units as part of a massive refurbishment project.

The fixtures complement around 900 fluorescent fixtures in various sizes and colours; 900 PAR cans; 70 moving lights, 50 HMIs with shutters and scrollers.

Max Karbe, head of lighting at the theatre, explains,"The first time we worked with Selador products was for the Brazilian contemporary dance company Grupo Corpo. They brought a large number of Lustr fixtures with them; we could see that they worked really well, and were really impressed. We had already decided that we wanted a high output, energy efficient LED fixture for our rig.

"Ludwig Krauss, ETC's regional sales manager for the German speaking area, arranged for us to test 10 Se

UK - The colourful world of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers is currently bringing its Art Deco delights to audiences across England and Scotland, in the first ever stage adaptation of the 1935 film Top Hat. With some of Irving Berlin's most famous songs alongside full ensemble tap dance numbers and perhaps the biggest collection of hats ever seen in one production, sound designer Gareth Owen chose a pair of Yamaha PM1D digital mixing consoles for this complex production.

"I like to use the PM1D for classic, older style musicals," he says. "It sounds really good for this kind of show which, in this case, is very cinematic in its sound design. By cascading two PM1Ds together, it was also the only desk with which I could get the required number of input channels."

The show's high channel count stems from three main reasons. The first is that the18-piece

UK - Two Welsh theatres have recently installed DiGiCo SD9 consoles. Milford Haven's Torch Theatre is a multi-function venue that combines main and studio theatres, an art gallery and café, it caters for plays, films, live music, dance, conferences and much more.

The Torch has also joined a growing trend in regional theatre of showing live and recorded transmissions of high profile stage shows, such as those by the National Theatre and New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Supplied by Stage Electrics, the SD9 has transformed the theatre's experience with digital audio, which began on a less than auspicious note.

"The SD9 isn't our first digital console," says the theatre's technical manager Andrew Sturley. "Previously we had a 24 channel digital desk from another manufacturer and went through four in a year, so it wasn't a great start. We ended up without any

Czech Republic - Two of the Czech and Slovak Republic's most talented visual creators - director of photography Philip Havelka and lighting designer Martin Kubanka are collaborating closely to produce a dynamic visuality for Barrendov TV's newest popular live music production, To Je Nas Hit (What is My Hit).

Robe moving lights are the main fixtures being utilised - including Robin 600 LEDWash units - which along with over 100 other new Robe fixtures are among the latest Robe investment by Bratislava, Slovakia based rental company Q-99, which is supplying all the show's lighting, scenic LED and video elements.

The show is broadcast live every Monday night from Studio 2 of the Barrandov Complex in Prague. This is one of the largest film studios in Europe and also one of the oldest and most famous, dating back to 1933.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Sports bars have come a long way from the dingy, smoky, male-orientated establishments of the past. The most successful ventures today are big, bright and highly family oriented with casual but generally upscale décor, full lunch and dinner menus, scores of imported beers on tap, and multi-room, high-end audio and video systems.

P.J. Whelihan's is a prime example of today's sports bar with all the right elements. First opened in 1983, the chain now covers 16 locations in the Philadelphia and southern New Jersey region, including the most recent addition in suburban Downingtown, PA. It's a multi-use venue that can handle not just day-to-day sporting broadcasts but parties and live events as well.

"They've got a stage set up at one end of the main room for live performances and DJs," says Bob Schermerhorn of Allentown, PA-based Entertainment Service Group

UK - SGM automated lighting and new generation strobes have been used exclusively to provide the high octane dancefloor effects in a new five-storey leisure complex in Lincoln.

Operating under the 'Home' umbrella, the new complex boasts six different trading themes (and two outside smoking areas) - starting with The Lounge Bar & Kitchen, a ground floor restaurant / bar with all-day trading. But it is on the second floor - in the space which originally served as a NAAFI Ballroom - that six SGM Idea Scan 250, four Idea Beam 300 and six Idea Wash 575 heads have been imaginatively designed into the overhead rig by SGM UK's Ian Kirby and installed by Over Audio of Liverpool.

These are joined by four of the new SGM X-5 LED strobes about which resident LD Richard Whiteley comments, "I couldn't wait to get my hands on these - and I can see what all the fuss has been about. This p

Europe - Outline has announced the appointment of The Audio Specialists b.v. as their exclusive distribution partners for Benelux and Germany , with immediate effect.

TAS is the brainchild and property of former E-Audio Benelux managing director Axel Nagtegaal, under whom the company "achieved spectacular results for a number of leading pro-audio brands in Benelux , including Midas, Klark Teknik, Electrovoice and others". Nagtegaal and his team pioneered the concept of 'service hatch' distribution in pro-audio, where a territorial distributor effectively becomes the local office for the manufacturer(s) they represent. This model was instrumental in his prior successes in Benelux and will be re-applied to his new distribution venture.

"The Outline product portfolio contains a whole raft of innovative and relevant technologies that really make it so much more than

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light recently welcomed two new companies to the White Light Family of exclusive manufacturers - Core Lighting and Interactive Technologies.

Core Lighting manufactures a range of fully weatherproof, battery-powered, wirelessly controllable LED uplighters designed to allow rapid deployment by removing the need to run cables to fixtures, as well as removing the ugly clutter and safety hazards of those cables.

Core's fixtures range from 1200 lumen to 2500 lumen output using efficient LED light sources - either red-green-blue-white for a vibrant range of colours, or white only when the maximum possible light output is required. The fixtures use lightweight but powerful lithium polymer batteries and integrate wireless control with Wirelesss Solution W-DMX systems; water resistant to IP65standard, they are suitable for parties, weddings,

UK - Blitz is sponsoring the UK Event Awards, to be held at Wembley Stadium tonight (30 November). The awards are now in their second year and aim to recognise and reward the very best event organisers, industry suppliers and event marketers in Britain.

On the night, guests will also try and break the Guinness World Record for The World's Longest Relay Cheers!

Blitz is supplying all the event technology including sound and lighting, G-LEC LED wall, and ViewLite modular set system complete with custom graphics panels.

Munir Samji, Chairman at Blitz, commented, "As one of the UK's leading Staging and AV Rental Companies, we feel that recognising and celebrating excellence in our industry is important and we are proud to be sponsoring the UK Events Awards. It looks set to be a great and fun-filled evening."

(Jim Evans)

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