USA - The new MAC Quantum Wash by Martin Professional, which launched at LDI 2013, Las Vegas, features "tight beams, beautiful wash fields, a market-leading colour palette and uniform mixing that combines to accommodate the most demanding applications, offering brightness and perfection". Combining an impressive 750-watt of RGBW LED power with Martin's optical system ensures that the 1:6 zoom on the MAC Quantum Wash operates with maximum output and superior performance.

"By combining the lens shift possibilities first seen in the MAC Viper Quadray with the MAC Aura's ground-breaking optical system, MAC Quantum Wash sets new standards for light and colour morphing effects from a wash light," says Peter Skytte, product manager, Martin Professional. "Putting

Canada - CAST Software has announced the release of Vivien 2014 with new graphics, some serious new and improved features, myriad performance enhancements, and some Library additions.

The new Import Wizard imports JPEG or PDF format floor plans directly into Vivien and includes onscreen features, such as rotation, selecting insertion points, and it will even properly scale the floor plan so you can start planning the space right away, making it easier and faster to work in Vivien. New features for file importing facilitate management of layers to ease management of AutoCAD2013, and still speedily handle Google SketchUp, PDFs, and JPEGs.

Regardless how a floor plan gets into Vivien, the new Room Builder Wizard transforms a 2D floorplan into a 3D venue. Import a JPEG of the venue, trace the outline and Vivien delivers walls, floors and ceilings. At this point, the User can work

USA - Clay Paky's A.leda B-EYE LED moving head continued its highly successful launch at LDI, following its initial debut at PLASA London 2013 where it picked up a PLASA Award for Innovation. At LDI, which took place recently in Las Vegas, the A.leda B-EYE K20 was given the coveted title of 'Best Debuting Lighting Product'. In recent years this award has been assigned to products destined for sure future success, including the Clay Paky Sharpy in 2010 (honourable mention) and the Sharpy Wash in 2012.

Marian Sandberg, Content Director of Live Design, explained the reasons for the award: "The B-Eye is an innovative LED fixture that works as a wash, beam and effect light. It can switch from a diffuse wash to parallel beams, and features individual LED control enabling controllable microbeams. Adding colors and moving patterns, it generates countless kaleidoscopic projections.&

UK - Sky Broadcasting recently turned to entertainment lighting specialist White Light for equipment and advice for the new production setup in their sports programming studio space. The project - revamping Sky studios 4 and 5 for the new football season - involved combining the two spaces with a new layout and design concept. For the project White Light supplied CORE Lighting Colour Point uplighters, Pulsar Chromascape AR111 fixtures, Robe 300LED washes and ETC Source4 Mini profiles.

"The idea was to bring Sky's entire Saturday football programming under one roof - literally," said Iain Davidson, lighting director at Sky, who oversaw the lighting installation on the project. "Sky Sports always like to push the boundaries and give you a challenge."

Based on the idea of combining the spaces, designer Toby Kalitowski created a large organic roof piece for the

UK - Black Light has been busy championing ETC's Source Four LED CYC units. Not only is it the first company in the UK to have the fixtures in its hire stock, it has also recently run a demo day to highlight the CYC's strengths and has hired out a number of the units for their first ever use in a live event in Scotland.

"We love breaking new ground," says Black Light's head of marketing, Barclay Dakers. "It was fantastic to see these unique units in action and to give our friends in the industry the chance to get their hands on them and see just how well they work in a full-sized theatre environment."

The Black Light CYC demo day was held in conjunction with ETC at Edinburgh's King's Theatre on 14 November. Key lighting designers and theatre technicians from across Scotland came to see 18 of the CYC units in a full theatre set-up. They also enjoyed a 'shoot

Israel - When the managers for the news studio at TV station Channel 10 in Jerusalem were looking for new lighting, they knew they would need something small but high powered for their relatively compact studio. They invited ETC's Israel based dealer Danor Theatre and Studio Systems to visit and discuss a range of different products. As marketing manager Erez Hadar explains, "We talked about the pros and cons of fixtures from several different manufacturers, before it was agreed that the ETC Source Four LED would be the best tool for the job."

The managers were impressed by the white-balancing features on the Source Four LED Studio HD model, which makes it easier to balance the lighting against high-definition studio cameras. Even with the two presenters sitting next to one another, the colour temperature of the Source Four LEDs can be adjusted from 2700K to 6500K to c

Columbia - Sound company C. Vilar was recently tapped to provide sound reinforcement for the Justin Bieber concert held at Estadio Menesio Camacho El Campin in Bogota, Colombia.

One of many dates on Bieber's Believe Tour, the artist performed for a crowd of 40,000 in the outdoor venue.

"Gordon Mack, the FOH engineer on the tour was given the choice between a d&b audiotechnik, Meyer or Adamson E15 system for the concert and he chose the E15," explains Mauricio Vilar, owner of C. Vilar. "He has traveled all over the world on this tour, using a variety of systems but when given a choice he chose Adamson - I think that speaks volumes for the Energia system."

C. Vilar provided left-right line arrays for the house PA, each consisting of 15 E15s and four Spektrix. Out-fill hangs of 24 Y18s covered seating on each side of the stage. Front-fill was handled

UK - Moving light specialists, Richard Martin Lighting (RML), have made a major investment in SGM's new-generation LED portfolio, with the purchase of a large quantity of new P-5 RGBW wash lights. These were pressed straight into service on the BBC's Children In Need fundraiser, where they became a focal point in the children's programme Blue Peter, for which Lee Allen was the LD.

After having these low profile, high efficiency fixtures on his radar for some time RML operations manager, Steve Wells, decided the time was right to act and placed the order - which included 43° and 21° interchangeable lens - with SGM UK.

Speaking of the acquisition, he said, "As a moving light specialist we pride ourselves at remaining at the forefront of technology and this unit reflects the advances in LED technology. It is a small, compact powerful LED wash light which is li

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USA - Robe Lighting enjoyed one of its "busiest and best" LDI exhibitions to date at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, which saw their stylish, eye-catching all white booth - complete with spectacular lightshow designed by Nathan Wan - win 'Best Big Booth Design' category of the 2013 LDI Awards.

LDI 2013 was the first big US exhibition to showcase the Pointe - Robe's award winning small, super-bright, multi-purpose moving light ... and fastest ever selling product - and this fixture was the centrepiece of Nathan's lightshow, together with other new innovations like Robe's ROBIN MiniMe, CycFX 8, Cyclone, MMX Blade and ParFect 100.

In addition to the products, the other attraction on the stand was newly appointed CEO of Robe Lighting Inc., Bob Schacherl, whose vast contact base and popularity also pulled a significant number of people onto the stand to congratulate him

Ukraine - PR Lighting's new generation LED architectural fixtures have been specified to provide a colour-changing wash of the new PortCity Shopping Mall façade in the city of Mariupol.

CORTMI, the PR Lighting Ukrainian distributor, was able to meet the client's lighting requirements. Explained CORTMI marketing manager, Stanislav Serbin, "The initial task was to offer an energy saving architectural lighting system for a certain part of the façade that would provide minimal luminosity of 200 lux. LED-based fixtures were requested from the very beginning to minimize running costs.

"The choice of the models and optical groups was predetermined by the possible points of installation on the general purpose lighting poles - and in terms of price and features the choice was an obvious one."

The company therefore specified 12 x PR-8802 and seven PR-8800 for the outd

UK - During October, MLA Mini stepped out onto the world stage in its first commercial outing, and took on one of the most challenging venues around. The event was the annual conference of the retail giant, SPAR, and the venue was Westpoint, otherwise known to those in the sound community as a 'soulless shed', just off the M5 in Exeter.

Whilst Westpoint offers acres of space for trucks, and therefore easy load in, the venue itself, originally designed for the trading of Devon's finest livestock, is known for having a reverberation time of at least seven seconds. With MLA and MLA Compact having taken on and tamed some of the most challenging spaces in the globe, MLA Mini had an enviable reputation to uphold.

The pressure was further compounded because this event is a major cornerstone in the calendar of Plymouth based Pyramid AV, under the directorship of Nic Black. The product

USA - Fonogenic Studios, a renowned recording studio and live music venue located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, recently upgraded its sound system with Cerwin-Vega!'s new P-Series Professional PA system and classic CVA Active Series Speakers. With constant compliments from both A-list musicians and audiences about the superior sound quality of the live venue, the studio's owners and engineers are thrilled with the audio and the reactions.

Rami Jaffee, who is a founding member of the Grammy-winning rock band The Wallflowers and now keyboardist for the Foo Fighters, owns the studio with music producer Ran Pink, who has produced for PiNk & NoSeWoRthY and has composed for TV shows such as Happily Divorced and The Fran Drescher Tawk Show. Together, they operate half of the building as a recording studio and the other half, which features a big sound stage, as

Germany - With effect from 23 November, Martin Audio products will fall under a new distribution umbrella in Germany.

Wolfgang Garçon, former managing director of Atlantic Audio, with whom the British loudspeaker manufacturer has been associated for a number of years, has left to set up new distribution company, UnitedB in Düsseldorf. The headquarters will be based in Segro-Rhein-Park, an industrial estate in the southern part of the city.

UnitedB - which stands for United Brands for Event Technology - has already started to put together a portfolio of leading brands. On landing Martin Audio, Garçon stated, "We are delighted that Martin Audio has become part of the new UnitedB family. We have a long relationship with the company and look forward to achieving further success in all their key installation, event and touring sectors."

"Martin Audio has just ad

UK - An Audient ASP8024 with Dual Layer Control (DLC) and patchbay was the final choice for Northampton University, which Popular Music course leader Dr Gordon Okafor-Ross describes as "very progressive and forward facing". Nine months of meticulous research by Okafor-Ross led to its installation ready for autumn term, where the desk further augments an already well-equipped recording studio.

Boasting ProTools 11, Logic Pro X, Ableton Suite 9, the collection of mics from Neumann U87 to Shure SM57 and everything in between, as well as the recent arrival of their brand new Eve Audio SC407 monitors (pictured), Okafor-Ross praises the Audient desk as a teaching tool. "I liked the combination of great sounding pre-amps, a clear and easy to explain routing system that retains the ability to become as complex as we want, and a console that screams professional and contem

UK - Front of House engineer Jon Lemon's initial association with The Smashing Pumpkins stretches back almost 20 years to 1995, when the US alternative rock band first really made its mark. His use of DiGiCo consoles with them starts just over a decade later, when he took a D5 Live - a desk he had been using since DiGiCo first launched it in 2002 - on their 2006/07 world tour. For their current tour, which started in April and runs until mid August, Jon has opted for the UK console manufacturer's current flagship model, the SD7, supplied, along with the rest of the PA system, by audio rental company Eighth Day Sound.

"The D5 Live came out in 2002 - I had one of the prototypes," says Jon. "I've always used DiGiCo consoles. For me, they are the best sounding of the digital desks and the SD range is very reliable."

Promoting their new album, Oceania, th

Eurovision Latest - Serbia has pulled out of next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen, citing financial difficulties. The country's broadcaster said the "high costs necessary to participate" had led to the decision. Serbia won Eurovision in 2007 with the song Molitva by Marija Serifovic, but failed to qualify for the grand final in Malmo, Sweden this year. Other countries have also said they will sit out next year's competition, including Serbia's neighbour Croatia. Bulgaria and Cyprus will not be taking part either, with all four nations' broadcasters saying it is too expensive.

Former participants including Slovakia, Czech Republic and Andorra will remain on the sidelines, while Turkey are shunning the competition for a second year in a row, saying they are unhappy with the rules. They have created an alternative contest called Turkvision, whic

USA - Networked media systems specialist Biamp Systems reports the installation of an Audia/Nexia audio solution combination in the newly built Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado.

As the US Department of Energy's (DOE) primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development, ESIF houses 200 researchers and staff in eight diverse work spaces. Each of the spaces was uniquely designed to fit the research and testing needs of the different work groups and include A 3D collaboration lab, a control room that monitors and controls the facility processes, visualisation labs where experiments being performed in the electricity, thermal, and fuel labs can be visualised on a large, high-definition screen, and conference rooms of various sizes throughout the facility.

Architectur

Australia - PR Lighting has announced that, with effect from 1 November, Jands will be distributing its product portfolio in Australia.

"We are very excited to have PR Lighting on board as part of the Jands professional lighting range," said Tim Kennard, lighting sales manager of Jands. "PR has been around for over 29 years as a manufacturer of professional lighting products and I think it's fair to say that so far they have exceeded our expectations in every area.

"Prior to signing on with PR we visited their factory in Guangzhou and the facilities are world class with a large, dedicated R&D division as well as first rate Quality Control processes in place at every level. With a great stable of products backed by a strong support team both at the factory and here at Jands we are looking forward to introducing new customers to the PR brand throughout Austra

Australia - Solid State Logic has announced that its long-standing partner Amber Technology has been appointed as its Live console distributor in Australia and New Zealand. Amber is the latest company to join SSL's growing commercial distribution network for the live sector.

"We have been waiting for the SSL Live with great anticipation," says Leon Hart, business unit manager at Amber Technology. "Here at Amber, we have been carefully adding to our live production equipment portfolio to increase our presence in this market. The SSL Live is a technology platform with a fresh approach to how a live console should sound and operate giving engineers a control surface that helps them deliver exceptional performances. It is exciting for us to be able to build on our successes with SSL consoles in the music and broadcast industries through Live. The Live console has been

USA - Biamp Systems, a leading provider of innovative, networked media systems, has announced the installation of an Audia/Nexia audio solution combination in the newly built Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado.

As the US Department of Energy's (DOE) primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development, the ESIF houses 200 researchers and staff in eight diverse work spaces. Each of the spaces was uniquely designed to fit the research and testing needs of the different work groups and include: A 3D collaboration lab; Control room that monitors and controls the facility processes; Visualization labs where experiments being performed in the electricity, thermal, and fuel labs can be visualized on a large, high-definition screen; Conference rooms of various sizes througho

USA - In one of the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) most anticipated days ever, social media giant Twitter rang the opening bell on Wall Street to market its initial public offering on 6 November. A lighting display featuring Martin Professional lighting fixtures, provided by See Factor, brightened the façade of the NYSE with Twitter's globally recognized logo the entire day.

Rental company See Factor designed the system for the NYSE façade with Martin's MAC 2000 wash lights - the standard See Factor uses for events at the NYSE. For most NYSE events, a full crew installs the system with additional generators during the prior evening. However, for the Twitter event, Michal Ahern of Michal Ahern Production Services requested See Factor use three 20-amp outlets in the NYSE lobby, rather than bringing in additional generators, and setting up and breaking down the day of the event

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