South Africa - Robe moving lights - including Robin 600 LEDWashes and Robin 600E Beams - were the core fixtures of the Main Stage lighting design by Johan Ferreira for the 2011 Innibos Lowveld National Arts Festival, staged in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa.

The five-day event - among the country's largest arts festivals - attracted over 100,000 people, and kicked off in great style with a performance by South Africa's favourite rock band, the Parlotones and 2010 SA Idols winner, Elvis Blue. The main stage action also included daily live entertainment, culminating in a popular gospel final, followed by the main Saturday night closing concert, with a series of storming sets by Steve Hofmeyer, Kurt Darren, Dozi, Nianell and many more.

Pretoria based Ferreira and his company JSF Productions has been involved with lighting the Innibos Festival - which features over 14

Wolrd - DJ Sasha, has been road-testing Allen & Heath's new Xone:DB4 digital FX mixer on his busy global tour schedule, and since the beginning of the year it has been his mixer of choice.

"The Xone:DB4 has so many features and it's really compact and easy to transport around. My favourite thing is the fact that you have 4 digital channels, very nice effects and the beautiful A&H filters and EQ, all in one product. For me, the DB4 is a digital mixer with an A&H analogue heart - it's the best of both worlds," says Sasha.

"I use the DB4's big reverbs and delays - all the simple effects. They have a sound to them that isn't coloured like the effects you find built in to other mixers, which you can spot straight away. DB4's effects are very transparent, they sound like studio effects to me as they're so clean."

Sasha's set up is now based around the Xone:DB4,

UK - The latest TV advert for national clothing chain M&Co shows the fruits of Black Light's latest video project. The company designed and installed the lighting, staging and sound equipment for the fun and fashionable 35m catwalk show that is the focus of the ad.

"It was great to be involved in such a high-profile shoot," says Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "The main challenge we faced was time, as there was less than a fortnight to turn the project round from the initial client meeting to wrap, but our experienced team were more than up to the job. The finished result, with its atmospheric and dynamic lighting effects, proves that we are skilled at working as part of team and can deliver the highly professional results needed on a project of this profile."

Filmed at the Pyramid Business Centre, Bathgate, West Lothian, the Eff

UK - After seven gruelling stages in England, Scotland and Wales, September's 2011 Tour of Britain came to a high-speed conclusion in London in front of huge crowds. For the third year in a row, AP Security was entrusted with ensuring that the fans enjoyed the event and that the required road closures caused as little disruption as possible.

Starting in Whitehall, the cyclists rode up to Trafalgar Square, down Northumberland Avenue and then along the north bank of the Thames to the Tower of London, returning by the same route to pass beneath Hungerford Bridge, a quick dash past the Houses of Parliament and then back to the starting point via Parliament Street.

"As usual, several weeks before the event we liaised with Westminster Council, Transport For London and independent traffic consultants, planning the road closures and how to move staff to different areas as the eve

Spain - From the moment the Estrella Levante SOS 4.8 festival kicked off the start of the 2011 summer concert season, D.A.S. Audio and its Aero Series 2 loudspeaker systems were at the front of concert sound throughout Spain. Dates included the 16th Annual Viña Rock Festival of Native Art in Villarrobledo, Albacete and the Benicàssim International Festival (FIB.

Viña Rock 2011's artist roster included artists such as Rosendo, Raimundo Amador, Habeas Corpus and Los Delincuentes and uncooperative weather did not stop more than 30,000 music fans from attending the Festival's upbeat three days. D.A.S. Aero Series 2 line array systems provided the sound for two of these stages, the Metalika and the Babilonia, which stood up to the weather brilliantly.

May's SOS 4.8 festival saw some 80,000 music revellers taking in performances by artists like Suede, Patti Smith, Lori Meyers, Ve

Europe - dBTechnologies' latest and largest line array module, DVA T12 has been showcased simultaneously in Holland and Spain this month, at two local events organised to give current and prospective dBTechnologies customers unique chance to hear the new system in a stadium set up.

"What better way to find out about the T12 than to actually hear it in a live situation?" says Michael Herweg, MD of dBTechnologies German HQ, who was at the demonstration. "In my experience this is the only way to fully appreciate what the product has to offer."

Holland's Kerkrade football stadium was the backdrop for the Dutch event, where visitors were able to hear different configurations for a DVA system. Twenty-four T12 units were flown (12 per side) and after hearing these, tracks were played through the 36 T4 units (18 per side). Then the subwoofers were added to create a

UK - 5 Star Cases has delivered the latest purchase by lighting rental company Static Light of 75 new road trunks.

The cases were ordered in two different colour schemes and comprise 5 Star's Super Tour type road trunks, based on its popular Eurotrucker series.

Sixty of the cases were made in light grey with navy blue lids, and the remaining 15 in dark green with light grey lids. This helps to easily identify different contents and also the cases themselves.

Internally, the trunks are all lined with a generous layer of 12mm of polyethylene foam which gives excellent hard-wearing protection and aids a snug fit. 5 Star's in-house screen printing facility was utilised to display the Static Light logo prominently on the tops and sides of the cases.

Static Lighting, headquartered in Waltham Abbey, Essex, is a regular 5 Star client and specialises in supplying daylight lightsour

Strong Words - The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has urged Apple's iTunes to use its power to help new bands instead of "bleeding" artists like a "digital vampire". Townshend made the comments in BBC 6 Music's inaugural John Peel Lecture, named in honour of the legendary DJ. He also argued against unauthorised file-sharing, saying the internet was "destroying copyright as we know it". "The word 'sharing' surely means giving away something you have earned, or made, or paid for?" he said.

The talk, held as part of the Radio Festival, will become an annual event given by a different music figure every year. Held at The Lowry theatre in Salford, it is intended to be the music industry's equivalent of the annual MacTaggart Lecture, which is given by a leading media executive at the Edinburgh International Television Festival every

Australia - The award-winning Australian production of Love Never Dies has enjoyed six successful months at Melbourne's Regent Theatre, giving a welcome boost to the sequel of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. Thanks to their extensive experience in professional theatre, Melbourne's System Sound were asked to fulfil Mick Potter's sound design, using their new DiGiCo SD7T and SD8 consoles.

The SD7T and an EX-007 expander wing are at the Front of House position, while the SD8 is on monitors. Inputs and outputs come from five DiGiCo racks - backstage, three DiGi-Racks handle all radio mics, the orchestra and all system feeds respectively, while a MINI rack hosts additional orchestra inputs.

Most of the actors carry a redundant microphone pack as backup, the SD7T being configured so that it can easily switch over to the alternate mic in the event of any pro

UK - ETC's newest control desk, Gio, has had its first ever use on a show, with programmer Andi Davis using it on the UK tour of Dirty Dancing. The production opened in Bristol with an extensively revised lighting design by original LD Tim Mitchell.

The desk fills the mid-range position in the Eos family, between Eos and Ion. It offers the power of full Eos functionality, but in a smaller footprint.

"We'd already specified an Eos system for the show, so we jumped at the chance to use a Gio," says Davis. "We initially intended to use it just for pre-visualisation, but the opportunity to see how the all-new hardware performed in a real-world environment was too good to miss! We had an Eos on standby - but Gio's amazing speed and stability meant the Eos was soon back in its case, unused.

"Given the production's tight schedule and extensive rig, introd

USA - The winners of the LDI Awards were presented on Saturday, October 29 at the LDI Show in Florida.

The 2011 Wally Russell Lifetime Achievement Award went to Rusty Brutsché, PRG. The founder of Vari-Lite, Brutsché helped to usher in the modern era of this industry with the invention of the moving light, and many other pace-setting products.

In the booth categories Performance Truss Fabrications, was cited for best small booth, while Chauvet took the ward for best large booth, Clay Paky was cited for most creative use of light, and Christie Digital won the nod for best product presentation.

The award for best staging/rigging product went to Eco Live Systems' Rising Sun solar-energy charged modular battery road cases. In the special effects category, the award went to : Firelinx Aegis wireless pyro control system from Birket Engineering. In the relatively slim

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light helped mark the 25th anniversary of the hit musical The Phantom Of The Opera, supplying the lighting to a spectacular party held at London's Natural History Museum after the sell-out anniversary concerts at the nearby Royal Albert Hall.

The concerts - produced by Cameron Mackintosh and the show's composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber - were organised to celebrate the phenomenal quarter-decade success of the show. Phantom has played over 10,000 performances at its original London home, Her Majesty's Theatre, has played in 27 countries around the world, has been seen by more than 130 millionpeople, and has a total worldwide gross in excess of $5.6bn. The three concerts featured an all-star cast, and were sold out both at the Albert Hall and at the many cinemas worldwide where the event was also shown.

The post-show party was orga

USA - A new International Green Theatre Alliance (IGTA) has been launched at this year's LDI show in Orlando, Florida. The IGTA formalises the growing partnership between Julie's Bicycle (UK), which works on environmental sustainability across the creative industries in the UK, and the Broadway Green Alliance (USA), which works with the US theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally preferable practices.

The Alliance's first project is a new website www.igtalliance.com which will go live in December 2011 and provide an entry point for international practitioners seeking information and resources on environmentally sustainable best practice in the arts. The website will introduce the extensive sustainability programmes of alliance members and direct users to international resources and support networks.

Alliance members will be working together on a range of proj

USA - The 2011 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee was the Greenest one yet. Bandit Lites delivered very green systems for both the main and the second stage at this major event.

Production guru Hadden Hipsley of Lambda Productions once again called on Bandit Lites to serve as prime lighting contractor for the three-day arts and music festival. Bandit's Dizzy Gosnell worked with Hadden, Leslie Radigan, Joel Carmichael, Steve Drymalski, AC Entertainment, Superfly Productions and Coran Capshaws Red Light Management to provide the artists with their illumination needs at the award-winning event.

Artists at the 2011 Bonnaroo included Widespread Panic, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Arcade Fire, Buffalo Springfield, My Morning Jacket, Mumford and Sons, The Strokes, Primus, Robert Plant and The Band of Joy, The Black Keys, Galactic, Wiz Khalifa, The Decemberists, Grace Pot

Germany - when Pope Benedict XVI returned to his native Germany for a historic visit to the cradle of the Reformation, Meyer Sound systems provided audio reinforcement for two key events.

In Erfurt, the Pope celebrated an outdoor Mass for 30,000 from a temporary stage erected adjacent to the majestic cathedral in the city's central Domplatz. To blanket the expansive and oddly shaped open space with sound, Hamburg-based PRG Germany deployed 120 Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers. The front arrays and delay towers were configured from a combination of MILO, MICA, and M'elodie line array loudspeakers.

With a remote live feed from the cathedral organ as part of the programme, 10 M3D-Sub cardioid subwoofers were positioned to carry controlled low end into the crowd while limiting bleed onto the stage. UPA-2P, UPM-1P, UM-1P, and UPJunior VariO loudspeakers were deployed for front

Germany - AFMG (Ahnert Feistel Media Group) has made significant changes to distribution and support of its software products for audio measurement and room-acoustical simulation. The company will sell its software, including EASE, EASERA and SysTune, direct to customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India as of September.

"Many of these markets are growing rapidly in both size and technical sophistication," said AFMG's Stefan Feistel. "With direct distribution, we can offer end users better access to both software and technical support."

AFMG already distributes its other software products directly worldwide. These include: EASE Evac, the design programme for audio professionals planning mass notification and emergency systems; AFMG SoundFlow, which simulates absorption and transmission loss in multi-layered wall structures; AFMG Reflex, the scatt

UK - White Light is lending its support to Omnibus Clapham, a charity established with the aim of turning the former library of Clapham, south-west London, into an arts performance hub for the community.

With Clapham's existing library facilities due to relocate to a new building, part of a leisure and residential complex, in 2012, future plans for the traditional library building have been uncertain. Omnibus is a group of local people determined to see the building retained and transformed into a vibrant local arts centre.

To support their campaign, Omnibus is running a series of events in the library featuring famous local residents -so far, acclaimed actress Miriam Margolyes and author and broadcaster John O'Farrell.

To help transform the library into a makeshift performance space, Omnibus' George Owen turned to another local resident, lighting designer Rob Halliday, who

UK / USA - This year has been a memorable one for Irish indie band, The Script and their lighting designer, Jamie Thompson. Not only has he been touring a highly creative lighting set - scalable to arenas and stadiums - but has been rewarded for his efforts by receiving a coveted Knight of Illumination Award.

The lighting design, co-conceived with Bryan Leitch, was inspired by the rustic gold colour artwork of last year's Science & Faith album - and heavy usage of GLP's impression 90 and impression Zoom has helped him to recreate that feel - with more than 100 of the GLP impression wash lights used on the overhead trusses and under the floor grilles as uplighters.

Thompson has been working with the band for almost three years. "I was asked to cover a few shows and ended up getting on really well with the band. They have a lot of ballads and big tracks and they trus

UK - Formerly a popular Mitchells & Butlers pub, the landmark Abercorn Arms in Stanmore was recently purchased by Red Klove, and following a comprehensive, multi-million pound upgrade, has reopened as a bar/restaurant, offering superior cocktails, pan-Indian cuisine (with an African twist) and end-to-end screen entertainment in high-definition.

The new Abercorn opened its doors to reveal a spacious world of wooden floors, cream leather seats and magnolia and maroon walls. In addition to its comfortable lounge and circular bar, there is a 280-cover restaurant at the rear, a separate 120-seat banqueting area upstairs and two glass encased private VIP dining areas for 10. Wander into any of the nine zoned lounge and dining areas and you will be confronted with a superior audio and visual media experience that would do any home cinema proud - designed and installed by the Sound Divi

USA For the Elm Shakespeare Company's annual free summer Shakespeare production in New Haven, Connecticut's Edgerton Park, Robert Juliat followspots once again played a key role, this time for The Bard's Measure For Measure. Some 30,000 people attended performances through August and over the Labour Day weekend.

"It was be our fifth season using Robert Juliat spots," says Jamie Burnett, who serves as lighting designer, production manager, resident set designer and master electrician for the Company. "We used the Super Korrigan [1200-watt HMI] and Topaze [1200-watt MSD] fixtures for the play, and their light output is great."

Previously, Burnett tapped Robert Juliat followspots for The Three Musketeers where the fixtures were placed in towers in a downstage side light position. He says the production was "one of our most elaborate to date

Denmark - Signal Audio, a new distributor for Midas and Klark Teknik products in Denmark, has placed its first order for a large quantity of the new PRO2 and PRO2C live audio systems.

"The very competitive price of PRO2 and PRO2C has obviously created a lot of interest in itself, but the really interesting thing is that customers are now looking at Midas systems in a wider perspective," says Morten Uldbaek, sales manager, pro audio at Signal Audio. "Instead of merely focusing on a console with a snake and a stage box, there are now many networking opportunities, such as the ability to move show files between the different consoles and audio distribution in general."

The first two confirmed Danish clients for the new PRO2/PRO2Cs were Copenhagen rental company Prime, which placed its PRO2C order seconds after seeing a product demonstration at PLASA, and Sound

UK - This year's Reproduced Sound Conference is scheduled for 16-18 November, with the 27th consecutive event returning to Brighton's Thistle Hotel.

RS brings together some of the world's friendliest, most knowledgeable sound specialists, and this year's thought-provoking theme is Sound systems: engineering or art?

Organised by the Institute of Acoustics and supported by ISCE, AES, ABTT, APRS, the conference addresses the design of sound equipment/systems, defining and solving technical problems, plus the very process of design itself - covering: sound for sport; innovation in loudspeaker and amplifier design; applications of network/streamed audio; room design and venue acoustics; quality and intelligibility.

Booking details are available at www.reproducedsound.co.uk

(Jim Evans)

UK - PA/VA specialist Ateis has played a small but significant role in the recent redevelopment of Silverstone motor racing circuit, which has put the UK track back up with the top Formula 1 venues in the world.

The newly opened pits and paddock complex at Silverstone cost £27 million and was built after the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), which owns the venue in Northamptonshire, signed a 17-year contract to host the British Grand Prix. Upgrading the pits was part of the deal and the building was opened during May, in good time for the centerpiece race on 10th July.

Ateis UK supplied the new IDA8 networked public address-voice alarm system, which was specified for Silverstone's new wing by building services contractor NG Bailey and installed by fire and security specialist ADT. Representing its first landmark deployment, the IDA8 is being used for general day-to-to

UK - To the delight of the 800 strong contingent of delegates and guests, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II opened the annual Round Square Conference hosted by Wellington College at the end of September, and UK production company Subfrantic was asked to provide a professional sound reinforcement in the shape of a Turbosound Flex Array system.

Round Square is a world-wide association, founded by educational philosopher Kurt Hahn, consisting of more than 80 schools on five continents sharing ambitious goals from academic excellence to personal development, encouraging participation in community service, work projects, exchange programmes and adventuring.

The annual conference is a week-long affair packed every day with events, workshops, presentations and meetings, and was opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of York, and the King of Greece. Daytime high

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