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14 March 2016

The Chroma-Q Color Block DB4 provided show lighting designer Richard Larkum's first venture into LEDs for the debut Kaiser Chiefs tour in 2005, and he's been using them ever since on his rig for the band, with the number growing on each successive tour as the budget and venues have got bigger.

The Color Block has also been a main workhorse fixture in the rental stock inventory of Prism Lighting, who introduced Larkum to the DB4 for the band's debut tour and have been supplying the lighting ever since.

For the last Kaiser Chiefs tour, Larkum came up with the idea of custom lighting 'pods' consisting of square frames holding either strobes or Molephay strips. T

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14 March 2016

As the demand for screens for use in public arenas was so high, Supervision ordered two digiLED d11N screens to add to its LED tour inventory.

The two giant 49.52sq.m digiLED d11N screens were installed in the Fan Zones at Basel's Kasernenplatz and Münsterplatz. The Kasernenplatz screen was built into a structure positioned at the side of a stage, whilst the one in Münsterplatz was centre hung above the stage.

Each day's programme started at 1.30pm, with live entertainment, bands and promotional sponsor videos being shown on the screens. DJs revved up the crowds before the football started and then kept the fans entertained during and after the matches. The Supervision

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14 March 2016

Dave Jones comments: "The Circus and Cabaret fields at Glastonbury are now part of our heritage as we have supplied sound systems since 1994. This year was especially poignant to us as a mark of respect in memory of Bella Churchill, a significant and very sad loss to the festival. We will always look forward to being associated with the Glastonbury Festival Circus and Cabaret fields. To us these stages epitomise what this festival is all about."

In the Cabaret Tent, Adlib set up a Nexo Alpha system, tech'd by Nick Bellis, Steve Pattison, George Puttock and Kenny Kristiansen, complete with a Soundcraft Series 4 at FOH and a Soundcraft MH3 console for monitors. Onstage they also supplie

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14 March 2016

More than 90% of respondents to the survey found their roadshow visit useful and would attend such an event again. And 20% of survey respondents were currently not Audio-Technica dealers or re-sellers.

Audio-Technica senior UK marketing manager Harvey Roberts commented: "The response to the roadshow has been excellent. The survey results show that customers were very receptive to Audio-Technica going out to see them, rather than having to travel to us in the usual trade show environment."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Built on the site of a former cinema, the aim of the Pala Riccione (or the Palazzo dei Congressi di Riccione to give it its full name) is to become one of the major conference venues in Italy and Europe - thanks to a progressive audio visual infrastructure, masterminded by Rimini-based installation company Alter Echo, which chose a BSS Audio Soundweb London solution.

The Pala Riccione extends over a number of floors and includes six digital cinemas (on Level 2), and a number of reconfigurable con

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14 March 2016

"We want to take advantage of the opportunity presented by our manufacturing process to reduce waste," said Rodger von Kries, vice president of Technomad. "This also benefits our customers by allowing us to minimize our manufacturing costs compared to using new plastic, a petroleum product that is subject to cost increases along with rising oil prices."

The switch to recycled plastic reduces waste without altering the manufacturing process or lessening the durability that is a hallmark of Technomad loudspeakers, says the company. The rec

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14 March 2016

Installation Company Sysco specified the D.A.S. line arrays and speakers after consultant Roland Hemming recommended that the hire company rented the Aero and use it as the sole PA system for Royal Ascot. After experiencing D.A.S. installations first hand, Sysco director Hugo Roche and associate director Glyn Hughes were impressed and had little hesitation in acting on Hemming's recommendation, finally settling on the Aero 38A powered line array systems.

14 powered D.A.S. Aero 38A modules were flown at Royal Ascot's Silver Ring public enclosure and provided sound to the entire area. The line array modules were accompanied by D.A.S. DSP-26 digital signal processors that provided crossover, equaliser, limiter and delay unit functions, enabling Sysco's engineers to make

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14 March 2016

Nick Warren has been front of house engineer for Ward since the singer won Britain's highest profile talent show two and a half years ago. "I've used the SKM 935 since it came out," he explained. "Sennheiser have always given me things to try out, and the 935 is a great sounding mic with good feedback rejection. I use them all the time. I always give them to people who've never tried them before and I haven't had a disappointed person yet. They're great mics."

Ward also became a fan of his new ew 300 IEM G2 in ear s

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14 March 2016

Danish rental company Jespers Rejsebiograf and the Herlev-based cinema sound specialist Kinovox. Ib Sigismund, a product specialist with Kinovox, reports: "We were not dealing with a normal cinema auditorium here but with a tent, and yet we needed total coverage and optimal intelligibility. Clearly the equipment used had a crucial role to play."

After careful analysis, the team came down in favour of Electro-Voice systems, specifically 15 Electro-Voice XLE line-array tops (five each left, centre and right),

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14 March 2016

According to Complete Audio Berlin's general manager, André Rauhut, while the Spandau Citadel is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful outdoor locations in Berlin, it is also one of the most technically and logistically challenging. "The first issue was getting all of our gear onto the site -

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14 March 2016

For the first time in six years of HSL supplying the event, the moving light elements of the rig have been expanded substantially, including the ColorWash 750 AT Tungstens together with eight Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs rigged on the box truss and two ColorSpot 1200E ATs rigged on the first advanced bar in the auditorium.

London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea's operations manager Michael Harth says: "HSL always offer us a very competitive and comprehensive package covering all technical aspects of the pr

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14 March 2016

This year Stage Electrics will have a 24-hour helpline available which gives anyone the ability to reach one of its technicians anytime day or night on 0131 522 2251. The team will be permanently stationed in Edinburgh for the duration of the festival, alongside a dedicated support vehicle available to ensure any spare equipment needed reaches the client immediately. All equipment will be ready for immediate dispatch, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

B-52's sound system manages two floors, comprising 230sq.m of space on each floor. The ground floor houses a restaurant with an area for live performances, while the first floor contains a dance floor and chill-out area.

A 24-channel Allen & Heath GL2800 multi-purpose mixing console is the core element of the sound system on the ground floor, with a PA12 compact live stereo mixer coupled with a Xone:92 DJ mixer installed on the first floor. The mixers were complemented with amplification and digital control from K.M.E.

"B-52 has a Russian owner, that's why a Russian installation company was selected to perform the installation," explains Dmitry Modin, general director of MixArt Dis

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14 March 2016

Stefani comments: "I was at the ETC stand looking at Source Fours, which I'm an aficionado of and was given a demonstration on the SmartFade ML as I had never used one before. I was familiar with the bigger ETC consoles, but found the SmartFade ML to be very intuitive for such a small desk. I was really surprised to have won it and it will be a great addition to our stock."

The desk was presented to Stefani by Fabio Anse

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14 March 2016

This year's Expo theme is Water and Sustainable Development and Zaragoza has made enormous efforts to construct the exposition site completely in line with its environmental theme.

Expo Zaragoza 2008, labeled the biggest water festival on earth, features 140 pavilions and presents 5,000 shows in 13 different venues including a daily parade by Cirque du Soleil called The Awakening of the Serpent. Its most emblematic buildings are the Water Tower, an 80m high transparent building designed by Enrique de Teresa to

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14 March 2016

"John is very involved in the way the band sounds to the audience," remarks the tour's front-of-house main-man Felix Brenner. "He'll actually walk around the arena during sound check and make sure it's just how he wants it."

The centerpiece of the FOH mixing set up is a Digidesign Venue console, clocked by an Apogee Big Ben. "When the tour began we were not using the Apogee [Big Ben] clock and the board sounded pretty good on its own," says Brenner. "Then I heard that Big Ben was making a huge difference when used to clock the Venue. So we decided to try it out.

"The Big Ben arrived at

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14 March 2016

Orri Petursson of Speirs and Major Associates says: "The media screen is 40m long x 3m high and is made up of 9,500 RGB LED nodes spanning the entire length of an atrium. The obvious way to deliver and manage the content for this LED installation was to use a media server, however, due t

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14 March 2016

After meeting the specification for a major upgrade in 2007, Orbital recently provided theatre manager Mark Diamond with new E8 and E12 enclosures for portable use.

The events team already operates a portable d&b Q7 rig, provided by Orbital Sales, powered by d&b D6 dual-channel amplifier - which serves their needs where high gain before feedback is required.

For the permanent sound installation, overseen by IVC, Orbital Sales met the specification for a flown, décor-matched stereo system, based around two tops and three subs per side, designed by d&b audiotechnik's John Taylor. This combination of Q1 speakers (with rotatable waveguide) is augmented with Q-SUBS.

The theatre also has a

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14 March 2016

As in previous years, Berlin events service provider TSE AG was charged with the production, the centrepiece of its sound reinforcement design being an XLD system from Electro-Voice. Project manager Adrian Carlin comments: "The XLD has a number of very clear advantages over other line array systems. It is compact, it weighs very little, and it combines excellent intelligibility - which was particularly important he

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14 March 2016

In the intervening years throughout the months of June and July, the forest tour has attracted an array of top class acts to a variety of locations, giving audiences the opportunity to enjoy both the music and the environment in which it is performed. The atmosphere is invariably as relaxed and friendly as one could wish to experience and, with crowd management company AP Security on hand, it is sure to remain that way.

"AP has been working on a number of the Forestry Commission's sites for the last five years," says AP's national sales manager, John Phillips. "Our initial contract was for Westonbirt, The National Arboretum in the Cotswo

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14 March 2016

Despite having worked with DiGiCo consoles for several years in his capacity as system tech with the Foo Fighters, this is the first time that Judas Priest's front of house engineer (and production manager) Martin Walker has taken a DiGiCo board out on tour himself.

"With Judas Priest I've always felt that an analogue console is best," he says. "I've tried digital consoles with them before, but somehow they just weren't 'right' for the band. However the difficulty in finding my favoured analogue console prompted me to give the D5 a try this time out."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

For the Slam Stage, Adlib crew chief Hassane Essiahi and his team worked closely with sound engineer Dave Pringle to ensure that all the bands and DJs had the requisite levels of energy and volume to make it rock.

They chose to use a JBL VerTec system, all ground-stacked, with the main stage stacks containing six VT4889 elements a side, augmented with two 4889s per side at the edges of the stage, plus AA FD2 in-fills along the stage lip. For subs, there were eight VT 4880As per side. The four delays comprised three Nexo Alpha S2 subs, three B1 bass and six M3 tops per stack.

The FOH console was a Soundcraft Series 5. The system was controlled via Dolby Lake processors. Compression included dbx 160As and Avalon 737s, the l

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14 March 2016

HSBC decided to transform London's Wimbledon tube station into a fully interactive mini tennis court for the duration of the tournament. Enlisting the expertise of Red Door Events, the station's outdoor concourse was immersed in tennis fever.

The area was creatively tennis themed with false grass and adorned with a range of tennis accessories to welcome both local and international visitors. The centre of the station's entrance featured an HSBC backdrop, which incorporated a 55" Aquivo and a Nintendo Wii which were both built into the set, on which commuters were encouraged to challenge each others tennis skills.

Insight AV sourced and specified the outdo

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14 March 2016

It turned out not to be little green men from Mars, but an ambitious collaboration by New York artist Peter Coffin with London-based Cinimod Studios, and their design director Dominic Harris. Harris, who has worked with Pharos Architectural Controls on other projects, approached the control manufacturer for the Untitled (UFO) project, knowing that the Pharos LPC X could handle the requirements both in terms of the channel count and in realising the design brief for the playback of effects, but also - because the unit is entirely solid state - it would cope with all the vibration and movement being suspended from a helicopter travelling on sweeping and er