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14 March 2016

For the opening night at Cardiff, the company deployed 146 staff to cover the artist's security needs, while a team of 182 was deployed at the New Wembley Stadium.

"Our experience of venues of this size meant that Showsec fulfilled all the criteria required by the Madonna production team," says Mark Logan, Showsec's operations director. "We have extensive understanding of the level of planning and commitment required for tours of this size. Madonna is the biggest grossing artist on tour this year and we were delighted to be chosen as security partner for the UK dates."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

This year's Miss Italia finals took place at the Palazzetto dello Sport in Salso Maggiore Terme, PR, Italy and were broadcast live on RAI 1 in a show directed by Maurizio Pagnussat.

The lighting rig was hung on a comprehensive network of trusses that were installed to cover the large stage and audience areas of the venue, with some fixtures on the floor.

Central to the set was a large sweeping staircase which, when lit, produced an appropriate depth of field for the cameras. In front of thi

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14 March 2016

Despite one of the best records in NCAA football, until recently the team's stadium was lacking when it came to good sound. A small, underpowered portable PA system left most of the fans scratching their heads over the announcements from the press box, and music had all the power and punch of a transistor radio.

This year, Newington, Connecticut-based CMI Sound Systems installed a pair of Community R2 full-range three-way loudspeakers mounted on top of the stadium's scoreboard.

"The R2 was a very practical solution, first and foremost," says CMI's John Pizzoferrato. "It's one of the only systems that are powerful enough to cover t

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14 March 2016

The circus, performing in Calthorpe Park, Edgbaston, fell foul of the Licensing Act 2003. The act forbids the playing of live music without a licence. Circus owner Martin Burton said that applying for a licence was time-consuming and expensive and called for circuses to be exempt from the legislation. He said: "I'm a big fan of silent comedy, but this is nonsense."

Old Rocker News (1) - Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has scotched rumours that he is to tour with the band, describing speculation as "frustrating and ridiculous". Last week, The Sun newspaper reported th

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14 March 2016

Central to the installed technology is a 16-channel TiMax audio delay matrix, which controls every channel of the main Room One sound system, including the subwoofers and the Bodysonic vibrating floor. Matter's sound and lighting design consultant, Dave Parry, says: "Before we even knew how the final system would work together, TiMax was always going to be integrated into it whatever we did."

Matter is designed around the Kandinsky principle: vibration, lighting and music all coming together as a whole to provoke a trance-like state. Parry explains: "The whole lot - lighting, video and sound - moves as an integrated whole so as a very basic example, say the club is lit blue, I can ta

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14 March 2016

Barco SLM R12+ projectors were used to command and control the entire launch programme at both the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre and Beijing Aerospace Control Centre. The monitoring continued through the duration of the spacewalk and concluded with its culmination, when the astronauts' re-entry module landed in central Inner Mongolia.

More than just delivering an advanced technology product in support of the event, Barco also provided on-site technical standby around the clock via a specially assigned technical team.

"There's no understating the i

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14 March 2016

Against the backdrop of the impressive facade of the Casa Poporului (Parliament Palace), one of the world's largest buildings, the city's insignia hovered in the air in the form of full-colour laser projections on a large WaterScreen. Space-spanning laser beams, beam fans, and light tunnels criss-crossed the area. Massive fireballs and 40m high fountains lit the night sky, in tune with the music.

This was the tenth time that tarm Showlaser had staged a multimedia spectacle in the Rumanian capital city and the team tarm will be back in Bucharest in late October for another project.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

To ensure every one of the 1,202 seats in Glyndebourne's auditorium is covered by the Sennheiser system, six strategically placed SZI 1015 radiators transmit the audio signal to four RI 150 LL induction loops and 10 HDI 302 headsets. The signal is generated from a Sennheiser SI 1015 modulator rack unit, while the induction loops and headsets are powered by an L 151-10 charger. In addition, an SI 30 test system is available to demonstrate the simplicity of the system to users before they take headsets and induction loops for the performance.

Audio technician Simon Yapp has worked at Glyndebourne for eight years and is one half of the opera house's full time AV department. "The new system c

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14 March 2016

To provide optimum sound reinforcement for the airport's large but oddly-shaped outdoor viewing area with its sound-reflecting glass and Plexiglas facades, the Olching-based acoustics experts opted for an Electro-Voice solution, the centrepiece of which was made up of an XLD line array driven by Electro-Voice TG7 and TG5 power amplifiers with IRIS-Net software.

Markus Thomae, managing director of Magic Medientechnik, reports: "We had very little room to put the PA. Fortunately the EV XLD is ultra-compact, so we soon had the situation under control."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Technical staff will be on hand to offer guidance on the integration within projects and discuss our acoustic design services for large-scale projects.

The confirmed dates are: 14 October - Dublin's Green Isle Conference & Leisure Hotel; 15 October - Belfast's Radisson SAS Hotel; 17 October - Glasgow's Dakota Eurocentral Hotel; 21 October - Manchester's Bredbury Hall Hotel; 22 October - Cheltenham Racecourse Conference Centre, Bristol; 23 October - Sound Technology head office, Letchworth Garden City. Events start at 11am and conclude at 3:30pm.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Ian Bond reports: "The XL8/DN9696 package was ideal for three good reasons: the tour used house/hired-in systems, the band required a lot of detailed monitor mixes, and the shows were being recorded. Since I handled all three as the sole engineer on the tour, I needed the best-sounding, most versatile system available for mixing and recording.

"Though the XL8 is a formidable piece of technology with immense capabilities," he adds, "For this particular tour, I put the XL8's digital flexibility to task, running it for FOH, monitors, and recording. It only took about an hour to set it up in rehe

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14 March 2016

"We brought in Juliat's Super Korrigans plus followspots from another manufacturer for a shootout on our main stage," says lighting designer Joe Basinger. "One of my goals was to get better colour temperature and gain than other followspots we have used. Our distances are half-way between long throw and really long throw, so we needed a happy medium. With Robert Juliat's Super Korrigan, gain and colour temperature are far superior to the other followspots we've seen."

Basinger deploys the lights, purchased through PRG Dallas, for any new production rotated into the theatr

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14 March 2016

The Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Nanjing Agricultural University are two of the region's major seats of learning. Phoenix Audio has supplied a wide range of TCS and TXD series loudspeakers in three locations for installation by Ao-bang Audio And Lighting Engineering.

In the theatre of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Ao-bang installed a system comprising TXD-081 and TXD-151 full range cabinets, TXD-218 subs and TXD-12M wedge monitors.

Meanwhile at Nanjing Agricultural University, the company installed six TXD-151 in the Academic Hall and, in the university's Multi-function Hall, a range of TXD and TCS Compact loudspeakers, with control by Turbosound LMS-D24 processors.

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14 March 2016

Mark Laughton of Viridian Power, the site power and lighting contractor for the event, worked on the project with Ian Gordon of Christie Lites Vancouver. Their aim was to have the ability to control the entire site so that when performers such as Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails and Tom Petty were playing, the ambient level across the sight could be reduced. Also, because of the size of the site, the ability to remotely increase or decrease light levels in zones for security or other purposes was an advantage if achievable.

Jason McKinnon from Electric Aura Lighting Design was consulted to see if W-DMX from Wireless Solution might be able to achieve this goal. The site was ext

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14 March 2016

The system was initially demonstrated by LMC Audio, who subsequently made the sale. LMC's Steve King commented: "The KV2 Audio brand is a genuinely exciting one and our belief in the product range is validated by every demonstration and sale. Many respected sound hire companies like Capital are blown over by the sheer value, power and quality of the products."

The EX system, comprised of two EX10 two-way, full range active cabinets, two EX12s incorporating the revolutionary 3-inch NVPD large format compression driver, and two double 12" EX2.2 active subwoofers, fulfils a diverse requirement from

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14 March 2016

Working specifically for the event hire sector, the board of the new association will provide help and support for event hire companies across the UK and Ireland.

Graham Arundell, managing director of HAE and board member of EHA, said, "The new association has been created to better support those companies in the event hire market. Although we offer a range of benefits as part of HAE's membership, we decided that we could offer a much more tailored service to event hire companies if they had a dedicated association of their own."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The manufacturer's territorial distributors, SDS Music Factory, supplied hangs comprising four ILA2082-i per side with a pair of ModularDesign MD-S215 (2 x 15") subwoofers to meet the main hall specification of project designers and installers, DIONIX.

The venue itself offers a total of seven seminar rooms, with the largest providing even coverage for up to 700 seats. Since the shape of this space is oval, it presented a special challenge for the sound system designers, who not only needed to achieve even coverage, but set EQ patterns appropriate for concerts and worship.

DIONIX and SDS managed to meet these criteria, achieving optimum speech intelligibility and a wide dynamic range.

Christian Frei, project engineer of DIONI

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14 March 2016

Gruppen was written for 109 players divided into three orchestral units, each with its own conductor, deployed in a horseshoe shape to the left, front and right of the audience. The spatial separation was designed to keep simultaneously played, musically separate passages distinct from one another, but in some passages a single musical process passes from one orchestra to another. This setup required three dis

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14 March 2016

Along The Mall, the road running from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, several scaffolding towers were set up with a total of 100 Outline Butterfly CDH 483 Hi-Pack enclosures installed.

The main stage, the hub of the event, hosted a spread of acts including Will Young, James Morrison, The Feeling, McFly, Scouting for Girls, Il Divo, Katherine Jenkins, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Heather Small and the cast of the musical We Will Rock You. Here, the sound was entrusted to 44 Butterfly Hi-Packs and 16 SubTech 218.

In St. James Park, there were 24 more Hi-Packs and 4 SubTech 218. The entire set-up was digitally controlled by Dolby Lake processors and p

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14 March 2016

The imaginative design scheme, created by Gerard Giraudon of ColorSonic, incorporates 10 of PR Lighting's Solo 250 effect - which took full advantage of the available space.

The Solo 250 features nine colours, seven interchangeable rotating gobos, an independent shutter for strobe effects, a rotating prism and remote focus. And with its stand-alone and master/slave operating modes (as well as conventional DMX) it suitable for a wide variety of applications.

Additionally, Gerard Giraudon's clever use of LED lighting strips at the bar counter ensures an ever-changing environment in this lively new venue.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Their brief to Most Technical's Dave Parry was to take the use of entertainment technology to a new level.

This he has done by a bespoke integration of sound, lighting and video, with the mainstay of the sound system being a Martin Audio W8L Longbow line array, which incorporates Timax Outboard Processing; this allows the sound to be mapped in three dimensions and be manipulated around the entire space by the operators. Another core element is Djenerate's new BodyKinetic interactive dance floor system with some 75,000W of sound pumped through the floor, which is underfitted

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14 March 2016

His 22-mile France-to-England journey took 13 minutes, and ended when he opened his parachute system and floated down to a ploughed field not far from the White Cliffs of Dover.

PSL's production team had turned that field, which belongs to the National Trust, into a veritable media village for Rossy's sponsors, the National Geographic Channel. Handling all the site issues, including the management of the landing site, PSL's Neil Smith and Stuart McLaren had to contend with the extremes of British weather - just like the Jetman. "On our first day of build, we got absolutely soaked; later in the week, conditions were still not right and Yves ha

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14 March 2016

The first mission for the new mics was a sequence of shows with reggae and hip hop-influenced singer-songwriter Jamie T and his band.

"The first two shows with Jamie T were small warm-up gigs in August at very small venues in London and Southend," says Wooster. "Both venues proved to be great tests for the rejection characteristics of the 8040s which I used on the hi-hats and the snare drum. I also used a pair of 8020s to capture the cymbals, close miking the underside of the two crash cymbals.

"The next two shows were at the V-Festivals, playing in large marquees. At both shows the mics really proved what they could do going through a very substantial PA system, producing

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14 March 2016

Among the first clients to place orders for the PRO6 are Irish rental companies MG Audio and Murt Whelan Sound and Lighting, who have each purchased a PRO6 system from local distributor Sound Communications. The companies are located on the east and southwest of the country respectively, and work closely together on a number of festivals and larger events. Both companies feel their PRO6 purchases will further enhance this arrangement.

Whelan's console inventory is exclusively Midas, offering Veronas, Siennas and Venices for rental. "I've been a Midas user for eight years and have been looking at upgrading to a higher spec console for some time, so it seemed a seamless transi