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14 March 2016

By 2017, there will be a need for 30,000 skilled technicians in the backstage and offstage industries. The Skills Academy is endeavouring to match training provision with employer needs, through regional partnerships to deliver training and a dynamic and influential membership network.

The consortia of leading employers in the East of England including the UK Centre for Carnival Arts, Aldeburgh Music, The Royal Opera House and The Mercury Theatre, Colchester are working closely with three of the founder colleges in the East of England, South East Essex College, Norwich City College and

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14 March 2016

The company runs what director Johnnie Dymock calls "radio junkets" for various US television networks that are seeking to promote their new shows on radio. Typically, during these, DJs from a number of radio stations are flown to a relevant location (such as the Bahamas in the case of The Real Gilligan's Island, for instance) to record a series of face to face interviews with the cast of the show. It sounds simple enough, but the numbers involved mean that logistically it can be an impressive challenge.

"Our job is then to ensure that each radio station - and there can be up to 50 - goes home with a one-on-one interview with every member of the cast - plu

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14 March 2016

The displays at the event included a 168" Infinite Plasma wall, 108" LCD from Sharp, 103" Panasonic Plasma with its ground breaking touchscreen overlay from U Touch Technology, all featuring Full HD content.

The 168" Infinite Plasma wall, made up of 4x4 bezel-less panels demonstrated the flexibility and impact of the product which can be built in any size or combination of screens. The new generation of screens offer improved brightness and contrast as well as a reduced seam gap, making them the most advanced video wall technology on the market, says the company. PSCo Burn-In Compensation technology (BIC), eliminates the visual signs of burn-in on the screens, therefo

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14 March 2016

"I use the LS9 a lot for corporate work, but the chance to come out on tour for a month with it, using it every day, was one not to be missed." He says. "This will be my last tour as well as Errol's farewell tour, so using it in a different venue every day under touring conditions isn't something I'll get the chance to do in the future."

Supplied, along with the rest of the sound and lighting production, by STS Touring Productions, the LS9 had to be capable of fulfilling the rigorous front of house requirements, with demand for tickets so high and

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14 March 2016

The seven screens included three mobile truck screens - one 40sq.m Chromatek 20mm and two Barco B10s - each measuring 10sq.m. There were also four modular screens - one at 40sq.m and three at 30sq.m - all made up from Lighthouse R16.

These were placed strategically around the massive track to offer optimum viewing for a close to 90,000 strong audience.

On top of the pit roof by the start/finish line was the first of the 30sq.m Lighthouse screens, with another on the trackside at Turn 1 servicing the grandstand opposite. Further up at Turn 2 was another 30sq.m Lighthouse, one of the Barc

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14 March 2016

The main entrance and reception to London's tallest skyscraper has been rejuvenated by Paul Croft Studios in conjunction with Architects Design Partnership (ADP), and transformed into a dynamic, contemporary environment for one of the City's most iconic buildings. Integral to this is a new lighting scheme created by Light Bureau.

They wanted a bright, environmentally friendly lighting feature that would produce atmospheric and vibrant colour changing effects in the space after dark. The atrium lent itself to several lengthy horizontal linear runs of LED traversing the full width of the space.

Architainment was approached as specialist lighting cons

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14 March 2016

The commissions involved the provision of all media and LED equipment for the booths of VW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, the provision of HD control rooms for the VW and Audi press conferences, and the presentation of the new E-Class from Mercedes-Benz in the Westin Hotel, Detroit, on the eve of the first press day.

For the Volkswagen launch, XL Video chose a 4-mm Hibino Black Face comprising 70 modules and measuring 5376 x 2880 mm for the main video wall. This high-resolution screen was framed by over 100sq.m of Barc

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14 March 2016

When Gary Payne, owner of the €2m euro development, set out his plan to convert his former music lounge above Liz Delaneys Bar into a contemporary nightclub, he knew that an optimally-sited digital promotion and graphics display would attract customers from the retail park in which his leisure complex is based, like moths to a flame.

Situated in the densely-populated working class area of Coolock, close to Dublin Airport, he realised he had a potential catchment of 250,000 people to aim at - and that the 12-tile, 3.6m x 2.4m PR Lighting display, triggered from an ArKaos GrandVJ media server - would create just the wow factor he needed.

The club's technical integrator, Frank Murray, who heads locally-based specialists, Audiote

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14 March 2016

About two years ago, the National began the process of trialling a range of desks across six different manufacturers. Each desk was tried out and formally evaluated before a final decision was made. Lighting resources manager Michael Atkinson says: "We knew that whatever we went for, it was always going to perform differently to its predecessor. It is a huge undertaking to update all three theatres with something all the staff like - each venue needs a main desk and backup, plus there is associated hardware which needs to be changed."

Eventu

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14 March 2016

The addition comes as Sunbaba's work with London-based agencies and for events in the capital increased in the last 12 months, prompting the need for a London office for clients to discuss complicated branding projects and see Sunbaba in action, says the company.

Sunbaba launched a range of new products in 2008 for both indoor and outdoor events, expanding the range from air permeable fabrics for outdoor branding to include correx board, voiles and soft fabrics and a range of eco-friendly products.

Jonathan Booth said: "Having a base in London makes us more accessible to our clients in the capital. Customers are welcome to drop into the studio at any time to see fabric samples, review artworks or simply to have a coffee and

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14 March 2016

Creative Lighting Asia (CLA) worked with Saatchi and Saatchi Singapore for the re-branding of the Sentosa Sky Tower for Asia Pacific Breweries. Now renamed the Tiger Sky Tower, the viewing attraction has been given a makeover with Tiger Beer branding with part of the central column becoming a giant Tiger beer bottle.

CLA was asked to come up with a solution for lighting the tower in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manor. 60 Color Kinetics Color Blast Powercore were used to light the rotating cabin, with an additional 30 iWhite Blasts used to light the column above and below the cabi

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14 March 2016

The Opera House was comprehensively rebuilt in the late 90s, and further work over the past few years had seen the installation of an in-house broadcast centre and an associated sound control room. But following the purchase of DVD label Opus Arte in 2007, the plan has been to expand the number of performances at the ROH that are recorded for subsequent release on DVD with a 5.1 surround soundtrack, and the former sound control room, which wasn't equipped for surround monitoring and mixing, became a liability.

Now a sizable replacement sound control room/audio broadcast centre for radio, TV, and satellite live-to-cinema transmissions

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14 March 2016

Partially televised on NBC and attended by 10,000 of NFL's 'closest friends', the invite-only Tailgate 2009 concert featured ground-stacked arrays of six Kudo enclosures per side paired with four SB28 subs, all positioned beneath large video screens adjacent to the stage. Four tiny MTD108 enclosures were spread out across the stage lip to provide front-fill coverage, with eight 115XT HiQ wedges available for monitoring. Loudspeakers wer

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14 March 2016

"We recorded the World Championship darts event to multitrack at Alexandra Palace in December, using two analogue SoundField systems," explains Sky's operations manager Keith Lane, speaking in the middle of another darts championship match. "The broadcast itself was in stereo, but we took the multitrack recordings back to HQ to see whether we could produce 5.1 coverage of a game to the standard we wa

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14 March 2016

"It was my first time using an XL8 and even after just one sound check I had fallen in love with it," he states. "We were performing with a full orchestra and the production was running two XL8s at FOH and three PRO6s for monitors and recording. The house engineer was mixing the orchestra on one XL8 and I was mixing the band on the other. It just sounded so sweet and it was really easy to find my way around the desk. We were up and running really quickly and everything I needed to do mix wise was at my fingertips."

He continues: "Sonically the PRO6 doesn't disappoint and in my opinion sounds better than an analogu

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14 March 2016

China Crisis - Oasis' debut concerts in China have been cancelled after the authorities revoked the band's licences to play, deeming them "unsuitable". Shows in Beijing and Shanghai due to take place next month have been pulled, and fans are to be reimbursed. Concert promoters said the Chinese culture ministry

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14 March 2016

"The room had a three-second reverb time, and the musicians loved what it did for the sound," says Gallagher. "But for the pastor, anyone more than about 20ft away could barely get a word out of the sermons. We had to find a way to improve the intelligibility factor without resorting to any acoustic treatment that would impact the room's resonance."

Gallagher found the solution in Community Professional's new ENTASYS column line array system. "We looked into using a steerable array, but it wasn't really practica

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14 March 2016

This consisted of three cues, one on each of the chorus of Viva la Vida. To produce the effect the producers hired 12 of MTFXs Confetti storms, four extra large venturi blowers, three extra large spinners and 250kgs of red, white and blue Butterfly confetti.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The two facades measure approximately 20m wide x 30m high and 20m wide x 9m high. The feature facade is made of an aluminum composite panel, double layered with wire mesh and a translucent canvas. The parang motif, a traditional Indonesian batik pattern based on sea wave movement, is showcased on the exterior front façade.

Lighting designer for the Harvey Nichols project is Paul Gunawan, principal designer at PT LITAC Konsultan of Jakarta whose initial lighting brief from client PT Hamparan Nusantara called for the feature facade to be backli

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14 March 2016

Sennheiser was an essential part of the process, providing 12 sets of Series 5 headphones for the small audiences. The quality audio of these headphones enabled Lundahl & Seitl to blur the lines between recorded and live sound, making a dramatic experience even more immersive.

"Our specific need was a pair of headphones with open backs, which would not isolate the visitors from natural spatial sound and the live piano play, and also gave us the best binaural p

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14 March 2016

Lighting and set designer Robert Grobler from Global Events is using both Robe moving lights and Robe StageQube 324 video panels in his design. "We wanted to create a generic visuality that looked great on camera and which presented a real 'live' feel to the show - even though it's shot at the Urban Brew studios, Randburg."

Grobler's rig contains 24 Robe StageQube 324 panels, 13 Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs and 11 Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs, all rigged in the studio's overhead grid.

Flexibility is also a key with the lighting and visuals. Eighty per cent of the show is music based, f

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14 March 2016

Based in Hechingen, near Stuttgart, AMS has been involved in the professional event business for more than 20 years and its customers benefit from the company's technical and organizational know-how and its experienced staff. "The thing that people remember about an event is its uniqueness," says AMS's owner Jürgen Wirth. "The moment passes, but the fascination will remain... to ensure that this happens, you need technology you can count on."

Wirth continues: "I invested in a D5 in 2007 because, in my opinion, it was the best console on the market.

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14 March 2016

The group's high-tech set, which includes cannons, a wrecking ball and a 60ft inflatable doll, features a massive 70sq.m Daktronics LED video display comprised of modular PST-10 panels.

The display, provided by Screenworks, the tour's official video partner, brings AC/DC's shows to a dramatic opening as a massive mechanical train appears to crash through it while the band strikes the opening chords of Rock 'N' Roll Train. Moving along a synchronized track, the display divides in two as the locomotive steams through, forming a pair of smaller displays at opposite ends of the stage which then screen live video, colourful animations and

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14 March 2016

The award, sponsored by Access All Areas, was presented to Arena Seating's sales director Dave Withey by promoter Harvey Goldsmith and TV's Ed Stewart. It recognised Arena Seating's track record of service and innovation at events like Wimbledon, Red Bull Air Races, X Factor, the Hyde Park festivals and many other events.

"We're delighted to receive this NOEA Annual Tribute, which we feel reflects the hard work and dedication of everyone at Arena Seating," said Dave Withey. "It is a privilege to win the recognition of our industry peers and we look forward to working with many NOEA members at every type of event over the next 12 months."

(Jim Evans)