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14 March 2016

Tadco, DiGiCo's South African distributor, was approached early in 2008 to quote on the console requirements for Hatfield Christian Church, and during the first discussions it was apparent that the church has some special requirements.

In addition to its normal Sunday services, it also has a radio and television broadcast arm, Impact Christian Media. The Sunday services are broadcast live via radio to Pretoria and are then packaged for worldwide television broadcast to a potential 42 countries.

A further complication is that three to four times a year large events are held in the church which use up to 70 channels of mixing at FOH. The norm would be 40 to 45 channels.

As a result, three consoles we

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14 March 2016

Liz Reed, health and safety manager at Stage Electrics comments, "The effects of occupational deafness and hearing damage are devastating especially in the entertainment industry where hearing sound accurately at different frequencies is an integral part of any audio set-up. Stage Electrics is committed to completing a full and thorough programme of noise assessments and I am looking forward to using the SPLnet monitoring equipment t

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14 March 2016

Sonu A.B. explained, "It was challenging to use the same lighting setup in another venue just 15 hours later. The poetry festival started in Hall 4 exclusively for Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Fazza'a), Crown Prince of Dubai, after which the venue was shifted to the Sheikh Rashid Hall for one day, and then back to Hall 4 for the remainder of the festival. We had t

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14 March 2016

More than 50 EAW MicroWedge Series MW12 stage monitors were employed over four Coachella stages by sound reinforcement vendor Rat Sound Systems. To date, this was the largest outlay of MW units ever for a single event, according to Rat Sound president Dave Rat, who was the co-designer of the MicroWedge 12 (along with the EAW engineering team). For the last 18 months, the MicroWedge Series has been exclusively manufactured and distributed by EAW, under license from Rat Sound Systems.

Covering Coachella took a lot of monitors and a lot of manpower. A 30-member crew from Rat Sound was employed to ensure that the concert's s

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14 March 2016

Rick Wakeman, whose LP The Six Wives of Henry VIII was a hit in the 1970s selling 15 million copies worldwide, was keen to mark the anniversary in a unique environment, so he self-promoted the commemorative concert in the grounds of Hampton Court, the palace that Henry built and lived in.

Working with Keith Morris of Riverside Production, Arena Seating drew on its technical and logistical expertise to install a temporary 5,000 seat auditorium in front of the main entrance of Hampton Court, located between the Thames tow path and the main access road into the palace.

The severely undulating ground required a solution provided by Arena Seating's Special Struc

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14 March 2016

The two and a half month winter season has been running in the city for the last 25 years, and is staged in the 900 capacity tented, located on a small 'Bauschänzli' island next to Lake Zurich.

It was the first year that Kernfusion was asked onboard to design lighting and visuals. The show's director Roby Gasser was very keen to show movies and images for the intro, at the end and also during some of the acts.

Staged in the round, their only option to do this so everyone in the audience could see, was onto a big sphere 5.5m in diameter and 10m high suspended in the centre of the venue. This was moved into several different positions during the show, hence the need for a video project

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14 March 2016

The Osram fittings allow the ceiling within the centre to change colour in order to reflect the changing conditions outside. From a bright blue sky to a reddish sunset sky and all conditions in between the LED technology can create these. The colour-changing aspect of the installation provides a unique ambience for those visiting the centre.

"The existing 700W fittings were obsolete, as well as being expensive to maintain and run. They utilised oil wheels for colour changing using DMX control. The RGB LED option from OSRAM provided a simple

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14 March 2016

BME is a permanent exhibition dedicated to the history of popular music in Britain. Opened in March, the exhibit is a high-tech, interactive music presentation housed across 22,000sq.ft on the top floor of The O2 bubble in London.

Lighting design for BME is by David Atkinson of David Atkinson Lighting Design (DALD) who incorporated 26 Martin smartMAC colour changing luminaires - supplied by AC Lighting and installed by DES - into the exhibit's Pre Show and Exit Show areas.

Before visitors access the main BME exhibit, a Pre Show area gives a brief five minute audio visual introduction about BME and how to view the various

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14 March 2016

The three-day session took place at DWR's HQ in Johannesburg and was attended by working LDs and programmers who had to supply their own console or laptop running grandMA OnPC. They came from Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, and the places were limited to 10 to ensure everyone received the best attention of Nick Britz, DWR's technical manager, who instructed.

It followed on from Britz' recent visit to MA Lighting in Germany, where he refreshed his own knowledge of the grandMA Training programme, and also acquainted himself with the newly launched grandMA2 console and software. DWR has just supplied its first grandMA2 to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.

"It was the ideal opportunity for Nick to pass on his knowledge to the industr

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14 March 2016

Staged in boat sheds originally constructed for the America's Cup challenges in the 1990s Air New Zealand Fashion Week is a major production challenge undertaken since its inception by Auckland's Oceania Lighting. Simon Garrett, a former theatre technician and lighting designer leads the Oceania lighting team.

"I approach fashion shows as part live product showcase and part studio shoot," says Garrett. "The Designers invest heavily in Air NZ Fashion Week so we must deliver a memorable live show for each label with digital stills providing instant press ready material. In a few months tim

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14 March 2016

The broadcaster needed a small and lightweight shotgun mic for recording dialogue on drama productions. As well as demonstrating natural intelligibility, good directionality and off-axis qualities, the mic also had to produce high enough audio quality to allow for extensive post production processing.

"Everyone noticed that material recorded with the 4017 had a greater tolerance for manipulation after recording, such as compression, than the other mics we tested," says NRK's Are Andreassen, the project's team leader. "It gave us more substance to work with, and the off-axis response was particularly good. When working with high frequencies, it doesn't sound hard or metallic and handles s

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14 March 2016

Steve Richards, in charge of music management and events at Babylon, and managing director Tasos Kritikos needed a system that would reliably support DJ and dance events, live bands, fashion shows, presentations, private functions and more.

To achieve this, they selected a system comprising 20 Turbosound TA-500DP self-powered Aspect Wide and four TCS-122 mid/high loudspeakers, with 12 TSW-218DP self-powered subs. Supplied by Turbosound's Cyprus distributor Yannis Theodoulou of C. Theodoulou & Sons, the installation was overseen by Turbosound applications engineer Dan Orton.

"The versatility of the venue was a key is

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14 March 2016

The audience and press, including The Times, gave positive reviews on the cinema and aural extravaganza, while Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Dirk Brossé commented: "the sound was the best I've ever heard."

Sound design and front-of-house duties for the event were assigned to Fred Vogler, renowned re

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14 March 2016

Procon had previously worked for the event in Athens (2006) and Belgrade (2008). For this year's event, Procon deployed 40 trailer trucks with technical equipment (approximately 550 tonnes) and a team of more than 70 technical specialists. The company was contracted to provide equipment and services in the areas of lighting, sound, video/LED and rigging.

The manifest included 700 moving lights, 250 LED lights, 500 conventional lighting fixtures and 100km of cable.The main audio systems were Meyer Sound- based. In the rigging department, 4400m of trussing was utilised, together with 520 chain hoists.

Lighting designer was Al Gurdon, cr

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14 March 2016

A Derbyshire Police spokesman said the injuries suffered included a suspected broken wrist, shoulder, back and neck injuries. A number of other people were treated for shock.

Police said the collapse happened at 1950 BST on Saturday 16 May. The stage was closed and made safe following the accident. Two other stages remained open and the festival continued.

Staff from the website efestivals.co.uk reported a freak gust of wind "described by one person as a twister" during a storm. Another witness quoted by the BBC said: "The sky darkened and within five minutes a huge squall came through, then it got seriously bad. The Port

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14 March 2016

Designed by San Francisco-based theatre consultants, The Shalleck Collaborative, and installed by Hercules, California-based Pro Media / UltraSound, the Meyer Sound system is centred around left and right arrays of six Meyer Sound M1D line array loudspeakers, each augmented by a 600-HP subwoofer to provide low-frequency coverage. As Shalleck's Ian Hunter explains, the M1D's compact dimensions were well suited to the project's requirements.

"As a former retail space, the venue's ceiling height is pretty low," Hunter says. "With the heig

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14 March 2016

Bushell has used BB7s before on both Amy Winehouse and The Hoosiers, and is a big fan of the i-Pix brand, however Doves also gave him the chance to use i-Pix BB4 4-lites for the first time.

The six BB7s were attached to the top of custom VersaTube racks running along the back of the stage, just downstage of a white cyc. They were an important element of a heavily backlit show.

Bushell comments: "Their retro appearance fits perfectly with the band's style and visual requirements. And with the LED lightsource, this was exactly the right combination". The band take an active interest in the lighting

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14 March 2016

This year's concert calendar boasts performances from singer-songwriter Maria Taylor, electronic musician Dan Deacon and neo-folk act Iron & Wine, among others. EAW is a proud sponsor of the programme and recently donated some products to this worthwhile cause.

In 2008, EAW assisted the Vera Project by providing a selection of LA460 full-range loudspeakers, subwoofers and power amplifiers. Following that, the Vera staff saw an opportunity to upgrade their stage monitors. "EAW was kind enough to

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14 March 2016

The UK tour, produced by Firey Angel, opened at Hackney Empire in East London, where the lighting was programmed on a grandMA full-size console by Chris Hirst. It was then transferred to a grandMA light for the tour, which is running with a grandMA ultra-light for backup via two MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors). A wireless access point allows MA's remote emulator software to run on both Hirst and the tour's console operator Simon Garwood's laptops.

The choice of grandMA was Hirst's. He has used grandMA on many previous occasions including for three German musicals and has completed the training cour

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14 March 2016

Employed as an important element of the opera's overall scenography, the LED panels are divided into four vertical segments which can glide separately or be combined as part of a large scenic wall.

"We combined an 18th Century look with a very modern tool," Sundin stated about the modular LED panels. "We got both the historical theatre look and the latest modern look together and it works very well."

Swede P.O. Enquist's compelling book about one of the most dramatic episodes in Danish history - a love triangle involving King Christian VII - was adapted to

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14 March 2016

The 30 April Sing-along is the latest instalment of T-Mobile's Life's For Sharing brand campaign. However, the logistics involved in recording thousands of people singing along to recorded backing tracks - including Hey Jude, Build Me Up Buttercup, Is This The Way To Amarillo?, Baby One More Time and Total Eclipse Of The Heart - were considerable.

To deliver the demanding audio solution, some of the production industry's biggest names - including Britannia Row, Yamaha, Shure and high profile mixing engineers such as Dave Bracey (Robbie Williams) and

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14 March 2016

Kamil Swobodzinski, Telex director of sales, comments: "Staying in touch with our customers means maintaining a close dialogue with the consumer. We had direct access to potential and existing customers at AERO, which brought new experiences, insights, and improvements. The design of our booth was also a complete success. Through such measures, we are translating our leading position in commercial aviation into the general aviation market. The overall balance was positive."

The Telex team was showing

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14 March 2016

The Raynok Motion Control System is a control solution specifically engineered for the entertainment industry and boasts the ability to control all stage machinery from one PC-based control interface. The system uses a complete range of Raynok control modules to link to existing or new stage machinery and provides safe and secure communications with the Raynok control software.

Joseph Jeremy, president of Niscon Inc comments: "We initially became aware of Hoist UK at PLASA'08. It was my first time attending and I was impressed with the presentation and professionalism that was displayed on their stand.

"We are extremely pleased to have the Raynok Motion Control System exclusively di

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14 March 2016

He chose to do this with an Anolis LED installation which was designed and supplied by Anolis' French distributor, Ambiance Lumière.

Krys Opticals is the third largest such retail operation in France, with a reputation for quality service and great flair. The look inside the shop is high-tech and Quartana wanted to match the building's exterior with something similarly eye-catching. Following extensive internet research, he called Ambiance based in Paris, asking if they could come up with an energy-efficient, creative lighting solution and also provide all the technical services needed to make his store rock.

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