UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light reports that it is enjoying a busy Christmas and New Year season, supplying lighting to over 30 pantomimes as well as new musicals, comedy shows, corporate events and more across all of the areas of the entertainment and events industries.

The pantomime season has been building up since early December, with White Light dispatching a wide range of equipment as specified by a variety of lighting designers to theatres around the UK. The show tally includes five Aladdins, seven Cinderellas, two Dick Whittingtons, one Humpty Dumpty, two Jack and the Beanstalks, seven Peter Pans, one Pied Piper, three Sleeping Beautys and four Snow Whites. The show's producers include First Family Entertainment, Evolution and UK Productions as well as independent productions in Camberley, Ha

UK - Funding for 200 new jobs helping young unemployed people break into the creative and cultural sector has been secured by Creative & Cultural Skills. Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw, has pledged £1.3 million from the Future Jobs Fund for the new jobs, many of which will help people from the nation's most deprived communities establish a career.

From February 2010, Creative & Cultural Skills will work with Job Centre Plus and regional partners throughout England and Wales to secure employment in creative and cultural venues and organisations which are members of the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural Skills. The jobs will be open to people aged 18-24 who have been claiming benefits. The jobs on offer will include theatre technician, costume and wardrobe assistant, community arts officer and business administrator. All will include a level of accredited trai

Italy - Chiambretti Night - Solo per numeri uno (Only for number ones) is the variety show conducted by Piero Chiambretti, aired late night on Italia 1 channel. Interviews with celebrities and figures in entertainment, sport, culture and politics are its strength. The show features a talented cast composed mainly of comedians who interact with the conductor during the transmission.

In addition to its contents, the show has distinguished itself for the exquisite set assembled in Mediaset's studio 11, the result of intense teamwork between photography director Franco Buso and set designer Dario Cavalletti. It all takes place inside a studio that has been outfitted as a real night club down to the smallest details with mood lighting, dancers, show girls, piano players and an audience seated at cocktail tables.

Franco Buso comments on the light design, "The goal was to

Major Merger - The merger of ticket agent Ticketmaster and concert promoter Live Nation has been cleared by the UK regulator. The Competition Commission said that the merger would "not result in a substantial lessening of competition in the market" in the UK. The decision is a reversal of its provisional ruling. It had been concerned the deal would lead to higher prices and lower quality of service. The US Justice Department is also investigating the proposed merger.

The UK Competition Commission revised its opinion that the deal could lead to music fans paying more for tickets to see live performances. The regulator found that it would not be in the new merged company's interest to shut out competition. The new company "would suffer significant and immediate losses, with very uncertain prospects for long-term gain," the Competition Commission said.

The reg

UK - The Watermill Theatre's latest production is Hot Mikado by Strictly Come Dancing judge, Craig Revell Horwood and Tony award-winning orchestrator Sarah Travis. The production uses big band, swing and gospel at its musical core and the cast of 15 are also the orchestra.

Delivering these musical styles with a modern sound was the challenge that sound designer Chris Full, Andy Pink (associate) and FOH mixer Matt McCarthy took on. The show started life at the Watermill where it played for two weeks before a UK tour. Due to the diversity of the theatres on tour, Full used Axys Scope loudspeakers as key elements to deliver the required punch and excitement at all levels from the smaller orchestral arrangements through big band to rock/ gospel whilst providing a consistent sound character through the full dynamic range of the show and across all of the individual venu

UK - Initially supplying the cruise ship, Saga Ruby, with lighting equipment to Richard Horley Lighting's specification during its £17million refit in 2005, Point Source Productions' maintenance department has been involved in a concerted maintenance and repair programme during 2009.

Focusing on two areas, the large Main Ballroom and the more intimate View Bar and Restaurant, the Point Source Productions team carried out necessary ad hoc repairs to the venues' lighting and control equipment whilst the ship was taking passengers on board at Southampton. The team's organisation and sympathetic approach ensured they completed the work without affecting the smooth workings of the ship. This was followed by a complete service of lighting equipment in both venues and the installation of architectural systems in the shop and Lido Restaurant when the Saga Ruby went into dry dock i

UK - The Scots Trad Music Awards is a significant annual event, highlighting the very best of traditional Scottish music. Recorded for transmission by BBC Alba, a major Yamaha and Nexo rig provided the audio for the large invited audience.

Taking place at the DG1 in Dumfries, a modern multipurpose venue, the awards took place on 28 November and were broadcast two days later on BBC television. Sound provider for the event was Midlothian-based event production company A&R Martin, which has a long and successful history of using the Yamaha / Nexo combination.

"I've been using the Yamaha M7CL and LS9 for several years and we've found them powerful, flexible and easy to use," says the company's Dougie Martin. "We first bought into Nexo about a decade ago, gradually increasing our inventory of PS and LS series loudspeakers and adding the GeoS12 system shortly after it

UK - Lighting designer Tim Routledge used his new grandMA2 light console to control lighting for The Stereophonics' high profile 'homecoming' gig at Cardiff Castle last month. The event - which saw the 10,000 tickets pegged at 1998 prices, the last time the band played the venue - celebrated the launch of their new album Keep Calm & Carry On.

Routledge a founder of grandPA, the UK's only programming house for the grandMA control platform, was asked to light this show plus a warm-up at London's Electric Ballroom, following a TV special he did for the band at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium - for which his lighting design won a Welsh BAFTA Award.

grandPA was among the first UK companies to invest in the new grandMA2 consoles when it was released. "It's a beautifully comfortable desk to use," says Routledge, "with ergonomics and design carefully and intelligent

UK - Blackburn-based lighting rental company HSL supplied lighting equipment and crew to the latest UK White Lies tour, which featured a high-impact, lighting design - based primarily on white and near white light - by Chris Megginson.

HSL was brought in to work with White Lies by Darren Snape of Vertical Management right at the start of their meteoric career two years ago, which has since experienced a steep upwards trajectory. This was their largest production tour to date and included two sold out nights at London's Brixton Academy. HSL's project manager Mike Oates says: "It's extremely rewarding seeing a talented band grow, and Chris's designs, which are always exciting and innovative, evolve."

Megginson began the creative process for this one by presenting some ideas to the band to get them energised about the lighting. They wanted a massive wall of PAR cans to

Europe - An L-Acoustics K1/Kudo system has been used on Rammstein's European tour. "L-Acoustics' PA systems have consistently been the best available ever since they first launched," says K System engineer Ulf Oeckel. "Having used the K1, in my opinion there is no competitor which can guarantee the same performance."

Playing to an average audience of 15,000, Oeckel was using the system in an arena configuration consisting of 24 K1 units with 12 K1 subs, 24 Kudo boxes plus 24 SB28 and 16 SB218 subwoofers.

"This provided high SPLs in all audience positions and a balanced frequency response," he says. "We were getting an SPL of 110dB at FOH and 103dB at the back row, with the same clear sound. It has brilliant rigging and quick handling, and its exact acoustic imaging provides a good starting point from the beginning. We've been getting a great

UK - For the current Muse tour, which opened with dates in Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen on three consecutive nights, production manager Chris Vaughan reports that packaging the PA was all important. "Actually Skan [Skan PA Hire] make it incredibly easy for me. Before the tour started we focussed on how the PA would be packaged," says Vaughan. "We knew in advance that we'd overnight between three to four hundred miles of back-to-back shows." There wasn't even time to work up efficiencies.

"We have 17 trucks in all, two and a half truck-loads of PA. Our first 'out' took just over two hours, now we regularly load out in one and three quarter hours." That might not sound too impressive until Vaughan points out, "That's in-the-round lights and LED system, with the main stereo PA, flown subs, side-hangs, and rear PA system. While playing 360° h

USA - With the boundless possibilities of multimedia integration, Canadian production giant Solotech has inspired audiences through its work with Cirque du Soleil, Leonard Cohen, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Diana Krall, Michael Buble, Pacific Symphony, and Star Wars: In Concert, using Meyer Sound systems. To lay the groundwork for further growth in the AV installation and touring markets, the 35-year-old company opened a new facility in Las Vegas in 2009 to support and advance the use of multimedia directly from the international capital of live entertainment.

Solotech has maintained an active presence in Las Vegas since 2003. "We worked on the opening of some of Las Vegas's major showroom projects such as the Colosseum at Caesars Palace and the KÀ,/i> theatre at MGM Grand," says Pierre Leduc, vice president and general manager of Solotech US Corp. &

USA - Frank Dwyer's latest New York City venture, Legends 33 upscale sports bar and restaurant is right across the street from the Empire State Building, and customers dine to music from a discretely distributed Renkus-Heinz loudspeaker system.

Legends 33 - named for both its featured sporting icons and its West 33rd Street location - is pitched at both the local office lunch / dinner market and tourists looking for a top quality all-American dining experience. It combines three floors of finely detailed old-world ambience with the sports bar mix of screens showing every available sports channel, along with background music to accompany gourmet burgers, steaks, pasta and traditional Irish fish'n'chips. Meanwhile, a VJ booth on a balcony level sets the party scene for Friday and Saturday nights.

The systems integrators were Starview Satellite, which has been designing and insta

UAE - The 38th National Day celebrations in the UAE saw Dubai distributor, Venuetech accommodate a special request from production company Dubai Artistic.

Venuetech were asked to supply a Sennheiser SKM-5200 microphone for the regionally acclaimed artist Hussain Al Jassmi to use on a string of concerts arranged across the country for the 2 December celebration. When Venuetech approached Sennheiser with the request and advised on what the microphone was to be used, they came up with the idea of having it customised by Crystal-Roc. Crystal-Roc then emblazoned the microphones with coloured Swarovski Crystal in the style of a UAE flag.

"When we were asked to come up with something special for this event I immediately got in touch with Mig Cardamone, Middle East business area manager for Sennheiser, and asked him if we could come up with something unique and from there we agre

Happy Holidays! - Our online news service is currently taking a break for the Christmas period, and will begin again on 4 January 2010.

During 2009, the team at LSI Online have delivered over 3,500 news stories to an audience of entertainment technology professionals in no fewer than 177 countries across the world. It's been a record year for online traffic.

This was also the year we passed our first decade of delivering online news to the industry: Lighting&Sound International's first online news feed, via the PLASA website, appeared on 10 September 1999. On that day, we reported that Britannia Row Productions had invested in 48 stacks of Turbosound Flashlight at the PLASA Show, and that Martin Professional had opened a new UK-based manufacturing facility in Louth, Lincolnshire.

Since then, we have added more than 27,000 news stories to our online database - which remains f

The Netherlands - When the 2010 edition of Integrated Systems Europe opens its doors on 2 February, over 20% of its 500-plus exhibitors will be new to the show, organiser Integrated Systems Events reports.

Mike Blackman, managing director, Integrated Systems Events comments: "No tradeshow can thrive without bringing new customers and new markets to its exhibitors. Right from its first showing in Geneva in 2004, this is something ISE has proved it can do. AV manufacturers are turning to ISE as a platform from which to launch their products and services into new and emerging sectors, and that is one reason why we are hosting so many new exhibitors in Amsterdam in February."

The pro audio sector is a prime example of this trend, with the likes of L-Acoustics, HK Audio, Sonus, Ateïs, Out Board/TiMax, Baldwin Boxall, Seeburg, Cloud Electronics, and XTA/MC2 Audio all show

Switzerland - Headquartered in Lausanne, The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is the governing body with global responsibility for all forms of volleyball. With 220 member National Federations, operating via five confederations based in Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and South America, it is currently one of the largest sports organisations in the world.

The new main meeting room at the Lausanne headquarters features a Bosch Digital Congress Network (DCN) Next Generation flush-mount installation. The flush-mount system was considered particularly attractive for this application as it enables tailor-made fixed installations to be built into the furniture.

The meeting room's elegant wooden conference table features a centre that rises up to give delegates access to the microphones and voting units. And the channel selector units are installed in the edge

Hungary - Only 60 km from Vienna, southwest of Lake Neusiedler, lies the Hungarian city of Sopron. Sopron (Ödenburg in German) is not only a university town but also the home of HK Audio's Hungarian distributor IFK.

Recently when the Petõfi Theater of Sopron was looking for a new sound system, they asked various vendors to conduct a system demo. Naturally IFK was among the bidders. IFK won with the HK Audio Cadis System they proposed.

The Petõfi Theater, with a rich tradition going back two centuries and its Vienna Secession style, is located in the middle of the Old City of Sopros and holds an audience of about 550. The programme ranges from classical and modern drama to comedy and musicals. The new system is made up of six HK Audio Cadis CAD 208 cabs as the centre cluster, two ConTour Series CT 112 12"/1.4" mid/high units and CT 118 Subs on both the left and the

Germany - Berlin's O2 World venue staged the MTV European Music Awards featuring some of the music industry's most popular artists of 2009. With plenty of live performances between the business of handing out the gongs, Sennheiser supported the event for the seventh year in a row by providing microphones, in-ear monitoring systems and technical assistance.

Working closely with the event's sound designer Derrick Zieba and audio company Britannia Row, Mark Saunders and Andy Lillywhite of Sennheiser UK were there to provide hands-on support for the many performers using Sennheiser equipment.

The company supplied G2 series in-ear monitors for every performer, as well as SKM 5200 handheld mics with Neumann KK 105 capsules for all the presenters.

With Berlin being Neumann's home city, it was appropriate for the company's capsules to feature.

"The amount of effort that Mark

Angola / UK - Special effects and AV specialists Arcstream AV has been engaged by production company Media XXI to install an Arcsphere structure for the African Cup of Nations Final, to host the Angolan president and guests.

The huge projection sphere is being installed in host country Angola for the tournament which kicks off on 10 January 2010. Angola will be joined by 15 nations who successfully advanced from the qualification process that began in October 2007 and involved 53 African national teams.

The 22m diameter inflatable structure will feature a 360º seamless projection, playing sponsor adverts and logos, viewable on both the inside and outside of the dome structure. The Arcsphere is an inflated positive pressure dome, and will be installed with a state of the art AV system including a series of plasmas inside for guests to follow the matches.

The sphere is being

UK - When Belfast-based lighting rental company Production Services Ireland (PSI) started planning its annual staff festive party, they soon realised the potential of evolving it into an event to showcase its products, services and passion for the industry, all wrapped up in a convivial social environment, complete with lavish hospitality.

It was staged in the Ballycultra Town, part of the Northern Ireland Folk & Transport Museum, an attraction covering a 170-acre site, complete with the reconstituted 19th century town, which has a church, bank, police station, school and houses.

PSI invited key clients and suppliers. They received an overwhelming response with a turnout of 150 people.

PSI's Sean Pagel says: "Once we'd decided that this was the route we would take, we were determined to go all out to ensure that everyone had a good time, enjoyed our hospitality and also

USA - Backing up Eminem on the American Music Awards, bassist / music director Adam Blackstone and guitarist Curt Chambers came through loud and clear for this world-wide broadcast - thanks to Brace Audio DWG-1000 digital wireless performance systems.

Eminem took the stage late in the awards ceremony to pump-up the house, and the rhythm section laid down a solid sonic groove. Live broadcast, multi-band shows are a must-deliver situation, and Brace Audio did just that with pristine audio and flawless wireless bass and guitar system performance.

"Finally, a wireless that keeps all my frequencies intact" said Blackstone. "With Brace, I don't lose any of the low-end on my bass, and the tone remains the same. It's a life saver for an active, moving bassist like me."

"Knowing that you have a reputable wireless unit on stage to handle your tone and distorti

Hong Kong - Traxon Technologies, realised one of the largest LED Christmas decorations for this year's Christmas Wonderland in Hong Kong.

Supporting environmental protection, Hongkong Land decided to decorate the five skywalks around the Landmark building in Hong Kong's Central with energy saving though highly efficient LED lighting solutions provided by Traxon.

The installation size per bridge varies from a quantity of 40 Mesh units for the 2x13m Ice House Bridge to 202 Mesh units installed along the Connaught Bridge with a total length of 63m, displaying season's greetings and Christmas animations.

Traxon's Mesh RGB is a versatile, modular system of IP67-rated LED modules with a low profile and an easy mounting. The Mesh units can easily be connected by flexible joints offering a high degree of customisation. With its individually controllable pixels T

Belgium - As of 1 January 2010, the Belgium based sales companies Ampco Belgium and Candela, which specialise in the distribution, supply and installation of professional audio and lighting equipment to the Belgian market, have become fully independent from the Ampco Flashlight Group.

Both companies will continue under the direction of managing director Karel de Piere, who from the same date has acquired the ownership of Ampco Belgium and Candela from Ampco Flashlight, left the Ampco Flashlight Group, and sold his shares in the Ampco Flashlight Group. The newly independent companies will focus exclusively on sales activities and will not operate in the rental market.

The Ampco Flashlight Group's audio, lighting and video sales activities will continue to be developed in Europe through TM Audio, Lightco and Pixelsource in the Netherlands, Paradigma in Romania and Atlantic Audio

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