UK - Installation contractor Matthew Dilley of About Sound had more than English Heritage and the Diocesan Council to contend with when fitting the new JBL CBT (Constant Beamwidth Technology) columns to St Benet's Church in Cambridge - the oldest church in the city.

In the event, the installer turned the situation to his advantage. "We welcome challenges and restrictions such as this," he stated. "I derive no satisfaction in trashing historic buildings. But what you don't want to see is a pulpit ahead of where you want to place your speakers."

Angela Tilby, vicar of the Anglican Franciscan Church and well-known broadcaster, had long been aware of the shortcomings of the old omni-directional system. It was when she was appearing as guest preacher at nearby St. John's, where About Sound had installed a webcast system, that she remarked on how refreshing it wa

Sweden - PA company, Parashoot EA, recently invested in an Allen & Heath iLive digital system to increase its hire inventory and service its growing touring business.

Comprising an iDR-48 MixRack and an iLive-T112 Control Surface, the system has already been employed for various events over the busy Christmas period, and has embarked on the European tour of celebrated Swedish rock band, the Backyard Babies.

Entitled the Them XX Tour 2010 to mark the band's 20th anniversary, the tour visits Finland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, France, Germany, UK, Switzerland and Italy, with a full PA touring rig from Parashoot.

"The major reason for using iLive on this tour is the sound quality," says Parashoot EA's Oscar Söderlund. "All the house engineers we have met so far on the tour like the light weight, space-saving size, and ease of use. It's a great system for tour

Canada - One of the enduring images of the Vancouver Winter Olympics is likely to be the Sails of Light show, titled Look At The Games. The show, which takes place nightly, is projected on the five 90ft sails atop the Canada Place building and is often used as an iconic background for television images around the world.

The gobos used for many of the projections were created by Moment Factory and manufactured by Rosco.

The designers chose to use custom made glass gobos in Martin 1200 projectors. But they were restricted to using an exact match of the official colours of the Winter Olympics and to design and produce them so they fit the triangular surfaces of the sails, with no image spill off the sails.

Rosco manufactured more than 40 colour glass gobos for this project, as well as nearly a dozen black and white glass gobos.

Anne Hunter, who supervised this project

UK - The star-studded 2010 Brit Awards was broadcast live from Earls Court with a Midas XL8 handling front of house for the first time. Sound designer and live sound coordinator Derrick Zieba, who's been working on the UK record industry's annual awards ceremony since 1994, specified the XL8 after witnessing its capabilities at December's Nobel Peace Prize concert, which featured a networked system of two XL8s and three PRO6s.

"I'd been terribly impressed with how the XL8 was used out in Oslo, and this was an ideal opportunity to get it onto one of my shows," he says. "When I started on the Brits in 1993, it would take around six consoles to run a live show like this, with short changeovers, almost all of which were Midas XL4s and Heritage 3000s. With the introduction of digital consoles, the benefits were huge in terms of space saved and ability to recall what th

Germany - French loudspeaker manufacturer APG has announced the appointment of Audio-Technica Germany as its exclusive German distributor with effect from 1 March 2010.

According to APG's Xavier Pion, the move represents a significant step forward for the brand. "Germany is one of the biggest and most dynamic markets in Europe, so it's important that we have strong representation here," he says. "Audio-Technica is an internationally recognised brand with a high-end product image which reflects our own. Furthermore, Audio-Technica Germany, as a subsidiary of Audio-Technica, has a well-established and technically knowledgeable sales force with excellent market penetration."

"The only other brand they currently represent is Allen & Heath with whom they have been extremely successful so far," continues Pion. "Sales across the range have been exce

Germany - Following a period of major growth, Optocore has bucked the economic trend and marked the start of the new year by moving into larger premises in West Munich.

Situated on one floor, the new industrial unit in Gräfelfing gives them twice the space that they had previously to service the additional production and customer requirement; meanwhile the 'loft' style layout has enabled them to incorporate a show/seminar room and dedicated meeting room alongside warehousing and offices for the first time.

Sales and marketing director, Tine Helmle, said that with its 4m high ceilings, bright rooms and large picture windows it is the perfect environment in which to pursue their vigorous development programme following the introduction of their acclaimed SANE (Synchronous Audio Network plus Ethernet) protocol last Autumn.

"Our large R&D room will enable us to support con

UK - Goga Ashkenazi celebrated her 30th Birthday in style with a visually spectacular party featuring the latest interactive and special effects technology such as stunning water and laser shows, interactive floors and building projections.

The event was held in a series of marquee structures at the historic Tyringham Hall in Buckinghamshire and organised by event production specialists GSP with interactive technology experts Arcstream AV providing the technology.

The entertainment programme included aerialists and contortionists and live opera and drummers, featuring headline performances from Akon and Sophie Ellis Bextor.

The biggest spectacle of the evening was a fully choreographed, special effect, laser and water show produced by Arcstream AV which took place in and around the 72m pool, watched by guests through the glass sided marquee. The company used its newly acquir

Palestine - The only movie theatre in the West Bank town of Jenin has been closed since 1987. Now Ismail Khatib of Jenin and German documentary filmmaker Marcus Vetter plan to bring Jenin's cinema back to life.

Ismail Khatib and Marcus Vetter were inspired to take on the mission of refurbishing Jenin's historic cinematheque during the making of Vetter's documentary The Heart of Jenin. The film received the Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Documentary of 2009.

Renovations are scheduled for completion in the spring of 2010. Gerriets, the theatrical equipment company, is donating materials. In August the theatre will host the city's first international film festival, which a number of prominent guests, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mikhail Ghorbachev, and Roger Waters have already agreed to attend.

(Jim Evans)

South Africa - For the fourth year running, Gearhouse South Africa supplied technical infrastructure to the Top Gear Live show on its recent visit to South Africa.

The event was staged in the Coca Cola Dome in Johannesburg and at the Grand Arena at Grand West, Cape Town, with Gearhouse working through technical production company Lucidity for Brand Events SA, the official licensee for Top Gear Live in South Africa.

Gearhouse project manager Michael Lewis worked closely with Lucidity's Paul Newman, technical production manager, and the international Top Gear Live touring production team to ensure that sound, lighting, staging, rigging and 6000 seats (from Havaseat, also a Gearhouse company) were installed into the Dome to create the Top Gear Live arena.

Live arena lighting was designed by Steve Sinclair from the international Top Gear Live team, wh

Spain - As one of the most successful musicians in Latin America, Alejandro Sanz has built a name for himself as a dynamic and exciting performer; selling over 25m albums worldwide and winning 17 Grammys. With his new project Paraiso Express on the verge of release, Sanz recently embarked on his worldwide Paradise tour, showcasing the anticipated album with a set of AKG equipment that included the DMS 700, an IVM 4 in-ear system and a variety of D7 and D5 microphones.

Spanish distributor Neotecnica supplied the tour with the AKG equipment. Each and every concert will be using 24 different DMS 700 channels for voices and instruments and will also use 16 channels of the IVM4 in ear-system. For vocals, the DMT 700 will be equipped with D7 and D5 handheld capsules that prove to be the best solution for adapting to Sanz' vocal style.

"After speaking with Alejandr

UK - Alongside the English language workshops that take place regularly in Germany, the d&b audiotechnik Remote network workshop has now come to the UK.

This one day session will take place on Wednesday 3 March at the new UK office in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. Controlled by d&b's Steve Jones, the day will explore d&b amplifiers within the network and the d&b Remote network topology.

The workshop will look at all the necessary hardware including cable options along with the R1 Remote control software's installation and preparation as well as a practical session using it to programme a user interface.

Further information on d&b's full education programme and registration details are available at the web address below.(Jim Evans)

Malta - DPA 4006 omnidirectional mics, purchased via UK distributor Sound Network, have been used on Agora, a new film by Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar, starring Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella set in Roman Egypt. The mics were used for crowd ADR sessions shot on location at Fort Ricasoli in Malta.

The sound crew behind the recordings was Sound24, the BAFTA winning and Oscar nominated team from Slumdog Millionaire. The team included supervising sound editor and sound designer Glenn Freemantle; sound designer Tom Sayers; dialogue/ADR supervisor Lee Herrick and field recordists Nicolas Becker and Hugo Adams. They chose the 4006s for their clarity, transparency and sound quality, as well as the mic's low signal to noise ratio and high SPL which meant they could record people whispering one minute and roaring the next.

"The clarity of sound from the mics wa

Croatia - Opera singer Jose Carreras starred in a Christmas charity concert in Zagreb as the culmination of the Step into Life humanitarian project that has raised over €400,000 to help give poor Croatian children the chance of a university education.

Beside Carreras, the renowned Croatian singer Toni Cetinski, Ireland's premier soprano Celine Byrne, the Ivan Goran Kovacic academic choir, the Zvjezdice girls choir and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra completed the line-up.

The goal of the 'Step into Life' project is the better socialisation of children without proper parental care by means of scholarships, and the foundation has already assured more than 30 scholarships for young people who can't afford to go to university.

Audio production services for the concert at the 15,000 capacity Zagreb Arena were provided by Croatian production company Lite-Prom, fielding a

China - The ancient city of YangQuan in Shanxi Province originally built its train station in 1905 to facilitate the exploitation of the local mines - making the city one of the birthplaces of Shanxi's modern industry.

Today, China is in the midst of constructing a huge high speed rail (HSR) network, embracing a distance of 120,000km in total by the year 2020, at an aggregated investment of RMB 5 trillion (US$ 732 billion). And YangQuan forms an important part of that network.

Situated on the high-speed line between ShiJiaZhuang and TaiYuan, YangQuan North train station has already been equipped with China's first Q-Sys fully-integrated digital audio platform within a transportation hub. This digital audio networking system boasts high-speed characteristics of its own, providing all the audio routing, processing, control and monitoring necessary for any facility while maintain

Good News - Behind the Scenes, the entertainment technology industry charity, has announced it has received a grant of $50,000 from Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS. In his cover letter to the grant, BC/EFA executive director Tom Viola said: "BC/EFA is very grateful to the companies and individuals working in the technical professions - from lighting and rigging to scenery, special effects, audio and more - who have participated in and made so much of BC/EFA's fundraising in the theatre community possible."

Rick Rudolph, chair of the Behind the Scenes Committee, responded: "We are incredibly grateful for this generous grant and the recognition of what Behind the Scenes is accomplishing and the community we represent. We have had an unprecedented number of requests for grants in just the first six weeks of this year and this gift from BC/EFA will ensure we can c

UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light welcomed the new year by allowing lighting designers and technicians to explore some of the new lighting technology which will shape the way they work this year and in the coming years in a friendly, informal New Technology Showcase.

The mid-January event presented the equipment in the real theatre setting of the Central School of Speech and Drama's Embassy Theatre. At different times of the afternoon, visitors were able to play 'hands on' with the products, to watch the products in action in mini-shows designed and programmed by students on Central's lighting courses, and to participate in feature-by-feature run-throughs of each product with the ability to ask to see specific actions (slow fades, colour changes), or combinations of products compared side by side.

Included in the rig were some of the latest LED lighting fixtures

Albania - Mumja Club in Tirana has undergone a refurbishment that included a new Martin lighting package of MAC 250 Beam and smartMAC moving heads.

Reopened in December of 2009, Mumja is a 600 capacity club that features DJs from all over the world and also hosts live music. The new Martin gear was supplied by Martin's Albanian distributor Prosound Shpk and also includes a Magnum 1200 fogger and a PC-based LightJockey for lighting control. Lighting design was by Armand Dosti of Prosound.

"The club wanted high quality lighting but something other than the usual moving heads, so we suggested the MAC 250 Beam which has very good aerial effects," says sales manager Kliton Gjika of Prosound. "It can also be used to highlight the live bands using the fixture's frost effect."

The 250 Beams are the first for any club in Albania and Mumja Club is happy with them.

Russia - EAW was recently chosen as the loudspeaker of choice for the Russia-based Zapashny Brothers Circus, the current incarnation of the world-famous family act dating back to the 1800s. MS-Max Company, EAW's Russian distributor, put together a sound system package featuring several EAW loudspeakers, and this configuration was selected over a number of packages featuring other manufacturers' products, to provide the sound for the Brothers' recent tour dates throughout Russia and to other countries.

The package assembled by MS-Max Company included 12 EAW JFL210 compact line array modules and four EAW JFL118 subwoofers. Processing is handled by the EAW UX8800 digital signal processor, and the system is powered by Crown MT-series amplifiers.

The circus, which features such spectacles as tigers, lions and other large animals, is performed in the round. The biggest issue with th

Switzerland - Swisspor, a leading manufacturer of insulation and sealing technologies for the building and construction industry, celebrated inauguration of its new building. The launch included two gala events at the headquarters of Swisspor in Steinhausen near Lucerne.

The events were attended by approximately a 1000 people. They also included a dinner and a show by the Pepe Lienhard Orchestra.

Matthias Kern of Kernfusion Design, based in Switzerland was responsible for the lighting and media design, operation and programming. Kern used a Compulite Vector Blue and Vector motorized playback wing for the event.

At the back and to the sides of the stage were three scenic elements constructed from different Styrofoam shapes, suitable for lighting and projections. Kern used two of the DigitalSpots 7000DTs positioned each side of the stage to throw projections onto the two 15m S

UK / Switzerland - Swiss digital signage hardware manufacturer SpinetiX has appointed Tukans to distribute its HMP100 Hyper Media Player within the UK.

"We're very proud of our comprehensive, high-quality and stable product portfolio and our track record in exceptional integrator and end user support. The addition of SpinetiX will allow us to deliver significant return on investment for our customers, an important differentiator in the channel," says Andrew Popley, managing director at Tukans.

Serge Konter, marketing manager at SpinetiX adds, "This appointment plays a key role in SpinetiX's channel and partner plans. We will be working actively with the highly experienced and dedicated team at Tukans with a special focus on specialist integrators and partners who wish to differentiate themselves in their high quality product offering whilst offering a competitiv

UK - Pearce Hire provided a triple service of temporary power, lighting and audioin January to the final of the Cambridge 800 events, which have taken place across the year to celebrate the 800 years of Cambridge University.

The show entitled Transforming Tomorrow spanned three consecutive evenings during which over 20,000 members of the public were invited to see Cambridge in a new light through a walking tour, starting from Senate House and leading to Kings College First Court building, adorned with ETC's stunning projections and combined with architectural lighting and audio provided by Pearce Hire.

Pearce Hire's managing director Shaun Pearce said, "We were proud to be entrusted as the central technical supplier across this prestigious series of events which celebrated such a landmark in Cambridge's history. All events have been managed to consistently high sta

Venezuela - In one of Venezuela's largest annual live music events, rental sound company Grupo Zonico provided an extensive audio system for Coca-Cola Solid Fest 2010 at Hipdromo La Rinconada in Caracas.

JBL Vertec line arrays comprised the main PA system for the four-day event, which included performances by leading international and local artists for crowds averaging 20,000 per day. With separate themed event days presenting rock, urban and Latin artists, performers at the festival included Korn, OscarD Leon and Luis Fonsi.

Grupo Zonico deployed a main PA system featuring two array hangs, each comprising 15 Vertec VT4889-1 full-size line array elements and three VT4887ADP compact powered line array elements with DrivePack technology. The system also included 26 VT4880A full-size arrayable subwoofers, with an additional 12 VT4887ADP loudspeakers provided for front-fill

Denmark - ETC's Selador Series of LED fixtures received their first major European outing at the COP15 Climate Change summit in Copenhagen in December 2009. At the end of the summit, the attending world leaders were invited to the Royal Danish Theatre for a performance of the ballet Napoli by August Bournonville.

In among the house rig of ETC Source Four Revolutions and Vari-Lite VL3500Q moving lights, lighting designer Mikki Kunttu used Selador Vivid for sidelights and cyc lighting and Selador Lustr for lighting set pieces. He comments, "When we first started planning the show lighting, we talked a lot about how to make the production as 'green' as possible. We even considered getting rid of conventional lighting completely, but this proved to be impossible. Using LED for sidelights was something new for me and they worked really well - I was very impressed.

"I was

UK - Early 2010 saw some of rock music's brightest new talents take to the road around the UK and Ireland on Kerrang! magazine's Relentless Energy tour. Comprising 11 shows in two weeks, with four bands playing each night, it was a tight schedule for the production crew. But with Yamaha M7CL and LS9 consoles on duty, it was a straightforward job for the tour's monitor engineers.

Stourbridge-based Stage Audio Services supplied the tour's audio equipment and technical crew. Monitor engineer Chris Wright manned the M7CL for opening bands My Passion and Young Guns and Welsh rockers The Blackout brought their own monitor tech who used the M7CL. Headliners All Time Low carried an LS9 and had a flexible approach - a backline tech or even a band member undertaking monitor duties.

"I really like the M7CL's user interface. It's very straightforward to use and easy to

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