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14 March 2016

After working with production manager Richard Young and lighting designer Andi Watson on the lighting requirements for the two previous Radiohead tours, Architainment advised Young on lighting requirements for the video screen surrounds in Pink's first arena tour and provided him with the versatile LED string iColor Flex SLX product from Philips Color Kinetics.

When show designer Baz Halpin together with Young, was designing the set for Pink's Funhouse Summer Carnival tour and wanted to create an overhead stage mesh lighting canopy, they once again turned to Architainment to provide them with a quality solution.

This time Architainment suggested the new high brightness, tri-colour iColor Flex LMX, again produced by Philips Color Kinetics. Samples were presented to Halpin and

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14 March 2016

The revisions include changes to the Device Description Language, the Session Data Transport protocol, the Device Management Protocol, and to various EPIs.The revisions are being done to correct errors and to add additional functionality to the standard. The review period runs through 23 August. The review is over when 24 August starts. Responses must be submitted before then to be considered.

ANSI E1.17-2006, Entertainment Technology - Architecture for Control Networks (ACN), is a suite of documents that specifies an architecture, including protocols and language, that may be configured and combined w

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14 March 2016

"The sanctuary is a really reverberant space, and we've always had trouble with people being able to hear spoken word clearly," says Rick Cardenas, the Church's technical director.

"It's a beautiful space, and the idea of putting a big speaker system in the middle of it just wasn't an option." The solution was found in a pair of Renkus-Heinz's Iconyx IC24-R digitally steerable line array loudspeakers. The steerable arrays are configured to provide focused coverage to every seat.

Working around the sanctuary's full calendar, Cardenas got together with college staff members to install the IC24-R systems into soffits on either side of the proscenium. T

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14 March 2016

The sound system consists of four EAW Avalon Series DCS2 Bent Horn Dance Subwoofers and four Avalon Series DC4 Medium-Format Dance Club Loudspeakers in the dance floor area, powered by Lab.gruppen C-Series and FP+ Series amplifiers with all processing handled by EAW's UX8800. Four CIS400 Ceiling Loudspeakers serve the club's reception area, and four Avalon Series SMS5 Surface Mount Loudspeakers provide sound for the outdoor bar are and are controlled by an EAW UX8800 Digital Signal Proc

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14 March 2016

The Not Forgotten Association was formed in 1920 to provide entertainment, recreation and leisure to the serving wounded and ex-Service men and women with disabilities. As part of its 90th Anniversary celebrations it organised a summer concert for 450 serving personnel and veterans in the Ballroom by kind permission of Her Majesty the Queen.

In the early planning stages for the event, the small team within the Charity decided that telling the 90 year story of The Not Forgotten was to be the format and, if possible, wanted projections within the Ballroom to enhance the various acts making up the concert. Major Sir Michael Parker, who has a long-standing relationship with the Charity

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14 March 2016

FTSI's four-day course gives students an overall view of the principles of entertainment automation systems and teaches the basics of how to configure and programme an automation system using FTSI's Navigator hardware and software.

The course is taught by Dana Bartholomew, a vice president of Fisher Technical Services, who has over 26 years of theatre automation experience. Bartholomew is one of the foremost experts on both Navigator software and practical installations. She is involved with the development of industry standards as a member of ESTA's Rigging Working Group. At Fisher Technical Services, she has been integral to the design, manufacturing, and inst

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14 March 2016

Dudley's company, Martin's Lights supplied all the lighting equipment for the tour. He has worked with Supergrass on and off for the last eight years and has LD'd the band on a number of occasions over the last two years when their regular designer, Matt Arthur, has been busy elsewhere.

He used this as a high profile opportunity to put the Robin 300E Beams through their paces, with eight units on the show, which were all mounted on flight cases in a line at the back of stage - in ACL style - but utilised for a whole variety of different effects.

"They are unbelievably bright," says Dudley, commenting on the Beams. He also used six of his ColorSpot 700E ATs for the shows -

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14 March 2016

Everlast Productions created the rock star-style visual atmosphere for the event, using DMX moving lights from Elation Professional. Twenty-four Design Spot 1400s, 24 Design Wash 1400s, and 12 Design Spot 575s were positioned on stage and at Front of House.

One reason why the Elation lights were chosen was because they could meet the variety of functions required at an event that was part concert, part pep rall

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14 March 2016

More than 500 artists performed on 20 different stages during the event, which was recently voted 'Best European Festival' by UK Festival Awards according to Yourope, the European Association of the continent's 40 largest festivals. This year's Exit performance line-up included Faith No More, Chemical Brothers, David Guetta, Missy Elliott, Placebo, Mika, LCD Soundsystem, Royksopp and Crystal Casteles.

The

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14 March 2016

According to Vesselin Todorov, president of Bulgarian music company Factor TC, Bulgarian television has always been notorious for its poor sound quality, but the installation of two Studer OnAir 3000 broadcast consoles into Nova TV has broken that conception; it is now the best-equipped TV station in Bulgaria.

More often than not, the OnAir 3000 is utilised in radio stations, but Dobromir Georgiev, systems support engineer at Nova TV, believes it to be the perfect choice for live TV broadcast. "The 'Touch'n'Action' user interface is what makes Studer the best, because it's just so easy to use," he said. "Having the touch screen there in front of you means you can access all of the funct

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14 March 2016

Alongside Lewis, the tour features a four-piece band and two backing vocalists. Monitor engineer Ant Carr chose the SD8 after a lot of deliberation. "I'd used D5s from when they first came out, back when I worked for Skan PA Hire. I'd gone away from them for a bit as newer consoles hit the market, but when this tour came up I spent a long time evaluating and listening to the SD8 at the tour's rental company Wigwam with Alex Hadjigeorgiou's help," he says.

"The SD8 was the right choice because its preamps are such high quality compared to other consoles capable of the same I/O, which was an important cons

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14 March 2016

The system consisted of a variety of Harman products including a Soundcraft Vi6 large-format console for the front-of-house position - which was purchased in 2009 by Altincizme - and JBL VerTec line arrays.

A 96-channel expansion to the Vi6 handled the Philharmonic Orchestra's addition to Grup Yorum's band for this special event. "The soft Soundcraft sound, which is superior to most other digital consoles I use, along with the analogue feel of the console and the superiority of the Studer core left little doubt about the wisdom of purchasing the Vi6," com

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14 March 2016

Events during the weekend of 17-18 July included the Latitude Festival in Southwold, Suffolk, Lovebox in London's Victoria Park, JLS concerts for the Forestry Commission at its Westonbirt site near Bristol, Escot Park in Exeter and The Embankment at Peterborough, the Shoreditch Festival and the Newham Town Show, as well as covering their regular venues, such as The O2 and Brixton Academy.

"The logistics of looking after multiple sites and over 2,000 crew are immense," says Simon Miller, AP's northern operations manager who worked with southern operations manager Chris Hollands to coordinate the weekend's workload. "Just one event such as Latitude takes a lot of pre-planning, but when you have se

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14 March 2016

HyLight is the first fuel cell product to be developed specifically for the events industry and offers the high reliability demanded through an onboard 'brain' which monitors performance and seamlessly switches to battery back-up in case of fault or user error.

Running on hydrogen, with a run time of 50 hours between refills, the system produces zero emissions and is almost silent. Carbon emission reductions of up to 60% are likely in performance settings through use of the latest LED lighting. The system is also suitable for safety and security lighting where emission reductions of up to 90% are possible by

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14 March 2016

Additionally, Fairbairn's company LED Source will exclusively distribute the Coemar LED range -including the popular ParLite LED and new products to be shown at this year's conventions. With the help of company VP and partner Gavin Cooper, Fairbairn established LED Source in 2005 followed by a franchising programme four years later.

"From the industry leading ParLite LED to the rental and touring powerhouse Infinity range, Coemar products deliver exceptional technology and unsurpassed performance," said Fairbairn. "This new relationship with Coemar is a massive w

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14 March 2016

"We have strong increased sales of our CRMX products during the past six months. Our CRMX outdoor series brought unparalleled reliability to the outdoor entertainment and architainment markets. We believe in a good cooperation with Stonex and increased sales in the Spanish market," says Per Hultén, CEO of LumenRadio.

"We are very proud to start a relationship with Stonex and bringing CRMX, the most reliable wireless technology on the market, into Spain. I'm confident that Stonex is the right company to work with and I'm excited about the opportunities I see together

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14 March 2016

"Three years ago we installed a Midas Verona 480 for the same client in another theatre," says Ruslan Viana, Projesom's chief audio engineer, "but it was time to take the step forward to Midas digital. It has been a great success."

Amos Miranda, Projesom's chief electrician on the project, says, "Everyone has been impressed with the user-friendly controls, the flexibility and durability of the system, and, of course, the Midas sound. The PRO6 stands head and shoulders above everything else. There is no doubt that the theatre has the audio w

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14 March 2016

"It was Joan's intention at the end of her last tour in 2008 to switch to a headworn system so she could be free of the mic stand," says her regular front of house engineer Mike Hogg. "Although I had not tried the 4088 before, previous experience with other DPA microphones gave me the confidence to recommend it for her.

"We have now done over 80 shows with it this year and I love it. The clarity and definition is astounding; even in some of the smaller venues with lower roof heights and tighter stages it performs well with ample gain before feedback. The headband also holds its position well during the show. It's safe to say that we are all very happy with it."

Armatrading's tour has continued across Europe befor

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14 March 2016

Faced with the challenge of lighting the Courtyard cleanly and without disturbance to the event's guests, White Light deployed two of its new HyLight hydrogen fuel-cell powered lighting systems, which had been officially launched just a week earlier.

"We were very pleased to be able to use the new HyLight hydrogen fuel cell system," comments Zoe Watts, the Natural History Museum's head of events. "They are silent with no emissions - perfect for the Darwin Centre's gardens, with their proximity to our residents, and also for complying with the museum's sustainability policy."

"Having the ability to deliver instant power with

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14 March 2016

A rainy & windy weekend didn't stop 80,000 people enjoying the Festival. King Tut's Wah Wah Tent had featured an array of artists and an electric atmosphere throughout the weekend.

The eclectic line up featured amongst many. Ellie Goulding, Empire of the Sun, We Are Scientists , Diana Vickers , Mumford & Sons and concluded with a set by David Guetta on the Sunday evening.

Adlib designed and installed a JBL VerTec PA system, with 10 flown VT4889 elements per side, complete with nine ground stacked VT4880As subs.

New for this year, they ran the subs in cardioid mode, with two stacks of two cabinets pointing forward and one in the middle facing back, which helped spread the general coverage and concentrate

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14 March 2016

The company was looking to create an impressive entrance to the new flagship site, which boasts an imposing atrium. This has been provided with the first European installation of Christie's MicroTiles media display.

The installation was carried out by Lancashire-based Pure Audio Visual under the supervision of divisional director Alan Marshall.

"As the atrium was glazed on two sides this presented a conundrum," said Marshall. "Initially we considered projectors - but then I had a meeting with Joe Graziano, [Christie's market development manager for MicroTiles ] and he told me about this new product."

Ged Bithell, PZ Cussons' head of IT international and Chris Colesell, head of IT UK, atte

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14 March 2016

There were 25 grandstands in total around the golf course, in locations chosen to provide optimum views of the event. The type and seating capacity of each grandstand varied depending on location, ground conditions, seating required and wind loading.

The seating system is designed to comply with the relevant British standards and codes of practice and causes minimum disturbance to grass and other sensitive ground areas, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The main build contractor, was Stage One. The company was responsible for the manufacture and installation of all the structural steelwork, flooring, a 12m high freestanding wall leaning at a 30º angle, central canopy area, seven metre high steel-framed glass cube section and bar/café areas - all in striking shades of red.

"We are honoured to have been asked to construct the prestigious Serpentine Gallery Pavilion for the second year running," said Mark Johnson, managing director, Stage One. Our involvement in the construction of the 2010 Pavilion, which required completely different manufacturing capabilities to the 2009 Pavilion, highlights the truly diverse range of skills and services we can offer to our clients.

The company worked cl

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14 March 2016

technicians working in the theatrical or events industries. The course, Rigging and Working at Height in the Entertainment Industry, is designed to provide the knowledge and practical guidance needed to work safely when rigging equipment high above a stage or auditorium.

Over three days, course attendees will learn from industry professionals and trained instructors on all aspects of safe working at height. Classroom-based theory, hands-on practical sessions and discussion groups are all part of the package which is aimed at keeping everyone involved and active throughout.

"Falls from height continue to be one of the biggest causes of workplace injury and death. Theatres and stages can be particularly hazardous places to work," says Black Light's technical manager Craig Collin. "