Olympic Marathon - To celebrate the London 2012 Olympics, Shakespeare's Globe will stage all of the playwright's 38 plays, each in a different language and by a different international company. Performances in Maori, Aboriginal languages and Cantonese will all be presented during the season and there will also be a production of Love's Labour's Lost in British Sign Language. Over the course of six weeks, companies including the National Theatre of Greece, Rome's Cometa Off Theatre and Oyun Atolyesi from Istanbul will play the Globe. The Globe itself will also stage one of the plays.

In an Urdu production, Pakistani TV star Nadia Jamil will star as Katherine in Taming of the Shrew and international directors Eimuntas Nekrosius and Tang Shu Wing will mount shows in Lithuanian and Cantonese respectively. Shakespeare's Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole said tha

UK - As the newest performance space in the South West, Pavilion Dance has certainly got the equipment and technology to deliver a first class act. Consultants Drama by Design were chosen to produce the solution, while Audio Light Systems Ltd were the chosen to engineer the demanding design in this compact but well-equipped venue.

The lighting package uses almost 200 ways of ETC Sensor dimming, controlled by an ETC Congo Junior desk. Amongst the 100-plus lanterns supplied were 12 Robe 575s, 24 JB LED A7s plus Selecon, ETC & Thomas units.

The d&B audio system is controlled by a Yamaha LS9 32 & DME64. This makes it possible to switch easily between FOH and Cinema mode at the touch of a button on the Crestron control system, which also provides complete AV & lighting control. The transformation to a digital cinema was enabled by the installation of a Christie Digital Roadstar HD1

UK - Flare Audio is pleased to announce that it will shortly be opening a new R&D and demo facility in West Sussex, UK. Building work is currently underway and is on schedule to complete shortly. The 6000sqft building will also house the company's new head office.

In other news from Flare, the company welcomes D&E international as its official distributer in Hong Kong. Davies Roberts from Flare Audio comments: "We are very pleased to welcome D&E International into our network and we look forward to a long and successful business relationship with them. We are honoured to have such an established company join our international network so early."

The Flare Audio team are currently developing a new compact, multi format high pack (due late Spring 2011) that can be used as a true line source enclosure, point source enclosure or close field monitor. "Using technology

Hungary - The culmination of the city of Pécs 2010 tenure as a European Capital of Culture was December's opening of the Kodály Centre, a new, multi-million euro concert and conference venue. It features a major Yamaha audio installation.

Inaugurated by Hungarian president Pál Schmitt, state secretary of culture Géza Sz?cs and Pécs mayor Zsolt Páva, the multi-purpose venue was opened on the 128th anniversary of eminent Hungarian composer and music teacher Zoltán Kodály's birth, after whom the centre is named.

Featuring a total area of 11,000sq.m, the facility cost €22m and includes a 999-capacity concert hall, recording studio, two conference rooms (one which also functions as a ballet room, the other which can be divided into two sections with a movable wall), rehearsal rooms, changing rooms and offices for the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yamah

USA - Theatre Projects, in collaboration with Gehry Partners and Frank Gehry (partner in charge), has completed its most recent project in theatre design, with the opening of the New World Symphony campus this week in Miami Beach, Florida. Theatre Projects executed the design for The New World Centre as a technologically and visually advanced music laboratory intended for the highest quality of music education and performance. Theatre Projects played a key role in the theatre design and planning as well as in designing the customized performance equipment.

Theatre Projects worked closely with Frank Gehry, Gehry Partners and Yasu Toyota, Nagata Acoustics (the same team that collaborated on the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles) to bring to life a space that blends concert hall, theatre, global stage, and teaching facility into a single, large-scale concert and projection ha

UK / USA - 2010 was a busy year for Kings Of Leon, who have been touring since summer in support of their new album, Come Around Sundown, with Midas XL8 live performance systems at FOH and monitors.

The Midas systems have been supplied by Eighth Day Sound in North America, and Britannia Row Productions in the UK and Europe. "We decided to go with the XL8 because it offers everything you could ask for in a console," says Saul Skoutarides, a UK-based Australian engineer who has been mixing monitors for Kings Of Leon since mid-2009 "Most importantly, it gives us the sound we need, both out front and on stage. It's the best sounding console I've ever used."

This is FOH engineer Brent Rawlings' first tour with a digital desk, having never found one that met his audio standards. His previous console of choice was the Midas XL4. It was the automatic latency

UK - Black Light helped Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrate the end of 2010 in spectacular style by designing, installing and operating a series of technically sophisticated lighting shows for the city's celebrations.

"This was our most exciting Edinburgh's Hogmanay ever," says Stephen Reid, Black Light's head of events. "We used some really exciting new equipment to produce jaw-dropping effects that did full justice to the global importance of the event."

To kick-start the proceedings, the company lit the Son et Lumiére finale to the annual torch-light procession on the night of 30 December. This culminated with a dynamic lighting display that brought the architecture of the capital's Calton Hill to life. This display, which was designed in conjunction with Unique Events and programmed by Black Light's technicians, used over 50 intelligent fixtures, incl

France - Budillon Rabatel has invested €15m in upgrading its alluvial quarry at Izeaux, in south eastern France. For the special inauguration, the company called upon sound, light and video specialists, Euro Sono Alex T'Rem, to supply lighting for this tomb-like location, spread over 100 hectares.

The exact location of this gravel pit is called Mollard Mouton, and many political and economic celebrities visited the Region iséroise for the occasion. The lighting system featured six PR Lighting XLED 590 LED moving head washlights, which had to perform in the difficult conditions. These were accompanied by effects from StarWay - all working in harmony to create a spectacular show under the open skies.

According to Alexandre Jeannerod, manager of Euro Sono, while conditions were hazardous, this could not prevent the lighting from functioning perfectly. He said that the pow

UK Sound reinforcement for the 2010 Conservative Party Conference, held at Birmingham's ICC's Symphony Hall in early October, was provided by RDC Audio for the third year running, working with the Conference's production company Blueway. A DiGiCo SD9 console was at FOH.

"We purchased the SD9 via Wigwam sales department and there are a number of reasons why it's ideal for this kind of job," says RDC's Steven Neave. "They include the physical number of faders on the surface, the split banks of faders, flexibility of fader assignment and the straightforward layout and patching, all of which make for very fast access around the desk. "The stereo channels, Cat 5 multicore and external overview screen were additional reasons why we invested in the SD9."

Audio planning for the conference began in May, which included site visits and discussions with broadcaste

UK - Leeds College of Music (LCM) recently took delivery of two Audient ASP8024 mixing consoles as part of an upgrade of their current studio facilities. The Audient desks were supplied together with Lynx converters and Drawmer outboard gear by Funky Junk, and will be used by the college's Music Production degree students for recording, mixing, production and mastering.

"Previously we had digital desks that were getting a bit old so we traded them in for good analogue desks," explains LCM's senior studio technician, Keith Smith. "The studios didn't have any outboard gear at all before, so we bought a few units so that students can get used to patching and mixing outside of the computer."

BA (Hons) Music Production course leader, Craig Golding says, "The Audient ASP8024 console provides the College with a quality analogue platform for use in delivering

The Netherlands - Supertramp co-founder Roger Hodgson is currently touring with Front of House engineer Howard Heckers, a DiGiCo SD9 and a pair of DiGiRacks.

"The reasons we chose the SD9 are its sound-quality, flexibility and its size - it is very compact to travel with," says Heckers. "Sometimes we have a flight to catch after every other show; the SD9 makes it easy for us to travel and still use our own FOH desk."

Another feature he likes about the SD9 is that they can only use one stage rack if Roger is playing a solo show, or use both when he is doing shows with a full band.

The console was supplied by DiGiCo's Dutch distributor TM Audio. "When we delivered the SD9 to Howard's studio, he was familiar with the complete console within an hour - it is that easy to learn," says the company's Jaap Pronk.

"When Roger and I hooked up the ge

UK - The Le Mark Group team raised £5,934.00 for the RNLI. Managing director Stuart Gibbons welcomed Mark Spruce from the RNLI and received their official thanks on behalf of the entire staff of Le Mark. "Despite difficult trading conditions for many companies, Le Mark continued to grow and expand their workforce during 2010" stated Gibbons. "We felt that as an established company blessed with staff originating from different parts of the world, who all showed excellent social awareness, we wanted to help those less fortunate in some way."

The company raised the money by committing a percentage of their net profit to the RNLI. This way every person in every department contributed through their own individual efforts to make a definite difference to the overall sum raised.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Riverside Studios, on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, were looking for a suitable alternative to PARcans and scrollers, "something equating to an expensive show run hire," according to Ruari Cormack, technical director of the Riverside Studios Trust. They turned to Martin Professional's MAC 101 LED moving head luminaire.

"As a venue, we are aware of the need to cut costs and using LED technology lets us replace banks of lights to give a variety of colour palettes whilst using a fraction of the energy," states Cormack, whose role it is to liaise and co-ordinate all technical theatre matters for the venue's two theatre spaces, as well as any events in the cinema, gallery and café bar areas. "With our high turnover of productions, these units will give us greater flexibility to meet each show's demands."

Riverside St

Czech Republic - The Czech Republic joined forces with its close neighbour the Slovak Republic to pool resources and potential star material in their roll out of the Got Talent TV show, which was staged in Exhibition Hall Z of the Brno Exhibition Centre, CZ, and lit by Slovakian lighting designer, Martin Kubanka.

Robe fixtures were again at the core of Kubanka's lighting rig and they were supplied by Slovakian rental company, Q-99.

The Robe elements of the rig were 34 x ColorSpot 1200E ATs, 26 x ColorWash 1200E ATs, 20 x ColorSpot 250 ATs, 12 x ColorBeam 2500E ATs, 12 x REDWash 3-192s, 18 x ColorMix 575 ATs, 10 x LEDBlinder 196 LT and for the first time, 14 x Robin 600E Beams and 12 ColorBeam 2500E ATs.

These were positioned around the upstage LED wall and scenic LED elements at the rear and to the side of the stage, overhead on the trusses and on podiums underneath t

The Netherlands - Keeping the audio flag flying high during ISE's educational programme at the Amsterdam RAI will be QSC Audio Products.

An extensive programme of back-to-back presentations over the three days will feature QSC's Q-Sys Integrated System Platform for digital audio control, processing and networking.

QSC's senior systems personnel will take "a scientific approach to room reinforcement, demonstrating how by combining QSC's patented and matched component technologies (such as Intrinsic Correction, Frequency Shading Topology and DMT) an advanced imaging solution can be created".

Led by product application specialist, Martin Barbour, and senior product manager Dale Sandberg, supported by Shure GmbH Q-Sys specialists, Clemens Sturm and Torsten Haack, the 50-minute sessions will cover the company's major core innovations through amplifiers, loudspeakers and

China - Located in the new city of Pearl River, the Guangzhou Opera House has become one of China's three biggest theatres. Constructed from 12,000 tons of steel on a 70,000sq.m site, the Opera House includes an 1,800-seat and a 400-seat theatre, both of which have been installed with Midas digital systems and analogue consoles, and Klark Teknik signal processing.

The Guangzhou Opera House was designed by London-based architect Zaha Hadid to represent two boulder-like structures of different sizes, with a theatre located in each. The Grand Theatre in the main structure has been installed with an XL8 live performance system in the control room, together with a Heritage 2000. A second XL8 has been added to the networked system for stage monitoring, and can be moved depending on the application.

A PRO6 live audio system and a Verona have been installed into the control room of th

UK - Edinburgh may dominate UK media coverage of the annual New Year's Eve celebrations, but Hogmanay is celebrated throughout the rest of Scotland just as enthusiastically. A prime example is Stirling, where the countdown to midnight takes place against the spectacular backdrop of the city's castle, a variety of live performances entertaining thousands of people. Helping to bring the chimes and skirl o' the pipes to the 2010/11 revellers were a pair of Yamaha mixing consoles.

The event was managed by Zisys Events, which also provided the technical production. The multi-artist line-up was mixed on Yamaha M7CL-48ES consoles at front of house and monitors, linked to three SB168-ES stage boxes via an Ethersound network.

The evening featuring a range of acts, including the Heart of Scotland Choir, tribute act Madnish, 2010 X Factor contestant Wagner, fellow former reality TV (and

Qatar - Stage One were brought on board recently for the inauguration of the first three phases of Qatar's new Nakilat Shipyard, located in the port of Ras Laffan. Invited on board by Tim Eilliot of WRG Qatar, Stage One were asked to provide a package of scenic items for the event, which was attended by The Emir of the State of Qatar along with 650 guests and held within the new facilities.

The Martin Sutherland designed set made the most of the event venues vast interior, with a performance area extending 75m away from the guests. Stage One were asked to provide the 45m x 13m seating block, a 50m x 10m stage, a mother grid and truss; tracking dollies, four performer flying points complete with Qmotion control, several large-scale props, and the interface with a temporary De Boers structure (used as an exhibition and dining area).

The props included a trucking 11m high Dutch-s

France - ADB France has completed a major upgrade of the stage lighting dimmers at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, replacing the dimmers originally installed for the theatre's opening in 1989. The new installation features ADB's Eurodim Twin Tech hybrid dimming technology.

It joins other ADB installations at Paris locations including the Opéra Garnier and the television broadcast studios of the TF1 and M6 channels.

The Opéra Bastille is the product of a competition sponsored by President Françoise Mitterrand to create a new, modern, world class opera house for the city, to mark the 200th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. Designed by Carlos Ott, it seats 2,723 and opened on July 13 1989.

The first competitive tests between four leading dimmer brands were carried out in November 2009, and in February 2010 the opera's technical team made the decisi

Italy - Two more low-environmental impact events have featured Axiom - the concerts organised for Festambiente in Rispescia, Grosseto, and the FIOM rally in Rome's San Giovanni Square.

Ecoluce, the technical service provider, chose alternative energy production sources to power Proel's Audio equipment. Ecoluce's system is composed of two photovoltaic panels that turn solar energy into electric power. During the events the system is located directly on stage where it constantly charges the accumulation batteries. With its 'eco-monitors' Ecoluce continuously updates the data pertaining to consumption and saved CO2 to raise the audience's awareness on energy produced with renewable sources and good energy-saving practices.

For over two weeks, the XXII edition of Festambiente (Environment Festival) featured shows and concerts by artists such as Pino Daniele, Max Gazzè, Peppe Volt

USA - Audinate has announced today that Rome-based ZP Engineering has become the first Audinate authorized distributor and engineering partner in EMEA.

"We're very excited that ZP Engineering has stepped up to become our first authorized distributor and engineering partner. ZP and Audinate have a long standing relationship. Audinate's respect and confidence in ZP's capabilities are second to none," stated John McMahon, VP of worldwide sales and support. "Having ZP Engineering providing Dante products with their design and integration support will allow small to medium OEMs quicker access to our complete line of products and services."

"The strengthened relationship with Audinate allows us to better leverage our integration capabilities with the industry-proven Dante networking solution" stated Umberto Zanghieri, co-founder of ZP Engineering. "

Italy - Aethra.net and AMSI (a combination of three different companies: BCS Srl, Essedi Srl and For Sistemi Srl), have signed a commercial agreement for selling Ceelab's professional videoconferencing products, built on Sony technology, and the Visual Nexus Infrastructure, whose Aethra.net holds the exclusivity for the entire Italian Market.

"In line with our strategy of growing in the Italian Market through the distribution of Ceelab's products and the Visual Nexus infrastructure," says Chris Romei, product business unit sales director. "We are pleased to announce this important agreement with AMSI, since they are a great partner and very competent both in the videoconferencing and distance collaboration environment, essential to cover those strategical growing segments present in the market"."

"The three companies merged in Amsi have started th

South Africa - Over 40,000 cricket fans packed the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa, to see India clinch victory over the Proteas (South Africa) in Sunday's Standard Bank International Pro20 international cricket tournament, in the process, making history as the biggest crowd ever to watch a cricket match on the African continent.

A knife edge finish fuelled the vibe, but theoretically it would have been a win-win scenario whichever team had triumphed for SA's substantial Indian community in Durban, who needed no extra reasons to party as they also experienced history with the New Age Friendship Celebration Concert.

This visual extravaganza of spectacular proportions was the first ever such post cricket match entertainment event, with the additional resonance of celebrating the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in Africa.

The concert was conceived and

UK - Continuing Audio Light Systems involvement in the education sector, the company completed the installation of a drama theatre and recording studios at the new build school, Suffolk One, for 16 to 19 year olds. Audio Light Systems installed the lighting grid and dimmers, facility panels, sound systems, projectors and screen as well as the control system.

There are two sound systems in the drama theatre. One system covers the audience space using four Turbosound TCX-15 speakers powered from QSC PLX amplifiers. Audio routing is done via an Allen and Heath iDR8 digital signal processor. The second sound system covers the stage area which can be split into two areas. These rooms have a portable flight cased trolley each, used to put audio into either one or both rooms via Australian Monitor XRS12 speakers.

The lighting system is made up of eight internally wired lighting bars,

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