Spain - Stonex and LumenRadio will join forces at the AFIAL trade show in Madrid this week to showcase the CRMX wireless technology and products.

Stonex is a long time leading distributor and installer of lighting and entertainment technology in Spain and distributes a host of top brands such as ETC, MA Lighting, Clay Paky, and Anolis.

"Our open house with LumenRadio last year sparked enormous interest in the CRMX technology.

Several of our largest theatres and venues have since then gone wireless with the products from LumenRadio; establishing CRMX as the de-facto industry standard in Spain", says Javier Latorre, manager of the engineering division of Stonex. "It is also very encouraging for us to watch how fast the wireless trend now spreads throughout the rest of the entertainment and general lighting community here - the CRMX products have become 'must hav

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies underlined its commitment to ongoing training when its Leeds office staged a Training Open Day for students on the BTEC Extended Diploma in Production Arts (Technical) at Oldham College.

Adam Beaumont, head of AC-ET's rigging sales division, James Bawn from the lighting division and Stuart Moots from the audio division co-ordinated the event, which involved their collective skills, experience and resources, plus some of the industry's leading rigging, lighting and audio products. The equipment was taken to the college for the day and set up a series of live interactive demonstrations in the purpose built Grange Arts Centre performance facility. Both Moots and Bawn are former students of the college.

The courses being studied are for Entertainment Technician and Stage Technician qualifications, and include modules on lighting & sound enginee

Korea - Yonsei Central Baptish Church, the first L-Acoustics V-DOSC church installation in Asia, has now become the first in Asia to install a K1 WST line source system.

Located in Seoul, the church is one of Asia's most impressive Houses of Worship. The entire site occupies a total area of 32,677sq.m and over 120 rooms, and is equipped with around 200 L-Acoustics cabinets. The K1 system has been installed into the main Jerusalem sanctuary, a 13,000 seat hall with a single balcony occupying three floors of the building, with no visible obstructions such as supporting pillars, allowing everyone a unobstructed view of the service.

The K1 installation came about when Mr Park Byung Jun, who heads the church broadcasting team, and Mr Lee Hwan Chul, head of the project team, together with Scott Sung, L-Acoustics product manager for local distributor Dream Sound, needed to conceal so

UK - Architainment Lighting Ltd has announced a new distribution partnership with European LED manufacturer, Atlantic Star. As an exclusive UK distributor, Architainment will be supplying the ORBIS range of modular and scalable LED display systems.

Based in Latvia, Atlantic Star specialises in designing and manufacturing practical, low maintenance, and reliable LED lighting systems for event designers and architects. Architainment will be distribution partners for the entire ORBIS range as it grows and develops, but will initially focus on the distribution of the ORBIS-120.

A series of 360° viewable pixels, the ORBIS-120 is made up of LEDs and control circuits, housed inside a white diffusing plastic sphere. The fitting has been designed to build up three dimensional structures, two dimensional backdrops and also curved or irregular 2D/3D shapes. Fibre optic technology is

UK - Millennium Studios located in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire is part of the ELP group meaning lighting, rigging and staging services are on tap for visiting productions.

But according to owner Ronan Willson, it's the space and flexibility which make this newly redeveloped site an attractive proposition for 'full production' tour rehearsals.

The 'A' Stage can accommodate arena size tours, the dimensions being 27.5m (l) x 18.8m (w) x 12m (h). There are two 4-star dressing rooms, production offices, wardrobe and make-up facilities, on site catering and 24/7 security.

"It's the ideal place to get everything working perfectly before you take your show on the road" says Ronan Willson.

Recording facilities and 'live room' band rehearsal space are nearing completion which will add another dimension to the on-site service offering.

Millennium is centrally located within t

USA - Usher has followed the release of his new album Versus with the OMG Tour, his first big-budget spectacle since 2004. Embarking on a 25-date tour of America, the platinum-selling artist remarked that his show would be "more technical" and predicted his fans would be left "blown away with gasps of OMG".

Usher's futuristic, high-concept show presented a complex challenge for lighting designer Peter Morse and associate LD Eric Wade. "We had to design around a lot of fly gags and moving set pieces," notes Wade who heads FOHShow, a lighting services company. "The rig is designed to look big but not be completely massive; it's large but not over the top. It fills two trucks and features between 160-200 fixtures."

For the OMG Tour, the designers selected 24 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s, supplied by production company Upst

Norway - Le Mark's StudioTak Studio Flooring is the floor of choice for Norway based NRK/Norweigan Broadcasting.

"Excellent service and great products, we used the StudioTak for the show Artistgalla for TV2 in Norway," says NRK's Thomas Nysveen." We have used the product for some years now. Today's HD TV require a perfect finish without visible joints on the floor, and that's why we choose the StudioTak from Le Mark. It's is easy to use, and gives a perfect result as long as you have a clean surface to put it on."

(Jim Evans)

UK - London-based The Projection Studio was commissioned to create a magical work on the Almond Pavilion in Saltwell Park, Gateshead for the NewcastleGateshead Initiative's 2010 Enchanted Parks event. This popular pre-festive occasion featured a collection of 25 family friendly 'after dark' art installations that ran for a week.

Enchanted Parks was presented by the NewcastleGateshead Initiative in association with Magnetic Events, and funded by Gateshead Council, the Arts Council England and the Northern Rock Foundation. Projection Studio's Ross Ashton has worked on previous projects for Magnetic Events and their producer Robin Morley, including the opening of Sunderland Aquatic Centre in 2008, the North East's first Olympic sized swimming pool.

The Almond Pavilion has been restored to replicate the original appearance of the 1881 building - it also loosely resem

USA - Lighting designer John Featherstone (of Lightswitch) has been working with both Kid Rock and The Judds recently - providing media and content for the former while designing a sensitive set blending lighting and video, to mark The Judds' swansong Last Encore tour.

Running throughout the second half of the year, The Judds' tour proved to be both a finale and a reunion, as mother Naomi has largely been off the road since 1991.

As the tour's production designer, Featherstone worked closely with production manager Art Rich, lighting director Dennis Connors, lighting suppliers Upstaging and Vision Visuals (who provided the video equipment).

To ensure the stage concept was sympathetic to the occasion, the designer called on a rich armoury (and eclectic mix) of cutting-edge generic and moving lights, as well as LED washlights , employing products from the GLP range to d

UK - The teams from James Thomas Engineering and PixelRange team were out in force at the Gielgud Theatre within London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) to showcase a selection of new products with the keen help of RADA'S head of lighting Matt Prentice. The two brands are closely linked with the Academy as JTE have supported the students at RADA for a few years.

On display was the new PixelSmart LED multi-role luminaire amongst other LED innovations. Now in production, PixelSmart has featured on the televised Royal Variety Performance as well as recent tours with Andi Watson - the LD behind the ideas for the product.

Also available for preview was JTE's new X-Truss that can be flat packed to be 60% more space efficient - saving both time and money.

Paul Young, general manager for the two companies, commented, "The day was a great success. We were able to ta

USA - When the legendary Grand Ole Opry House was struck by a devastating flood on May 2, 2010, the damage to the entire facility was extensive. With less than six months to get the Opry House back up and ready to go for the Opry's 85th Anniversary Celebration, lighting director Tyler Bryan was faced with what would easily be his biggest challenge ever; the complete redesign and installation of the facility's entire lighting system.

On the day of the flood, Bryan and a number of other Opry staff members were floating through the Opry House in canoes to survey the damage. Determined to make the anniversary celebration a reality, Bryan called upon his longtime dealer, Bandit Lites, and together they developed a new rig that consisted of 55 Vari*Lite luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"We were looking toward upgrading our system at some point, but we never thought it

Australia - Campbelltown RSL recently amalgamated with Cabra-Vale Ex-Active Servicemen's Club and as a result a number of refurbishment programs were undertaken. Particular attention was paid to creating a much friendlier atmosphere for members, guests and visitors by opening up the very large lounge area so that much of the club's facilities could be seen from different vantage points. However this goal presented a major problem - how do you stage a variety of entertainment in one area of this vastness whilst simultaneously running other functions?

The closeness of the bar, restaurant and poker machine area meant that with a traditional audio set up, problems would be encountered relating to loud music and its exposure to patrons and staff.

The Club's general manager Tony Jackson contacted Jbn Sound Solutions . "Jbn assured us that the noise levels at the bar, restaurant

UK - Creative Technology (CT), the worlds leading supplier of AV and technical staging services, welcomed over 250 of their clients and friends to a series of Open Days entitled "Video Another Dimension", held at the Riverside Studios in London on 26 and 27 January.

A joint production with sister company Presteigne Charter, the event provided a unique opportunity to learn more about the technology and processes involved in creating and displaying 3D content in the events market. Showcasing a variety of applications and products specialising in the 3D genre, the higher than expected attendance and the level of interest of all who came, clearly demonstrated the impact this revolutionary display medium is expected to have on the events market.

Dedicating the event to introducing and demonstrating a range of new technologies featuring that extra dimension, the video and

UK - Brilliant Stages, UK-based fabricators of specialist staging reports that its work was internationally represented in three of the top five tours of 2010.

According to Pollstar's recent listings of the Top 50 worldwide concert tours, the numbers two, three and four slots were occupied by AC~DC, U2 and Lady Gaga respectively, to all of whom Brilliant Stages was a key supplier.

AC~DC's Black Ice tour originally kicked off in 2008 and marked the first appearance of the band for eight years. Brilliant Stages designed and manufactured the infrastructure for the spectacular focal point, the Rock 'n' Roll Train. Conceived by Fisher Studio's Jeremy Lloyd and Mark Fisher, the life-size steam train incorporated lighting, pyrotechnics, smoke, C02, headlights, a brass bell and deployable, light-up devil horns.

Totalling 6000kg, the locomotive could be pushed up

Olivier Awards - Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies leads the way at the Laurence Olivier awards with seven nominations. The Andrew Lloyd Webber show is up for best new musical, while its stars Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess and Summer Strallen are in line for acting prizes. The National's revival of Terence Rattigan's After the Dance has six nods, while the Donmar's King Lear and the musical Legally Blonde have five. The awards will be held at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 13 March.

Love Never Dies, which received mixed reviews when it opened in March last year, is also nominated for best lighting, set and costume design. Its nominations follow a four-day closure in November, during which some changes were made to the show. Love Never Dies and Legally Blonde will compete against Fela! and Love Sto

UK - Over 6500 visitors have confirmed their attendance at London's entertainment and installation technology trade show, one month after registration opened on 1 January 2011. The unprecedented surge in visitor registrations represents a 30% increase on the same period in 2010.

Organisers PLASA Events put the increase down to the quality of the products launched at the event with events manager Sophie Atkinson commenting, "The PLASA Show is a favourite place for companies to launch ground breaking innovations to an international market. There's a real opportunity for companies to make a big splash and our exhibitors are taking full advantage of that."

She adds: "The past few years at the PLASA Show have seen the industry's standout audio, lighting, video and stage technology products receive their international débuts. From the high profile mixing consol

Denmark - Matrix Group has set its mission to "become one of the most important players in the market segment of product supply to the entertainment industry".

"An important part of the mission for Matrix Group is to become a facility house with the right people, the best product lines and be market leader with high skills and knowledge about the things that we work with," says chairman of Matrix Group, Claus Reher-Langberg. "The investment behind Matrix Group is on a solid capital base, and we will become a major player in the industry. We have worked on this for a long time and the companies that are brought in to the group are a future investment, and we look forward to growing further."

He continues, "Our organisation is up and running and we are proud to announce that Moto Audio Sales, Nordic Sales & Staging and Signal Audio are now part

UK - White Light has been selected as the lighting supplier for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production of the classic musical The Wizard of Oz. With Daniel Hope, chosen by the public through the BBC's Over the Rainbow, taking the lead role, the show will open at the London Palladium in March.

Directed by Jeremy Sams, choreographed by Arlene Phillips and designed by Robert Jones, the creative team behind Lloyd Webber's earlier revival of The Sound of Music in the same theatre, the production will feature the classic Harold Arlen-E Y Harburg songs from the MGM film alongside new songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and his original writing partner, lyricist Tim Rice.

The lighting for the show is being designed by Hugh Vanstone, the Olivier Award winner for best lighting in 1999, 2001 and 2004, Tony Award nominated in 2005 and 2009, and whose lighting for Shrek

UK - Ten Christie Roadster HD10K-M 3-chip DLP projectors were deployed by rental and staging company A to V recently, when Travel Weeklymagazine hosted the Globe Travel Awards before 1000 guests at London's Grosvenor House Hotel.

The awards are voted for solely by travel agents, and the event is widely regarded as the pinnacle of the travel industry calendar. Hence production company, Three Media Creative (Three MC), designed a highly creative technical infrastructure that would befit the occasion, which was hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr.

Manchester-based A to V had been introduced to the event by local VT house Editz, who were assisting Three MC with the content for the show.

Working alongside Three MC's creative director, Steve Csanyi, A to V rigged three stacked pairs of projectors to fire onto a 40ft x 10ft edge blended main screen, while the remaining four

USA - At this year's NAMM Convention, Community Professional Loudspeakers bestowed their annual Rep of the Year Award on Long Beach, CA-based Mac West Group.

"Mac West has been instrumental in some of our most important projects in Southern California and Arizona, and we're proud to have them in our corner," said Rod Falconer, Community's western regional manager.

"We were surprised and delighted to get this award," added Mac West's principal Steve McNeil. "It is a pleasure and privilege to work with a group of professionals as talented and dedicated as the people at Community. Their outstanding support for us, and for our customers out in the field, makes us look good. Their passion for the art and science of sound really shines through."

(Jim Evans)

UK - The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, one of the most majestic architectural complexes in London, has installed a powerful sound reinforcement System by Proel.

London Audio, the company in charge of the audio system design, had to choose loudspeakers that could match the style of the historical building. The system configuration includes 15 custom-painted 100V constant voltage EDGE25PW, installed on special purpose-designed pedestals .

The Proel audio system was installed in the Painted Hall, one of the largest reception halls in Europe. The hall is located in King William Court and it is decorated with James Thorhill's baroque frescoes. It is famous for having hosted Lord Horatio Nelson's body after his death at in October 1805 when the British Fleet defeated Napoleon's Fleet. The grand opening with the new sound system took place during the celebrations to commemora

UK - The Australian Pink Floyd Show (TAPFS) are back on tour with a series of headline shows across the UK and Europe featuring 3D stereographic visuals.

The band has recruited Hollywood visual effects specialist John Attard who has worked on films such as Gladiator, Last Samurai, Harry Potter, Holes and many more. Attard realised that by augmenting the shows with 3D elements he could bring the level of audience involvement in the show to a whole new dimension.

The 3D used in TAPFS is the same as that used in cinemas. The Audience wears 3D polarised glasses, stereo images are then sent to the eyes and the brain sees the whole thing in 3D.

(Jim Evans)

UK - TC Group International (TCGI), the sales organisation responsible for all Tannoy sales (outside North and South America) has made two major changes to distribution arrangements recently, with Professional Audio NI becoming an exclusive sub-distributor in Northern Ireland and Noretron Audio appointed as new distributor in Finland.

Belfast based Professional Audio NI, a sister company of Sennheiser Ireland, will now handle all sales of Tannoy loudspeaker products in Northern Ireland (except VQ Live) as well as looking after all business for sister companies Lab.gruppen and Lake. The company's MD, Chris Campbell comments: "We're delighted to be working with TCGI in representing some of the most respected brands in the business in Tannoy, Lake and Lab.gruppen. With our local expertise and customer base, and the excellent product portfolio now available to us, we're confide

UK - Lighting designer Nathan Wan used Robe moving lights at the core of his rig for the Fifth Gear Live Action Arena at the 2011 Autosports International show, staged in Hall 5 of Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre.

The Live Action Arena - the largest indoor tri oval racetrack in the UK - took up the entire hall, with a performance area of approximately 120m wide by 100 deep, and was the focus of the exhibition for the most serious petrol heads, speed freaks and performance car enthusiasts. They were treated to a series of races and stunts by some of the fastest vehicles on four - and three - wheels for 55 minutes of burning rubber, screeching brakes and adrenalized excitement. The five show-a-day schedule on the two public days attracted up to 4700 people per session packing the grandstand to capacity!

It was the third year that Wan has lit the show - working for

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