UK - Currently being packaged for Video on Demand and DVD release, Imogen Heap's live show at the Royal Albert Hall was the largest High-Definition shoot to date for London agency Bluman Associates.

"Equipping for an 11-camera shoot, providing screens for the concert, and mixing feeds for a webcast by Rebild Productions to half a million viewers has been our most demanding assignment as a production company," says MD Pod Bluman.

The Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Imogen Heap is an outspoken advocate of using new technology to interact and collaborate with her fans. At the end of 2010, she took to the Royal Albert Hall, with friends and family, a 67-piece orchestra, 40-piece choir and her own band, and some adventurous creative ideas.

Imogen Heap was conducting the orchestra and choir herself, as they performed her original composition, the score to the concep

Italy - Clay Paky VIP 300s were used to create a new concept in illumination along the streets of Parma during the 2010 Christmas celebrations.

The project was conceived when Alessandra Toscani made an offer to a priest in Parma who wanted to project a nativity scene onto the façade of his church (known as the Oratorio dei Rossi). Following this, the city council (through its appointed bodies Gecc and CCN) assessed the possibility of replacing the traditional festive illumination with projected Christmas scenes.

The artistic design was funded by the shops in the street, sponsored by IRES (the power company) and Parma city council, and was entrusted to Alessandra Toscani's agency ....And Arts, with the technical support of Giuseppe Cavatorta's Top Service and Italo Bellocchi's Brait Acoustic. Equipped with these luminaires, the creative team decided to innovate the concept of

UK / World - In December 2010 the wax figure of one of the world's most flamboyant and individual performers - Lady Gaga - simultaneously took to the stage at eight Madam Tussauds attractions around the world.

In London, Madame Tussauds' show services manager, Simon Morris, augmented the press launch lighting with the latest Philips Selecon LED lighting fixture - the PL1.

Morris's brief was to achieve high energy, live music atmosphere that would excite the media without compromising the press photographers' ability to capture clear shots of the Lady Gaga figure. "My brief for the main lighting state was to emulate a photographic studio shoot," says Morris. "Our biggest challenge was achieving the same colour temperature as studio flash lighting, while conveying a theatrical and suitably dramatic style.

"The PL1 certainly delivered on its promise. Its ful

UK - The M-48 Live Personal Mixers from the Roland Systems Group are on the road with We Will Rock You which is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a UK tour, and PA rental provider Sonalyst has supplied eight Roland personal monitoring systems, one for each player in the live band.

Sonalyst has supplied this touring production with a high-spec system, the key elements of which are distinguished by their space and weight-saving characteristics. Front-of-house PA is a combination of the self-powered Meyer Sound Mica and M'elodie with Upa and M1d fills, mix control is DiGiCo's compact SD7 digital console, and performers are wearing the miniature headmics from DPA Microphones. New to the show are the Roland M-48 personal mixers which now handle the monitoring requirements for the 8-piece band.

"I was on the hunt for something new and suggested these units to the WWR

France - Located in the south of Paris, the Stade Sébastien Charléty is an arena with a long history. Since 1939, the 20,000-seater stadium has provided the setting for a wide variety of sporting events.

Last year, the stadium management embarked upon a series of major renovations. As well as an architectural facelift, they were keen for the stadium to receive a powerful sound reinforcement system capable of satisfying a wide variety of tasks. The invitation to tender was won by the Clichy-based company INEO GDF Suez for its Electro-Voice and Dynacord -based installation concept.

"In addition to Electro-Voice and Dynacord's numerous world-class references in the field of stadium sound reinforcement, a strong factor in our favour was that we were capable of performing the installation within the tight three-month schedule," says Ahmed Benali, manager of

UK - Eurohire Sound and Light, a long established turnkey supplier for Europe's events and entertainments industries, recently expanded its EAW inventory with the addition of 16 KF740 Three-Way Line Array Modules. The Basingstoke, Hampshire, England-based company is the latest professional sound and lighting company in the UK to add the KF740 modules to its extensive inventory of EAW products.

"When EAW's UK sales manager Kevin McNally first mentioned they were coming out with the KF740 and gave us the rough dimensions of the box, being smaller and more manageable than some of our current inventory, I knew this would be something we would be interested in," stated Eurohire owner Mervin George. "We've had the KF760's for some time, which are great for outside in the summer, long-range or arena-type shows, but we wanted to get into a new system opening up the possib

Finland - Lighting designers Martin Kuhn (GER), Per Sundin (SWE), Tülay Schakir (FIN) and Mikki Kunttu (FIN) created lighting installations for the third Season of Light event in Helsinki between New Year and 9 January. In comparison to 2010 the event expanded this year and installations were created on new sites.

Mikki Kunttu once again relied on two grandMA2 light - one in Tracking-Backup-Mode - and one MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) for the necesary processing power. His project was called Grace. Kunttu explained,"Grace originated from a religious or spiritual point of view. After creating two works on the Helsinki Cathedral in previous years, I wanted to make a piece that completely supports the universal message of the church. We tend to look at this building and appreciate its architecture, but this time I wanted to bring the heart of the churc

UK - The Black Light Open Day, Scotland's biggest lighting, sound, AV and stage technology show will open its doors on 18 and 19 March in Edinburgh. It has over 40 confirmed exhibitors and will showcase a wide range of products from leading manufacturers.

"This is the only event of its kind in Scotland," says Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "Our annual open days have always been really popular and this year's will be the biggest and best yet. It will be a great opportunity to see the latest developments in the industry and will save people in Scotland the trouble of going down to the London shows."

The event, which will run from 10am until 4.30pm on each day, is designed to be of real value to anyone working in the theatre, events or architectural sectors. Over the two days visitors will be able to talk to manufacturers and get a ha

UK - A Midas PRO6 making its touring debut with the Manic Street Preachers so impressed the band's Emmy-award winning engineer Chris Trimby, he has declared it his preferred console above all others. "It'll be my first choice wherever I go now," says Trimby.

For the Manics tour, in support of the band's 10th studio album Postcards From A Young Man, Trimby chose a PRO6, supplied by UK rental company SSE Audio, for more than 50 dates worldwide.

Midas' biggest achievement, according to Trimby, has been to design a digital board which retains an analogue feel and, of course, the renowned Midas sound. "It's laid out very intuitively," he says. "Everything's only one or two button pushes away, whether you're hitting a channel or hitting the EQ button. You can manoeuvre yourself round the board very quickly. The pre-amps, probably the most important pa

UK - The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is recruiting for creative, production, operational and IT staff for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Last summer, LOCOG announced the appointment of Danny Boyle as artistic director of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, and a team of executive producers led by Steven Daldry to oversee the Olympic and Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies in 2012.

Now roles within the London 2012 Ceremonies Team working at Three Mills Studios in East London are being advertised on the London 2012 website.

Creative roles include producer of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, head of audio visual, head of costume, head of casting and design studio manager. Applications must be made by 23 February 2011 for these roles.

Bill Morris, LOCOG directo

Finland - The third Season Of Light event in Helsinki recently wrapped up to great critical acclaim, with W-DMX playing an integral part of one of the major installations. The event, organized by the City of Helsinki, was held from 31 December to 9 January and showcased lighting designers Martin Kuhn of Germany, Per Sundin of Sweden, and Tulay Schakir and Mikki Kunttu of Finland, who each created lighting installations for some of the main buildings around the city, which included the Esplandi Park Senate Square, Union Street, Kaisaniemi Park, Sanoma House, and Parliament House.

The City Of Helsinki considers Season Of Light to be one of their major annual events with this year seeing over 50.000 spectators walk along the light path from the Senate Square to the Parliament House during its 10 day showcase. The project was covered by CNN International news as well a

USA - Wybron's new Mobile Light Lab will continue its Visuality 2011 Tour in March with events in Northern California, Oregon and Washington.

The Wybron Mobile Light Lab will first head to Fresno, Calif, where it will host events at Michael Garrison Associates and Live Light Inc. on 14 and 15 March respectively. It will then head to Musson Theatrical in Santa Clara, Calif, for a 16 March event and Holzmueller Productions in San Francisco, for a 17 March event. It will wrap up the week on 18 March at Sacramento Theatrical.

The Mobile Light Lab will then head north to Oregon and Washington. Its first event of the second week will be hosted by Bud's Lites, a Molalla, Ore., dealer that will hold a 21 March event at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore. Then it's off to Portland, Ore., for a 22 March event at Stagecraft Portland, and Seattle, Wash., for a 23 March event at Hol

USA - What's so tough about being a roadie? Performing arts venue managers will learn the answer to this question firsthand when they participate in this year's Performing Arts Managers Conference (PAMC) Roadie for a Day boot camp on Saturday, 26 February.

The event will be held at the AT&T Performing Arts Centre in Dallas, as part of the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) annual PAMC conference, which continues through 1 March at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel.

Rigging manufacturer J. R. Clancy has taken a leading role as a sponsor of this year's boot camp, working closely with Millie Dixon, principal consultant at Theatre Projects Consultants and the boot camp leader, and Alex Hargis, manager of the Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Clancy personnel and partners also will lead the rigging section to ensure that participants learn the correct

UK - Richard Martin Lighting supported St. Edmunds School's latest endeavour in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Charity, by donating a moving light package.

The idea was to re create the family favourite BBC show Strictly Come Dancing for which RML is lighting supplier. RML donated MAC 700's and Alpha Wash 300's to the charity event held in Canterbury. The MAC 700's include the animation wheel, often required for optimum lighting effects within a television studio.

Lighting designer Oz Andrews of ZeeLight said, "Thank you so much and the RML team who provided us with MAC 700's and Alpha Wash 300's for Strictly St Edmunds 2011. We raised an impressive figure for Great Ormond Street Charity thanks to the support of so many. The night was a huge success and looked stunning."

(Jim Evans)

Australia Events company Production Works, based in Hobart, Tasmania, has become the first in the country to upgrade its Midas PRO6 digital audio system to a Midas PRO9.

The PRO9 package, supplied by Victoria-based Midas distributor National Audio Systems, tops the Midas PRO Series and features a massive 88 channel input count and 35 buses, with the dual stage boxes offering placement flexibility up to 200m apart and 500m from the FOH position.

Production Works CEO Tony Miller comments, "The PR09 gives us identical features to the PRO6 but with expanded input channels live on the surface. This allows us to tackle larger theatre shows and concert events without the need for multiple consoles. Twenty four extra live channels make a big difference when you have 30 or so radio microphones, and a large chorus or choir with a 30 piece orchestra. Now everything is condensed onto

USA - Custom-designed Lighthouse LED video screens introduce a new fixture on the Los Angeles skyline - Motor Village, Chrysler's Dealership of the Future. Motor Village is a prototype, multi-floor, multi-brand dealership rising just blocks from the Los Angeles Convention Centre, the Staples Centre arena and the L.A. Live sports and entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles.

Built to the architect's specifications, with AV and design consulting by Anthony James Partners, three curved LED video screens rise from the focal point of the dealership - a five-story glass tower -and reach out to the I-110, a downtown freeway carrying over 350,000 drivers past the dealership each day. Each screen is nearly 5.18m wide and 3.05m high, with curvature matching that of the unique building.

"The project was a chance to work with a top-notch design team and one of the world'

USA - GLP German Light Products Inc, based in Sun Valley, California has issued a statement in order to clarify its position regarding its status as an authorised distributor of Global Truss products.

The company says: "GLP Inc is indeed a fully authorized and stocking distributor, of the entire Global Truss range of products manufactured by the Global Truss Corporation. A letter of appointment confirming our appointment can be viewed at our website at www.germanlightproducts.com. GLP Inc. takes its position in the market very seriously and believes in high ethical values. GLP Inc. is not only fully authorized as a distributor, but is also fully insured and fully legal in its activities. "

George Lee, CEO of Global Truss Corporation reinforced: "We are extremely happy to bring GLP US on board as a new distributor in the USA. The business model that they have est

Belgium - ArKaos has announced the appointment of ULA Group as exclusive Australian and New Zealand distributor for the ArKaos range of show and lighting media server products. ArKaos' product line offers software and hardware combinations that allow those working on shows of all scales (and budgets) to incorporate video, projection or LED control into their productions and integrate them with the show's lighting.

"We are delighted to welcome ArKaos to the ULA Group family of products" says ULA Group's managing director, Cuono Biviano. "ArKaos software is a world leading standard of media management technology and complements our VuePix LED screen range. The brand is well established and has a great reputation throughout Australia with its media server technology being utilized for many high-end productions and projects. We are glad to have the opportunity to work

New Zealand - PixelRange has announced the first sale of the PixelPar into New Zealand. Wellington-based MJF Lighting no sooner received the 24 units into its hire inventory than the PixelPars were out on their first lighting assignment.

MJF Lighting purchased the lights - for use at corporate events, concerts, product launches and in theatre - without ever having seen them in action. MD Michael Farrand reports, "We wanted to move forward and invest in LED technology that would suit a touring environment. We believed James Thomas has a very good name for high quality products that would last and service our needs.

"We saw them advertised, checked out their website and compared the PixelPars against other fixtures on paper. Although it was a 'blind' buy, we had done our research and knew exactly what we were purchasing."

The PixelPars have been out on hire almo

UK - StageHand has been chosen as the new 'public facing' name for the Production Services Association (PSA) Welfare & Benevolent Fund after a PSA Conference call for ideas by the Fund's chairman, Mike Lowe of Britannia Row Productions. It comes with a new logo depicting a helping hand.

The new name is registered with the UK Charity Commission in addition to the name 'PSA Welfare & Benevolent Fund', and donations can be made in either name. The charity is also registered with JustGiving.com, which allows the tax value of donations to be reclaimed under the Gift Aid scheme, boosting the value of individual donations significantly at no extra cost to the donor.

"We felt it was time to have a punchier and more memorable handle for the charity," explained Mike Lowe. "We've recently seen a surge in donations, largely thanks to the efforts and generosity of PSA member

UAE - Melody House, based in Dubai is now the distributor of Canadian-based acoustics solutions experts Primacoustics.

"As distributors of microphones, audio interfaces and other related studio products, acoustic products from Primacoustics is a great fit to our product portfolio," commented Dino Drimakis, business development manager at Melody House.

He added, "although we have had great success with off the shelf acoustic products like recoil stabilizers, room kits, bass traps and more, we see great potential for bespoke solutions."

(Jim Evans)

Glastonbury 2011 - Coldplay have been confirmed as one of the three headliners at this year's Glastonbury Festival in Somerset. The band will play the main Pyramid Stage on Saturday 25 June. Organiser Michael Eavis said, "Coldplay have played such a major part in the festival over the last 10 years or so. This is the triumphant return of a band that everyone here feels part of. They're one of the greatest phenomena to grow from these fields." Coldplay last headlined Glastonbury in 2005 and also topped the bill in 2002, three years after first appearing at the festival. Beyonce has also been announced as a headliner and will perform on the Pyramid Stage on the last day of the event, Sunday 26 June.

Eurovision Latest - X Factor twins Jedward have become Ireland's next Eurovision entrants with the song Lipstick. The duo beat four other acts on RTE's Late

UK - When 300 guests sat down at a gala dinner at Australia House, to celebrate Australia Day on 22 January, they could little have anticipated the production awaiting them.

Although the Exhibition Room inside the landmark building - situated on the corner of London's Aldwych and The Strand - has been immortalised by Harry Potter (the opulent room took on the role of Gringotts Bank and has also featured in many other movies), production company Eclipse Presentations had other surprises in store.

Down the staircase in the basement they had created an outback theme (with some inspired props and an outback station pub) for pre-drinks and after dinner disco (the DJ operating from a purpose-constructed 'outback' hut), while in the main auditorium they had fielded a g 12 x 5 Christie MicroTiles media display, supplied by dry hire specialists Paragon Projection.

Eclipse have handle

China - An ETC Eos lighting control desk played a lead role for Cologne Opera last year, as the company took two shows to China.

The company was due to perform Wagner's Ring Cycle in Shanghai to support the World Expo in the city, followed by a journey to Beijing to perform Don Giovanni. However, their house desk, a Transtechnik NTX, was needed in Cologne.

Andreas Frank, head of lighting at Cologne Opera, explains, "Although the show had been programmed for its performances in Cologne using our house desk, we would only have a few days from arriving in Shanghai until the first show. So we had to get a desk which could easily handle moving lights, and not have any difficulty importing the NTX show files.

"Our contacts at ETC in Germany put us in touch with Peter Younes, a freelance programmer and operator, who was very familiar with the Eos desk, and

Latest Issue. . .