UAE - Matrix Audio Visual & Entertainment, a Dubai based rental firm has recently purchased the new HK Audio Elements speaker system from Dubai based distributors Melody House. The rental firm has been using the system for various corporate and DJ events around the city with "an overwhelming response" from both clients and attendees to their functions.

Matrix provides both entertainment and AV services to the UAE and the region. With recent investments in a new facility at the Dubai Investment Park, purchases in AV equipment, the company is growing to meet their existing and new clients' requirements. The recent purchase of the Elements system highlights their focus to reinforce their inventory with modular, scalable and innovative solutions.

"The Elements is a perfect fit for Matrix as they do a variety of shows for their clients," commented Dino Drimakis,

UK - Audio Light Systems has installed a Theatre Plan specified sound system at Notre Dame School, Cobham. The recently completed school theatre required a sound system that would be of high quality and solid reputation.

Twenty-two boxes were supplied including MSE-159, EMS-61, i-5.5, i-2.2 and M-10 loudspeakers. Mixers, processing, source and amplification were also supplied as part of the package.

"The sound was really impressive; EM acoustics really deserve the name they are making for themselves," said Steven Aitchison, project engineer Audio Light Systems.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Black Light gave an explosive finale to the launch of the latest product from Scottish drinks company AG Barr, when it provided a spectacular pyrotechnic display for the unveiling of Fiery Irn-Bru. The launch event was in George Square, Glasgow. It featured former AG Barr chairman, Robin Barr, putting on a pair of oven gloves to pull the first ever bottle of the new drink out of a giant furnace. As the drink was held up to the cheers of the crowd, Black Light's team unleashed columns of fire and fountains of sparks behind him.

"Black Light has a wealth of experience in the field of pyrotechnics and with flame-based effects," said Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "So we were delighted to help out with this high profile product launch. Many of us at Black Light are fans of Irn-Bru so that gave us added motivation to put on a great show.

UK - Mike Glover of Essex Sound & Light (ESL) has spent 2011 engaged in installation projects as far afield as Delhi and Spain - but he saved one of his best creations for a nightclub right on his own Southend doorstep.

Chameleon has been a landmark venue since it first opened as Mr. B's Discotheque in the mid-80s. The venue subsequently underwent many iterations and corporate ownership changes before falling into demise following the collapse of CanDu Entertainment three and a half years ago.

As a result, enterprising local entrepreneur Dick De Vigne (whose eponymous 500-capacity Dick De Vigne's nightclub is the lynch-pin of the burgeoning Warrior Square scene nearby), snapped up Chameleon on Lucy Road from the receivers.

Not only does Lucy Road provide the traditional nightlife heartbeat of Southend but De Vigne also owned this place previously (first as Discotheque Buzz a

UK - Christmas shoppers visiting the Xscape complex in Castleford, West Yorkshire, last weekend were in for a shock as a flash mob of 120 students from six local colleges, together with members of West Yorkshire Police, burst into dance amongst the crowd.

Backstage Academy helped organise the charity event in conjunction with The Prince of Wales Hospice, providing the sound system for the two performances throughout the day.

Sponsored by Scottish and Southern Electricity, the flash mob brought together A-Level Dance and Performing Arts students from NEW College, St Wilfrids Sixth Form, Airedale Academy, Doncaster College, University Centre Doncaster and Wakefield College. The event raised £350 for the Hospice, which provides care for people with a life-limiting illness.

Said Backstage Academy COO Robin Watkinson: "It's been a fantastic experience working with the

India - Game of Legends, a new sports bar located in City Square Mall, Rajouri Garden, New Delhi, has been given a Tannoy sound system by install experts Audio Jewellers.

Design consultants and AV contractors Shitij Harnwal and Narinder Pal Singh from Audio Jewellers worked closely with architect Luvpreet Singh to produce an excellent sounding venue without compromising the aesthetics of the sports bar.

Working with a strict budget and keeping in mind the extensive requirements of an integrated system, Audio Jewellers specified a complete solution that delivers on all counts, turning to Tannoy's new VX Series in one of the first installations of its kind in the region.

The system comprised two Tannoy VX 12 high performance loudspeakers, eight Di5 ultra compact loudspeakers, and six Tannoy Mercury compact stand-mount loudspeakers. These were supplemented by four VS Series sub

UK - December is a time for panto, as Britain's theatres stage their annual Christmas entertainments, all using lighting technology to create the magical effects these shows demand - many turning to entertainment lighting specialist White Light to supply the gear they need.

White Light will this year be supplying 27 pantomimes - including nine Cinderellas, four Aladdins, four Peter Pans, four Sleeping Beauties, three Dick Whittingtons ,one Snow White and one A Christmas Carol. All of these shows, plus many other festive entertainments produced by professionals, schools and amateur companies, are drawing on not just White Light's comprehensive ranges of conventional and moving lights, but also a diverse selection of effects including smoke, haze, UV light, snow, bubbles and pyrotechnics.

White Light is also once again supplying t

UK - Audio Light Systems has completed the AV installation in the Moffat Auditorium at the National Museum of Scotland as part of the £46m epic transformation.

The auditorium which was originally a 1950's screening cinema was fully refurbished & modernised. It now houses an 8m screen, Christie Digital HD10K-M high definition projector which is fed via a Analog Way SME100 seamless switcher. An Allen & Heath iDR system processes and controls the audio from Tascam & Bluray systems.

The Extron & Crestron systems provide easy end user control with an 8.4" WIFI Touch screen.

"Our museum portfolio has increased dramatically in the last few years. We are very proud of our workmanship which leads to repeat business as attention to detail is incredibly important in these environments," says Stephen Dishon, project engineer at Audio Light Systems.

(Jim Evans)

Poland - Laying between Gdansk to the south and Gdynia in the north lays the lesser known resort city of Sopot on the Baltic coast. Here the new Ergo Arena and Entertainment Hall (EAEH) has taken the seemingly perfected sports arena design up another notch.

"In the way of other such buildings the Ergo Arena can accommodate almost all the indoor sports to world championship standard," said Piotr Jankiewicz from Konsbud-Audio who installed the arena's sound system, "hockey, volley and basketball, even combat sports; and from the outset the architectural design has fully addressed the needs of touring shows, you can fly the biggest productions here."

The challenges of the audio system have also been anticipated by the architects (KIPP Projekt of Poland),as Jankiewicz explained. "This is a maximum 15,000 capacity arena for standing events, so it's in the '

UK - MilTec is undergoing a major re-structuring of its manufacturing and distribution operations. The existing company, MilTec (UK) Ltd will control the manufacturing and export businesses of the LEDHead and MT Pro Audio ranges of products. A new company, MT-Pro Ltd, will distribute these products within the UK and Ireland along with their existing ranges of conventional lighting and special effects. The changes will take effect from Tuesday 3 January 2012.

Sales director David Faulkes explains: "We have been increasing our export business over recent months and the time is now right to separate the business into two definable operations. This will enable us to improve our services to our existing and future customers around the world. We will now have better control of design, quality control, availability, export and service functions.

"Continuity is very importan

Germany - Since being signed by Green Hippo Ltd, their exclusive distributor for Germany and Austria, B&K Braun, have had a very successful year boosting Hippotizer media server's presence in this market.

In recent months an increasing number of production companies, technicians and designers have started to use and spec Hippotizer media servers, with high profile shows, such as the German X-Factor utilizing the technology.

In an effort to raise the media server's profile even more and provide extended training options to the region, B&K Braun recently organised a three day training event in conjunction with Green Hippo, which took place 6-8 December.

The training sessions were held at B&K's new training facility and consisted of two full day's basic training and a third day of advanced HippoSchool, aimed at professionals from the industry.

Led by Green Hippo's head of tra

UK - Following the announcement yesterday (20 December) of Westminster School's purchase of Lawrence Hall from the Royal Horticultural Society, organisers of the ABTT 2012 Theatre Show moved swiftly to announce the event will be transferring to a new venue.

The Show's director, Roger Fox, spoke to assure both exhibitors and visitors that the 2012 Show would be going ahead, explaining: "This announcement has come as a surprise to us today and at a time when planning for the 2012 Show was well advanced. Discussions to secure an alternative venue are already in progress, which we see as also an opportunity to offer improved facilities for our exhibitors and visitors."

At present it is unsure if the Show's previously published June 2012 dates will be available at an alternative venue, but all effort is being made to avoid changes to the timing of this important annual ev

Germany - Kaiser Showtechnik recently purchased Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500 lights. When first used to illuminate the iconic Augsburg building, the town hall, the Italian company's moving lights provided proof of their wide performance range.

Managing director Maxx Kaiser explained, "We used 20 of our Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500 lights for the project. The city of Augsburg fully supported us in the project, turning off the Town hall's lighting and street lamps. In return, we lit up the Town Hall with the FC Augsburg football team colours since they were playing the last game valid for promotion, which they won."

Kaiser continued, "The installation was created after the Town hall closed. At around midnight we recorded the first videos and snapshots, and the entire production set was fully removed from the Town hall square before the beginning of the next work

UK - Duran Audio will be running a three day training course at City Hall, Cardiff from 6-8 February 2012. These days are aimed at consultants, sound system designers, installers and users who wish to learn more about AXYS products and software. All three days involve a combination of presentations, demonstrations and practical activities. There will also be some 'free time' set aside for attendees to experiment with the products.

Day one will focus on the AXYS Intellivox range. The Intellivox range, first introduced in 1996, was the pioneer of beam steering. AXYS Intellivox units have since been installed in airports, atriums, railway stations, shopping malls, theatres, concert halls, museums, and many more difficult acoustic environments all over the world to provide highly intelligible speech reproduction in environments.

Day two will focus on how to successfully design and

UK - Friendly Fires are playing their biggest tour to date with a Midas PRO6 live audio system on monitors, supplied by SSE Audio.

It was the band's vocalist Ed Macfarlane who prompted the change to Midas. "We did a couple of shows with an XL3 and he loved the sound of it," explains monitor engineer Simon Lutkin. "We then encountered some PRO6s and XL8s at festivals, which sold it to us both. I had used Midas digital before on FOH and knew the sound quality was equal to, if not better than, most analogue desks. When I started using the PRO6 in rehearsals I knew it was going to work straight away. I now have the best of both worlds - a great familiar Midas analogue sound in a flexible digital package."

Working with between 32 and 40 inputs per show, Lutkins is dealing with four stereo IEM feeds, six wedge mixes, sidefills and a butt kicker. "I'm using A

UK - The refurbishment of School Hall at Eton College provided yet another opportunity for the simplicity and functionality of the Roland REAC system and M-300 mixer to shine. Specified by Andrew Hingley from HHB Communications, the M-300 was installed alongside S-1608 and S-0816 digital stage boxes to form a multi-function sound system.

The hall itself had undergone a major refurbishment taking almost a year to complete and due to its ornate structure, the sound system installation had to be as discrete as possible. The hall is a large building and with the mixing position being virtually the furthest point from the stage, Hingley had to find a way to cover the distance whilst avoiding unsightly cable runs.

The hall is generally used for assemblies where a simple mic and playback is sufficient but can, on occasions, need to cope with big band jazz concerts and multitrack reco

USA - Founded in 1973 by Marie Swajeski, the Delaware Children's Theatre has made a long-standing tradition of providing live family entertainment for people throughout the tri-state area, including seasonal holiday shows like the current production of Scrooge.

Supported solely through ticket sales and a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, the all-volunteer group makes its home in the historic 100-year-old New Century Club building in Wilmington.

The building's rich history includes stints as a hospital during World War I, an ice cream parlour and pharmacy, a college, and a dinner theatre, as well as many years as a nexus of the women's rights movement. Recognized on the list of U.S. National Historic Places, its stage has played host to speakers as varied as Margaret Sanger and Woodrow Wilson.

In support of the DCT's efforts, Community Professional Loudspea

USA - Contemporary Christian rockers Skillet toured the United States this fall with a Meyer Sound Milo line array loudspeaker system. The Awake and Alive tour brought the Memphis-born band to 16 venues in 12 states. Skillet will return to the road beginning 28 December in Sevierville, Tenn.

Nashville-based Blackhawk Audio provided the touring rig that helped Skillet reach audiences numbering from 2,000 to 8,000, in venues ranging from large churches to small arenas. The Meyer Sound system was comprised of 16 Milo and two Milo 120 line array loudspeakers, eight M'elodie line array loudspeakers, four MSL-4 loudspeakers, four UPA-1P loudspeakers, 14 700-HP subwoofers, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system.

"It's their small headlining rig," explains Blackhawk Audio's Jamie Nixon. "They work a lot: they do a lot of secular tours as a support act. When

UK - Projection artist Ross Ashton of London-based The Projection Studio was invited back to Caerphilly Castle in Wales - by popular demand - to recreate his Illuminata digital art son et Lumière.

The commission - for which Ashton also designed the large format projection system used to bring the work to life - was from Cadw - the Welsh Assembly Government division responsible for preserving and promoting the history and heritage of Wales.

The 2010 event was the first time that an entertainment spectacle of this genre had been commissioned for a Cadw historical monument, and proved such a massive success that they decided to repeat the experience for three evenings this year.

Ashton's 20-minute work depicted the history and stories of the castle, accompanied by a special audio track produced by sound artist Karen Monid.

Working at Caerphilly Castle again was a &quo

Norway - LumenRadio's CRMX is now a trusted member of the touring ensemble at Ostfold Teater in South-Eastern Norway.

This regional theatre organisation develops performances with specific appeal to children and youth and also co-produces many productions with talented independent theatre groups. Part of their mandate is to bring dramatic theatre out to the people and that is done in the form of touring productions that play in local schools and performing arts centres.

The challenge is that most of these venues are not equipped to accommodate the sometimes-elaborate productions. Many of the venues, in particular the schools, also have Wi-Fi networks that need to be functional at all times and interference from visiting wireless systems is not acceptable.

The solution came in the form of a portable LumenRadio CRMX Nova system. Performing in a variety of venues without adequa

New Zealand - Lighting designer Ben Cooper utilised 24 Robe Robin 600 LEDWash moving light fixtures - amongst others - for the 2011 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards (VNZMAs), which honoured the very best of established and emerging talent spanning a diversity of genres.

The high profile event - produced by J and A Productions for the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) - was staged in the Vector Arena in Auckland. It is the largest and highest profile Awards show in the country.

This 46th edition of the VNZMAs featured live performances from a host of stars including Brooke Fraser, The Naked and Famous, Ladi6, Six60, Tiki Taane and Avalanche City and legendary Kiwi band Supergroove. It was telecast live on national Channel FOUR.

Cooper was lighting it for the second year, bringing a fresh and innovative style to the visuality, with all the lighting equi

Canada - The Canadian Football League championship, the Grey Cup, is Canada's biggest annual sports and television event. Held at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium on 27 November, halftime of this year's game featured a performance by Nickelback using a Martin lighting and video package of 98 MAC 101, 30 MAC 2000 Beam XB, 20 MAC 2000 Wash XB and six MAC III Profile moving heads with supporting graphics on two large Martin LC Series LED screens.

The moving light package was supplied by Christie Lites Vancouver with the LC panels with P3 upgrade coming from Epic Production Technologies. Production and lighting design for the event was by Robert Sondergaard who incorporated a large amount of Martin's compact MAC 101 wash lights into his design.

"Since the 101s have come out they have become integral to the shows we do," he says. "Because they are inexpensive to rent, we

Russia - Established in 1885, Moscow's historic Theatre of Nations reopened in September following a four-year reconstruction period. The theatre offers a rich variety of experimental drama, international theatre tours and festivals.

Clay Paky distributor DOKA Center was actively involved in the renovation of the theatre. "We have never performed such a large and varied amount of work in supplying for a theatre before", said DOKA's director Alexander Fokichev. "We were involved in all aspects from designing the scenic technology to supplying, installing and implementing the stage lighting equipment."

DOKA Center supplied 10 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 575s and 14 Alpha Wash 575s for the main stage. The fixtures give the theatre's lighting designers free rein to create limitless graphic lighting effects. The prestigious nature of the project required extremely

The Netherlands - A Dutch language version of Wicked premièred recently at the Circustheater in Scheveningen, representing the third foreign language production that sound designer Tony Meola and associate sound designer Kai Harada have embarked on - tackling a tricky venue in the round. This production of Wicked saw Orbital Sound adding the show to its sound credentials for the first time.

Associated sound designer Kai Harada commented: "This is a really exciting production, with a very strong international cast that includes the original 'green witch' from the German show - Willemijn Verkaik. Although a fluent German speaker, Willemijn is Dutch and so the perfect choice to reprise her brilliant role as Elpheba - she is effectively coming home!

"The Circustheater is a challenge - with a circular seating area, it presents a number of acoustic difficult

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