UK - Just over two weeks since it all ended and the highs from PLASA are still running through the office at Green Hippo, says the company.

With distributors, lighting designers and DJ's to students, technical managers and programmers the stand was buzzing and everyone was able to get a sneak preview into how easy just got easier.

Head of sales Samantha Bailey stated, "The response from customers to the new release was fantastic, they are thrilled with the new markets and customers it opens them up to and are heading back to their respective countries with new jobs on the horizon as a result.

"Not only has the development been with our products but with our staff and office. Many of you will have seen familiar faces on the stand and with a closer look discovered that we're not quite human. Looking at the people behind the product we make up the team of dedicated st

UK - Orbital Sound has announced a new training course, 'Mixing Musicals' designed to help aspiring theatre sound operators take their show mixing skills to the next level. The two-day course is being staged at Orbital's purpose-built training centre in Brixton, and focuses on the practical skills and theory behind the best-practice FOH mixing requirements of musicals.

The course emphasis is firmly on what is required to achieve sound operating excellence, with principle tutors Marcus Wadland (UK tours of Blood Brothers, Never Forget, Whistle Down The Wind among others) and Daniel Bailey (West End productions including High School Musical, Rent, and Fame) bringing their own extensive mixing experience to the table for an intrinsically hands-on curriculum. As well as the essential theory behind mixing, Dan and Marcus will be introducing t

USA - The Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Labour Day Telethon is a time-honored television tradition in the U.S. The 2012 edition, renamed MDA Show of Strength, featured a new format with LD Lee Rose of Design Partners turning to the Martin MAC Aura as a key element of the lighting design.

This year new producers revamped the benefit with a three-hour taped show that featured significantly more contemporary talent like Alanis Morissette, Hot Chelle Rae, All American Rejects, will.i.am and more. The show aired on 2 September on the MDA 'Love Network' of stations across the US.

Lee Rose has employed the MAC Aura in his designs since its launch in 2011 and chose them for the MDA special for their extremely bright and focusable beam, as well as their quick movement and small size, which made vertically hanging them easy and visually attractive, he says.

Lee moun

UK - Event Projection specialises in one-of-a-kind productions. From product launches and museum exhibits to music videos and corporate events, the AV and lighting hire company has a history of distinctly varied projects. So when they were looking to expand their lighting hire stock, they turned to entertainment lighting specialist White Light to find just the right equipment to suit their varied needs. The company chose the latest technology from Coemar - the LEDko P 3200K, available in the UK exclusively through White Light.

Event Projection is the first company of its kind in the UK to purchase the LEDko units, which use an innovative 120-Watt 'Multi-LEDs' source to produce an even, uniform beam, creating huge energy savings over traditional 575-Watt tungsten profiles. Now, several other companies have followed suit, purchasing the LEDko LED light engines for entertainment an

USA - A Clovis, New Mexico high school is bringing more energy to its 1,500-seat outdoor campus stadium on Friday nights with a new Technomad Turnkey PA system. The Technomad system provides an all-in-one audio solution to enhance quality and coverage for all home football games, including pre-show and halftime music.

The school needed a system that would produce clear and even sound across the stadium, including visitor and home stands. The Turnkey PA system comprises four Technomad Berlin weatherproof loudspeakers, a pre-wired amplifier, a dynamic hard-wired microphone, and a six-channel mixer with front-panel iPod/mp3 inputs. The solution included all necessary cables and connectors to facilitate a quick and simple installation just in time for the 2012 football season.

The new setup replaced outdated loudspeakers damaged by time and weather. Technomad loudspeakers feature

USA - The 2012 Teen Choice Awards buzzed with extra excitement and anticipation this year ... complete with an impressive live line-up including Flo Rida, No Doubt, Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepson and many more joining hosts Demi Lovato and Kevin McHale at the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, CA.

The challenge of lighting the fast-paced, action-packed environment was taken on by Tom Kenny, and included some of Robe's latest moving lights in the visual mix.

The event was aired live nationwide on FOX to huge ratings, and attended by a star studded array of almost everyone who's hot in teen entertainment, including the cast of cult motion picture series Twilight, all in an equally fabulous array of sizzling outfits.

The pace and complexity of staging the 2012 Teen Choice Awards was a serious challenge to Kenny and everyone else on the production crew and

UK - Chaos Visuals have been a constant presence at London Fashion Week twice a year for the last three years providing screens, playback, operators and technical support. Everything about this show is world-class: fashion design, hi-tech shows that wow the celeb audiences and run to time (quite a feat in the catwalk world) and in settings that other cities can only dream of. The Neoclassical delight, Somerset House is exactly that; a piece of eighteenth century London that provides a delicious backdrop to the week's proceedings.

Although many of the catwalk shows take place within the purpose built structure that is erected in the central courtyard, other events take place at various locations across the capital. So if you want to stay abreast of everything on offer during the week there is only once place to catch it: on the screen system set up by Chaos that relays a live vid

USA / UK - D-Tools has announced that the company will conduct its' first Regional Training event in Europe, since the launch of System Integration SIX software at CEDIA Expo 2012. The training event will be held from 14-16 November, 2012 at the Holiday Inn London- Brentford Lock, London, England.

D-Tools Regional Training events provide a classroom-style venue for hands on training delivered by expert trainers. This training will make it convenient for UK and Europe based companies to send one or multiple attendees to experience three days of intense hands on instruction, says the company.

The UK training event is planned to help attendees get the most from the all new D-Tools SIX. Attendees will learn tips, tricks, best practices and ways to build their businesses with D-Tools from expert D-Tools instructor, Ryan Brown of Media Environment Design (MED). The course content is

South Africa - Carefully orchestrated from the invitations to the final classical rock production, the EOH Spring Ball was an outstanding banquet held at the Sandton Convention Centre's Pavilion Venue in Sandton. For the second consecutive year, AVL Productions supplied the technical including set and AV content while Keystone Productions provided the lighting requirements including 16 Philips Vari-Lite VLX fixtures.

Johannesburg based EOH, who provide business and technical solutions and systems, annually host a Spring Ball for their valued staff and clients. Sam McGrath from Jam Events was pivotal in putting it together and featured songs of Queen with a classical twist.

The master of ceremonies was South African Idols judge, Randall Abraham. The performers were outstanding and included Joseph Clark who does a remarkable impression of Freddie Mercury, Lauren Laing and

Europe - Touring a mixture of arenas and stadiums in Europe and North America since the later part of 2011, Coldplay's desire to get close to their fans in such large venues could have caused a number of problems for their wireless monitor systems.

The shows are performed on a main stage with a centre runway projecting out and ending in a second, smaller 'B' stage. In addition there is also a C stage at the back of the arena, right amongst the audience. The entire band wears Sennheiser 2000 series in-ear monitors (IEMs) and in arenas all three stages are usually coverable from the main stage RF equipment. But when comes to stadiums, this hasn't always been possible.

"In stadiums, the 'C' stage is usually at the opposite end of the pitch to the main stage. This, along with location specific radio pollution, meant we needed to come up with a solution for local RF transmissi

World - Madonna's MDNA Tour currently wowing sold out stadiums and arenas across several continents features 11 musicians, 22 dancers, multiple costume changes, ground breaking graphics and an audio system that includes two DiGiCo SD7s at Front of House and another on monitors.

The SD7 is a step up for monitor engineers Matt Napier and Sean Speuhler, who were using a D5T on Madonna's previous Sticky & Sweet Tour.

"There are two of us because Sean exclusively mixes Madonna's vocals and her vocal effects, all of which she insists be done live," Napiert explains. "We effectively share the console - I use the SD7's control surface and Sean uses an EX-007 expander unit to mix on."

In total the SD7 has 114 inputs coming in from the stage rack. including effects, Napier is using 100 channels, with Sean using over 30 more.

"I think the SD7 is

UK - Bristol's historic Theatre Royal has reopened its newly refurbished auditorium to rapturous applause following a £12m redevelopment, which drew on the expertise of design consultancy Charcoalblue LLP.

The Grade I-listed 1780s Georgian theatre, which is home to Bristol Old Vic, has been sensitively refurbished to upgrade and install modern technology into the original auditorium.

A major element of the brief for the works was to provide up-to-date technology, comfort and improved sightlines whilst working around the original timber structure and delicate plasterwork.

Charcoalblue's work on the theatre involved designing new technical systems, significant refurbishment of the scenery flying system, replacement of the stage grid, new architecturally-integrated lighting positions in the auditorium, completely new lighting and sound installations and new technical cont

UK - XL Events provided audio and projection in a very neatly tailored technical package for a recent UK Roadshow presented by the Port of Felixstowe.

XL was working for London based production company Lodestar, and their project manager was Rich Pow. The brief included providing rear projection and control for the Keynote presentation plus a short concluding video, together with a full sound system and radio mics for the presentation speakers.

The Roadshow was specially tailored to an exclusive audience of around 70 key clients in each city. It highlighted the many facilities, advanced technology and excellent transportation links offered by Felixstowe - 'Port of Britain', one of the UK's leading and busiest container ports.

The clean, contemporary, aesthetically pleasing setting for the event was designed to be installed in a few hours by two XL Events crew and others, and

Iceland - Staff members at the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Reykjavik rely on Clear-Com's Eclipse digital matrix system and FreeSpeak wireless intercom to help coordinate their avant-garde productions, which involve famous musicians and cultural icons. Installed by Exton, a full-service sales and rental company, the Clear-Com intercoms ensure reliable interconnection among highly productive and collaborative staff members and offer flexibility for adapting to shifting production needs.

Clear-Com's intercom systems enabled the production team to communicate across multiple spaces within the brand new Harpa facility, including one main concert hall and three additional multipurpose rooms, which are reserved for musical events, international conferences, conventions and meetings.

A 48-port Eclipse-Median digital matrix was seamlessly integrated with 22 FreeSpeak di

South Africa - Philips Selecon is to sponsor this year's Stage Lighting Master Class (SLMC) event in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Grant Bales-Smith, sales manager for Strand Selecon Europe, will join event host and international lighting designer, Declan Randall, South African lighting designer Mannie Manim with renowned New York-based lighting designer Richard Pilbrow completing the expert panel.

The two-day event, due to take place on 27-28 September in Johannesburg and 2-3 October in Cape Town, will celebrate the art and craft of stage lighting.

SLMC, which was first held in 2001 and then again in 2004 and 2007, returns this year with a number of interesting and informative seminar sessions as Randall explains. "This year the event will focus on new lighting technologies, including LED and energy efficient lighting design. I think that it's important that we embrace thi

Canada - The Quartier des Spectacles is a roughly 1 square kilometer area downtown of Montreal. This area of the city had historically been filled with theatres and cabarets, but in the last 40 years, it had fallen into blight and become an unfavourable, and sometimes dangerous, area of the city. The Quartier des Spectacles Partnership was formed in 2003 to revitalise this once vibrant cultural heart of Montreal. Now, it is the home of not only theatres and cabarets, but restaurants, shopping centres, and many outdoor music and art festivals every year.

Eight main sites and many more to come have transformed buildings into canvases for architectural projection artwork. One of the rules of the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership is that the artistic projects should only be used for public art, not for commercialism, so advertising and logos are not allowed as part of the building

UK - Auralisation - designing with sound will be the theme of this year's Reproduced Sound conference, which takes place on 14-16 November at the Thistle Hotel, Brighton.

Paul Malpas, event chairman, said, "Having explored the role of the audio and electro acoustic specialist within the context of the project, we will spend time this year considering the opportunities that auralisation techniques offer to the task of representing sound in the design of buildings and systems.

"Whether the end product is a piece of technology or an architectural statement, we all know the importance of what we hear and how that contributes to the broader success of the project or product. However, it is our colleagues and clients who need to be convinced, and sometimes numbers just don't tell the right story.

"Following in the same year as the 4th International Symposium

Germany - Frankfurt University is currently halfway through a major and ambitious renovation, which is set to increase its student capacity from 10,000 to 45,000 by 2014.

Consultants Detlef Hartmann and Stephan Mathias (of the Hartmann & Mathias Partnership) were given the challenging brief of designing and implementing a high quality AV solution that would allow both faculty and students access to a full range of media, including recording, at the University's Reidberg and Westend campuses.

Both campuses were equipped with a 10 Gig fibre-optic network backbone, and up to 96 audio channels would be required for a single location on campus - that number would increase to several hundred for the campus as a whole. On top of this, the audio had to be matrixed with video distribution hardware, therefore a flexible solution that could deal with a mix of analogue and digital I/O was

UK - Nick Gray, from London based visual design practice Renegade created a stunning 50m long video sculpture for the entranceway of the 2012 100% Design exhibition at Earls Court.

The innovative work, which resembled an intricate DNA wire-frame structure in architecture and appearance was fed with video content from a media server, and amazed anyone entering the exhibition, drawing people into a completely immersive experience.

Gray was asked to create the piece by Media Ten, the new producers of 100% Design, and worked directly for Studio Design who co-ordinated the various art installations in and around the exhibition space.

Gray took a visual brief from Studio Design and based the sculpture on a fusion of graphic design and promotional artwork produced for 100% Design 2012.

He commissioned scenic specialists Firecracker Works to collaborate in realising the project, a

China - Music Group founder and CEO Uli Behringer has revealed the company's plans to construct a massive new campus that will house its operations in China.

Modelled on the corporate campus typical of Silicon Valley, the sprawling 50-acre complex will include R&D, manufacturing, a residential village and "abundant green space cultivated around the site's natural wetlands" and is to be completed by 2014. The investment comes at a time when the company's current Music Group City site is stretched to capacity with overwhelming demand for new products, including the l X32 Digital Mixer.

"It is my distinct pleasure to announce the fulfilment of a major objective of our group today with the start of this incredible undertaking," announced Uli Behringer to the gathered employees and dignitaries. "This new home will bring together our people from several diff

USA - LSC Lighting Systems has opened a fully-staffed office in the United States of America. The move is a step in its on-going commitment to customer support from both a sales and technical perspective demanded by this vital market sector, says the company.

Based in Knoxville Tennessee the office will be headed up by well-known industry icon Rob Steel. "Most people will know Rob from his days running Avolites America and his industry knowledge and experience as well as his impeccable reputation are widely known," says LSC.

Rob commented, "I am so excited to be involved with LSC. I have had dealings with them in the past and have found them to be a great bunch of guys with a fantastic product range. They have been manufacturing products for the industry for the last 30+ years and selling those products worldwide. That experience shows in their product designs a

South Africa - Johannesburg- based rental company AV Unlimited supplied full technical production to show producers VWV for the finale of the recent Red Bull Beat battle competition.

This was staged at the Bassline, downtown Johannesburg's hottest live music venue, right in the heart of the City's buzzing Newtown district, with eight top dance crews battling it out for the title, and Robe LEDBeam 100s providing a perfect lightweight lighting effects solution.

Several challenges faced the technical production. One was a very low weight loading in the venue's roof - and another was delivering the high show production values demanded by one of the world's leading brands - in a relatively tight space.

Robe's new Robin 100 LEDBeams were a complete winner with their ultra light weight, power, intensity and wide array of eye-catching effects.

AV Unlimited's technical production m

Lebanon - Lebanon's latest hotspot is called Veer, a luxurious boutique hotel and resort, which opened recently in the region of Kaslik north of Beirut. This exclusive complex beside the beach of Zouk Mikael offers visitors not only exquisitely furnished rooms but also villas, apartments, and even underwater suites.

The client demanded a high-end solution for every component of the project, and that is exactly what the client received. The invitation to tender stipulated that the audio system be suitable for all eventualities, from the provision of quiet background music to catering for DJ sets and even live concerts, with audio inputs as well as outputs distributed throughout the entire complex. In the fierce competition, Electro-Voice's distribution partner AMAC was able to prevail and secure the contract for this prestigious project.

"Absolutely everyone fought for thi

Russia - French tenor Roberto Alagna recently opened the second International Kazan Autumn Opera Festival with a stunning performance alongside Bolshoi Theatre soloist Venera Gimadieva, accompanied by the Tatarstan state symphony orchestra conducted by Alexander Sladkovsy.

Held against the impressive backdrop of the Kazan Agriculturalists Palace, thousands of spectators braved the rain to enjoy what turned out to be a wonderful event, despite the inclement weather conditions. Innovason distributor Imlight (who also have a rental division) were charged with handling the AV requirements. At the heart of the PA system was an Eclipse GT digital mixing console handling the FoH mix.

FoH engineer Vladimir Ryabenko, who was employed at the behest of conductor Alexander Sladkovsky to mix the orchestra, first came across the Eclipse in at the recent Szgezed festival in Hungary, where he

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