Canada - Justin Timberlake kicked off his 20/20 Experience World Tour in Montreal and Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpy Washes were out in force. Solotech provided the lighting equipment.

True to its name, the tour is "an experience rather than a show," says lighting director Nick Whitehouse. "It's very visual with lots of projection and lighting and a lot of new technology. We got pretty creative with everything and had fun putting it all together."

The tour is in support of Timberlake's third studio album, which has a sophisticated vibe. The singer will play dates in North America, Europe, Australia and South America.

"We did seven weeks of rehearsals," Whitehouse reports. "The gear really got a work out - 20 hours a day." On the tour "the whole rig is hidden behind a scenic back wall and ceiling. We have 80 Sharpys and 130 Sh

Belgium / China - XL Video has announced an investment of more than 15m US dollars in a range of new LED products and accessories to support its plans for growth in 2014.

The LED investment has been made with a range of suppliers including Shenzhen-based Unilumin Group Co and its subsidiary Radiant Opto-Elec Technology Co Ltd to purchase a series of LED products based on the latest technologies. In total more than 1200 m2 of LED products for the XL Video rental business will become available from February onwards.

The LED investment covers amongst others: State of the art 2.5mm high contrast LED; Super lightweight 3.9mm Utile LED; 18mm Magic Cube outdoor and indoor LED; 7mm blackface Magic Cube outdoor and indoor LED - the first of its kind in this segment; The latest innovation of 18mm Hybrid LED which combines LED screen with LED spotlights in the same panel. This invention

France - Every two years, sound, lighting and production specialist West Evenement stages an open day which allows its partners, clients and business associates a chance to get together and explore new developments. Here, in an atmosphere of hospitality and professionality, participants give presentations and provide training for the other guests, bringing them up to date on new technology and services.

For its 2013 event West Evenement chose a new venue, the huge Le Liberte function hall in nearby Rennes, which has capacity for 5,300 people. The company had many new things to present, and wanted to choose the best venue to maximise the presentations. Eight demonstration areas were set up within the hall, and among new developments to be introduced here were sound systems and technology from Nexo.

Nexo's commercial director Jean Jacques Vias, together with concert sound specia

Finland - One of the most dynamic startup ecosystems on the planet, Slush, took place on 13-14 November, 2013 at the Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland. Slush is the leading startup conference in Northern Europe and Russia. LumenRadio's Finnish distributor Sun Effects was responsible for the whole visual design and supplied the wireless CRMX Slim products, which played a key role for the two-day event.

"Slush was a really prestigious project for us and there was no room for any mistakes. When you do projects like this, it is extremely important to consider what kind of equipment you're planning to use and how to use them. Sun Effects has a reputation in Finland to only deliver high quality equipment that works, even in the most demanding environment," says, Riku Sourama from Sun Effects.

Slush is a nonprofit, two-day technology and startup event where the most promis

South Africa - Magnetic Storm is a technical solutions provider and rental company based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The company has been running successfully for 33 years servicing a wide range of high quality corporate clients and live events, and is the oldest established and also the largest such operation in the Eastern Cape region.

Magnetic Storm originally invested in Robe moving lights - the 575 series - some years ago, which have proved reliable and solid for many years done dealing with Magnetic Storm's busy schedule of events.

When the time came to upgrade with the latest technology, they decided to go with LED and purchased four Robe DLS Profiles and four DLX Spots from Robe's South African distributor, DWR.

LED was chosen because it's good value, longer lamp life, lower ongoing maintenance and expedient power consumption made good sense economically and env

France / Indonesia - Amadeus reports that its product line is now available across Indonesia through their newest distributor Acoustic Sound Image Integrated Solution (ASIIS).

Andy M. Sutikno, CEO at ASIIS, explains his reasons for bringing Amadeus live sound equipment on board to the company's prestigious product lineup, "Once again I found a brand which really suits our philosophy about high-end sound. The Amadeus speakers have a very detailed mid-high frequency performance, very warm, yet transparent mid frequency response, and a fully articulated low end," he says, recalling his introduction to Amadeus during listening sessions at the 2013 Prolight + Sound show at the Frankfurt Musikmesse.

"Their products' sound quality, which definitely comes from Amadeus' high-end studio design experience, is apparent in its live sound systems with the ability to deliver a

Germany - Robe moving lights were right at the heart of the lighting action on the main stage in front of Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, one of the largest public New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide.

Robe Pointes were also used to illuminate elements of the 'Fan Mile' covering five major roads in and around the event site as part of a lighting design by Lars Murasch, and were supplied together with other lighting equipment for the event by rental company TLT Event AG.

The show's glittering international artist line up included the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Overtones, Scooter, Adel Tawil and TVOG winners from 2012 and 2013 Ivy Quainoo and Nick Howard respectively plus many others. It was attended by nearly one million revellers and watched live by over 4m on Germany's national ZDF TV channel, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display to welcome in 2014.

Twenty

USA - Now in its fifth season, The Voice on NBC has become one of the most watched reality talent competitions worldwide. Throughout the run of the production which features three stages of competition concluding with live performances, the pressure placed on the competitors to showcase their talents is rivalled only by the pressure placed on the crew to make sure the show is both technically sound yet exciting to watch.

Behind the scenes, lighting designer Oscar Dominguez and his lighting crew have accomplished all this winning the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for Variety Series using a rig that relies heavily on VL3015LT Spot, VL3515 Spot, VLX Wash, VL3500 Wash, VL3000 Spot and VL550 Wash luminaires all supplied by Illumination Dynamics.

"For me, the Vari-Lite luminaires are the backbone to this lighting rig,"

USA - LakeRidge United Methodist Church in Lubbock, Tex. has markedly improved the sound in its main sanctuary with the installation of a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system. Having previously selected Meyer Sound systems for two other areas of the church, Lubbock-based Moyers Group was called upon to design and install the new system.

"Since the new Mina system was installed in the main sanctuary, everybody has noticed the difference," says Elec Winner, the church's director of technical ministries. "The clarity of the high end is amazing. Now everything has its proper place in acoustic space, and the coverage from front to back is completely uniform. Our senior pastor is extremely happy. The sound check before the service takes less time, and the gain before feedback is much higher."

The new system comprises left and right arrays of seven Mina

The Netherlands - XL Video has chosen the city of Amsterdam as the new location for their operation in the Netherlands. The new Amsterdam sales office benefits from its central location in Europe and is within the dynamic and creative environment of Houthavens, Amsterdam.

The office's new address from January 2014 is: XL Video The Netherlands, Haparandaweg 67 E3, 1013 BD Amsterdam.

XL Video's new office will act as both a meeting point for clients and partners as well as its regular daily operations.

Houthavens is known as the new hotspot of Amsterdam's creative industry. The area harbours creative companies from different industries, from fashion to design to media. This will present XL Video with an inspiring environment to work in, hosted in a brand new office space, says the company.

Lucas Covers, group C.E.O. of XL Video comments, "2013 has been a year full of ne

UK - Colour Sound are deploying the the new Robe CycFX 8 fixtures that they purchased off the stand at PLASA London 2013 on the current White Lies Big TV tour with lighting & visuals designer Matt Waterfield.

Colour Sound is supplying all lighting and LED screen for the tour where Waterfield is working closely with laser designer and camera mixer Matt Buttons to produce a spectacular visuality for the tour which has helped win them sand the band plenty of rave reviews!.

Waterfield wanted to introduce some architecture into the design and also have the flexibility of the rig being as floor based as possible, so he started with five upstage trussing towers, which Colour Sound designed and had specially fabricated by James Thomas Engineering.

These measure 1.2 by 1.2m wide / deep and are 3.6m high in full-height mode, but designed to break down into two sections at 1.2 a

UK - Supergrass frontman, Gaz Coombes, has just completed a UK tour with an Allen & Heath iLive digital system at FOH, ME personal mixers managing monitors, and Dante for recording.

Showcasing Gaz's new solo material, the tour took place in churches across the country. Engineer, Gavin McComb, selected an iLive modular system comprising an iLive-80 Control Surface and iDR10 MixRack to manage FOH, with iLive apps and PL controllers for additional remote control.

"Apart from being a very well designed piece of kit, iLive is also extremely compact, with a footprint of around 1m sq. so you can slot it into virtually any situation, even if you're going to a small venue that already has its own in-house stuff. As a system, the audio quality is fantastic, all the internal effects are very easy to use and sound great, whether it's a small, medium or large-sized venue."

Gavi

UK - January and February sees SSE Audio Group's Sales division hosting two separate, free training days which will be of special interest to users of Yamaha digital mixing consoles.

Hosted at the company's HQ in Redditch, one of the days will focus on using Dante networking with Yamaha CL Series digital mixing consoles and Nexo NXAMP amplification, while the other focuses on Waves plug-ins, including integration with Yamaha digital consoles via the WSG-Y16 SoundGrid interface.

Taking place on 12 February, the Dante networking course examines the close integration which is possible between CL series consoles and Nexo's NXAMP 4X1 and 4X4 Powered TDcontrollers, via Dante.

Jointly developed with engineers from Yamaha, Nexo TDcontrollers provide full integration of speaker and amplifier control, with output capacities that deliver a highly cost-effective solution for both instal

USA - London-based event design and production specialist Eclipse Presentations designed, produced, specified and co-ordinated all the technical production elements - lighting, video - including creation of all content, audio, staging, rigging, etc. - for the 14th annual Platt's Global Energy Awards in New York.

The high profile event, considered the 'Oscars of the energy industry' and presented by CNBC news anchor Amanda Drury, recognises and honours excellence in leadership, innovation and performance in the highly competitive world of energy. It was staged in the famous Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, one of the city's landmark venues, and attended by top international executives from the leading energy companies worldwide.

A production team of four from Eclipse Presentations was led by Robin Purslow who says, "We have worked on this event for the last 14

Australia - Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpys Washes have formed an integral part of a spectacular projection, lighting, and fireworks event in Sydney harbour to celebrate 100 years of the Royal Australian Navy.

Pioneering creative agency Imagination Australia created an impressive show, lighting up a fleet of naval ships and Sydney harbour landmarks, which was watched by millions of people, both in the city and around the world. Imagination Australia designed and produced every element of the most complex, highly choreographed, fireworks, projection, lighting and live action show ever seen in Australia.

Lighting designer Mark Hammer specified 132 Clay Paky Sharpy and 108 Sharpy Wash 330s, which he positioned around the harbour and on the ships themselves. Hammer combined and blended the light from these various sources to create depth filled texture and rich colour despite the gu

USA - Atlanta's Full Circle Lighting & Productions has invested in 24 Clay Paky Sharpy Wash lights for its inventory.

Full Circle is a full-service theatrical lighting and production company serving corporate and association meetings, trade shows, product launches, press conferences and TV and video shoots with a staff of experienced professionals from the theatre and film industries.

"We knew after we got our Sharpy beams that the Sharpy Wash would be equally amazing," says Noah Hammer, president and senior designer at Full Circle. "We love their colour saturation, size and incredible brightness. We also love the zoom and fantastic colour correction capabilities."

Hammer says the company has used Sharpy Wash fixtures on "a lot" of corporate events and on the new comedy TV series, Stand Up for Family. "Our clients love them," he

Italy - RCF's RDNet software enables users to remotely control and manage professional speakers and audio objects/devices. "Each single device, with its own built-in communication board, microcontroller and dsp, is an active part of the brain of the system, able to store presets, receive commands and continuously send status information," says RCF.

RDNet 2.0 is based on many years of research and development making the management of complex audio systems simple and intuitive. Version 2.0, entirely designed and developed by the RCF engineering team, includes several new functions as well as multiple improvements and adjustments.

RDNet 2.0 includes its control software, all supported devices (with new firmware updates) and

Control 2 and Control 8 devices.

"The software can be found as free download on RCF's website in the section: LOGIN. Once the customer has

USA - With artists like Matthew West, Big Daddy Weave, Jeremy Camp and Natalie Grant on stage, the Impact New Year's Eve concert at Lipscomb University's Allen Arena in Nashville featured some of the biggest names in Christian music.

Broadcast online to churches and youth centres around the world, the five-hour celebration of music and entertainment also represented what many are calling the largest faith-based global gathering ever assembled in one evening.

Such an event required a powerful lighting statement, which is why LD Mark Carver of Mark Carver Designs in Nashville selected 28 Legend 230SR Beams from Chauvet Professional for his Impact New Year's Eve rig.

"We chose the Legend fixtures because we knew that their hard sharp beams would help us create the right energy level for the audience at the arena and the millions viewing the broadcast of this event," h

USA - Solid State Logic is continuing to add to its US reseller network for SSL Live consoles with the appointment of professional touring and contracting company Sound Image. Headquartered in Escondido, California, Sound Image also has offices in Arizona and Tennessee, and has been providing sound reinforcement services to the industry's biggest rock, country and pop acts for over 40 years.

"It's about time Solid State Logic got out of the house!'' says Dave Shadoan, president of Sound Image. "Everyone here at Sound Image is looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with SSL through the sales, service and use of the new SSL Live."

"Sound Image is a well-established leader in the live market and its extensive customer base offers an unparalleled opportunity for the SSL Live to gain exposure in North America," says Jay Easley, SSL's

France - Keziah Jones, the acclaimed jazz-blues-funk guitarist and singer-songwriter, has been touring with Nexo's radical line monitors. Both Keziah and monitor engineer Daniel Paine were agreed that the Nexo 45°N-12 wedges were perfect for the four-week tour of France and Switzerland, launching the new Captain Rugged album. Although travelling light, the musicians insisted on carrying their monitor rig with them, including 6x 45°N-12 monitors, Nexo PS15-R2s and a couple of LS18 subs for sidefills.

Describing the usual routine of the three-piece band, engineer Daniel Paine explains that "it's mainly vocal and guitar through the wedges, and it's extremely loud, one of the loudest mixes on stage for monitoring that I've ever come across, which was partly the reason for going with the N-12s; they're so stable and have so much headroom. We did a measurement at 1

Israel - Rising Star's ratings tell a clear success story: The show debuted to a 38 percent of market share in primetime on Israel's Channel 2 network. The concept of Rising Star is broadly similar to Idols, The Voice or X Factor: A group of unknown artists compete to be the 'best' singer. The twist comes in the voting. Instead of call-in votes that are tallied over the course of a show with a winner announced at the end, audiences for Rising Star vote live on the air during a singer's performance, and their decisions play out in real time for the audience and the performer to see.

For lighting and video control, lighting designer and operator Ronen Najar relied on an MA System, consisting of one grandMA2 full-size, one grandMA2 light, one MA onPC command wing, one MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and one MA NSP (Network Signal Processor

World - Three years after it first took to the road, Jamiroquai's epic world tour is drawing to an end. The tour, which culminated at the Sundance Festival in Dubai, is a sharply entertaining show lit by LD Mark Wynn-Edwards, whose creative tools of choice are Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Spots and Washes.

UK-based Wynn-Edwards - who has worked with artists such as Grace Jones, Rod Stewart, and Paloma Faith - created a dynamic design that complements and contrasts with the full stage width video backdrop. He uses the VL3500 Washes not only to fill the stage with colour and bring a dynamic perspective to the stage but also as backline lighting, firing intense beams across the stage.

"The VL3500 Spots are on key light duty, rigged on the front truss, but also double stacked on the rear truss to provide the workhorse fixtures of the design," explains Wynn-Edwards."I de

UK - Clear-Com has expanded its distribution agreement with Tyrell CCT, enabling the infrastructure and media solutions provider to develop the live performance market and manage the Clear-Com resellers in the UK.

As part of this change, Tyrell and Clear-Com have announced the appointment of three authorised reseller partners that are already signed up and established in the live performance market: Amber Sound, Autograph Sales and Orbital Sales. By working with these known resellers, Tyrell is in a good position to start the Clear-Com distribution.

Martin Bennett, commercial director at Tyrell Group, said, "The opportunity for Tyrell to expand the Clear-Com distribution into Live Performance and Install market allows us to build on the success we have developed in the Broadcast market, and we are excited about the challenges of developing new business in this market with

USA / Russia - Calrec Audio has been selected to provide five Artemis Consoles to NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, during its production of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, from Feb. 6-23. The announcement was made by David Mazza, senior vice-president, engineering, NBC Olympics, and Henry Goodman, head of sales and marketing, Calrec Audio.

NBC Olympics has purchased two 64-fader Artemis Shine consoles and augmented its arsenal by renting a further 40-fader and two 24-fader Artemis Beam consoles from Calrec.

"We are extremely proud to be the mixing console manufacturer selected once again by NBC Olympics during the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi," said Goodman. "After the success of the Summer Games in 2012, we are delighted to continue working with NBC Olympics and thank them for their belief in Calrec by choosing our desks."

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