USA - Packed seminars, busy booths and new product launches confirmed PLASA Focus: Nashville 2014 as an unmissable industry event. Almost 800 attendees headed to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium last week to see over 60 brands that had the latest technology on display.

The show saw a number of new products, including Martin Professional's MAC Quantum Wash; ETC's Source Four Mini spotlight and Selador Desire D22 LED luminaire; Chauvet Professional's Nexus 2x2 and Nexus 4x1; High End System's Hog 4 and HedgeHog 4; Lyntec's award-winning Remote Power Control Mobile; Ayrton's MagicPanel 602 LED beam projector fixtures; Altman Lighting's Phoenix LED Profile; LSC Lighting System's Clarity LX consoles; and the latest additions to Robe Lighting's ROBIN Series.

The Professional Development Programme was a big hit, packing out rooms to see names such as renowned lighting designer Seth

USA - Would you like to earn recognition for your expertise as an entertainment rigger or electrician and become one of the first people to get the call? Get your application in today to take the ETCP Paper and Pencil Examinations at USITT in Ft. Worth!

Having ETCP Certification demonstrates that you are in the top third of the industry professionals in North America; furthermore, to maintain your certification, you must accrue continuing education credits which shows your employer that you are current with industry developments and practices.

The ETCP Examinations will be given at USITT in Ft. Worth. All three ETCP examinations will be given in one session the morning of Saturday, 29 March, 2014. Candidates who wish to take more than one exam should contact ETCP. Members and employees of members of USITT receive a $100 discount on examination fees. Interested applicants must

UK - London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) staged Harold Pinter's Betrayal and Cole Porter's High Society at the end of 2013 utilising the strong colours and smooth dimming of Philips Selecon's PL range of LED fixtures.

RADA runs a four-term specialist course in Stage Electrics and Lighting Design as well as a two-year foundation degree in Technical Theatre and Stage Management, which allows students to specialise in lighting in their final year.

Two of RADA's specialist lighting design students worked on each of the productions: Amy Mae for Betrayal at RADA's GBS Theatre; and Matt Leventhall for High Society at RADA's Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre.

RADA's head of lighting Matt Prentice consulted with Selecon to specify a mixture of PLprofile1s, PLfresnel1s, and PLcyc1s to the drama school, which is generally regarded as one of the most prestig

UK - To set the scene for Valentine's Day and to launch the duo of Durex Embrace sensual pleasure gels Will Glendinning from Allium, a high profile live event company, approached PRG to provide a lighting solution. PRG provided the lighting equipment and crew to lighting designer, Durham Marenghi's specification to stage a spectacular light show on London's Southbank on the evening of 13 February, at the Observation Point near the OXO Tower.

Lighting tests were carried out on the fixtures at PRG's East Molesey warehouse in South West London to gauge the length of the beams in the night sky and to see what visual effects could be used on the evening. The show was then pre-programmed for the launch by Pryderi Baskerville in conjunction with Durham Marenghi using WYSIWYG software.

Seventy-six Clay Paky Sharpy Beam lights were used and rigged on two circular trusses, the inner cir

Mexico - High End Systems and Grace Audio have announced a new partnership that will enable Grace Audio, Inc. to serve as its new master distributor for LATAM (except Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela) effective 1 January, 2014.

The LATAM partnership between High End Systems and Grace Audio includes countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay. In Addition Grace Audio, Inc. has appointed the following sub-regional distributors: Mexico D.F.: Miller Mix (Roberto Devesa); Central America (except Panama): Prosound (Melvyn Chuy) and Panama: RW Systems (Jaime Sierra).

Pilar Costa, president of Grace Audio, comments, "High End Systems is the pioneer of the professional lighting and control systems industry. Over more than a decade we, at Grace A

UK - "We really can't tell you how much this saved our home and family."

"For everybody who contributes to Behind the Scenes, thank you. You helped save my life."

"I can't thank you all enough. Light Relief does life changing work, and my life has been changed by what you do."

Without the help of either Light Relief in the UK or Behind the Scenes in the US and Canada, these people - and many more - would have been in real financial difficulties as a result of illness or injury.

A major fundraiser for both charities is By Design Day, being held this year on Thursday 24 April. You can make a personal donation, hold a collection at work or - if you are a designer - you can support the day by giving a day's royalties to one or both of these charities.

To date Light Relief has awarded more than £60,000 in grants to help lighting professiona

UK - This year, Robe was already involved in some of the highest high profile New Year's shows around the world including Berlin, Las Vegas and New York ... and once again its moving lights were right at the centre of the action for Chinese New Year celebrations in London's Trafalgar Square, featuring an afternoon of onstage entertainment culminating in a massive son et lumière extravaganza finale show to welcome the Year of the Horse.

Organised by the London Chinatown Chinese Association and supported by the Mayor of London and Westminster City Council, the event - which lasts all afternoon and covers activities happening in the key areas of Leicester Square, Soho, Charing Cross Road and Chinatown - celebrates Chinese history culture and art, and is the biggest outside Asia.

Lighting, audio and power specialists Ethix Management run by Paul Jones supplied an all-Robe moving

UK - Funky Junk has added Pearl Microphones to its distribution roster.

"Having used and loved Pearl Microphones for more than 20 years, I was delighted when the opportunity arose to represent the brand in the UK," says Funky Junk's founder Mark Thompson. "These microphones have an exceptional pedigree and history. They deliver great results, particularly on acoustics instruments, and they are built to last. It's no surprise to me that vintage Pearl Microphones are as much in demand as new ones."

Pearl's chairman, Sven Olof Andersson, says, "We are extremely happy to be working with Mark Thompson and his crew of dedicated professionals in the UK. Pearl goes a long way back in Britain and we will now continue to grow there with an exciting line-up of products and new developments."

Founded in 1941, Pearl is renowned for its award-winning rectangu

Belgium - Barco and AED Studios, part of AED group, have officially inaugurated 'Barco Virtual World', a virtual experience events hall at the site of AED Studios in Lint, Belgium. The 1.000sq.m hall is equipped with 10 of Barco's high-brightness HDX-W20 projectors and a 90m long screen - the largest in the Benelux region - to provide an immersive virtual experience in full HD.

A longstanding customer of Barco, the AED group purchased the renowned Eurocam Mediacenter in 2013, renaming it AED Studios. The 55,000sq.m site is home to an extensive range of film studios (45sq.m < 3000sq.m), each offering an enormous array of multifunctional possibilities. "The studios perfectly complement our rental, sales, repair, logistics and leasing businesses," says Glen Roggeman, CEO of AED Studios. "When buying the studios, we immediately dreamt of converting one of the halls in

Sweden - One of Sweden's largest 'theatre show restaurants', Rondo, has upgraded its house lighting system to Chroma-Q Inspire premium performance, energy-efficient LED house lights, to transform the feel and atmosphere of the popular venue.

Situated in Scandinavia's biggest theme park, Liseberg, in the city of Gothenburg, Rondo stages high-class after-dinner entertainment shows and has featured performances from some of Sweden's leading musicians. One of the country's most historic show venues, around six million happy guests have danced, dined and celebrated here since Rondo opened sixty-five years ago. The venue is renowned for its glamour and exquisite dining experience.

Rondo wanted to upgrade their conventional tungsten house lights with a more modern and energy-efficient LED system, as well as offering an extra immersive dimension to their performances.

The existing s

UK - London-based RTS Communications recently added the Roland VR-50HD AV Mixer to their hire stock, with the unit going straight out the door to local production house Pink Banana Studios.

RTS purchased the VR-50HD from Leisuretec Distribution, who as distributors of professional audio and video products directly to trade customers, hold stock of Roland Systems Group (RSG) products including the VR-50HD. The sale was facilitated by Chris Webster from RSG who had received the initial VR-50HD enquiry from Pink Banana Studios and had demonstrated the streaming and live production features to them.

RTS is an established supplier of audiovisual, IPTV and videoconferencing services to both the public and private sector. With a number of high profile corporate and government clients, the projects that RTS are involved in include the live broadcast of government press conferences and

USA - Following the success of his 2011 EPIC 1.0 tour, Eric Prydz knew his EPIC (Eric Prydz In Concert) 2.0 shows had to raise the stakes of EDM visuals, and therefore collaborated again with show designers, technical specialists & content creators Immersive to realise a world-class audio/visual sensation.

Hailed by the world's press as an example of boundary-pushing design, London and New York-based show designer Immersive created an enormous set incorporating LED screens rather than projection surfaces, lasers, holograms, smoke machines and other visual effects.

Reviewing the show, the LA Times praised EPIC 2.0 for "raising the stakes for how artists present dance music live, in ways unique to their own aesthetic"; LA Music Blog commented, "The seamless marriage of deft live mixing and visual spectacle was magical to behold; I can only hope this

UK - Qdos Event Hire, was appointed to provide cabins, luxury toilets and waste tanks to the BRIT Awards for the third year in succession.

The contract was awarded by Brit Awards Production Ltd and saw Qdos supply their cabins for use as production offices and hospitality areas for backstage and the after-show party. They also supplied a range of their luxury toilets to support the existing facilities in-house at the venue. In addition they to installing tanks for catering waste.

The 2014 BRIT Awards, widely regarded as the biggest event in the British music industry's calendar, was held on 19 February 2014, held at The O2 Arena in London, with James Corden presenting. Big winners on the night included the Arctic Monkeys and One Direction.

Nigel Brice, CEO, Qdos Event Hire said, "This is the third year that we have been involved with the BRIT Awards and I'm delighted to

Australia - Since Perth's Concert and Corporate Productions (CCPWA to their friends) purchased their Jands Vista L5 they've barely had the pleasure of its company. And it's that kind of that kind of immediate return on investment that really makes a production company happy. Sean McKernan, general manager of CCPWA, couldn't be happier with its absence. "We got it mid-September and we only had it in our warehouse for 12 hours before it went out on its first tour!"

After purchase from Jands, the L5 flew into Perth to be prepped by the CCPWA crew, and soon turned around and was put a plane to Brisbane, where it kicked off on UK metal band Bring Me The Horizon's national tour. As that tour finished up, the desk went straight over to US rockers Fall Out Boy for another lap of the nation.

"It was a good month and half before it came back" Sean continued, 'and it'

UK - 'Juke box' musicals based on the songs of iconic performers continue to enjoy huge popularity in the UK. Ben Elton's Tonight's The Night - The Rod Stewart Musical is currently on a major tour of provincial venues, with a Yamaha CL5 digital console ensuring that the audio production is plain sailing.

Originally staged in London a decade ago, this is the show's second UK tour. Sound designer Rory Madden of RM Sound Design specified a Yamaha PM1D for the 2006 tour, so this time out a CL5 was the obvious choice.

The CL5, a Rio3224-D and two Rio1608-D i/o units were supplied by Orbital Sound, with associate sound designer Jon Sealey operating the show.

"The advantages of both a console and multicore which are much easier to handle are obvious, especially on an intensive tour where there is just six hours for the get in and soundcheck," he says. "The CL5

Belgium - Glenn Roggeman (CEO AED group) cut the ribbon for the opening of the AED studios in the presence of numerous prominent guests from the political as well as corporate scene.

In August 2013, the Eurocam Media Centre - formerly known as the Alfacam Studios, changed ownership after the acquisition by the AED group.

On 1 October, Glenn Roggeman officially started phase 1 of his master plan, "the update" of the studios. During the last five months, neither cost nor effort was spared for this prestigious project. Today, many waste containers, renovations and innovations later, determined entrepreneurship already shows its result.

Sixteen studios, of which five have been fully fitted with the most recent lighting-, sound- and video equipment, having as target audience, the TV- and event industry.

Seven Studios were equipped with Technical ceilings (Trusses and

UK - XL Video reports the creation of a new 'Centre of Excellence' for media servers and control systems. The team, whose expertise will be available to clients of XL Video worldwide, will be led by Christian Dickens, media server and control systems manager at XL Video UK.

Christian, who has recently joined XL Video, has almost 20 years experience in audio-visual technology. For the last six years, he has specialised in the field of projection mapping and media servers, and it is this expertise that makes him the ideal leader for XL's new team. Before joining XL, Christian's projects included projection mapping Nokia's Secret Room at Mobile World Congress 2013 and Veuve Cliquot's interactive display at Selfridges London.

"Joining the XL Video team is an amazing opportunity," commented Christian. "I am excited about being a part of the 'Centre of Excellence' and

The Netherlands - Yamaha's R-Remote software was only launched a few weeks ago, but it has already made an impact on audiences in the Netherlands, where a short tour by Holland Baroque Society found it "indispensible".

Holland Baroque Society is a collective which is not only keeps baroque music contemporary and frequently performed, but works with musicians from other genres to create innovative performances, albeit with baroque always as the starting point.

Early February saw one of these ground-breaking projects bring the inspiration of 18th century French composer Jean Philippe Rameau and 20th century Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel together on stage, fusing the similarities of music composed 200 years apart into something new.

The four-date tour took place on consecutive days from 6-9 February, with performances in Groningen, Utrecht, Leiden and Den Haa

Belgium - Barco and AED Studios, part of audiovisual specialist AED group, officially inaugurated Barco Virtual World, a virtual experience events hall at the site of AED Studios in Lint, Belgium.

The 1.000sq.m hall is equipped with ten of Barco's high-brightness HDX-W20 projectors and a 90-meter long screen - the largest in the Benelux - to provide an immersive virtual experience in full HD. As a technical partner of Barco Virtual World, Barco is happy to help AED Studios to push the limits of projection and corporate event infrastructure to create a unique experience for AED's customers.

A longstanding customer of Barco, the AED group purchased the renowned Eurocam Mediacenter in 2013, renaming it AED Studios. The 55,000sq.m site is home to an extensive range of film studios (45sq.m < 3000sq.m), each offering an enormous array of multifunctional possibilities.

"The st

Russia - Moscow-based AV company, Proton Centre, specified six Allen & Heath rackmount Qu-16 digital mixers to be installed in the Main Media Centre at Sochi's Olympic Park during the recent Olympic Games in Russia.

The Main Media Centre catered for more than 2000 members of the international media accredited to cover the Competition, and more than 6000 television and radio broadcasters from around the world.

Proton Centre designed the AV system and supervised installation works, whilst its partner company, Sochi-based Tomlux+, completed the sound and video installation on site. The Qu-16s were supplied by Allen & Heath's Russian distributor, MixArt.

The Media Centre's AV systems were based around the Qu-16 mixers, which were selected for their ability to provide the wide functionality and flexibility needed to complete various tasks, and meet the diverse requirements of the

USA - TMB and AC Power Distribution have celebrated the delivery of the 1,000th ProPower Rack Panel Distribution (RPD) system. The latest ProPower RPD rack was handed over at a special ceremony at TMB's global headquarters earlier this month.

"Our sale of the 1,000th RPD system comes as TMB's ProPower brand continues to enjoy increasing popularity with entertainment and live event professionals worldwide," says TMB sales manager, Stephanie Kilburg. "Continuously enhanced to maintain its quality advantage, ProPower RPD remains the most reliable, versatile (and good looking!) power distro out there. We look forward to continuing to grow our long-standing and successful partnership with AC Power."

"ProPower RPD offers the finest dollar-for-performance ratio available," adds James Davey of AC Power Distribution. "The fact that TMB has supplied th

UK - High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire-based cross rental facility Dry Hire Lighting has invested in a substantial quantity of new Robe moving lights to boost their available hire stock of Robe fixtures, making them one of the largest rental stockists of Robe fixtures in the UK.

The new purchase comprises of a mix of Robe Robin Pointes, Robin LEDWash 600s and Robin LEDBeam 100s.

Dry Hire Lighting made the move due to an increased demand generally across all sectors for all of Robe products which are appearing with increasing frequency on specifications for concert tours, theatres shows, TV series' as well as special, corporate and industrial events and presentations.

"We have the largest rental stocks of the Pointe in the UK and it is definitely the fixture of the year right now," says Dry Hire Lighting's Rob Merrilees, "It's being used on numerous productions and

UK - West London-based rental company Entec's Sound division renewed its long term acquaintance with Bedales School, supplying a d&b sound system and crew for their annual Rock Concert event, staged in the 340 capacity Olivier Theatre on the school's picturesque campus in Hampshire.

Bedales was founded in 1893 by the innovative educator and author John Bradley with the aim of being profoundly different from other public schools of the day. Putting the key elements of the child's education, welfare and happiness right at the core of its values, Bedales continues to be one of the most sought after educational experiences in the UK, encouraging independent thinking and inquisitive minds to flourish.

Entec's relationship as a technical partner started 10 years ago with the very first Bedales Rock Concert via the company's long association with legendary rockers The Who, when guita

Czech Republic - Robe has renewed its sponsorship of Czech MotoGP racer Karel Abraham for the 2014 Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix.

Abraham kicks off the 2014 season with a brand new Honda bike and lots of positive attitude.

Says Robe s.r.o CEO Josef Valchar, "Supporting Karel in the Moto GP was a great success for us last year! It provides an exhilarating international event that can be enjoyed worldwide by everyone and a great opportunity for us to offer hospitality and a special experience to our clients and friends."

Last year Abraham had some bad luck and had to drop out of the competition after a nasty shoulder injury for which he is still receiving treatment.

Right now he comments, "The most important thing is that I enjoy racing again ... and I am sure the rest will follow." He has just turned 24 and is already a veteran of his tenth M

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