UK/Serbia - Trilogy has announced that N1, a new news channel that will cover the Balkan countries of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina has selected Trilogy's Gemini distributed matrix intercom system.

Sold by Amisys, a broadcast systems integration company covering Serbia and neighbouring countries, to Balkan DTH and cable operator United Group, which will run N1, the Gemini system will provide critical communications within the channel's main production facility in Belgrade, Serbia, plus local news centres in Zagreb, Croatia, and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Taking advantage of Gemini's integrated IP capability, the system will link production staff and presenters at each of the facilities, with backup circuits provided by the system for VoIP & PSTN telephone services.

Based on a distributed, IP-based architecture rather than a single central matrix, Gemini intercom sy

Germany - The Rock im Park and Rock am Ring festivals are the most popular music festivals in Germany, attracting an audience of 150,000. The two festivals are held simultaneously in Nürburg and Nuremberg, in the West and South of Germany. The events each boast an almost identical artist line-up, with headliners this year including Metallica, Linkin Park, Iron Maiden, and Kings of Leon.

Both concerts are outdoors, but pose different challenges for sound crews. Rock im Park's Zeppelinfeld has neighbouring residential areas so sound restrictions are a big consideration. Rock am Ring takes place at the world-famous Nürburgring racetrack, a narrow and very long audio field that requires a powerful, directional PA system to deliver the best coverage for an extended audience.

Premier event production services provider satis&fy AG created two distinct sound designs and system deplo

UAE - Melody House Musical Instruments LLC, a sole distributor of HK Audio in the Middle East, in cooperation with NMK Electronics Enterprises, the distributor of Rane products, has started a close relationship with DJ Academy based in Dubai. As part of a newly formed relationship, two of DJ Academy's teaching rooms have been outfitted with HK Audio and Rane equipment.

"DJ academy is doing something very unique in the region. They groom enthusiasts and transform them into professional DJs. Therefore during the training period it is crucial that students know what good audio gear feels and sounds like. I am pleased with their decision to select HK Audio as the loudspeaker brand for their course," commented Grayson Soares, operations executive from Melody House Musical Instruments.

Melody House supplied HK Audio Icon Series including two IC112LA speakers, four IC118BA

USA - Quil Ceda Creek Casino, located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation north of Seattle, had one overriding requirement for Agility AVL for the lighting and video package in their new Qzone entertainment venue - make it high tech. And that they did, installing an Elation Professional EZ4 LED video screen along with Elation Platinum Spot LED II moving heads and EPAR Series LED fixtures.

Opened in April 2014, Qzone is a new multi-purpose venue that functions as sports bar, café and music venue and even holds corporate meetings from time to time. The space, which originally started as a nightclub before being converted to a gaming room and now Qzone, is located just off the main Quil Ceda Creek Casino gaming floor. The client wanted to use the space to provide different options and events that appealed to customers in order to draw them onto the property.

Six months prior

The Netherlands - The Theater Markant in Uden, Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands is a busy producing and receiving theatre run by the city, which also has an integral but independently run event space that is equally active ... and has recently been refurbished.

This has included a full technical upgrade - for which the lighting elements were supplied by Controllux.

The new lighting rig was designed by Controllux's Kuno Van Velzen and includes Robe's Actor LED fixtures, LEDWash 300s, LEDWash 600s and LEDBeam 100 moving lights - all from Robe's Robin series - together with Robe LEDForce 18 PARs.

Once the renovation project was underway, the original lighting proposals for the 'new' event space were revised by Chief LX Rob de Gier and Technical Director Maarten Prinssen who looks after technicals for Markant's event area.

He especially wanted LED lighting installed to make the

Canada - The Westgate Collegiate & Vocational Institute in Thunder Bay, Ontario, was due for a change. A 1970s-era sound system resulted in lots of echoes and reflections but little in the way of intelligible sound.

When Randall Anderson, Regional Representative for Thunder Bay-based Evolution AV was called in to evaluate the gymnasium's audio needs, he encountered more than the usual acoustical challenge of hard, reflective surfaces that smear sound - an ongoing problem for the space's many applications, including sporting events, performances, convocation and more. The situation called for a flexible, innovative solution - exactly what is offered by a RoomMatch system from Bose Professional Systems.

Personnel from Bose and Evolution AV had the gym's measurements input into Bose's Modeler software, which produced three distinct possible solution paths. Anderson and Bose field

UK - Britain's longest continuously-running game show, Question of Sport, is back for another series. Remarkably it was aired for the first time in 1968 and is still considered prime time TV. Having run almost uninterrupted since 1970 they have filmed over 1000 episodes.

Each week two teams of sports stars, headed up by resident team captains Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson, battle it out in numerous topical rounds which include Picture Round, Home or Away, What Happened Next and On the Buzzer.

LD Roger Williams continues to light the show. Richard Martin Lighting (RML) have been providing the lights for this show for a number of years now and have worked hard to make sure the transition from filming in London, to Dock 10 in Salford has been a smooth one.

Roger's rig is relatively basic in terms of moving lights but the effect is has with the vibrant set work brilliantly

USA - The Grateful Dead maintain a following that's as large and passionate as ever 49 years after the band's founding. This devotion was on full display at Gathering of the Vibes, an annual festival celebrating the iconic band, which this year featured performances by Widespread Panic, Umphrey's McGee and John Fogerty, among others, including the 'Dead' tribute band Dark Star Orchestra, all performing on a stage illuminated with a rainbow of colours that would have done Jerry Garcia proud, courtesy of moving fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

One of the most successful tribute bands, Dark Star Orchestra has been covering Grateful Dead concerts song for song, often joined by members of the original band, since 1995. Dark Star has performed well over 2,000 Dead Tribute concerts, each one as free flowing and colourful as the next, thanks to the quality of their music and some ric

USA - The Behind the Scenes Happy Hour, hosted by PLASA will go on sale to the public on 2 September 2014. The biggest pre-LDI party of the year will take place on Thursday, 20 November, from 6pm-8pm at the Westgate Las Vegas (formerly The Las Vegas Hotel). Tickets are $50 each and includes an open bar, hors d'oeuvres and music and all proceeds go to benefit the Behind the Scenes charity, the only industry charity that provides grants to ill or injured entertainment technician professionals. $30 of each ticket is tax deductible, and tickets are expected to sell quickly.

Starting 2 September, tickets can be purchased online. They can also be ordered through your LDI registration.

Current sponsors for the Behind the Scenes Happy Hour include: 4Wall Entertainment (Diamond), Altman Lighting (Diamond), CHAUVET Professi

USA - Over 100 Robe moving lights made a serious impact as part of Tom Kenny's lighting design for the 2014 Teen Choice Awards (TCA). The show, produced by Bob Bain, Greg Sils and Paul Flattery was staged at the Shrine Auditorium, adjacent to the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles, California.

The prominent event honoured the best teen movies, music, fashion and (new this year), web stars, and attracted many rising young stars and celebrities. This year's presenters included Modern Family's Sarah Hyland and Teen Wolf's Tyler Posey, and a staggering 164m plus votes were cast by young fans through various social media channels. The show was broadcast live on the FOX Television Network.

This is the fourth TCA that has been lit by Kenny and his team and again, this year, he worked closely with Set Designer Steve Bass and Video Designer Eli Kinney

USA - With more number one hits over the past 20 years than any other artist in Latin Music, Mexican crooner Marco Antonio Solis has earned the appellation "living legend" throughout the Americas, both South and North. A key reason for his enduring popularity can be found in the heartfelt connection he establishes with audiences. This emotional link was very much supported by LD Oscar "El Bro" Florez's lighting design for Solis' current tour, which features 16 Chauvet Professional Nexus 4x4 panels supplied by Visions Lighting of Brea, CA.

"It was very nice to be able to illuminate the audience with colour coordination based on the mood of the show," said Todd Roberts, president of Visions Lighting. "As an artist Marco Antonio Solis is very one-on-one with his audience. The Nexus 4x4 panels were extremely helpful in allowing us to highlight diff

Germany - As one of Europe's most important institutes of higher education, as well as one of the world's leading research-based universities, the University of Bonn holds Bonner Wissenschaftsnacht or Science Night Bonn biennially in cooperation with the City of Bonn. The goal of the special science-themed evening, held this year in late May, is to give the scientific institutions of Bonn as well as the University the chance to present themselves while highlighting their research and teaching.

In order to best illustrate this year's Science Night slogan, which was Digital Society, the University's Event Management Department decided to illuminate the institution's main building, a beautiful renaissance castle where much of the University's activities take place, as well as the University's Academic Art Museum. Separated from each other by a 250m long

USA - Located at Dyckman Marina in upper Manhattan, the newly rebuilt La Marina NYC sports a restaurant, bar, lounge, and events space that covers more than 75,000sq.ft of Hudson River waterfront. With world-class facilities and a breathtaking waterfront view, it is rapidly becoming the place to see and be seen.

La Marina NYC's waterfront area is where all the high profile live activity takes place and, to ensure a high level of speech intelligibility and music reproduction for all their events, the venue's management recently took delivery of a new sound reinforcement system drawn from the WR Series catalogue of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

North Bergen, NJ-based E&A Sound LLC, which in addition to its design / build services also runs an audio and video rental operation, was contracted to design and install the sound system for La Marina NYC's waterfront area. After m

South Africa - Carol Thorns and her special bubble, a clear glass-like luminescent sphere attached to a glowing stage base, created a magical contribution to the Slots Factor media launch, hosted at 3 Sixty° Liquid Lounge at Montecasino. MJ Event Gear used Robe Robin fixtures to enhance the lighting already in the venue.

The Slots Factor is Tsogo Sun's annual national championship takes place across all 14 of its casinos with R1.8m in prize money up for grabs.

Theo Roodt from MJ Event Gear and his team added six Robin 100 LED Beams, eight Robin 600 LED Wash fixtures and two Robin 200 E Spots to compliment the ambience. Prolyte H40V Goal posts were used as pedestal on which some of the fixtures were placed.

Lighting was controlled and operated by Olebogeng Boinamo on an Avolites Tiger Touch 2.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Southampton-based live hire company BCS replaced all of its wireless in-ear monitoring on James Arthur's recent European tour with Shure's PSM1000 system. The move came following on-going problems experienced by James Arthur and BCS's monitor engineer Matt Williams during the early dates with the artist's previous IEM system.

"We kept having RF issues with our previous system," comments BCS project manager Dave 'Boxx' Cann, "and it became a real problem during the tour. All of the wireless mics Matt was using were Shure and were working without any trouble, so eventually he asked us to try a Shure in ear system instead. We got a few channels of PSM1000 in to replace the other system."

For the remaining tour dates, Arthur and his live band used 10 channels of PSM1000 in total. The IEM system comprised five dual-channel transmitters and 10 bodypack recei

UK - Pearce Hire has announced its first time sponsorship of the 2014 Technical Theatre Awards. The Technical Theatre Awards were launched in 2013 as a way of formally recognising the outstanding achievements and dedication of the backstage 'unsung heroes' of the technical theatre industry. The awards are presented annually at the PLASA London exhibition at ExCel each October. The nominees are shortlisted from individuals elected by their industry peers at the beginning of the year, and then voting conducted between June and September decides the final recipient of each award.

This year there are a total of 17 awards and Pearce Hire is sponsoring the 'Outstanding Achievement in Stage Crew' award. This award highlights an individual within any role of the Stage Department, who is renowned for their dedication and effort to this discipline and respected amongst the technical theat

USA - For its first location outside of the Northwest, the Cinetopia theatre chain has built three massive GXL screens, each equipped with a Meyer Sound cinema system and Dolby Atmos. Named Overland Park 18, this eastern Kansas theatre complex boasts close to 200 Meyer Sound cinema loudspeakers.

"When we played our demo reel, we would hear a gleeful chuckle and hear comments like, 'I've never heard anything like that before','" says Rudyard Coltman, owner of Cinetopia. "We pride ourselves on the fact that we've been told this theatre is 10 to 15 years ahead of the industry in the technology and amenities it offers."

The local media also noted the life-like detail of the Meyer Sound cinema loudspeakers. "When I heard the rain falling on screen, I could make out the drops, not just a swoosh," writes Jeneé Osterheldt, lifestyle columnist for <

UK - London's Wilton's Music Hall welcomeded brother and sister folk-pop duo Angus and Julia Stone for a pair of sold out shows, featuring LD Toby Hoggarth controlling lights from an Avolites Titan Mobile and Fader Wing.

The Stone siblings, hailing from Australia, delivered a powerful and emotive set that, when paired with Hoggarth's intense imagining of Ed Warren's design, entranced an audience that at times fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.

"The design for the show was very theatrical," says Hoggarth, "All the lights that we used on the show were mounted on the sides or at the back. There was absolutely no light coming from below. It was all incredibly dramatic."

Hoggarth's rig for the show was comprised of an LED star cloth that hung as a backdrop, four boom lights, four Robe Robin 300 washes, four Fresnel spotlights, and a set of festoon light

Europe - Austrian folk singer Andreas Gabalier toured Europe this summer with a Meyer Sound Lyon linear sound reinforcement system, playing his blend of traditional Alpine folk and rock for audiences of 20,000 and more. The Lyon system was part of a complete audio, video, and lighting package supplied by Crailsheim, Germany-based Media Resource Group (MRG).

"I am very happy with Lyon, and am figuring out more and more positive properties from show to show," says Wolfgang 'Wope' Peschmann, longtime FOH engineer for Gabalier. "For a cabinet of such small size, it has endless power under the hood. I haven't reached the end of the system."

The touring system featured front arrays of 12 Lyon-M main line array loudspeakers over two Lyon-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers each, with low end provided by dual end-fire arrays of nine-each 1100-LFC low-frequency

USA - Like many houses of worship, Shri Krishna Vrundavana serves its members in a wide variety of ways. The faithful gather at its spacious 3.5-acre campus, which is located 33 miles from New York City, for the Puja prayer ritual, services, holy festivals and meditation as well as more secular events.

Given the multi-faceted role the temple plays in its community, its leaders wanted a versatile lighting system that could adapt to their diverse needs. That's exactly what LD Jason Ayala of Jason Blends (New York) provided them with, drawing on the flexibility of the COLORado Batten 72 Tour and Ovation F-165WW from Chauvet Professional.

Ayala installed 15 of the COLORado units and seven Ovation fixtures around the stage in the 15,000 square foot house of worship. The COLORado fixtures were installed in the ceiling downstage as were three of the Ovation units. The four other Ovat

China - Internationally acclaimed artist Ivan Rutherford turned to DPA Microphones' d:facto Vocal Microphone to help him give an emotional performance during a recent one-off show in Hong Kong. The mic was chosen for being a handheld solution that would allow him to move freely on stage while he sang a series of Broadway hits dating as far back as the 1930s. The company's d:dicate 4011A Cardioid and d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones were also utilized to amplify the piano that supported the vocal performance.

The actor and singer, who has performed the role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables over 2,000 times on Broadway, was looking for a microphone that could deliver exceptional sound quality and clarity through a large venue sound system. DPA's d:facto fit the bill perfectly. Rutherford used the microphone in a wireless configuration with a Sennheiser Wireless System, w

UK - XL Video renewed its highly productive long term working relationship with Massive Attack, supplying LED screens and d3 media servers for the band's recent festival tour which featured a video concept co-designed by UVA and Icarus Wilson-Wright in conjunction with the band's 3D (Robert Del Naja).

Massive Attack are well known for their innovative and original use of video to reinforce the message of their music and their immersive and visceral live shows. They use video to engage audiences on a cerebral level as well as delivering great music. Sometimes controversial, always passionate and heartfelt, their message and exploding some of the myths and realities of mediated propaganda circulated in daily news . . . is at the essence of any Massive Attack show.

The band have been developing their own highly distinctive text based style of video content ever since first incorp

The Netherlands - Bwefar, a busy lighting rental company based in Zwolle, The Netherlands, is headed by the charismatic Akim Bwefar and specialises in the design and supply of lighting for automotive shows all over the world - although they also engage in lighting other types of events as well.

Akim is known for his expansive character and his enthusiastic approach to life and business! He has followed the development of the Robe brand right from the beginning - when Robe was originally a quality OEM manufacturer - and before 'Robe' was officially launched in 2002 and started blazing a trail in the world of moving light manufacture.

Bwefar was founded in 1998 and grew steadily and in 2008 an audio division was added to help further expand the company's scope. The first Robe products purchased - two DigitalSpot 3000DTs - also joined the hire stock in that same year.

When Robe

USA - San Antonio's new Tobin Centre for the Performing Arts will open in September with a complement of Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800 fixtures dedicated to both the H-E-B Performance Hall and the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theatre.

Rising behind the façade of the former San Antonio Municipal Auditorium along downtown's famed River Walk, the 1,750-seat multi-purpose venue will be the home of the San Antonio Symphony and other resident companies. It also plans to offer a diverse array of entertainment from comedy legend Bill Cosby and radio icon Garrison Keillor and The Prairie Home Companion to the Scottish Ballet's production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

The four-level H-E-B Performance Hall is the largest of the Tobin Centre's performance spaces; the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theatre is a black box-style space with multiple seating options. Dealer Texas Scenic and rep R

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