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14 December 2016

A total of 60 channels of Shure UHF-R - the largest number of wireless mics ever used on a military display like this - were used in shows in Australia (where technical services and equipment were supplied by a 12-strong team from audio facilities company Norwest) and New Zealand (where UK company Wigwam Acoustics and Wellington's Western Audio Engineering were jointly responsible behind the scenes).

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, as its name suggests, began life as a geographically limited proposition, normally taking place in August in the grounds of the Scottish capital's castle, where it is typically viewed by around 220,000 people annually. In 20

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14 December 2016

The 2016 Mic to Monitor tour kicked off on 11 April at the new Abbey Road Institute in Berlin, before moving to Los Angeles, USA, for its second event on 27 April. It will ultimately take in over 10 cities around the world, including Paris in June and Amsterdam in October, where it will be held at Abbey Road Institute's sixth centre, which is due to open later this year.

Targeted at music production students, hobbyists and professionals, Mic to Monitor aims to dispel the many myths surrounding the recording process. The events answer those all-important questions such as what makes great gear great, what does it take to become a succe

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14 December 2016

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14 December 2016

Nearly two decades on, southern California's premier music festival still creates lasting memories and exhilarates the senses. Coachella delivered another eclectic experience across two weekends in April with a broad mix of acts from the world of rap, hip hop, EDM and rock delighting crowds with surprise guests like Angus Young, Rihanna and Kanye West adding to the festival's distinctive feel.

Elation lighting has been a staple of Coachella shows over the years and again this year played a large role in the visual experience with over 500 Elation products in action in the Yuma, Sahara and Mojave Tents, as well as around the festival grounds. Fel

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14 December 2016

Owned and managed by Eric Rhijnsburger and his father in law, Fred Kok, De Oude Tol features three rooms (two with an opening roof) and a small outdoor terrace. The rooms can be individually rented for meetings, parties and presentations, but the existing audio system was very limited in only being able to supply sound from a single source to all four spaces.

Eric and Fred knew that a much more versatile system was required, so they approached Frank Kapogiannis of Yamaha Commercial Audio dealer Marvellous Sound Systems for help.

Frank suggested a new system based on Yamaha Commerci

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14 December 2016

Sourcing smaller grandstand roofs for a more intimate atmosphere, organiser H Power had to find another means to support the significant weight of lighting required for the birthday broadcast.

The solution came in the shape of a ring of Star Events' new 20m Zee-Towers and 16m T-Towers. Strong enough to carry the 250 moving head lights and eight operated follow-spots, it holds them at the right height to hit the arena floor from behind the grandstands without impacting on sightlines. The towers' tiny footprint was another key feature for the organiser. It meant th

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14 December 2016

The Arnolfini, which is located in a former tea warehouse dating from the 1830s, hosts regular live theatre events, as well as film, dance and university shows, and is also used by drama students at the University of the West of England. So it was important to future-proof the venue when their previous dimmers came to the end of their life.

Nick Ewins, managing director at ETC dealer Push the Button, explains, "We had been working with ETC's Graham Parker and Jeremy Roberts to install a beta test site for ColorSource ThruPower, so we knew it would soon be available for the Arnolfini."

During a three-week shutdown at the end of last year, Push the Button installed six 24-channel power control ra

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14 December 2016

The company recorded its best quarter ever during Q4 2015 followed by an even better Q1 2016. "This is a fantastic result on a number of levels," said Stardraw.com CEO, Rob Robinson. "It's the first time in the history of Stardraw.com (which was incorporated in 2000) that we have had consecutive record quarters. Even more significant is the fact that, like many companies and for cyclical reasons, we traditionally enjoy better Q4s than Q1s, so to have a record quarter after a record Q4 is particularly notable."

The usage stats also bear out the success of Stardraw Design 7: logins on Design 7 have gone from an average of 9,000 per month in 2014 to 11,000 per month in 2015 and

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14 December 2016

For close to 20 years, LaserX have entertained both South African and international audiences with spectacular laser shows. "During this time we have tried to keep up with the changing needs of our clients and to stay fresh," explained Troy. Having seen an international trend for other "special" effects at conferences and trade shows, LaserX decided to incorporate a WaterGraphic water curtain.

"When we were planning how to support the WaterGraphic we phoned DWR Distribution and spoke to Robert Izzett, who came out to our premises to advise us on the best way to do this. It was decided that initially we would use a Prolyte trussi

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14 December 2016

The relationship between the Liverpool, UK based rental and technical production specialist evolved from meeting the band at a Capital Radio Summertime Ball a couple of years ago, an event produced by Production North who now also oversee 5SOS's technical direction.

Adlib first supported their sound team of engineers John Delf (FOH) and Ben Booker (monitors) on the road during 2015's hugely successful arena tour, and this current collaboration started in January with Adlib delivering a control package including the Soundcraft Vi7000 at FOH and DiGiCo SD10 monitor console which travelled round the world with them.

Touring extensively in Asia, Australia and the Far East for the first few months of the

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14 December 2016

The system comprised the flagship S7000 Control Surface and DM64 MixRack.

"It was very important that we had one system to manage the whole event, to eliminate any complexities with changing over systems," says William Souza Ribeiro, the system engineer from Barra Som. "dLive did not disappoint. It delivers a big performance, with great headroom and clarity. dLive presents a new level of sound quality - it's amazing! And with the AES3 outputs at a 96kHz sample rate, the processing capacity is astonishing."

(Jim Evans)

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14 December 2016

This year's event was the third time that production company DEDS IT has staged the 'live' TDSO show for broadcaster VTM, and the first time at the massive Sportpalais venue.

Luc created a bespoke digital scenery concept for the first TDSO live show a year ago (at the nearby Lotto Arena) and this was utilized again to replicate the large golden portal / pros arch that is instantly recognisable from the TV show.

In the Sportpalais, this measured 18m wide by 9 high, and upstage was an 18m wide by 9m high block of LED screen which split in the m

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14 December 2016

SXS Events specified 16 Rogue R2 Washes to illuminate the iconic Norman Foster-designed office building, which sits on the River Thames near the Tower Bridge. The RGBW LED fixtures were used to wash the entire edifice and draw attention to an HD-projected image displaying the words: "5 May: Have your say."

When the PR and communications office of the electoral campaign approached SXS for a solution that would communicate the message of the May 5 vote, the team at SXS looked to Chauvet's Rogue to supply a powerful saturated wash in a bid to draw attention to the unusual cylindrical-shaped building with light.

"We wanted to incorporate the Rogues in this particular installation, because we knew they co

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14 December 2016

The sound and lighting company welcomed the opportunity to participate and equipped the main stage with a series of high-output products from the German manufacturer's X4 range.

These included multiples of X4 LED heads (featuring 19 x 15W RGBW LEDs), the larger X4 L (37 x 15W RGBW LED), X4 Bar 20 (20 x 1-meter long lighting battens) - and other new generation fixtures.

Ruisheng Lighting & Audio's Jianwei Chen comments: "The GLP effects added brilliant colour and lighting stability to the set and produced an outstanding and eye-catching performance."

(LSi

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14 December 2016

The company was founded in 2009 by Justin Fish whilst still studying at the University of Cape Town. Graduating in 2011, Ampere's growth trajectory has been impressive and interesting, currently with 30 full time employees and a busy order book ranging from top end corporate events to music festivals.

They have an open policy when it comes to brands, and the Pointes are their first Robe purchase, delivered via South African distributor DWR's Cape Town office run by Bradley Bruchhausen.

"We think Robe is definitely making the best multi-purpose beam fixture right now," confirms Justin.

Ampere has frequently cross-hired Robe products for various projects as needed over the last couple of years,

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14 December 2016

"Our Lyon and Leopard systems can be configured for precise sound distribution and powerful projection - even at continuously high output levels," notes Mike Lee, Marina Bay Sands' vice president of sales. "They also provide superior vocal intelligibility and a consistently linear response. From an operational standpoint, we also appreciate the simplified cabling, faster and easier setup, and reduced storage space compared to conventi

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14 December 2016

The Trinity Centre is one of Bristol's main live music venues but, when funding was made available for a new sound reinforcement system for the 600-capacity main hall, there was a lot to consider for Paul King - proprietor of King Sound Reinforcement, one of the main professional audio installation and rental companies in the UK's south-west.

"We have worked as the venue's audio contractor for over a decade. There was an existing house system but, to be honest, it was so unsatisfactory that for every live show we were bringing in our own rental e

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14 December 2016

In Round Eight, the Theatres Trust has awarded the following projects:

Theatre Royal Winchester receives £5,000 towards its 'Tower Street elevation - urgent fabric and structural repairs' project, to restore the weather-damaged Tower Street fa

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14 December 2016

"The one thing they didn't want was clean camera images. The show is a mix of carefully chosen content and IMAG, though not the style of IMAG most concertgoers are accustomed to. There are a couple of numbers that are clean, the big crowd friendly songs that everyone would expect and the band realise you have to do that sometimes. But otherwise we work the images hard."

The video system is supplied by Video Design, a total of seven LED screens, all 4.8m square, three across the stage, a pair stacked each side, and a camera package of four operated cameras, minicams and robocams to feed the IMAG.

"I put the tour out to tender and received bids from all over Europe," s

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14 December 2016

After working with the artist last year, the TV and concert lighting specialist decided on a new approach when the club tour resumed in early 2016, enlisting the help of GLP and its LED portfolio.

Knowing that Lena is one of the faces of L'Oréal, and that the light should be concentrated on haloing this feature, he had the Karlsbad manufacturer produce special versions of the X4 atom, replacing the high output quad colour purely with cold and warm white LEDs.

He explained the rationale thus, "I like to approach the design from a 'content' perspective, and in this case not use any colour - and she immediately bought into the idea of using [the atom] as a low, floor-based front light.

"So I presented t

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14 December 2016

The versatile system, under full digital control, has both fixed and portable elements and features GEO S12 and STM Series line array and Alpha and PS Series point-source loudspeaker systems, with Yamaha CL5 and QL1 digital consoles, installed by Yamaha Sound Systems Inc.

The Westa Kawagoe centre is a new multipurpose centre, located in Saitama Prefecture's rapidly developing City of Culture. The Main Hall of the centre, with approximately 1,700 seats, is capable of supporting a range of different concerts, theatrical, and other performing art programs. In addition to this Main Hall, Westa Kawagoe is made up of lifelong learning and other such facilities operated by Kawagoe City and by Saitama P

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14 December 2016

The band formed in 1980, and their long term New Order lighting designer Andy Liddle has also been a collaborator in the New Order live experience almost since then, joining in 1981!

This tour, he has used 16 x Robe BMFLs as the backbone of the lighting rig, together with other lights, controlled via an Avolites Arena console.

Andy chose BMFL Spots for their "amazing brightness, speed and optics" and positioned four of the lights on each one of four over-stage trusses, along with other lighting and GLUX video panels, trimmed at 7, 6, 6.5 and 1.5 metres, and positioned at 3, 6, 9m upstage, respectively.

His

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14 December 2016

Since its launch in 2015 AiRAY has performed strongly in the global market, offering as it does an extremely compact and lightweight, yet phenomenally powerful output.

RégieTeK now possesses a full complement of CODA's line-array products and its purchase of AiRAY underlines the esteem in which this fast-growing German brand is held. It was in fact, RégieTeK who had distributed CODA products in France until it was agreed that the brand required a stronger and more streamlined commercial structure through which to access the French market. RégieTeK's continued faith in CODA, speaks volumes.

The inception of CODA Audio France came about as a result of a conflue

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14 December 2016

Collins and his wife founded the Little Dreams Foundation in 2000 to provide mentoring and financial support for children who aspire to be musicians, artists and athletes. The Benefit Gala, which took place at the Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theatre on 11 March to raise money for the aspiring artists, closed with a special acoustic performance by Phil Collins with additional performances by Diego Torres, DJ Irie and Lou Gramm.

Lighting design for the event, which was produced by ACT Productions, was by John Hollingshead with The Design Oasis providing lighting and projection gear, their second time being involved with the project.

"We mad