USA - In 2008, when the Iowa River flooded and destroyed Hancher Auditorium and 12 other buildings at the University of Iowa, the loss to the community was far greater than the physical loss of those structures.

Hancher Auditorium was one of the most popular venues for touring groups in the region, and the flood forced the student and traveling groups that normally used the venue to move into nearby facilities.

But this week, with the grand opening of the new Hancher Auditorium, the University of Iowa and the people of Iowa City once again have a magnetic cultural centre to call their own.

Only months after the flood, Theatre Projects began working with the university to determine how they would recover, rebuild, and move forward - not only regarding the 40-plus-year-old Hancher Auditorium, but also the Voxman School of Music and Clapp Recital Hall, which were attached

Europe - Belgian engineering, animation and rigging specialists WIcreations has enjoyed a busy summer supplying a selection of their standard rental products like WI Towers and WI Touring Track to a diverse variety of music festivals and live events.

Here is a small selection of some of the highlights and the ways in which WI can provide solutions for a myriad of scenarios which require lighting, sound and video to be in specific places, or lifted and moved precisely at exactly the right time.

Dominator 2016 is organised by hard style dance festival and event producers Q-Dance and is one of the largest gatherings for hardcore techno hard trance fans, staged each year in the park at Strand Eersel, Netherlands where WI provided six 11.5m towers for the Main stage used out in the crowd for PA delays and audience lighting. Two 10.8mWI towers were used for the second stage, all

USA - ATK Audiotek Corp. recently provided an EAW Adaptive sound reinforcement system for ESPN's 24th Annual ESPY Awards, held at the Microsoft Theatre (formerly the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live), in Los Angeles.

Valencia, California-based ATK Audiotek has provided sound reinforcement systems and support for the ESPY awards since the premier athletic award show debuted in 1993. This was their first time out with the Anna system.

"Because on-the-air coverage requires more theatre visibility than is typical, we were interested in using a more compact array like Anna," explains ATK's vice president of special events, Mikael Stewart. "The system had to be discreet, in addition to providing high quality sound and excellent coverage."

Anna arrays, which hang straight, could be trimmed at 32 feet to keep the stage open for television broadcast purposes, while still covering every

UK - Following its success in the West End, Las Vegas, Canada and on Broadway, the smash-hit Million Dollar Quartet is returning to the UK for a new touring production. This energetic musical tells the story of the afternoon in which Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins recorded some of the best known rock 'n' roll songs of all time. White Light has been approached to provide the lighting equipment .

Million Dollar Quartet takes place on 4 December 1956 and is set in Memphis, Tennessee. It features more than 20 classic tracks including Hound Dog, Blue Suede Shoes, Great Balls of Fire, Long Tall Sally and I Walk the Line. The lighting designer is David Howe, who comments, "The incredibly talented director Ian Talbot and set and costume designer David Farley have perfectly captured the space and atmosphere

South Africa - DWR Distribution has scheduled a three-day Introduction Beginners TV Lighting Workshop presented by Angus Clarke from the 11-13 October 2016 from 9am to 5pm. The course will be hosted at DWR's premises in Johannesburg.

Angus was fortunate enough to be involved in many firsts in the new SA TV Industry in the 1970's. He lit the first Live Studio Sport Transmission, as well as the first live newscasts. He was also responsible for the lighting design on the first major TV musical and children's productions as well as Shakespearean and other period dramas and ballet productions.

He has designed the lighting setups for major productions such as Deal or no Deal, Idols SA, World Cup Special for SuperSport amongst many others. He is a consultant to the TV industry and assists in numerous Lighting installations and training projects.

Cost of t

USA - Production company and Elation dealer Stage-Tech delivered a large Elation lighting package for one of Southern California's most popular rave events, the Hard Summer Music Festival. Both the Hard Stage, the festival's main stage, and the Pink Stage featured Elation lighting gear with the Platinum FLX hybrid moving head continuing its busy summer.

Some 32 of the award-winning FLX fixtures were used in the Hard Stage setup, each multi-functional light alternating with LED wash lights from center stage fingers of angled overhead truss. "The FLX were chosen for their punch and versatility as a beam and profile light," said Stage-Tech's Charley Guest, owner of the Santa Fe Springs-based company. "They were used for the majority of the beam effects and were the meat of the rig. It was the FLX's that created much of the impact."

Held 30-31 July at Auto Club Speedway in Fon

Mexico - Leading Mexican sound rental company Tecnoson Espectaculos has delivered one of the best international events in the Life in Color party roster, using a large Nexo STM modular line array system for the Mexico City show.

Life in Color is a high-profile global event series, hosted in many different cities in the USA and Europe. Its stage show combines the best international DJs with acrobatics, circus acts, pyrotechnics and special effects. What started life as a college tradition has been transformed into a worldwide live spectacular, with audiences growing every year along with production values.

The event returned to Mexico City, to the indoor venue of Expo Bancomer Sante Fe, where 5000 people joined the festival atmosphere to see Dutch producer and DJ Nicky Romero headline with his fellow countrymen Vicetone. Considered a leading star of the EDM and progressive

UK - Not everyone gets to have their lights gracing a 55 ft. tall, 60 ft. wide, 50 tonne spider made from re-imagined industrial waste and Robe is proud that Arcadia Spectacular chose to invest in its moving lights to ensure this masterpiece of imagination, engineering, resourcefulness and fully immersive performance will have its own lightshow and the highest production values.

The Spider, which started its journey at the Glastonbury Festival circa 2010 when its first incarnation was crafted with love, enthusiasm and some glorious craziness by Pip Rush and Bert Cole, is now gaining widespread international acclaim. As the Arcadia performance concept leads to more and more high profile bookings around the globe, the time was right for them to be self-sufficient in terms of production hardware.

Arcadia technical production manager Tim Smith takes up the story, "We had playe

USA - San Diego-based rock/roots/reggae outfit Slightly Stoopid recently wrapped up its summertime tour of North America. Billed as the Return of the Red Eye Summer Tour - with support from SOJA and Fortunate Youth, as well as other acts on select dates - the tour carried a full L-Acoustics K2 system supplied by Miami-based Beach Sound. This was the first time that K2 had been carried by the band, which was touring in continued support of its 2015 album, Meanwhile . . . Back at the Lab.

"The K2 rig was somewhat new to me, but it far surpassed my expectations," notes FOH Engineer James Wisner. "For example, at Red Rocks, where you're basically shooting a rig up a mountain, I have always experienced high frequency loss at the top. This year, K2 not only made it up the mountain but evenly spread the mix everywhere. That was one of the things I noticed every day; no matter

UK - Gaming event lighting specialist Steve Thurkettle selected Titan - the lighting and media control interface from UK manufacturer Avolites - to drive his complex audio-visual design for the 58th Insomnia Gaming Festival (Insomnia58), the UK's biggest ever celebration of gaming culture. The event took place at the NEC in Birmingham over the August bank holiday weekend.

The Insomnia Gaming Festival has been running since 1999. Organised by specialist gaming event producers Multiplay, it is now housed in nine halls at the NEC. Insomnia58 was the biggest Insomnia Gaming Festival yet - with a record attendance of 66,783 people. Gamers have the chance to play an impressive selection of the latest games in halls packed with thousands of PCs and consoles, take part in tournaments, watch the live finals and join in live Q&A sessions with gaming stars.

Multiplay's senior product

UK - Dan Quayle and Russell Payne of SLX (the recently re-branded Hire & Live Events Department of Stage Electrics) recently contacted Ambersphere Solutions' Matt Cowles of technical sales about the Ayrton NandoBeam-S3.

Cowles says: "At less than 9kg, the S3 is the smallest of the NandoBeam range but at up to 4,000 lumens it packs a powerful punch and offers designers accuracy, speed, optical flexibility and reliability all in one go. It is a great addition to any hire inventory and I was more than happy to go down to Bristol to do a demo for the team at SLX."

The demo was a success; Quayle says: "We needed a lighting product that not only met the demands of our events team, but would give our customers a budget-friendly option as well. In order to achieve this, price point was the key. However, I didn't want to comprise on quality, serviceability and ease of installation

Australia - Gearhouse Broadcast's event communications division has covered comms requirements for some of Australia's biggest live events in 2016, relying on Clear-Com products to get the job done quickly and reliably.

Their FreeSpeak II wireless, HelixNet partyline and Eclipse digital matrix systems have formed the backbone of major events like Hillsong Conference and the Queensland and Victorian Schools Spectaculars, ensuring these massive gigs and their live broadcasts run without a hitch.

Taking over Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena and most of its neighbouring venues in Olympic Park, Hillsong Conference was a four-day gathering of more than 30,000 faithful, with all of the production requirements of a massive arena show. Gearhouse Broadcast supplied and operated the comms system, which used 50 FreeSpeak II 1.9GHz beltpacks, one HMS-4X HelixNet main station running 12 HBP-2X

Kenya - Leading professional AV provider in East Africa, Sound Creations, recently installed a new audio system at Oshwal Community Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, selecting an Allen & Heath Qu-32 digital mixing system from distributor, PAXT.

Opened in 1984, the centre offers the Oshwal society a venue for religious and social gatherings, and can accommodate approximately 4,000 people. The Centre was in need of an upgrade to its audio equipment, selecting the Qu-32 together with an AR2412 and AR84 remote IO racks, providing more outputs and easier set-up facilities than its incumbent analogue mixer. The centre also invested in other kit to enhance audio quality, including Shure wireless mics and KRK monitor speakers.

As well as the IO increase, the Centre's decision to install the Qu mixer was also influenced by the mixer's ability to function with either an analogue or digital

UK - This spring saw Jeff Lynne's ELO return to the stage, performing a series of shows in arenas around the UK, including four nights at London's The O2. Fittingly - for the band has drawn musicians from Gary Barlow's band to complement Lynne and long-time ELO pianist Richard Tandy - Gary Bradshaw and Steve Lutley, who have both worked extensively with Barlow and Take That, sit at the FOH and monitor positions respectively, each working with a DiGiCo SD7.

In fact, the whole 'machine', as crew chief Onno Ooms describes it, is the same as for Take That, with the SD7s and the rest of the tour's audio requirements supplied by Newbury-based rental company Skan PA. "I'm using an SD7 because I wouldn't use anything else," says Gary Bradshaw. "On a tour this size there's nothing better. I've used the SD7 a lot, so I know it inside out and I set it up the same every time, which makes

UK - Following its successful launch in the US, Marq Lighting, a new player in the entertainment lighting sector, has announced the European launch of its diverse range of innovative, professional lighting products.

Marq Lighting is an independent brand owned and backed by the resources of music industry heavyweight inMusic. InMusic has a long-standing reputation designing, engineering, manufacturing and marketing fourteen different brands of music recording and performance equipment and software, including innovative DJ brands such as Denon DJ, Rane, Numark, Akai Professional and Alto Professional.

Marq was born from a long-established pedigree of innovative in-house music/DJ design and engineering, where the needs and requirements of artists and performers are well-understood and experienced first-hand. This experience offers a perspective that directly benefits the desi

Denmark - Fermaten is a busy community-based live music and performance venue in Herning, central Denmark, which has a lively entertainment programme encompassing around 140 shows a year and a capacity of 700 - expanded from 500 eight years ago following extensive refurbishment.

The venue has been running for 26 years and recently invested in new Robe moving lights, with four DLS Profiles, eight DL4X Spots, and 16 x LEDBeam 100s, all supplied by Robe's Danish distributor, Light Partner.

Currently one of the top music venues in the country for technical production, Fermaten has also built a reputation as a training ground and inspirational stepping-stone for future industry professionals.

Technical manager Daniel Friis specified the Robe kit together with Light Partner's technical sales specialist Johan Kvartborg, himself an ex-Fermaten volunteer. Dan and venue manager

USA - With over four million tickets sold to concerts that have taken place in 35 countries, The Australian Pink Floyd Show has amazed millions of concertgoers with an uncanny replication of the classic UK band's legendary live show. Employing a lavish collection of visual aids (including lasers, inflatables and 3D stereoscopic projection), the group's live shows recreate the look, feel and sound of Pink Floyd's later world tours.

For over 120 shows this year, the touring ensemble has had DiGiCo SD consoles on tour with it for the first time since it began touring in 1988. For the current North American run, Milwaukee-based Clearwing Productions has been supplying an SD5 for front of house and an SD10 at monitors. Both desks share an SD-Rack and are connected via an Optocore network, creating an efficient and robust DiGiCo audio ecosystem that crewmembers have been very, very

UK - Liquid Entertainment - a London-based company specialising in the production of lavish Asian weddings - relies exclusively on equipment from British manufacturer Avolites to ensure each and every one of the company's high-budget matrimonial extravaganzas is technically flawless.

Liquid Entertainment has grown from a small DJ hire outfit to a full-scale event production company within a few years. Director Randeep Chaggar says investment in the right technical equipment is key to this success within the industry. After trying out many different brands and products, he settled on Avolites as his supplier of choice.

"The main reason we chose Avolites was because of the company's continual development of its software, based on customer feedback, and the rock solid build of its touring desks," says Chaggar. "Some of our desks have been constantly in use, in and out of flig

UK - Long-standing design partners for Grosvenor Casinos, Roberts Limbrick Architectural Practice, recently turned to trusted installation company TechLED Ltd to deliver the external lighting upgrade project for Grosvenor Casino The Victoria, London - the jewel in the crown of Grosvenor's Casino estate. To meet the requirements of a prestige 24/7 leisure venue, IP68-rated Flex Pro Exterior from Acclaim Lighting was specified for its endurance and reliability.

The exterior refreshment followed hard on the heels of an extensive and impressive internal refurbishment, also designed and implemented by Roberts Limbrick with lighting installed by TechLED Ltd.

Subject to stringent planning restrictions, the design for the exterior of the first floor venue was kept simple and closely followed the distinctive original look. Roberts Limbrick's John Moony explains, "The focus was to a

UK - PRG XL Video's UK operation has made a sizeable investment in lighting fixtures and supporting inventory. The investment is in a range of lighting products which will be used across PRG XL's key market sectors, and will particularly support specific requirements from the West End theatre business.

PRG XL Video has added ETC Lustr2 Profile, Martin MAC Viper Performance and Wash DX, Martin Rush Par2, Rosco Miro Cube, and GLP Impression X4 lighting fixtures to its inventory. Additionally, PRG XL has expanded its fleet of consoles with Grand MA2 desks and accompanying network processing units; and added to its range of effects equipment with new MDG Atmosphere Hazers and Look Solutions Cryo-Fog units.

PRG XL Video is also adding capacity to its followspot fleet, with new Lycian 1295 ELTs added to the inventory; and additional units of PRG's award-winning, proprietary Grou

UK - Welsh Government Minister Julie James has visited Panasonic Business' European Service Centre in Cardiff which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

The site on Wharfedale Road, Pentwyn was established in 2006 and houses a repair centre, field support team and multi-language helpdesk to cater for B2B customers across Europe.

The Service Centre is also a hub for the remote monitoring of audio-visual products. Panasonic CARES utilises Machine to Machine (M2M) technology, to enable the customer service centre to communicate directly with projector and professional screens via 3G or 4G wherever they are installed. A first of its kind, the scheme allows Panasonic to take preventative action before any problems occur at a customer site.

The Minister for Skills and Science, said: "The Welsh Government is committed to delivering more and better jobs for Wales, through a st

USA - At this week's AES convention in Los Angeles, Sensaphonics founder and president, Dr. Michael Santucci, Au.D., will be joining legendary sound engineer Mark Frink for their presentation, IEM Fundamentals & Safe Sound. The session will take place Saturday, 1 October at 12 Noon on the Live Sound Events stage.

With their complimentary perspectives as audiologist and engineer, Santucci and Frink bring a powerful combination of knowledge and perspective on hearing health and touring sound. The information presented at this session, when properly implemented, will help engineers create a stage environment that is conducive to both high-impact, high resolution monitoring and long-term hearing wellness.

Dr. Michael Santucci is an internationally acclaimed audiologist and hearing conservation expert. He is co-chair of the AES Technical Committee on Hearing and Hearing

USA - Describing itself as "a real-life community on the move," Old Fort Church, Old Fort, OH completed its new building in time for Easter services in 2016. The church's 300-seat worship centre features modern video and lighting systems and a high-performance audio system with Community I Series loudspeakers.

Old Fort Church holds two worship services each Sunday. The first is a "blended experience" with a mix of traditional and contemporary worship styles. The second is a "modern experience" featuring videos and contemporary Christian music led by a praise band.

According to worship arts leader Mike Sooy, music plays a very important part in both services, and great sound was therefore a priority for the new facility. "We wanted to take things to the next level," he said. Sooy also emphasized the importance of speech clarity. "If they can't hear the message," he continue

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