USA - Celebrating his fifth year of lighting the MTV Video Music Awards, experienced LD Tom Kenny kept up his pledge of always trying to use new lighting technology in order to animate Florian Wieder's other-worldly landscape set.

This year it was GLP's new impression X4 that was brought into focus at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where acts including Green Day, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Pink, Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean and One Direction all graced the futuristic stage, which was lit by a massive lighting rig containing over 5,000 light sources.

"The show itself has become a social network event and a focal point of fashion - and so it was a fabulous place to show off this stylish new light," remarked Kenny. "It's always a policy of mine to try out new

Bulgaria - A Martin Audio sound reinforcement system has been fitted in La Playa Bar in the seaside resort of Varna, on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.

Part of a completely renewed interior, the dynamic new Martin Audio architectural AQ system has been provided by the manufacturer's Bulgarian distributors, Imperia AV.

The renovated venue features eight AQ8 satellite speakers, distributed into three zones - the indoor area, front outdoor area and a delay line which covers the most remote spots on the beach.

Four AQ212 sub-bass speakers have been placed along the boundary between the outdoor and indoor areas, with all loudspeakers powered by Martin Audio MA2.0 and MA3.0 amplifiers (two units of each) managed by a dedicated DX1.5 digital controller. A significant role for achieving studio quality sound is played by the silver-plated Van Damme signal and power cables, according t

Lebanon - Since being founded in 1992 by brothers Mazen and Rawad Saad, Sound on Stage has grown to become one of the Middle East's leading event production companies. This year the company needed to add a new audio system to its inventory and, after auditioning several types, invested in a Coda Audio Airline LA-12.

Sound on Stage works at a variety of high profile events from offices in Dubai and the Lebanon. Having run other large format line source systems for many years, Mazen and Rawad needed to invest in a new system to upscale their provision of quality sound solutions.

"We wanted to invest in a more advanced audio system, to take advantage of the latest sound technology," says Rawad. "We auditioned several and, following a meeting with Paul Ward, Coda's representative at the PALME show in Dubai, were invited to spend a few days at their headquarters in H

UK - Just over two weeks since it all ended and the highs from PLASA are still running through the office at Green Hippo, says the company.

With distributors, lighting designers and DJ's to students, technical managers and programmers the stand was buzzing and everyone was able to get a sneak preview into how easy just got easier.

Head of sales Samantha Bailey stated, "The response from customers to the new release was fantastic, they are thrilled with the new markets and customers it opens them up to and are heading back to their respective countries with new jobs on the horizon as a result.

"Not only has the development been with our products but with our staff and office. Many of you will have seen familiar faces on the stand and with a closer look discovered that we're not quite human. Looking at the people behind the product we make up the team of dedicated st

Switzerland - Schertler has recently teamed its popular STAT series of contact microphones for violin, viola, 'cello and double bass with its Yellow Single and Yellow Blender portable preamps to create two new live/studio packages aimed at string players and sound engineers. STAT-PRO packs combine Schertler's STAT-V, STAT-C or STAT-B pickups with the new Yellow Single preamp, while the STAT-ROAD packs combine Schertler's flagship Yellow Blender preamp with each pickup.

Developed for use in loud musical environments with high levels of amplification, such as rock or jazz performances, the bridge-mounted STAT pickups are specially designed to accurately reproduce the warm sound of the instrument's strings with no harshness or distortion. As well as being easy to install with no damage to the instrument, the pickups are also highly resistant to feedback making them a popular choice

UK - Orbital Sound has announced a new training course, 'Mixing Musicals' designed to help aspiring theatre sound operators take their show mixing skills to the next level. The two-day course is being staged at Orbital's purpose-built training centre in Brixton, and focuses on the practical skills and theory behind the best-practice FOH mixing requirements of musicals.

The course emphasis is firmly on what is required to achieve sound operating excellence, with principle tutors Marcus Wadland (UK tours of Blood Brothers, Never Forget, Whistle Down The Wind among others) and Daniel Bailey (West End productions including High School Musical, Rent, and Fame) bringing their own extensive mixing experience to the table for an intrinsically hands-on curriculum. As well as the essential theory behind mixing, Dan and Marcus will be introducing t

USA - The Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Labour Day Telethon is a time-honored television tradition in the U.S. The 2012 edition, renamed MDA Show of Strength, featured a new format with LD Lee Rose of Design Partners turning to the Martin MAC Aura as a key element of the lighting design.

This year new producers revamped the benefit with a three-hour taped show that featured significantly more contemporary talent like Alanis Morissette, Hot Chelle Rae, All American Rejects, will.i.am and more. The show aired on 2 September on the MDA 'Love Network' of stations across the US.

Lee Rose has employed the MAC Aura in his designs since its launch in 2011 and chose them for the MDA special for their extremely bright and focusable beam, as well as their quick movement and small size, which made vertically hanging them easy and visually attractive, he says.

Lee moun

USA - ATK Audiotek has confirmed that Michael MacDonald is to take over the duties as president and leadership of the company's business development, sales and marketing programmes, coincident with the retirement of outgoing president Michael Stahl.

MacDonald joins ATK Audiotek with over three decades of experience in the professional audio industry, most recently having served for five years as vice president of sales and marketing at Harman Professional.

"Having Michael MacDonald join the company is a natural extension of the relationships we have enjoyed for over 30 years," commented Mikael Stewart, partner and vice president of special events, ATK Audiotek. "We're very pleased to welcome him onboard and look forward to his ideas and his energy just as we are appreciative of Mike Stahl's massive contribution to ATK since its foundation."

Michael MacDon

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UK - Event Projection specialises in one-of-a-kind productions. From product launches and museum exhibits to music videos and corporate events, the AV and lighting hire company has a history of distinctly varied projects. So when they were looking to expand their lighting hire stock, they turned to entertainment lighting specialist White Light to find just the right equipment to suit their varied needs. The company chose the latest technology from Coemar - the LEDko P 3200K, available in the UK exclusively through White Light.

Event Projection is the first company of its kind in the UK to purchase the LEDko units, which use an innovative 120-Watt 'Multi-LEDs' source to produce an even, uniform beam, creating huge energy savings over traditional 575-Watt tungsten profiles. Now, several other companies have followed suit, purchasing the LEDko LED light engines for entertainment an

USA - A Clovis, New Mexico high school is bringing more energy to its 1,500-seat outdoor campus stadium on Friday nights with a new Technomad Turnkey PA system. The Technomad system provides an all-in-one audio solution to enhance quality and coverage for all home football games, including pre-show and halftime music.

The school needed a system that would produce clear and even sound across the stadium, including visitor and home stands. The Turnkey PA system comprises four Technomad Berlin weatherproof loudspeakers, a pre-wired amplifier, a dynamic hard-wired microphone, and a six-channel mixer with front-panel iPod/mp3 inputs. The solution included all necessary cables and connectors to facilitate a quick and simple installation just in time for the 2012 football season.

The new setup replaced outdated loudspeakers damaged by time and weather. Technomad loudspeakers feature

USA - The 2012 Teen Choice Awards buzzed with extra excitement and anticipation this year ... complete with an impressive live line-up including Flo Rida, No Doubt, Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepson and many more joining hosts Demi Lovato and Kevin McHale at the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, CA.

The challenge of lighting the fast-paced, action-packed environment was taken on by Tom Kenny, and included some of Robe's latest moving lights in the visual mix.

The event was aired live nationwide on FOX to huge ratings, and attended by a star studded array of almost everyone who's hot in teen entertainment, including the cast of cult motion picture series Twilight, all in an equally fabulous array of sizzling outfits.

The pace and complexity of staging the 2012 Teen Choice Awards was a serious challenge to Kenny and everyone else on the production crew and

UK - Chaos Visuals have been a constant presence at London Fashion Week twice a year for the last three years providing screens, playback, operators and technical support. Everything about this show is world-class: fashion design, hi-tech shows that wow the celeb audiences and run to time (quite a feat in the catwalk world) and in settings that other cities can only dream of. The Neoclassical delight, Somerset House is exactly that; a piece of eighteenth century London that provides a delicious backdrop to the week's proceedings.

Although many of the catwalk shows take place within the purpose built structure that is erected in the central courtyard, other events take place at various locations across the capital. So if you want to stay abreast of everything on offer during the week there is only once place to catch it: on the screen system set up by Chaos that relays a live vid

USA / UK - D-Tools has announced that the company will conduct its' first Regional Training event in Europe, since the launch of System Integration SIX software at CEDIA Expo 2012. The training event will be held from 14-16 November, 2012 at the Holiday Inn London- Brentford Lock, London, England.

D-Tools Regional Training events provide a classroom-style venue for hands on training delivered by expert trainers. This training will make it convenient for UK and Europe based companies to send one or multiple attendees to experience three days of intense hands on instruction, says the company.

The UK training event is planned to help attendees get the most from the all new D-Tools SIX. Attendees will learn tips, tricks, best practices and ways to build their businesses with D-Tools from expert D-Tools instructor, Ryan Brown of Media Environment Design (MED). The course content is

South Africa - Carefully orchestrated from the invitations to the final classical rock production, the EOH Spring Ball was an outstanding banquet held at the Sandton Convention Centre's Pavilion Venue in Sandton. For the second consecutive year, AVL Productions supplied the technical including set and AV content while Keystone Productions provided the lighting requirements including 16 Philips Vari-Lite VLX fixtures.

Johannesburg based EOH, who provide business and technical solutions and systems, annually host a Spring Ball for their valued staff and clients. Sam McGrath from Jam Events was pivotal in putting it together and featured songs of Queen with a classical twist.

The master of ceremonies was South African Idols judge, Randall Abraham. The performers were outstanding and included Joseph Clark who does a remarkable impression of Freddie Mercury, Lauren Laing and

Germany - With the EKI 830 bodypack receiver, audio specialist Sennheiser ensures that users with a hearing impairment can enjoy superior sound quality at cultural, entertainment or business events. The receiver brings all the features and advantages of private hearing aids to the field of professional events. With this new product, Sennheiser is helping theatres, cinemas and opera houses as well as conference and congress centres to offer their guests optimum audio support, says the company.

The receiver is designed to offer persons with a hearing impairment optimum support and user-friendly operation at all types of events. "Professional hearing support at cultural and business events is becoming increasingly important. Thanks to the new software version that equips the EKI 830 receiver, we can ensure that users with a hearing impairment can enjoy perfect sound quality, w

Europe - Touring a mixture of arenas and stadiums in Europe and North America since the later part of 2011, Coldplay's desire to get close to their fans in such large venues could have caused a number of problems for their wireless monitor systems.

The shows are performed on a main stage with a centre runway projecting out and ending in a second, smaller 'B' stage. In addition there is also a C stage at the back of the arena, right amongst the audience. The entire band wears Sennheiser 2000 series in-ear monitors (IEMs) and in arenas all three stages are usually coverable from the main stage RF equipment. But when comes to stadiums, this hasn't always been possible.

"In stadiums, the 'C' stage is usually at the opposite end of the pitch to the main stage. This, along with location specific radio pollution, meant we needed to come up with a solution for local RF transmissi

Singapore - Loud Technologies has announced Chad Batchelor has joined the company as APAC director of sales, Mackie & Ampeg. Based out of the company's Singapore command centre, Batchelor will partner with all APAC Mackie and Ampeg distributors to leverage these partners' strengths, and Loud resources, to continue the brands' region-wide growth, says the company.

"As Mackie & Ampeg continue to grab more share with innovative products, our partners need commensurately more support from us to manage this growth," said Davwinder Sheena, Loud's APAC managing director. "Chad's a real powerhouse with 20 years' experience in live and recording engineering, distribution, service and support. Backed by our APAC support team, and HQ resources, Chad will bring a new level of sales support, planning and creativity to our partners' market-development efforts."

Prior to

Denmark - In a newly released video, Martin Professional reveals how the company has solved the persistent problem of uneven colours across LEDs. Product manager Jonathan Meineke explains how Martin achieves colour consistency straight out of the factory using LED colour calibration.

The problem of uneven LED colour is well known - LED video screens with patchy, uneven colours or 12 LED wash lights with 12 different versions of the 'same' colour. Despite advances in LED manufacturing, even LEDs in so-called 'tight' bins have noticeable differences in colour and these differences get exponentially worse when mixing colours. Martin uses colour calibration across its entire LED product line to eliminate this problem.

(Jim Evans)

World - Madonna's MDNA Tour currently wowing sold out stadiums and arenas across several continents features 11 musicians, 22 dancers, multiple costume changes, ground breaking graphics and an audio system that includes two DiGiCo SD7s at Front of House and another on monitors.

The SD7 is a step up for monitor engineers Matt Napier and Sean Speuhler, who were using a D5T on Madonna's previous Sticky & Sweet Tour.

"There are two of us because Sean exclusively mixes Madonna's vocals and her vocal effects, all of which she insists be done live," Napiert explains. "We effectively share the console - I use the SD7's control surface and Sean uses an EX-007 expander unit to mix on."

In total the SD7 has 114 inputs coming in from the stage rack. including effects, Napier is using 100 channels, with Sean using over 30 more.

"I think the SD7 is

UK - Bristol's historic Theatre Royal has reopened its newly refurbished auditorium to rapturous applause following a £12m redevelopment, which drew on the expertise of design consultancy Charcoalblue LLP.

The Grade I-listed 1780s Georgian theatre, which is home to Bristol Old Vic, has been sensitively refurbished to upgrade and install modern technology into the original auditorium.

A major element of the brief for the works was to provide up-to-date technology, comfort and improved sightlines whilst working around the original timber structure and delicate plasterwork.

Charcoalblue's work on the theatre involved designing new technical systems, significant refurbishment of the scenery flying system, replacement of the stage grid, new architecturally-integrated lighting positions in the auditorium, completely new lighting and sound installations and new technical cont

UK - XL Events provided audio and projection in a very neatly tailored technical package for a recent UK Roadshow presented by the Port of Felixstowe.

XL was working for London based production company Lodestar, and their project manager was Rich Pow. The brief included providing rear projection and control for the Keynote presentation plus a short concluding video, together with a full sound system and radio mics for the presentation speakers.

The Roadshow was specially tailored to an exclusive audience of around 70 key clients in each city. It highlighted the many facilities, advanced technology and excellent transportation links offered by Felixstowe - 'Port of Britain', one of the UK's leading and busiest container ports.

The clean, contemporary, aesthetically pleasing setting for the event was designed to be installed in a few hours by two XL Events crew and others, and

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