UK / USA - By Design Day, the annual fundraising day for Light Relief in the UK and Behind the Scenes in the US and Canada, takes place this year on Wednesday 24 April on both sides of the Atlantic.

One of the main fundraising events for these charities, By Design Day focuses attention on the various ways that individuals can support these two organisations which are dedicated solely to assisting entertainment technology professionals in need. Fundraising can be a personal donation or through an organised collection. Many designers support the day by voluntarily giving a day's royalties to one or both of these charities. Light Relief assists those involved in the UK lighting industry while Behind the Scenes aids professionals based in the US and Canada working in any area of the e

Hard Rock - Bruce Springsteen has agreed to return as a headline act at London's Hard Rock Calling festival despite organisers pulling the plug on his show last year after it over-ran. He will play again with The E Street Band at the event's new location at the Olympic Park this summer. Kasabian will also headline, playing their only UK festival. Other performers over the final weekend in June include Paul Weller, The Black Crowes and Klaxons.

Late Show - Teen pop idol Justin Bieber angered parents by emerging onstage for a concert at London's O2 Arena almost two hours late. While the 19-year-old singer's young fans were kept waiting, frantic parents converged on the venue expecting to pick up their children. It follows reports Bieber's gig in Nottingham on Saturday also began late. Fans tweeting from inside the O2 said there were boos from some in the crowd almost an hou

UK - South London-based technical solutions provider Presentation Rentals (PR) supplied lighting, audio, projection and crew to the British Film Museum for the 2013 Evening Standard British Film Awards. Staged in the Debating Chamber of London County Hall (LCH), the event is the only ceremony dedicated exclusively to British and Irish cinematic talent.

It is the first time that PR has been involved in the event. They are the preferred technical supplier for the London Film Museum and service the organisation's requirements both at County Hall and for their Covent Garden venue.

PR's Luke Edwards created a lighting and visuals design for the evening, which was co-ordinated for the company by project manager Jeff McLaughlin.

The main Awards took place in the debating chamber, already a hugely atmospheric octagonal room with heavy wood panelling, stone pillars and many stunning

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USA - Denver Performing Arts Complex's Boettcher Concert Hall, home to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, was built in 1978 as the first US symphony hall in the round. While the 2,634-seat performance space's unique layout continues to remain enduringly contemporary, the venue's previous PA system has not fared quite so well, recently prompting a full audio system retrofit that included an L-Acoustics amplifier and loudspeaker package.

The City of Denver hired South Norwalk, CT-based acoustician/consultant Akustiks to specify the new system, which features an exploded cluster design using ARCS II and Kiva loudspeaker lines. Supplied by AVDB Group, the system was installed by Steve Kuberski and Mark Herron at Mood Media (formerly known as Muzak).

The primary PA is comprised of four horizontal arrays of ARCS II - a cluster of six constant curvature cabinets pointing toward the mai

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) Ltd. returned as the headline sponsor for the 2012 National Railway Museum's (NRM) annual student lighting competition, Locos in a Different Light held in York, UK.

The competition, which is now in its fourth year, invites students who are studying lighting courses from institutions all over the UK to design, install and implement theatrical lighting schemes for the museum's many historic locomotive displays in their prestigious 'Great Hall'.

ACSP played an integral role in the event, supplying a range of leading entertainment technology equipment, as well as providing first line technical support and product training for students participating in the competition.

As well as their access to a huge range of entertainment technology brands, ACSP also have extensive experience supplying industry-standard technical facilities and lighting

Denmark - Martin Professional has recently made available version 3.0.0 software for the award-winning family of P3 System Controllers for LED screens and creative video. Software version 3.0.0 brings a collection of new features to the P3-100, P3-200 and P3-PC System Controllers.

Support for Martin's VC-Series of creative LED video products (VC-Grid, VC-Strip and VC-Dot) driven by the P3 PowerPort 1500 has now been integrated and the Video Input section has been improved.

The Video Input Wizard now adjusts all scaling and viewport settings by itself and the preview on the P3's screen is now rendered when no fixtures are connected, making pre-programming and setup even easier.

Many more features and improvements such as automatic resolution detection, a 'Highlight Fixture' and 'Mixed Resolution Layout Wizard' are making their debut.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Country superstar Jason Aldean is back on the road with Bandit Lites for his Night Train Tour. The stadium tour kicked off 21 February in Bossier City, LA and will continue through September.

"It's bigger than anything we've ever had out there," Aldean revealed to Country Weekly. "It's completely revamped from last year."

Lighting designer Aaron Swetland began working with Aldean in 2008 and received the illustrious CMA SRO Lighting Designer of the Year Award for his work on Jason Adlean's 2012 tour, meaning the expectations were a bit high, even if only in his mind.

"There's always the kind of mentality where you want to outdo yourself," Swetland said.

To achieve that feat, Swetland's lighting design consists of a basic upstage and downstage truss with a floor light compliment. The upstage side of the rig has four ladder beams co

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Case Study: Hans Zimmer Live

When award winning film composer Hans Zimmer brought his smash-hit tour Hans Zimmer Live to North America fall 2024, the show's audio team sought out to bring infrafrequency bass to the show to add new depth to the show's audio experience. The team chose Danley Sound Labs.

Germany - Pro audio company Rain Age has added a further 10 Lab.gruppen PLM Series amplifiers to their extensive inventory, reaffirming the company's faith in the technology available from Lab.gruppen and Lake.

The company - based in Landsberg, Germany - has built up a well-respected reputation over the past 15 years, providing full service production capability to a large number and variety of events, from club concerts to large scale arena shows.

The new purchase of PLM Series amplifiers - which come integrated with Lake Processing - complements the company's existing stock of Lab.gruppen FP+ amplifiers and Lake LM Series devices.

Marc Greiss, head of audio at Rain Age, has decades of experience in the live music industry, and for him, the decision to purchase new kit from Lab.gruppen was an easy one. "Of course, the choice of amplifiers is very important for a good s

UK - Loughborough-based conference and event production company Event Engineering has recently upgraded its audio inventory to ensure that it continues to deliver the excellence that its high profile corporate clients demand. This new equipment has included a Yamaha CL series digital console.

Supplied by SSE Audio Group, Event Engineering invested in a CL3 console and Rio3224-D i/o unit after the company's operations manager, Jim Brown, attended a demonstration day at SSE's Redditch headquarters.

"We are convinced that the CL series will become the standard conference desk, due to its high input count and compact form factor," says Brown. "The CL3 surface was our choice as the perfect balance of size vs input faders. Additionally, the system's Dante networking gives us great scope for distributing audio inputs and outputs. The multitrack recording facility is al

China - Southern China's largest ever pro audio and lighting show ProSound + Light Guangzhou will take place from 9 to 12 March 2013 at the China Import and Export Fair Pazhou Complex in Guangzhou, China's largest pro audio and lighting manufacturing base.

Jointly organised by Guangdong International Science and Technology Exhibition Company (STE) and Messe Frankfurt, this year's show is expecting more than 45,000 visitors to source from 910 suppliers representing China, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Commenting on the record breaking number of exhibitors, Mr Hanrong Wu, director for Guangdong International Science and Technology Exhibition Company said, "The overwhelming response proves that over the past 10 years the show has successfully developed into a prominent sourcing and knowledge platform held in high regard by the industry."

Representing Mes

Germany - With the launch of the new d:facto II Vocal Microphone, which will be on show for the first time in Europe at Prolight + Sound 2013 (Booth 8.B60), DPA Microphones has now broadened its range of products for the live stage.

In addition to use with the new wired DPA handle, the d:facto II provides singers and engineers with the added benefit of a state-of-the-art adapter system that allows for seamless integration with many professional wireless systems, says the company.

"The launch of the d:facto II Vocal Microphone is a major step for DPA as it means that we now have a microphone for every acoustic miking situation, whether you are amplifying or recording," says DPA's CEO Christian Poulsen. "Our highly regarded Reference Standard microphones have long delivered superb audio quality to musicians who want to use a microphone on a stand, while our innova

UK - In an effort to drive the movement toward a common protocol for audio networking, Calrec has joined the AVnu Alliance, the industry consortium dedicated to the development and promotion of a professional-quality streaming standard for networked audio and video content based on the IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB) standards.

"The AVB standard addresses Ethernet's most serious shortcomings as a transport for streaming audio," said Calrec technical director Patrick Warrington. "We know a lot about audio networking and have already brought two solutions to the table because we want to ensure that our customers' needs are well-represented in the new protocol."

"We are very pleased to welcome a broadcast audio leader like Calrec to AVnu Alliance," said Lee Minich, AVnu Alliance Marketing Work Group chair and president of Lab X Technologies. &q

Sweden - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has announced that Håkan Berg will be working with their international sales team as regional sales representative.

Based in Sweden, Berg will be using his 20 years of experience within the entertainment technology industry to promote the company's wide range of key and exclusive entertainment technology brands.

Berg comments, "I am proud to be working with AC-ET, a company I have always known as one of the strongest names in the entertainment technology business. I am delighted to be able to introduce the wide range of Lighting, Audio, Video and Rigging products that AC-ET offer into the Swedish market."

AC-ET's managing director, Phill Capstick comments, "AC-ET continues to develop our International business by offering cutting edge products, competitive prices, and excellent service to our global client base

South Africa - Stage Audio Works has opened a new regional operations office in Cape Town, in order to better handle clients located in both the Western and Eastern Cape regions. The new base will offer these clients a more direct link to Stage Audio Works' comprehensive turnkey product portfolio, the company says.

Stage Audio Works' territory manager, Jerome Gideon, said the company is "now well positioned to support [their] Western and Eastern Cape partners and customers and the new office is an exciting milestone for growth showing our investment and confidence in the future of the territory."

The office will include a fully equipped showroom and large warehouse for stock holding and distribution. The showroom will include digital signage and interactive displays, video walls, retail and commercial lighting and energy management systems - as well as a host of publ

USA - Arup and Artec have announced the integration of their practices, with immediate effect. The move combines two of the world's premier practices specialising in the planning, design, and engineering of venues for performing arts, contemporary entertainment, education, conference, convention, sports and worship venues.

"Our expanded team offers clients around the world unrivalled knowledge, experience, skills and cutting-edge tools to plan and design innovative venues for the 21st century," says Raj Patel, Principal, Americas Arts and Culture Business Leader, speaking on behalf of Arup.

Tateo Nakajima, principal, former Partner at Artec, commented: "Joining forces with Arup enhances our collective ability to provide highly specialist skills anywhere in the world, through the resources of a large, global organisation, serving projects of any scale, with the b

China - JoeCo has announced the appointment of Advanced Communication Equipment International Co. Ltd (ACE) as the new distributor for the BlackBox Recorder and Player in China, Hong Kong and Macau. Headquartered in Hong Kong, with regional offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, ACE has over 30 years of experience in distribution, consultancy and system integration. The company adds JoeCo's BlackBox family of multi-channel live audio recorders and players to an extensive portfolio of pro audio, AV and lighting products.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome ACE to our distributor network" says Joe Bull, JoeCo's managing director. "The company has a wealth of experience in different market sectors, which is key to establishing the JoeCo brand in this vast and as yet untapped region. We look forward to working closely with the team to develop our future business

India - Turbosound's active/passive two-way TCS-122/64 speakers and TXD-218 dual 18" subwoofers have been installed in one of India's most prestigious private schools.

Three pairs of 60°h x 40°v dispersion TCS-122/64 are on FOH duties in St Helena's Girls School in Pune - dubbed 'the Oxford of the East' - and the second largest city in the Indian state of Maharashtra after Mumbai. Two pairs are affixed to each side of the stage in the school's impressive new auditorium, with a further pair centre stage to cater to the front rows.

In addition, two Turbosound TXD-218 dual 18" front-loaded subwoofers have been placed in each corner of the stage providing full bandwidth down to 30Hz with excellent front to back rejection.

Stage monitoring is handled by four Turbosound Milan M15 powered two-way loudspeakers, which deliver a whopping 450 watts of super-clean powe

UK - New sessions have been added to the free programme of seminars, demonstrations and tutorials taking place at PLASA Focus: Leeds 2013, at the Royal Armouries at Clarence Dock, only a short distance from the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, on Tuesday 30 April and Wednesday 1 May 2013.

In addition to a two-hall exhibition of the latest entertainment technology products, visitors can check out the PLASA Professional Development Programme which offers over 20 free-to-attend sessions presented by some of the most talented names in pro audio, lighting and video.

Getting a Foot in the Door is presented by Alchemea's head of live sound, Darryn de la Soul. Aimed at engineers at the beginning of their careers, this seminar is a down-to-earth look at the skill sets expected and the challenges that await a newcomer to the industry.

Working from the premise that there is alwa

UK - Glastonbury Festival impresario Michael Eavis will be helping UK trade distributor Batmink Ltd celebrate its 30th Anniversary by holding an open forum Q & A session during Batmink's forthcoming week of free professional workshops and training (18-23 March)

These workshops are designed to provide useful 'hands on' experience and core skills and will be presented by some of the industry's foremost companies, says Batmink.

During the week, representatives from manufacturers such as Pioneer, Martin Audio, Cloud, Le Maitre, Shure, Audio Technica and Sennheiser will be conducting presentations on subjects including pyrotechnics, production and installed sound and lighting, signal processing, wireless regulations and providing certified training on Zero 88 lighting desks.

The Batmink team will be supplementing this with daily workshops covering subjects such as an introduction

USA - Philip Lunas has joined the staff of J. R. Clancy, Inc., as the company's financial manager.

Lumas will serve on the Clancy leadership team and will report directly to president Michael Murphy. He brings 15 years of progressive finance experience to his new position, stemming from his years as senior financial analyst at Pall Corporation in Cortland, NY.

In addition to his finance responsibilities, Lumas will also manage all human resources functions and serve as the company's information technology point of contact. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Syracuse University, and lives in Cortland with his wife and son.

(Jim Evans)

USA - "These things are awesome" said 44 Designs Clayton Thornton following their delivery of Le Mark's custom printed cable labels.

Ordered in to brand and identify 44 Designs vast cable inventory, Clayton Thornton continued, "We had a lot of cable in our inventory that came pre-fabricated and the thought of re-soldering an end on each of them was a bit overwhelming. Being able to brand cables we have in stock already was a major selling point."

Based in Nashville, TN, the team at 44 Designs share over 25 years combined experience in lighting, touring, rentals, and production, working together to bring a mix of individual talents to each project. This knowledge and experience carries over when looking for products that help brand and visually represent their companies equipment.

Le Mark's export manager Matt Every added, "The simplicity of our cable

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