USA / Belgium - ArKaos reports "an extremely successful show" at LDI, Las Vegas where the company exhibited with its new North American distributor, A.C. Lighting Inc. for the first time. Newly appointed in June this year, A.C. Lighting Inc distributes the full range of ArKaos Show and Lighting products across North America and Canada.

LDI saw the North American debut of two new products from Arkaos, the ArKaos MediaMaster 3.0, complete with new Video Mapper extension, and the new Stage Media Server. A.C. Lighting Inc presented the new products by saying, "The ArKaos team brings an incredibly intuitive approach to the complex problem of video mapping."

ArKaos has introduced its Video Mapper extension for MediaMaster Pro to provide an easy means of mapping vid

South Africa - The 13th Huisgenoot-Skouspel was hosted at Sun City's Superbowl during four days in October. The show, which had been described as the largest Afrikaans music performance of the year, saw a collaboration of 60 artists performing 80 songs in a three hour period.

Gearhouse Splitbeam provided the lighting gear with an MA control system, consisting of one grandMA2 light, one MA onPC command wing, one grandMA2 fader wing, one MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and three MA VPU plus (Video Processing Unit).

For the sixth year, Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier was the lighting designer. He was assisted by Marcel Wijnberger from Gearhouse who stepped in as the MA system technician, and Travis Yeatman, who assisted with the lighting design and co-ordinated the crew. Michael Gill was the set designer and Southern Lighting was responsible for the TV lighting aspect o

Germany / UK - Steinberg Media Technologies has announced that it is establishing an R&D centre in London to focus on developing software for the music notation and education markets.

Marketing director at Steinberg, Frank Simmerlein, comments,"Steinberg has a good standing in both the education and composing markets, but we've always believed that these markets and its customers deserve the best support we can give. Therefore we are more than delighted to have found the perfect team of extremely talented and experienced individuals to make this possible in the foreseeable future."

Ben Timms, head of Steinberg's new London-based R&D team, remarks, "I'm delighted and proud that we are becoming part of the Steinberg family. Our collective expertise combined with Steinberg's world-leading products and technologies can only mean exciting things for the customers.&qu

Cape Town Tragedy - A woman died, and 19 others were injured, after scaffolding collapsed outside a Linkin Park concert in Cape Town, South Africa. The temporary scaffolding outside Green Point stadium came down in high winds just before the concert last Wednesday.

A statement from the band expressed "deep sadness and concern for those injured and our heartfelt condolences to the family of the fan who died". The concert went ahead, with the band only learning of the death afterwards.

Theatre News - St George's Theatre in Great Yarmouth has reopened after an £8m refurbishment, having been beset by months of construction delays and the relocation of several shows. The 300-seat venue, located within a 16th-century chapel, launched its preview season last week after Great Yarmouth Borough Council handed over the lease of the premises to the St George's Arts

UAE - Barco has signed a distribution agreement with AV expert TechnoPro LLC. TechnoPro will ensure the availability, delivery and support for Barco's projection and image processing products, including the award-winning new range of ultra-bright HDX, HDF- and HDQ-projectors, in the Middle East region, thus helping Barco Dubai keep up with the increasing demand.

Headquartered in Dubai, TechnoPro LLC is one of the Middle East's leading suppliers of technology for the entertainment market. Its over 12,000 m2 warehouses in Dubai, Qatar, and Lebanon house a large stock of state-of-the-art equipment, from over 25 manufacturers, including the lighting products of Barco High End Systems. The company's experience and professional staff, its outstanding facilities and its large market coverage in the entertainment industry were all reasons for Barco to rely on TechnoPro for the distribut

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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

Norway - Elektrik Solutions of Norway has supplied lighting and power control for a refurbishment of the Oslo Konserthus (Concert Hall). Some 100 ETC Selador Desire D40 Lustr+ LED fixtures have been installed in the auditorium ceiling for house lighting, along with another 14 in the choir area behind the stage, and an ETC Unison Paradigm system to control them.

Project manager for Elektrik, Benjamin Reinhoff, explains, "The Concert Hall's staff had been looking at changing their lighting for some time now but hadn't found anything quite right. They wanted something with the right light quality and a smooth dimming curve.

"Through consulting firm ÅF Lighting Norway, we showed them a range of different options. Initially, the technicians saw a white LED fixture but weren't happy with the result - the theatre's seating fabric is a special shade of blue, and it didn't '

UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of ClearCom in the United Arab Emirates for the live sound market segment have recently supplied the Tempest wireless intercom system to Dubai based, SLS Productions. The company now complements their existing two-wire systems from the Encore range of ClearCom to provide a flexible and sophisticated communication solution for their various high profile events.

"ClearCom's Tempest system is the most sought after wireless intercom solution for high profile concerts, events and production applications where remote monitoring and control as well as clear two way communication is necessary," commented Chicco Hiranandani, business development manager at NMK.

(Jim Evans)

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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

www.cameolight.com/p6profile

Belgium - Merging Technologies has announced that from 1 November 2012, Amptec bvba has assumed distribution responsibilities for the Belgian market. Amptec has offices in Netherlands as well but the distribution in that country remains with Maarten Sound & Vision, a Merging partner of many years' standing.

Amptec is well known in the installation sector but is also a significant supplier to the broadcast and recording markets. This profile fits the Merging product range very well and mirrors the changing product mix coming from the famous Swiss brand,says the company.

This change brings to an end a partnership with Puretec which has withdrawn from professional audio. Amptec handles a wide range of other brands including RAVENNA partners Lawo and Innovason.

Commenting on the change, Chris Hollebone, Merging's distribution sales manager stated, "Merging is excited to be

UK - Production house sevens7 recently approached XL Events to supply a range of visual solutions to Nissan for an innovative Future : Today roadshow and driver experience promoting the new LEAF electric car which is currently touring Scandinavia.

XL's project managers Phil Goddard and Robin Evans combined seamless plasmas with conventional 85 inch screens and MiStrips to produce a highly innovative exhibition environment as well as a visually enticing display on the outside of the venue.

The novel mobile brand activation space is a concept created by brand engineers Proud Robinson and designed by Jump Studios, Constructed from four specially modified sea freight containers sitting widthways behind one another. Another two containers on top of these provide a control / technical area and a coffee terrace / lounge.

The 125 x 1.5m MiStrips are wrapped around the outside

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET)'s lighting division will showcase the latest film, television and broadcast products from its key distributed brands at the BVE North show, Manchester Central on 13-14 November (stand D60).

The new Chroma-Q Studio Force Phosphor range - available exclusively from AC-ET in the UK - has been developed specifically for use in film, TV and broadcast studio environments. Utilising innovative LED technologies, the units provide an equivalent soft edge output to a fluorescent fixture - up to 7,000 lumens. There's a choice of standard daylight (5,600K) white and variable (3,200 - 5,600K) white colour temperature versions, with the variable version offering fine-tuning of the green and magenta tints and frequency for camera.

The Studio Force range also includes a choice of daylight and variable white conventional LED models available in comp

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light heads to the BVE North Expo in Manchester, opening today, to showcase the latest lighting innovations for the film and television industry. Products from Altman, Coemar, CORE Lighting, Galaxia Electronics, and Prism Projection will be on display at White Light's stand - F71.

Visitors to the stand will get an in-person view of the new Altman Spectra Cyc 200, the buzz-worthy LED cyclorama fixture launched earlier this year. The Spectra Cyc 200 uses a patented LED lens to blend colours, which reduces pixilation from direct view. The Spectra Cyc and all Altman lighting products are now available in UK exclusively through White Light, with Altman becoming the newest member of the White Light family.

Also new on the White Light stand this year is the Coemar LEDko P profile fixture, the latest in the LEDko range, and CORE Lighting's

UK - Roland Systems Group has announced the launch of the V-40HD as the latest addition to their powerful Multi-Format Live Video Switcher line-up that includes the popular V-1600HD and V-800HD models.

The V-40HD Live Video Switcher is designed for any live event or installation that requires the freedom to connect a variety of sources - whether digital or analogue, computer or video format - and is suitable for configurations using HDMI cameras as well as computers. As a true multi-format video switcher, there is no need to match the input sources to the output resolution as each input has its own broadcast quality scaler - scaling each source as required to fit the chosen output resolution.

The Roland V-40HD features 12 inputs on four channels plus one (background), and two output buses with independent scalers on the inputs. The inputs allow the user to connect HDMI/DVI, RG

World - Celebrated lighting designer Sean Burke is taking Europe by storm with dramatic Vari-Lite powered lighting on Jennifer Lopez's world tour.

Burke - who has designed lighting for many of the world's biggest stars including Seal, Miley Cyrus, The Cranberries - has created an energetic and dramatic design using a battery of VL3500 Wash FX and VL3000 Spot luminaires supplied by US Vari-Lite dealer Upstaging.

"The lighting workhorses for this show are definitely the wash lights," says Burke. "I've been using the VL3500 Wash fixtures for a while now and I really like them. They're extremely flexible fixtures and do something that no other lights on the market can do."

Aside from Lopez's band and dancers, the huge stage measuring 62' wide x 48' deep is filled with a backdrop of powerful LED video screens.

"The VL3500 Wash fixtures are the perfect w

UK - Under-construction Bradford College is set to light-up the City centre using a high-tech lighting display from 22 November.

The spectacular sequenced light show will be visible for around three miles from the new build scheme and accompanied by an audio soundtrack to create visual entertainment from 5pm each night until 20 December.

The patterns and colours will be generated from the base of two tower cranes and projected upwards vertically as far as 39 metres. A seasonal goodwill message will be projected onto the gable end of the existing Kent building.

The initiative was dreamed up by BAM Construction who are re-developing the massive £35m Great Horton Road campus for the College, together with West Yorkshire based Entertainment Technical Specialists; Stage Management Company.

The light show will be created through state of the art computerised lighting contr

UK - We have become accustomed to Harvey Goldsmith catching the wave; a man more finely tuned to the entertainment desires of the general public is hard to imagine. His latest venture, set within earshot of the London Television Centre on the South Bank is exactly that. Turning away from the brash vulgarity of top shelf sin, Goldsmith presents Forever Crazy, a bijou recreation of the lush, lavish flesh festival of the Crazy Horse in Paris playing to a comfortably intimate four hundred people a show.

The setting is a temporary structure. "It's a very luxurious tent with solid walls and lavish décor, as befits the presentation" explained Jim Baggott, Goldsmith's production manager for the show. "It's a Speigel tent; they're from Belgium and the experience is decidedly un-tent like; step inside and you progress directly into an evocation of the Crazy Ho

UK - SES has just manufactured and delivered its first purpose built 1600A all HDPE Mains Distribution Unit which was ordered by Cardiff based 11th Hour Events for a long term job at the Cardiff Winter Wonderland.

This size MDU, traditionally built from steel, was designed from scratch by SES's Mark Cooper to fulfil the requirements of 11th hour events. Encompassing a 1600A Bus bar chamber, and 6 sets of outgoing powerlock, the design was a challenge even for Marks wealth of design experience. "Steel is a very forgiving and easy to work material, and can simply be bent and welded,but when using HDPE, the thought process into the engineering takes a lot more time".

11th hour wanted to get away from the traditional steel units as they are easy to damage, do not weather very well and are difficult to repair. By choosing the unit that SES manufactured, it also has the ad

Italy - Rome recently played host to The David di Donatello Awards, presented annually for cinematic production and performances. The Taviani brothers led the night and took home awards including Best Picture, Producer and Director for their film Caesar Must Die, which also received a Golden Bear at this year's Berlin International Film Festival.

Not only are the David de Donatello Awards a prestigious night for the film industry: the ceremony is a glamorous must-attend event for celebrities as well. Several national and international stars - including singer Cesare Cremonini, director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentio, and actress Zhao Tao - walked the red carpet at this year's awards, held on 4 May at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome.

Sound professionals Audiovisioni handled the entire audio installation for the award ceremony. Audiovisioni had already worked with

UK - Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust's finances have received a long-term boost after cost-saving LED lighting was installed throughout its Leatherhead headquarters.

The Trust's offices are now benefitting from the improved light and significant energy savings generated by 500 standard and 80 emergency light fittings supplied by Dartford-based 8point3 LED.

The company, which manufactures its fittings at its own factory in Belvedere, Kent, won the contract after supplying the Trust with a competitive and aesthetically pleasing LED package.

Paul Jenkins, capital programme manager at the Trust, said, "We welcomed tenders from a number of LED companies but 8point3's proved to be the best. We're really pleased with how the lights look, like normal four-tube fluorescent units, as opposed to the solid white blocks offered by other firms.

"The vast ma

The Netherlands - Building on the education programme presented at ISE 2012, CEDIA, joint venture partners of ISE (Integrated Systems Europe), will be delivering "an even bigger and bolder range of training sessions" for next year's show (28-31 January, RAI, Amsterdam).

"Training is a vital part of CEDIA's commitment to the industry and it's especially important for CI businesses to stay on top of new trends, technologies and best practice in our sector. We continually strive to provide a high quality education programme with plenty of opportunities for people at all levels and disciplines within the industry", says Matt Dodd, CEDIA's chair of education. "The 2013 programme will be significantly larger and more varied than in 2012, featuring new technology and business topics with expert subject-matter presenters drawn from across the globe to share thei

UK - Christie has introduced the G Series and four new E Series 1-chip DLP projectors. In the new G Series, the Christie DHD550-G and Christie DWU550-G provide 5,000 lumens, 1-chip DLP technology and a single mercury-lamp design for fixed applications with "better price performance and higher brightness than other projectors in their class," says the company.

Similar to G Series, the four new E Series projectors deliver attractive price performance, higher brightness, and increased flexibility and reliability for both fixed and rental staging applications, the company continues.

At 5,000 lumens and offering a choice between HD (1920 x 1080) and WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolutions, the Christie G Series is an ideal choice for board and conference rooms, government, houses of worship, higher education facilities and a variety of small venue applications. Installation is ea

UK - Due to the "undisputed recognition and popularity of the PASMA name as the sole industry-recognised training scheme for mobile access towers", the Association says it has been made aware that a small number of unscrupulous companies are attempting to pass themselves off as PASMA Training Members, without having shown that they meet the industry standards needed to become an accredited PASMA member.

Says the organisation, "There is certainly no guarantee that these fake PASMA training companies will offer the quality of training required and expected within the industry. Instead, training from these organisations is likely to lead to wrong or outdated information being given as well as sub-standard training, which could clearly create a very real safety risk and is, therefore, a waste of time and money.

"It is also certain that training from these provi

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