USA - Calling a nightclub Light can be risky business. You're basically telling clubbers they should expect a mind-blowing illumination experience every time they step through its door. Setting the visual creativity bar this high could be perilous for some, but not for developer/partners Cirque du Soleil and The Light Group, or for John Lyons Systems (Hollywood, CA), which provided the lighting design for this new nightspot at Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Judging from the reception it's getting from Las Vegas nightlife reviewers, Light doesn't have to worry about living up to its name. Part Cirque show and part dance club with 38,000sq.ft. of space and a 35ft high ceiling, Light features acrobats spinning overhead and world-famous EDM DJs spinning up front. To add to the multi-layered sens

Mexico - Ampere Manufacturas Electronicas S.A.De C.V. has supplied and installed a new outdoor sound system for The Mandala Beach Club in Cancún, Mexico, utilizing Community iBOX and WET loudspeakers.

The Mandala Beach Club is located on a narrow spit of land off the Cancún coast and is one of the region's top clubs. It enjoys the idyllic setting of a soft sandy beach lapped by the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. The beautiful setting does, however, have a major drawback for sound equipment as the system is fully exposed to the elements.

As a result the club has previously had numerous bad experiences, with well-known brands that could not survive the humidity, high temperatures and winds that carry sand and salt. Even with being covered at night, previous systems were unable to endure the conditions. What Mandala Beach Club needed was a system that could provide high qu

UK - Lighting designer Declan Randall has used ETC Source Four LED Lustr+ to light Dennis Kelly's Love & Money, starting at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff before going on tour.

"The Source Four LEDs were invaluable in creating the look of the lighting," says Randall. "I used them both as a backlight and as an front-of-house fill, and their ability to subtly mix colour and shift from a cooler tone to a warmer one was incredibly helpful. It meant that I was able to achieve a seamless blend between the projections and the lighting for each scene.

"They also offered me the ability to adjust the colour balance during the scenes to be able to underpin the emotional tone of the scene by making small colour adjustments, with the changes almost imperceptible."

ETC's range of LED fixtures, which includes Selador Classic and Desire, as well as Source

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OPUS X4 PROFILE – the most powerful LED moving head from Cameo to date

The OPUS® X4 PROFILE is the new flagship model from Cameo and is among the most powerful LED moving heads on the market. Equipped with a 1,400-watt LED white light engine, this spot profile moving head produces an enormous light output of 50,000 lm, providing powerful spot and gobo projections on even the largest stages and much more.
www.cameolight.com

China - SWIT Electronics Co is a high-tech enterprise, specialising in developing and manufacturing products for the broadcast industry occupying an area of 16,660sq.m , in Nanjing National Level Economic and Technological Development Zone.

SWIT has gained a great reputation worldwide for their outstanding and innovative products over the years and with their passion for technology, they've showed great interest in supplying Green Hippo products.

"Green Hippo has firmly established their position within the areas of broadcast, live events, architecture and more, with a strong product line and a supportive technical team. We are very excited to represent Green Hippo in China, and to introduce Green Hippo's range of products here in China. We will help new users to discover the power, flexibility and the system's ease of use," says William Xiao, SWIT president.

SWIT

UK - Leading European flightcase manufacturer 5 Star Cases is to re-launche its popular 'Speed Challenge' on Booth K10 at the 2013 PLASA exhibition at ExCeL in October.

5 Star will also have British Touring Car Racing driver, reigning Air Asia Renault Clio Cup Champion and UK motorsport rising star Jack Goff on the stand for three of the four days of the exhibition (He's racing on the Sunday). Jack - sponsored by some of the industry's highest profile companies and brands - will be providing support for the Speed Challenge

The booth features a new stand - designed and built by the 5 Star Group - to showcase their top products and coincide with the exciting move of PLASA - the UK's premier entertainment technology showcase - to a new venue this year.

5 Star's Speed Challenge was initially inaugurated at PLASA back in 2006 to celebrate 5 Star's landmark 25th anniversary. By po

Mexico - GLP German Light Productshas appointed Rocketerias Distribuidores S.A de C.V. as its exclusive distributor for Mexico.

Rocketerias has offices and facilities across Mexico, including in the capital Mexico City and in the Yucatan peninsula, which hosts one of the country's largest tourist destinations.

Peter Hald, GLP's sales director for Latin America, said, "We are very happy to have Rocketerias become our distribution partner in Mexico. They have a very focused and dedicated team of people. As the GLP range has grown and become more successful, we have been looking for the right partner to work with and Rocketerias fits the bill perfectly."

Hald will work closely with Rocketerias director, Alejandro Barbosa Calderon, who said, "It is great to add GLP to the range of brands that we represent in Mexico, and we look forward to bringing them to the mark

Switzerland - DiGiCo's five year involvement in the Montreux Jazz Festival has brought many benefits to performers, engineers and audiences. It has also made such a positive impression on audio supplier Tonspur AG that the company has been appointed DiGiCo's exclusive Swiss distributor.

"We have been coordinating the audio for Montreux since 2007 and our first experience with DiGiCo was when they became the official console sponsor in 2009," says Tonspur owner Hansjürg Meier. "We immediately realised that there was an enormous difference in sound quality, compared to other digital mixing desks. We were also really impressed by the flexibility of the consoles and the use of the latest technology, like FPGA processing, which minimised the physical footprint."

DiGiCo made such an impact that Tonspur began selling the consoles to the Swiss and Liechtenstein ma

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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.

In The Open - A new performing arts consortium formed from six outer-London venues has been launched to tour large-scale outdoor productions within the venues' resident boroughs. The Albany theatre in Deptford, Artsdepot in Barnet and Millfield Arts Centre in Enfield have joined forces with Watermans in Hounslow, Harrow Arts Centre and Tara Arts in Wandsworth to create Circulate, the new consortium. Arts Council England has provided the group with a three-year grant of around £500,000 from its strategic touring programme, which aims to bring more shows to areas in the UK with limited access to the arts.

The group plans to take one major show annually to six high street locations close to each venue, which will be free for audiences to attend. For its first year, Circulate has commissioned London-based Emergency Exit Arts, which specialises in site-specific work, to create

UK - XL Events continued a long term working relationship with the Brainiac phenomenon, supplying sound, video and lighting production to the Brainiac Live show which made its West End debut at The Palace Theatre in London.

The UK creative producer is Dan Colman, and XL Events' director Rich Rowley has been associated with the show that 'laughs in the face of science' for the last six years, ever since it first went 'live' and on the road in 2008 following an award winning five year run on Sky TV. During this time it has acquired a serious cult following.

Rowley, also the sound designer in addition to his role as XL Events' PM says, "Each time we take Brainiac to a new venue or on another tour, it takes on an innovative format bringing fresh ideas and fun to the equation. I continue to really enjoy working on it."

One of the biggest challenges for staging th

UK - SGM UK has recruited experienced lighting professional, Matt Wiseman, as sales manager. He most recently spent two years in European sales at Rosco and prior to that served seven years at PRG where he was in charge of gobo sales for Vari-Lite - specialising in the film and TV sectors.

Wiseman said he was drawn to the new position by the pedigree of SGM CEO, Peter Johansen and SGM UK MD, Ian Kirby, and the partnership they have forged. "Ian was looking for someone to lead the sales operation, dealing with SGM customers face to face. SGM has made a huge impact in concert touring and I want to further develop this.

"At the same time the entire LED product range is innovative and the build quality is amazing. With a lot of the products IP-rated I also envisage further penetration in the architainment market as well as TV."

Commented Ian Kirby, "The growt

USA - Elation Professional is making it easy for lighting professionals to get 'on board' with the next step in LED technology. The company has introduced the Cuepix Series, a collection of blinders and strip lights powered by advanced Chip On Board or COB LED technology.

The Cuepix Series will debut with four models: Cuepix Panel- 25 x 30-watt COB LED Tri Color RGB matrix blinder; Cuepix Strip WW- linear strip with 5 x 30-watt warm white COB LEDs; Cuepix Blinder WW2- blinder with 2 x 100-watt warm white COB LEDs and Cuepix Strip Tri-- linear strip with 5 x 30-watt Tri Color RGB COB LEDs.

COB LEDs differ from surface mount (SMD) LEDs in that the multiple LED diodes are directly mounted on and electrically connected to its circuit board as one lighting module. Since there is no conventional device SMT (surface mount technology) packaging, interconnection lengths are shortened a

UK - For the eighth consecutive year, west London based Entec Lighting supplied lighting equipment and design services for one of the UK's most popular boutique music and arts festivals - Larmer Tree - set in the Larmer Tree Park Gardens near Salisbury on the Wiltshire / Dorset borders.

In addition to this, Entec created a bespoke light sculpture - Fish - as the centrepiece of a selection of curated art works on display in the forested areas of the site. Fish was in located in The Pond and featured a three dimensional work made from Chinese metal fish each individually outlined with LED strips and hung off curved trussing sections.

Illuminating these general art display areas so the works can be enjoyed after dark is a major part of the Festival's lighting brief.

In addition to getting arty this year, Entec provided lighting equipment and designers for three main performance

Germany - Picture the scene. You are visiting an art exhibition, but the only things you can see are blank canvases. Yet the room is filling up with expectant visitors, and four people begin to fill the canvases with words. Suddenly, you recognise yourself in those words! This is exactly what has been happening in early July at the Cologne Artothek, where Juergen Staack is presenting Script, his latest art project, using Sennheiser wireless technology.

For the Script performance, Juergen Staack worked with wireless microphones and bodypack receivers. At the preview on 3 July, four ladies with different mother tongues mingled with the visitors - and they described what they observed at the event to their writing partners via a pocket transmitter with headset microphone. Each of the writers heard these descriptions in English, Russian, Japanese or Greek via a small m

UK - Entertainment industry training centre Backstage Academy will be launching a new one-year Top Up Degree in Live Events Production at its Wakefield facility in late September (subject to validation).

The Top Up year is focused on management and will provide insight into the key issues involved in the strategic management of large events, festivals and venues.

The course will provide a progression route for students who have successfully completed the Academy's Foundation Degree in Live Events Production, or other related level 5 qualifications.

It will also be suitable for people with industry experience who are looking to enhance and develop their careers, as well as gain a degree qualification.

Said Director of Courses, Robin Watkinson: "Personal and professional development is emphasised and encouraged during the programme along with employability skills and a

USA - When Grand Canyon University's Antelopes men's and women's basketball teams joined the Western Athletic Conference this summer and upgraded to Division I, GCU Arena was in need of a sound system retrofit worthy of the new division level. To accommodate, GCU turned to the local Phoenix office of Clearwing Productions, which provided two independent L-Acoustics ARCS Wide and Kara loudspeaker systems for the 5,000-seat multipurpose venue.

Installed in late June, the arena's fixed audio system for athletic events, commencement ceremonies and other general assemblies now features 32 ARCS Wide enclosures. These are divided into four clusters of three cabinets spread across each of the long sides of the arena and complemented with a single centre cluster of four at each of the far ends. Two arrays of four SB28 subs are centrally hung back-to-back for LF reinforcement, while two s

UK - A free copy of Cakewalk Sonar X2 Essentials software is now included with every V-Mixer purchase from Roland Systems Group (RSG) providing a recording solution to go with this multi award winning range of Roland digital consoles.

Providing professional tools in a digital audio workstation (DAW Software) for live recording, the Sonar X2 Essentials package features the Skylight interface allowing you to move seamlessly among the elements, instantly going from recording to editing to mixing and back again. The software will be provided free of charge with every purchase of the V-Mixer live digital mixing consoles including the Roland M-480, M-380, M-300 and M-200i.

"The V-Mixing System has been massively popular in the UK market and it makes sense for us to offer a complete solution to our customers by including a great recording product such as Cakewalk," commente

Canada / USA - Liberty AV Solutions announced a new distribution partnership with DataVisual to better serve Canadian commercial audio-visual integrators from British Columbia to Newfoundland.

Consisting of Liberty Wire and Cable, Fibertron, PanelCrafters, and Intelix, Liberty AV Solutions' entire product line will be available to DataVisual's customers, including their lines of cable, connectors, plates, panels and electronics.

"We are excited to be a Liberty AV Solutions distributor," said Benoit Kislisch-Lemyre, general manager of DataVisual. "The breadth of products available to our customers from Liberty will strengthen our portfolio in supplying the highest quality products in the audio visual communication markets."

DataVisual's extensive coverage of the Canadian integrator market will help cement Liberty's presence in the audio video and data inst

Germany - Wonderland Open Air is an annual Trance Festival, held at Waldfrieden, in the Stemwede community of Wehdem in Germany. The music is electronic - mostly 'Psytrance' or 'Goa" - and this year the 17th edition of the event welcomed a record number of visitors (in excess of 7,000).

A top class line-up came to this special forest location, which was impressively decorated, and received the full approval of the festival-goers.

The challenge of lighting the location was represented by the large split main floor and the second stage, known as the Backyard. This challenge was accepted by the team of Provisuell from Bielefeld under the direction of Mathias Schindler.

In order to satisfy the dynamics of both the different dance genres and the corporate designs, the production company decided to deploy premium products from PR Lighting.

According to Pascal Vieregg

UK - High Wycombe-based Dry Hire Lighting (DHL) has become the first UK rental house to take delivery of Showline's new LED linear SL BAR 640 luminaire - and will soon offer the SL BAR 660 as well.

Dry Hire Lighting's Nic Tolkien first became interested in the SL BAR 640 during the 2012 PLASA show in London: "We had been looking for the 'next generation' of LED batten fixtures for some time and the Showline SL BAR 640 seemed to tick all the boxes. We've had tremendous success over the past couple of years with the Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze and ColorBlaze TRX fixtures but felt that now was the time to enhance our offering and get into some of the newer technology and add a fixture with the homogenized RGBW. Of course we were very happy to be able to do this with another Philips product. The SL BAR 640 looks fantastic as a direct view fixture and is phenomenally power

Belgium - Around 250 Robe moving light fixtures were deployed site wide for the 2013 Tomorrowland EDM festival, staged in the normally sleepy town of Boom, Belgium, which saw 180,000 EDM fans entertained at the De Schorre National Park site for three days.

This was presented across 14 live stages with visual environment designed by Event organisers ID&T under the technical and artistic direction of Jurgen Nuytemans and Christophe Van Den Branden.

The Robes were supplied by several major Belgian rental companies, and production lighting designs for all the stages - mostly hosted by different clubs, people and organisations across the three days of the event - were created by a combination of the best LDs in the country.

The Creative Factory (TCF) provided their mobile visualisation suite on site, which was at the disposal of all guest LDs and operators to programme their show

UK - Carlsbro / Studiomaster's new joint HQ, distribution and logistics centre is now fully operational, providing UK MI and pro audio dealers, and overseas distributors with higher levels of service than ever before.

The new HQ in Milton Keynes, in the south east of England, brings together all of the two brands' key operations under one roof. R&D teams, for both Carlsbro and Studiomaster, UK and worldwide sales, international administration, service and support, international marketing, and UK and Eire distribution are all now fully operational from the new centre.

As a hub for UK and worldwide logistics, the new HQ also provides for rapid smaller stock shipments internationally, complementing large scale direct shipments out of the Ningbo manufacturing facility in China.

Commenting on the establishment of the new HQ, Carlsbro and Studiomaster assistant general manager, Pa

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