UK - Now in its 45th year, the Man Booker Prize continues to celebrate the best in fiction writing. 500 distinguished guests from the literary world gathered at London's Guild Hall on 15th October to attend the awards ceremony, where New Zealand's Eleanor Catton was the youngest ever recipient of the £50,000 prize for her novel 'The Luminaries'.

Blitz Communications delivered a complete set, staging and audio visual package for leading agency Four Colman Getty. Lisa Perkins, event manager, commented, "Tuesday night's event was a huge success and we are absolutely thrilled how the evening progressed. All the suppliers from the Guild Hall to AV company Blitz and Carly Rogers Flowers, were brilliant throughout and came together really well on the night."

Munir Samji

Israel - Wireless Solution Sweden AB recently teamed up with Israel distributor LED Lighting Solutions Ltd to provide W-DMX technology to the new highway entrance to Eilat City in Israel. Eilat is Israel's southernmost city, a busy port and popular tourist resort located at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba.

Lighting designer Kobi Rozental specified 80 W-DMX units to deliver wireless DMX to colour changing streetlamps along the main highway leading to the city, at a distance of approximately 1 km (.6 miles). The streetlamps change colour in a chase, leading the way to the city. LED Lighting Solutions in Israel supplied all W-DMX equipment and lighting. Ory Yaffe of LED Lighting Solutions said, "We Could not install wires between the pillars, so wireless signal was the only option in this case. It works great and the signal is solid."

LED Lighting

UK - At PLASA London 2013 Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) announced the launch of the Shure Academy European Audio Network, a new educational and industry networking initiative aimed at all levels of the audio industry, from specialist integrators and contractors to retail sales teams and end users.

The new Academy will incorporate the existing training programmes run by Shure and integrate new workshops and seminars, delivered via a variety of media, including e-learning, webinars and hands-on instruction. In the UK, this brief will extend across the entire Shure Distribution portfolio and include training and certification for brands such as DIS, QSC, Radial and MyMix.

"We have always offered detailed technical training for our brands at the SDUK HQ in Waltham Abbey, and those events, such as Axient accreditation and Q-Sys training, will continue under this new umbrella,&q

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UK - Kent- based Eclipse Presentations created a stunning production design and supplied the full technical package to realize it for the 2013 Attitude Awards staged at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Hosted by Matt Lucas and produced by Attitude, the award-winning gay magazine in association with Virgin Holidays, the glamour and the glitz was in full flow.

Eclipse's production manager Andrea Witt and project manager Nikhil Shah worked closely with Attitude's show producer Annie Bracken and Seasoned Events to ensure that everything ran like clockwork on the night and that the setting and environment helped make it a memorable night for guests.

The gala dinner and awards ceremony saw a star-studded line up of celebrities rock up, to see the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, Paul O'Grady and Cher collect their awards, together with a special guest appearance by c

China - Earlier this year, as part of the province's inaugural ICC Light & Music show, two of Hong Kong's two tallest buildings, the harbourside International Finance Centre (IFC) and the International Commerce Centre (ICC) in West Kowloon, were linked permanently via a new audio network controlled by the QSC Q-Sys networked audio platform.

Whenever a show is underway at the ICC, the new network passes music and control data from the ICC Control Room to synchronised LED fascia lighting displays and to a new sound system that includes QSC loudspeakers and amplifiers in and outside the IFC mall.

"Q-Sys was the only audio management system that could offer built-in audio playback and DSP, full monitoring of any input and control of the amplification and speakers, all down a standard fibre connection between the IFC and ICC, and with full redundancy and remote management func

UK - Some serious talent rocked up to support Unity the Stephen Lawrence Memorial concert at the O2 Arena in London including Rita Ora, Jessie J, Emile Sande, Beverley Knight, Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran, Plan B, Tinie Tempah, Labrinth, and Jamie Cullum. The stars performed to help mark the twentieth anniversary of the teenager's death in south east London.

Hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Reggie Yates, the concert was part of the SL20 Campaign which is celebrating Stephen's life with a series of awareness-raising events throughout the year. It was recorded and broadcast on BBC1 and an album of the live performances is also due to be released.

XL Video was asked onboard by promoters AEG Live to supply video production which was co-ordinated for them by project manager Gareth Jeanne. He worked closely with the AEG Live production team led by Kahren Williams and Keith Wood.

The s

USA - As one of the largest music festivals held in Colorado, the annual Country Jam features four days of performances by some of country music's hottest stars. With a 2013 festival headlined by Montgomery Gentry, Miranda Lambert, Kid Rock and Rascal Flatts, the event once again lived up to its reputation as one of the premier festivals in country music.

Before the award-winning artists could take the stage, it was longtime festival provider StagePro who oversaw the creation of all the production elements which included an all Vari-Lite automated lighting rig complete with 12 VL3015LT Spot, 16 VL3500 Wash FX, 16 VLX Wash, six VL880 Spot, and 16 VL3000 Spot Luminaires.

"This was a festival rig which was not designed for any one specific band," said Craig Ahneman, StagePro production manager. "As a full service production company, the one thing we fought for on t

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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.

UK - With two successful Showlight events and eight years of managing the event's volunteer organising committee, Ian Dow has passed his chairman's baton to John Allen of Northern Light.

Allen has been a member of the Showlight committee since the 2001 event in Edinburgh and his responsibilities have included organising both the visits programme and the conference dinner, the signature event where diners move from one table to another during the course of the evening, ensuring everyone meets someone new - and providing a memorable experience into the bargain!

The next Showlight takes place in 2017; both the main sponsor and the host country have yet to be decided but, says John Allen, "Following the success of Showlight 2013 in Cesky Krumlov, there is already great interest in the sponsorship of the 2017 event and many of this year's exhibitors have already shown interest

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd received a great reception to cutting-edge new technologies showcased on their stand at PLASA London 2013 from the many brands the company distributes exclusively in the UK and certain international territories. "This year's show was the biggest and best yet for AC-ET," says the company. Key lighting, video, rigging and audio product innovations were represented from AC-ET's portfolio of over 200 premium brands and four specialist sales divisions.

There was a great reception to the worldwide launch of the new Vision LED family, which features a 16° Par, a 1 metre batten and a zoomable moving wash each using 10W RGBW Multichip LEDs and delivering powerful and consistent performance. The LED range offers real value for money without compromising on performance, build quality or reliability, and provided dynamic illumin

UK - Orbital Sound, the specialist supplier to the broadcast, theatre, event and entertainment markets, is expanding its installation division with the appointment of Tom Oakes to the post of technical sales & support engineer. The move reflects the continuing demand for Orbital's expert installation services, which include design and consultancy, as well as ongoing technical support and education.

Recent high profile projects include large-scale d&b audiotechnik installations in houses of worship and theatres, as well as communications systems design and installation at both the Royal Albert Hall and the Welsh National Opera, involving Clear-Com solutions.

Orbital's sales director Tom Byrne commented, "Installations have always formed a key part of our workload, with our track record involving just about every size and type of project. We love challenges - from listed bu

Germany - The world-renowned Messe Frankfurt Exhibition Centre, which hosts international trade fairs annually including the IAA car show, the international Book Fair, the Frankfurt Musikmesse and Prolight+Sound, has installed a QSC-Sys audio networking system to manage the PA/VA systems in its Congress Centre, one of the most important buildings in Exhibition Centre.

Accessed by two custom paging stations based on TSC-8 touchscreen controllers, the Core 1000-based Q-Sys system routes audio to and controls no fewer than 15 QSC CX254 amplifiers throughout the building, fed by seven DAB-801 redundant amplifier switchers.

The Congress Centre Messe Frankfurt (CMF) houses conference and meeting rooms, and a large multi-purpose 2200-capacity auditorium (known as the Harmonie hall) that can be divided into as many as 15 segments, each separately addressed by its own PA feed if requir

UK - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) has appointed a manager to the company's newly formed Systems Group, a dedicated team within SDUK aimed at providing complete installation designs and solutions to AV clients including integrators, theatres and corporate clients. Duncan Savage has had a successful career in engineering, sales and business development in the electronics and AV markets, including five years' detailed experience of the AV integration business at the ITSL Group serving corporate and education clients.

"Supplying MI and pro audio retailers is very different to supporting, for example, consultants who are responsible for project delivery on a single piece, individual part and entire project level," explains Savage. "It makes perfect business sense to have a team dedicated to that market - hence the creation of the Systems Group. We understand what makes

Belgium - ArKaos Stage server was recently employed to create a spectacular 3D overhead video wall at Belgium's famous Pukkelpop Festival.

The annual Pukkelpop festival, held at Kiewit near Hasselt, is one of Belgium's largest alternative music festivals, attracting over 60,000 festival-goers and second in size only to Rock Werchter.

This 'progressive and contemporary' musical event plays host to around 200 bands on its eight stages over the three-day festival and showcases a wide variety of music that encompasses rock, pop, electronic, dance, hip-hop, punk and heavy metal. The eclectic line up for 2013 included top artists Eminem, The Prodigy and Nine Inch Nails and world-class DJs including Mark Ronson, The Magician and Boys Noize.

The opening night party to the 28th Pukkelpop was the ideal event for ArKaos, Belgian media server and software manufacturer, to show off the p

UK - 'James Valpy - The Hippotech' by Bruce Schwartz (Electrosonic SA's Entertainment Lighting Manager) . . .

"James Valpy's nickname is 'The Hippotech', but he's not a hi-tech game ranger. This South African born, English trained, lighting and video technician trots the globe providing stunning visuals with Green Hippo Media Servers. I caught up with James backstage at the Johannesburg leg of Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour.

"Born in Cape Town in 1988, James left South Africa for England when he was four. He studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and completed his BA (Hons) in Theatre Practice. James initially specialized in production lighting but soon gravitated to video as a medium. The knowledge of both proved invaluable.

"James was working as an associate to the production designer Tupac Martir, when he met Ed Prescott on the Be

UK - In the four years since it began, The Great British Bake Off has become one of BBC2's most popular series. Lighting such a show may seem as easy as, well, baking a cake. But the simplicity of the show's concept belies the challenge that comes with rigging a set in the middle of a field, a challenge leading lighting supplier Stage Electrics stepped up to and conquered.

"The first series of The Great British Bake Off travelled around the UK and the logistical challenges involved were considerable," says Stage Electrics project manager Russell Payne, who has worked on the show since the very start. "A company that could handle the logistics of moving tents, lighting, power, etc, was needed. We do a lot of work with the BBC and, as one of only a few companies that have the infrastructure to supply what was necessary, the production company who produ

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light is holding an online auction of surplus new and ex-hire lighting and AV equipment in order to make room for new incoming products. The auction, organised by Sweeney Kincaid auctioneers, includes more than 600 lots of new and used products from manufacturers ArKaos Pro, City Theatrical, Clay Paky, ETC, Martin Professional, Selecon, and many more. With everything from lighting fixtures and accessories to control desks and dimmers, the online sale is offering deep discounts for those quick enough to snap up a bargain.

Products range in condition from new products 'off the shelf' to ex-hire gear 'sold for spares' and could appeal to wide variety of customers including venues, rental houses, and events companies looking to complement existing stocks or end users seeking a particular piece of equipment. Detailed information and photos

Canada - Adamson Systems Engineering continues to evolve during their 30th anniversary year. Brock Adamson recently announced the promotion of James Oliver to the position of director of marketing & sales.

"James brings a skill set to the table that spans beyond pro audio. Adamson saw tremendous growth last year and our goal is to add expertise in all aspects of our business," explains Adamson. "This move will help the company continue to expand sales and marketing efforts around the world. We're looking to provide our international partners and distributors with clear direction, support and a product line that can't be matched by any other manufacturer."

In his new role Oliver will be responsible for the growth of Adamson's sales worldwide with focus on growing the North American market. These efforts will include defining global brand strategy, offering t

Royal Visit - The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are to visit the National Theatre today, as the institution celebrates its 50th birthday. They will be given a backstage tour by outgoing director Sir Nicholas Hytner and watch rehearsals for forthcoming family show Emil and the Detectives. Their visit marks the anniversary of the first performance at the theatre

Peter O'Toole opened the venue on 22 October 1963, playing Hamlet under the eye of founder Sir Laurence Olivier. More than 800 productions have taken place at the venue in the intervening 50 years, including premieres of plays by Tom Stoppard, Peter Shaffer, Harold Pinter, Alan Bennett and David Hare.

During their visit, the Queen and Prince Philip will enjoy a musical number from Guys and Dolls, which was the first musical staged at the National, in 1982. The royal visitors will also visit the props work

UK - ETC's PLASA stand visitors queued up for demonstrations of the new ETC Source Four LED CYC last week. With the help of a desert scene cyclorama lent by the Design Realisation students on the Technical Theatre Arts programme at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, ETC's fixtures product manager Jim Uphoff and colleagues showed how one scene can be dramatically changed to match different times of day.

Five Source Four LED fixtures with attached CYC adapters at the bottom, and another five at the top, were controlled through an ETC Paradigm touchscreen to produce different colour mixes, each affecting how the scene was perceived.

At London's National Theatre, lighting director Neil Austin used a similar setup on Liolá, using Source Four CYC fixtures to create a very slow fade from cool blue daytime to warm orange evening lighting over the course of up to half an hour.

Els

Australia - Situated on level 3 of the Tattersalls Club, Doltone House Hyde Park is a new meeting and events venue boasting 5m high ceilings with an abundance of natural light via floor to ceiling spectacular windows and uninterrupted views of Sydney's Hyde Park.

The Hyde Park Ballroom is the main room which can be divided, via operable walls, into four smaller rooms, or any combination thereof, if required. The Manhattan and Avenue Rooms are smaller meeting spaces often used as pre-function rooms.

Fredon designed, supplied and installed all of the audio visual requirements for the venue working closely with inhouse AV company Microhire to design and develop a solution that would not only meet the needs of Doltone House's banquet staff but also Microhire.

When designing the system, Fredon took into account the venues main markets; weddings at the weekend and corporate events

UK - Pearce Hire has barely stopped for breath over the busy summer festival season, supplying an impressive array of events for long-standing as well as new customers.

One of those new customers is Loudsound, who contracted Pearce Hire twice over the summer to supply generated power and site lighting on the Field Day Festival in London's Victoria Park, and power distro for the XX's self-curated festival, Night & Day at Hatfield House.

Loudsound is one of the UK's leading independent festival production companies, providing event management across a number of large capacity festivals.

Dan Wilson, site manager for Loudsound at Field Day was impressed by Pearce Hire's detailed tender, competitive pricing and knowledge of how best to manage greenfield festival sites - a particular area of expertise for Pearce Hire.

"We needed to find a new provider for these important se

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