USA - City Theatrical is launching a spread of new products at LDI 2013 in booth 1649, including a new line of LED tape called QolorFLEX, the new D-Series LED Dimmers, the AutoYoke LED, SHoW Baby 5, and many new accessories. John McKernnon will be demonstrating Lightwright 5 and Broadway programmer Alex Fogel will be demonstrating Moving Light Assistant software.

QolorFlex LED Tape is LED lighting tape aimed at the professional lighting market, including live theatre, television, film and video, and live events. LED tape is a revolutionary product, allowing lighting users to put light in places that were impossible in the past and to create lighting fixtures and lighting effects in new and inexpensive ways. QolorFLEX™ LED tape is manufactured to City Theatrical's exact specif

Italy - Leading Italian TV Lighting Designer Massimo Castrichella took less than a minute to decide that he wanted Robe's Robin DLS profile, LEDWash 1200 and LEDBeam 100 fixtures on his lighting rig for the latest series of Un Minuto Per Vincere (One Minute To Win).

The second season of the Italian version of the hugely popular US Minute To Win It games show was recorded at the Auditorium del Foro Italico in Central Rome for national channel RAI. Contestants participate in a series of simple but frustratingly difficult to achieve 60 second challenges that usually involve common household objects!

Castrichella has worked for the prime Italian broadcaster for an impressive 35 years. He has also used Robe products in his work since 2004 and for this one - where 90 % of the lighting is for effects - he chose 20 x Robe DLS Profiles, 12 LEDWash 1200s and 30 LEDBeam 100

Qatar - European flightcase manufacturer 5 Star Cases has shipped the first part of a major order for over 100 road cases for live event AV and video specialist Creative Technology (CT)'s Doha, Qatar facility.

These are to house a variety of kit used day-to-day by the busy rental operation which is headed by general manager Andy Reardon, including control systems, racks, a variety of different sized plasma screens, mains and power distros, 3U drawered racks, plastic blow-moulded cases with CNC machined foam inserts for audio and video processors and a number of high end bespoke designed cases to house assorted cameras.

5 Star's Keith Sykes visited Doha in the summer and undertook a marathon measure up of all the kit needing to be cased.

In the UK, CT has been a 5 Star client for many years, but this is the first time they have supplied the international facilities.

Reardon

featured content

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

USA - Clay Paky will be featuring a number of new releases and product developments at LDI in Las Vegas later this month.

A.leda B-EYE, winner of the 2013 Plasa Award for Innovation offers versatility and spectacular effects. Says the company, "A.leda B-EYE is versatile because it can be used in many di-verse ways, even within the same project. In fact this fixture is, simultaneously, a state-of-the-art LED wash-light, an amazing 'beam-light' and a projector for totally unseen, stunning graphic effects."

A.Leda B-EYE is a wash-light, generating beautiful colours and featuring an impressive, wide 6° to 70° beam aperture. The zoom however can be closed even further, down to as little as 4 degrees thus switching the light from a wash diffusion into a narrow and parallel beam. In this operating mode B-EYE becomes a 'beam-light, whose beam consists of an array of

USA - Audio-Technica is celebrating its 20th year of supporting the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards by providing an extensive selection of vocal and instrument microphones for its annual awards show.

The 47th Annual CMA Awards aired live in 5.1-channel surround sound Wednesday, 6 November, 2013, on the ABC Television Network from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and featured over 150 Audio-Technica microphones, including an impressive array of hard-wired mics and Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless Systems. Audio-Technica microphones were chosen for their ability to provide clear and consistent audio quality for live broadcast.

The CMA Awards presentation is recognized as Country Music's Biggest Night and represents the pinnacle of achievement for those involved in country music. Once again, Audio-Technica microphones were featured for their accurate and reliable s

Switzerland - Tour Challenge is a new, 341km, four-day bicycle race set in the heart of the Swiss Alps, which starts and finishes in Davos and sees competitors hit picturesque locations en route including Lenzeerheide and St. Moritz. From September 5-8, Peavey's new HiSys series was at the audio helm as rental company, European Event und Medientechnik GmbH, supplied several cabinets to cater for the event's start and finish areas.

HiSys boxes were used for a string of audio applications across the four days including spoken-word presentations, background music, and hymns for the award ceremonies; two HiSys H10s and two HiSys H12s were deployed on speaker tripods, and were the loudspeakers of choice due to their lightweight frames and high performance, according to European Event und Medientechnik GmbH's owner, Thomas Beth.

"We supplied the Peavey HiSys system for Tour Cha

USA - Audinate, the inventors of the digital media networking solution Dante, is offering a series of specialized networking courses on-line that can be used for RU credits toward a CTS certification. Presently, two courses are now available which include The Principles of Digital Audio and Introduction to IP Networking for AV Systems.

The first new course, The Principles of Digital Audio covers the encoding and representation of audio in digital formats, how audio is communicated and manipulated in the digital domain and introduces the features and benefits of digital audio networking. Each person taking the course will receive 3.0 CTS RU credits in CTS Domain A.

The second new course, Introduction to IP Networking for AV Systems provides a high level informative discussion on the adoption of IP networking and then introduces the OSI model and how

featured content

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.

South Africa - The Joburg Theatre has been one of the first to purchase Philips Selecon PLCYC-2LEDs in South Africa. The 10 new fixtures are being used for the magical production Aladdin, a pantomime by Jannice Honeyman which runs from 30 October right through to the holiday season.

Joburg Theatre were looking for a LED Cyc light solution to light up the cyclorama, the large white backdrop on stage which changes colour during shows. The purchase had to arrive on time for the annual panto.

"We compared the PLCYC-2LEDs with similar fixtures and found them to be more suited to theatre application and surprisingly more affordable," said Enos Ramoroko, technical manager at the Joburg Theatre. "With no need for labour intensive rigging (fewer and lighter units) and almost nonexistent maintenance, we can only hope to buy more of them to put a smile on the crew.&

UK - Chilfest - the new boutique festival staged in Tring, Hertfordshire by Universal Event Productions (UEP) - has been nominated in two categories of the 2013 UK Festival Awards.

The two day event - the first and only music festival to be promoted and staged by an industry technical production solutions specialist - has been nominated in the 'Best New Festival' and 'Best Family Festival' categories. The Awards ceremony takes place at London's Roundhouse on 2 December.

A delighted Steve Butcher, MD of UEP declared, "I can hardly believe it - it's amazing to even be nominated as a newcomer to the scene - and its certainly not something we expected even though we had such a great event."

The inaugural Chilfest was staged at Pendley Meadow in Tring and featured a lively pop night on the Friday headlined by Little Mix and a show-stopping line up of stars from the 1980

Australia - In acknowledgement of the changing demands of the marketplace, LSC has announced the release of its new intelligent power distribution unit called APS (Advanced Power System).

APS has been designed to remove the problems caused by the large in-rush and earth-leakage currents common with modern switch-mode power supplies found in audio amplifiers, intelligent lights, video-walls and LED fixtures, resulting in unwanted breaker trips.

Equally at home in the lighting, sound and video markets, for portable or permanent installation, APS solves these issues by controlled application of power to its output circuits. To further enhance its usefulness, APS also offers power monitoring of voltage and current and frequency which can be displayed both locally and remotely.

Control is via the detection of any DMX512 signal, manually via the front panel LCD or remotely via RDM

USA - RedNet, Focusrite's flagship range of Ethernet-networked audio interfaces, based around the Dante Ethernet protocol, can take music and recording to places it might never have gone.

That's what's taking place at Georgia Southern University, where the school's music technology department is moving forward with an innovative curriculum. The programme utilises eight RedNet 1 devices, which offer eight channels of line-level analogue I/O with Focusrite's precision 24-bit A-D and D-A conversion, to connect acoustical and electronic performances from the school's electronic ensemble. This allows students to manipulate the audio in real time, creating entirely new compositions in the process.

For instance, as John Thompson, the school's associate professor, music technology, explains, a performance by a clarinet in one of any number of venues across the campus, including a perf

USA - Leroy Bennett's lighting design for the current Nine Inch Nails Tension 2013 tour utilises the largest installation of Ayrton's MagicPanel 602 fixtures to date.Following a successful summer festival tour promoting their new album Hesitation Marks across the Far East and Europe, American industrial rock project, Nine Inch Nails, are currently bringing their show to North American arenas under a dramatic lighting rig that incorporates no less than 126 Ayrton MagicPanel 602 fixtures.Well-known rock production/lighting designer Leroy Bennett, whose long line of collaborations includes Prince, Tina Turner, Faith Hill, Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga, Rammstein, Madonna, Beyonce and Bruno Mars has installed 14 motorised pods on variable speed winches above the stage, each containing nine Ayrton MagicPanels in a 3 x 3 configuration.Ayrton MagicPanel 602 is a moving head video p

UK - A strong sense of community is centred on the Hertford Theatre, where a new Yamaha CL3-based audio system has transformed the house sound.

In common with many provincial venues, the Hertford Theatre is council-run and stages a wide variety of events - focusing on drama, comedy, lectures, community events and films. The production centrepiece of the year is the annual pantomime, which runs throughout December and early January, often with two shows a day.

"By the end of last year everything on the sound side was life expired, it had reached a crucial point where we had no choice but to do something," says the theatre's technical manager Alex Antonis. "The pantomime, in particular, places great demands on the audio facilities, but even the amateur companies and semi-pro youth theatres that use the venue were needing more channels.

"We also found that,

South Africa - Rental companies, Prosound and Gearhouse Splitbeam (Pty) Ltd have successfully worked together on many major international and local touring productions where Splitbeam has managed the specialist lighting and Prosound the specialist audio. Splitbeam's primary focus is on lighting for theatre productions and its services have quickly gained traction in the Theatre rental market since the company's launch in February 2010.

This successful history prompted mutual agreements to sell Prosound's lighting stock to Splitbeam allowing Prosound to focus on their core strengths.

"It made sense to move our lighting stock to Splitbeam in order to continue the obvious synergy between the two companies," says Mark Malherbe, Prosound technical director.

Splitbeam director, Alistair Kilbee is enthusiastic about the possibilities this new stock offers his company. &qu

UK - Le Mark's Steven Marshall has been titled an 'outstanding employee' by the professional judges of the Archant Herts & Cambs Business Awards. Steve is known to many as the project manager and lead designer for Le Mark Groups Dirty Rigger gloves and accessories division. The Judges commented: "It's not often you come into contact with a young man who has such passion for business excellence and creativity".

Stuart Gibbons, Le Mark Groups MD commented: "It's been a personal pleasure for me to have mentored Steve and see him develop into such a consummate professional and talented designer. Dirty Rigger products are available around the world through a network of partner distributors, this can be much attributed to the hard work that Steve has committed to building a 100% quality focussed brand. Steve has had to learn and develop his management skills along the w

Hydro News - Glasgow is to host the 20th MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) next year. The event will be held at the city's £125m Hydro Arena, which opened in October, and has a capacity of 13,000. Bruce Gillmer, from Viacom International Media Network (VIMN), confirmed the ceremony would be held in Glasgow for the first time. It follows discussions between MTV, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau and EventScotland. Said Gilmer, "As one of the world's great music cities, Glasgow is always a favourite with artists and the new SSE Hydro will provide the perfect backdrop for the MTV EMA in its 20th anniversary year. We're thrilled that the eyes of the music world will be on Glasgow next year."

Dance News - Sadler's Wells plans to create a new venue it hopes will help establish London as a global centre for dance to rival New York and Paris. The search has begun for the

UK - Harvard Engineering has announced the launch of EyeNut, a new wireless indoor lighting control solution.

The system, which is officially being launched at LuxLive at Earl's Court on 20-21 November, is set to revolutionise indoor lighting, as for the first time, users will be able to completely configure, control and monitor their own indoor lighting, says the company.

With EyeNut users can implement appropriate indoor lighting strategies to suit the activities taking place in specific areas of a building or across multiple-buildings or sites, as well as to save energy and cut carbon emissions, through the solution's intuitive graphic user interface (GUI).

Russell Fletcher, sales and marketing director at Harvard Engineering, commented, "The launch of EyeNut is a significant milestone for Harvard. EyeNut is a market leading and innovative solution providing opportun

UK - Artistic Licence is gearing up for an exciting LuxLive 2013 (stand B12) at Earls Court later this month. Particular emphasis will be given to two very active areas in the company's product portfolio. The first of these focuses on products designed to solve the installation dilemmas that are becoming increasingly prevalent in the DALI/DMX crossover market. The other highlights the key dimming products in the Artistic Licence range.

DALI is the workhorse of commercial lighting, but in recent years has broadened its reach into the architectural arena. However, feature lighting and special effects are usually controlled using DMX, long the protocol of choice for the entertainment industry. This has left many in the middle ground, often with a need to use DALI and DMX interchangeably. But the integration of the two approaches can be problematic, not least because the protocols o

UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd showed two new additions to their British built Blakite speaker range at PLASA London 2013.

The SM12 stage monitor is sloped at 30 degrees and is loaded with a dual concentric driver, featuring a 12" woofer and 2.5" compression driver. Power handling is 500W RMS, sensitivity is 98dB (1W 1m) and max SPL is 126dB. With a footprint of just 415mm square, the SM12 allows top quality performance on small stages, with the capacity to deliver on a much larger scale.

The compact TP6 full range cabinet is designed to mount into corner spaces in bars, restaurants etc but also to work with a 12" sub on small conferences. Rated at 125W, the TP6 is fitted with a 6" woofer and 1" compression driver to give clear, crisp detail, even at low volumes.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Green Hippo has introduced a new member to the award winning Hippotizer media server range. Rackoon is a power-packed addition to the Hippotizer server range. This little 1U rackmount rascal gives six layers of full 1080p HD playback in a shake of the tail, says the company.

Boasting all the usual features of Hippotizer's award winning software, Rackoon integrates with all other Green Hippo servers seamlessly - "A loveable and helpful little beast delivering a level of functionality to belie its diminutive stature".

And there's a reason this little fella has a twinkle in his eye. With an unrestricted output resolution, full HippoNet compatibility and all the software usability of its bigger relatives you can forgive that cheeky look.

"Bouncing with feature after feature, Rackoon would be considered pesky were he not so useful. Feed him media and he'll rew

UK - The CEO of one of the industry's most successful LED technology companies, displayLED, has given a frank interview as the company he founded reaches its 10th anniversary.

Graham Burgess started displayLED from an office in his London home ten years ago this November, following 20 years working with industry leaders such as Sony and Lighthouse Technologies. The basis in those early years was brokering used screen deals between rental companies. He has since grown displayLED into a global screen supplier and manufacturer, with clients including the world's biggest consumer brands and highest profile music stars.

Today displayLED has offices on four continents, customers in five, and is now one of the largest buyers of LED screens in the world. Drawing from both its own award-winning digiLED brand and other international manufacturers, including in China, the company has dev

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline