Germany - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has announced the dates and location for its upcoming 136th International Convention: Saturday 26 April, through Tuesday, 29 April, 2014, in Berlin, Germany. The Convention's 'Call for Papers' will be available in the coming months, and AES will be accepting proposals for abstract-precis-reviewed and peer-reviewed papers.

"We are excited to return to Berlin for the 136th Convention," stated Bob Moses, Audio Engineering Society executive director. "Berlin is a hub of technology and industry, with a vital and rich history in audio innovation. In addition, Germany is an extremely important marketplace for our business partners and sponsors to engage with pro audio customers. It is a more-than-fitting site for our next Euro

Canada - ADJ has named Montreal based SF Marketing as the exclusive distributor of ADJ Lighting, American Audio and Global Truss America/DuraTruss products throughout all of Canada.

The agreement brings together two of the most widely known and respected names in the entertainment products industry. ADJ has been a leading supplier of special effects and entertainment lighting since 1985. SF Marketing goes back even further, tracing its roots to 1978. Since its founding that year, the company has represented some of the leading names in the audio industry in Canada.

"We're extremely excited to enter into this agreement with SF Marketing," said Toby Velazquez, president of the ADJ Group of Companies. "Both of our companies share the same corporate philosophy of expanding our markets by educating and serving our customers better. Everything about SF Marketing has i

UK - Following a decision by Shure EMEA to align its distribution practices uniformly across Europe, Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) announced at PLASA London 2013 an internal reorganisation. The creation of three groups to directly serve Retail, Pro Audio & Systems Integration mirrors the structure already applied to product portfolio and customer segmentation.

Shure Distribution UK is essentially redefining its role in terms of distribution, and committing resource into a more complete and channel-focused support package for its selected partners. Rolling this concept out on a pan-European level ensures service and support levels are consistent at a country level, which is essential when resellers and service providers are increasingly operating in a single European market.

The sales function at SDUK is now accordingly structured into three divisions and these reflect the frame

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ETC Halcyon Silent

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UK - The sixth Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI), held on October 6th at London ExCel's Platinum Suite, saw lighting and video professionals enjoy a glittering night of celebration and recognition for the exceptional creative talent within their industry.

The ever-popular awards - organised by The Society of Television & Lighting Design (STLD), The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD), Clay Paky and Ambersphere Solutions and generously sponsored by Chroma-Q, Hawthorn, MA Lighting, Osram, Robert Juliat and XL Video - provide public recognition for outstanding achievements in touring, television and theatre lighting and video design.

Hosted by Andy Collins, the sparkling ceremony saw over 300 lighting and video professionals from the worlds of TV, Theatre, Concert Touring and Events come together to celebrate the diverse range of creative talent in production design today.<

UK - Yesterday, at PLASA London 2013, ETC donated a cheque for over £17,500 to the Light Relief charity from sales of their mobile app.

The cheque was presented by ETC's Anders Ekvall to Light Relief trustee John Simpson and freelance lighting designer Stuart Porter, who was recently helped by the charity.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Solid State Logic has appointed HD Pro Audio as its Live console dealer in the UK.

"We're very happy to be involved with SSL in bringing this console to our U.K. clients," says Andy Huffer, HD Pro Audio sales director. "When I first heard about SSL doing a live console, I thought 'here we go, another manufacturer giving an existing product a makeover and calling it the live version.' Then I saw SSL Live at Musikmesse/Prolight + Sound and quickly realised that I was completely wrong and that HD Pro Audio had to be involved with this product.

"Building on the company's established history of manufacturing high-quality analogue and digital mixing consoles, with rock-solid reliability for the demanding broadcast market, the SSL Live console is a force to be reckoned with. Beyond the outstanding control surface ergonomics, high channel count, routing flexib

UK - As part of its drive to provide the best range of hire products to its customers, Black Light has recently invested in the latest Robe moving head light fittings. The Robe Robin Pointe and the Robin MMX Blade complement the company's existing Robe stock and makes Black Light the obvious choice for anyone interested in this well-respected range.

"Here at Black Light we've always been great fans of Robe's products due to their high quality and exceptional performance," says the company's events and hires manager, Calder Sibbald.

Black Light has chosen the Robe Robin Pointe because of its flexibility and performance. "It is a cross purpose light that will meet a wide range of lighting needs, including Beam, Spot, Wash and FX, and is a great beam light for events and music shows," says Sibbald.

The Robin MMX Blade uses the MMX discharge fixture, which ca

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Strictly FX Highlights

Strictly FX was founded in 1996 by industry veterans Mark Grega and Ted Maccabee. Our expertise and knowledge of the world’s leading pyrotechnic, laser, and flame manufacturers allows us to curate astonishing live events. With over 500+ shows performed a year, there’s good chance you’ve seen some of our work!

South Africa - Based outside the South African city of Johannesburg, Woord en Lewe (Word and Life) Church annually hosts Live DVD/CD recordings within its highly developed technical infrastructure.

This September, resident group Word and Life Worship - described as "a high-energy praise and passionate worship band spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ" - were again under the spotlight. Local sound and lighting specialists Prosound, PR Lighting's new South African distributors, provided a fully dynamic lightshow consisting of fixtures from the Chinese manufacturer to really make the performance come alive in the Boksburg-based church.

These included 10 XLED 1037, 10 XLED 336 and 10 XR 200 Beam - as well as other PR Lighting heads.

To maximize the event and swell the congregation, record companies and other churches from all over the region were invited with heavy pro

USA - ADJ companies American DJ Supply and Elation Professional have reached an out of court settlement with American Lighting, Inc. and its Hong Kong-based parent company, Neo-Neon, involving a trademark infringement lawsuit. Under terms of the agreement, American Lighting and Neo-Neon have agreed to stop selling special effects lighting products and distributing marketing material that use the names "American," "Revo" and "E-Pro" in the US market.

The ADJ companies initiated legal action against American Lighting in 2012, charging it with trademark infringement and unfair competition under the Lanham Act. Neo-Neon was later added to ADJ's lawsuit, which centered on the use of the names "American,' "Revo" and "E-Pro" on special effects and entertainment lighting products intended to compete with the ADJ Group's American DJ

UK - Martin Professional is showcasing its latest line of cost-effective lighting effects - Rush by Martin - during PLASA London this week. The Rush line includes a comprehensive range of affordable effect products, including Rush MH 1 Profile, MH 2 Wash, MH 3 Beam, Strobe 1 5x5, Par 1 RGBW, and the Pin 1 CW.

Rush marks Martin's focus back to a market it knows well. "We are extremely excited about our RUSH range as it again brings everything that Martin stands for to the market for installation effect lights. Our roots lay in the lighting effects market and our experience will underscore the quality and reliability of the entire Rush Series," comments Villads Thomsen, vice president of global sales at Martin.

"The response since the release of Rush was overwhelmingly positive," continued Thomsen. "We feel the time is right to re-energize this segment a

Following a second hectic day at PLASA London 2013, a packed audience gathered yesterday evening in the AudioLab Arena to congratulate the winners of the PLASA Awards for Innovation, sponsored by Lighting & Sound International magazine. The winner of the prestigious Gottelier Award was also announced at the ceremony.

The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products that advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety. During the show's opening two days, 45 new products were judged 'live' by an independent panel of expert judges who toured the show floor to view each product presentation.

Eight awards of equal standing were presented, as well as the PLASA Award for Sustainability, to the following winners:

Clay Paky for the A.Leda B-EYE K20

The judges said, "The B-EYE had a &q

Malaysia - Two of Malaysia's leading rental companies came together this summer to ensure Metallica's first-ever concert in the country would be a memorable event. By merging their Meyer Sound inventories, Kuala Lumpur-based EHQ Projects and Selangor-based SES Sound & Lighting created a massive, 146-loudspeaker system based around Milo line array loudspeakers.

"There were no delays, but the sound was clear and very loud even 100m back from the stage," recalls Jay Neil, technical director of EHQ Projects. "Afterwards, I had people telling me it sounded like a CD on a great stereo."

In order to cover an audience of 30,000 in Kuala Lumpur's Stadium Merdeka, the two companies configured a system of 72 Milo loudspeakers, including 40 for main hangs, 30 for side hangs, and two for out-fills. Front-fill was provided by 12 M'elodie line array loudspeakers, and 40 7

Record Sales - Tickets for next year's Glastonbury Festival have sold out in record time, according to organisers. Michael and Emily Eavis issued a joint statement confirming all 120,000 remaining tickets had been sold in just one hour and 27 minutes. They said they were "blown away" by the numbers logging on and were "genuinely sorry" that so many had missed out. Ticketing website See Tickets had earlier apologised to customers on Twitter for "technical difficulties". The site, which had been managing the sale of tickets for Glastonbury, wrote that the issues had led to "a very difficult half an hour" before the site stabilised, later adding that it was selling 3,000 tickets a minute.

Prices for the 2014 event had been increased by £10 to £210, plus a booking fee, but festival-goers could pay a deposit of £50 before sett

UK - HSL supplied lighting for the UK and German performances of Massive Attack v Adam Curtis a mixed-media installation created by incendiary filmmaker Adam Curtis and activist band Massive Attack taking the semantics of image-music-text into a new dimension.

The show was world premiered at the Mayfield Depot in Manchester as part of the 2013 Manchester International Festival (MIF), then played at Kraftzentrale at Duisburg's Landschaftspark at the 2013 Ruhrtriennale International Festival of the Arts culminating in a run at The Park Avenue Armouries in New York last week, making a serious impact.

The powerful and thought-provoking presentation was a collaboration between Massive Attack's Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adam Curtis and technical visionaries, United Visual Artists (UVA).

Lighting designer Tim Oliver has worked on various art and performance projects wi

The first ever Technical Theatre Awards (TTA) - celebrating the best of 'behind the scenes' skill and talent - were presented at a well-attended ceremony at the PLASA Show at London's ExCel.

Fifteen awards were announced on the Theatres Trust stand in the midst of the PLASA hubbub.

Sponsored by AVW Controls, dbs Solutions, Load Cell Rental, Mayflower, Philips Entertainment, PLASA, Production Resource Group (PRG), StageBitz, Stage Jobs Pro, The Fifth Estate Ltd and Triple E, the TTAs are also very kindly supported by Lighting and Sound International and The Theatres Trust.

Host for the evening was prolific multi award-winning lighting designer Rick Fisher, perhaps best known for his work on Billy Elliot the Musical and An Inspector Calls. Recent credits include Great Expectations at Bristol's Old Vic, The Herd at The Bush Theatre, and Inside Wagner's Head at the Linbury Studio Royal

France - UK indie rock band Tindersticks is marking its 21st anniversary with a 12-date European tour that starts in France later this month. Among the key items of equipment at each show will be two DPA d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones, which are being used on the band's cello and double bass.

Jamie Hickey, Tindersticks monitor engineer since 2008, says he used DPA d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones over the summer when the band performed seven shows as a taster for the 21st anniversary tour. One of these performances involved a special set at the Blue Balls Festival in Lucern, Switzerland, where the six-piece band was joined by a 17-piece string section.

"The venue had a stock of DPA 4061 Miniature Microphones that it was happy for us to use on the string section, but due to their omni polar pattern I didn't think they were the best option for a string section that wa

Japan - Fuji Rock Festival was held an hour's train ride from Tokyo, from 26-28 July. Japan's most eagerly awaited summer event is the largest in the whole country.

Right from its first edition, in 1997, Fuji Rock was a truly star-studded event: artists included Weezer, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Massive Attack, Prodigy, Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Nowadays, Fuji Rock is a phenomenon able to attract over 100,000 fans. Born from an idea by Hidaka Masa, the festival aimed at changing the way Japanese fans "listened to music", offering them the possibility of hearing sounds for the very first time, in an atmosphere of "freedom", while camping surrounded by nature.

The event's 2013 edition featured performances by top names on the Japanese and international alternative rock and electronic scenes: Bjork, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Vampire

Germany - As the largest football stadium in the German Bundesliga, with a capacity of over 80,000, Signal Iduna Park - home of Borussia Dortmund (BVB) - recently sanctioned a radical upgrade to its public address system.

Their aim was to achieve higher intelligibility, even pattern control (with extended low frequency capability) and unobscured sightlines - but most importantly to link the voice evacuation and stand systems into a unified network, that could be monitored, error- and health-checked remotely. The solution was provided by RCF.

The deployment of 14 RCF clusters of 14 TTL33-A MKII line array elements (with a TTS26-A sub at the base of each), will future-proof the famous stadium for decades to come. But the most remarkable aspect is that this is an entirely active solution, wrapped around the beams to keep the sightlines intact.

Loaded with RCF's proprietary RDNe

China - Pilot Records' Inter City Music Festival recently took place at the Golden Sands Beach in the Huangdao district of Qingdao, China. Many of the record label's acts performed including Reflector, Zheng Jun, CMCB, Twisted Machine and headliner Miserable Faith.

Real Music Acoustics & Lighting Technology Co. Ltd., Adamson System Engineering's distributor in China and Hong Kong, supplied an Energia E15 line array system for the two-day festival.

"The record labels artists represent many different genres of music," explains Richie Wang, GM for Real Music Acoustics & Lighting. "We provided a substantial Adamson E15 PA in order to accommodate their heavy metals bands as well as pop and folk music acts."

The E15 line arrays - 12 enclosures per array - were hung from scaffolding erected to the right and left of the stage. Under each array were a stack of six

UK - Broadcast audio specialists Red TX was at London's O2 Arena on 29 September, to capture the broadcast audio for Unity - A Concert For Stephen Lawrence.

Artists including Rita Ora, Beverley Knight and Jessie J were joined by Emeli Sande, Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran for the concert, which was held to mark the 20th anniversary of Stephen's death in southeast London.

Red TX was commissioned to handle the broadcast audio by Paul Dugdale, who was directing the project on behalf of ACME TV. Dugdale previously worked with Red TX during the summer when the company recorded The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park.

For the Unity concert, which was broadcast on BBC 2, Red TX used its main Red 1 outside broadcast vehicle, with engineers Tim Summerhayes and Ollie Nesham at the controls.

"We knew the event was going to be challenging due to a tight schedule and the shear amount of ar

USA - Harman Professional has announced the appointment of Brian Friborg to lead US sales, group-wide as USA vice president of sales, Harman Professional. Friborg, who previously held the position of president, Americas for Martin Professional, immediately assumes responsibility for sales and support of Harman Professional audio and lighting technologies in the United States. He will report directly to Scott Robbins, Harman Professional Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales.

"Empowering dealers with not simply the best technologies and systems but also the best programmes and people is central to our approach here at Harman Professional," Robbins said. "This commitment requires us to evolve and, just as we have added the Martin Lighting brand to our portfolio, add quality and value wherever possible."

Brian Friborg joined Martin Professional in 1999 and

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