USA - Recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's largest music festival for the past 15 consecutive years, Milwaukee's Summerfest knows how to throw a party. With over 700 national and regional acts performing on 11 stages - this year's 'Big Gig' at Henry W. Maier Festival Park on the city's Lake Michigan shoreline drew more than 840,000 visitors over its 11-day run in late June and early July.

To handle audio production duties for this year's 46th annual bash, Milwaukee World Festival, the non-profit organisation that runs the event, once again turned to local provider Clearwing Productions, which specified the use of more than 340 L-Acoustics loudspeaker enclosures for FOH throughout the grounds.

According to Bryan Baumgardner, Clearwing audio operations/logistics man

UK - Orbital Sound has announced the appointment of Adam Thorneycroft to the newly-created position of operations director.

Thorneycroft joins the existing four-man board with immediate effect, working alongside Chris Headlam, managing director; Eric Simpson, event and comms director; Bill Addison, technical director; and Tom Byrne, sales director. His primary role is to oversee all operational aspects and processes of Orbital's rental business, across warehousing, engineering and logistics.

Prior to joining Orbital in 2007, THorneycroft gained several years' experience working as a production stage manager around the world, while his initial duties at Orbital involved establishing the engineering departments in the company's UK and North American warehousing operations. He is also closely involved with Orbital's apprenticeship scheme.

Chris Headlam, managing director of Orb

UK - LS-Live was the facility of choice for both production rehearsals and staging rental for four headline acts at the Glastonbury Festival.

Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, HURTS and Chase & Status all performed headline shows with production support from the stage & set, equipment rental and studio complex based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

The rental company welcomed Glastonbury's Friday night headliners Arctic Monkeys to the 17,664 sq.ft rehearsal studio for six days full pre-production in June where the band and crew made use of the 14 en-suite bedrooms on site to work round the clock.

Production manager Ian Calder oversaw the production build, which incorporated two huge letters 'A' and 'M' clad in LED lighting on stage, to represent the band's name, part of a show that frontman Alex Turner later hailed as "one of the best gigs we've ever done".

LS-Live was

UK - Production manager Kevin Hopgood has been working with Mark Knopfler since 2006 and has developed a strong relationship with Paul Crockford, Knopfler's manager and his team. With Hopgood's recent move to SW19, it was a logical step for the newly formed production company to take on the logistics of Knopfler's current tour.

"Most people on the tour, including Paul's team of Lauren Sass and Bree Ishikawa have been working with Mark for many years; they're great people to work with and Mark has such a good work ethic," says Hopgood. "We're doing 71 shows over four months during this tour, which started in mid April and will finish at the end of July, with around five or six shows a week, most of which are back to backs. We do a residency at the RAH for six days, which normally falls in the middle of the run."

The current tough economic climate means that

USA - ADJ's new Pixel Pulse Bar will have entertainers and lighting designers thinking "outside the bar" when it comes to visual effects, says the company.

The Pixel Pulse Bar comes equipped with the added feature of five-zone pixel chase effects. Users can highlight five different colours on the fixture and create a striking spectrum of energy-driven chase effects for "a thrilling high-velocity lightshow".

As a result of its five-zone pixel control, the Pixel Pulse Bar allows entertainers and designers to be more creative and gives them the power to enhance and broaden the scope of their lightshows without adding multiple units to their lighting arsenal, said Alfred Gonzales, national sales manager for ADJ.

"The Pixel Pulse Bar is versatile LED colour strobe/wash fixture because of its ability to create 5-zone pixel chase effects," said Gonzale

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Mexico - When last year Liverpool, Mexico's largest department store chain, opened its flagship unit in Villahermosa, some 63 x PR-8800 LED fixtures (each containing 108 x 3W RGB LED's) were used to wash the building.

Now the Chinese manufacturer's Mexican distributors, Hermes Music, have confirmed that an even greater number of PR Lighting's LED sources have been deployed at the larger Liverpool store in Puebla, which was recently remodelled. And this time Hermes have specified 104 of the super bright XPar 390 spots to bring the building to life after dark.

Each RGB head contains 90 x 3W LEDs (24 each of RGB and 18 white) with full colour mixing and linear CTO. Critically, it also has a beam angle of 14° and field angle of 28°.

Explaining the choice, Hermes Music's lighting specialist, Ricardo Segura de la Cruz, said the decision was based on space and the need for

Bulgaria - Clubbers in the Bulgarian city of Razgrad have been treated to a new kind of experience which is one of a kind.

The innovative Soho Club bears an exclusive interior design, conceived by the renowned professional design team from Goev Studio. In complete synchrony with the complex concept of the club is the music, which is soft during daytime, and challenging and edgy after dark as the venue metamorphoses from coffee and food bar into a full-on night club.

Forming the bond in this unconventional combination is the sound quality of Martin Audio's premium architectural AQ system, with the atmosphere further enhanced by the impressive lighting as Soho stages a tight schedule of events.

This programme itself varies depending on the climate. For example, as the weather grows warmer, Soho offers a summer garden (and children's corner for the club's youngest visitors). Fo

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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.

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UK - The golden era of Disco, which started in 1970s Manhattan, has now been recaptured by Charlie Gilkes and Duncan Stirling (of Inception Group) in a Soho basement. Renowned for their innovative concepts, Disco is a revival of this important nightlife idiom and features choreographed routines from singers and dancers, as well as nightly live performances from musicians.

Helping to bring this heavily themed venue to life with some inspired LED and discharge lighting that recreates the zeitgeist is the Sound Division Group. Said their MD, David Graham, "LED wasn't even around back in the '70s but the way in which we have mixed it with beam and flower FX represents the idiom sympathetically."

Design wise, Disco showcases a cool and quirky interior, featuring entire walls of retro televisions beaming out music videos and a nostalgic collection of iconic images of revel

UK - Looking to create a new stage ambience for country legend Toby Keith, long-time LD Seth Jackson has become the first production designer to use GLP's new impression X4S LED wash light.

He has specified 83 of the compact 'S' fixtures, which introduce a new level of functionality, incorporating RGBW homogenous colour mixing, a 7 to 50 degree zoom range and high output level within a smaller footprint than the original X4. Supplied by Bandit Lites, they dominate the set for Keith's current Hammer Down tour.

Jackson had been seeking a fixture with the ability to travel in the new Bandit GoGo Truss, a modified version of the 20.5" standard truss, developed by Dizzy Gosnell and Mike Golden (hence 'GoGo'). "We needed the lights to sit in the centre of the truss and keep our vertical towers centred with weight," he explains. "GoGo allows the lights to s

Australia - Coda Audio Services recently traded up from their Shure PSM 600 to Shure PSM 1000 personal monitor systems (10 transmitting devices and 14 receivers), a move described by managing director Michael Wilkie as more than advantageous.

"We went from a non-flexible frequency situation to one where you can switch everything around and select whatever frequency you want," he added. "The diversity system is very good and means you're much less likely to get drop outs on stage. The PSM 600's had that HA and HB etc so it was complicated from an inventory point of view - you could accidently send out the wrong transmitter for the receiver - whereas now everything is the same so you're just hiring out a system."

The ability to do point to point wireless signal linking set up was a major drawcard for Wilkie as Coda do many outdoor festivals.

"One of th

UK - The reactivated Radiophonic Workshop (RWS) has enlisted Behringer's X32 Digital Mixing Console and Eurolive Active loudspeakers for a series of upcoming high-profile electronic music events.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of BBC Television's Doctor Who - an institution that the Radiophonic Workshop's extraordinary music helped propel into the consciousness of the British public. To celebrate both the return of RWS and the anniversary of Doctor Who, the RWS joined a 200-strong cast of musicians for the BBC Doctor Who Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall in July. The concert, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, will also be shown on BBC television in November as part of the Doctor Who anniversary celebrations.

The RWS will also be curating and headlining a mini-festival celebrating the Workshop's legacy and their return to the stage at the London Roundhouse in

USA - GLP US Inc., the Americas office of German manufacturer GLP, has launched a new updated and redesigned website at www.germanlightproducts.com

Responsible for the distribution and support of GLP products across North and South America, the new GLP US website features extensive information on the other brands that the company distributes, including the full range of Cosmic Truss structure and support products, the G-LEC range of creative video products, and the Scenex Lighting range of LED based scenic lighting elements.

The fresh new design of the website features an extensive download section for each product, along with a large selection of photos and videos across the site showing a wide variety of product applications.

(Jim Evans)

USA / UK - TAIT has announced the acquisition of Stage Technologies and Delstar Engineering. A statement from TAIT says: "This acquisition sees the merger of the world's market leaders in the field of automation, staging and engineering for the live entertainment industry. The enhanced capacity of the groups provides the ability to offer unrivalled technology and expertise across the globe from locations on the East and West coasts of America, Belgium, Macau, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, China and Australia.

"The increased breadth and depth of the company will provide clients with an extensive palette of cutting edge technologies, which will include eChameleon, Navigator, F:Light, Sculptor toolkit for 3ds Max, plus a comprehensive range of winches and staging solutions for concert touring, theatre, corporate events, film and television and permanent installations.&qu

UK - Lighting rental companies Fineline and GLS were among the first two on the UK mainland to receive delivery of Robe's new Pointe fixtures.

Southampton based GLS took 24 and Bristol-based Fineline took 12 units in this initial delivery ... which was co-ordinated by Ian W Brown of Robe UK.

However Fineline's fixtures also went directly from Robe to GLS - and straight out on their first cross-hire - on European shows for the Flaming Lips, with lighting designed by Eric Cathcart.

After that, they finally found their way to Fineline where they went out again on the Eden Sessions staged at The Eden Project in Cornwall for which Fineline was contracted to supply lighting and rigging for the first year.

Fineline's Rob Sangwell comments, "We are delighted with the Pointes. They are small, bright and really versatile units that do a whole load more than the nearest competit

UK - Every year since 1993, the Goodwood Estate in Sussex, UK has hosted the Festival of Speed; a motoring event celebrating the greatest automotive marques and vehicles.

XL Events, working for client Shelton Fleming and their producer, Dan Rees, supplied an innovative interactive audio and video package for Audi UK's brand activation at the 20th Anniversary Festival of Speed event.

Audi's stand, the largest at the show, was located in the manufacturers' area and incorporated 1,700sq.m of external show space and a 400sq.m pavilion in which the experience was staged.

Based on Audi's victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012 & 2013, the experience presented a series of Audi innovations that were designed for high performance racing and now feature in road cars.

Teaser and competition promotion videos were presented on four waterproof outdoor plasma screens from XL Events as

UK - Richard Martin Lighting (RML) has recently added the Robert Juliat Alex Followspot to its already extensive inventory, available to hire today.

The Alex Followspot is a 2500w Tungsten unit and suitable for television studios and theatre productions. It contains a mechanical dimmer, which allows a constant colour temperature during dimming while additionally maintaining the flat beam which, as we know, is important when using sensitive camera equipment. Having a tungsten lamp allows for the units to be used with conventional theatre and television lighting, making sure no hot spots are visible.

With a G22 locking system exclusive to all Robert Juliat products, a localised on/off switch, and 7° to 14.5° zoom, the Alex Followspot is a product designed for big impact and ease of use.

Steve Wells, operations manager at RML said of the purchase, "Investing in Fol

USA - Austin's Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is America's first purpose-built Formula One racing track. Completed in late 2012, COTA's campus includes the main grandstand with VIP lounge, the Grand Plaza with food court and shops, a 251ft (77m) observation tower and the pit building with an adjacent media centre. The track includes bleachers at several locations to supplement the grandstand seating.

Although the Formula One and other races are the site's main attractions, A/V systems play major supporting roles. Architect Tilke's Formula One designs include race control systems and basic audio and video systems but Circuit of the Americas chose to upgrade and/or supplement the A/V systems in many areas.

Circuit of the Americas retained consultant Acoustic Dimensions for many of the venue's networks and for the audio and video system upgrades. Acoustic Dimensions value enginee

Our House Revival - Madness musical Our House is to be revived in a new actor-musician version of the show this autumn. The production will open at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich on 24 September, following previews from 12 September, and will then tour the UK.

Written by Tim Firth with music by Madness, the new production is directed by Peter Rowe, with choreography by Francesca Jaynes and musical direction by Dai Watts. Set and costume design is by Mark Walters, with lighting design by Ben Cracknell, sound design by Simon Deacon and video design by Will Dukes and Mike Higgs. Casting is by Debbie O'Brien.

Our House's original production won the Olivier Award for best new musical in 2003. It ran for 10 months at the Cambridge Theatre and was directed by Matthew Warchus. The musical was revived for a UK tour in 2008, also directed by Warchus.

Theatre Fundin

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd's lighting division supplied a significant quantity of SGM X-5 Strobes to lighting hire company Neg Earth for use on Glastonbury Festival's Other Stage.

Tom Lesh, house LD for The Other Stage chose to rig 28 SGM X-5 Strobes across three trusses as he explains: "We rigged 28 of them across three trusses - and kept two spare - to add some visual depth to the stage both for the audience and of course for the TV cameras. We also needed something that would cut through in the bright summer sunshine and these strobes were ideal. They were a big hit on the Other Stage during the festival, being used by LDs for the three high-profile headline acts, as well as many others further down the bill.

"For those bands that played in the daylight the SGM X-5s were also welcome additions. Bands included the Foals, Alt J, Tame Impala, Th

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light was recently chosen to supply lighting for the new musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which opened earlier this year at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane to critical and public acclaim.

Directed by Sam Mendes - returning to theatre after directing Skyfall, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory features an a-list creative team including Writers David Greig, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Choreographer Peter Darling, Designer Mark Thompson, Sound Designer Paul Arditti, Projection Designer Jon Driscoll and Lighting Designer Paul Pyant, who has collaborated with Mendes regularly during and since his time at the helm of London's Donmar Warehouse.

Lighting designer Paul Pyant, working with associate lighting designer, David Howe, specified a very modern lighting rig, using moving lights and LED l

UK - When the Barbican Theatre in the Barbican Centre Arts Complex closed its doors for a major 15 week overhaul in May, Unusual Rigging was brought in to put together an access platform to enable the replacement of the entire grid.

Originally a lyric theatre, and long term home to the Royal Shakespeare Company, the theatre is now called upon to host a far greater range of international touring productions as well as its own in-house productions. As such the entire flying grid and system needed replacing to keep up with the growing demands placed upon the theatre's technical team.

Ashley Pickles, theatre technical manager (systems and maintenance) at the Barbican Theatre said, "This is a major project for us, removing not just the existing flying grid and system but also some of the gallery and proscenium bridge structures in order to expand the width of the stage and gen

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