Canada - Justin Timberlake kicked off his 20/20 Experience World Tour in Montreal and Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpy Washes were out in force. Solotech provided the lighting equipment.

True to its name, the tour is "an experience rather than a show," says lighting director Nick Whitehouse. "It's very visual with lots of projection and lighting and a lot of new technology. We got pretty creative with everything and had fun putting it all together."

The tour is in support of Timberlake's third studio album, which has a sophisticated vibe. The singer will play dates in North America, Europe, Australia and South America.

"We did seven weeks of rehearsals," Whitehouse reports. "The gear really got a work out - 20 hours a day." On the tou

Belgium / China - XL Video has announced an investment of more than 15m US dollars in a range of new LED products and accessories to support its plans for growth in 2014.

The LED investment has been made with a range of suppliers including Shenzhen-based Unilumin Group Co and its subsidiary Radiant Opto-Elec Technology Co Ltd to purchase a series of LED products based on the latest technologies. In total more than 1200 m2 of LED products for the XL Video rental business will become available from February onwards.

The LED investment covers amongst others: State of the art 2.5mm high contrast LED; Super lightweight 3.9mm Utile LED; 18mm Magic Cube outdoor and indoor LED; 7mm blackface Magic Cube outdoor and indoor LED - the first of its kind in this segment; The latest innovation of 18mm Hybrid LED which combines LED screen with LED spotlights in the same panel. This invention

France - Every two years, sound, lighting and production specialist West Evenement stages an open day which allows its partners, clients and business associates a chance to get together and explore new developments. Here, in an atmosphere of hospitality and professionality, participants give presentations and provide training for the other guests, bringing them up to date on new technology and services.

For its 2013 event West Evenement chose a new venue, the huge Le Liberte function hall in nearby Rennes, which has capacity for 5,300 people. The company had many new things to present, and wanted to choose the best venue to maximise the presentations. Eight demonstration areas were set up within the hall, and among new developments to be introduced here were sound systems and technology from Nexo.

Nexo's commercial director Jean Jacques Vias, together with concert sound specia

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LD Systems ICOA PRO series – high-performance coaxial PA speakers for professional demands

The popular ICOA PA systems have been further developed to include two active full-range coaxial speakers – ICOA PRO 12 A and ICOA PRO 15 A – as well as the active 21″ bass-reflex PA subwoofer ICOA PRO SUB 21 A. With its professional features and high output power, the ICOA PRO series is aimed at ambitious bands, musicians and DJs as well as hire companies and commercial customers looking for a compact, robust and powerful PA sound system. The ICOA PRO series is rounded off with modern connection and control options via Bluetooth 5.1 and the specially developed ICOA PRO app, for use on smartphones and tablets.

ld-systems.com/icoapro

Finland - One of the most dynamic startup ecosystems on the planet, Slush, took place on 13-14 November, 2013 at the Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland. Slush is the leading startup conference in Northern Europe and Russia. LumenRadio's Finnish distributor Sun Effects was responsible for the whole visual design and supplied the wireless CRMX Slim products, which played a key role for the two-day event.

"Slush was a really prestigious project for us and there was no room for any mistakes. When you do projects like this, it is extremely important to consider what kind of equipment you're planning to use and how to use them. Sun Effects has a reputation in Finland to only deliver high quality equipment that works, even in the most demanding environment," says, Riku Sourama from Sun Effects.

Slush is a nonprofit, two-day technology and startup event where the most promis

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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

South Africa - Magnetic Storm is a technical solutions provider and rental company based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The company has been running successfully for 33 years servicing a wide range of high quality corporate clients and live events, and is the oldest established and also the largest such operation in the Eastern Cape region.

Magnetic Storm originally invested in Robe moving lights - the 575 series - some years ago, which have proved reliable and solid for many years done dealing with Magnetic Storm's busy schedule of events.

When the time came to upgrade with the latest technology, they decided to go with LED and purchased four Robe DLS Profiles and four DLX Spots from Robe's South African distributor, DWR.

LED was chosen because it's good value, longer lamp life, lower ongoing maintenance and expedient power consumption made good sense economically and env

USA - ARRI CSC, the largest full service equipment rental group in the United States, has announced that Chris MacKarell has been promoted to digital workflow manager. He will continue to oversee ARRI CSC's digital workflow and on set activities for New Jersey and Florida facilities while at the same time contributing to ARRI Rental Group product development and Technical Marketing.

MacKarell's extensive experience in digital media spans 15 years in the post sector. Starting out as manager Mmedia illusion support for Avid Technology Inc. he then worked for NBC Peacock Productions. In 2010 he joined Deluxe where he managed special projects, rolled out infrastructure improvements and new workflow designs. As senior engineer/ workflow architect for Technicolor he then designed, tested and implemented project-specific workflows. Chris MacKarell joined ARRI CSC in 2011 as digital wor

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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.

www.cameolight.com/p6profile

France / Indonesia - Amadeus reports that its product line is now available across Indonesia through their newest distributor Acoustic Sound Image Integrated Solution (ASIIS).

Andy M. Sutikno, CEO at ASIIS, explains his reasons for bringing Amadeus live sound equipment on board to the company's prestigious product lineup, "Once again I found a brand which really suits our philosophy about high-end sound. The Amadeus speakers have a very detailed mid-high frequency performance, very warm, yet transparent mid frequency response, and a fully articulated low end," he says, recalling his introduction to Amadeus during listening sessions at the 2013 Prolight + Sound show at the Frankfurt Musikmesse.

"Their products' sound quality, which definitely comes from Amadeus' high-end studio design experience, is apparent in its live sound systems with the ability to deliver a

Germany - Robe moving lights were right at the heart of the lighting action on the main stage in front of Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, one of the largest public New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide.

Robe Pointes were also used to illuminate elements of the 'Fan Mile' covering five major roads in and around the event site as part of a lighting design by Lars Murasch, and were supplied together with other lighting equipment for the event by rental company TLT Event AG.

The show's glittering international artist line up included the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Overtones, Scooter, Adel Tawil and TVOG winners from 2012 and 2013 Ivy Quainoo and Nick Howard respectively plus many others. It was attended by nearly one million revellers and watched live by over 4m on Germany's national ZDF TV channel, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display to welcome in 2014.

Twenty

USA - Now in its fifth season, The Voice on NBC has become one of the most watched reality talent competitions worldwide. Throughout the run of the production which features three stages of competition concluding with live performances, the pressure placed on the competitors to showcase their talents is rivalled only by the pressure placed on the crew to make sure the show is both technically sound yet exciting to watch.

Behind the scenes, lighting designer Oscar Dominguez and his lighting crew have accomplished all this winning the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for Variety Series using a rig that relies heavily on VL3015LT Spot, VL3515 Spot, VLX Wash, VL3500 Wash, VL3000 Spot and VL550 Wash luminaires all supplied by Illumination Dynamics.

"For me, the Vari-Lite luminaires are the backbone to this lighting rig,"

USA - LakeRidge United Methodist Church in Lubbock, Tex. has markedly improved the sound in its main sanctuary with the installation of a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system. Having previously selected Meyer Sound systems for two other areas of the church, Lubbock-based Moyers Group was called upon to design and install the new system.

"Since the new Mina system was installed in the main sanctuary, everybody has noticed the difference," says Elec Winner, the church's director of technical ministries. "The clarity of the high end is amazing. Now everything has its proper place in acoustic space, and the coverage from front to back is completely uniform. Our senior pastor is extremely happy. The sound check before the service takes less time, and the gain before feedback is much higher."

The new system comprises left and right arrays of seven Mina

The Netherlands - XL Video has chosen the city of Amsterdam as the new location for their operation in the Netherlands. The new Amsterdam sales office benefits from its central location in Europe and is within the dynamic and creative environment of Houthavens, Amsterdam.

The office's new address from January 2014 is: XL Video The Netherlands, Haparandaweg 67 E3, 1013 BD Amsterdam.

XL Video's new office will act as both a meeting point for clients and partners as well as its regular daily operations.

Houthavens is known as the new hotspot of Amsterdam's creative industry. The area harbours creative companies from different industries, from fashion to design to media. This will present XL Video with an inspiring environment to work in, hosted in a brand new office space, says the company.

Lucas Covers, group C.E.O. of XL Video comments, "2013 has been a year full of ne

UK - Colour Sound are deploying the the new Robe CycFX 8 fixtures that they purchased off the stand at PLASA London 2013 on the current White Lies Big TV tour with lighting & visuals designer Matt Waterfield.

Colour Sound is supplying all lighting and LED screen for the tour where Waterfield is working closely with laser designer and camera mixer Matt Buttons to produce a spectacular visuality for the tour which has helped win them sand the band plenty of rave reviews!.

Waterfield wanted to introduce some architecture into the design and also have the flexibility of the rig being as floor based as possible, so he started with five upstage trussing towers, which Colour Sound designed and had specially fabricated by James Thomas Engineering.

These measure 1.2 by 1.2m wide / deep and are 3.6m high in full-height mode, but designed to break down into two sections at 1.2 a

UK - Supergrass frontman, Gaz Coombes, has just completed a UK tour with an Allen & Heath iLive digital system at FOH, ME personal mixers managing monitors, and Dante for recording.

Showcasing Gaz's new solo material, the tour took place in churches across the country. Engineer, Gavin McComb, selected an iLive modular system comprising an iLive-80 Control Surface and iDR10 MixRack to manage FOH, with iLive apps and PL controllers for additional remote control.

"Apart from being a very well designed piece of kit, iLive is also extremely compact, with a footprint of around 1m sq. so you can slot it into virtually any situation, even if you're going to a small venue that already has its own in-house stuff. As a system, the audio quality is fantastic, all the internal effects are very easy to use and sound great, whether it's a small, medium or large-sized venue."

Gavi

UK - January and February sees SSE Audio Group's Sales division hosting two separate, free training days which will be of special interest to users of Yamaha digital mixing consoles.

Hosted at the company's HQ in Redditch, one of the days will focus on using Dante networking with Yamaha CL Series digital mixing consoles and Nexo NXAMP amplification, while the other focuses on Waves plug-ins, including integration with Yamaha digital consoles via the WSG-Y16 SoundGrid interface.

Taking place on 12 February, the Dante networking course examines the close integration which is possible between CL series consoles and Nexo's NXAMP 4X1 and 4X4 Powered TDcontrollers, via Dante.

Jointly developed with engineers from Yamaha, Nexo TDcontrollers provide full integration of speaker and amplifier control, with output capacities that deliver a highly cost-effective solution for both instal

USA - London-based event design and production specialist Eclipse Presentations designed, produced, specified and co-ordinated all the technical production elements - lighting, video - including creation of all content, audio, staging, rigging, etc. - for the 14th annual Platt's Global Energy Awards in New York.

The high profile event, considered the 'Oscars of the energy industry' and presented by CNBC news anchor Amanda Drury, recognises and honours excellence in leadership, innovation and performance in the highly competitive world of energy. It was staged in the famous Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, one of the city's landmark venues, and attended by top international executives from the leading energy companies worldwide.

A production team of four from Eclipse Presentations was led by Robin Purslow who says, "We have worked on this event for the last 14

The Netherlands - With a larger presence than ever before, TC Group's install and tour brands - Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake - are bringing their extensive range of commercial install and performance audio products to ISE 2014 in February, showcasing their integrated audio systems for the installation market.

ISE 2014 will see the first major European debut of Lab.gruppen's Lucia amplifier, which offers consultants and installers a decentralised solution without compromise, presented here alongside the complementary loudspeaker products from Tannoy.

Designed for low cost, low hassle commercial installations such as boardrooms, classrooms and retail outlets, the two-channel Lucia (Localized Utility Compact Intelligent Amplification) is a compact and versatile Energy Star compliant Class D platform.

The Lucia M model variants include ADLC (Automatic Dynamic Loudness Contouring

Australia - Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpys Washes have formed an integral part of a spectacular projection, lighting, and fireworks event in Sydney harbour to celebrate 100 years of the Royal Australian Navy.

Pioneering creative agency Imagination Australia created an impressive show, lighting up a fleet of naval ships and Sydney harbour landmarks, which was watched by millions of people, both in the city and around the world. Imagination Australia designed and produced every element of the most complex, highly choreographed, fireworks, projection, lighting and live action show ever seen in Australia.

Lighting designer Mark Hammer specified 132 Clay Paky Sharpy and 108 Sharpy Wash 330s, which he positioned around the harbour and on the ships themselves. Hammer combined and blended the light from these various sources to create depth filled texture and rich colour despite the gu

USA - Atlanta's Full Circle Lighting & Productions has invested in 24 Clay Paky Sharpy Wash lights for its inventory.

Full Circle is a full-service theatrical lighting and production company serving corporate and association meetings, trade shows, product launches, press conferences and TV and video shoots with a staff of experienced professionals from the theatre and film industries.

"We knew after we got our Sharpy beams that the Sharpy Wash would be equally amazing," says Noah Hammer, president and senior designer at Full Circle. "We love their colour saturation, size and incredible brightness. We also love the zoom and fantastic colour correction capabilities."

Hammer says the company has used Sharpy Wash fixtures on "a lot" of corporate events and on the new comedy TV series, Stand Up for Family. "Our clients love them," he

UK - Stage One, the company who realised Thomas Heatherwick's spectacular cauldron for the London 2012 Olympics, has appointed Adam Wildi to its senior management team.

Adam joins the creative construction and manufacturing company as Senior Project Director and will take specific responsibility for demountable structures and architecture.

Already a familiar face at Stage One, Adam's relationship with the company goes back as far as the late 1980s and, significantly, included the Hong Kong Handover Ceremony. He has collaborated with them on a host of projects including the 2004 Athens Olympic ceremonies, the Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion and 2012's Beach Volleyball Stadium on Horse Guards Parade.

Previously Technical Director for the 2004 Athens Olympic ceremonies, Adam brings with him an enviable Olympic pedigree as well as a strong understanding of the diversity of projects t

UK - PSCo has announced the appointment of Richard Bovingdon as sales director.

Bovingdon will head up both the internal and external sales teams. He joins from Micro Peripherals Ltd where he was head of education & AV solutions, bringing over 16 years' experience in the AV/IT channel having worked for distributors, manufacturers and resellers on the development of business growth within their respective verticals.

Commenting on his new role RBovingdon said, "PSCo is a pioneering, forward-thinking company and I especially admire that it knows its strengths and puts everything into producing outstanding results. This new role will be an exciting challenge, and I feel I've joined at the perfect time to drive sales efforts forward into 2014 and beyond. My strong background in AV will help improve PSCo's presence within the channel and grow customer relationships."

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Italy - RCF's RDNet software enables users to remotely control and manage professional speakers and audio objects/devices. "Each single device, with its own built-in communication board, microcontroller and dsp, is an active part of the brain of the system, able to store presets, receive commands and continuously send status information," says RCF.

RDNet 2.0 is based on many years of research and development making the management of complex audio systems simple and intuitive. Version 2.0, entirely designed and developed by the RCF engineering team, includes several new functions as well as multiple improvements and adjustments.

RDNet 2.0 includes its control software, all supported devices (with new firmware updates) and

Control 2 and Control 8 devices.

"The software can be found as free download on RCF's website in the section: LOGIN. Once the customer has

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