UK - The Guardian reported in early 2014 that Doncaster's new 'cultural living room' was a bustling, buzzing success story. Funded for the most part by Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council this £22m theatre and arts centre was recently held up by The Stage as ' a triumph of municipal good sense' .

Opened in September 2013, Cast replaces the town's old Civic Theatre, which closed in March 2013, with a 620 seat main space, adaptable smaller second space and further dance, drama and meeting spaces. The development of the theatre is part of a wider £300m scheme to regenerate the urban centre of Doncaster and if the early evidence of its popularity is anything to go by, it stands every chance of vindicating the Authority's bold move to pursue such a project

USA - Viewers of the 56th Annual Grammy Awards got to see glittering recording stars, plus one of the most remarkable TV commercials in memory, both accompanied by some dazzling light from the Nexus 4x4. Aside from sizzling on the main stage during the award ceremonies with the likes of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the high output LED panel from Chauvet Professional shined brightly during the Pepsi Grammy Half Time Show, a two-and-a-half minute commercial that may have rewritten the book on big event TV advertising.

Filmed at the LA Sports Arena, the commercial featured pro football legends Terry Bradshaw, Mike Ditka, Deion Sanders and Shannon Sharpe. The tongue-in-cheek spot was based on the simple premise that since music stars entertain fans during football game halftime shows, it's only right that football stars return the favour by entertaining the TV audience during th

Malaysia - Malaysia has a long tradition of male and female vocalists who become superstars across eastern Asia. Playing in their home country guarantees sold-out stadiums, with DiGiCo consoles bringing their ballads to thousands of fans.

Selangor-based Clef Productions Sdn Bhd is one of the leading companies in Malaysia's live production industry. Clef's owner Alvin Koh was a fan of DiGiCo's original D5 consoles before he started working with the SD Series and has specified DiGiCo on shows by some of Malaysia's biggest artists this year.

One of the company's most recent projects is Anuar Zain's Three Decades of, Music, Love and Passion, where the singer (famously also a steward for Malaysian Airlines) celebrated 30 years in the music industry and enjoyed the benefits of three DiGiCo SD10s as he sold out the 8000-capacity Stadium Melawati earlier in the year.

With one

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UK - Manchester based lighting and rigging specialist dbn has designed, supplied and installed a highly effective production lighting rig for the Albert Hall in Manchester - a new 2000 capacity venue in a former Methodist meeting hall dating back to 1910 in the heart of the city.

The space - original features including double height windows with stained glass detail and a magnificent organ fully renovated with pipes left exposed - has been lovingly restored to its former splendour and opened as Manchester's live music and event space by independent owners Trof.

Trof have a penchant for discovering found spaces and turning them into buzzing entertainment hubs, and the Albert Hall is no exception as it gears up for full operation with promoters and private clients clamouring to book it for bands, comedy and cabaret shows, club nights, parties and corporate events.

dbn's Stephe

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New Touring Series by Gravity – Every Scratch Has A Story

When the stage heats up, you need equipment that can keep up without compromise. The Gravity Touring Series has been specifically designed to meet the highest demands – for rental companies, professional musicians, concert organizers, and large event venues. Premium materials, exceptional durability, and impressive longevity make these products stand out. Whether on tour, in constant use, or under the toughest conditions: the Touring Series delivers maximum reliability and performance – every day, on every stage.
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USA - Alcons Audio has recently hired AVA, Audio Video Associates, independent rep firm. AVA covers the mid-western plain states regions including Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and southern Illinois. Headed up by Ben Shipman, AVA is one of the premier rep firms in its region representing other well-respected brands such as DiGiCo consoles.

"We are thrilled to have AVA join our rep force," says David Rahn, Alcons North American sales director. "They are a well-established firm with a deep history in the region. I have known the AVA team for some time and they are one of the best in the business. They excel at product demonstrations, and their customer base respects the work they do and the services they provide.

"We are fortunate to find ourselves in a great position these days. Having laid a good foundation of top-level dealers, and now with the consulta

Estonia - Swedish lighting designer Palle Palmé returned to the Big House at the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu, Estonia - one of the country's most important producing and receiving houses - to light their current production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Evita which plays until May and is directed by Georg Malvius.

Last year, Palmé was the first person to take full advantage of the new in-house Robe lighting rigs that were installed across all three of Vanemuine's venues, when he lit a very successful production of Grease, also in the Big House.

This year with Evita, he again utilized Robe's products to upgrade and revitalize the production's lighting which was originally staged in Turku, Finland in 2008.

The Big House lighting system includes over 100 Robe moving lights including 56 x Robin LEDWash 1200s, 20 x Robin MMX Spots, 24 x Rob

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Compact design and IP65 protection for indoor and outdoor applications: the new AZOR® SP2 IP is the ideal solution for open-air events and outdoor theatres that require a powerful, weatherproof lighting system. An optimal partner for lighting designers and event service providers looking for a versatile LED show light in a compact housing.

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UK - With less than three weeks to go until the ISCE (Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers) ISCEx2014 Exhibition and Networking Dinner in Birmingham, interest is running high.

According to the Institute's Secretariat Manager, Ros Wigmore, members have sensed the "enormous networking value of the occasion as well as the opportunity to both see and exhibit next-generation communications systems in the era of EN54 compliance."

"We have had an amazing response to our networking dinner bookings," Ros confirms. "It seems that everyone prefers to meet up in a more informal setting before the serious business gets started."

The two-day event itself takes place on March 4-5 at the Holiday Inn?in Birmingham City Centre, kicking off with the dinner on the opening night.

Accompanying a full programme of technical seminars will be the exhibition

Shipping Bulletin - Sting's musical about shipbuilding in the North East of England has found a home on Broadway. The Last Ship, which is inspired by the singer's own childhood, will open at the Neil Simon Theatre on 30 September. The cast will include New York stage star Michael Esper and Irish singer and actress Rachel Tucker. It will also star fellow North East star Jimmy Nail, who Sting has previously said "gave me the courage to carry on" with the project. "He said 'this is very important, you have to do this, this story needs to be told,'" the musician told BBC News.

Sting has already released an album called The Last Ship, with music that will feature in the show. The musical will be directed by Joe Mantello, who has won two Tony Awards, for musical Assassins and stage play Take Me Out.

Welsh Boost - Film com

USA - The roots of the North American International Auto Show, which is held annually in Detroit, Michigan, go back to 1907 when it was strictly a regional venue for America's nascent auto manufacturers to parade their latest inventions. Flash forward over a century and the event has become one of the largest auto shows in the world, attracting press and enthusiasts from around the globe to the North American auto-making capital, and bringing an approximate $500m annual boost to the local economy.

As attendance numbers continue to grow, Cobo Centre, which hosts the event, recently renovated the underused 12,000-seat Cobo Arena to convert it into a ballroom better suited to the show. Danley Sound Labs SM-60F full-range loudspeakers, supported by Danley TH-115 subwoofers, fire down from the new ballroom's fifty-foot ceilings to support high-energy auto show productions, along with

Brazil - When Brazilian Latin Grammy Award-winner Ivete Sangalo recently celebrated her 20th anniversary in the business, she did so by recording a DVD called IS20. This took place at the large Arena Fonte Nova stadium in Brazil's first capital of Salvador, which with its capacity of 52,048 will also be hosting some of the FIFA World Cup matches later this year.

Spectrun Design e Iluminacao was in charge of the design concept and execution, and to fulfil the task of illuminating the grand stadium, they selected a large-scale package of SGM lighting equipment, including 200 X-5 white LED strobes, 66 P-5 RGB wash lights, 40 SixPack blinders and 24 Giotto Synthesis 700 Wash.

Accommodating Ms Sangalo's audience of 40,000 people, while at the same time illuminating the stadium, was the challenge facing Marcos Olivio from Spectrun Design e Iluminacao when developing his desig

UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd recently began production of their new Mini-Map miniature LED screen. The Mini-Map is just 155mm square and has 36 tricolour pixels, controlled via DMX512. Manufactured at MilTec's HQ in Kent, England, each tile has been designed to be deployed quickly and efficiently with Powercon and XLR5 inputs & outputs. A central M10 mounting point provides a wide range of rigging options when combined with Miltec's custom mounting bracket.

The first batch was purchased by Light Fantastic Production Services Ltd, based in London. Rob Myer, managing director of Light Fantastic commented, "The Mini-Maps are so versatile and compact, the applications are endless. They're perfect for building into stage fascias & set pieces as well as using as eye candy on stage or around a room. They're also great to use in large numbers as a low res video display - The viewer's brain

Germany - Ayrton continues to focus on the development of fixtures that provide lighting designers with powerful and exciting new tools, creating products that expand the possibilities of Light in Action.

Prolight + Sound 2014 will prove no exception as Ayrton chooses the show as a forum to launch three new products. The first of these products is NandoBeam S6 which will be on show on the Ayrton stand, Hall 9.0, Booth E70.

Twice as powerful as its little brother, NandoBeam S3, Ayrton NandoBeam S6 is a very compact, ultra-fast moving head. Equipped with 37 RGBW LED emitters, NandoBeam S6 shares the S3's same lightweight optical system and ultra-fast 5:1 zoom.

Designed primarily for use on concert stages and in television production, NandoBeam S6 exhibits quick, dynamic movement along with Ayrton's fabulous saturated colour palette and a powerful 8° to 40° beam spread.

UK - Broadcast Video Expo will see the debut of the new Roland VR-3EX AV Mixer to the UK market, adding to the expanding VR Series of AV mixers for live production, web streaming and recording from Roland. The recently launched Roland VR-50HD HD Multi Format AV Mixer will also be exhibited, demonstrating a complete HD AV studio in one single unit and adding full HD/multi-format capability to the VR Series for an unbeatable professional production. Showcasing integrated audio and video solutions, visitors to the Roland Systems Group booth (D03) will be able to see the VR Series in operation alongside a full range of digital mixing consoles, switchers, recorders and digital snake products.

The innovative design of the VR-3EX incorporates a video switcher, audio mixer, touchscreen preview monitor and streaming-ready USB output all in a single unit. Boasting 4 HDMI inputs, 2 HDMI ou

Germany - Pan Acoustics will introduce a new product line the Pan Powerline at ProLight+Sound in Frankfurt next month.

The Pan Acoustics Pan Powerline technology offers the possibility to install the active digital Pan Beam loudspeaker systems using only two wires (I.e. YSTI wired existing old 100V-systems) providing audio, steering data and power.

The advantage of the system is the use of the old existing wiring, being there for decades, together with the advantages of a modern digital DSP Beam-steering speaker incl. filtering and delay instead of conventional speakers can be used.

There will only be the Central Control Unit and the corresponding Pan Beam PPL loudspeaker(s) to install install the system to the existing 2-wire cable.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Robert Juliat Tibo 533 75w LED Profile lighting fixtures have been installed in a new newsroom at KTMD-TV by project lighting designer/director Bruce Aleksander. KTMD-TV is the Telemundo owned-and-operated station serving Houston.

Aleksander did a complete digital solid-state lighting installation for a new studio layout he designed that's dedicated to news programming. "Everything was predicated on energy-efficient lighting from the start," he explains. "Since it was new, we were able to build out the studio without the traditional heavy support for cooling down the lights and the full dimming load normally necessary for an incandescent approach. We used all fluorescent and LED lighting."

Aleksander evaluated a number of fixtures then concluded that "for hard-edge, profile fixtures, the best bang for the buck came from the Robert Juliat Tibos.&q

Germany - ETC is offering lighting designers, operators and students the chance to win a Nomad controller at this year's ProLight+Sound show, 12-15 March in Frankfurt.

The Nomad dongle gives you access to the powerful features of ETC's lighting control consoles on your computer, so you can take it with you anywhere. You can program and play back your show at the computer, or use it as a backup to any of ETC's lighting desks.

To enter, simply go to the ETC website at www.etcconnect.com/Prolight2014 and register; entrants can choose one of four one-minute music tracks. The site charges a small fee - less than 1€ or £1 - to download a song, but it is free to listen to, with no obligation to purchase. Using the free (Windows-only) visualisation software on the ETC website, you can simply program a one minute light show to go with the music.

Everyone who enters will get a

Vietnam - Alliances Integrated Systems has completed the design and installation of an Audica Professional audio system for the first McDonald's restaurant in Vietnam.

"Our team proposed a solution providing the coverage, zoning and functionality the restaurant required, but the decision was only made after we gave a demonstration to show the system's capability and audio quality," explained Vu Viet Tung, business development manager of Alliances Integrated Systems. "Not only were we able to exceed expectations, but also meet the required budget."

The system is controlled by an Audica MICROzone amplifier/controller, which provides the three inputs for a CD player with USB reader, an MP3 player and a PC. Two Audica MICROplus four-channel amplifiers provide the power for the six zones of the system.

Three of the indoor zones use four Audica MICROdot ceiling

USA - Over 80,000 fans became animated pixels at the Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show featuring Bruno Mars. Five outputs from four Hippo HD Genlock machines controlled the wireless audience LED 'display', plus 220 LED Ayrton MagicPanel 602s on the stage. PixMob technology made the audience participation possible, alternatively managed by the lighting desk and Hippotizer control.

"The biggest challenge of the show was handling 80 universes of DMX," says programmer Jason Rudolph. "But everything went according to plan. We chose the Hippotizer HDs with Genlock because of their pixel-mapping capabilities, as well as their live inputs and broadcast compatibility. TMB and Green Hippo are always a big help with their 24/7 tech support." Bob Barnhart of Los Angeles based Full Flood was the show's LD.

(Jim Evans)

Russia - The new 5 star Radisson Blu Resort & Congress Centre in Sochi relies on Bosch when it comes to security. The luxury resort, which celebrated its grand opening in time for the biggest event ever held in Sochi, is equipped with Bosch fire alarm systems, public address and evacuation technology and a comprehensive video surveillance system, all being integrated and centrally managed via the Bosch Building Integration System (BIS).

Being located close to the Black Sea coast, the Radisson Blu Resort & Congress Centre features more than 500 guest rooms, three restaurants, a health club & SPA and other amenities. With eleven conference rooms including the 1,500 m2 Premier Hall, the Radisson Blu also features one of the largest hotel-attached convention centres in southern Russia.

As the different parts of the building also have different safety requirements, Krasnoda based i

UK - Fisher Productions has hired two new heads of departments to help further the company's continued growth.

Fisher's relationships with venues form a key part of their business and the expanding event production company have built a new Venues Team dedicated to planning and delivering events for this sector.

Rebecca Harris joins Fisher as general manager for venues, bringing 18 years events industry experience with her. Rebecca's career spans across agencies, catering and venues and her previous roles include positions at Hospitality Line, Concerto Live, Harbour & Jones, The Hempel and The Royal Society.

On joining Fisher Productions Rebecca says, 'Having admired Fisher throughout my career I am thrilled to now be part of the Fisher team and look forward to working with all of Fisher's 70 plus accredited venues."

Graham Winn joins Fisher as head of technical servic

UK - James Thomas Engineering has announced the imminent departure of its sales manager, Andy Walters, after a career spanning 21 years with the company.

Walters, son of the company's co-founder John Walters, has chosen to take up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join specialist UK model makers, Amalgam.

Walters' passion for cars is legendary having collected model cars for his entire life and been instrumental in establishing James Thomas Engineering as a sponsor of Jack Goff, the industry's adopted racing driver and BTCC champion.

"Amalgam is a very well-respected, highly-specialised UK manufacturer of scale model cars for top end clients," says Walters. "Hard though it will be to leave JTE, I am very excited by the prospect of new horizons that this move gives."

"Andy is an irreplaceable member of the JTE team, both in terms of his character

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