USA / Russia - Calrec Audio has been selected to provide five Artemis Consoles to NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, during its production of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, from Feb. 6-23. The announcement was made by David Mazza, senior vice-president, engineering, NBC Olympics, and Henry Goodman, head of sales and marketing, Calrec Audio.

NBC Olympics has purchased two 64-fader Artemis Shine consoles and augmented its arsenal by renting a further 40-fader and two 24-fader Artemis Beam consoles from Calrec.

"We are extremely proud to be the mixing console manufacturer selected once again by NBC Olympics during the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi," said Goodman. "After the success of the Summer Games in 2012, we are delighted to conti

Denmark - A new concept and tradition has been born in Denmark: a light festival in the city of Kolding. With the purpose of presenting a new and different experience for the city, local business people pooled together to add culture, beauty and technology to the public domain.

Project manager from Get Visual, Jacob Elsig, delivered lighting installations to many of the graphic and innovative projects and participated in the creation of the urban attraction together with the festival's coordinator and his lighting designer, Christian Vigsø. With the environment in mind, a key factor for the festival was to utilise light sources based on LED technology.

"It seemed natural to contact SGM in relation to this festival," says Elsig who was involved in The Spanish Steps, The Train Station Square's installation named The Spider, Hotel Saksildhus and other smaller one

The Netherlands - Many of the leading manufacturers in the AV industry have announced this year's AV Networking World (AVNW) educational seminar and workshop on 4 February, 2014 in Amsterdam.

This free all-day event at the Amsterdam Holiday Inn, is sponsored by Allen & Heath, Attero Tech, Audinate, Behringer, Bosch, Bose, BSS Audio, Focusrite RedNet, Harman, Nexo, Midas, Open Access, Peavey Commercial Audio, Shure, Soundcraft, Stewart Audio, Symetrix, TC Group, 2N Telecommunications, and Yamaha Commercial Audio.

This event will feature panel discussions, presentations, and workshops. Interactive panel discussions and presentations will be led by leading industry design consultants, AV installation contractors, IT networking experts, and leading professional audio equipment vendors. In addition to the broad spectrum of informative panel topics a major interoperability networkin

Denmark - Naestved-based distributor, AV-Huset, has been appointed the Denmark distribution- partner for Pan Beam, the advanced steerable audio specialist from Wolfenbüttel in Germany.

Jens Ravn, owner of AV-Huset stated their choice for Pan Beam, "We from AV-Huset have been looking at the different systems appearing in the market and they all had their strong and weak points. As we were looking for a company that is not only specialised in steerable products, that had the leading designing technology and the feature set that the market required. We required a uniquely and prefect performance in combination with a simple, system set-up with an intuitive software, to prevent our dealers and installers need to be a programming experts to get the best results".

"In Pan Beam we found exactly this, but we also found a comprehensive range covering all of the applicat

USA - One of the nation's premier art fairs, this year's Art Basel in Miami Beach drew a record 75,000 visitors, who viewed exhibits from over 250 leading galleries representing 30 countries around the globe. None shone brighter, however, than the Alexander Mijares Gallery, which featured a massive 36ft wide by 26ft high surrealistic mural on its front wall, bathed in a stunning rainbow of colours by Chauvet Professional fixtures.

Chauvet Professional fixtures were also in high profile inside the Mijares Gallery, where award-winning Ovation E-190WW LED ellipsoidals focused warm white light on the most important works of art in the 30-piece display, giving them weight and articulation.

According to lighting designer Ruben Laine of DMDS7UDIOS, the Chauvet Professional products helped him meet the challenges of illuminating the outdoor mural and indoor space at Mijares, which, li

USA - For the first time in its six-year history, tradition was laid aside at PLASA's annual Rock Our World Awards - presented at their Cocktail & Awards Reception in the Las Vegas Hotel during LDI 2013 - by including an Honourable Mention for TiMax SoundHub and TiMax Tracker, from Out Board.

Following the announcement of the very high profile winning entries, Judge Sebastian Frost took the opportunity to highlight Finalist TiMax as "The go to product of my choice for any live reinforcement application."

It was the revolutionary sound design and large-scale automation implementation by Robin Whittaker of Out Board and Sven Waldheim of POOLGroup GmbH, that propelled Out Board's TiMax2 SoundHub audio showcontrol and TiMax Tracker performer tracking automation into the final round of the awards.

The winning entries comprised the stunning London2012 Olympics Opening Ce

UK - LSi Online has learned the sad news of the death of the veteran theatre consultant Richard Brett. Richard had suffered from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer, for over a year, and died peacefully at home on 9 January.

A partner in the theatre consultancy Theatreplan, Richard was also known as the conference director of the International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference (ITEAC), which is due to hold its fourth event this year.

After studying engineering at University College London, Richard was trained by the BBC, and went on to work as managing director at Richard Pilbrow's Theatre Projects Consultants from 1967 to 1985, before forming his own professional practice. During his career, Richard was responsible for more than 50 major theatre projects and a large number of more modest performing arts schemes worldwide. He led the development of countless inno

Brazil - Wireless Solution Sweden AB's award-winning W-DMX made Bradesco Seguros Christmas Tree a sparkling success in Rio de Janiero. This is the 18th edition of the annual Tree, which according to the Guinness Book of World Records is the largest floating Christmas tree in the world, standing at an astounding 85m high with an 810 m2 base and weighing in at a massive 542 tons.

The scenography and lighting design is by Abel Gomes from P&G Cenografia, and charms all the visitors of Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and also those who follow the Tree on the Internet and social media.

The entire show was programmed using W-DMX. The Bradesco team needed to program from a long enough distance to get the right visibility. They team used 2 W-DMX F-1 units as transmitters and 2 W-DMX F-1 units as receivers, plus an antenna of 9 Db. They installed a grandMA console 800 meters away and we

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UK - Capital FM's annual Jingle Bell Ball got music fans into the festive mood as it took over London's O2 Arena for two nights in early December. With nine main and two warm up acts, plus presenters and a number of special guests each night, demand on the wireless spectrum was high. Sennheiser equipment and staff helped to ensure that every signal in the crowded airwaves remained clear.

Taking place over the weekend of 7-8 December, the event's sound equipment was supplied by Adlib Audio, including a large Sennheiser inventory. Sennheiser UK's Mark Saunders and Tim Sherratt were on site to provide additional equipment and any required assistance to Adlib's Dave Kay and Marc Peers, as well as Andy 'Baggy' Robinson, who was handling the audio side of things for production company Production North.

"The biggest challenges for us were the size of the arena that we had to cov

USA - Two top performing artists - Fleetwood Mac and Maroon 5 - helped revellers ring in 2014 in Las Vegas with two shows using Robe equipment provided by VER, which included Robin Pointes, Robin LEDWash 1200s and Robin LEDWash 600 moving head fixtures.

Fleetwood Mac entertained the high rollers of the MGM Grand Casino in a special New Year's Eve VIP Party in the casino's Grand Garden Arena. The event's Show Designer of eight years, Benny Kirkham, claimed this season's show as "The biggest ever - massive - and more challenging this time".

Only an hour after Fleetwood Mac's regularly scheduled concert for the public on 30 December, Benny Kirkham and his crew began loading in at midnight to set up the VIP High Rollers party and concert where he supplemented the regular concert set-up with a whole new environment, and the Robe rig.

After 19 hours of prep, doors opened

UK - Vivitek has confirmed Sahara Presentation Systems PLC as a new distributor in the UK. Based in Erith Kent, Sahara PLC is a leading distributor of AV products and will have direct access to Vivitek's - pocket, ultra- portable, education, AV and single lamp LV product portfolios.

Brian Grogan, regional sales manager, Vivitek EMEA, comments, "I am delighted that Sahara PLC is now one of our distribution partners. They are one of the UK's largest and a well-respected trade-only AV distributor. With continued year-on-year business growth, experienced staff, coupled with excellent channel reach, we believe Sahara Presentation Systems PLC will make the ideal partner for Vivitek's UK growth strategy."

Peter Vernon, business manager for Projection at Sahara adds, "Vivitek is a well-established projector brand with some great products. With their comprehensive range

Belgium - Belgian-based automation engineering specialists Wicreations designed and created five major automation elements for Mylène Farmer's highly visual 2013 Timeless tour, using a combination of bespoke and standard Wicreations products.

Mylène Farmer is one of the most successful French recording artists of all time. She has sold over 30m records worldwide and had 13 number one hits in the French charts eight of them consecutive, as well as working as a model and actress during a prolific and successful career.

Wicreations, renowned for their innovative work in the entertainment industry, were approached by the tour's production manager Didier Gaume and technical director Pascal "George" Meley, who have worked with them before on a number of projects, and asked if they could provide a number of solutions to help stage this spectacular show.

Timeless'

USA - Whether it's a special celebration event, a night filled with a DJ's pulsating sounds, performances by local or regional acts, or just a great place to enjoy one another's company with some good eatin', the Coliseum Tallahassee is the place to be when in Florida's capital city.

Based upon a positive experience with their previous D.A.S. Audio sound reinforcement (SR) system, the Coliseum Tallahassee elected to keep the sound in the D.A.S. family when it came time to upgrade to a larger setup. These days, the popular night spot is the proud owner of a system based upon D.A.S. Audio's flagship line array system: the Aero 40A.

Tallahassee, FL-based Ultimate Sound and Light was contracted to design and deploy the Coliseum's new SR system. Pete Barbaree, the person responsible for the D.A.S. Audio system's sale, design, and installation, elected to deploy a setup that include

Australia - American rockers Fall Out Boy recently toured the country in support of their new album Pax Am Days which reached No. 2 on the ARIA album charts.

Lighting designer Robb Jibson toured a Vista L5, the latest addition to the Jands Vista range of consoles and control surfaces, with a Mac Mini based S3 as a system back up.

Robb has been a Vista user for over 18 months reporting that he was instantly blown away by the simplicity of the interface and the intricate timings that he could dial in.

"My favourite feature is probably the swing based FX," he added. "Not having to create multiple macro-based cue lists and the ease in which you can lock sync with the band and those FX. Close second would be the way the console deals with multipart fixtures and matrix FXs."

Robb further commented that he particularly likes how the software is designed

USA - The EZ4 from Elation Professional is a high-quality, 4mm pixel pitch LED video panel and the highest resolution LED panel offering in Elation's expanding line of affordable LED displays.

Designed for indoor use in installations, broadcast environments, corporate productions, car shows and more, this light weight yet sturdy panel is ideal when outstanding high-definition image quality is required, says the company.

Black face LEDs ensure high contrast while a high density of 10,816 pixels (104 x 104) per panel ensures a clear and sharp picture. Colours display vivid, consistent and uniform, and a brightness level of 1,200 Nits means the EZ4 performs well even in high ambient lighting conditions.

A high-precision die-cast aluminium frame produces a flat and seamless video display and professional-grade features like modular rigging and design options allow users to easil

USA - Whether the staff at Hume Lake Christian Camp are performing services at home or on the road, one thing is certain, they will be using DPA Microphones' d:fine Miniature Headset Microphones. With services held at four camps situated on 360 acres in Sequoia National Park, its campus in San Diego and its 400-acre camp in Connecticut, as well as during outreach trips to locations such as Hawaii, South Africa and Papua New Guinea, Hume Lake needs high-quality headset microphones that will stand up to the rigors of repeated use.

A popular Christian Camp, Hume Lake is not just active during the summer. Throughout the year, the facility hosts as many as 35,000 people between its 10-week winter camp, off-site trips and a variety of weekend retreats - such as those for mothers/daughters, marriages and firefighters.

During Hume Lake's 10-week summer series, as many as 3,000 student

USA - Home of the American Hockey League's Providence Bruins and Providence College Men's Basketball, The Dunkin' Donuts Centre is the major sports and entertainment venue of the Providence, Rhode Island metro area. Seating approximately 13,000 depending on configuration, the arena hosts not only games, including NCAA Men's Division I Basketball, but also corporate events, trade shows, commencements and concerts from artists including hit-makers such as U2 and Elton John.

The facility, which was extensively remodelled in 2008, benefits from solid acoustic design and good interior treatment. Even so, the sound during games was lacking until a recent sound-system upgrade featuring loudspeakers, power amplifiers and digital routing systems from Electro-Voice.

"The two main issues with the old system were lack of coverage and lack of intelligibility," says Tom Barrett, p

USA - Since the launch of its Impact series of LED video display panels -featuring Cree high-brightness SMD (Surface-mount diode) LEDs - Lighthouse has dominated the outdoor SMD LED display market with more than 107,639sq.ft of active outdoor SMD LED area. Powered by LEDs from Durham, N.C.-based Cree, Lighthouse and its partners have wowed people around the world with installations such as the 2013 display at Safeco Field, home of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners.

At Safeco Field, ANC Sports Enterprises installed a Lighthouse display distributed by Panasonic which is the largest LED video screen in Major League Baseball. A Lighthouse Impact 16 using Cree CLV6 LEDs, Safeco Field's new LED display is 1080p high by 3840p wide, the equivalent of two side-by-side high-definition screens. Standing 56.7' (17.28m) high, stretching 201.5' (61.42m) across, and totalling over 4m pi

Germany - AVM Event GmbH recently invested in Clay Paky - it increased its stock with 60 A.leda Wash K10s, as well as various products made by other companies.

These lights were used for the first time in Halle 7 in Bremen, where several events took place in the second half of October. AVM has organised shows of all kinds for 20 years, including summer festivals, megashows and industry conferences, with between 100 and 20,000 guests.

"With its A.leda K10, Clay Paky has come up with an exciting LED washlight from every point of view," said Mr Wiegandt, the head of the German rental company. "Thanks to the individually controlled LEDs, the light offers an incredible variety of effects and functions. However, of course, the extremely high standards of Clay Paky lights also play a key role. They are extraordinarily light and therefore suitable for use everywhere.&qu

Europe - The Christmas Metal Symphony 2013 European tour blazed its way through Sweden, the Czech Republic and Germany to packed houses appreciating the metallic full force of the Magnum Opus Rockestra directed by Joost Van Den Broek, a collaboration between the Metalforce 1 band and a 32 piece Hungarian symphony orchestra.

The featured vocalists for 2013 were Michael Kiske (Helloween), Joey Belladonna (Anthrax), Chuck Billy (Testament), Joacim Cans (Hammerfall), Udo Dirkscheider (ex-Accept) and Floor Jansen from ReVamp and Nightwish.

Lighting this mix of metal mayhem was Nick van Balen, who is based in The Hague, The Netherlands ... an experienced designer with a particular penchant for lighting the various genres of rock music.

He chose to light the 2013 Christmas Metal Symphony entirely with Robe LED Wash moving lights - 44 x LEDWash 300s and 12 x LEDWash 600s to be preci

Foundation Funding - Andrew Lloyd Webber's charitable foundation has announced six grants, totalling more than £150,000, which will support apprenticeships within professional arts organisations.

Five theatre organisations and one music festival will receive funding. Shared Experience will receive £105,000 over three years to support one trainee director and producer per year via paid six-month apprenticeships; Tangled Feet will receive £14,000 over two years to help fund its participation programme for young people; Manchester Royal Exchange's Young Company will receive £10,000; Chickenshed will receive £15,000 towards its Young Creators Programme; Icon Theatre in Medway will receive £9,000; and the Lake District International Summer Music Festival will receive £10,000.

Since the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation was re-launched in 2011,

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