Germany - Astera LED Technology has released the AsteraApp for free on the Google Play Store. The AsteraApp can be downloaded and then installed on any Bluetooth-enabled Android device (optimized for Android phones and 7" tablets).

Users should link their Android device to an AsteraBox to initiate control. Acting as the middleman, the AsteraBox receives commands from the app (using Bluetooth), and these commands are processed inside the AsteraBox, then sent to all Astera lights within a 300m range.

With the AsteraApp, users can easily send programmes and effects to lights, create programmes and customize effects, store these programmes for quick use at an event, change the colours, brightness, speed, and fade of programs, target individual lights or groups of lights, as wel

USA - Production Resource Group has announced that Jeremiah J Harris, chairman and CEO, has promoted Stephan Paridaen to the role of president and chief operating officer. Paridaen has served as PRG's chief executive officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa since 2009.

In his new role, Paridaen will apply his management expertise and services to supervising the global operations of the company, the delivery of new technologies and services offerings, and the further development of PRG's efforts in the corporate and global special events markets.

"Along with attracting world-class talent to the company, one of my top priorities is recognizing and developing PRG's existing leadership team," said Harris. "Stephan has demonstrated exceptional operational leadership in Europe. He has earned the respect of the entire PRG team, our customers and our partners. This

Portugal - Among the things that have made The Voice such a runaway international hit is that every country seems to find its own different way of enhancing the show, adding a local feeling to what has become a global phenomenon. This is very evident looking at A Voz de Portugal. In 2011, it introduced a rule change that allowed viewers to vote back losers of battle rounds for live shows. This year the Lisbon-based show raised its game again, by taking pixel mapping on its set to a new level with the Nexus 4x4 LED panel from Chauvet Professional.

Marco Silva, LD and programmer for A Voz de Portugal, used 28 Nexus 4 x 4 panels to create a stunning front stage façade, which he had pixel mapped by João Canoso of FX - Road Lights. Working with an Mbox Studio media server, Canoso created a stunning design that coordinated with the 6 mm LED upstage video wall.

"

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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. 

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Belarus - Clay Paky's multi-zone A.leda B-EYE was the star of the show at the recent Belarusian TV Awards beaming complex aerial effects as part of a lighting design by Kirell Zelenko.

TV LD Zelenko worked with assistant lighting designer Ilya Piatrouski of Minsk-based production house Blackout Studios to design a rich, glittering light show for the popular annual event - now in its tenth year - which celebrates the best in Belarusian television.

"We needed to create a balanced design that actually enriched the video mapped elements occurring on stage," explains Piatrouski. "The lighting needed to be effects based as well as practical to create the sumptuous, detailed look we were after."

Zelenko and Piatrouski specified a host of Clay Paky fixtures for the ceremony, including 24 x A.leda B-EYE K20, 12 x A.leda Wash K10, 24 x Sharpy, 20 x Sharpy Wash 330

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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 - When two of music's long established bands prepared to embark on their 38-city North American co-headlining tour, the design teams behind Journey and Steve Miller Band had to find the best way to support the style of each group. With the challenge of sharing the same rig, lighting designer Kevin 'Deuce' Christopher had to decide which automated luminaires would provide the most flexibility as the main lighting instruments for both show designs. Working with Tour Tech East, he chose 38 VL3500 Wash and 25 VL3000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite to be the lighting backbone for the complete tour.

"In the design for the Journey tour, we have a large video wall that we treat as a surface for I-MAG, so I knew we needed automated lighting that could punch through the intensity of the video wall," began Christopher. "During the design process, we looked at seve

USA - One hundred and forty Robe Pointes were at the core of the production lighting design for the 2014 Essence Festival in New Orleans, which was created by Matt Foucheux of Solomon Group, production designers and equipment suppliers for the Main Stage in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Musical acts included Prince, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige and Jill Scott.

The Solomon Group has worked for the vibrant and diverse "party with a purpose" - which started in 1995 - for the last three years, and for the last two has also been responsible for producing the 60,000 capacity Main Stage at the four day event.

This was the first time that Foucheux and Solomon Group have used Pointes and actually the first time they have ever worked with Robe products. The fixtures were supplied by VER, and it underlined a real confidence in the brand and its reputation to commit to so many Poin

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AZOR® SP2 IP - Compact IP65 Spot Profile Moving Head

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.

AZOR® SP2 IP – the next generation of robust, weatherproof, and compact lighting for maximum creative freedom, both indoors and outdoors.

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USA - A virtual plethora of Elation Professional lighting and video gear was used this year to light up Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas, North America's largest dance music festival. Produced by Insomniac Events and held the weekend of 20-22 June at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, more than 400,000 attendees danced and raved their way to the latest EDM beats in front of eight stages, seven of which featured Elation products.

EDC is a spectacular scene, a multi-sensory testament to the popularity of electronic dance music with some of the biggest names in the genre performing, including Avicii, Diplo, Afrojack, Carl Cox and Tiesto, many helicoptered in from the Vegas strip 20 minutes away to play to tens of thousands at each stage. Ferris wheels, fireworks, glowing sculptures, desert heat and beams of pulsating light all make up the EDC Las Vegas experience.

Lighting s

UK - The 4HM MADI-MON and ASBO were deployed right through this summer's comprehensive BBC coverage of the Glastonbury festival. Held over three days and featuring artists as diverse as Dolly Parton, Kasabian and Metallica, the BBC provided comprehensive coverage of the festival across multiple media platforms.

Renowned UK OB specialist, Arena, implemented the MADI-MON to monitor and convert all channels of the primary incoming MADI stream being supplied from their VT truck at the festival. The MADI-MON was used across all three days of transmission and also during the rigging and testing process prior to broadcast. Much of the BBC's coverage from Glastonbury was routed through 4HM's equipment, including the One Show, news and the dedicated live festival coverage itself.

MADI-MON simultaneously converts the selected incoming MADI stream to AES/EBU and AES3-id, and it wa

Switzerland - The 12th Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition concluded on 12 July following a close finish in the Petit Théâtre at Montreux Palace, Switzerland, during the middle weekend of internationally renowned Montreux Jazz Festival.

As ever, there were excellent performances by all three finalists, but in the end, after much debate steered by the 2014 leader of the competition jury Sweet Georgia Brown, 20-year-old Alita Moses from Connecticut, USA was announced as the 2014 winner of the competition's first prize, following compelling renditions of Miles Davis's Four, Gershwin's Someone To Watch Over Me and Magda Giannikou's Amour T'es Lá?.

Laura Perrudin and Myriam Bouk Moun, both from France, won the second and third prizes respectively. This year's contest was notable for its collaborative atmosphere: at one point during rehearsals for the

Belgium - Amongst the myriad of events across Europe this year commemorating the Great War centennial, few can be more epic and ambitious than 14-18 Spektakel Musical staged in the vast Nekkerhal venue in Mechelen, Belgium.

Among the many technical challenges this production presented, making the audio work was a significant one, leading sound designer Guido Olischlager to specify a TiMax SoundHub audio showcontrol system. It had been decided that the entire 1800-strong audience block would move up and down the length of the 130m long arena, so it was essential to deploy a multi-channel distributed sound system and fully automated dynamic delay-matrix processing that is a TiMax speciality.

The show's designers had been tasked with making the staging work consistently across the whole length of the venue, with the director requiring soldiers and cavalry to move cinematic

UK - Chester Cathedral has seen a 300% increase in visitor numbers following an innovative, £1.3 million project called 'Cathedral at Height'. The project primarily consisted of building a multi-sensory audio visual presentation in the chamber to help attract a greater family audience.

A combined team of architecture and heritage experts including Pure AV, a leader in AV solutions, were called on to deliver the results and overcome specific challenges.

The chamber's louvre windows, for example, meant that the technology would need to cope with damp, wind and cold, while the cathedral's Grade 1 listing severely limited the type of work that could be done. Consequently this meant that nothing could be attached to the stone, and the dark sandstone walls were a difficult backdrop for displaying projected images.

Responding to this, Pure AV recommended Epson's EB-G6350 proj

USA - In choosing its touring sound reinforcement system, the Wanderlust Yoga Festival had very specific requirements: to provide both pristine vocal clarity for yoga instruction in the daytime and high-impact musical reinforcement for evening revelries. With the tour's truck space and trussing constraints, the production also needed a system with an exceptional power-to-size ratio and versatility. All of this has led to the selection of a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system, supplied by DBS Audio Systems of Coatesville, Penn.

"In prior years we had used four different systems from four different suppliers, with inconsistent results," says Sage Anthony Plakosh, production manager for the tour. "This year we wanted to assure that the yoga teachers and musicians would get a consistent experience from venue to venue."

The main Wanderlust system is a

USA - Built in the early 1970s, Westfield Hawthorn Mall is located in the Chicago suburb of Vernon Hills. Its classic mall architecture boasts four anchor stores, 180 retail spaces, and 1.3m square feet of space. However, until recently, its sound system possessed the lifeless quality of 1970s-era contractor-grade components. Music was low-fidelity, speech was of poor intelligibility, and volume throughout was too loud during slow times and too quiet during busy times.

Renaissance Communications Systems, located nearby in Franklin Park, Illinois, overhauled Westfield Hawthorn Mall's sound system. In addition to replacing the ceiling speakers, Renaissance also gave the mall modern auto-levelling control and multi-zone support using two Ashly Audio ne8800M 8-In x 8-Out Protea DSP System Processors and two 8-channel Ashly ne8250.70 Network Amplifiers.

"Certainly, one big iss

Italy - From 20 to 22 June, the Sforza Castle in Milan was transformed into a stage for a magical journey of lights and music that took the audience back in time from the Milan of today to 1906, during the Belle Époque, when the world exposition was first held in the city. "The project not only enhanced the Sforza Castle and its precious art collections, but it also linked the monument with Expo 2015," said Milan city councillor for culture, Filippo Del Corno.

All the façades of the Rocchetta courtyard were animated with images from the Achille Bertarelli print collection, which is kept in the castle itself and tells us about Milanese life and culture in the early 20th century.

The Castello di Carta (Paper Castle) project was curated by Sebastiano Romano and Studio Comunicazione & Immagine di Mariella Di Rao. It was promoted by the Milan City Council Departme

UK -Three leading UK-based audio console manufacturers - DiGiCo, Allen & Heath and Calrec - have joined forces to create a pro audio group. Confirmation of the group's formation comes after 18 months of talks with private equity fund management firms Electra Partners and ISIS.

It is understood the companies will still retain their "different skills, customer relationships and the identities of each brand".

A statement outlining the move says that the DiGiCo team has spent the last 18 months consulting with Electra Partners about the possible combination of both Allen & Heath and Calrec with the DiGiCo family. The culmination of this "brings together three British console companies to create a new professional audio group, while retaining their unique skills, customer relationships and the identities of each brand".

James Gordon will become Group CEO suppo

Singapore - Robe Lighting s.r.o has confirmed Lighting & Sound Distribution (LSD) as its exclusive distributor in Singapore as of 1 August 2014.

This is part of Robe's medium term expansion strategy in the region and follows the launch of a new Asia Pacific office - also in Singapore - in January this year, which was set up in response to the brand's growing business.

Robe's relationship with LSD - one of Singapore's most proactive and successful sales and installation operations - actually dates back to 2002 when LSD first started selling and specifying Robe products, a situation that has developed steadily over the years.

LSD's general manager Brenda Keung comments, "Naturally we are excited to be appointed as Robe's exclusive distributor in Singapore, which will consolidate our existing business model and enable us to work even closer with Robe.

"We really loo

UK - As the sun set over Sonisphere festival 2014's opening day at Knebworth, The Prodigy walked on stage to sirens, screams and the bright blasting lights of 165 Showline SL Nitro 510 and 510C LED strobes, specified by the group's longstanding lighting designer and creative director of HSL Andy Hurst.

After a three-year hiatus, the Sonisphere festival came back with a bang, seeing The Prodigy perform alongside a stellar line up of heavy metal and rock giants including Metallica and Iron Maiden.

Hurst wanted to create a 'mind blowing' lighting design that would be a spectacular end to day one, and he didn't disappoint. Locked together by the luminaires' unique quick-connect system, which allows SL Nitro 510 and 510C units to connect together easily top-to-bottom and side-by-side, Hurst rigged the 84 SL Nitro 510 and 72 510C strobes in mixed groups of 10. His design saw them bl

UK - The Theatres Trust has announced its fifth round of small capital grants to theatres. Among the five successful theatres in this round are the Grade II listed Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells and the community-owned Shanklin Theatre on the Isle of Wight.

Grants from the Trust's Theatres Protection Fund Small Grants Scheme have been awarded to:

Shanklin Theatre, Isle of Wight: This Grade II listed theatre receives £5,000 towards its 'Fly-tower stabilisation' project to repair the brickwork of its fly-tower.

Theatre Royal Stratford East, London: This Grade II listed East London theatre by J.G. Buddle, and later refurbished by Frank Matcham, receives £5,000 towards its 'Repair the stage curtain' project to clean and mend the fabric of its trompe l'oeil curtain.

Players Theatre, Thame: Its 'Building A Better Theatre' project receives £5,000 to install

UK - Leisuretec Distribution has announced their new trade partnership with SGM, the Danish manufacturer of LED lighting products, effective August 2014.

Bedfordshire-based Leisuretec will become a key partner to SGM as a trade only distributor, promoting and marketing their range of products, including the SixPack and award-winning G-Spot.

Leisuretec managing director, Cliff Dounting comments, "I'm very pleased that our strategy to grow our lighting portfolio is taking another very positive step forward. We are very proud to be partnering with SGM and to have the opportunity to provide our customers with some amazing products. The history of the brand coupled with the pedigree of the owner is a great recipe for success.

"A key part of Leisuretec's continued growth and success over the past few years has been the prudent partnering with new suppliers, who complemen

UK - The most recent event organised by the Shure Academy European Audio Network, the microphone manufacturer's European education and training arm, was another in the continuing series of Wireless Mastered RF microphone workshops hosted by Shure Distribution UK's RF specialist Tuomo Tolonen.

The 22 July date differed from all of the previous such sessions, however, as it took place in the prestigious surroundings of the Champions' Suite at Emirates Stadium, North London - Arsenal Football Club's home ground. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it proved popular; the event was full to capacity, and the only spare seats were the three reserved in the front row for the siting of the overhead projection system.

Attendees at Emirates were given a thorough grounding in the operation and capabilities of modern wireless microphone technology during the day with specific reference to Shure's QLX-

Switzerland - Lausanne's Haute Ecole de Musique (HEMU) is the leading music college in French-speaking Switzerland. Offering degree and Masters level courses in classical, jazz and modern music, it opened a brand new performance venue in June 2014 which features a comprehensive Yamaha and Nexo audio system.

HEMU's new BCV Concert Hall is located in Lausanne's Le Flon district. Historically one of the city's poorest areas, the project is the latest instalment of a long-running drive to improve its fortunes. Designed to host a wide range of concerts, as well as rehearsals, exams, conferences and film screenings, the BCV Concert Hall features Yamaha and Nexo equipment throughout.

Supplied by Zap Audio and installed by Vevey-based Auditech, the main 300-capacity performance space features a Yamaha CL3 digital mixing console and Rio3224-D i/o unit. Output is via a Dante network to

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