USA - It was an unseasonably cold mid-August morning, but the thousands gathered at Rockefeller Plaza didn't seem to mind, as the red hot Today Show Toyota Summer Concert Series rolled on through its fourth month with a dynamic performance by platinum recording artist Neon Trees. Included in the crowd were Berenice and Albert Chauvet, the co-owners of Chauvet Professional. The Chauvets were on hand not only to enjoy the music, but also to take in the performance of the Nexus 4x4, their company's COB LED panels, which have been in the forefront of LD Peter Greenbaum's lighting design for the popular early morning TV concert series.

There are 12 Nexus panels on the Today Show Toyota Summer Concert Series rig. Greenbaum uses the fixtures as set pieces, eye candy, colori

France - 'King of psychedelic-funk' Bootsy Collins is well-known for his pivotal role in the band Parliament and for playing bass with 'Godfather of Soul', James Brown. Perhaps surprisingly, Bootsy can also be heard on Dee-Lite's 'Groove is in the Heart', where his bass riff acted as a song within the song.

With such a history, expectations for his concert at the Fiest'a Sète 2014 festival were high. Here Bootsy Collins took the stage for what was the last performance of his French tour, before returning to the US for a new series of concerts.

With lighting design by Jean Marc Jolivet, Bootsy and his 11-piece band were lit by the latest generation of D.T.S. projectors, including the Max L and the Wonder - the only double-optics LED moving head currently on the market.

"In addition to being a great musician, Bootsy Collins is a man with an extraordinary sense of humour,

Russia - A major street festival in the north-western Russian city of Petrozavodsk attracted some 10,000 people to its main stage last month, with lighting controlled by an ETC Cobalt 20 desk.

The main stage is the central point of the annual Petrozavodsk City Festival, which celebrates the anniversary of the city's founding. This year was extra special, because it commemorated the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the city from Finnish armed forces. Large crowds gathered to watch live music and entertainment, including local dance acts, orchestra ensembles, and the headliner, Bravo, a well-known Soviet band from 1980s. This was followed by a closing ceremony and fireworks. The lighting team, led by lighting director Ivan Malakhov of rental agency SMK, used moving lights, LEDs, strobes and audience blinders to help entertain the crowd.

Because Malakhov had never used a Cob

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UK - Young Scottish-born violinist, Nicola Benedetti, is one of the UK's rising stars. Currently enjoying a top 20 position in the UK pop charts - the first time a British violinist has scored a top 20 album since Vanessa Mae in 1995 and Nigel Kennedy in in 1989 - Benedetti is a sought-after performer.She recently played a sold-out concert at the Guildhall in London as part of the City of London's Curtain Raiser programme for the Commonwealth Games. Audio production was supplied by Scottish audio specialists, The Warehouse who opted for a Halo Compact line array system from EM Acoustics."I'd been really impressed with the performance of Halo-C at a recent open day at our premises in Glasgow," recounted Warehouse sound hire manager and sound engineer, Pete Harris. "By coincidence I was also in the process of sourcing a suitable system for Nicola's show at the
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New Touring Series by Gravity – Every Scratch Has A Story

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UK - In conjunction with live sound equipment company Tour Supply, Shure Distribution UK has been supplying equipment and technical support services at a number of the UK's biggest festivals during the summer period.

Tour Supply's distinctive cabin could be found backstage at the Radio 1 Big Weekend, Parklife, Wireless, Sonisphere, Bloodstock, Download, London Calling, Lovebox, and the V Festivals. Shure UK technical experts were on hand at select festivals with Tour Supply providing technical assistance to engineers and crew members offering trials of new products such as Shure's new Beta instrument microphones and the SE846 quad driver earphones.

A range of Shure products was available for purchase from the Tour Supply cabin at all of these festivals, including wired and wireless microphone systems and supplementary RF antennas and accessories. A large selection of Radial En

UK - West Midlands-based technical solutions and video specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) has invested in its first apprenticeship scheme in conjunction with Birmingham based Creative Alliance, and its first apprentice is 16 year old Cameron Preussner who has joined the team at CPL for a hands-on training in 'Technical Theatre Studies' (TTS) for the next 12 months.

CPL's MD Matthew Boyse says, "For some time we been considering the harnessing of fresh new talent at school leaver age rather than after University, with the idea that they can then grow and develop their career at CPL, which offers a diverse range of job opportunities in many specialist fields."

CPL devised the module-based course that will incorporate all elements of TTS including audio, lighting, AV, project management, stage management, administration, etc. It's been designed to offer a basic

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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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Belgium - Belgian celebrity and TV host Marcel Vanthilt took his popular summer 'pop-up' magazine show concept to two cities this year - Roeselare and Knokke-Heist - both of which staged Hotel M for a number of weeks throughout the summer.

An elaborate Hotel M set designed by Piece Montée was constructed as the studio facility and backdrop to the daily magazine programme broadcast on national TV channel EEN, concluding each evening with a live music performance.

Lighting for the stage area on the set comprised 35 x Robe Robin LEDWash 300s.

These were specified by the show's lighting designer Michiel Milbou, one of Belgium's leading TV LDs. This was the fifth edition of this show that he has lit and the third year running that LEDWashes were specified to light the band stage.

The fixtures were arranged in a 5x5 matrix in the ceiling of the band stage, which wa

USA - The Denver Centre for the Performing Arts (DCPA) has selected the RC4Magic Series 3 Wireless DMX and Dimming System to enhance their wireless needs.

When looking at the technical needs for the Theatre Company's upcoming re-imagined production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, (featuring lighting design by Don Holder), DCPA lighting director Charles MacLeod knew the DCPA would need to expand their wireless DMX and dimming capabilities.

The Denver Centre for the Performing Arts was an early adopter of wireless DMX technology with RC4's rack mounted systems in the 90's and then the RC4 Magic Series 2 system more recently. "I've come to depend on the flexibility and stability of the RC4Magic," said MacLeod "The tiny size of the DMX2micro solves challenges that we face on many productions. We are really looking forward to the expanded functionality of the S

UK - Biodiesel specialist Midas will power the first Technopop Festival this autumn, a four-week pop-up science, technology and innovation experience in London's East End.

Caroline Johnson, Technopop's production manager, comments, "Environmental and social considerations run through the core of the Technopop concept and the Midas team identifies with that. Midas has proved itself in all sorts of environments over the years, so getting them on board to support our approach was one of the easier decisions."

Held in a Neptunus structure, Technopop, a partnership with Oxley International Holdings, will highlight the breadth of opportunity, and intrigue, in the world of science and technology to young people, with a focus on some of the capital's less affluent areas.

(Jim Evans)

Europe - The first product to prove the Open Control Architecture (OCA) in the field, the D80 amplifier from d&b audiotechnik, was already at launch in January an innovative product with many features and benefits making it immediately attractive to the d&b user community. Why the addition of OCA? "You might call this parallel evolution," explained Marc Weber, the driving force in product management behind the development of the D80 at d&b. "The new amplifier was designed to include sophisticated functionality and control, the future possibility of interoperability with other manufacturers was also a consideration, this is where OCA fits in."

In essence OCA, developed by the OCA Alliance of companies that includes Bosch, Yamaha and d&b audiotechnik, is a method of 'talking' over Ethernet. Being an open public communications standard, the target is for a commo

UK/Serbia - Trilogy has announced that N1, a new news channel that will cover the Balkan countries of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina has selected Trilogy's Gemini distributed matrix intercom system.

Sold by Amisys, a broadcast systems integration company covering Serbia and neighbouring countries, to Balkan DTH and cable operator United Group, which will run N1, the Gemini system will provide critical communications within the channel's main production facility in Belgrade, Serbia, plus local news centres in Zagreb, Croatia, and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Taking advantage of Gemini's integrated IP capability, the system will link production staff and presenters at each of the facilities, with backup circuits provided by the system for VoIP & PSTN telephone services.

Based on a distributed, IP-based architecture rather than a single central matrix, Gemini intercom sy

Germany - The Rock im Park and Rock am Ring festivals are the most popular music festivals in Germany, attracting an audience of 150,000. The two festivals are held simultaneously in Nürburg and Nuremberg, in the West and South of Germany. The events each boast an almost identical artist line-up, with headliners this year including Metallica, Linkin Park, Iron Maiden, and Kings of Leon.

Both concerts are outdoors, but pose different challenges for sound crews. Rock im Park's Zeppelinfeld has neighbouring residential areas so sound restrictions are a big consideration. Rock am Ring takes place at the world-famous Nürburgring racetrack, a narrow and very long audio field that requires a powerful, directional PA system to deliver the best coverage for an extended audience.

Premier event production services provider satis&fy AG created two distinct sound designs and system deplo

China - The latest addition to PR Lighting's burgeoning XLED LED range is the new XLED 2007 Beam. This uses the Osram Ostar (LE RTDUW S2W), rated at 15W each, with 4 in 1 LED colour mixing. Each fixture houses seven of these light sources, rated at 50,000 hours lamp life, and with power consumption of just 120W and 220V. It also weighs just 4.36kg.

These form the core of a fully featured fixture which offers pixel control in the form of 2-2-2-1 and the head movement of 720° (pan) or endless, and 270° (tilt) or endless with a Pan / Tilt Swap and Invert Function, Auto-position correction and Magnetic sensor positioning.

Colour mixing is RGBW linear (with macro), with linear colour temperature correction from 2700K to 10000K. There is 0-100% linearly adjustable dimming, electronic strobe (0-25 fps) and a lens angle of 6°.

Other functions of this DMX-controllable fix

UK - Green Hippo has two new interns who recently started to work with the company for the forthcoming year.

Over that last two years we have had two very successful Product Design internships within our Product Department, so continuing on the streak we have new intern Bella Reid, also from Brunel University, just like her two predecessors.

Bella Reid is studying Industrial Design and Technology at Brunel and has already completed the first two years of this tough degree. Bella explains: "I chose this course because it encompasses everything I love and am passionate about into a technically grounded and well rounded set of skills from drawing, graphics and practical work to programming, engineering, applied physics and human studies. You become a jack of all trades in some senses. And I decided on Green Hippo for a placement because of the family vibes. I felt I would ac

UAE - Melody House Musical Instruments LLC, a sole distributor of HK Audio in the Middle East, in cooperation with NMK Electronics Enterprises, the distributor of Rane products, has started a close relationship with DJ Academy based in Dubai. As part of a newly formed relationship, two of DJ Academy's teaching rooms have been outfitted with HK Audio and Rane equipment.

"DJ academy is doing something very unique in the region. They groom enthusiasts and transform them into professional DJs. Therefore during the training period it is crucial that students know what good audio gear feels and sounds like. I am pleased with their decision to select HK Audio as the loudspeaker brand for their course," commented Grayson Soares, operations executive from Melody House Musical Instruments.

Melody House supplied HK Audio Icon Series including two IC112LA speakers, four IC118BA

USA - Quil Ceda Creek Casino, located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation north of Seattle, had one overriding requirement for Agility AVL for the lighting and video package in their new Qzone entertainment venue - make it high tech. And that they did, installing an Elation Professional EZ4 LED video screen along with Elation Platinum Spot LED II moving heads and EPAR Series LED fixtures.

Opened in April 2014, Qzone is a new multi-purpose venue that functions as sports bar, café and music venue and even holds corporate meetings from time to time. The space, which originally started as a nightclub before being converted to a gaming room and now Qzone, is located just off the main Quil Ceda Creek Casino gaming floor. The client wanted to use the space to provide different options and events that appealed to customers in order to draw them onto the property.

Six months prior

The Netherlands - The Theater Markant in Uden, Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands is a busy producing and receiving theatre run by the city, which also has an integral but independently run event space that is equally active ... and has recently been refurbished.

This has included a full technical upgrade - for which the lighting elements were supplied by Controllux.

The new lighting rig was designed by Controllux's Kuno Van Velzen and includes Robe's Actor LED fixtures, LEDWash 300s, LEDWash 600s and LEDBeam 100 moving lights - all from Robe's Robin series - together with Robe LEDForce 18 PARs.

Once the renovation project was underway, the original lighting proposals for the 'new' event space were revised by Chief LX Rob de Gier and Technical Director Maarten Prinssen who looks after technicals for Markant's event area.

He especially wanted LED lighting installed to make the

Canada - The Westgate Collegiate & Vocational Institute in Thunder Bay, Ontario, was due for a change. A 1970s-era sound system resulted in lots of echoes and reflections but little in the way of intelligible sound.

When Randall Anderson, Regional Representative for Thunder Bay-based Evolution AV was called in to evaluate the gymnasium's audio needs, he encountered more than the usual acoustical challenge of hard, reflective surfaces that smear sound - an ongoing problem for the space's many applications, including sporting events, performances, convocation and more. The situation called for a flexible, innovative solution - exactly what is offered by a RoomMatch system from Bose Professional Systems.

Personnel from Bose and Evolution AV had the gym's measurements input into Bose's Modeler software, which produced three distinct possible solution paths. Anderson and Bose field

UK - Britain's longest continuously-running game show, Question of Sport, is back for another series. Remarkably it was aired for the first time in 1968 and is still considered prime time TV. Having run almost uninterrupted since 1970 they have filmed over 1000 episodes.

Each week two teams of sports stars, headed up by resident team captains Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson, battle it out in numerous topical rounds which include Picture Round, Home or Away, What Happened Next and On the Buzzer.

LD Roger Williams continues to light the show. Richard Martin Lighting (RML) have been providing the lights for this show for a number of years now and have worked hard to make sure the transition from filming in London, to Dock 10 in Salford has been a smooth one.

Roger's rig is relatively basic in terms of moving lights but the effect is has with the vibrant set work brilliantly

USA - The Grateful Dead maintain a following that's as large and passionate as ever 49 years after the band's founding. This devotion was on full display at Gathering of the Vibes, an annual festival celebrating the iconic band, which this year featured performances by Widespread Panic, Umphrey's McGee and John Fogerty, among others, including the 'Dead' tribute band Dark Star Orchestra, all performing on a stage illuminated with a rainbow of colours that would have done Jerry Garcia proud, courtesy of moving fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

One of the most successful tribute bands, Dark Star Orchestra has been covering Grateful Dead concerts song for song, often joined by members of the original band, since 1995. Dark Star has performed well over 2,000 Dead Tribute concerts, each one as free flowing and colourful as the next, thanks to the quality of their music and some ric

USA - The Behind the Scenes Happy Hour, hosted by PLASA will go on sale to the public on 2 September 2014. The biggest pre-LDI party of the year will take place on Thursday, 20 November, from 6pm-8pm at the Westgate Las Vegas (formerly The Las Vegas Hotel). Tickets are $50 each and includes an open bar, hors d'oeuvres and music and all proceeds go to benefit the Behind the Scenes charity, the only industry charity that provides grants to ill or injured entertainment technician professionals. $30 of each ticket is tax deductible, and tickets are expected to sell quickly.

Starting 2 September, tickets can be purchased online. They can also be ordered through your LDI registration.

Current sponsors for the Behind the Scenes Happy Hour include: 4Wall Entertainment (Diamond), Altman Lighting (Diamond), CHAUVET Professi

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