UK - The 7th Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards has announced a new venue for 2014: London's art deco Troxy theatre.

This year's awards ceremony, celebrating outstanding lighting design, is on Sunday 5 October, during PLASA London at ExCel, which runs 5-8 October. Troxy is situated ten minutes' drive from ExCel.

"We're thrilled that KOI will enjoy the luxurious setting of Troxy this year," says Pio Nahum of Clay Paky, which organises the event alongside the STLD, the ALD, and Ambersphere. "With beautiful surroundings comes an even more beautiful event!"

The guest list is open to all who might wish to attend ensuring that KOI continues to establish itself as a pan industry event. To find out more, and submit your entry visit the web address below.

BBC Musical Initiatives - The BBC has announced plans to open up access to the world of musical entertainment within the UK, with two new partnerships designed to train new entrants and increase the technical skills base. Director general Tony Hall, unveiling an ambitious new music strategy, said the BBC would be partnering with the National Skills Academy, which works alongside employers, to increase quality training in the technical and production areas, particularly concentrating on skills required for live performances. "Music is in our DNA just like news" he said, as the BBC gears up for a summer of festivals.

It will also co-fund, with the PRS for Music Foundation, visits for the best new British artists to attend and play at four annual showcase festivals across the United States. Both developments extend the successful BBC Introducing scheme, which dates from 2

UK - London-based Coloursound Experiment has chosen the third generation of SES's 72 way touring racks as their preferred system. Having worked with SES in the past, Coloursound has placed an order for six rack mount units for their ever growing fleet with delivery of the first two units being made this week.

The racks are manufactured using extra thick steel and are powder coated. The units come with SES's new Digital meter and complemented with two LED rack lights which are new to the SES range. The racks are fully engraved to indicate all the outgoing functions and have the customers Logo, which is now a standard feature on all 19" racks where space allows.

(Jim Evans)

UK - In partnership with The Science Museum, Blitz is hosting a half day of seminars and demonstrations on Wednesday 2 July on the future of event technology.

Supported by manufacturers and experts in the fields of augmented reality, social media, and mobile applications, topics will include 'EventMetrics' attendee tracking and reporting, and augmented reality by Arcstream. Blitz will also be introducing the 'YourShow' (Google Glass) presenter experience for the first time in the UK events industry. Additional hands-on product demonstrations include 'Displaylite' touch tables and giant iPads.

Attendees will also gain insight from an industry-renowned keynote speaker, offering their views on the role of technology in events. Event organisers will learn about the impact of emerging technologies within the live event sector, with an emphasis on integration to create the most inno

USA - Designed to provide exceptional musical quality and vocal clarity, Community's new I Series is an innovative family of high-power/high-output modular loudspeakers that allows designers to implement complex solutions in houses of worship, multi-purpose auditoriums, live theatres and other professional and commercial venues.

I Series includes point-source, high-directivity, compact and floor-monitor models in multiple performance levels, providing modular scalability for any application requirement. A suite of matching-height subwoofers, in sizes ranging from compact single 12-inch models, to ground-shaking dual 18-inch models, complements the full-range I Series models with powerful low-frequency extension. Optional weather-resistant versions fill the needs of sports fields, amphitheaters and other venues needing high-performance loudspeakers designed for full outdoor ex

UK - There are lots of things you can't rely on during an English summer in London: the weather, the traffic, the Underground and the price of a decent pint. But for those of us lucky enough to enter The Old Truman Brewery in London's East End, it was a simple matter to find consistency, reliability and a welcome thirst-quenching concoction to wet the whistle. The team at d&b audiotechnik's stand were on hand to offer a hospitable welcome to all.

This year's stand was something of a fresh departure from the mono-block colouring so characteristic of d&b audiotechnik. Gothic vaulted arches sketched in pastel provided an ideal backdrop to the new column loudspeakers, the xC-Series. Aesthetically pleasing yet designed to be unobtrusive in the most demanding of acoustic spaces, the xC-Series attracted the attention of visitors looking for a cabinet that could deliver unsurpassed spee

UK - The Panalux TekTile 2 is a slimline Bi-Colour illumination solution created by Panalux exclusively for the film, television industry and entertainment media industries.

Featuring instantly variable colour temperature from 3000k to 5800k with no shift in light output throughout the transition via an on board Tektile2 controller or when used in conjunction with Panalux F-stop 8way Controller units

The impressive specification of these new high quality, high output fixtures includes: mains or battery power; local or DMX control; fully dimmable with no shift in correlated colour temperature; Panalux F-Stop® compatible; choice of mounting options; range of accessories; optional wireless control - all housed within a sleek aluminium unit weighing just 2.5kg.

Simple to operate and just 30mm deep, Tektile 2 is perfect as an effective, balanced 'solo' soft light or can be co

UK - Eclipse Presentations - the east London based technical solutions provider known for innovation and flair - collaborated with the marketing team at Central Hall Westminster (CHW) led by Maria Schuett to provide all the required technical production and infrastructure to facilitate their very successful recent one day 'Meet The Future' event.

Central Hall is one of the high profile central London event spaces at which Eclipse provides managed and technical services and Meet The Future, attended by over 300 delegates, was designed to showcase and raise awareness of a number of state-of-the-art technologies that could potentially shape the future design and production of all types of events.

Meet The Future was co-ordinated for Eclipse by key account manager Matt Green who looks after Central Hall and MD Robin Purslow.

Says Green, "We were keen to support 'Meet The Fu

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The Netherlands - Dutch PA company, Ampco - Flashlight, has updated its rental stock by adding 24 ME-1 Personal monitor mixers and 2 ME-U hubs with a MADI option card, as well as 4 Qu-16 rackmount digital mixers, all from Allen & Heath.

ME was selected following an evaluation process comparing it with several different monitor systems. For its debut event, Ampco- Flashlight put ME to use at the TOP 2000 Live Production event in Rotterdam. 20 ME-1 personal monitor mixers were fed with a 40 channel MADI stream to the ME-U distribution unit.

"After only two minutes of playing, all the musicians were making their own mixes!" comments Ampco - Flashlight's Jos van der Hoeven. "The ME system is now a firm rental favourite in Ampco -Flashlight's stock."

The Qu-16's were selected for their small footprint to manage smaller events and to accompany the ME systems.

USA - At this year's ULTRA Music Festival, Martin Professional lit the night with an array of lighting fixtures, including the RUSH 5x5 Strobe, RUSH MH2, RUSH PAR1, MAC III Profile, MAC Viper, MAC 101, MAC Aura, M-1 Control and M2go Console.

In preparing for a massive scale production such as ULTRA Music Festival, an epic battle takes place between the passion and dedication of the team and the challenges posed by the environment and the conditions under which the ULTRA Music Festival engine operates.

For the Miami shows, the location in downtown Miami represents one major challenge, as the festival grounds and the stage are shoehorned in between a busy street and a retaining wall. Lighting fixtures and all other technical elements of the festival and stage design are also being put to the test in this extreme environment, where excessive heat, high levels of humidity and endl

UK - Backstage Academy, the live events industry training centre based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is looking to recruit industry professionals, teachers and admin staff ahead of the new term commencing in October 2014.

The Academy's courses deliver industry based training in lighting, sound, staging, live visuals, networks, show control and event planning and are validated by the University of Bolton. It currently runs an FdA in Live Events Production, with a BA (Hons) Top Up year and a BA (Hons) in Visual Production due to commence in 2014.

Said director of courses, Robin Watkinson, "We are looking to add Stage Engineering, Automation, Stage Management, Film & TV Location Management and Sports Events Management to our portfolio of validated courses.

"We are currently seeking applications from: industry professionals interested in delivering lectures, seminars o

The Netherlands - Dutch guitarist Adrian Vandenberg has kept a low profile since gracing the 1980s biggest stages with Whitesnake. But that is all changing now, as he hits the road with a new band, aided by a Yamaha QL5 digital console.

Since leaving Whitesnake in 1991, Vandenberg has spent most of the intervening years concentrating on his family and a burgeoning career as an artist. But the end of 2013 saw him return to rock'n'roll with Vandenberg's MoonKings.

Having played a European club tour, the band is currently playing a raft of European festivals, with monitor engineer Joost Muller manning a Yamaha QL5.

Joost is the son of Jos, owner of rental company Decilux, and lighting designer Marja Muller, both of whom were closely involved with the guitarist's pre-Whitesnake band, Vandenberg. With MoonKings again renting equipment from Decilux, Joost was keen to use the Yamah

Scandinavia - Lighting designer Henrik Lundin is using a number of the triple-award winning Clay Paky B-EYE K20s to light Swedish songstress Veronica Maggio's first-ever Scandinavian arena tour.

Lundin, of Swedish production company YKNOT, says he was delighted to be able to apply the unique features of the new B-EYE K20 in combination with a strategically designed 'mirror-prop' package. "Using the B-EYE to cover the stage, both as front lights and for exposing the mirror props worked brilliantly," says Lundin. "The B-EYE's incredibly wide zoom, fast response time plus the immense power of the LEDs meant that the design process went very smoothly and we were all delighted with the result."

The B-EYE K20's, supplied to the tour by Swedish rental operation Lagom & Gott Ljud AB, have an output that is over 20% brighter than any equivalent LED wash light curren

Finland - The Finnish companies Audico and Starlike are merging their operations. Measured in net sales, the merger will result in Finland's largest provider of audiovisual and event technology solutions and devices.

"Our product ranges complement one another brilliantly. Audico specializes in sound systems and turnkey AV system deliveries for companies, schools, shopping centres, cruise ships, churches and other public spaces, as well as in the manufacture and import of equipment," says Audico's managing director, Harri Leiva. "Starlike is a leading provider of sound and lighting systems for theatres, concert halls and other performing arts centres, among others. The merger will bring a great deal of expertise under one roof, and together we will be able to offer customers even more comprehensive service.

"The merger enables us to engage in even closer par

USA - When production started on the film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys, set to hit the big screen this Friday, 20 June 20, crew members knew they would need to capture all audio, music and vocals live without any pre-recordings. As instrument miking was not available during the 1950s to 1970s era of the film, the production team also needed to conceal the musicians' mics on set. To address these challenges, they turned to DPA Microphones.

Tim Boot, production music mixer for Jersey Boys, relied primarily on DPA's d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones and d:screet 4061 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphones to capture the live instruments on set. Easy to conceal during filming, these mics provided a very natural sound quality and proved to be the perfect complement to the era of the film. Further keeping with the film's theme, the crew used vintage

Qatar - Neutrik, in cooperation with Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises (NMK), a sole distributor of Neutrik in the Middle East region, held Neutrik OpticalCon Certified Seminar from 23-24 May 2014 in Doha, Qatar. The objective of the seminar was to educate the engineering team of Al Rayyan TV Channel about fundamentals and new trends in fibre connection technology.

The seminar, conducted by Neutrik product application engineer Frank Studer with the assistance of Neutrik Product manager Pavel Aheuin from NMK, focused on the fibre optics theory on the first day of training including the applications for transmitting and receiving audio, video and communications. The second day was dedicated to a hands-on workshop that highlighted the NeutrikOpticalCon field assembly kit where attendees were given the opportunity to improve their skills on terminating LC connectors, applyi

UK - Liverpool, UK-based Sound, Light & Visual production solutions provider Adlib, has just appointed Mike Docksey as general manager to oversee its fast expanding Lighting & AV divisions. In a challenging economic climate, Adlib, headed by Andy Dockerty which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, has been steadily building an infrastructure to support and evolve its growing global portfolio of clients.

Adlib's MD Andy Dockerty said: "Mike has undertaken to work alongside the directors and managers at Adlib to help strengthen the brand across all genres and disciplines. He will be overseeing the whole lighting and AV operation with a view to implementing positive and progressive steps to fulfil the aspirations of the company."

"His role will see him forging new bonds, reinforcing existing relationships and helping the sales, rental and operations teams del

USA - At InfoComm 2014, WorkPro launched two new products: NEO 5 A ES and NEO 5 IP. The brand also featured the line array column speaker UDA 16 and the ZERO subwoofers Series, as well as the improvements to some of its existing lines, such as the update to the distributed audio system over IP, BlueLine Digital.

One of the new products is NEO 5 A ES, the updated version of NEO 5 A. This installation loudspeaker has been developed to maximise savings in energy consumption and, therefore, to be more efficient. Under this ecological company philosophy, the brand has come up with a smart solution capable of shutting down when it is not receiving an audio signal: this means a reduction in its consumption below 1W under these circumstances. "Thanks to this product, it is possible to exponentially enhance the performance and efficiency of the audio installations," say WorkPro

Belgium - Barco has expanded its single-chip DLP projector line-up to now include F50 Panorama, WUXGA and Full HD models to meet a wide variety of demanding applications, from first-class exhibitions and high-end visitor attractions to corporate collaboration suites, 24/7 control rooms and big data analytics labs.

The new F50 range offers a combination of high resolution and active 3D stereo at higher frame rates in a small, quiet unit, ideal for professional-class venues where a powerful, yet unobtrusive visualization solution is needed.

"Barco is continually innovating its high-fidelity projector offering, and we are extremely excited about our latest additions, which represent a quantum leap in performance and image quality to expertly handle 3D and big data applications," comments Kristian Kolstad, director of product management at Barco. "The combination of

USA - Allen & Heath unveiled Qu-32 at InfoComm, a 32 fader, 38 in / 28 out digital mixer joining the rackmount Qu-16 and compact Qu-24. Qu-32 shares the Qu series key features, such as total recall of settings (including faders and digitally controlled preamps), Qu-Drive integrated multi-track recorder, dSNAKE for remote I/O and personal monitoring, multi-channel USB streaming, Qu-Pad control app, and the renowned iLive FX Library to deliver class-leading audio quality. It comes with a larger, 7" touchscreen and 33 motorised faders.

Key to the design was providing a dedicated fader per mic input channel while retaining a compact footprint, the Qu series distinctive styling, and extensive I/O, comprising 32 mic/line inputs, three stereo inputs, 24 mix outputs including 2 Stereo Matrix Mix Outputs and 4 Stereo Groups with full processing, patchable AES digital output with a f

USA - Audinate's tradition of creating innovative solutions continues, with the announcement of its new software application, Dante Via at InfoComm 2014.

Dante Via transforms Macs and PCs into networked I/O devices. With Dante Via, you can now build a complete, standalone audio system of networked PCs without the need for any dedicated Dante-enabled hardware to be present on the network. Any computer instantly becomes a networked audio I/O device, says the company.

Dante Via "expands AV horizons, freeing one from the limiting constraints of short reach point-to-point analogue and USB cables". Dante Via allows you to create a flexible audio bridge for your computer to connect with legacy USB, FireWire and Thunderbolt audio interfaces and transform them into networked devices. Without the need for additional hardware, Dante Via transmits and receives professional qual

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