France - Nexo enters the new year of 2015 with a new CEO, as Jean Mullor takes over the reins at the French loudspeaker manufacturer.

Yoshi Tsugawa, who has guided the company for the past three-and-a-half years, is returning to Japan, where he takes up new responsibilities as the general manager for band & orchestra products in the MI & Audio Sales and Marketing Group of Yamaha Corporation.

New CEO Jean Mullor comes to Nexo from Yamaha Music Europe, where he has spent nearly four years as managing director of the French subsidiary, in charge of the domestic distribution of musical instruments, commercial audio products, audio video products and music schools network development.

Trained as a lawyer, Mullor brings with him a wealth of management experience. A lifelong passion

Germany - Sommer Cable, the specialist in professional cable and connection technology, is expanding the product portfolio with the addition of a high-performance hybrid cable: the Transit MC 1031. The new cable allows the simultaneous 10 Gbit network, power and HD-SDI-compliant video transmission. The robust and shielded cable is perfectly suited for use in conference and building technology, in OB vans as well as in mobile broadcasting at large events.

"With the Transit MC 1031 we have developed a compact hybrid cable which is up to the daily strains in professional environments. Despite its three inner conductors it is highly flexible, so you can easily bend or reel it," emphasises Pascal Miguet, product manager with Sommer Cable.

The new cable provides a hassle-free transmission over distances exceeding 100m due to low damping values, but also relies on a special

UK - Applications are being sought by Rose Bruford College for its Junior Ready Steady Light 2015, a lighting design competition which offers teams the opportunity to win an amazing prize - to chance to redesign the architectural lighting of the National Theatre on London's Southbank.

Philips and the Society of Light and Lighting continue to sponsor Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance's hugely successful Junior Ready Steady Light competition for 2015. Rose Bruford College aims to attract eight teams from state schools, further education colleges and art organisations working with young people, made up of five year 12 and 13 students, or those similar in age, to participate in a full day of activities that lead up to the final competition and prize-giving ceremony.

This is an exciting opportunity for young people interested in science, art, design, technology and te

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Case Study: Hans Zimmer Live

When award winning film composer Hans Zimmer brought his smash-hit tour Hans Zimmer Live to North America fall 2024, the show's audio team sought out to bring infrafrequency bass to the show to add new depth to the show's audio experience. The team chose Danley Sound Labs.

UK - S+H Technical has supplied specialist draping and 'soft' lighting effects lighting to several high profile TV shows recently including Strictly's Blackpool special as well as for the regular weekly show broadcast from Elstree Studios; the main Children In Need telethon studio; popular talent competition Stars in Their Eyes back on air in 2015 after a nine year hiatus; new ITV talent show Get Your Act Together and Bette Midler's first ever ITV special One Night Only.

Another blockbusting Strictly season for the BBC sees S+H working with BAFTA Award winning set and scenic designer Patrick Doherty - a regular client - for whom the Ilfracombe, Devon-based company is supplying around 6000 Pea-Lights for the regular weekly episodes broadcast from Entree Studios. The Pea-Lights are integrated into the set walls of Patrick's impressive ballroom de

UK - Liverpool based technical solutions provider Adlib has supplied audio and lighting design, equipment and installation to three venues run by the Liverpool Guild of Students (LGoS) as part of a major £14m refurbishment and upgrade project spearheaded by the University of Liverpool.

This ambitious investment plan was executed over two years to improve the utilization of space, functionality and to enhance the overall student experience at the Guild & Reilly Building which is central to the university campus.

For Adlib, this has included design and installation of a comprehensive power & cabling infrastructure, provision of L-Acoustics and Coda audio systems, together with production lighting rigs featuring more premium brands like Robe, Martin by Harman and ETC and the development of a custom IGUS cable management solution with Lift-Turn-Move (LTM), also based locally

USA - Slipknot headlined its own musical festival, Knotfest, on 24-26 October at the San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernadino, California, and then kicked off its Prepare for Hell world tour, both using rigs that include Elation Professional's new hybrid Platinum SBX luminaire along with Elation Cuepix Blinders and a video centerpiece made up of Elation EPT9IP LED video panels.

The grisly-masked heavy metal rockers are out on an 18-month world tour in support of their first album release in six years, .5: The Gray Chapter, which debuted in October at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. The tour sees the band playing dates in the US, Japan (at Knotfest Japan), Europe and Australia with more legs expected to be added.

Slipknot plays an aggressive style of music with energetic live shows that have been described as 'choreographed chaos'. Production designer

UK - Masters of metal Motorhead returned to the UK after the festival season for a limited special run of autumn shows. To kick these dates up a notch, lighting designer Caio Bertti started from scratch, devising a simple yet extremely powerful lighting theme, with an ultra-versatile Avolites' Sapphire Touch console as the ace up his sleeve.

Bertti's design is traditional rock and roll, yet with a contemporary edge of LED and moving lights mixed in with ever-faithful Par Cans. Preferring to control the show on the fly, Caio specified the intuitive Sapphire Touch.

"With Motorhead, if you have music in your blood you'll have a great show," says the Brazilian designer. "There's no cue-list, there's no time coding, it's just in my head and fingers. You have to play the board, which is why I chose the Sapphire Touch. It gives me more freedom and I can run through the

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OPUS X4 PROFILE – the most powerful LED moving head from Cameo to date

The OPUS® X4 PROFILE is the new flagship model from Cameo and is among the most powerful LED moving heads on the market. Equipped with a 1,400-watt LED white light engine, this spot profile moving head produces an enormous light output of 50,000 lm, providing powerful spot and gobo projections on even the largest stages and much more.
www.cameolight.com

Russia - With a style of its own that miraculously intertwined the best traditions of Russian and Soviet culture as well as new trends of the modern entertainment industry, the World Circus Festival - IDOL 2014 took place at The Great Moscow Circus from 10-14 September. Martin Professional fixtures played the main role in creating exciting lighting effects in accordance with the vision of the event.

Preparation time for the festival was limited as the event grounds had hosted another performance right before, so the technicians had to dismantle the previous installation and create a new rig for IDOL using 64 MAC 101s, 20 MAC Viper Profiles, 24 MAC Auras, 12 MAC III Washes, six MAC III Performances, 10 MAC III AirFXs, 12 Atomic 3000 DMXs with Atomic Colors, two Glaciator X-Streams, a Jem Hydra with 12 heads, and six Jem K1 Hazers with six AF-1 fans.

"The fixture park of Th

Sweden - The Göteborg Opera has become hooked on SGM P-5 technology. Since purchasing their first units 18 months ago, they have kept adding to their inventory and now own 34 P-5 wash lights.

Production lighting manager Kent Hellberg explains, "Since I acquired the first P-5, every production in the house seems to want them."

Currently being deployed for the production of Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro by lighting designer Giuseppe di Lorio, the luminaires are washing the backdrop as an essential part of the opera. But Hellberg has other lighting designers also queuing up to utilise the P-5s. "Every lighting designer that I've shown the P-5 to has been impressed," Hellberg confirms.

The P-5s have therefore been used for different projects - for instance for a dance company, where the Japanese choreographer wanted a strong even colour output; and that

UK - Truss UK Ltd, sister company to Hoist UK Ltd, has announced that it has acquired 100% shareholding of AJB Precision Fabrications Ltd. The combined companies are now conducting business together under the name Truss UK Ltd, with their main office located at 2 Wrynose Road, Old Hall Estate, Bromborough, Wirral, Merseyside, CH62 3QD.

"This is a merger of two innovative and professional companies which have a history of successfully working together over the last six years," says Truss UK director Paul Jordan. "Both companies have a very high standard of products and services with very similar work ethic and philosophy for doing business, with a track record for providing excellent products and customer service."

Fellow director Tony Dickson comments: "This union reflects both companies' commitment towards sustainable growth creating a world class inn

USA - The Addison Theatre Centre, home of the WaterTower Theatre, has invested in ArKaos MediaMaster Pro 4.0 software which it recently utilised on the WaterTower Theatre Company's production of Bonnie and Clyde.

Founded in 1996, the multi-awarding-winning WaterTower Theatre is a not-for-profit professional theatre company that produces six main stage shows each season alongside award-winning educational and community outreach programmes.

Earlier this year Fred Mikeska and Darrell Barnes of A.C. Lighting (ArKaos' US distributor) took Arkaos MediaMaster Pro to The Addison Theatre Centre where they presented a full demonstration of its capabilities to technical director, Scott Guenther, and lighting designers, Dan Schoedel and Jason Foster. "The team at Addison Theatre Centre was evaluating different media server options that would meet the venue's diverse requiremen

Russia - Part of Russia for just 155 years, the Muravyov-Amursky peninsula is governed by Vladivostok. Home to the navy's mighty Pacific Fleet, it is Russia's most strategically important city on its far eastern shores. Remote in every sense, after years of isolation, Vladivostok has stepped robustly into the twenty-first century since its hosting of the 24th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2012. The summit stimulated massive inward investment, two new bridges were built (Zolotoy Rog in the city centre, and Russky Island Bridge) and a distinct emphasis was placed on the development of resort entertainment facilities.

The Fetisov Arena is a crowning part of that entertainment emphasis. Opened in 2013, and built to accommodate 7,500 people (Vladivostok has a population of almost 600,000), it is home to the Admiral ice hockey team and also regularly hosts exhibit

USA - Creative BackStage of Phoenix turned to an Elation lighting and video package as a main element of their visual design for Fear Fest, Arizona's ultimate Halloween EDM festival that took place 1 November at The Slaughterhouse in Tucson. Fear Fest combined high-energy dance music from featured DJ's with the thrills of three different haunted houses, all in one entertaining, spooky-themed festival.

The Slaughterhouse is a well-known haunted house in Tucson and because the event was held on Halloween weekend Creative BackStage wanted to create a design that represented the ghoulishness of the holiday as well as the Fear Fest festival.

"The idea was simple, to use LED video screens for eyes and a mouth with video images that would be of the fear kind with monster eyes and teeth or devilish eyes," explains John Garberson, owner of Creative Backstage and lighting desi

World - Renowned lighting designer LeRoy Bennett has painted Lady Gaga's ice themed ArtRave / Artpop Ball world tour set with beat perfect layers of dancing light and his medium of choice is Clay Paky.

Bennett uses huge banks of A.leda B-EYE K20s and Sharpys to light the set to deliver a wealth of vibrant, multi layered, multi-faceted and lively looks. Supported by lighting director Whitney Hoversten, who has taken the show on the road, Bennett specified 107 x Clay Paky B-EYEs and 83 x Sharpys, all supplied by PRG, to create the show's high octane, rave style atmosphere.

"My first thought when it came to creating the rave style concept was that the audience has to be fully immersed in the show and become part of it," says Bennett. "I chose the Clay Paky B-EYEs for their versatility and unique personality, they are the icing on the cake tools that add all the det

USA - Chart-topping LA-based indie pop duo, Capital Cities, have completed the first North American leg of their In a Tidal Wave of Mystery tour, together with a highly flexible lighting design created by Chris Smith.

For the first time, Smith is using Robe's CycFX 8 moving LED battens, together with 10 x Pointes. He had previously used Pointes on a Fitz And The Tantrums tour, was impressed, and so when this design came up, he immediately specified them again.

The rig had to be scalable to deal with the variety of venues on the itinerary - from clubs to theatres of capacities between 1000 and 3000 - and to guarantee they always had their proper lightshow.

Smith wanted to introduce architecture and shape to the stage, as well as develop a concept that worked as a comprehensive floor package in conjunction with any overheads utilized from the venues' house rigs.<

UK - RAF High Wycombe, a key Royal Air Force base and Headquarters for Air Command and European Air Group provides one of the UK's main strategic and administrative support units for the UK's air defence services. When the requirement for a replacement site-wide public address system was handed to leading infrastructure providers - NG Bailey - they called upon the services of AV and PA specialists CIE-Group to specify a replacement PA solution using the very latest audio-over-IP network technology.

Working in close partnership with NG Bailey and their client, CIE-Group were engaged to provide full on-site consultation service, consisting of site survey, technical output specification and system design to deliver a number of solutions to suit a variety of budgets and address the problems of a large scale legacy site.

CIE's solution was to specify a system based around their bra

UK - Philips Vari-Lite is currently rolling out training for the industry standard VL4000 Spot, with one of the most recent workshops taking place at London's RADA.

Highly experienced Vari-Lite trainer for EMEA Coral Cooper was hosting the hands on session, where the VL4000 Spot luminaires were disassembled to the sub-assembly level to demonstrate ideal maintenance techniques. Cooper also explained the VL4000 Spot luminaire's broad range of features, informing the end users and potential customers at the session on how to maximise its vast potential.

Among the attendees was James Ashdown, Director at Automated Ltd. "The VL4000 is a multi-featured fixture, with all the tools a lighting designer needs in one," says Ashdown. "I'm very pleased to see that Philips Vari-Lite has included a four bladed shutter module into the fixture without losing any other features.

Australia - Melbourne companies Mint Lighting Design and ENTTEC have transformed the forecourt and main terminal façade at Melbourne Airport with a dynamic lighting installation that provides ambience and entertainment and welcomes travellers to the city.

The landmark project covers 12 individual sites programmed as one to create an intricate, synchronised light show that boasts more than 40,000 pixels and 57 universes to control and schedule them.

In total, 2140 individual products were designed and installed.Key elements include: 14m 'Melbourne' sign in the forecourt; 140m double-sided light projections beneath the elevated roadway; 60m canopy lighting within pedestrian bridges, plus light in shell canopies and trees; interactive 'light shower' that bathes visitors in blue light, inspired by research into its effects on the circadian rhythm.

Specialised programming across

London - 2014 marks the 75th anniversary of the launch of the distinctive Shure 55 Unidyne dynamic microphone, an iconic design and favourite of celebrated figures through the decades, including Billie Holliday, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and John F. Kennedy, to name just a few.

Introduced in 1939, the 55 Unidyne was internationally adopted as a workhorse microphone for broadcast, public address, recording, and two-way radio applications. By the 1950s it was so well known that it was marketed as "the microphone that needs no name". And even in the 21st century, its design symbolises what many think of when they hear the word "microphone".

To this day, the 55 Unidyne - the first directional microphone to use a single dynamic element - continues to influence dynamic microphone designs across the globe. This fact was recognised by the international Institute of Ele

Europe - Yamaha has released a free update to its Nuage post-production and studio recording system which allows seamless compatibility with Steinberg's just-released Cubase Pro 8 DAW software - making Nuage a powerful and flexible control solution for music production studios.

Nuage is already highly regarded by the post-production industry, but Yamaha's experience with live and studio mixing consoles meant that its potential to be an industry-leading solution for music production has long been recognised. This potential has now been realised, thanks to the Nuage v1.6 software update, which delivers high-level integration with Cubase Pro 8, including full access from Nuage Fader and Nuage Master units.

Cubase has been a benchmark of music production software for the past 25 years and Cubase Pro 8 is its most advanced version yet. One of the flagship features is its VCA faders

USA - Brooklyn Information and Culture (BRIC) is the cultural heart of New York's most populous borough. Over the past two years, the City of New York has invested millions of dollars in transforming the former Strand Theatre into the multi-purpose BRIC House, with an Alcons Audio system chosen to feature in its central performance space.

BRIC was founded in 1976, its links to the Strand Theatre going back to the 1990s. The former vaudeville, movie and opera venue was gutted in the 1950s, after which it was put to various leisure and industrial uses, notably as a glass factory. BRIC began using part of the venue in 1993 and, after nearly two decades of planning, a $40m refurbishment of the Fulton Street building has delivered a contemporary, flexible, multi-disciplinary arts and media centre, designed to support artists and engage the public.

As well as BRIC, the venue is home

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