Ukraine - 1+1 Media Group is one of the largest media conglomerates in Ukraine. It is comprised of eight Ukrainian TV channels and also includes a fully-fledged production company. 1+1 Media recently installed an ANDIAMO.XT AES/MADI converter and two powerful M.1k2 MADI routing systems from DirectOut as the audio core in their new eight-floor TV Centre, plus a number of ANDIAMO.XT AES/MADI converters in two of their OB vans which have been converted to full HD facilities.

"This is the first time we have worked with DirectOut, and they couldn't have been more helpful," affirmed Aleksey Marko, head of procurement for 1+1 Media. "It's rather a long story and of course our political situation has not helped matters, but the short version is, that having purchased an Eve

South Africa - Midstream Ridge Primary, situated in Midstream Estate, between Centurion and Midrand, opened its doors on January 2014. Amongst a frenzy of excited children and enthusiastic teachers, the smell of fresh paint and cement still lingering in the air, the official inaugural ceremony took place in the newly kitted out school hall on 8 August.

Consultant Pieter-Jan Kapp - better known as Kappie - from PJK, created a technically sound and user-friendly venue that would do credit to any school in the country. For the lighting in the school hall he specified Philips Strand dimming, Philips Selecon Acclaim and Rama fixtures, a Philips Strand 250ML console, six Robe 250 AT Spots and a few faithful Longman LED Pars. DWR Distribution supplied this equipment, as well as a stage curtain track manufactured by Rob Young.

Kappie has had the opportunity of working on numerous inst

USA - MGM Resorts International and Live Nation teamed up this fall to produce the inaugural Route 91 Harvest country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip over October's first weekend. Staged on a huge lot across the famed boulevard from MGM's Luxor, the three-day event featured some of the biggest names in country music, including nightly headliners Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean, plus more than two dozen other classic artists and fast-rising newcomers.

Route 91 Harvest was a big show, but true to Las Vegas' larger-than-life philosophy, it was only one of four huge music fests held there within a single month's time. The iHeart Radio festival (21 September) saw pop stars Iggy Azalea, Neon Trees, 5 Seconds of Summer and Fences take the stage; on 27 September the first iteration of the Boulevard Brew Fest brought rockers Kings of Leon, Young the Giant and Kongos

USA - Marquee Nightclub is consistently one of the highest grossing nightclubs in Las Vegas and one of the hottest and most luxurious nightclubs around. Located in the heart of the Strip, Marquee underwent a major LED lighting system upgrade recently with LD Steve Lieberman, owner of SJ Lighting, using over 1,100 new Elation Pixel Bar 40 LED strip lights to create a 360-degree immersive experience.

SJ Lighting received praise as theatrical lighting design consultants for the original design at Marquee when the club debuted in 2010 and were called on again to give the club a fresh makeover. "Any venue in an A market needs to update technologies to stay competitive because they play such a strong supporting role in creating the atmosphere," Steve Lieberman states. "At Marquee, we wanted to create a new design that would carry them through the next several years, som

UK - Katy B embarked on a major UK tour that saw lighting designer Tom Campbell make dramatic use of Philips Showline SL Nitro 510C LED strobes to blend her signature dubstep/garage sound with his nightclub-evoking lighting theme.

Campbell, who was touring a floor package and augmenting his design with venue house rigs, was looking for fixtures that could bring more than one strong look to his design: "I wanted a really clubby vibe with lots of opportunity for strong, colorful high-contrast moments," explains Campbell. "I'm using the SL NITRO 510C strobes as block colour strobing and super-bright backlight wash effects. Both looks deliver a really striking feel."

The SL Nitro 510C strobes, supplied by lighting hire operation Siyan Ltd, feature six zones of control offering Campbell a much appreciated element of flexibility.

"They're incredibly bright

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USA - With this week's opening of the Dr. Phillips Centre for the Performing Arts, Orlando is now the home to a world-class performing arts centre that will attract patrons from across the region, serve as a home for community arts groups, provide a nexus for arts education, and contribute even further to the city's reputation as a tourist mecca.

The 330,000sq.ft building was a collaboration between Theatre Projects, Barton Myers (design architect), HKS Architects (executive architect) and Baker Barrios (associate architect). It was a project nearly three decades in the making.

Theatre Projects first began planning an arts centre for Orlando in 1985 when city officials hired them to determine whether the city could support such a facility. At the time, it was decided that the city could not accommodate the performing arts centre, but a re-evaluation 10 years later found the ci

UK - With new exhibitors and new speakers being announced every week, there will be plenty for visitors to see at the Glasgow SECC for the inaugural PLASA Focus Glasgow event, which takes place on 2-3 December 2014.

New exhibitors announced this week include Adlib Audio and HDPro Audio, Orbital Sound and FBT Audio UK, who will join the all-star list of exhibitors already at the show - including Robe, Ambersphere, White Light, Avolites, Chauvet, AED, Sennheiser, Bosch, NL Productions, JHS ProAudio, Warehouse Sound, LMC Audio, Polar Audio, Black Light, Trusslite, Total Solutions Group, UK Rigging, TMB and many more.

PLASA's Professional Development Programme will deliver two days of presentations, technical demonstrations and panel discussions, all designed to help visitors build their industry knowledge and improve their skill set. This year's programme focusses on the hot topi

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With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

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World - Monitor engineer Travis Walat recently completed the European and North American legs of the Joss Stone Total World tour with an Allen & Heath iLive T-112 Surface and a 48 input / 24 output iDR-48 MixRack.

The ultimate aim of the tour is for the 26 year old soul singer-songwriter to play a show in every country on the planet, so with performances widely spread across the globe the audio crew was travelling light. To ensure that the band's monitors were consistent wherever in the world they were, Walat looked for a mixing solution that offered full functionality in a compact footprint, finally settling on the iLive system after trying it out in rehearsals.

Twenty-one shows and 18 countries later, Walat enthused: "The iLive is an excellent sounding desk. Several band members commented on how nice things sounded, and it is also lightweight, compact and powerful, with

UK - The Shure Academy European Audio Network has announced the fourth Wireless Mastered workshop of 2014, to be held at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in Central London on 24 November. Presented by Tuomo Tolonen, Shure Distribution UK's Pro Audio Group manager and RF specialist, the session will take place in the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre at RADA between 9.30am and 3pm, with a break for light refreshments.

As with the previous highly successful Wireless Mastered sessions, this masterclass is aimed at all event production staff, and anyone that regularly uses wireless technology. The session covers all aspects of RF technology and wireless microphone operation, including discussions of the changing availability of RF spectrum use for live events.

Shure wireless technology will be used as a practical reference, including PSM900/PSM1000 in-ear monitoring, UHF-R, ULX-D a

USA - California State University Bakersfield recently purchased a Harman Soundcraft Si Performer 3 to support its growing music and theatre programs. The console is used for live mixing during shows in the 485-seat Doré Theatre, which include jazz and other music productions, theatrical productions, musicals, and opera. The board was purchased through Full Compass Systems.

To accommodate the 14 to 20 wireless microphones for the Music and Theatre Department productions, performing arts technician Frank Robinson chose the Soundcraft Si Performer 3 with 32 channels for sufficient capacity and room for future expansion. The sound booth that houses the console also allows for a simplified wiring network, and will permit elimination of much of the internal house wiring at a later date.

"We chose Soundcraft because we wanted a brand-new system within our budget that wor

USA - LDI 2014 sees Visual Productions exhibiting with their range of lighting control software for Mac, PC & Linux and solid-state hardware controllers including the CueCore.

Visual Productions will also be launching and demonstrating the eagerly awaited Cuety iPad lighting control system.

Cuety is a new generation lighting controller that turns your iPad into a powerful lighting console. With the growing usage of tablets in place of laptops, Visual Productions recognized the need for convenient, affordable lighting control solutions to use on these mobile devices.

Cuety is designed for the entry-level entertainment market, therefore it is easy to use and budget friendly. Cuety enables you to take full advantage of the iPad's mobility and multi-touch display. The controller has full support for moving heads, LEDs, conventional lighting and DMX controlled special effects.

USA - Part of North Point Ministries, Inc, Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia, is a 15-year-old establishment with a 3000-seat auditorium which hosts four services every Sunday.

The church is in the process of growing its technical equipment to enrich the quality of its in-services. Part of this expansion involves the increased use of media and lighting to add to the dynamic format of the services.

Video forms a main element of the set designs: video imagery is projected onto set pieces or run through plasma screens on stage and used as a backdrop to performances. This is enhanced by the generous use of LED lighting. The set is changed every four months to keep things fresh and new for the church attenders.

Images of the pastor, who alternates between Buckhead Church and North Point Community Church, two of the six NPMi campuses in the greater Atlanta area, are also project

USA - Modern sports venues have to do it all - host major sports contests one night and top-selling music artists the next. That's an economic imperative at a time when teams and promoters are competing for the consumer entertainment spend. The venue with great sound that can do it all wins, and that's why Toyota Centre, the arena home of the NBA Houston Rockets, comes out on top.

In October, the arena, which opened in September 2003 and seats 18,000 for basketball and over 19,000 for concerts, installed a new L-Acoustics K2 sound system - the first K2 system permanently installed in a major professional sports arena.

The cap to a two-year AV makeover that included new HD video scoreboards, the sound system, designed in Soundvision by project consultant Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams and AV systems integrator LD Systems with support from the L-Acoustics US applications

UK - The last two weekends of October saw London's Westfield shopping centres stage Music Cube, a showcase of new and established musical talent. As Westfield's preferred audio partner, Sennheiser UK played a key role in both events.

Music Cube is a giant soundproof glass box, in which a range of artists performed over the weekend of 24-26 October at the Westfield London shopping centre, and 31 October - 2 November at Westfield Stratford City.

Kicking off at midday, performances by between three and six up-and-coming artists were followed by a set from a Kiss FM DJ and then two headline slots by more recognised performers.

Each session was witnessed by an audience of up to 300, all using Sennheiser's Urbanite headphones to enjoy the music.

Sennheiser UK provided equipment including evolution 2000 series wireless microphones for the artists, plus 300 sets of Urbanite headph

UK - Lighting and visuals designer Dan Robinson has just finished his third tour with UK singer and musician John Newman, which ramped up production values with the help of XL Video who supplied an LED screen / mini-cam and control package plus crew.

Newman and his management team have always believed in investing in great looking live shows, which has enabled Dan to creatively evolve the look and feel of the performances since he started working with the artist last year at a show at Settle Village Hall - Newman's home town.

On the first two tours, the focus was on imaginative lighting, however this time around video was introduced to work in parallel with this.

Dan has made film shorts and music videos for fun in the past, so his passion for moving images and effects coupled with John Newman's own interest in his visuality onstage ... produced a dynamic basis for the tour.

UK - HHB Communications has supplied the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) with a 16-fader Avid S6 M10 control surface.

UWE is the first UK educational facility that HHB has supplied with Avid's new modular S6 control surface. The S6 was specified with two banks of eight faders, and complementary Process and Knob modules. Used in conjunction with Pro Tools HD software, S6 provides UWE's students with powerful hands-on control of all DAW functions.

UWE senior lecturer Martyn Harries has been a long-term customer of HHB since his days as an audio post production engineer for the BBC. Martyn explains that the S6 will equip students in UWE's new Broadcast Audio and Music Technology course with knowledge of the equipment used in the UK's leading studios. "The S6 will give our students an edge by exposing them to an incredibly powerful console. We place a strong

USA - Manhattan's Pier 94 has seen a lot of history pass through its 135,000sq.ft of space since it opened in 1935 as an ocean liner terminal, but it's doubtful that this venerable structure, which was later remodelled as an exhibition centre, has ever witnessed anything quite like the Pier of Fear. Now in its third year, the two-day festival served up a spectacular Halloween treat for New York's EDM fans with a stellar line-up of DJs, a colourful array of costumes that were definitely not picked up at Wal-Mart, and a brain tingling lightshow anchored by Next NXT-1 and Legend 330SR Spot fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

KM Productions of Hicksville, NY set up the lighting rig for the Halloween festival, which is put on by RPM Presents (New York). "This is a major event on the EDM calendar," said Kevin Mignone, president of KM Productions. "It's very DJ centric w

UK - For the past several months the Tower of London, part of the Historic Royal Palaces, and its ambitious sculptural commission: Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red have been a central symbol of the UK's WWI Centenary observations.

The display, which grew in size over time, marked each commonwealth casualty of WWI - 888,246 in total - with a hand-made red ceramic poppy "planted" by volunteers around the venue's exterior. Entertainment and event production supplier White Light has been closely involved in the event, providing lighting, sound, and video support services for the opening ceremony on 5 August and closing ceremony on 11 November (Remembrance Day) as well as providing lighting for the entire poppy display throughout its three-month installation.

White Light managing director Bryan Raven commented on event's significance saying, "The Tower Poppies have

UK - London's Imperial War Museum opened its new First World War Gallery in July. The vision was to give the visitor a more realistic representation of what life in a trench was like. A soundscape was clearly going to be vital and the noises should come from many different parts of the display. The mission was on to find a proven playback system that would respond to cues from a Medialon Show Controller and interface with video servers from 7th Sense and Dataton. The clear choice was the Merging Technologies Ovation.

Idee und Klang have an enviable track record of significant projects from the BMW Museum in Munich to the Stategrid Pavilion at the Expo Shanghai 2010 so sound designer, Ramon De Marco was able to understand the requirements very easily. The museum had organised an international competition to select the sound design company and the Idee und Klang proposal was the o

Germany - Belgian based WIcreations designed a custom tracking system that moved six giant columns of LED screen over 70m for the massive event in front of Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate to celebrate 25 Years since the 'Fall of the Wall'.

The Brandenburg Gate show, televised live by a number of international news and TV networks, was the highest profile of a number of celebratory elements staged in Berlin over the weekend of 9 November, all commemorating the landmark quarter-century since that tumultuous moment in 1989 when the Berlin Wall metaphorically 'fell'.

The screens glided seamlessly back and for the along the tracks, opening and closing the vista of the Brandenburg Gate for the tens of thousands who gathered to enjoy the party. Performances on the two stages in front of the Gate included German stars Fantastischen Vier, Udo Lindenberger, DJ Paul Kalkbrenner and ma

GLP will continue to celebrate its 20th anniversary at this year's LDI Show in Las Vegas (17-23 November). As at Prolight+Sound and PLASA earlier in the year the company will present a museum, displaying milestone products released during the past two decades. But the highlight of its product display will be the expanding series of impression X4 products - including the brand new impression X4 Bar, making its North American debut at the show.

The impression X4 Bar 10 and impression X4 Bar 20 are high performance battens that incorporate 15W RGBW LEDs packed tightly to give a full line of light. The X4 Bar 20 measures 40"/1m in length and uses 20 LEDs, and the shorter 20"/50cm X4 Bar 10 uses 10 LEDs. The battens produce a smooth, homogenised output across the batten through a broad pallet of pastel and saturated colours, complemented by dimming which ensures that there is no c

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