World - Engineering and automation specialists Wicreations is supplying flying and rigging solutions to the Ice Age Live - A Mammoth Adventuretour produced by Stage Entertainment Touring Productions, which continues to enthral audiences worldwide now on its latest third leg of an extensive touring schedule that started in 2012 and is currently scheduled until 2017.

The show, directed by Guy Caron and Michael Curry, combines ice skating, aerial arts, puppetry and film, offering a new story based on the first Ice Age film.

WIcreations has a long standing working relationship with Amsterdam based Stage Entertainment, and has been involved with various specialist rigging aspects of the Ice Age Live project from the start.

For this phase of the tour, the WIcreations team - project

UK - Philips Entertainment has been announced as the main sponsor of The Fresnel Lecture - a special free event organised by the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) that will take place on Tuesday 10 March at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

The talk is to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Augustine Fresnel's Wave Theory of Light, which also coincides with UNESCO's International Year of Light 2015. Fresnel's findings are the basis for the lecture, which will discuss: '200 years of Fresnel: Why everything we light and look at today depends on what he said' and will be presented by Peter Phillipson.

"I am delighted that the Society of Light and Lighting Fresnel Lecture is being sponsored by Philips, alongside the International Association of Lighting Designers," says Phillipson. "Thanks to their support it means that 200 years of Fresnel's wave theory wi

The Netherlands - Kramer Electronics has announced the release of the VP-772 8-input 4K Dual Scaler with seamless video switching and special effect transitions. The company will be showcasing VP-772 at ISE 2015 in Amsterdam as a part of Kramer's pro AV solutions for live events.

With Kramer's scaling technology, the VP-772 is designed for projection and display systems at live events, churches, auditoriums, conference rooms, boardrooms, hotels, and production studios.

VP-772 scales and processes video and audio inputs and outputs to independent preview and programme DVI-I outputs (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI) and two balanced stereo audio outputs. The dual scaler also features DVI-U inputs (with analog, DVI and HDMI support) and stereo-balanced audio signals. The preview output, featuring an on-screen display menu, lets you view how the program output will look on the live display.

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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. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

The Netherlands - TC Group's install, tour and residential brands - Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake - will once again be bringing their extensive range of install and performance audio products to ISE 2015 this month, with Tannoy leading the charge with a host of new product offerings.

Making their debut will be two additions to Tannoy's award-winning digital beam steering column array system. Tannoy has developed the new QFlex Life Safety (LS) models as a cost effective solution for critical, life safety applications, a solution that balances complex power consumption needs with the high performance and intelligibility that is the core of the proven QFlex range.

The new models have an optimised driver placement and improved current draw, making them suitable for applications where emergency voice alarms or communications may be required. The QFlex LS will also herald an integrat

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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 - Lighting designer Betsy Adams, and her husband, theatre consultant Bob Murphy, are the newest members of the Ghostlight Society, the Behind the Scenes charity's legacy giving program. Betsy and Bob have made provisions to remember Behind the Scenes in their wills, thus ensuring their colleagues and the next generation of entertainment technology professionals will receive assistance if they become ill or injured.

Betsy and Bob commented on their reasons for joining the Ghostlight society: "We really believe in Behind the Scenes and wanted to do what we could to make sure the program thrives long into the future."

All members of the Ghostlight Society receive a beautiful sterling silver pin designed and handcrafted by award-winning, New York jewellery designer Susan Barth. Each pin is individually numbered.

There are several ways you may become a member of the

UK - London-based audio consulting firm, RH Consulting, has completed its second annual count of networked audio products and released the full data as an iOS app called Networked Audio Data. Building on the research completed last year there are now over 700 networked audio products available. This does not include the 100 or so interface cards that simply enable products to be networked.

"We think that part of the increase in devices we have recorded is due us being more diligent with the research, but we have also noted a significant increase in product availability with very many product launches over the past year," remarked consultant Roland Hemming. "We included products that use custom protocols as well as looking at those that are AES67 compliant. For AVB we counted all AVnu members' products separately from those who use the underlying AVB technology for

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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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The Netherlands - The Royal Concertgebouw is expanding its Meyer Sound inventory by adding two Meyer Sound CAL 96 column array loudspeakers in the Main Hall (Grote Zaal). Amsterdam's architecturally resplendent and acoustically magnificent concert venue, The Concertgebouw now joins two other world-renowned orchestral venues, Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus Berlin, both of which have installed Meyer Sound CAL systems within the last year.

"Here at The Concertgebouw we have been planning for some time to install a state-of-the-art permanent system for speech reinforcement," states Wouter van Poppel, head of technical services at the venue. "After listening to CAL demonstrations here on site and at the Musikverein in Vienna, we were extremely impressed with the system's clarity, speech intelligibility, and configuration flexibility."

The new Meyer Sound s

UK - Collecting together his experiences working with technology as a programmer, writing about old technology in his Classic Gear column for LSi, and trying to save some of that technology with the Backstage Heritage Collection, Rob Halliday will be talking about the history of computers in entertainment lighting at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley, near Milton Keynes on Thursday 12 March. Bletchley Park is perhaps most famous for hosting the World War 2 code-breakers. The National Museum of Computing houses a collection of historic computing equipment; perhaps in time it might provide a home to some of the Backstage Heritage Collection's historic memory lighting controls! Rob's talk is one of the museum's regular series that covers everything from the history of visual effects at the BBC to ultra-high resolution digital photography. He'll be focussing mainly on the

USA - Following its successful run on Broadway, Rodgers+Hammerstein's Cinderella has also taken to the road, launching a new production that is now touring the USA.

To refine the lighting rig to the practicalities of touring, budgets and equipment availability, lighting designer Kenneth Posner and associate lighting designer John Viesta made some changes to the New York design for the road, switching the side ladder moving lights from Martin MAC 2000s to Vari-Lite VL3500s and replacing the overhead VL2500 Wash lights with LED par cans.

As ever with changes like this, the lighting data in the console show file no longer produced the correct lighting on stage, since each fixture type responds differently to the same DMX data. In this situation what is needed is clear, precise, accurate information about what the lights did in each preset focus and in each cue in the origi

Saudi Arabia - An array of Showline's LED luminaires have lit the launch of a national Saudi employment initiative following Riyadh-based event producer Maestro's investment in Showline stock.

The award winning company purchased Showline SL BAND 300 RGBW, SL STRIP 400 (both RGBW and Tunable White) SL BAR 520 and SL BAR 620 luminaires. The units were employed to deliver stunning lighting for the function, which was attended by members of the ministry, members of the Shoura Council and top executives from the companies involved in the scheme.

"We came across the Showline products at Prolight and Sound last year, and were extremely impressed," says project manager Nawal El Masri. "We decided to purchase them as the quality was so high - the standard we offer our clients."

Maestro has an impressive portfolio, with experience managing a broad range of events f

Australia - Video services and expertise from TDC (Technical Direction Company) wowed audiences across the world in Visions of Vienna - a multi-media artistic collaboration between the Vienna Tourist Board and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra live in concert was combined with visuals celebrating the artistic and musical heritage of Vienna from Ample Projects and projected onto the roof or "sails" of the Sydney Opera House and broadcast to music lovers across the world in a live web-stream. The event took place on Wednesday, 4 February 2015.

"Having worked with Michael Hassett and his expert projection design team already back in the 90's we knew we could turn to TDC again for another unforgettable visual spectacular. TDC are a dream-team to work with," enthused Astrid Mulholland-Licht, director of the Austrian National Tou

USA - Furniture building isn't the only demanding aspect of Ellen's Design Challenge, a four-week-long HGTV reality show produced by Ellen DeGeneres, which began airing in the USA in January. In addition to the six competitors who are trying to make it to the end - using saws, drills and welders, among other noisy tools, to complete the weekly tasks - the audio team faced the daunting task of providing clear, crisp audio that is not interrupted by the hum of the machines. The solution was found with DPA d:screet 4061 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphones.

Selected by the show's sound supervisor, Daniel McCoy, CAS, a long-time DPA supporter, the d:screet 4061s are used by the entire 16-member cast, which includes a host and three judges as well as six designers and the carpenters with whom they are partnered. "I've had a lot of experience doing build shows," he e

World - Kylie Minogue recently completed the first leg of her Kiss Me Once tour, which included stops throughout Europe. The second leg of the tour begins in March 2015 with five shows in Kylie's native Australia. Following the successful tour of Europe, lighting designer Rob Sinclair and lighting director Louisa Smurthwaite provided insight into the creative processes behind the tour's extensive lighting design, which prominently featured fixtures from Martin Professional

Very early in the process, even before the new music was available, Sinclair had a meeting with Creative Director William Baker and Set Designer Alan Macdonald, during which it was decided that 'precise geometry' and 'Bauhaus aesthetics' were to be the key themes for the set design, inspired by the lines of the set and the early costume ideas. Baker then created a very detailed and instructive style gui

Venezuela - Operating in the Latin American market, Venezuela-based PROmontaje, a leading provider of technical resources for events in Venezuela, needed a solution to host large outdoor events and concerts. The company owns a large event site, just outside Caracas, which they plan to use for a range of outdoor concerts and sports events.

Jean Paul Gaspard of Audio Concept, Prolyte distributor in Latin America, put PROmontaje in contact with Prolyte. "I knew Prolyte was the only truss manufacturer I could trust to deliver a structure of the size and capacity my customer was looking for," comments Jean Paul Gaspard, "PROmontaje already owns an ARC roof and barriers from Prolyte, and they are very happy with the quality of those products and the ease of use".

The structure PROmontaje was looking for needed to have enough loading capacity, paired with a large

The Netherlands - Kramer Electronics has announced the release of its new seamless VSM-4x4HFS Matrix Switcher/Multi-scaler with video wall and multi-viewing modes. The company will be showcasing the product at ISE 2015 in Amsterdam as part of Kramer's Pro AV solutions for live events.

The Kramer VSM-4x4HFS offers "the fastest and cleanest switching and scaling experience in the market". Designed for presentation environments, the switcher/scaler features a 4x4 matrix switcher, as well as video wall (2x2), dual display (PIP/P&P) and quad display modes. Video wall mode comes with Bezel correction options. VSM-4x4HFS includes PixPerfect scaling, Kramer's high-precision pixel mapping and scaling technology.

The VSM-4x4HFS has 4 HDMI inputs and 4 scaled HDMI outputs and offers flexible control options, e.g., front panel buttons, IR remote control with OSD (On-Screen Displ

The Netherlands - Shure will be exhibiting a new version of the Camera Control System for conferencing audio applications at ISE 2015, the DIS CP 7890. Designed to integrate with the DIS DCS 6000 conference or DDS 5900 discussion systems, the package allows remote set up and control of a camera system for conferences, discussions or meeting spaces.

The CP 7890 controls up to four cameras, allowing a visual feed to automatically 'follow' the active microphone in the system. In this way the camera system is always displaying the person currently talking in the discussion or conference. The CP 7890 camera control system provides a steady, consistent camera feed, making it perfect for live broadcast or archival recording.

The CP 7890 is controlled via a setup app, originally only available for use on Apple iPads, and now also available for Android tablets. Downloads are available

USA - To strengthen its support for system integrators, Meyer Sound has joined the Crestron Integrated Partner Programme. The result is a suite of Crestron modules in development to allow customers to seamlessly implement Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeaker systems in environments controlled by Crestron products.

The Crestron Integrated Partner modules will provide integrators with direct access to the Meyer Sound Galileo and Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management systems, including functions such as snapshot recall, level control, muting, and more. Developed and tested by Crestron, the modules will fully support Crestron 3-Series control systems via an Ethernet connection.

"As applications of Meyer Sound products continue to broaden across connected AV environments from corporate boardrooms to arenas, this new partnership will allow us to further simplify workflow for

UK - Continuing their long-term working relationship, XL Video supplied video solutions including LED screens and camera system for the final show of Basement Jaxx's recent UK tour supporting their latest album, Junto.

Working with tour and production manager, Tommy Winstone, XL Video project manager, Connie Glover specified the package for the massive show at London's O2 Arena.

The unusual LED screen set up used XL Video's Pixled F-12 LED housed in XL's custom touring frames, and featured a combination of 2 square on-stage LED screens displaying playback content, and two tall portrait IMAG side screens - a change from the more commonly seen landscape IMAG screens. This set-up allowed the portrait IMAG to display full-length images of the band as well as split screen set-ups of multiple band members. LED for the tour was managed by Gareth Manicom and Joe Makein.

Glove

USA - Artcoustic Loudspeakers have been chosen by Roc Nation, the American entertainment company founded and owned by Jay-Z, for their New York offices. Spitfire 24-12 are installed in the vice president's office and the main boardroom.

"Everyone wants to book the main boardroom as they're all so impressed with the system installed in there," says the office receptionist.

Founded by Jay-Z in 2008, Roc Nation is a full-service entertainment company, inclusive of artist management, music publishing, touring, merchandising, film, television and an independent record label. It has an impressive roster of musicians and sports stars signed to either the record label or management services, including Rhianna, Kanye West, Kylie Minogue, Rita Ora, Matthew Dear, HAIM, Santigold, Shakira, Timbaland, Calvin Harris, Deadmau5 and Frank Ocean, as well as Jay-Z himself.

(Jim Evans

Europe - Californian band, Of Mice & Men, recently supported Linkin Park on the European leg of the Hunting Party arena tour, with Allen & Heath GLD-80 mixers performing both FOH and Monitor duties.

This was the first experience of using GLD for both FOH engineer, Dave Nutbrown, and monitor engineer Ian 'Squid' Walsh, who needed a system that could handle large arena shows whilst keeping to a compact footprint.

A GLD-80 connected over Cat 5 to AR2412 and AR84 AudioRacks provided 32 XLR inputs for stage sources and delivered five in-ear mixes, side-fills and a pair of centre wedges. Both GLD-80s were fitted with Dante cards and mic preamp signals were split digitally via Dante over Cat 5 to FOH. The analogue gain was set at the start of the tour, with the engineers using the consoles' digital trim (+/- 24dB) to independently make adjustments during the shows.

Ian 'Squid' Wals

Germany - For decades, the name Sennheiser has been synonymous with high-quality products, "true" sound and numerous innovations that have set new standards in audio technology. This year, the audio specialist is celebrating its 70th anniversary. It remains a family-owned and -operated enterprise, now headed by a third generation of the Sennheiser family: Today's CEOs, Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser, are the grandchildren of the company's founder, Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser.

The list of product innovations from Sennheiser is as extensive as it is impressive. Sennheiser has made a significant impact on the evolution of audio technology over the past seven decades, from the world's very first open earphone, the HD 414, and the wireless stage technology pioneered by the Digital 9000 system to present-day innovations such as MobileConnect, an inclusive audio-

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