The Netherlands - A new three room live music venue has been created in a converted industrial building in Leiden.

Previously owned by the Nobel brothers (after whom it is named), the new 'de Nobel' local government-owned music centre will be operated by LVC (Leiden Leisure Centre).

The sound system installation was carried out by TM Audio, who participated successfully in a European public tender in early 2013. The company responded to an outline specification issued by PB Theateradviseurs and were awarded the contract based on their ability to provide premium brands - including Martin Audio, whom they represent in The Netherlands.

According to TM Audio sales & marketing manager, Rudolf Nagtzaam, "We were up against three or four competitors, and were able to meet or exc

Finland - UK theatre, event and installed audio specialists Out Board has appointed Electro Waves Oy as its new Finnish distributor for the TiMax SoundHub audio showcontrol matrix and TiMax Tracker performer tracking system. The company will also sell and support the Outboard LV & DV Chain-Hoist Controller products in Finland.

The team at Electrowaves, who have a long standing association with the TiMax suite of products, are headed by Kurt Nyback who brings two decades of experience with the brand.

Says Nyback, "TiMax is a totally unique sound automation system and it cannot be compared to anything else. At Electrowaves we understand TiMax SoundHub and TiMax Tracker, and how it will bring the best sound arrangements for our customers. Electrowaves will also support the Outboard Chain-Hoist Control products."

Nyback continues, "TiMax has proved popular in Finl

Sweden - On 10 December 2014, Clay Paky joined the elite crowd of guests at one of the highest profile events in the world - The Nobel Prize Banquet. Held annually in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall since 1934, the banquet immediately follows the prestigious Nobel Prize Awards.

The event is attended by the King and Queen of Sweden and the other members of the Royal Family, plus approximately 1300 guests, including Nobel Laureates, politicians, dignitaries and other VIPs, as well as seen by the viewing audience of a High Definition television broadcast by Swedish Television (SVT). No tickets can be bought; all guests are invited by the Nobel foundation.

Lighting designer Per Sundin integrated 18 Clay Paky Alpha Profile 800 ST fixtures for the event, supplied by Woodlite. He knows the layout of Stockholm City Hall well, having designed for the event many times in the past.

UK - With less than five weeks to go until the Event Production Show opens its doors, organiser, Mash Media has unveiled a packed programme of panel debates and seminars to educate and entertain exhibitors and visitors.

The Main Stage will see the return of the popular Access Sessions. Taking the form of a 45 minute panel debate, each session will bring together experts from across the industry to share their experiences, discuss new ideas and outline prospects for the year ahead.

First to take to the stage is Piers Shepperd of Wonder Works, who will chair a panel on The Importance of Opening and Closing Ceremonies to the Cultural Heritage and Legacy of Large Sporting Events, which will also feature David Zolkwer, artistic director and head of ceremonies at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Other sessions planned for Wednesday include a Question Time style

USA - Eurotruss has announced that Luis Duque has joined the l Sales team in the USA. He is based in Miami, Florida and is the point of contact for existing and potential customers for the whole Latin American Area.

Luis is a well known entrepreneur in the region and will continue selling lighting fixtures, consoles and sound systems through his own company Wholestage - D&B Group. He has considerable knowledge and experience in the staging and rental business in Latin America. Luis plans on furthering his education and practical knowledge, through focused training programs fully supported by Eurotruss and has the complete support of the global Eurotruss sales and product support team.

Martin Kuyper, CEO USA reported, "We are delighted that Luis has joined Eurotruss and we are confident that he will be a great asset to the team. After his successful sales of Roof Systems i

UK - New from eLumen8 comes the Beam 2R, a compact and fast beam moving head with an extremely long-throw beam. Housed inside is a powerful 132W Platinum 2R lamp with a high precision reflector for a bright and narrow beam. Its well-focused 3 degree beam is strong enough to keep pace with many larger fixtures.

The Beam 2R features 14 dichroic colour filters plus open and 17 gobo patterns plus open including multi-sized beam gobos. "Extremely fast three-phase motors make the Beam 2R at home in any small to medium-size venue or event. The unit is also flicker-free and makes it an ideal choice for Theatre and TV studios," says Pro Light.

Beams can be manipulated using an 8-facet rotating prism to give additional effects with macros. A variable electronic strobe and 0-100% dimmer add to the versatility of this fixture. Power and control are facilitated with powerCONs and

The Netherlands - At ISE 2015, the centrepiece of the Hitachi Digital Media Group stand will be a spectacular curved display that highlights the use of projection mapping technology with multiple stacked 9000 series projectors.

"While Hitachi continues to bring new, innovative and sustainable projection solutions to customers, our emphasis at ISE this year is to demonstrate thought provoking and inspirational ways to use the products," said Axel Kutschke, senior manager, presentation products for Hitachi Digital Media Group. "With a broad selection of solutions from across the entire Hitachi product range we will be encouraging customers in education, business and professional AV to fully exploit the capabilities of our latest innovations."

The central curved display is delivered by four stacks of paired 9000 series projectors, each producing 17,000 Lumens.

USA - Seventeen years since its inception, British audio equipment manufacturer Audient brings exciting new products, a fresh, dynamic team, a progressive new owner and a new distribution partner to the United States.

No stranger to NAMM, Audient comes to this year's show having picked up its third TEC-Award nomination, this time for the eight-channel mic pre, ASP880. Another recipient of much acclaim is the feature-packed USB AD/DA interface and monitoring system, iD22 which visitors to the show should be able to get a look at.

It all started with the large format ASP8024 analogue console designed by David Dearden, who himself lays claim to a sound electronics design experience second to none. He's spent over 40 years working with consoles, headed up DDA, co-founded Audient, and also had the incredible experience of helping build the custom console used for John Lennon's 'Ima

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The Netherlands - Martin Audio has been a long-time exhibitor of the ISE Show, but this year will see it take its presence a stage further with its inaugural year of live demonstrations of its products.

As well as exhibiting in Hall 7 Stand K175, Martin Audio will also be demonstrating its products for the installation market with everything from its ceiling speakers through to its award winning MLA Mini system. The demo takes place near Hall 10, in Room 104.

Combining an engaging presentation covering the acoustic innovation behind the products and the opportunity to listen to tracks in superb richness, detail and even coverage, attendees will discover Martin Audio's signature experience and how venues and audiences will benefit as a result.

Demonstrations will last one hour and take place on Tuesday and Wednesday of the show at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm whilst Thursday's events wi

USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the appointment of Steve Young as director, North American sales. Young brings over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and management to Community. He comes to Community from the Music-Group where he was manager of business development for all Music-Group professional brands including Midas, Klark-Teknik, Turbosound and Eurocom. Previously, Young was vice president of sales and marketing at Mitek (Atlas Sound).

"Community offers their customers a level of integrity that is simply unparalleled," said Young. "Our products not only sound phenomenal, but they are also backed by leading edge engineering and the best applications support team in the industry. Customers certainly have a lot of choices today, but when they choose Community vs. the competition, they will experience the positive differences whi

UK - Leisuretec Distribution Ltd has announced its new trade partnership with the American manufacturer Samson Technologies, an industry leader in both consumer and professional audio equipment.

Leighton Buzzard-based Leisuretec are distributors of professional and commercial audio, lighting, video and special effects to the trade. Cliff Dounting, managing director, commented on the new partnership: "We are very proud to be partnering with Samson, a company with a great pedigree along with an exciting product range, all of which make for a very strong fit with Leisuretec's portfolio enabling us to further grow our service and capabilities to the industry trade and in particular the MI retail sector."

Samson developed the first professional USB microphones to be used by musicians, broadcasters and podcast enthusiasts and their USB microphone is now the industry standa

Canada - On 6 December the night sky over Montreal was pierced by 14 beams of light in a solemn commemoration of the 14 victims of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre 25 years ago. Montreal-based Moment Factory chose Clay Paky Mythos lights for the touching ceremony atop Mount Royal.

Residents of Montreal, Mayor Denis Coderre, Quebec and federal political leaders, gun control advocates, journalists, victims' family members and survivors of the shooting gathered at the lookout of the Mount Royal chalet for a two-hour ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the day a gunman stalked the engineering school targeting women, professing to hate feminists and the new roles of women in society.

As part of the commemoration, 14 columns of light, each one symbolizing a young woman who perished in the massacre, rose into the sky. The powerful beams were created by Clay Paky Mythos fixtures.

UK - A combination of geometrically and historically inspired projections make for a striking backdrop for Rodrigo y Gabriela's latest tour, in support of new album 9 Dead Alive. The duo's multimedia designer, Krisjanis Berzins operates the show using Ai Version 8 - Bondi, running from a Software Licence Key.

The Mexican acoustic guitar duo returned to tour the UK this winter, having taken to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in the summer. Using two screen fixtures, their show employs Ai to run 4-6 layers per fixture, made up of one-two footage layers plus four live camera layers which can be source switched to use up to eight cameras at a time.

Berzins' design took inspiration from the new album, for which each song is dedicated to someone with significant legacy in human history. "We had built animations for these as well as some extra geometry based content for

USA - Robe made six of its new BMFL Spots available to lighting designer Preston Hoffman for the 2014 Warren Haynes Christmas Jam. The annual event, this year staged at the U.S. Cellular Centre in Asheville, North Carolina, featured Billy and the Kids, The Revivalists, Jason Isbell, Vince Gill, The Hard Working Americans and Haynes' own band, Gov't Mule.

Now in its 26th year, the high-profile music event, which began in a small club in 1988, has become a major charity fundraiser. Since 2008, the proceeds have gone to Habitat for Humanity, an international non government, not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering communities and building affordable housing for those in need.

Preston has been lighting the Christmas Jam for the last four years. This year's goal with the lighting design was to move forward from last year's spectacle which was expanded to two nights with

UK - With a choir of 1,300 school children, a 30 piece Big Band and vocalist, plus various other ensembles including a body percussion choir, the Brighton & Hove Schools Christmas Concert taking place at the Brighton Centre this December presented some complex audio logistics for Mustt Audio and its Flare loud speaker system.

The concert, organised by Brighton & Hove Music & Arts at the 5,000 capacity Brighton Centre, is a well established seasonal singing extravaganza, eagerly anticipated by local families. So it was vital that the performers were supported by a multi-skilled professional technical production team.

"It was as if we had five concerts running simultaneously," says Mustt Audio owner, Waq. "Choreographing and coordinating the show was a challenge. The music alternates between different choirs and orchestras, so one group might be playing or singing

UK - The final music show to be staged at London's Earls Court concert and exhibition venue - which is being demolished - saw indie rockers Bombay Bicycle Club deliver an enthusiastic and enigmatic set, complete with some very special guests including Dave Gilmour - in the final show of their So Long See You Tomorrow album campaign and world tour.

The set, lighting and video elements were designed by Squib, and XL Video supplied video production and crew for both Earls Court and the preceding tour which had originally started in April 2014.

The tour featured eye catching video content created by Adam Young and Anna Ginsburg - mostly charismatic hand drawn animations - which were programmed onto one of XL's Catalyst media servers and projected on to seven stretched fabric circles or discs of varying sizes between 4 and 8 feet, fed by a pair of Barco projectors.

For the

UK - Cadac finished off 2014 with a flurry of trade shows and demonstration events for its flagship CDC eight digital console throughout November and December, in partnership with its European distributors.

For 2015 the company has already hit the demonstration trail running, at Teknikmesse i Operaen (Technology Exhibition at the Opera), at the Det Kongelige Teater Copenhagen, with Danish distributor Starbaek Audiovisual Truss and Stage on 7 - 8 January, at Tour Link Conference in Palm Springs with Paul Morini from Cadac's US office on 8 - 10 January, and at Queens University, Belfast, with PHG - Production House and Cadac's UK sales manager Rob Hughes, in Northern Ireland on 13 - 15 January.

The trade show tour at the end of 2014 kicked off with Tonmeistertagung 2014 on 20 - 23 November in Cologne, where the CDC eight-32 and CDC eight-16 were centre stage on Audio Specialists

UK - The MADI-MON from 4HM, part of the Bel Digital Group, gives broadcast, live sound and production audio engineers a simple but reliable way of auditioning embedded MADI channels, without the need to connect to external routers or audio consoles. BBC Northern Ireland (BBCNI) has recently invested in a unit, supplied by Aspen Media, in order to facilitate monitoring of its new MADI audio router and communications systems.

As the first device to provide studio engineers with the tools necessary to interrogate the MADI stream in order to view the status of embedded channels, MADI-MON is a suitable monitor for the commissioning and maintenance of MADI-based audio systems. It is the only MADI monitor that makes all of the audio signals visible and accessible as a breakout simultaneously, with the status bits of the MADI stream also available for diagnostic use.

BBCNI chose the M

UK - Since Soccer AM first aired in 1995 it has developed a cult following with features such as Crossbar Challenge, Away Days, Taxi and Third Eyes plus the Soccerettes.

Despite the longevity of the show, it has always remained relaxed, spontaneous and funny which is a credit to the team and the presenters Helen Chamberlain and Max Rushden.

Behind the scenes you just sense that there is a group of colleagues that can call themselves friends and know how to have a laugh together. This is made all the more obvious with their annual Dance Off.

Long standing LD Malcolm Reed designs the lighting show which is supported by Richard Martin Lighting (RML). Although the lighting is relatively minimal for the feature, Malcolm always makes and point of changing the fixtures every year so that there is a different look. This year he went for the

Russia - Russian rock band DDT have embarked on their world tour, Pellucid, with lighting designer Andrejs Dubkovs choosing the ever-popular Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash 330 as a winning combination of "power, reliability and budget-saving" for his emotive design.

Dubkovs, of show design house Lumen Art Divison, specified the fixtures from Novosibirsk-based Elkraft for the Russian leg of the tour, with leading production company Orion supplying the units for the international dates.

"The Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash 330 are ideal for this tour," says Dubkovs. "They are super powerful meaning I need to use less fixtures to achieve the looks I want and yet compact and lightweight, saving space in the trucks. Both of these factors are very important when touring around the world.

"In addition, Clay Paky fixtures are extremely reliable durin

Russia - SGM's P-5 wash lights demonstrated their applicability as waterproof luminaires at the recent International Festival of Light in Moscow. Fountain specialist Aqua-Show was tasked with installing two lines of fountains and creating a 3D world of water for laser projection. They needed to illuminate the fountains with water reaching heights up to 30m, and for that they selected the powerful RGBW P-5.

Water show lighting designer and design engineer of the fountain system, Korzakov Anton, explains, "This is our first experience in using LED light for creating a wash effect on the water. Previously, we have not found such a fixture in our rental market with this huge light output. All our previous attempts have been unsuccessful and for many years we have only used conventional lights."

The multishow took place at the Ostankino Tower, Russia's national TV buildin

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