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

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

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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

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.

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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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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

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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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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

UK - For the fifth year, CT supplied the innovative sports presentation services for the end-of-season tennis championship held at The O2 Arena.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is the year-end climax to the men's professional tennis season, featuring only the world's best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams as they battle it out for the last title of the season.

Creative Technology (CT) has been supplying equipment to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals since 2009; the first year they were held at the current venue.

The sports presentation involved all of the usual display elements as provided by CT. This included 230 linear metres of LED courtside banner, 160sq.m of flown LED in the form of an eight-sided gondola hung above the court and a 90sq.m IMAG screen.

Key to maximising the potential of all the display technology in the arena is the event control sy

UK - Artistic Licence has launched www.art-net.org.uk, a website dedicated to the Art-Net protocol. Offering a wealth of technical information, practical tips, downloads and registration portal, the website provides the definitive resource for anyone working with Art-Net.

Introduced by Artistic Licence into the public domain in 1998, Art-Net transformed the lighting control market by removing the channel restriction of DMX512. The protocol enabled multiple universes of data to be transported over a single ethernet cable, a necessary development as channel-hungry RGB LED fixtures became widely adopted.

Art-Net has always been non-proprietary and available free-of-charge. As a result, it is now supported by more than 150 manufacturers worldwide.

Offering over 16m control channels with full support for remote device management (RDM), Art-Net is ready for an even bigger, brighte

Germany - HK Audio has marked the first birthday of its Pulsar range of full-range portable powered speakers by producing a new explanatory video entitled Pulsar by HK Audio: Story of Origin.

The three-minute video, which is available now on HK Audio's official YouTube channel, explains Pulsar's key features from the perspective of one of the firm's engineers, and runs through the considerations made when designing the series.

Engineered specifically for musicians and DJs who want state-of-the-art acoustics and electronics delivered in a classic format, Pulsar brings all of HK Audio's longstanding competences together in a modern, easily transportable package. The speakers feature 1000 watts of Class D power and the latest DSP technology, while the cabinets are built of select wood chosen for its superior acoustic properties.

HK Audio product manager Alexander Wollenb

USA - LDI 2014, Las Vegas saw double-fold excitement around Robert Juliat this year as two booths promoted the latest products from the French manufacturer of followspots, profiles and Fresnels.

Robert Juliat USA's booth displayed popular, well-established brands including its LED profile ranges and a number of its powerful followspots. Simultaneously, newly-appointed US distributor, ACT Lighting, marked its first showing of Robert Juliat products by introducing Robert Juliat's latest followspots, the new Merlin and Roxie.

LDI 2014 witnessed the first viewing on US soil of Robert Juliat's new touring followspot, Merlin. Merlin is the culmination of an ambitious project to produce a powerful, rugged followspot for the touring market.

"America is the home of the megatour, with stadium rock, mega churches and large sporting events an essential part of its culture," sa

USA - Oliveto Restaurant and Cafe, the innovative, Italian-inspired dining destination in the heart of Rockridge in Oakland, unveils a new look-and sound-this week. Addressing the industry-wide issue of noise pollution in restaurants, Oliveto has found the perfect balance in its new partnership with Berkeley's Meyer Sound, installing a state-of-the-art acoustic solution in addition to making enticing aesthetic changes as part of the restaurant's first major renovation in 18 years.

At the same time, the Meyer Sound system allows the restaurant to advance on its soon-to-launch Oliveto Commons, an ongoing series of classes, panel discussions and workshops focused on food policy issues, producers, cooking techniques, and wine and spirits.

Led by owners and founders Bob and Maggie Klein, Oliveto's renovation speaks to the 28-year-old restaurant's deeply ingrained curiosity and driv

Portugal - The recent concerts of the British band James in Portugal were promoted by PEV Entertainment and it was part of the tour to promote the new album La Petite Mort.

Split into three distinct concerts, two of them on the north of Portugal with the Next-proaudio's sound reinforcement. According to the band, the first concert was a surprise for the fans, "on the magnificent and historic Sao Bento railway station in Porto and free to attend" where they "played a couple of tunes and answered some questions of the public".

The systems for these two different concerts were supplied by rental company Technosound, which provided full technical production services for the two events with the use of two Next PX Systems (Stackable System) for the small venue and the LA12 (Line Array System) for the big venue.

The first one, on 27 November was a mini-co

Spain - Neo 5 A ES and NEO 5 IP, the two last additions to the Neo Series of loudspeakers designed and developed by Work Pro, are now available. These two new products are innovative and smart solutions developed to complement Neo Series in order to provide AV professionals with powerful solutions that fit the requirements of every type of installations besides to offer additional advantages such as the optimization in energy consumption.

The Neo 5 A ES, the updated version of Neo 5 A, has been developed by Work Pro after setting itself the objective of maximizing the savings in energy consumption and, therefore, making it more efficient. Under this "green" or "ecological" company philosophy, the brand has come up with a smart solution capable of shutting down when it is not receiving audio signal. This auto-off feature means a reduction in its consumption be

USA - Virtually every new club lighting project has its own challenges, whether they involve dealing with limited power draw or trying to accommodate some unusual architectural limitation. For Jay Krause of Sound and Lighting Solutions (Fort Lauderdale, FL), the biggest challenge when working on the city's Hunter's nightclub was getting the ten Rogue fixtures his client wanted in fast enough.

"As soon as our client saw demos of the Rogue R1 Spot and R1 Beam, they fell in love with the fixtures," said Krause. "They wanted them yesterday. They were super excited, because they saw what the Rogues can do in a bi-level club -- which is create added depth plus all of these magical uplifting images in the air."

There are six Rogue R1 Spots and four Rogue R1 Beams in Krause's rig at the club. He positioned the beams midway between the first and second levels. "

The Netherlands - Frontline Audio & Vision of Lichtenvoorde in Holland has chosen STM M28, Nexo's new compact modular line array, as the tool for its future expansion, building on a substantial existing commitment to Nexo PA technology.

In just three years, Frontline has acquired a considerable inventory of Nexo loudspeaker cabinets, including PS15 full-range compacts, RS15 subbass, and 45°N-12 line monitors. Taking the next step forward, Martijn Klein Gibbink's company has made its first investment into Nexo's STM Series of modular line array, buying 18x STM M28 main cabinets together with 4x RS18 subbass and a NUAR (Nexo Universal Amp Rack) containing two NXAMP4x4s. All equipment has been supplied by Nexo distributor Iemke Roos.

"The M28 is the ideal line array for us," says Klein Gibbink, "it is very small with high output, and the consistency of its cove

UK - The HOME organisation's new performing and visual arts complex is set to open this winter. In the meantime, its recent production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, was staged in Manchester's historic Victorian swimming baths. This performance was also the maiden voyage for HOME's new Solid State Logic Live L500 console. Supplied by HD Pro Audio and chosen by technical director Jasper Gilbert and sound designer Paul Gregory, the L500 will be installed in HOME's new facility for continued use.

HOME evolved from the Library Theatre Company, from which actors such as Anthony Hopkins, Patrick Stewart, Alan Rickman and Martin Jarvis have gone on to fame. When Manchester's Central Library was renovated in 2010, the company lost its intimate 312-seat basement venue of 58 years, and has since presented in a variety of unorthodox spaces, such as the productions at the Victori

UK - London's Dominion Theatre has recently completed the biggest refurbishment and restoration project that the theatre has seen since it opened in 1929. This multi-million pound, four month long project sees the theatre transformed to its original 1920s grandeur with over half a million pounds spent on upgrading the technical infrastructure using over 36 kilometres of Van Damme cabling from VDC Trading supplied through Edmundson Electrical, Greenwich.

Included in the technical refurbishment was a brand new stage, a complete overhaul of the entire stage electrical system, the installation of a new flying system and a new stage lift. As most of the productions brings their own sound system and lighting, attention has been paid to installing a comprehensive network for video, sound, data, dimmers, patch panels and lighting looms. Cable used included Van Damme Cat 6 Data and Digil

USA - Core is establishing a branch office in Virginia Beach, Virginia headed by Martin Lawrence, and will be the exclusive distributor for Core Lighting in the USA and Canada.

Core MD Phil Ion comments: "This shows we are serious about promoting our brand in the American market, which has seen a steady increase in business over the last two years."

In that time, Core has developed relationships with several leading American event lighting companies who are investing in their 'Made-in-the-UK' products which has brought a raft of innovative and successful fixtures like ColourPoint to the events market.

The US operation is also part of Core's overall medium-term expansion strategy, which up until now has been focussed on Europe.

Says Ion: "We're generally experiencing a surge in demand for quality products, and the 'Made-in-the-UK' marque is a real advantage.

USA - Pantano Christian Church already had a good lighting system, when its leaders concluded that "good" lighting wasn't quite good enough when it came to creating the kind of engaging worship experience they wanted to offer their congregation. So they contacted house of worship design/build firm CCI Solutions of Olympia, WA to implement a comprehensive lighting and audio upgrade at their church.

Consultants Duke DeJong and Todd Gathany of CCI Solutions spent two days with the senior leadership and programming teams at Pantano, working with the church to define their vision and walk through their potential new lighting and audio systems, describing how each could help them achieve their goal. For the lighting side of the upgrade, CCI Solutions added a collection of LED stage lighting from Chauvet Professional to the church's system.

"Pantano was already doing s

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