UK - Le Maitre Ltd is sponsoring fireman Scott Butler on his intrepid Journey To Elbrus challenge in what will hopefully gain him a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records.

In June this year Scott will be cycling 1800 miles across Europe then rowing solo 750 miles across the Black Sea. If that wasn't enough of a challenge he will then climb Mount Elbrus in Russia, the highest peak in Europe. Scott will be raising money for three charities - Firefighters Charity, The MS Society and Facing Africa.

Scott, a firefighter with the Royal Berkshire Fire & Rescue Service has a history of challenging himself. He has run marathons and adventure races, cycled from John O'Groats to Land's End, driven the Nurburgring and also written a book. This will be his first ever attempt at a world

UK - Sunday night was the annual Oscars Ceremony and Richard Martin Lighting (RML) were on hand to provide the lights and more than a little sparkle to the Sky Movies coverage hosted by Alex Zane.

Joining Alex on the sofas were a panel of celebrity guests from different sectors of the entertainment industry, giving their thoughts and opinions on fashion, the night's winners and any celebrity gossip that was circulating.

Malcolm Reed designed the lighting show which worked around an impressive set made to resedmble the Hollywood Hills. It's not a vast studio and there is so much already going on that you don't need a big lighting rig.

After many years of lighting the show, Malcolm knows this only too well and chose a simple yet effective spec including Sharpys, Alpha Spot 700's and XTC 1.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - The show Illusion, with several Salamanders from Le Maitre entertained visitors at the Rainbow MagicLand in Valmontone close to Rome throughout the summer 2014.

The attraction combines music, fantasy and projection. With hundreds of lights installed on the fountains and special effects enhancing the show, Illusion had nine dancers interacting with the fountains and the projections.

One of the world's leading companies for aquatic shows and an internationally renowned video designer participated in the realisation of this show.

Mr. Bonsanti, technical representative at MagicLand, commented, "The show went on two to three times a night for a duration of 25-30 minutes and could accommodate 300 people. Thanks to a series of effects, the organisers were able to create true illusions with pirate and jungle themes.

"The stage on the water with the castle built o

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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.

USA - The night of 25 February 2015 was a celebration of innovation in the LED and solid-state lighting (SSL) industry sectors with the awarding of the LEDs Magazine Sapphire Awards.

Being named Illumineer of the Year continues an impressive streak of both recognition and breakthroughs for Lumileds. In addition to this award, Lumileds recently won a prestigious LFI Innovation Award, introduced the world's first hot colour targeted LEDs, and announced the world's first chip-scale packaged LED that can be directly surface mount reflowed onto a luminaire board. LUXEON CoB with CrispWhite Technology is another quality of light breakthrough in the Lumileds portfolio.

"This is extraordinary validation of the tremendous work we have been doing here at Lumileds. I could not be more proud of our entire team. 2014 was a historically good year for Lumileds - and with all the excitin

UK - Armour Pro has announced that Audica is to review its UK sales, appointing Audiologic as a distributor for sales to installers and integrators of its commercial audio systems.

Simon Stoll, managing director of Harlow-based Audiologic said, "We have always been impressed by Audica's combination of impressive sound quality and superb styling, and are delighted to be able to bring this to our installation customers. Audica complements our portfolio and is a brand that undoubtedly strengthens our profile in respect of the retail sector."

"Our business model has changed substantially over the past two years," explained Alex Munro, brand director of Armour Pro, which includes the Audica brand. "We have been extremely successful in delivering loudspeaker systems for the retail sector internationally, and now supply some of the world's largest retail chai

Germany / China - HK Audio has further strengthened its position in the Chinese pro audio market by signing a distribution contract with Algam China.

The new deal, which was signed at the recent ISE 2015 show in Amsterdam, is effective from March 1 2015 and will see Algam China focusing on building HK Audio's presence in the growing Chinese MI sector using the Lucas, Elements, Premium PR:O, Pulsar, Linear 5 and SoundCaddy ranges.

Shenzhen Melody will also continue to distribute HK Audio across China, with an emphasis on installation products.

François Lay, HK Audio's international market manager, said, "We've had a successful business relationship with Algam France for decades, so it was a natural step to partner up with the company's recently formed China division.

"Algam's extensive branding and marketing expertise - coupled with their exceptional knowledge of

UK - Cliff Electronics has announced the introduction of its new FT Digital XLR Feed-Through connector series. The FT Series is a complete range of audio, data, and fibre connectors that can be front or rear mounted into an industry standard 24mm XLR connector mounting hole. The new FT Series are simple to mount into any panel designed to accept XLR connectors including instrument, control and rack panels, wall-plates, etc.

The new Cliff FT series is suitable for developing custom I/O solutions used in broadcast, AV installations, systems integration, home theatre, etc. The RJ45 versions are suitable for creating Ethernet hubs and patch points in industrial applications.

The FT Series offers true feed-through connection, allowing standard cabling to be used to connect at both front and rear, eliminating the need to solder or terminate the connections and simplifying and speedi

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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.
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UK - Martin Manufacturing UK has been crowned champion of skills investment at the Semta Skills Awards 2015. Martin Manufacturing UK, which employs 48 people in Louth and makes a range of smoke boxes for the entertainments' industry, won the SME Investment in Skills category, sponsored by Pera Training.

They were presented with the award at a gala dinner in London's Park Plaza, Riverbank at an event hosted by TV presenter Michael Underwood and where Minister of State for Business, Enterprise and Energy, Matthew Hancock, gave the keynote address.

Jason Andrews, general manager of Martin Manufacturing, said: "Skills are important to our business - competing in the international marketplace we need to stay ahead of the game so we need the most skilled workforce we can muster.

"Some of our employees have worked for us for over 20 years and we need to ensure their knowl

USA - NBC Network News relies on six of API's A2Ds when filming popular news programmes such as Morning Joe, The Today Show, and Nightly News with Lester Holt in their Los Angeles studio.

The six A2D mic pre amps are put to work all day long, and are used in both the Newsroom Set and Studio W or Studio West. Audio engineer Stan Ouse explains, "The backdrop of the Newsroom Set is a functioning news room. In Studio W we support all of the NBC networks and we do shows and live shots all throughout the day. For example, last week we did Hardball with the host plus the guests. That studio can do a single live shot or a whole show, whatever we need."

Ouse says he's known about the API brand "since the '90s - I had a recording studio of my own here in Burbank." NBC's selection of API gear, according to Ouse, was a natural progression after NBC

USA - Located in the rural Illinois town of Carlinville, Blackburn College serves six hundred undergraduates. Its work programme keeps costs low and campus community involvement high by employing students in a range of non-traditional student jobs under the direction of professionals, for nine of the campus's 16 buildings.

A recent $3m upgrade to the 430-seat Bothwell Auditorium continued that tradition, with the student construction crew providing much of the labour. Amid a range of new infrastructure is a new sound reinforcement system centred on Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and subwoofers, which provide exceptional fidelity and pattern control.

"The old system was original to the building, which was constructed in the 1970s," explained Ryan Winstead, sales design consultant with Advanced Audio and Lighting Systems (AALS) of Peoria, Illinois. "Their tech sta

Qatar - W-DMX by Wireless Solution and lighting fixtures by Griven are now on display on one of Qatar's premier five-star hotels - the Sheraton Doha Hotel & Resort. This hotel structure has been a landmark in Doha for more than 30 years, so when it was time for renovation, every detail was considered to bring the building up to the highest technological standards while still maintaining its original look and charm.

In addition to the interior, the upgrade involved the exterior lighting design of the hotel that would not only enhance the waterfront skyline but the three-sided pyramid shape of the hotel as well. The close Al Majlis Congress Centre, a secondary lower building with four-sided pyramidal section, needed a complementary lighting scheme. Its smooth, concrete surface proved to be quite difficult to be evenly lit up as the lighting fixtures could only be installed at a ve

USA - 48 of Robe's LEDWash 1200s are in action on the current Garth Brooks US tour, specified by the country megastar's longstanding LD Dave Butzler, and purchased specially by leading rental house Bandit Lites. Brooks - whose staggering popularity continues to pack out arenas - has released his first studio album in 13 years Man Against Machine to coincide with the tour.

Butzler explained that Brooks was fully involved in creating the stage design, and while he wanted to wow the crowds for this one, he wanted to keep the music - rather than the production - centre stage. To satisfy ticket sale demands and remain close to his audiences - for which he is famous - Brooks elected to play multiple dates in more intimate medium-sized arenas, rather than massive stadiums.

The starting point for Butzler's lighting was a large centre cluster of audio, so he designed around this

Italy - The show Illusion, with several Salamanders from Le Maitre entertained visitors at the Rainbow MagicLand in Valmontone close to Rome throughout the summer 2014.

The attraction combines music, fantasy and projection. With hundreds of lights installed on the fountains and special effects enhancing the show, Illusion had nine dancers interacting with the fountains and the projections.

One of the world's leading companies for aquatic shows and an internationally renowned video designer participated in the realisation of this show.

Mr. Bonsanti, technical representative at MagicLand, commented, "The show went on two to three times a night for a duration of 25-30 minutes and could accommodate 300 people. Thanks to a series of effects, the organisers were able to create true illusions with pirate and jungle themes.

"The stage on the water with the castle built o

Czech Republic - Robe welcomed 13 students and two lecturers - Phil Hughes and Clive Davies - from the University of South Wales, Glamorgan, to its HQ and factory in Valasské Mezirici, Czech Republic, all from the BSc Honours Lighting Design & Technology and Live Event Technology courses.

The trip was co-ordinated by Robe UK's sales director Ian W Brown with USW course leader Stuart Green, and it has become an annual date on the calendar. As usual, it was also completely over-subscribed, so the number of applicants had to be whittled down to those who would be likely to benefit the most.

Ian, whose relationship with the university started a few years ago, commented, "Both courses produce a high proportion of graduates who progress on to very successful industry careers - and that is what first prompted me to look further.

"The courses are based on equipping

UK - Another year has flown by, and it's time to start nominations for the Technical Theatre Awards 2015.

The nomination period is now open on the new website - head to www.technicaltheatreawards.com now to put your colleagues forward.

Says the organisation, "We have a great year planned ahead, including streamlining the voting process and bringing together a committee of industry leaders to finalise our shortlists.

"We are also heading to Europe for Stage|Set|Scenery, as well as our annual visits to PLASA Focus and the ABTT Trade Show.

"Our awards ceremony will be taking place on 5 October 2015, and all our nominees and sponsors will be invited to join us as we announce this year's winners.

To make all this possible we are putting together a bigger team than ever. We are currently looking for more sponsors to support our awards, including some brand new a

Finland - Genelec has announced the promotion of Sami Mäkinen to the role of business manager - AV install. This key segment of the Genelec business will benefit from Sami's previous experience within the company which has given him a comprehensive knowledge of the Genelec product portfolio across the company's various business segments.

Sami joined Genelec in 2007 as domestic sales manager (Finland) and later moved to international sales manager, home audio. His new role will see him use his many years' experience in the company to develop existing customer relationships within the AV market and explore new opportunities. Sami will also be responsible for co-ordinating sales and marketing activities for the AV Install business segment.

"I'm taking up this role at an exciting time," says Sami. "The AV Install business is booming as is demonstrated by the hu

UK - XL Video supplied projection, LED screens and a camera / PPU package to the Paolo Nutini UK arena tour which completed a busy year of touring and live performances from the artist following the release of his album Caustic Love.

The show design was originated by a creative team comprising tour director James Monkman, lighting designer Jason Hyne and video producer and co-ordinator Tom Wexler. XL Video's project manager was Paul "Macca" McCauley and their crew chief on the road was Stuart Heaney. Production manager for the tour was Tony Gittins.

There were three distinctive video surface elements which brought a real sense of depth and dimension to the stage - gauzes, which were projected onto a medium resolution LED screen surface and low res LED battens.

A classic widescreen look was the dominant aesthetic for the singer / musician - known for his raw,

Sweden - The opening of AF's new office building in Gothenburg was marked by a spectacular light show, putting the 66m high building on the map. For one evening the façades of AF's new domicile were staged with a combination of colours, graphical patterns and images expressing AF's values in a festive manner.

Being Skanska's third most eco-friendly building in the Gothenburg region, and having received Platinum environmental certification by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), it was important to AF Lighting to further communicate and demonstrate its green values. Selected for this purpose as the newest and most energy efficient LED fixtures on the market were the P-5 wash light and G-Spot moving head from SGM.

"Through lighting calculations in DIALUX, we were able to determine the optimum placement of the fixtures. The combination of the P-5 wash light

Finland - Kullervo, Op. 7, is a suite of symphonic movements by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Although often referred to as a "choral symphony", the work avoids traditional symphonic structure, and its five movements constitute a set of related but independent tone poems.

Based on the character of Kullervo in the epic poem Kalevala and using texts from that poem, the work premiered to critical acclaim on 28 April 1892. Now lighting, screen and set designer Miki Kunttu has given the work, currently being performed at the Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, a completely new look.

Kunttu explained, why the grandMA2 was his favourite choice for the project: "grandMA2 and MA 3D were the perfect tools for the production. All the way from design table to the final cue lists. All lights and media servers were programmed and operated via the grandMA2 light.

The Netherlands - Visual Productions is technology partner of the 2014 Amsterdam Light Festival. For the third year in a row the Visual Productions' Solid State lighting controllers helped visualise the lighting designs of worldwide artists during this 10 week-long festival. The CueCore, IoCore and DIN Rail DMX Splitter were used to control the lighting for 12 exhibits of the festival. Light-works in both the Water Colors route and the Illuminade utilised the Visual Productions control solutions. These consisted of exhibits from around the world including, 'Water Fun' from New Zealand designer Angus Muir; Russian architect Vasili Popov's 'Rebicycledome'; 'House of Cards' designed by Israeli designer Gaston Zahr; and - back to the home territory - Dutch-based Frank Tjepkema's 'Light Bridge'.

For installations 'Intrepid' and 'Campfire' product and programming support was via the V

USA - After struggling with a challenging acoustical environment and a sound-reinforcement system that couldn't distribute sound consistently throughout all areas of their sanctuary, Prescott, Arizona, United Methodist Church decided enough was enough. After all, if the congregation can't hear clearly, the message is lost. To solve the problem, church management upgraded to a line array system drawn from the TrueLine catalogue of Greensboro, North Carolina-based WorxAudio Technologies, a division of PreSonus.

CSD Group was contracted to design and install the church's new sound system. Working in close coordination with the WorxAudio Technologies' engineering team, CSD president Doug Hood and his crew ultimately deployed two WorxAudio X3i-P compact, all-in-one, powered line arrays as the primary loudspeaker system.

"Prescott United Methodist's sanctuary proved to be a cha

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