Japan - For two nights in October 2014 one of the largest projection mapping events in the history of Japan was realised, using the famous Kanazawa Castle in Ishikawa Prefecture as the event's historic backdrop. "The content of the projection mapping was conceived to be an enchanting digital art fantasy, combining sound and light," say organisers.

The event was part of the celebrations surrounding the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train service, which goes all the way to Kanazawa, as of March of this year.

The creative agency responsible for bringing it all together was Drawing and Manual. Creative director Seiichi Hishikawa and Art Director Yutaka Obara were able to draw on the talent of a large crew of inspired artists and craftsmen from a great number

UK - There's another tool in the Source Four LED toolbox. ETC is announcing a new optic, the Source Four LED Fresnel adapter, which attaches to the front end of a Source Four LED Series 2 or Series 1 light engine, turning it into a superior washlight.

The Source Four LED fresnel adapter's highly tuned optics help create smooth light with soft edges. Its light blends evenly and uniformly from fixture to fixture. And it allows barn-dooring and the addition of 7.5-inch accessories, so even the most discerning designer can sculpt the light to the right specifications.

Because the Source Four LED light engines benefit from the extensive colour-mixing research ETC has done, the Source Four LED Fresnel can output tuneable white light that flawlessly illuminates people or objects, or the most expansive range of bold colour possible from an LED source.

"The Source Four LED Fresn

Brazil - As of 1 April, Clay Paky products will be distributed in Brazil by HPL. A company with a firm market reputation, HPL is a leader in the lighting, audio and professional show product distribution sector. Established in 2000, the company has always pursued and distinguished itself for providing quality service in addition to tailor-made customer support.

HPL has always strived to provide its customers with the latest lighting and audio equipment line. Various European brands are already included amongst those distributed on the Brazilian market by HPL, also thanks to its capillary domestic coverage with numerous dealers spread throughout the country.

Francesco Romagnoli, area manager for the Americas and Adalberto Silva, HPL owner, reached the agreement after reciprocally visiting each other's headquarters. Francesco Romagnoli stated, "We were able to personally ob

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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.

Argentina - Bailando por un Sueno (Dancing For a Dream), a segment inside the wider Showmatch programme on El Trece (Channel 13), is one of the most popular reality / talent series on Argentinian TV.

For the latest series, lighting designers Pablo Leguizamon AKA 'La Nutria' and Esteban Leguizamon specified Robe Robin Pointes to help capture the action.

The series ran its ninth season in 2014, produced by Ideas del Sur, it was recorded in Romina Yan Studio in downtown Buenos Aires in front of a very enthusiastic live audience of 500. Non celebrity amateur dance 'dreamers' are paired with celebrities and have to demonstrate their talents in various dances, which have included K-POP and Aquadance. In addition to their dancefloor skills they also have a chance to interest viewers and the cameras with various extra-curricular activities of their choice. This is a rand

Keeping Music Live - Small music venues are "operating under significant pressures, both financial and regulatory", a new report has found. The report, called Understanding Small Music Venues, also highlights concerns over the negative public perception of small venues. It has been created by the Music Venue Trust, which was established in 2014 to protect and support independent music venues in the UK.

Chief executive of the MVT Mark Davyd said that the research would contribute to the MVT's understanding of "what we can do to ensure we act together to protect, secure and improve the UK's grassroots music venues". In total, 109 venues across the UK responded to a survey as part of the research, of which almost 80% were dedicated music venues. The report said that small music venues were suffering from a negative image as well as from financial pressure

UK - When the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End opened in December 1905, Las Vegas was only six months old, the Wright Brothers had just made the first aeroplane flight lasting more than half an hour and Albert Einstein had just proposed that E =MC2.

Staging a theatrical production weighing in excess of 12 tonnes, with a set of automated sliders that weigh two tonnes alone, was not envisaged by William Sprague when he designed the moderately sized Georgian style theatre, which is now a Grade II listed building.

Turn the clock forward by 109 years and this was exactly the challenge that faced Unusual Rigging when they were brought on board by Matt Towell, production manager behind the latest West End hit Beautiful - The Carol King Musical, to figure out how to hang 12,813kg over stage from the original timber roof structure designed to take half that load.

Unusual's

UK - Aurora Lighting Hire has been working once again with award winning lighting director Chris Rigby on the latest series of Alan Carr's Chatty Man.

Now in its 14th season, the show has gained a host of industry accolades including wins at the National Television Awards and BAFTA. Continuing these winning ways, LD Chris was also recently honoured by the Royal Television Society with a Craft and Design Award for his work on the show.

For this latest season, recorded in front of a live audience at the ITV London Studios, Aurora provided an extensive LED package for ambience across the interview area. A selection of floor mounted Pulsar Chromabatten 300 and Chromastrip X3s light up the set pieces with additional wash added to the set flats using Martin Aura Wash units hung above.

Aurora also armed Chris with a more 'rock and roll' selection of fixtures including Martin

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USA - Barry Manilow is in the midst of a memorable and extensive 'Farewell' US tour for which creative director Seth Jackson specified 12 x Robe BMFL Spots as part of an elegant and stylish design to help ensure the legendary artist exits an incredible performance career on a high note.

Manilow, one of the most prolific and successful singer/songwriters and producers is also celebrating 40 years at the top in show business.

Seth has enjoyed a long-standing working relationship with the artist dating back to 1998 when he started as a 'fill-in guy'. Over that remarkable 27 years, he's also taken on the lighting, set and production designer roles, and has enjoyed the various challenges of creating fresh and invigorating performance environments each time.

Knowing the tour was approaching, Seth 'auditioned' 10 x BMFL Spots during the Austin City Limits Music Festival towards the

UK - Central Hall Westminster has appointed White Light as its new production service partner following a competitive tender. The new contract will commence on 1 July 2015, following a three month transition period.

Central Hall Westminster (CHW) is central London's largest purpose built conference centre, combining historical elegance with cutting-edge technical capabilities. The Edwardian landmark building situated adjacent to Westminster Abbey has engaged high profile conferences, special events and local business meetings since 1912. The architectural features of the building include the iconic dome, spacious entrance foyers and hallways, marble flooring and a sweeping grand staircase, the design of which is based on the Paris Opera House.

Central Hall Westminster offers 22 event spaces, including The Great Hall which seats up to 2,200 delegates and features Europe's large

Germany - Dutch audio innovators Alcons Audio will be showing its latest pro-ribbon sound systems at Prolight+Sound 2015, and demonstrating new evolutionary audio solutions.

Alcons Audio is exhibiting on stand G60, Hall 8.0 and will be presenting her latest audio innovations, based around the company's patented Pro-Ribbon technology and its ongoing pursuit of audio perfection.

Highlight of the show is the presentation of two new pro-ribbon line-array systems.

The LR28 larger-format line-array is the result of five years of development, with the last two years dedicated to beta-testing for the "proof of concept". Together with continued extensive R&D, which has led to another two patents pending on the already four existing patents, the valuable user-input of world's top engineers has led to the final design of the LR28. This flagship system marks an important advan

China - Software developer Nemetschek Vectorworks has released the Chinese-language version of the Vectorworks 2015 line of design software, including Vectorworks Designer, Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Fundamentals and Renderworks.

The Vectorworks 2015 software contains more than 100 updates and new features in the areas of architecture, BIM, urban planning and entertainment design. In previous versions, the power of 64-bit was only available in the platform's photorealistic rendering engine, Renderworks, but has now been integrated throughout the entire Vectorworks 2015 product line, providing designers with the ability to handle larger projects, as well as better performance and stability. In addition, designers will observe a revolutionary graphical experience from advances made to the Vectorworks Graphics Module (VGM).

"Updates for the 2015 Vectorworks software hav

USA - The American Society of Theatre Consultants (ASTC) Annual Meeting for 2015 was held 21 March, 2015 at the Duke Energy Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio in conjunction with the USITT meeting. At this meeting a new Board of Directors and officers were elected as well as the acceptance of a new ASTC full member.

The Board of Directors is the governing body of ASTC and is elected by members. The board members elect ASTC officers from the current board. Peter Rosenbaum will now serve as ASTC President with Chip Ulich serving as Vice President. Returning as Secretary/CFO is R. Duane Wilson. These officers also serve as board members with the addition of directors Scott Crossfield, Ed Kaye, Mike McMackin, and Peter Scheu.

ASTC has also announced that D. Andrew Gibbs has been admitted into membership after having demonstrated a broad range of capabilities and experience necessary to fu

Germany - ArKaos PROwill exhibit at Prolight+Sound, Frankfurt in Hall 11.0 Stand A49 and will introduce and demonstrate the latest version of its successful professional MediaMaster software.

MediaMaster 4.2 now adds an integrated cue player and 4K support to the many tools already offered by this ever-popular software.

The new Cue Player is an important addition for users who require reliable, accurate playback of visual sequences, for example, on shows or installations requiring repeated automated playback. The Cue Player is built on top of MediaMaster's Theater Mode interface and can also be driven by Time Code as required. MediaMaster 4.2 is available as a free upgrade to MediaMaster 3.x or 4.x

ArKaos PRO's complete range of media servers will be exhibited. Comprising the Stage, Studio and Stadium servers, this range offers up to two-, four- and six-outputs respectively

Germany - Laserworld has released a direct text show laser light system for easy text projections that can be controlled by a keyboard and an IR remote control.

The Laserworld EL-200G KeyTEX is a green colour laser projector especially designed for text projections. It can be operated in normal stand-alone mode or sound to light, where it plays preset patterns and animations. But the main feature is the live text feature and the laser countdown.

The text mode offers the possibilities to either type text live and animate it (scroll, rotate, flip, draw, etc.), or save text to cue keys so they can be played back later - triggered through the keyboard or though the infrared remote control. The EL-200G KeyTEX laser is a great tool for advertising purposes on a smaller scale. Mobile DJs could use this to congratulate the happy couple or birthday boy/girl. Nightclubs could project dr

Germany - Robert Juliat will be out in full force at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt, where the company will exhibit alongside its German partners, Lightpower GmbH, in Hall 11 Stand D76.

Robert Juliat will celebrate the official launch of Roxie, its new 300W LED followspot. Roxie was previewed at JTSE 2014 and LDI 2014 and is the first LED followspot in the Robert Juliat portfolio.

At the opposite end of the scale, the rugged Merlin 2500W HMI touring spot - launched at PLASA 2014 - will be shown for the first time at Prolight + Sound. The first shipments of Merlin will soon be delivered to customers across the world through RJ's international distributor network.

Robert Juliat will extend its popular ZEP Fresnel range with the presentation of the new 360LF 300W LED Fresnel, a complement to its 150W little sister, the 340LF.

Finally, Robert Juliat will introduce a completely

Germany - MDG, manufacturer of fog, haze and low fog generators, will celebrate its 35th anniversary at Prolight+Sound.

Serving entertainment, industrial, fire-fighting and military customers since 1980, MDG will mark the occasion with the release of limited edition models of a new product line.

Throughout its history, MDG has developed the MAX Series of fog generators, the world-famous Atmosphere haze generator, winner of LDI's Best Lighting Product in 1997, and the award-winning theONE digital atmospheric generator, LDI's Best Debuting Product in 2010. These were followed in 2013 by the e-series which brought increased efficiency and total electronic control to the product range. Now, Prolight+Sound 2015 will see the launch of three new products, the latest in MDG's evolution of fog which will expand the range still further.

MDG's anniversary will also be marked by the lau

Germany - Ayrton will be "pushing the envelope once again at Prolight+Sound 2015" with the release of "a truly new innovation in LED luminaire design".

Code-named the A61 Project, the details of this new product are a tightly kept secret until the first day of the show when all will be revealed to visitors to Ayrton's stand (Hall 11.0 Stand D67).

A foretaste has just been released by Ayrton and can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/123426064. More details will follow soon.

"We are enjoying the speculation around our latest development and will be very excited to hear the reaction of our customers when we finally spring this surprise on them at the show," says Ayrton's Valère Huart-Gyors. "We believe that it is destined to be a real inspiration to lighting designers."

Following its successful launch at PLASA 2014, Ayrton's NandoBeam S9

Germany - UK-based automation and motion control specialist Kinesys launches a major system of new products at this year's Prolight+Sound - The Pathfinder System - which has been designed specifically for 3D path flying.

Kinesys exhibits at 2015's Prolight+Sound after a highly successful first time at last year's show which boosted its international business within the entertainment technology sector.

Kinesys is also highlighting its existing systems; the Velocity 2 SIL3 winch controller, the EVO and Elevation variable speed hoist systems, the DigiHoist fixed speed digital chain hoist controller and the Libra range of load measurement products.

Pathfinder uses the latest technology to provide a robust, customisable entertainment solution for the flying of performers, cameras and other objects in 3D. The system is designed with versatility in mind so that it can be used in an

Germany - ARX Systems, the Australian-based designer & manufacturer of digital and analogue interface and signal processing products will be releasing their new MIXXMaker multi format Bluetooth USB and Analogue audio mixer at Frankfurt.

ARX's managing director Colin Park said; "Here at ARX we're excited about releasing the new MIXXMaker which is the solution wherever users of audio systems need to connect the sometimes bewildering variety of audio protocols & connectors quickly, easily and faultlessly.

"SmartPhones, tablets, laptop computers and other Bluetooth, USB and MiniJack enabled devices have rapidly become the programme source of convenience for corporate A.V presentations, seminars, musicians, DJs, entertainment venues, gyms, system demonstrations and testing, and many other pro-audio playback applications.

"At ARX we've integrated Bluetooth, USB and

Europe - Having launched to critical acclaim from distributors, dealers and end users alike, the Roland O.H.R.C.A M-5000 digital mixing console is now shipping globally. First previewed in November last year, the M-5000 is the first Roland console based on O.H.R.C.A - a brand new, proprietary operating platform.

O.H.R.C.A, stands for three key concepts: Open; High Resolution; and Configurable Architecture. The core benefit of this new platform is flexibility - adapting to the needs both of the application and the operator by delivering 128 freely definable audio paths and essentially allowing the console to be 'built' to suit each application. All paths are delivered at a pristine 24-bit/96kHz sound quality and can be used as a mixing channel, AUX, matrix, subgroup buss or MIX-MINUS buss in any input/output configuration.

Peter Heath, head of Roland ProAV in Europe commented,

Portugal - Elation Professional's Portuguese partner, Apogeu, was chosen to provide a lighting and sound solution for Evolution Hotel in Lisbon and turned to Elation LED lighting products to dress the hotel's spacious lobby area in atmospheric colour and visual excitement.

Evolution Lisboa, part of the SANA Hotel group, is located in the central part of the city (Saldanha) and markets itself as a new generation of hotel. Relaxed and tech-savvy yet still upscale, the hotel clearly caters to young, active and independent urban professionals. Apogeu's client sought a dynamic lighting solution for the lobby that mirrored that spirited energy while depicting the hotel as cutting edge and modern.

Far from being a traditional hotel lobby, the spacious two-story space at Evolution includes a reception, lounge, restaurant, bar, relaxation and meeting spaces, and even a DJ booth. It's n

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