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Country music festival goes wireless with Shure

Following the success of the expanded C2C festival in 2015, the event is due to extend over three days in London in 2016

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Artists including Lady Antebellum, Florida Georgia Line, Lee Ann Womack and Lee Bryan took the stage at London's O2 for the 2015 Country to Country music festival (C2C) in March, making use of many channels of Shure wireless microphones and in-ear monitoring systems.

As its name suggests, C2C is an international multi-day festival of country music, the result of a collaboration between live music promoters SJM Concerts, entertainment group AEG Europe (developer and operator of London's O2) and the USA's Country Music Association (CMA). From its beginnings in 2012 as a two day-event at London's O2 only, C2C was held in London and Dublin in 2015, featuring appearances by eight artists over the weekend, with the performers swapping between the two venues on the different days. E

Simple Minds are known for their spectacular and audacious lightshows

HSL goes big with Simple Minds

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Scottish rock band Simple Minds - renowned for numerous memorable and anthemic hits, particularly during the 1980s and 90s often tinted with gritty political resonance together with a hyperactive 35 year touring career - are back on the road with the first new album in five years Big Music.

Simple Minds live have also been known for their spectacular and audacious lightshows, and this tour features another impressive creation by long term lighting designer Steve Pollard, whose working relationship with Simple Minds dates back to 1981. In fact, along with founder members Jim Kerr (vocals & song writing) and Charlie Burchill (guitars, keyboards and song writing), he's the only remaining member of the original team.

Blackburn based lighting and visual rental specialist HSL has been supplying lighting kit for all Simple Minds touring work for the last three years and a

The first edition of the new series featured the reconvened Blur who were last on the show 15 years ago

Later with Aurora Lighting Hire and Blur

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Later with Jools Holland makes a welcome return to TV screens with live performances from musical legends and cutting edge new acts.

Ably lit by LD Chris Rigby, Aurora shipped a suitably rocking lighting package to the Maidstone Studios for this, the 46th series of the BBC flagship music show.

Show one alone featured a line up worthy of any festival date, including the newly reconvened Blur who were last on the show 15 years ago. Other acts featured on the bill include English singer-songwriter Laura Marling, London foursome the Vaccines and Mali punk blues outfit Songhoy Blues. Singer/songwriter Marc Almond also joined Jools for the customary chat at the piano.

All eight episodes promise an equally classically eclectic line up of leading purveyors of quality music from the past, the present and the future.

Recorded in front of a live audience, Later is

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.

GLD manages monitors for Enter Shikari tour

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Enter Shikari, have just completed extensive tours across Europe and America to promote their latest studio album, carrying a GLD system to manage monitors.

Chosen by monitor engineer, AJ Sutherland, and supplied by Patchwork London for the European leg, the system comprised a Dante-enabled GLD-112 mixer with an AR2412 and two AR84 remote IO racks to manage five pairs of wedges and four stereo IEMs plus the engineer's listen wedge and cue mix.

Promoting Enter Shikari's fourth studio album, the tour included 25 dates across Europe, including two nights at London's Roundhouse on a sold out UK run, and 30 dates in 23 States in America, which included two festival appearances.

"I bought a GLD-80 when it first came out and have used it on various projects over the past three years. I think it nails the midscale console market. The IO, functionality and audio quality are

Key members of the Pearce Hire, project and hire team will be at PLASA Focus: Leeds, stand R-A05.

Pearce Hire prepares for PLASA Focus: Leeds

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Pearce Hire has confirmed their participation at the upcoming PLASA Focus trade show, taking place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 May 2015. Pearce Hire has become a regular exhibitor at the show and will once more be promoting their production services and rental business.

"We recognise the significance of this regional event and it has now become an important date in the diary for us to network with industry colleagues and clients," observes Shaun Pearce, MD Pearce Hire. It will be the third year running that the Cambridgeshire based company has taken a stand at the sell-out show.

Pearce Hire operates nationally and internationally and their expertise covers all aspects of production management, production solutions and bespoke installations, in addition to an extensive inventory of rental equipment for dry-hire.

"This is

The D20 gives all the power and processing needed for the smaller d&b loudspeaker series

d&b audiotechnik debuts D20 amplifier

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - At Prolight+Sound 2015 in Frankfurt, d&b audiotechnik introduced the newest four channel, two rack unit (2RU) amplifier: the D20. The new amplifier features proven, intuitive user interfaces and offers fast, responsive remote control and monitoring via Ethernet through the Open Control Architecture (OCA) protocol

The D20 amplifier has four independent 1600 Watt channels, each with two 16-band equalizers which feature parametric, notch, shelving and asymmetric filters and up to 10 seconds of delay. The digital signal processing (DSP) power of the D20 means that external system processors are not required, reducing the equipment in the signal chain.

The amplifier's intuitive user interface has a colour touchscreen along with a rotary encoder. It is enabled with an integrated web interface for use with a browser and can be controlled using the d&b R1 Remote control soft

Orange Box is a simple-to-use audio format converter with multiple options

DiGiCo opens Orange Box at Prolight+Sound 2015

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - DiGiCo's new compact 2U Orange Box is a simple-to-use audio format converter with multiple options, allowing you to use DiGiCo Multichannel Interface (DMI) cards to create audio paths over a variety of interfaces.

With two PSUs for redundancy and two slots to accommodate any of the ten current interfaces available (DANTE, HYDRA2, BNC, CAT5, Optocore, Aviom, ADC, AES, DAC and SoundGrid), the 'anything in, anything out' Orange Box allows conversion of almost any audio format to another.

"The Orange Box is our first technology release borne of the pro audio group we have formed with Calrec and Allen&Heath," says DiGiCo managing director, James Gordon. "But we have opened it up to other selected third party manufacturers as well, making it an incredibly useful device."

If, for example, you wish to connect a product with MADI to one with a Hydra2 con

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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The ceremony was held at London's O2 Brixton Academy (photo: Reality Ltd)

XL Video supplies the NME Awards 2015

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Working with their client, Reality Ltd, XL Video supplied LED screens, a multi-channel camera system and relay screens for the NME Awards 2015 with Austin, Texas.

The ceremony was held at London's O2 Brixton Academy, and featured live performances by The Vaccines, Run the Jewels, award-winners Royal Blood and Charli XCX, and the recipients of the 'Godlike Genius' award, Suede.

XL Video project manager Paul Wood worked with Reality's Paul Corrick and vision director Matt Askem to specify the multi-camera, multi screen set-up. This is the eighth consecutive year XL Video has supplied the awards.

Upstage centre, a 35sq.m 16:9 screen formed from XL's ROE MC-7T LED Screen was flown, and 25m2 of XL's ROE MC-18 Hybrid LED Screen was used for an additional square LED surface flown to the left of the stage and 6 portrait banner screens arranged around the main screen.

The LED

The HK Audio Key Racks are available now

HK Audio offers Key Rack packages

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - HK Audio has announced a series of Key Rack package solutions for rental, touring and professional musicians, as well as IPD passive speaker system solutions for audio installers.

Developed by HK Audio's application specialists, the Key Rack packages feature the latest generation of advanced controller amps made by market leaders Lab.gruppen - the IPD 2400 and IPD 1200. The amp racks can be easily configured to drive a variety of HK Audio speaker setups simply by selecting the appropriate filter set.

Two HK Audio Key Rack packages are currently available: the compact 2-RU Key Rack 1.12, which features an IPD 1200 (2 x 600W @ 4 ?) and can drive systems such as Premium PR:O, and the larger 3-RU Key Rack 2.24, which consists of two IPD 2400s (2 x 1200W @ 4 ?) and can drive Linear 5, ConTour, ConTour Array and other systems.

The Key Racks provide a unified amp rack for

Garth Brooks paid tribute to the men and women of the US armed forces (photo: Chris Pizzello AP Images)

Country Music Awards shines bright with Syncrolite

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - The 50th annual Academy of Country Music Awards were held 19 April at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. Among the many superstar performances, possibly the biggest of the night was Garth Brooks with his tribute to the men and women of the US armed forces.

Placing an exclamation point on the salute was the lighting design of Bob Dickinson, Jon Kusner and the rest of the Full Flood team, which utilized Syncrolite SXL 7K fixtures on stage and upstage to backlight Brooks and his band during this especially emotional moment of the broadcast. This year's ACM Awards set a world record for the most attended award show.

Syncrolite fixtures were also used throughout the stadium adding excitement and drama to the entire evening. Twenty-four SXL fixtures provided big beams of light making dramatic backgrounds throughout the show. Programming the dynamic stage system was Andy O'Reilly a

Ann Williams joins Clear-Com from the encoding solutions provider Envivio

Clear-Com appoints director of sales Asia Pacific

Details: 14 March 2016

China - Clear-Com has appointed Ann Williams as its new director of sales Asia Pacific, effective immediately. Williams will use her considerable sales and leadership experience to build on the current success in the region and drive new business. In addition to the Southeast Asia region, Williams will have supervisory responsibility for the China and India markets as well as Japan, Korean, Australia, and New Zealand.

"Asia-Pacific remains a strategically important region with considerable growth opportunities for Clear-Com. Thanks to the support and dedication of our in-region team and our distribution networks, Clear-Com continues to be the leader in intercom solutions," said Bob Boster, president of Clear-Com. "The breadth of Ann's experience and her extensive knowledge of the Asia-Pacific region will be invaluable in deepening our market penetration and growin

Linda and Dennis Drumm (JHS), David Cameron, Alec Shelbrooke MP and Madge and John Skewes

David Cameron visits John Hornby Skewes

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Chairman John H. Skewes and managing director Dennis J. Drumm welcomed Prime Minister David Cameron's General Election 'Battle Bus' to the Garforth, Yorkshire premises of John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd - as the company celebrates its Golden Anniversary year.

Introduced by local constituency MP Alec Shelbrooke, the Prime Minister spoke on the topics of the day to local supporters, guests and JHS staff, then toured the JHS facility, showing great interest in the company's story, which was started in 1965, from humble beginnings in the home of the eponymous John Hornby Skewes and his wife Madge.

The company now offers a portfolio of over 4500 products, which are sold to over 2000 customers throughout the UK and Eire, contributes to the local economy with employment, and to the wider UK economy with its exports to over 85 overseas markets including the USA, Canada, Australasia,

Ben Bowles and Gavin Thorrold with their latest acquisition.

CEG adds Robe BMFL Spot to hire inventory

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - East Anglia-based CEG Hire & Productions has added the Robe Robin BMFL Spot to its growing hire inventory.

CEG's director Ben Bowles says: "In 2014 we took the decision to make a significant investment in the Robe Robin range, and we felt that in 2015 it was time to take this to the next level with the BMFL Spot. In line with our current growth plan, the BMFL allows us to be involved with new exciting projects, as well as supply to a growing sub-rental market within the UK and Europe.

"The BMFL is not only a complete workhorse of a fixture, but it also provides unique features not available in any competing product available on the market today. It has enabled us to provide a versatile range of fixtures that any of our LD clients and production customers would have a hard time resisting the temptation not to specify them on their next project."

The invest

The award-winning XS club has led Nightclub & Bar's Top 100 list for an unprecedented six years

Chauvet Nexus at Wynn Encore's XS in Las Vegas

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - XS, the award-winning club at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, has led Nightclub & Bar's Top 100 list for an unprecedented six years. Renowned nightclub lighting designer Steve Lieberman of SJ Lighting, the creative force behind many leading nightclub lighting designs, was engaged to work his magic on XS and give the club a new, more technology driven look. He met this challenge with a bold futuristic design that drew on the pixel mapping power of the Nexus Aw 7x7 warm white LED panels and ÉPIX Strip 2.0 LED strips from Chauvet Professional.

"I've enjoyed a good relationship with the team at XS," said Lieberman. "When XS managing partner Jesse Waits announced that they were ready to take the next step at the club in terms of lighting, we put our heads together to come up with a state-of-the-art concept. They wanted to incorporate newer technology into

Colour Sound provided both lighting and LED screen (photo: Anis Marks)

Colour Sound goes back to the Underworld

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Colour Sound Experiment's Haydn Cruickshank (H) took control of the lighting console on the latest leg of an ongoing tour by electronic gurus Underworld.

Colour Sound provided both lighting and LED screen for H's lighting and visual design. His relationship with the band dates back 22 years, with this tour a continuing 20th anniversary celebration of their seminal first album, dubnobasswithmyheadman, a special expanded edition of which was released in late 2014.

H received a loose brief for the lighting, which was that it should be 'minimal', so he kept things restrained, raw and relatively monochromatic for the first half of the show, which was a powerful and complete rendition of dubnobasswithmyheadman - performed live in its entirety for the first time ever.

After this, he morphed the lightshow into a different style which became funkier and more colour

Destiny's Child reunited at the Stellar Awards

Bandit and Mark Carver light the Stellar Awards

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - For the last 30 years, members of the world of Gospel music have gathered to honour African American artists at The Stellar Awards. Bandit Lites and lighting designer Mark Carver once again joined forces to help set the stage for the event, which included both a live audience and a televised programme. Co-hosted by David and Tamela Mann and Rickey Smiley, the event bestowed special honours on President Barack Obama, Bishop Paul Morton, Andrae Crouch and Al 'The Bishop' Hobbs.

Due to the special milestone year, this year's production expanded into a much larger scope and scale in the Las Vegas Orleans Arena. With more than a decade of working with the Stellar Awards, Carver knows how to create looks that thrill the crowds in their seats, and translate well on to television.

Carver's design consisted of Martin Vipers for graphic air effects and hard edge back light, Vl3500

PR Lighting's Mary Ma, Ernie Armas and Daisy Chang with XRLED projectors

PR Lighting reaps rewards at Frankfurt

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - PR Lighting enjoyed one of its most successful European outings ever at this year's Prolight+Sound Show in Frankfurt, where it presented seven new products.

The Chinese manufacturer also brought a team of 12 sales and marketing support staff from China, and with a dedicated lightshow booth running adjacent to that of their German distributor, Focon Showtechnic, they were able to demonstrate their 'magnificent seven' - the XLED 1061, XLED 3007, XLED 3019, XR130 (in Spot and Beam versions), XR330 Spot, XR1000 Framing and XRLED 700 Spot - as well as other popular catalogue items.

Visitors were able to engage directly with these, and control beam aperture, colour and gobo patterns, via the ChamSys touch panel interface on the fixtures - which proved extremely popular. A purpose-designed large white plinth was built under the overhead lighting truss so that the library of

The X4 Bar 10 and double length X4 Bar 20 perform a myriad of functions from a conventional cyclorama to a wall washer and mid-air beam sweeper

GLP makes waves at Prolight+Sound 2015

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - GLP entered this year's Frankfurt Prolight+Sound Show on the crest of a wave and by integrating its evolving portfolio of products into a carefully thought out, fully pixel mapped presentation (incorporating sister company G-LEC), they clearly set out their intent.

Having firmly established their impression platform as a market leader in LED moving lights they have this year branched out into a versatile batten in the form of the X4 Bar 10 and double length X4 Bar 20 - which perform a myriad of functions from a conventional cyclorama to a wall washer and mid-air beam sweeper.

Aside from introducing the local market to these bar lights - which are already being highly specified on top tour riders - GLP also reports that the new impression X4 L was extremely well received by LDs who could immediately see the creative possibilities offered by the pixel-mapping function.

Recorder.1 is designed to provide easy and reliable live recording within the most compact space possible

XI-Machines debuts 1U, 194-track audio recorder

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - XI-Machines, the manufacturer of high-end workstations, has announced the availability of Rrecorder.1, a rack-mountable 1U audio recorder for up to 194 tracks simultaneously, after a 14-month development process.

Recorder.1 is designed to provide easy and reliable live recording within the most compact space possible. The world's first 19", 1U multitrack recorder delivers recording of up to 194 audio tracks simultaneously at 48kHz/24-bit, with a ready-for-operation time of less than a minute, says the company.

Recorsder.1 runs the Nuendo Live software, which is optimised for live recording tasks. Created by Steinberg Media Technologies, Nuendo Live offers a clearly structured user panel that displays all FOH-relevant menus, and features practical tools such as a 60-second pre-record buffer, automatic audio track naming, a notepad function as well as essential ed

The Leopard line array loudspeaker and 900-LFC low-frequency control element are the smallest members of the Leo family

Bright Norway & Sonalyst order first Leopard systems

Details: 14 March 2016

Norway / UK - Bright Norway AS and UK's Sonalyst have officially become the first companies to purchase the new Leopard linear sound reinforcement system from Meyer Sound. Having just made their debut at Prolight+Sound, the Leopard line array loudspeaker and its accompanying 900-LFC low-frequency control element are the smallest and most versatile members of Meyer Sound's flagship Leo family.

Following the success with its Leo Family products in high-profile projects such as the Nobel Peace Prize Concert and the FIS Cross-Country World Cup skiing competition, Bright Norway says the new Leopard and 900-LFC will help simplify its rental operations.

"In a perfect world, audio companies would love to rely on one single model to bring consistency to all its projects, but that's not possible," says Asle Nilsen, head of audio at Bright Norway. "Now with Leopard adding

Sony updates DWX Series

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Sony unveiled new functions for its DWX series at Prolight+Sound. The digital wireless microphone platform for studio and ENG is now available with an extended frequency spectrum with four different channels, as well as new features in the free Wireless Studio 4.0 studio software. This will make wireless microphone use on stage or in TV transmission even more convenient.

The new version of the DWR-R02D digital wireless 19" rack-mount receiver has a bandwidth of 72MHz in the frequency spectrum from 470MHz to 542MHz. With the three other channel versions, the DWX series now covers a range from 470MHz to 788MHz. The digital microphone platform supports 35 out of 39 European TV channels and is at the forefront of frequency coverage in Europe.

The result is a high level of audio quality with exceptional stability and reliability. In the context of European legislation and