Russia - Established by Russian Radio in 1996, the Golden Gramophone Award is the most prestigious music award show in the country. Recently celebrating its 15th annual event at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, rental company (and technical partner) Euroshow played the leading role, developing a design conceived by the company's Alena Morozova.

Incorporated in the set were no fewer than 480 strings of SGM's pixel product, the LB-100 LED balls. Each string contains seven semi-transparent balls with a sphere of 28mm and a pixel pitch of 120mm viewable in 360?, creating alluring 3D graphic displays.

Demonstrating the magnitude of this show, the award itself is a golden gramophone statue, comprising gold and silver mounted onto a platform of optical glass with laser engravings. Exp

The Netherlands - At ISE 2015, HK Audio is presenting a series of new system solutions for installation applications in collaboration with Lab.gruppen.

As of this week, passive HK Audio ranges such as Elements, Linear 5, ConTour, ConTour Array, Cadis, Vortis and the IL Series can be operated using Lab.gruppen's new IPD Series amplifiers.

The collaboration makes a variety of HK Audio system solutions possible that set new standards in terms of sound quality, ease of use, features, energy efficiency and value for money, says HK.

Lars Langholz, product manager at HK Audio, said, "When developing system solutions that would meet the high standards of the HK Audio passive installation ranges, we tried and tested many amplifiers on the market. Nothing at that price point came close to the feature set and overall sonic quality of Lab.gruppen's IPD Series."

The IPD platf

Russia - Black Cat Music recently installed a Diva Acoustical Shell system in Moscow's Nazarov Musical Theatre.

In a competitive tender, Black Cat Music's Berlin based team won the contract in the face of tough international competition. Originally built for the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980, the Nazarov Musical Theatre has recently undergone a major refurbishment. The revival in fortunes for the theatre, located within the Olympic Games legacy site, began when it became part of the Moscow State Philharmony in 2014. A requirement of the building overhaul was an upgrade for the auditorium acoustics, with an acoustic shell being specified by Moscow State Philharmony.

With the contract awarded, the Berlin based project team of Paula Ulrich and Tim Ehrlich worked to increasingly tight time scales while also accommodating client changes to the final dimensions of the Diva shell. Tha

UK - Metronomy completed a year of touring their Love Letters album with a show stopping gig at London's Alexandra Palace venue with lighting and set designed by Ed Warren, one of an innovative 'new wave' of lighting and visual designers making an impact in the world of live stage presentation.

The floor lighting package throughout the tour had in fact featured Robe moving lights, and more were added for the finale show, making a complete count of 14 x Pointes, six LEDWash 300s, 39 x LEDBeam 100s, 17 x LEDWash 600s and 26 x Robin 600E Spots, all supplied by Southampton based rental company, GLS.

The stage design was based on a 'futuristic' 1970's TV show concept, the visuality of which was partly inspired by the work of Ed's two favourite light artists, James Turrell and Dan Flavin, and their experimentation with block colours and the bold vibrancy of neon.

The result

UK - Flare Audio has again impressed on former Westlife frontman Shane Filan's second solo tour. The first tour represented a milestone for the West Sussex-based audio manufacturer as it was the first UK-wide outing by a major artist to use Flare's touring speaker system, the X5A line array. The impressive 'audio punch and clarity' combined with the lightweight and compactness of the products led to the production team immediately re-selecting Flare for the second tour.

Configured with six X5s and four Q18 bass units each side and powered by Lab.gruppen PLM20000Q four channel DSP amplifiers, the system was a revelation to sound engineer Darryl Walsh. "To say this system is stunning is an understatement," he enthused. "I can only describe it as a blank canvas for mixing; the PA is sonically almost 'invisible'."

Walsh used the Flare system for 31 of the 34 sh

Canada - Having completed a series of significant upgrades to six control rooms at its Agincourt and Queen Street campuses in Scarborough, Ontario, in 2011, Bell Media (former CTV Canada) has expanded and integrated its Lawo mc²56 and zirkonXL consoles around a Lawo Nova73 router - creating a networked infrastructure with a total of five mc² series consoles.

The initial installation supported migration from SD to HD, and included four mc²56 MkI digital production consoles and two zirkonXL consoles. These have now been joined by a further mc²56 MkII console.

The audio mixing systems were initially chosen for the broadcast of the 2010 Winter Games by Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium and comprised a 64-fader mc²56 console configured with DSP cards, redundant processors, 15 MADI ports, 32 AES3id I/O, and three DALLIS frames which were located at the Agincourt Campu

USA - The annual excitement of the Pepsi Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show raged around the University of Phoenix stadium, Arizona on 1 February, broadcast to the world by NBC. International superstar Katy Perry headlined the much-anticipated Halftime Show supported by Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott.

Ayrton LED fixtures played their part once more in the dynamic lighting design by Bob Barnhart of Full Flood, Inc., with the new, compact MagicRing-R1 and NandoBeam-S6 helping to wow the crowds.

Five-time primary lighting designer for the highly anticipated telecasts, Barnhart delivered a spectacular show, overcoming many of the logistical difficulties of lighting a full-blown, large-scale production in the middle of a football stadium by mounting his lighting equipment on sixteen mobile lighting carts and four band carts.

Twelve Ayrton MagicRing-R1 beam projection fixtures were in

USA - The Winter Jam Tour Spectacular is back on the road for their 2015 leg of jaw-dropping performances and worship. Pollstar reported Winter Jam as #1 in 2014's First Quarter Year To Date Worldwide Ticket Sales chart, and this year looks to be even bigger with performances by Skillet, Jeremy Camp, Francesca Battistelli, Building 429, Family Force, Newsong, For King & Country, Blanca, About a Mile, Veridia and speaker Tony Nolan.

Bandit Lites once again worked with production manager Jerry Holcomb to provide the lighting for this ministry. Equipment included Clay Paky B Eye K 20 wash lights, Martin Vipers, Vari-Lite VL 3500 washes, Clay Paky Sharpys, Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes, 4 lite inline moles, Color Force 72 wash lights, 60ft black A type circle truss divided into 3 sections all lined with 12 mil LED product.

"I really like the arch that we've created on stage,&quo

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USA - There are many good reasons why women's soccer has become one of the fastest growing sports in the US: it's colourful, intense and it makes a great visual presentation. The same can be said of the Nexus LED panels from Chauvet Professional, which have also become exceedingly popular lately. It's only fitting then that these two stars crossed paths recently at the Women's World Cup Kickoff Celebration on Fox Sports 1 and Timer Warner Cable.

Lighting designer James Schipper of Kinetic Lighting used 40 Nexus 4x4 panels to create a dynamic stage backdrop for the celebration's main entertainment event: a concert by the hip hop rapper Flo Rida backed up by DJ Blaze. The Nexus panels on stage not only matched the Grammy nominated People's Choice-winning star's performance; they also reflected the upbeat mood of the televised celebration.

Schipper arranged the Nexus panels 20 un

Europe - Global production company Stage Entertainment's Holiday On Ice has an illustrious 70-year history and is, to date, the most visited ice show in the world. This ever-evolving visual spectacular took to the road in November for a three-month tour of Europe.

Focus Advanced Event Technology, part of the Netherlands' Rent-All Group, is providing a full technical package for the tour, including a substantial L-Acoustics ARCS Wide and ARCS Focus loudspeaker system.

Designed by Jeroen ten Brinke - arguably Dutch theatre's best-known sound designer, having been involved in large-scale theatre productions including Soldier of Orange and Anne, and European partner for international sound design group ADI - the L-Acoustics solution was chosen for its audio quality and flexibility.

"The position of the lighting rig changes from time to time and, as a result, the posi

The Netherlands - At ISE 2015, Martin Professional introduced the Rush Par 2 CT Zoom lighting fixture, the latest addition to the Rush by Martin line for the installation and entertainment markets. The Rush Par 2 CT Zoom is a bright single-lens LED par can that offers fully pre-mixed white colour temperatures for a range of applications.

"I am pleased to announce the launch of the Rush Par 2 CT Zoom, which will be an ideal companion to our highly successful Rush Par 2 RGBW Zoom," said Mark Buss, product manager for Rush by Martin. "The ability to pre-mix white light ranging from 2700K to 7200K will offer lighting designers full flexibility for installations ranging from nightclubs and theatre applications to conferences and exhibitions."

With 12 10-Watt WW/CW (warm white and cold white) LEDs and a motorized zoom ranging from 10 to 60 degrees, the Rush Par 2

USA - PLASA Focus: Orlando 2015 opens in one week, taking place on 17-18 February at the Rosen Plaza Hotel.

The two-day event kicks off Tuesday at 9:00am with Richard Pilbrow's educational seminar titled Light and Theatre? 50 Years of Change. Additional seminars follow and the exhibition hall opens at 10:00am-5:00pm with over 60 regional and national companies exhibiting the latest in entertainment technology. On Wednesday, the exhibition hall and seminar programme runs from 10:00am-4:00pm.

"We are thrilled with the incredibly high pre-registration numbers that we've seen so far, and can't wait for an extremely successful PLASA Focus event," said Laura Hoepker, PLASA Events sales executive. "Between the show floor and educational seminars, we are providing access to the best in the industry to everyone who attends."

Free registration to both the sh

The Netherlands - Yamaha Music Europe has launched two new, low profile ceiling loudspeakers. The latest addition to Yamaha's expanding Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) range of products, the new VXC-F loudspeakers are being launched on the company's stand 2-A40 at Amsterdam RAI.

Featuring a newly designed speaker unit and resin enclosure, optimally tuned for music playback, the shallow, lightweight construction and flexible design of the VXC3F and VXC5F can easily conform to the strictest installation limitations, says the company.

The VXC3F features a 3.5" full-range bass reflex driver rated at 20w, with the VXC5F a 4.5" driver rated at 40w. The speaker unit and back box volume have been painstakingly matched to achieve well-balanced reproduction of all frequencies, even at low output levels - delivering refined, natural music reproduction at any volume leve

The Netherlands - NEC Display Solutions Europe has unveiled its world of visual experience at ISE 2015, showcasing its vision and future applications for digital display technology. At its booth (4-R24 in Hall 4), NEC is giving visitors the opportunity to "experience the bright places we encounter every day through an immersive and engaging city journey".

Visitors can see specific examples of the NEC visual journey in everyday life scenarios. These scenarios range from shopping, photo studio, learning and working, to control rooms, eating and drinking, galleries and museums and public transportation: visual experiences where we are consuming more and more information on screens each day.

At ISE this year, NEC brings all of this to life with a wide range of industry customised demonstrations, including; 'Digital Live Painting' with an artist creating pictures of visit

The Netherlands - CYP is showcasing its wide range of AV solutions on a new larger booth (Stand - 4-U65) at ISE 2015, with many new products shown in Amsterdam for the first time.

Adding to its growing range of Modular Matrices, CYP is demonstrating its latest chassis - the 32×32 Modular Matrix. Following on from the success of its 3U 16×16 Modular Matrix Chassis, the 5U 32×32can be fitted with any combination of up to four input modules and four output modules (each with eight connections per board), offering "unparalleled levels of flexibility and performance for systems integrators and installers in any multi-zone AV environment"

Also on show is the new PU-8H8HBTPL-4K 8 x 8 HDBaseT LITE Matrix with PoC (Power over Cable), which supports the transmission of video (resolutions up to 4K2K Full HD) and multi-channel digital audio from 8 HDMI sources to 8 outputs ov

The Netherlands - Tannoy is introducing two additions to the the QFlex range, specifically engineered to offer fully optimised solutions for life safety applications.

Tannoy has developed the new QFlex Life Safety (LS) models as a cost effective solution for critical, life safety applications, a solution that balances complex power consumption needs with the high performance and intelligibility that is the core of the proven QFlex range. The new models have an optimised driver placement and improved current draw, making them suitable for applications where emergency voice alarms or communications may be required.

The new QFlex 16LS and QFlex 32LS column loudspeakers are designed primarily for large transportation hubs as part of a PA/VA system where speech is the main audio source, either from live announcements or via pre-recorded message. These new QFlex life safety models a

The Netherlands - The Projection Studio, led by Ross Ashton are special guests of Panasonic on Booth B1 P20 in Hall 1 at ISE 2015, creating a 3D projection mapping onto a Tesla car.

Ross was asked on-board to assist Panasonic in making an impressive impact on the stand by Hartmut Kulessa, marketing manager of projection products for Panasonic Europe.

Hartmut says, "Ross is the best known and most recognised 3D mapping artist in the world, and we see 3D mapping as a growing market trend, especially outdoors where it is the new 'fireworks' for big public events and spectaculars. Ross has enormous experience and a great track record in creating these exciting new visual experiences, and that is why we asked him to collaborate with us to create the stand centrepiece at ISE".

Ross has used Panasonic products for many of his installation works, including, most recently,

Italy - There was a strong turnout at the convention organized by Clay Paky for their international distributors. No less than 130 representatives from 53 countries around the world met in Bergamo on 3 and 4 February 2015 for an update on the future strategies of the company, which has recently become part of the OSRAM group.

The convention was held in Bergamo, in the splendid setting of the Teatro Sociale, Città Alta. There was a striking contrast between the wooden structures of this ancient theatre and Clay Paky's futuristic computerized equipment.

The Convention's motto was Today Tomorrow which clearly expresses Clay Paky's strategic aim of always looking to the future, ready to accept new exciting challenges. Clay Paky CEO Pio Nahum however, pointed out that future development is founded on past success and that the corporate mission remains permanent innovation a

UK - Greg Wood has been appointed to the Group Executive Board in the position of chief operating officer, further strengthening the senior management team.

Greg, a CIMA qualified accountant, joins the business from the Avesco Group, where he held senior positions including group finance and operations director for Presteigne Broadcast Hire.

"I have worked in finance for many years, predominantly with entrepreneur-led businesses such as Regus, Holiday Autos and lastminute.com, all of which were in particularly high growth or restructuring situations," Greg explains. "More recently, I joined the Avesco Group, which includes Creative Technology, mclcreate and Presteigne Broadcast Hire.

"Stage Electrics has a fantastic history and was a founder-managed business for many years," Greg adds. "It has gone through a successful management buyout and sign

UK - A stylish and harmonious combination of intelligence and impact was the lighting vibe for the latest UK tour by rising stars Swedish folk rock duo First Aid Kit, of which the final section featured their largest toured production to date. Matt Waterfield is their LD and the lighting equipment was supplied by west London based Colour Sound Experiment.

Matt has worked with the band since 2013, and this itinerary of UK theatres was the latest section in their Stay Gold album campaign which started in May 2014.

As with most tours, the design has developed over the course of time, and earlier on Colour Sound had supplied a floor package, so when it came to upping the production they again offered an excellent deal that ensured Matt had the tools he needed to make the show rock!

The stage design started with a large semi-transparent gold Joel Flex backdrop upstage, sup

The Netherlands - Radial Engineering revealed at ISE 2015 the IceCube IC-1, an ultra-compact balanced line isolator designed to fit inside a technician's tool kit to eliminate hum and buzz caused by ground loops in audio systems.

Radial sales manager Roc Bubel comments, "The use of isolators to solve noise problems is not new; small plastic units have been around for years. But the problem with these is that they were designed years ago - back when audio systems had limitations both with respect to signal-to-noise, dynamic handling and sound quality. Today, with the advent of digital audio sources, high performance mixers and line array technology, the frequency response and dynamics have increased to the point that those older devices simply cannot keep up. We identified the problem then began looking for a solution some 18 months ago.

"The best way to solve ground

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