UK - Buckinghamshire New University Audio and Music Production student Owen Brown is the proud winner of an annual scholarship award from leading audio manufacturer Sennheiser UK.

Owen, 26, from East Ham, London, received the scholarship based on his academic performance in his first year and plans to use the money to pay for recording software to continue to develop his skills.

The scholarship is part of an education partnership between the University, in Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, and Sennheiser. which has its UK HQ in Marlow.

Five students with the highest first year grade profiles were shortlisted and interviewed by Phil Cummings, Sennheiser's marketing projects manager.

Owen, who attended Barking & Dagenham College of Further Education before working in retail

UK - Showlogix, a developer of show and media control software, has released its version 1.6, designed for producing multi-display shows and interactive attractions in museums, visitor centres, trade shows and live productions.

The new Timeline Object includes numerous layers of videos, images or sound, synchronized to one centralized timecode. This is done across displays and computers. Several timeline objects can be added and can run simultaneously.

While this object requires loading all media files in advance before running a timeline, you can still load and play videos, images, texts and external inputs on top of a timeline. Moreover, it includes the option of fading smoothly between two media files on a single layer across displays, all while the timeline is running, says the company.

"There is a rise in demand for interactivity in typical time based show applicat

USA - Once a bedroom community for Chicago, the village of Bolingbrook, Illinois has developed far beyond its suburban origins. While its close proximity to the metropolis still plays a large role in its economy, Bolingbrook has created infrastructure that encourages a sense of community and provides its 73,000-plus residents with plenty of opportunities for recreation right in town

A good example is the Bolingbrook Performing Arts Centre (BPAC), which provides a beautiful outdoor venue for everything from local theatre to national music acts. Built 16years ago, BPAC recently replaced its original sound reinforcement system with a Danley Sounds Labs design that includes new Danley amps, processing, mains, and subwoofers. Critically, the Danley system ably meets all of the village's requirements while costing less than half the cost of other manufacturer's designs, which allowed

UK - Illuminate Design was the chosen supplier to renew the dimmer system at the Lakeside Theatre on the University of Essex Campus.

To replace a dimmer system that was over 35 years old, Illuminate Design's technical sales manager Ken Berreen specified three of Zero 88's successful Chilli Bypass Racks to be installed. These were chosen for the flexibility they provide.

The project also included new circuits being added in the venue along with new control lines and additional other works to the DMX infrastructure plus the addition of a DMX distribution system.

Commenting on the work carried out at his venue, technical manager Harry Harris said, "The recent installation of our new dimmers and DMX infrastructure by Illuminate Design couldn't have gone better and working with the company was an absolute pleasure., They managed the project perfectly from start to finish and

UK - The Plaisterers' Hall is the largest and one of the finest Livery Halls in London. Opened in 1972 and situated in the heart of the City of London at One London Wall, it reflects the grandeur of a bygone era but in an ultra-modern setting. The décor is neo-classical in style, with designs created by Robert Adam in the 18th century faithfully reproduced in great detail both on plaster and wood.

Recently, the Great Hall underwent a facilities upgrade, including replacement of the sound system and the addition of touch screen control. Bose pro partner, Whitwam, who installed the original system back in 2004 when a major renovation took place, were asked to look at upgrading the sound to a high quality speech and recorded music system to be used for various different functions including formal dining, corporate events, parties and wedding receptions.

Following a client

Denmark - As the city's main stage for operetta, opera, musicals and ballet, Vienna's Volksoper is renowned throughout the world for the quality and diversity of its performances. It is also an incredibly busy theatre with some 300 performances of around 35 different productions staged every year between September and June.

Delivering such a high volume of performances requires a great deal of effort from everyone involved, especially the sound department.

"To cope with such an intense workload, our sound equipment has to be flexible, durable and very hard working," says Martin Lukesch, head of sound and multimedia at Volksoper Vienna. "This is why we use DPA microphones. For many years they have played an important part in providing the amplification for the orchestra, for actors in musicals and for actors and singers in every kind of show. Opera and operettas,

Finland - Helsinki is well known for its excellent nightlife and vibrant and exciting rock bar scene. One of the newest to bars to open in the city is The Riff, co-owned by Jussi 69, a member of The 69 Eyes, one of Finland's best known rock bands.

With such an illustrious name at the helm and the music offering being such a key attraction for the venue, special consideration was given to the choice of audio system, especially the type of loudspeaker required. Jussi 69 recognised that the venue's success would hinge on this choice and his team chose the Genelec 4000 Series as the loudspeaker with the right combination of performance and looks for the venue.

The Jussi69's partners in the venture are Veikka Moilanen and Oskari Kovalainen, two familiar faces from the Helsinki bar scene. Already a radio host Jussi69 is excited about branching out into bar ownership: "I have to

UK - On 21 October, the historic surroundings of Wilton's Music Hall played host to the Homage to T.S. Eliot evening. The event was a fundraiser for the London Library and featured readings of Eliot's work by renowned actors such as Fiona Shaw, Jeremy Irons and Sir Tom Stoppard, on what was also the fiftieth anniversary of the poet's death. With more than 250 invited guests in attendance, WL was called upon to provide the lighting support on what was a special occasion.

The entire performance was lit by lighting designer Mike Gunning. He states, "The aim of the evening was to raise funds for the London Library in order to allow free access for those not in a position to purchase membership. As it marked 50 years since T.S. Eliot's death, along with the fact he was president of the library, it seemed rather fitting to base the evening around readings of his work."

Oman - German manufacturer Aimline Audio is further expanding its presence in the Middle East with the appointment of Pulse Information Technologies as its exclusive distributor in Oman.

The distributor is credited with possessing a wealth of integration experience, having been involved with many high profile projects in the Middle East region ranging from house of worship installations to conferencing systems and broadcast solutions.

Hitesh Bhimani, AV specialist at Pulse comments, "The Aimline product range fully complements Pulse's current offerings for addressing acoustically and critical audio installations .This agreement establishes a strong partnership with Aimline and enforces the mutual ambition we share to provide our clients with innovative AV products using the latest technology."

"We have been looking for a more targeted pro audio distributor wit

UK - Bristol-based lighting, rigging and video rental specialist Fineline is the first UK company to purchase one of Avolites' new Arena lighting consoles - serial number 001.

Fineline has been a big investor in Avolites control, particularly in the last two years, explains MD Rob Sangwell, with a selection of Tiger Touch, Tiger Touch Pro, Quartz and Pearl Expert ranges in their hire stock which are constantly in use. "Avo has always been a powerful and simple to use control surface," says Rob, "And apart from making some of the best 'live' consoles on the market, the service and backup has also been fantastic."

Stuart England, Fineline's operations co-ordinator said, "The Arena ticks all the boxes for us. It builds from the popular Tiger Touch operating architecture with extra faders to retain that old school buskability for which Avo desks are famous

UK - London's respected arts centre, the Barbican, has invested in Robe DL4S LED profile and Pointe multi-functional moving lights which are integral to a new moving light rig installed in the 1,943 capacity Barbican Hall concert venue.

The new rig has been designed by Jason Kew, technical supervisor in charge of lighting in the Barbican's Music Department, and the fixtures were specified by Jason and Mark Bloxsidge, technical manager (music events), following an evaluation which involved the whole technical team at the Barbican Hall.

The order was delivered via leading UK sales and rental company White Light and Robe UK, co-ordinated by Jonathan Haynes for White Light following a tender process led by the Barbican's Luke Freeborough, technical manager (projects).

The Barbican Hall was originally built as an orchestral venue when the Centre opened in 1982. In addition to bei

UK - HSL supplied moving lights and LED screen for the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich's recent production of the classic Cy Coleman musical, Sweet Charity.

Lighting designer Nick Richings and set / costume designer Libby Watson added plenty of colour, drama and atmosphere to the work, proving just how much can be achieved with a little bit of technology and copious amounts of imagination.

HSL's project manager John Slevin commented, "The budget was expedient and the tech / rehearsal timeframe short, but everyone involved worked as a team utilising creativity and ingenuity to ensure a truly excellent production that was a big hit with audiences."

Nick and Libby worked closely on developing the whole visual concept with director Pete Rowe, setting it in the 1960s underlined with a strong Pop Art aesthetic, together with all the boldness, stylized text / images an

USA - Elation Professional has launched the Satura Profile, an energy-efficient CMY colour-changing moving head in the company's popular LED-based Satura Series. The Satura Profile features intense output from a 440W cool-white LED engine and houses a host of creative design tools, including zoom and internal framing.

The luminaire's high-performance LED engine delivers a total of 20,000 lumens, a level of power comparable to a 1200W discharge lamp. A flexible four-blade rotating framing shutter system is included that allows the beam to be shaped and angled as required for precise highlighting of set pieces and performers. Designers can also use the flexible framing system to create outstanding projection or mid-air effects.

A full-range CMY colour mixing system with variable CTO offers a wide palette of colour shades while an extra seven dichroic colours provides added colou

USA - Novalight returned to LDI this year, where it was exhibiting with DNJ Pro, their exclusive distributor for North America, to showcase their entire line-up of products and present the industry with their newest moving light, the Nova-Scope.

"This was a great year at LDI," said Doug Brown, president of DNJ Pro. "We met a lot of people who were excited about the kaleido effect of the Nova-Scope and also a lot of people who were just excited to the other Novalight products again."

Nova-Scope is a 2KW weatherproof moving light that implements an innovative reflector design to "deliver stunning effects in mid-air". With seven gobo options, a kaleido wheel effect, shutter, dimmer, and strobe effects combined with six colours, white, and CMY colour mixing, dramatic effects can be achieved.

The Super-Nova incorporates outstanding lighting power, vi

Brazil - For the sixth Brazilian edition and the 30th anniversary of the original Rock in Rio, production company Gabisom Audio Equipment debuted its new MLA system on the Palco Sunset stage which featured artists such as Korn, John Legend, Magic, Deftones, Steve Vai and Al Jarreau across the mix of rock and pop line-ups.

The purchase, comprising 46 x MLA elements, two MLD Downfill cabinets and 24 MLX subs, followed a very successful trial of MLA at Rock in Rio, USA last May. At the Las Vegas event every FOH engineer had been very complimentary about the system saying it was one of the easiest shows they'd done.

Gabisom has been in charge of the sound at Rock in Rio since 2001 including all 14 international editions and the latest incarnate followed a similar equipment list as to the Las Vegas event. Sixteen MLA enclosures with one MLD per side along with 32 MLX subwoofers gro

Europe - ETC will be travelling across Europe this month to showcase some of their latest products. In Paris, the company will be working with distributor AVAB France at JTSE on 24-25 November; in Helsinki with Studiotec Oy at AVITA Audiovisual on 18-20 November; and in Serbia, with AVL ProJekt for an open day on 12 November.

LED will be star of ETC's demonstration offerings, with the always-popular Source Four LED Series 2 being shown alongside the recently-introduced ColorSource range. The ColorSource PAR, which earned the Lighting Product of the Year award at the ABTT Theatre Show 2015, will be joined by the new ColorSource Spot, making a range of great quality LED lighting available for the first time on productions with limited budgets. Demonstrations will also be available for the ETC Source Four LED Fresnel and CYC adapters, as well as the extensive range of lens tubes, s

Sound Investment - The British music industry invested nearly £500m in new music in 2014, with the signing up of new artists by major labels up 30%, according to data released by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Music Publishers Association (MPA). The number of new acts signed by major labels last year hit a five-year high of 156, the figures say.

The 156 new artists signed by Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music was 26 more than in 2013, and just 12 fewer than the recent peak in 2009 of 164 new deals. Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI and Brit Awards, said, "It's no fluke that 2014 was such an outstanding year for British music. Alongside the artists themselves, the passion and commitment labels show in unearthing, nurturing and developing the next wave of talent is one of the main reasons our music is the envy of the world right now."<

USA - Audinate has announced the immediate worldwide availability of its new Dante Via software. Having already revolutionized the delivery of audio-over-IP with its widely adopted Dante networking solution, Audinate now makes it even easier for end-users, integrators, consultants and sound engineers across a wide range of markets to experience the advantages of Dante-based networking.

The Dante Via software connects any audio application or device from your computer to a Dante network. Dante Via enables USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt devices - including microphones, legacy mixing consoles or I/O boxes - to join any Dante audio network. The new software also allows a Dante network to be created without the need for dedicated Dante hardware, providing a straightforward approach to routing audio using only computers. Sporting an intuitive, easy to use 'drag and drop'-style interface

Papua New Guinea - Optical Audio is a boutique provider of high-end audio processing, communications and control equipment working out of Melbourne, Australia. Technical Director Jason Read heads up a full time team of three employees, working with a team of regular contractors on the big gigs.

"We supply a service, managed within our current staffing, that ensures we deliver the product," explained Jason. "We're there from quote, to design, to delivery and we're the guys on the ground doing the job. When we started eight years ago, we were supplying backbone PA equipment like drive gear and processing. Communications became a natural progression from our work on fireworks and show control systems. Comms came naturally to us, and we've stared to specialise, and take on high profile projects."

Optical Audio has chosen equipment from Clear-Com to fill their c

USA - As technical director of The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas, Bobby Dennis is accustomed to creating big concert looks on stage. Leading Christian artists and Dove Award winners like Aaron Shust and Point of Grace have regularly performed at this dynamic church outside Dallas, which counts international recording artist Sixteen Cities among its worship leaders.

Yet when the time came to upgrade The Heights' lighting system, Dennis was intent on going beyond the church's concert tradition by putting together a rig that could do more than animate music with bold bright hues. He also wanted lighting with the depth and flexibility to create engaging scenes for his church's sermon series. Being on a limited budget, he needed to do this with as few fixtures as possible. He accomplished this ambitious goal with the multi-tasking Rogue RH1 Hybrid from Chauvet Professio

Italy - Nile Rodgers performed an evening of disco music at the Lucca Summer Festival with percussionist and drummer Sheila E., who has worked with Prince for more than a decade and who thrilled Barack and Michelle Obama during her recent show at the White House.

Italian lighting designer Massimo Tomasino, who followed the artist on his 2010 tour, designed the lights and counted on Clay Paky equipment for its reliability and reputation.

In every city where the concert was hosted in the UK (London, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham), the production team had no difficulty in procuring the same Clay Paky lights or, at least, equally effective alternatives made by the same manufacturer.

Tomassino himself cannot hide his pride when he says "I am glad Clay Paky is an Italian name since it is highly appreciated abroad." He put eight Alpha Spot HPE 1200s on the bac

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