UK - Having just celebrated its 13th anniversary the Green Man Festival - held in the Brecon Beacons in August - has built a reputation as one of the UK's best music events. Typically featuring a line-up of alternative, indie and folk and dance acts, Green Man 2015 included Leftfield, Hot Chip, Super Furry Animals and Television among the highlights.

During the event, Audio-Technica supplied an array of microphones from its Artist Elite, Artist Series and 40 Series ranges and an Allen & Heath Qu-24 digital mixer for the filming of The Green Man Sessions - intimate live performances of acts appearing at the festival. In charge of proceedings was Charlie Allen from video production company Naked Noise, who faced both a challenging schedule and technical hurdles during the pro

USA - Drew Carey mentioned it in his autobiography. KISS mounted their comeback by playing on top of its bar. Jamie Foxx liked to celebrate New Year's Eve there. Ben Affleck was a regular. Even by the standards of Las Vegas nightspots, the Center Bar at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has been a celebrity magnet. Perched under a domed ceiling in the middle of the hotel's 30,000sq.ft casino, it has long been the place to see and be seen.

However, even icons need updating to remain fresh and vibrant., which is why this June the Hard Rock Hotel had a "Final Call" party for its famous bar, and promised to reopen the 20-year-old landmark with a new design that would make its future as glittering as its past. This goal was accomplished in stunning fashion, thanks to a massive and dazzling abstract design by LD Robert Athey of All Things Integrated that drew on the pixel mapping

Spain - Proaudio Granada recently debuted its new Meyer Sound Leopard linear sound reinforcement system at two major outdoor music events in the Spanish city - Jazz en La Costa (Jazz on the Coast) Festival and a concert by the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada (City of Granada Orchestra).

"Ninety percent of our work is supporting classical and jazz music, and Leopard is the perfect system for these applications," says Henry Gómez Rey of Proaudio Granada. "At a Leopard demo in Paris, we listened to a recording of Diana Krall. I closed my eyes and thought, 'It's impossible, it's like she's playing right here in front of me.' It was not like a recording at all.

"With jazz music, people know good sound, and they are very critical," Rey continues. "They loved the sound of the Leopard at Jazz en La Costa. With no delays, we had uniform coverage of the whole a

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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.

UAE - The eclipse Group's success over the years is credit to their continuous investment in talent and staff, which in turn is testament to the level of quality experience and education that is available in the region. As a result, the group has begun an initiative that is focused on contributing to the advancement of education in the industry by helping to develop the skills of young and enthusiastic students. The initiative is a combination of the recruitment of young graduates, participating in local awards programs and conducting college seminars and demonstrations.

This initiative meant seeking graduates looking to expand their technical knowhow and gain extra experience within the busy events environment and also in some cases, individuals willing to re-locate. The search to hire interns began before the summer to coincide with the break for college students locally and i

Italy - The Fraschini Theatre in Pavia, Italy, has recently purchased two dot2 consoles (a dot2 XL-F and a dot2 core) to use for their touring shows. The theatre hosts several visiting companies and is also an opera house. Furthermore, like most Italian theatres, the venue is hired out for dance exhibitions and other events during the season.

The technical staff decided to look for a solution which could meet their many requirements, namely a versatile console on which they could programme complex cue lists even when programming time is very short, or that was ideal when the operator has to improvise a show in a professional manner. Therefore they decided to invest in the dot2.

Intuitive operation is at the core of the dot2 philosophy, and with a comprehensive set of connectivity hardware on all console models, the dot2 range is suitable for most theatre, touring, corporate, t

UK - Edinburgh-based rental and event production specialists Blue Parrot have continued their investment in world class equipment across a busy summer. The company has now added a GrandMA2 Light as the flagship desk for lighting rental and a DiGiCo SD10 fulfilling the same role in sound.

The MA2 was busy across August as the Scottish capital welcomed the world to its Fringe and International Festivals. The desk was used on shows at the Playhouse theatre and Magners Summer Nights concerts in Princes Street Gardens.

Headline acts James, Flaming Lips and The Waterboys all specified MA2 and Blue Parrot supplied a robust control system with a fully tracking back up MA2 onPC fader wing. The Flaming Lips show also saw the company provide a stunning 96 panel 5mm pitch video backdrop using their Chauvet PVP modular system. The band and crew were particularly impressed by the brightness

USA - Fun Home is the unlikely smash hit that took Broadway by storm as an in-the-round production, receiving rave reviews and winning no less than five coveted Tony Awards including Best Musical. The bittersweet comedy - claimed to be the first ever mainstream Broadway musical about a gay woman - pictorialises the chaotic upbringing of cartoonist Alison Bechdel.

Director, Sam Gold - who took the 2015 Tony for Direction - transformed the original 2013 off-Broadway proscenium format to an in-the-round staging, with the intention of achieving more intimate and immersive engagement with the audience.

Sound designer Kai Harada, notes, "It was challenging for all departments, and for the cast, but the show took an incredible leap forward. Now you really feel you're part of the family, watching Alison's past come to life. It is an immersion rather than a presentation.&qu

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BikeFest Spain 2025 - Join the ride!

BikeFest Spain is set to return for its fourth consecutive year, inviting cyclists from across the industry to join the 360km ride towards ISE in Barcelona. From 31 January to 2 February 2025, riders will again rally in Valencia, cycling along the Mediterranean coast in support of industry causes.
For more information and to sign up, visit: www.joinbikefest.com

UK - Staff and students at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD) in London became the first users in Europe of the award-winning ColorSource PAR from ETC, when they used it for a show at the beginning of the year.

The school used the fixtures on their musical theatre produciton of Big City Dreams, performed by students on its MA Music Theatre course. The production ran over three days in Central's Webber Douglas Studio, a black box studio theatre with fixed lighting catwalks which allow for flexability, both in terms of design and staging.

Technical manager Phil Rowe says: "The show was set in traverse, and its divised nature required a broad colour palette. But our fixtures' scrollers were coming to the end of their life, which gave us an opportunity to try some LED fixtures, ahead of the new uilding which is being planned, and which will be largely

USA - Doughty Engineering's award winning Drop Arms and H Frames will continue to be the star attractions on the Doughty booth at this year's LDI. Visitors to the booth #2105 can see the system in action as well as finding out more about two new items which have been added to the Modular Rigging Range.

Manufactured from high tensile aluminium, the Drop Arms come in lengths of 9.84" (250mm), 19.68" (500mm), 39.37" (1000mm) and 78.75" (2000mm) which can be connected using conical couplers to create larger drops of approximately 19.68ft (6m). H-Frames are 16.3" (415mm) and 39.37" (1000mm) high with connectors available in 9.84"(250mm), 19.68" (500mm), 39.37" (1000mm) and 78.75" (2000mm). All have a safe working load of 220 lbs (100kg) and are available in powder coated silver or black finishes.

Mark Chorley design engineer at Doug

Mercury Rising - Former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes has been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, 20 years after his band's debut album made the shortlist. The singer was just 19 when Supergrass appeared on the list. His solo album, Matador, is more introspective and experimental than his Britpop band. Other artists nominated for the £20,000 prize include Florence + The Machine, Jamie xx and Wolf Alice. The winner will be revealed live on BBC Four and BBC 6 Music next month.

The Book's The Thing - A new theatre company hopes to reinvigorate local libraries through theatre. Librarian Theatre will tour productions to libraries across the UK in what founders Tom Cuthbertson and Kelly Eva-May, who are both actors, say will be the first touring company dedicated to visiting regional libraries. Its first production, an adaptation of Hamlet called The Book'

UK - Ten goals which aim to inspire a decade of sustainable culture change within live production were launched at the industry's flagship showcase and networking event PLASA London on 4 October 2015 by The Sustainability in Production Alliance (SiPA).

SiPA's Craig Bennett reported that "over 70 representatives of all corners of live production had come together over the last year to uncover 10 shared goals, formed from stories from across our industry".

The initiative encompasses issues around equality, well-being, education and development, waste, procurement, renewable energy, transparent reporting of environmental and social impacts, fair pay and resilient industry economics.

Leading the ratification of the goals by industry figureheads, Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) CEO Matthew Griffiths said: "We need to move quickly to finding reso

UK - Martin Audio has continued its long association with Novus Leisure's Tiger Tiger brand, with the company's latest generation of installation speakers, the stylish CDD range, being selected for the operators' original and flagship multi-room venue in London's West End.

One of Novus Leisure's approved suppliers, Middlesex Sound & Light (MSL) specified CDD as part of a major overhaul, having already fitted the manufacturer's new Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology in several other high profile sites.

"We had also carried out a number of other recent refits for Novus using Martin Audio's AQ range, which we were great fans of," said MSL project director, Darrel Olivier. "But this high profile venue provided the perfect opportunity to debut the new CDD. In terms of aesthetics and sound quality CDD is a definite improvement, offering wider dispersion, as we

USA - Having witnessed how acoustic technology can elevate the dining experience at their restaurant Comal, restaurateurs John Paluska and Andrew Hoffman have again integrated Meyer Sound Libra and Constellation acoustic systems into their newest culinary venture.

The Advocate, located in Berkeley's chic Elmwood neighbourhood, combines soulful northern Californian fare with the Meyer Sound variable acoustics to create a multisensory dining space in which guests can converse easily over a comfortable background buzz.

Paluska pushed the importance of restaurant sound to the forefront when he installed Constellation in Comal in 2012. "After the success we had with Libra and Constellation at Comal, there was never any question that we would also incorporate them at The Advocate," he says. "It's always worthwhile putting extra effort into making a room sound its best

Italy - German sound reinforcement firm HK Audio has signed an exclusive distribution deal for Italy with Gold Music, effective 1 October 2015.

The respected Bruino, Turin-based distributors are now responsible for the entire HK Audio range, from portable to professional live sound to install solutions, covering products from the diminutive Lucas Nano crossover PA through to the new LInear 5 LTS A long throw system and the Linear L SUB 4000 A subwoofer.

Gabriele Capogna, CEO/purchasing manager at Gold Music, said, "It's an honour for us to be responsible for HK Audio across Italy, and we have big expectations for the brand in the growing Italian marketplace. We're confident that we can help grow HK Audio's popularity and profitability together, and we're looking forward to a long and successful partnership."

Andreas Mayerl, HK Audio's international market manager,

USA - Lycian Stage Lighting will be showing an as yet unnamed new followspot at LDI. Model #1299 utilises a miniaturized Xenon module with integrated heat sinks to produce an intensely bright beam.

"The intent to show the prototype is to gain feedback from our distributors as well as end users so the final product has widespread appeal from a form and function standpoint," says Lycian. "This followspot puts out a beam that surpasses even the Lycian 1295 ELT, already acknowledged as the most powerful production followspot and does it in a surprisingly compact body."

The model 1299 incorporates a number of features not seen in any other followspot. Among them is the ability to be used over a wide spot to flood ratio without lens changing. The 1299 can be used in fixed or variable focal modes. Although still in the prototype stage, Lycian intends to make optio

USA / UK - To "better serve the needs of the performing arts market", Wenger Corporation has announced organizational changes to support the growth strategy of this global segment.

Wenger Corporation's performing arts market segment will be led by Mike Murphy as general manager. He will also retain his current role as president of J.R. Clancy, a leading manufacturer of stage rigging equipment. Reporting to Murphy will be Mark Ingalls in the new position of performing arts segment manager. This newly created role will improve the customer experience with additional support, coordination and collaboration of multiproduct opportunities. Ingalls will continue to drive business as the product manager for Diva Acoustical Shells.

New to Wenger Corporation is John Hastie, named business development director - Europe and Middle East. Hastie has extensive global performing art

USA - Video equipment rental company Pete's Big TVs has added new technology to its rental stock, including the digiLED LightSlice

Pete's Big TVs' owner Peter Daniel said, "We make it our mission to offer more creative, innovative solutions for your concert tour, corporate event, theatrical show, television broadcast or whatever your needs may be."

LightSlice will be on display at LDI at digiLED USA's booth #872 at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. Pete's Big TVs' Peter Daniel and Anne Johnston will be there Friday, 23 October..

The LightSlice is a slice of lightweight 10mm resolution LED video strip for indoor or outdoor use. It was designed for events requiring creative video solutions which do not conform to the module & panel format of standard LED screens. The LightSlice strips can be oriented in curved, splayed and organic formations to complement stage and se

USA - Ayrton will be bringing six new products to LDI 2015, all which have been launched this year, and will be presented on the stand of Ayrton's exclusive US distributor, Morpheus Lights (1531).

MagicDot-R and CosmoPix-R are part of the Creative Solutions line, into which Ayrton has incorporated a totally new technology: the first 94mm diameter narrow beam angle collimator combined with the latest generation high-power (40W or 60W) Osram multichip LED that create tighter beams with an unrivalled centre beam intensity.

VersaPix-RS, the third new member of the Creative solutions line, puts Ayrton's new 94mm diameter optics in combination with a 4mm2 40W RGBW multichip to produce five 3.5° beams (the narrowest in Ayrton's portfolio) with a record-breaking central beam intensity of 200 candela per lumen.

LDI also marks the US premiere of DreamPanel-Shift and DreamPanel-Twi

USA - Designed to create an interconnected life which affirms the gifts of women worldwide, the Propel Women's Conference hosts a series of events aimed at strengthening the leadership role of women in today's workplace.

With local chapters on virtually every continent, the conferences entail a full production of inspiring music, speakers and panel discussions. Brought on to heighten the conference experience, production designer Nathan Baugh (46 Entertainment) and lighting designer Craig Rutherford (Blueshift Design) created a full lighting, audio and video design using the live event production team at Elite Multimedia.

"One of the biggest challenges in the design was the differences in the venues," says Rutherford. "We had to have a design that could be manipulated to fit as needed, but then we still had to have the right production elements to support the ba

UK - West London-based production technology rental specialist Entec supplied lighting and sound for the recent Legends Live UK arena tour which played three of the country's major venues - Wembley, Birmingham NIA and Manchester - uniting four chart-topping, superstar acts from the 1960s and 1970s - Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack, The Drifters and Mary Wilson of the Supremes.

Entec's Will Wright project managed and co-ordinated all the prep work for the lighting department and Mark 'Magic' Ellis-Cope did the same for all the sound elements.

Entec's account handler Noreen O'Riordan commented, "When Richard Ames requested that Entec quote for both sound and lighting equipment, I knew that this would be a show ideally suited to our equipment inventory and skills. Having one supplier really benefitted the logistics of a four band arena tour - without any tech or rehearsal day.

UK - The Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 Awards took place on 13 October. Held annually at the Natural History Museum, the awards ceremony celebrates the finest wildlife photography from across the globe. Following more than 42,000 entries submitted from 96 countries, the eventual winner was Canadian photographer Don Gutoski with his image Tale of Two Foxes. Having previously worked on the event, White Light once again provided the lighting support for this year's ceremony.

The evening took place in the Hintze Hall, with 220 invited guests in attendance. As with most award ceremonies, the museum wanted to implement a particular theme for the occasion. Alice Beer, Events and filming manager at the Natural History Museum, comments, "Each year we choose an image from the finalists to establish the theme of the ceremony. For 2015, we chose the image of a pangolin.

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