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14 March 2016

This year, the event attracted over 7400 key players from 20 African countries, with over 50% of respondents to visitor surveys at the event reporting they make buying decisions for their organisations, and over 26% saying they influence buying decisions. Crucially, nearly 1,000 of the organisations represented have a technology spend of over R1 million a year, and 94 of them have a spend exceeding R50 million annually, say the organisers.

"Mediatech Africa presents the only opportunity for major players in these niche sectors to view and assess the latest broadcast and entertainment technologies on home ground," says Simon Robinson, publisher and managing editor at Mediatech Africa eve

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14 March 2016

After having demoed several A3 Pro panels at official UK distributor PSCo's HQ in Reading, UK, Adlib's Andy Dockerty and Ian Tomlinson decided upon the purchase of 250 Absen A3 Pro panels, launched at ISE 2015 in Amsterdam back in February.

"After seeing the Absen LED panels at a trade show we were naturally curious about obtaining some LED panels for our own inventory," comments Tomlinson. "We were really impressed by the A3 Pro, and decided to place an order.

"Although the quality of the product is second to none, we were convinced by the exceptional after sales care and service offered here in the UK for Absen customers. We have a gr

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14 March 2016

Blackout worked alongside production manager Jon Howes, within a team of contractors, who year on year collaborate with the venue's management and sponsors. The team work to facilitate both events and aid Somerset House's transformation into a concert setting and then an open air cinema.

This is the eleventh year running Blackout has worked on the Summer Series concerts, supporting promoters Metropolis Music. This year the concert featured performances from Passenger, George Ezra and Jessie J and attracted crowds of up to 3,000 people.

Blackout provided all of the stage rigging as well as two truss wings, which flanked either side of the stage, to hang the PA systems and branding, negating

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14 March 2016

Using four Elation Platinum Profile 35 Pro fixtures amongst a plot of LED lights and conventional sources, it was Herrick's task to carve out a black and white world that was later colorized by the presence and strength of will of Eva Peron, in stark contrast to the character of Che and the various political elements that she was constantly beset by.

Herrick relied heavily on the Elation fixtures to define areas of the relatively small stage and make the world of

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14 March 2016

"It made complete sense" he stated, "It's small and light enough to easily fit in my car or go on the plane, and powerful enough to run the majority of the shows on which I am currently working." Having his own console means he can always have his control platform of choice. Peter was delighted that MA's small and highly versatile dot2 was also within a reasonable price range. The console was supplied via MA's South African distributor, DWR Distribution.

"It's the

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14 March 2016

This tightly planned and executed operation - which this year battled with inclement weather for the first time in the festival's recent history - involved the supply of nearly 500 moving lights, 228 high powered Dragon LED PARs and a mix of other kit, including LED screens for the Main stage and other areas.

Colour Sound's crew of 22 was chiefed by James Hinde and Alex Ryan. James co-ordinated the get-in and set up of all the operated stages, while Alex looked after all the other areas, and together with Woody (Stuart Wood), oversaw the whole operation during the show days.

Colour Sound regular Jon Rickets was working as techni

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14 March 2016

The opera, held across the Netherlands on 12 dates throughout May and in the first week of June, tells the story of Orpheus, a mythical musician, poet and prophet in ancient Greek religion, who is said to have been able to charm all living things and even stones with his music.

Ten Hof first came across the new Source Four LED fixtures a year and a half ago, when he was working with Dutch dealer Lightco. "I was amazed

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14 March 2016

The hall was built as a church in 1823 and designed by Sir Robert Smirke, architect of the British Museum. It would have been built to suit a congregation who needed to clearly hear the spoken word, but the clarity the room provides brings an unexpected benefit to 21st century concertgoers.

Ian Stickland, team leader for Charcoalblue, said he and his colleagues were initially surprised by their acoustic measurements. "Looking at the objective results of our reverberation time measurements, without knowing which room it was, we would not have rated the results very highly. However, digging deeper, we find that the clari

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14 March 2016

For the first time, they specified Robe's BMFL Spot fixtures, 22 of which are being supplied by the tour's lighting vendor, Theatrical Media Services (TMS) from Omaha, Nebraska.

The band is well known for their long annual summer tours and sets featuring involved improvisations of their songs - always played differently - accompanied by eye-catching visuals and lightshows, an aesthetic that has been carefully crafted by Fenton since he started working with the band in the early 1990s.

Fenton and Aaron developed the design together, often drawing on architecture and art for inspiration as they build a visual stage concept.

This is the

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14 March 2016

In light of the above and after 17 years as PLASA's chief executive officer, Matthew Griffiths has decided that now is the right time to step aside which would help kick start and facilitate a fresh set of ideas and approaches needed for the next chapter in PLASA's dev

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14 March 2016

The power of original painting created in real-time and projected onto stunning architecture accompanied by live music is a special collaboration between projection artist Ross Ashton, virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and acclaimed visual artist and painter Maria Rud.

The location for this magical outdoor experience - Venue 316 of the Fringe Festival - is the quadrangle at George Herriot's School. The high impact art is being projected onto the side wall, of the beautiful 17th century chapel - which becomes part of the world renowned Festival, famous for showcasing new, innovative and thought-provoking works.

Says Ross, "We are extremely excited to be performing at the Fringe and exceptionally

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14 March 2016

Renzo Arbore has always loved jazz and Neapolitan music classics. For the release of ... e pensare che dovevo fare il dentista... (...and to think I was supposed to become a dentist...), he is leading his Orchestra Italiana, with his voice, clarinet and boundless charm, on a new summer tour that culminates on 7 September in Milan.

Gazebo Giallo (Arbore's management company) turned to Paco Toscano to interpret the atmospheres of Arbore's music with lights. "I joined the production team that organize

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14 March 2016

The first of these options, the ARC-3 wall panel remote, was introduced to the systems integrator community at ISE 2015. Arriving in a single SKU with both surface- and flush-mount capabilities, ARC-3 incorporates a brand new capacitive touch interface with LED feedback, as well as a multi-lingual graphics-capable OLED display that is expected to resonate strongly with Symetrix' global customer base.

The second new option is the ARC-WEB browser-based dialler, which allows owners of iPhones, iPads, Android phones, tablets and network-enabled computers to control audio via embedded web servers running on SymNet Edge and SymNet Radius DSPs.

"With this option, end-users can

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14 March 2016

Mario Held, system engineer for Rental Pro Austria worked with FOH engineer Andreas Putz to design a Geo S12 line array that would provide balanced and transparent sound reinforcement appropriate for the classical performance, featuring the 200-piece orchestra, numerous solo singers and a choir of 300.

"The venue, like many big halls of this size, has some problem frequencies in the sub and bass area," says Held. "Rental Pro Austria has nearly all the varieties of Nexo subs in its inventory, but I decided to use four RS15 subs per side

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14 March 2016

The tour, in support of alt-J's second album, This Is All Yours, visited a variety of indoor and outdoor venues around the US including a show at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

The video design, created by Jeremy Lechterman and Jackson Gallagher from FragmentNine, uses horizontal rows of LED, interspaced with gaps which can be used with lighting.

At the O2 show, XL Video supplied a solution using their regular touring frames, and special brackets.

"For the US tour design, the designers wanted to reduce the size of spaces between the LED rows," said XL's US touring projects director, Gareth Jeanne. "As our touring frames have

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14 March 2016

The Jubilee Sailing Trust brings together disabled and able bodied crew members, accepting all degrees of disability including wheelchair users, visually or hearing impaired, stroke victims and more recently regularly welcoming Help for Heroes military veterans.

Having recently updated the general audio broadcast systems on the Lord Nelson ship, a similar upgrade is about to occur with Tenacious on its return to port. Using a number of Cloud paging microphones, with automatic messaging functionality, the audio broadcast system is an essential tool for keeping ships' crews informed of daily routines and emergency situations

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14 March 2016

"We wanted to create a 3D experience for the audience," agrees lighting designer Paul Normandale, "And bring some of the video content to life, blurring the lines between screen and reality. We went to Specialz as they did such a great job on the last tour and this mechanical, visual, yet tourable challenge is very much their area of expertise."

To this end, Specialz was charged with creating a huge 3m diameter reflector, a set of bespoke dollies pre-rigged with Sharpys and last but cer

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14 March 2016

Following the success of the BBC phenomenon that is The Great British Bake Off, Jo Brand has been welcoming a panel of guests each week to enjoy cake related discussion.

Filmed with Love Productions in front of a live audience at The London Studios, An Extra Slice reflects on the week's baking, with guest interviews with departing contestants, behind the scenes clips and a selection of audience based cake related triumphs and disasters.

To help lighten up the serving, Aurora has provided LD Oli Richards with an array of Martin Auras and Viper Performances which are kept fresh by moving light operator David Francis and tech Simon Willet.

The show features a number of set practical pendants which have added an atmospheric h

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14 March 2016

The play has opened in Windsor and will begin its UK tour next week, visiting venues in Leeds, Brighton, Richmond, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Newcastle, Norwich, Cheltenham, Woking, Milton Keynes and Cardiff.

Starring television's Ian Kelsey and Patrick Robinson, The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a man serving a life sentence in the notorious Shawshank prison. Realising he cannot survive life behind bars, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with prison fixer Red and soon begins to hatch a plan

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14 March 2016

To ensure everything possible was done to guarantee the safety of the structure, Colin Luke,senior project manager at Oswestry-based Load Cell Rental, was asked to supply a way of monitoring the stage weights during the build.

Following conversations with the event organisers, Load Cell Rental supplied a 20 cell BroadWeigh system. Colin said, "Following a spate of high profile events where temporary stages have collapsed, it was vital to leave no stone unturned in order to ensure the concert made the headlines for only the right reasons. No respectable concert organiser can afford to ignore the loadings on temporary structures and the BroadWeigh system is the perfect tool for the job."

The BroadWeigh load monitor