Turkey - It is a matter of fact that the human ear brain mechanism is a highly sophisticated system capable of identifying where sound comes from with amazing accuracy. Using this information, with even the slightest difference in loudness, the brain can clearly identify the change and thus locate direction. "This in essence was the challenge presented by the requirements for a new sound system in the Turkish Parliament building Ankara," explained Tayfun Konuralp of Atempo, Turkey's leading provider of professional audio.

"With a requirement for a major improvement in intelligibility over the previous installation made in 1996 as a given, the desire was added for any member of the Parliament to be able to easily identify who was speaking and from where, even during

Azerbaijan - Audiences were left enthralled and entranced by two dazzling opening and closing ceremonies staged in the National Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the first European Games - which saw Belgian based engineering specialist WIcreations involved in making some key elements of these innovative shows come alive.

WIcreations was approached directly by California based production company FiveCurrents who produced the Ceremonies. WI's team was led by Yves Vervloet and worked closely with FiveCurrents' senior technical director Nick Eltis.

The Heist-op-den-Berg based company was tasked with helping create some major visual moments, including the magic (flying) carpet during the opening ceremony, and design and construction of three performer stages for the closing ceremony, complete with a Temple of Fire rising up from beneath the largest one.

"It was a fantastic ev

UK / USA - To support the introduction of the world's fastest HQUltra switching scaling technology and its rapid growth, Calibre has appointed George Koumis as technical business development manager with focus on Calibre's OEM business and sales channels in the Americas.

Koumis is based out of Sacramento, California, USA and will focus on building OEM relationships. Koumis started his professional career in design engineering of video scan convertor boards at General Electric. He also has 20 years' experience working for Barco in business development, design engineering and product management for image processing technology including at Folsom.

Koumis enthuses: "I am excited to join Calibre due to the new breakthrough HQUltra fast switching technology. I'm looking forward to securing new relationships with OEM partners and to develop the business."

Tim Brooksbank,

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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

USA - Shure has announced that Motiv digital products, a new microphone line "suited for individuals looking to capture high-quality audio for vocal/acoustic recording, podcasts, YouTube videos, field recording, and more", are now shipping.

The easy to use Motiv products include four new Apple MFi (made for iPhone, iPod, iPad) certified devices, including three condenser microphones and a sleek digital audio interface that can connect directly to any iOS device without additional adapters or connection kits. In addition, the MVL, an omnidirectional condenser lavalier microphone, is part of the MOTIV family.

Shure MOTIV digital microphones, as well as the digital interface, feature user-selectable DSP preset modes to ensure great sound no matter the application. Designed to support digital-recording users seeking better audio quality, MOTIV's preset modes - speech, si

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New Touring Series by Gravity – Every Scratch Has A Story

When the stage heats up, you need equipment that can keep up without compromise. The Gravity Touring Series has been specifically designed to meet the highest demands – for rental companies, professional musicians, concert organizers, and large event venues. Premium materials, exceptional durability, and impressive longevity make these products stand out. Whether on tour, in constant use, or under the toughest conditions: the Touring Series delivers maximum reliability and performance – every day, on every stage.
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Canada - Robe BMFL Spots and Blades were an integral element of the lighting scheme designed by Pierre Marleau of Orange Frog Productions Inc. for the Grandstand concert stage at the 2015 Calgary Exhibition & Stampede, arguably the world's most famous rodeo, exhibition and festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Pierre, based in the same city, has been a lighting professional for over 25 years, starting his career in the world of theatre and musicals, with which he has toured worldwide. He's been lighting the Stampede's Grandstand Show for the last 19 years which sees a line-up of international artists play in front of 20,000 people nightly for 10 days plus a preview evening.

The lighting equipment was supplied in collaboration with BML Blackbird of Secuacus, New Jersey and Stagelite from Winnipeg, Canada working a joint venture initiative project, managed by VP of

South Africa - Showgroup used four Robe BMFLs for Rocking the Koppies, an intimate event hosted on a farm in Potchefstroom. Control was on an Avolites Tiger Touch II. "This was a private function for a fiftieth birthday party and included performances by Prime Circle, Just Jinjer and Mean Mr Mustard," said Andries Liebenberg from Showgroup, lighting designer at the celebration.

Showgroup was the technical supplier and incorporated a Prolyte Roof Structure used for the stage, 16 Robe Robin 300s and four Robe BMFLs. Other lighting included six Martin MAC 600s, 30 Stage Color 48, 24 Longman LED Cans, 20 Longman Colourme 11, stage battens, 12 Parcans and six Source 4 Profiles.

"The BMFL is an amazing light," said Andries. He has since hired the units regularly from MJ Event Gear, usually four at a time, even incorporating them into smaller indoor shows.<

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AZOR® SP2 IP - Compact IP65 Spot Profile Moving Head

Compact design and IP65 protection for indoor and outdoor applications: the new AZOR® SP2 IP is the ideal solution for open-air events and outdoor theatres that require a powerful, weatherproof lighting system. An optimal partner for lighting designers and event service providers looking for a versatile LED show light in a compact housing.

AZOR® SP2 IP – the next generation of robust, weatherproof, and compact lighting for maximum creative freedom, both indoors and outdoors.

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USA - Often, the owners of a club will select a name for their establishment, because it sounds good - or sells more beverages - but in the case of Passion, the multi-level mega club at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, there is real heat behind the bright moniker. The 15,000sq.ft club pulsates with passion from 10pm to 6 am Fridays and Saturdays, with non-stop simultaneous performances at its three DJ booths and the visual treats served up by 184 pixel mapped ÉPIX Strip 2.0 linear fixtures and other products from Chauvet Professional.

Opened on 1 December, 2004, Passion quickly established itself as a serious player in South Florida's buzzing club scene, making waves by booking talent like Lady Gaga and DJ Pauly D, as well as international EDM stars such as Dash Berlin and Latin sensations like Grammy-nominated Farruko. Still the club's owners have never been ones to rest o

Canada - The famed annual Calgary Stampede just concluded another successful season attracting over one million visitors to the 10-day event. A combination rodeo-exhibition-festival, the largest fair in Canada also featured a nightly Grandstand Show, which was illuminated by Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures.

Pierre Marleau of Orange Frog Productions Inc was the lighting and production designer for the grandstand show, a role he's fulfilled for the last 19 years. "It's an old-style review, a big outdoor mega-spectacle," he says. "It's got acrobats, circus acts, video, pyro, fireworks. It's one of the more complex projects we do." He obtained the Sharpy fixtures from a new joint venture between BML Blackbird of Secaucus, NJ and Stage Lite Manitoba Ltd. in Winnipeg, which combines a 30-year reputation for serving clients in the northeastern US with a professional team

Mexico - Mexican rock band Maná has earned four Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards Latin America, six Premios Juventud awards, fourteen Billboard Latin Music Awards and fifteen Premios Lo Nuestro awards. The band's sound is inspired by Pop Rock, Latin Pop, Calypso, Reggae and Ska music genres. Recently the band started its new world tour 'Cama Incendiada' with a lighting design by Alain Corthout.

The tour used a grandMA2 full-size and a grandMA2 light consoles, two MA NPU (Network Processing Units) and eight MA 8Port Nodes for lighting control of over 200 Clay Paky moving lights.

"Versatility, robustness and reliability are the main reasons I'm using a grandMA2", explained lighting programmer and operator Menga Cruz. "Versatility is needed because of the various ways in which we work with the system on shows. We have two users

UK - British loudspeaker manufacturer, EM Acoustics has announced new products in the wake of the inauguration of their new R&D facility, headed by the M-C12 and M-C15 12 and 15" coaxial monitor speakers and the EPX-8 self-powered 8" compact loudspeaker.

The EPX-8 is essentially an updated, self-powered version of the EMS-81X compact, powerful 8-inch loudspeaker. Featuring EM Acoustics' signature passive crossover for unprecedented frequency and phase response, a rotatable horn for flexible dispersion options and a variety of swift, safe rigging options, the EPX-8 also includes a state-of-the-art Class D amplification package with integral stand-alone DSP for true plug-and-play operation. Typical applications range from small FoH duties to front fill and compact stage monitoring.

Whilst the EPX-8 is a logical extension of an existing line, the M-C12/15 monitors repre

Media Pressure - The producers of forthcoming musical Elf will introduce a £30 ticket band after bowing to "overwhelming public and social media demand" for more affordable tickets. The show, which runs for 10 weeks over Christmas at the West End's Dominion Theatre, has been criticised for its ticket prices, which rise as high as £240 for a top price seat.

The producers said that strong sales on more expensive seats allowed them to offer a limited number of £30 tickets throughout the run. "The producers acknowledge the show and the West End itself should not exclude families or anyone who cannot afford the higher priced seats, and have therefore used the incredible sales on the higher prices tickets to offset the cost of the new lower priced seats being introduced at all performances," a statement said.

Under Pressure - Foo F

UK - Pioneer DJ has announced the forthcoming HDJ-700 headphones, which, the company says, "look good and sound superb". Inspired by Pioneer DJ's top-flight headphones, the robust, fully enclosed HDJ-700s are fine-tuned to reproduce rich, clear mid to low frequencies for monitoring dance music. Features include durable and replaceable cables (1.2-metre coiled and 1-metre straight); soft ear cups for a comfortable fit; rotatable right earpiece up to 60 degrees; tough, durable build.

The HDJ-700s are available from October 2015.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - Flashlight Ltd, a leading UK supplier of lighting equipment to the broadcast, motion picture and theatre industries, has announced the opening of a London sales office and warehouse, headed up by sales executive Gordon Smith.

The new location will also provide showroom and demonstration facilities. Due to the rapid expansion of their southern client base and operations, the company feels the new location will better serve the demands of local rental and sales clients.

The new location will provide sales and support for the company's expanding range of leading lighting products - stocking the brands the company has become renowned for supplying, such as ARRI, Manfrotto and KinoFlo. The company will still have its headquarters at the existing location in Manchester.

Flashlight directors Andy Dodd and Rob Williamson commented: "We're delighted to open a London office;

The Netherlands - Doughty Engineering will be debuting its new Studio Frame at this year's IBC show.

Visitors to Hall 11, Stand number 11.A60 will be able to find out more about the kit, designed to assist small studio spaces eliminate clutter on the ground caused by lighting and trailing cables. The modular system can be easily constructed to suit most spaces and offers a safe working load that is adequate to support most modern day lighting with the addition of pantographs and bars.

Mark Chorley, design engineer said, "The Doughty Studio frame really is ideal for use in studios where space is of a premium. It started life as many of our product ranges do, as a bespoke piece of kit for the animation department at Staffordshire University. The course's specialist technical instructor was looking for a way to enable his students to move more freely around their sets and so

UK - ArKaos PRO, pioneers in interactive video technologies, invite you to attend a unique event taking place this September in London, at the home of its UK distributor, White Light, on Tuesday 15 September.

During a full day of presentations and through ongoing displays, ArKaos PRO will demonstrate the latest version of its MediaMaster software, which has consistently remained at the forefront of the industry's creative projection and LED applications, the company says.

MediaMaster 4.2 now adds an integrated Cue Player for reliable, accurate playback of visual sequences, and 4K support, which enables three layers of 4K video to be played on servers with a Core i7 processor. With the help of the ArKaos PRO's technical staff present on site, learn how to quickly achieve complex projections and find out how to trigger your show from a lighting desk or how to build a quick cue s

Malawi - Mobile recording studio, Wired For Sound revisits Malawi this summer to record young musical talent in the region, this time with USB interface, iD22 and 8-channel mic pre and ADC, ASP880 as a part of the setup. Three weeks into this third phase of the project, and beset with power cuts and connectivity issues, they have still managed to record forty local musicians. Sound engineer, Simon Attwell reported back to Audient via email and a rare stable connection, confirming that their Audient iD22 "has been flawless".

Attwell explains how they have overcome the problems with the electricity. "We have done all the recordings using our solar set up built into the vehicle, powering a MacBook Pro, the iD22 and headphone amp. In fact, we are going solar all the way, using a Studer 200w pure SW inverter. It gives us excellent clean power free from clicks or interf

Germany - Martin Audio loudspeakers have been specified throughout two recently commissioned cruise liners, operated by German-based TUI Cruises - a joint venture cruise line between the German leisure/tourist firm, TUI AG, and American operator, Royal Caribbean Cruises.

The latest addition Mein Schiff 4 was commissioned earlier this summer, having been built at the Meyer Turku shipyard. It followed on from Mein Schiff 3, built the previous year, and will operate routes across the Baltic, Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well as the Canary Islands and Central America. Martin Audio systems have been fitted in all key areas across the 15 decks on both ships.

With these two 99,500 tonne, 2,506 passenger capacity vessels configured identically, installation specialists Funa International created the technical infrastructure, working with consultant Torsten Hirche, TUI Cruises'

USA - Lighting gaffer Matt Ardine is shooting a pharmaceutical industry commercial at DC Studios, a few blocks from Los Angeles' Skid Row. The camera tracks down a drab hospital corridor whose 'windows' are lit by eight ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr luminaires behind diffusion scrims.

Staring at the monitor, cinematographer Larkin Seiple calls for level changes barely visible to the human eye. Bringing a fixture down to 4% output, Ardine explains, "If I were using incandescents, I would start seeing colour shift at around 26% and my crew would be spending time putting in NDA or full blue to compensate for the tungsten effect."

On a set with skylights, windows, fluorescents and practical table lamps, setting the perfect colour temperature can be challenging. "We started out trying to shoot at 3200K, but now we have settled on 4400K. With the Lustrs, I can di

Hungary - Since its birth in 1993 Sziget Festival has become one of the most popular multicultural events in Europe, attracting fans from over 70 countries. The festival is hosted on an island in the heart of the Hungarian capital that has become known as the Island of Freedom and the whole festival is marked by joyous celebration. This year Martin Audio joined the party with MLA making an auspicious debut, its fifth new festival of the season, courtesy of Capital Sound.

Held on a 108-hectare (266-acre) island on the Danube in north Budapest, Sziget Festival broke all attendance records on an expanded site, designed to hold a paying audience of 90,000, and at one point numbered 100,000, including production crew, artists and guests.

For production company Capital Sound, now in their tenth year at the week-long event, the challenges were immense. Tasked with providing world cla

Chile - Community has announced the appointment of Audio Americas as its sales representative for Central and South America, effective immediately.

With its head office in Santiago de Chile, Audio Americas is a Latin America sales agency specializing in professional audio, MI and consumer AV. Audio Americas' support structure facilitates an efficient supply chain with high levels of bilingual customer service, marketing communications, technical support and training programs.

"At Audio Americas we have always sought to partner with the world's most prestigious and innovative audio brands," said Audio Americas' President, Matthew Garfein. "We represent manufacturers who have not only cutting-edge products, but a company culture that inspires confidence and brand loyalty."

Garfein continued: "We believe Community has tremendous potential to position it

USA / Canada - Although electronic dance music festivals were few and far between only a decade ago, their numbers today easily rival those of their more traditional guitar-based counterparts. To best accommodate the ultra-wide sonic range and high-energy reinforcement that DJs and fans of the genre demand, a significant number of EDM promoters are turning to L-Acoustics loudspeaker systems.

This summer, two more of North America's top multi-day festivals called L-Acoustics' flagship K1 system into duty: Spring Awakening, which took over Chicago's Soldier Field, and Toronto's Digital Dreams, staged at The Flats at Ontario Place. With each festival drawing more than 50,000 attendees, Clearwing Productions supplied the gear and crew for the Chicago production, while Solotech did likewise in Toronto.

According to Clearwing's Jamie Earle, chief engineer of audio, Spring Awakening,

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