UK / UAE - London- and Dubai-based Maestra Group, specialist in premium event production, design and solutions, has made a large investment in new sound, AV and lighting equipment for 2016, which follows the launch of the new Maestra London office on 4 January.

This is to ensure the London office hit the ground running as business has, as anticipated been brisk in the first weeks of the year, and also to consolidate and boost the production resources available in Dubai.

SMaestra London has spent around half a million pounds on sound and AV technology which includes a range of d&bs Y, T and E series speakers complete with associated rigging accessories for all the flying and ground-stacking options, plus their new D20 proprietary amplifiers and Y-SUBS.

A selection of Sennhei

Norway - VUE Audiotechnik has confirmed the expansion of avon lydinstallasjon (AS) to exclusive distributor for the Nordic countries for all VUE Audiotechnik product lines.

Having established and maintained a strong presence for VUE in Norway for the past several years, avon's distribution of VUE products will now stretch to include Sweden; Denmark, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands; Iceland; and Finland, including the Åland Islands, directly and with the help of local vendors.

"Part of avon's expansion plan includes increasing VUE's presence in the rental market," says Edgar Andraa Lien, co-founder, avon. "Our goal is to help VUE command the same respect in that market segment as the other well-established brands."

To help further avon's successes they recently brought Thomas Züllich on-board. "Züllich previously spent many years as CE

Italy - The Classical Ballet Moscow recently completed an extensive tour of Italy and Sicily featuring an emotive lighting design programmed on a Philips Strand Lighting NEO Lighting Control Console.

The company performed The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty in cities including Florence, Milan and Palermo over 36 consecutive days.

Lighting designer and technical director Evgeniy Toma utilized the NEO's intuitive interface and timesaving features to provide him with quick and easy access to all of the fixtures in the rig, which ranged from 60 to 110 over the course of the tour.

"I was really impressed by the flexibility of the NEO console," says Toma. "There are different ways to achieve what you want with it, which is ideal for both an experienced lighting designer and a beginner."

With the tour moving to a different ve

Australia - Indoor 'hardstyle' festival Knockout Circuz returned to iconic Sydney venue The Hordern Pavilion at the end of last year, with lighting designer Arian Yeganeh creating a spectacular eight-hour light show using Clay Paky Mythos, Stormy and Sharpy fixtures.

Promoted by organisers Hard Styles United (HSU) as "one of the most spectacular and intense indoor rave arenas [we] have ever created" with "hours of lasers, spectacular lighting shows and crystal clear audio", Knockout Circuz saw a line-up of such international artists as Technoboy and Bioweapon.

Leading event supplier Newtone Entertainment supplied 24 Sharpys, along with 24 Mythos and 13 Stormy CC strobes partially sub hired from Chameleon Touring Systems, to the massive underground rave.

"HSU wanted us to create an underground circus world, with a different theme and look for every

Mexico - One of Mexico's major full technical production and rental companies, Audio Systems del Norte based in Monterrey, capital and largest city of the north eastern state of Nuevo León, has invested in its first Robe moving lights - 24 x Pointes.

Mexico is a rapidly expanding market for Robe, largely due to the efforts of distributor Vari Internacional, and the Pointe with its true multi-functionality is one of the most popular products right now.

Robe's reporting team rocked-up in Monterrey and interviewed Audio Systems' sales manager Franco Cinquini, who has been with the company since it was started in 1993 by Carlos Escoto.

Audio Systems provides lighting, sound, video, rigging, staging and power to a wide selection of concert tours - including international artists - cultural performances, music shows and parties / social events. They are particularly strong in

USA - Sound reinforcement systems from Bay Area audio innovator Meyer Sound played a supporting role in Super Bowl 50 festivities, the biggest Super Bowl week ever celebrated and one that the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee calls "uniquely Bay Area".

In their quest to make the game-day sound for this Super Bowl the best ever, NFL production leaders tapped Meyer Sound to help enhance the 7 February experience between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos. Meyer Sound's technical team worked with ATK Audiotek of Valencia, Calif. to rig SB-1 parabolic long-throw sound beams and SB-3F sound field synthesis loudspeakers at Levi's Stadium, ensuring that the full house in the upper deck can enjoy game day.

Meyer Sound solutions could also be found enhancing the fan experience at many of the Bay Area events leading up to Super Bowl 50. The company's top-of-the-line Leo

The Netherlands - Italian loudspeaker manufacturer Outline showcases a selection of point source and line array loudspeaker lines and an interactive loudspeaker measurement display at ISE 2016 Amsterdam this week..

The new ultra-compact, high power Vegas 24 is designed for balcony-fill, front-fill and delay applications.

The Stadia 100 LA installation loudspeaker series combines key principles of cylindrical line-sources with several patented Outline technologies to deliver versatile and powerful solutions for stadiums, theme parks, arenas, large churches, transportation and sporting facilities. With three models to choose from, the 100° wide loudspeaker comes in 10°, 20° and 30° vertical patterns. High SPL can be delivered cost effectively with pinpoint accuracy. Stadia maximizes the signal to noise ratio in reverberant environments.

Outline's measurement

USA - A winter storm couldn't stop the prestigious 24th Annual Trumpet Awards which celebrates and honours African American achievers and those who support the African American experience.

, and honours accomplishments in diverse fields including law, medicine, business, politics, the Arts, civil rights, sports, entrepreneurship, entertainment and other careers.

Hosted by actress Nia Long and actor Mike Epps, the honourees of this year's Trumpet Awards included EVP and COO of General Motors Alicia Boler-Davis, Former Secretary of Labour Alexis M. Herman, Chancellor of Wayne Community College Dr. Curtis L. Ivery, HRH Princess Masmah Bint Saud, R&B singer Ne-Yo, film and television producer Will Packer and legendary actor George Wallace. TBandit Lites provided the lighting package for the event which took place 23 January at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centrehe African Ame

USA - As part of an ongoing project to upgrade its technical infrastructure, Northside Christian Church in New Albany, Indiana, has recently purchased an SSL L300 live console.

Founded in a small basement in 1970, Northside has gone from strength to strength, now serving over 5000 people each weekend. Ted W. Roberts, administrator at the church, provides oversight of technical infrastructure, drawing on his own extensive, high-end live sound and touring experience. Most recently, Roberts helped specify the new console: "It's very different when you work with only one or two key department heads and then everybody else is a volunteer," says Roberts. "They have to be set up for success. If you don't provide the right tools for the job, the volunteers can't enjoy it because they sense imminent failure all the time."

When Roberts came to Northside five years

World Beater - The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has awarded Adele its global artist of the year prize in recognition of her "simply phenomenal" success. Adele's achievement is particularly notable as her third album 25 was not released until late November. It went on to become the fastest selling album in British history. It sold more than 800,000 copies in its first week and with the album kept off streaming sites, its chart success was entirely made up of physical and download sales.

The second biggest selling artist of 2015 was Ed Sheeran - despite him not releasing a studio album during the course of the year. The IFPI says its top 10 chart is the only music industry ranking to accurately capture the worldwide popularity of artists across physical formats, downloads and streams.

Early Bath - Coldplay played to an es

USA - Apollo Design Technology, Inc. has announced the appointment of Aaron Creps as a production technician. In this role, Creps is responsible for the assembly and testing of mechanical and electronic subassemblies and products including precision calibration. He will also provide technical assistance to internal personnel and customers.

"Aaron brings great technical skills and a strong mechanical background to the Apollo team," said Mr. Joel Nichols, president of Apollo Design. Prior to joining Apollo Design Technology, Creps worked at Fort Wayne Nissan in the service department. He holds a Technical Certificate from Universal Technical Institute. "I'm excited to join Apollo," said Creps. "It's a great opportunity to grow my mechanical and technical skills while working with a fun group of people."

(Jim Evans)

Germany/UK - Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. has announced the retirement of Paul Whiting, president of strategic collaborations. A familiar face in the audio industry, Paul leaves Sennheiser enjoying a much higher profile in the professional audio, consumer and integrated systems industries than it did when he joined the company more than 25 years ago.

Paul began his career with Sennheiser in 1990, after 15 years with former UK partner Hayden Laboratories, which saw him establish a Sennheiser pro-audio network in the UK and head the company's professional division as sales and marketing manager.

On joining Sennheiser he helped establish Sennheiser UK as a wholly owned subsidiary and, as managing director, oversaw the company's continued UK expansion. His exceptional technical and organisational skills saw him being promoted to vice-president North West Europe. In 2007, he

The Netherlands - Christie continues to strengthen the flexibility of its award-winning Pandoras Box media server system with the introduction of Pandoras Box Version 5.9. This latest evolution provides faster, more intuitive operation with a wider range of options, compatibility and user-friendly workflow solutions, unleashing the full potential of the system's powerful rendering engine. Features include a standalone Kiosk Mode, a completely redesigned Patch-Tab, the addition of a Cues Tab for an overview of all cues, and an optimized Pandoras Box Codec.

The Pandoras Box system is a cost-effective turnkey solution that more perfectly unites state-of-the-art rendering technology with intuitive media and show control, says the company. Found in some of the most spectacular multi-media presentations around the world, it is the perfect choice for any live event, projection mapping

The Netherlands - Clear-Com will present its latest communication and connectivity tools at ISE 2016. These products demonstrate Clear-Com's intercom and connectivity solutions to enable secure, reliable and constant communications among local or geographically-disperse work teams.

Recently-released HelixNet Version 3.0, a software-only update to the acclaimed HelixNet digital network partyline platform, unlocks the overall capacity of the HelixNet system allowing it a six-fold expansion for supporting more communication channels and more users during live productions. HelixNet multiplied its basic channel count by three, with a new offering of 12 channels per HMS-4X main station. Furthermore, an additional 12 channels can be added simply by purchasing a licence, effectively enabling a single HMS-4X to provide a total of 24 channels.

The all-new, 2.4GHz DX410 wireless interc

The Netherlands - Allen & Heath has launched two new installation mixers, the GR3 and GR4, designed to provide simple yet comprehensive control of programme audio and announcements for multiple zones in bars, restaurants, stores and other leisure and retail environments. Highly configurable, the GR3 and GR4 are suited to applications requiring multiple input sources and specific priority settings.

Both the GR3 and GR4 are 1U rack-mounting audio mixers, with standout features that include an easy access mic input on the front panel for announcements and paging, zonal auto-ducking for paging and emergencies, and optional wallplates for remote control. The innovative control layout allows system integrators to manage which controls are accessible for everyday use.

The GR3 has two mic inputs and two stereo inputs, and the GR4 has four mic inputs and four stereo inputs. Additiona

The Netherlands - Avolites is on stand 8-K330 at ISE Amsterdam, which opens today at the RAI Exhibition and Conference Centre, to launch its powered up new range of Ai R Series media servers.

The Ai R Series is Avolites' most powerful range of media servers to date, and comprises the Ai Infinity R4, Ai Infinity R8, Ai Infinity Rx4 and Ai Infinity Rx8. All servers in the range take advantage of the increased speed and power of the latest processors, solid-state drives and AMD graphics cards.

"We've packed the very best technology into the Ai R Series so we can be sure it satisfies even the most demanding of applications," says Avolites' MD, Steve Warren. "The servers offer smooth playback of up to 8K media using the leading AiM Codec plus 4 or 8 full 1080p HD outputs. The Ai R Series is the future of media technology now, direct from Avolites. We can't wait to

UK - New Order's recent UK and European tour in support of their latest album, Music Complete, featured a vibrant lighting design controlled via an Avolites Arena console.

The tour marked the first time lighting designer Andrew Liddle opted for the Arena - Avolites' latest console.

"I was really keen to give the Arena a try and it proved very worthwhile," says Liddle. "I saw it to be a natural progression from the Avolites Tiger Touch I've been using since 2010, and found it to be a whole lot more. Hardware wise, it's the complete package - lid off and good to go. For what it is, it's really compact, not too bulky or weighty, and the layout's great and the second screen is useful too."

Alongside the main display, the Arena offers a second touch screen providing an additional workspace window and also labelling the adjacent macro buttons and rota

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