UK - Drum 'n Bass DJ, Andy C, is currently on tour in the UK with a new show, based around the Allen & Heath Xone:DB4 digital FX mixer.

The concept of the ALIVE tour is to "take DJ'ing to a new dimension, incorporating visual and audio clips, which are controlled by the latest technology".

"ALIVE was not possible until the DB4 arrived - it is the piece of kit that cemented the fact I could do it," explains Andy. "The ergonomics and layout of the mixer was a culture shock at first, as the DB4 is different to every other mixer but I soon realised it was a new step, which would become a central point for control, as it's too complicated to flip between keyboards, controllers and computers - everything is controlled from the hub."

The Xone:DB4 controls various MIDI devices, computers loaded with Traktor and Ableton, three turntables, a

South Africa - The musical quiz South African television show, Noot vir Noot (Note for Note), is as popular as ever 20 years down the line. Blond Productions were approached four years ago to give the show an edge by adding a modern technical twist, and this season they included their new 12 Robe MMX fixtures to the production. The show is programmed on a grandMA ultra-light and incorporates a further 12 Robe 250s.

Blond were originally called in by Stemmburg Television to give the show a 'wow' factor. Noot vir Noot is produced and run by its original team, camera men included, and for Blond it has involved working with Alasdair Richards, who does the generic lighting.

"Every second season (comprising 24 episodes shot over a two week period), we've tried to give them something new," said Christian Ballot of Blond Productions. Ryan Lombard from Blond was

UK - POLARaudio has recently launched its new dealer portal. The online resource permits all account customers to log in and manage their entire account profile. Users have access to a full range of accounts, sales and technical support tools.

The dealer portal is a secure website designed to allow customers to get fast accurate information, place orders or view their account 24 hours a day. The ergonomically designed and easy to use portal includes a host of tools designed to make it as easy as possible to do business, says the company.

The 'Your Account' tab enables registered users to view their balance, account status, order history and to print copy invoices and statements. The 'Return and Repair' tab allow users to arrange a repair or replacement of a faulty item, whilst the 'Spare Parts' tab gives customers access to detailed descriptions, images, prices and data sheets

France - SLS is the second company in France to invest in Adamson's Project Energia as a beta partner. SLS's entire loudspeaker inventory is made up exclusively of Adamson products. With 15 full time personnel and 140 freelancers, their Adamson inventory includes Metrix, SpekTrix, Y10, Y18, SX 18, Point Series and M series monitors housed in a 36,000sq.ft building in Ales, with a second location in Montpellier.

Though the French sound company is focused mainly on festivals and corporate events, they do provide sound production for a few tours, their main client since 2007 being the French band Les Ogres Barback (often nicknamed The Ogre). The Ogre are currently on tour with SLS's new Adamson E15 system. The band has released 12 albums since 1997, and their vast repertoire of intricate songs and complex arrangements are "a wonderful showcase for the capabilities E15 system&q

UK - XL Video UK supplied specialist LED and IMAG projection screens plus control to the 2011 MTV European Music Awards, staged at Belfast Odyssey Arena, Northern Ireland, and broadcast live to 45 countries worldwide.

The live music video production specialist has been involved with this high profile event for several years, and XL's Chris Saunders was project managing for the third year running.

The show included a dynamic, star studded line up of artists performing live, including Lady GaGa, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Jesse J, Justin Bieber, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Selina Gomez, who was also hosting.

Technical challenges included fitting an ambitious and visually spectacular stage set designed by Es Devlin - complete with integrated screens - into the venue. Also the XL team had to be flexible enough to accommodate specific requests from some artists late on as their ind

Germany - The Digital Workflow workshop was held at Lawo AG in Rastatt, earlier this month. Entitled Integrated and innovative - from the mixing console to the microphone, the free-of-charge seminar was led by experts from Sennheiser, Neumann and Innovason who presented the latest product developments and their role in the digital workflow. Further, this practical workshop, offered sound engineers the opportunity to try out the digital microphones and mixing consoles in small groups.

The lectures about Neumann digital microphones and Innovason's Eclipse GT digital live mixing console were focused on creating easy workflows; they were followed by explanations from Martin Kaiser of TSE AG who, as technical director of this event, illustrated the successful deployment of these devices at the Classic Open Air classical music festival in Berlin in July.

The af

UK - Unusual Rigging is enjoying a busy winter season, with both new West End productions and UK tours, including Oliver! which opens on 10 December at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. Following the company's involvement in the show's record-breaking West End run at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Unusual is providing 30 motors and rigging for lifting the FOH and stage lighting and scenic trusses for the 11 venue tour, which is booking until March 2013.

Unusual is also supplying lighting trusses on the current UK tours of White Christmas, South Pacific, Dirty Dancing and We Will Rock You, and looking forward to starting work on the new touring production of The Phantom of the Opera. Premiering at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in March next year, the Phantom tour will require some 80 chain hoists, putting the total out on hire from Unu

UK - MTV considered bids from a number of cities before settling Belfast for its annual awards show. Star Events Group provided a VerTech 2015CPL stage system for live performances from local super group Snow Patrol.

The stage type and access features, specified by Duchess Iredale on behalf of MTV Europe, were built over the main gates of Belfast's iconic City Hall facing the main shopping thoroughfare of Donegal Place.

The gates and railings formed integral parts of the completed structure with the stage height set to allow smooth passage of rolling risers between the main gate posts. The construction took place over four days which meant minimal disruption to traffic despite the delivery of some 100t of equipment and use of an 80t crane to assemble the stage.

Ancillary structures including a multilevel front of house and follow spot tower, with an essential cable bridge ac

Scandinavia - TTA, manufacturer of Stagetracker FX, has strengthened its sales and distribution network across Scandinavia with the appointment of two new distributors; Alfa Audio A/S in Denmark, and Drammen Lyd AS in Norway. The two companies already have a strong working relationship with each other, and also with Arva Trading AB who is TTA's long-established distributor in Sweden.

According to TTA's sales and marketing manager, Flemming S°rensen, the move made sense for all parties concerned. "Scandinavia is a small market, so it's very common for companies to collaborate between countries. Drammen Lyd and Alfa Audio already knew each other very well, and Alfa Audio is in fact owned by Arva Trading in Sweden, so the link there is clear. The result for TTA is a strong foothold in three Scandinavian countries - Denmark, Norway and Sweden - with companies who can suppor

UK - London-based creative lighting and event design practice Renegade designed all the technical production and co-ordinated equipment supply - including lighting, video and visuals, set and scenic elements plus sound - for the high profile SHINE 2011 Benefit Dinner.

This was staged at Old Billingsgate Market, one of London's premium event venues. The evening featured a gala dinner for 500 guests, complete with charity auction, rounded off by a performance by Chic - headed by guitarist Nile Rogers. The event raised money for the charity, which supports additional educational initiatives encouraging children and young people to raise their achievement levels.

Renegade has worked closely with SHINE for the last eight years, producing all their live events. Each year for this special event, Renegade's Nick Gray comes up with a fresh and inventive visual theme for the evening.

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET)'s specialist rigging division has provided a bespoke Prolyte trussing grid solution for Studio Three at Milton House on the campus of the University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

Studio Three is a charismatic Grade II listed space within a former Methodist Church that is now part of The Milton Building, home to the University's Drama, Theatre & Performance department. It is a new area used for training students in lighting and sound on the University's new BA Honours degree course in technical theatre.

AC-ET was one of several companies invited to tender for the project by David Wainwright, senior technician and manager of resources for drama, theatre & performance, having previously supplied equipment to the University.

The Studio Three grid project was co-ordinated for A.C. Rigging by Adam Beaumont, and utilises over 90 custo

France - The Tree Rings installation on the Champs-Elysées in Paris sees 200 trees each encircled by three specially created rings of LED lighting that add drama, movement and colour to the natural organic form of the tree.

In daylight hours, the inner lights of each ring emit a soft glow of light, and mirror garlands sparkle as they move freely in the breeze. At dusk, vibrant programmed displays begin, using both the inner and outer lights, continuing until 2am. The entire scheme is programmable to create vastly different effects; precise shifts in colour and tempo can be created, to focus on one tree or to create a sequence or group effect, with over 80,000 000 possible combinations of effects per tree.

The Tree Rings installation is scalable, from a lighting effect on individual tree to the orchestration of a light show involving every tree along the entire avenue. C

Australia - The existing Darra Chapel, was built in the early 1920?s, and its existence has played a significant role for the community of this Brisbane suburb. Recently Cottee Parker Architects renovated the Chapel and added an extension, engaging ASV Audio Visual to design and install the audio requirements.

"The design and architecture of the chapel, being long and narrow, required a particular small frame speaker but they also had some band requirements too," explained Rod Fishwick, managing director of ASV Audio Visual. "That meant I had very few speakers to choose from and the JBL CBT 70J fitted the bill perfectly. It offered both voice intelligibility as well as the fullness to support organs and some light band music."

As well as fulfilling the performance and technical requirements the JBL CBT 70J speakers fit the architectural design of the buildi

Czech Republic - Wireless Solution Sweden AB was a sponsor for the recent Scenofest event in Prague. Scenofest is the educational project of OISTAT (International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians) and the Prague Quadrennial.

Scenofest, which was held during the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, included workshops in a wide variety of artistic disciplines; more than 70 artists and professional leaders from all over the world; and more than 1500 participants ? both students and professionals from across the globe.

Visitors to the Prague Quadrennial had the opportunity to enjoy the performances entitled Six Acts transforming locations around the city of Prague into spaces for site-specific performances and installations realized by students under the leaderships of Pavel Štoura?, Roma Patel, Louise Ann Wilson, Rolf Abderh

World - The Red Hot Chili Peppers have embarked on an epic World Tour with four grandMA full-size and a large complement of Clay Paky Sharpy lighting fixtures accompanying the band. The tour comes on the heels of the release of the band's tenth studio album, I'm With You.

Premier Global Production, which serviced the band for their last world tour, has returned as the lighting vendor for the new tour working with lighting designer Scott Holthaus.

Holthaus uses four grandMA full-size, one running video from Catalyst and D3 servers and the other running lighting, two grandMA full-size are back-up. "They are wonderful, powerful machines - I used the grandMA on every tour and they always work great, never a problem," he says. "Of the 275 shows I did on the last tour, I only went to our spare desk once."

He praises the grandMA's "sound operating sy

UK - Ross Ashton and The Projection Studio's Crown of Light projected artwork on Durham Cathedral- created for the 2009 Lumière - is back by popular demand for this year's four-day festival of light event, which is curated and produced by Artichoke for Durham City Council.

Lumière 2011 features the work of dozens of artists, lighting designers and community groups in 35 installations, bringing a "sparkle of magic" to the medieval city.

Says Ashton, "It's a real testament to the piece and very flattering to be asked back with the same show. It's also extremely rare for the same creation to be requested again in its entirety, offering those who enjoyed the experience the first time around the chance to do so again, a new audience the opportunity to see it for the first time plus real value for the producers."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Sound rental company, RG Jones has been producing sound reinforcement infrastructure for the Raymond Gubbay Classical Spectaculars at the Royal Albert Hall since 1993.

With production harnessing cannons, pyro and lasers in a festival type 'Proms' atmosphere, it has taken all of FOH engineer Simon Honywill's expertise to keep the show's audio fidelity evolving with each generation of new technology.

Honywill is no stranger to Martin Audio proprietary line array platforms, introducing W8L Longbow systems to the Glastonbury Pyramid stage, and taking the new MLA (Multi-Cellular Loudspeaker Array) on tour with Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds.

Rigging the MLA at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time ever this month, he reports, "We've made a massive leap forward with the MLA ... the results were remarkable."

With MLA-certified systems engineer Mark

UK - Housed within the modern Radisson Edwardian Guildford Hotel, which recently arrived in the historic Surrey county town, the Market Kitchen & Bar describes itself as an all-day Mediterranean café, offering relaxed local bistro-dining from brunch and lunch, turning into a cosmopolitan evening destination. It also contains a relaxed bar lounge, with soft, colourful furnishing.

To help maintain its chameleon effect, a sound system was required that could provide hi-fi music at low level from an eclectic playlist stored on hard-drive during the day, pumping up the energy into the bar lounge during the evening when a fully-specified DJ front end comes into play.

Meeting the combined requirements of potency and aesthetic (the system needing to blend discreetly with Rabih Hage's interior design), the venue opted for a Martin Audio AQ architectural solution to underpin its

UK -The Buddah Lounge in Romford has been transformed into a vibrant nightclub. Brett Newton of Pro Effects installed 20 Chauvet fixtures to update the once drab location. Eight MiN Spot RGBW moving heads and four Intimidator Scan LED 200 scanners add energy and movement. Two Circus fill the dance floor with multi-coloured effects, piercing the fog generated by two Hurricane 1800 Flex foggers. SlimPAR 56 wash the stage in saturated hues.

Newton faced challenges often found in smaller clubs-low ceilings, which meant little head room for truss and lighting fixtures that are easily touched-as well as a tight budget. He divided the intimate space into four zones, placing two MiN Spot RGBW movers in each. To fill some awkward corners just off the dance floor, Newton utilized four Intimidator Scan LED 200 scanners. The compactness of these fixtures allowed them to remain discreet and

Denmark - The provincial city of Herning in the heart of Denmark's Jutland peninsula is home to Jyske Bank Boxen, which, since opening in 2010, has become one of the country's premiere venues for concerts and events. The 15,000 capacity 'Boxen,' Denmark's largest indoor arena, opened with a Lady Gaga show in October of 2010 and hasn't looked back.

A steady stream of national and international stars has added Herning to their touring schedules. Seeking to support the wide variety of performances and special events, arena owners Messe Center Herning A/S (MCH) contacted Martin Professional Scandinavia about a new night-time lighting design.

"The whole idea was to create an arena of international status and capacity and MCH wanted a lighting scheme that would express this while creating a landmark for the entire region," states Anders Birch, sales manager at Martin Profe

In Harmony - The UK government has announced its first ever national plan for music education in response to Classic FM managing director Darren Henley's review of the sector. Henley's review, published earlier this year, made 36 recommendations for the minimum expectations of what any child going through the English school system should receive in terms of an education in music. One such recommendation was that there should be a comprehensive national plan for music education.

Launching the scheme, Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove claimed it "will deliver a music education system that encourages everyone, whatever their background, to enjoy music and help those with real talent to flourish as brilliant musicians" while culture minister Ed Vaizey said that the new resources would help "provide our fantastic creative industries with the next generation

UK - The website for the unique event that is Showlight 2013 has gone live. Whether you are a Showlight virgin, or a regular attendee, this is the ideal place to learn more about this three day quadrennial conference and exhibition, say organisers.

"For the first time, the website contains edited highlights of previous papers, capturing both the serious and the humorous side of Showlight. The clips bring the 2009 event to life for those who didn't attend - and are a great reminder of some excellent presentations for those who did. So, if you've thought about presenting a paper at Showlight, but weren't sure how it all worked, now you can see exactly what others have done!"

If you have an idea for a paper, you can register your interest at www.showlight.org/present If you are interested in being an exhibitor at Showlight 2013 and would like to know more, go directly t

USA - Registration is now open for Focus: Tech, the live event production workshop running alongside PLASA Focus: Austin 2012, at the Renaissance Austin, on February 19-22 2012.

The 4 day hands-on workshop offers a limited number of aspiring lighting designers, sound engineers, and video designers the chance to design and run a live concert, which will be performed in front of Austin's entertainment technology community, at PLASA's first North American regional event.

Beginners and professionals at the early stages of their careers are invited to take part in the event, which will see industry experts Richard Cadena, Brad Schiller, Chad Yeary, and Damon Lang pass on their tips and tricks for success to Texas' new talent, with prizes for the best designs.

Eminent production manager Ola Melzig, who's accolades include the Eurovision Song Contest, will be production-managing th

Tunisia - Housed in the Maison Blanche hotel in Tunis, Le Madison is a well-established bar and lounge. Centrally located, it is notable for the excellence of its service and the opulence of its interior design, which has a distinctly French flair - a combination that makes Le Madison a popular meeting place for both tourists and businessmen around the clock.

Tunis-based company Acoustic Design and Broadcast (ADB) were responsible for the planning and installation of the bar's new sound system. ADB's sound specialists opted for systems from Dynacord. The following components formed part of the September 2011 installation: D-Lite series loudspeakers systems (comprising 16 D8W cabinets and four Sub 118 bass units); two DSA 8212 amplifiers and a DSP 260 signal processor plus a compact, 10-channel CMS 1000-3 mixer.

"The Dynacord systems convinced our clients with both their s

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