UK - Northern Stage Services staff members Paul Hay, Matthew Cassidy, Chris Sharp, Shaun Todd, David Culshaw, David Simpson and Neil Lees along with support team members James Allen and Andy Anstess decided upon the challenge to raise money for Cancer Research UK. They planned to climb Ben Nevis (1344m), Scafell Pike (964m) and Mount Snowdon (1085m) all in under 24 hours, including travelling between peaks.

The team of seven walkers and two drivers signed up for the challenge in April and put themselves through an Olympian like training regime in an attempt to improve their fitness levels, they even cut back on the 'chip shop' lunches.

The walkers set off from the nStage office in Shaw and took the long drive up to Fort William to commence the mammoth challenge at 5pm on 18 September. They suffered injuries, sickness and even got lost but with help from the support team and so

Portugal - Top Portuguese artist Mariza has embarked on the worldwide Terra tour, named after her recent album. Returning to Portugal for a number of concerts, the singer made her entrance in Cascais on a sailing boat. This show marked the first time that Mariza's sound engineer, João Cebolas, worked with a Midas PRO6 live audio system. It was provided by local rental company Audiomatrix for all the Portuguese dates, having been recommended by the company's owner Jorge Pina.

Cebolas was only able to try the PRO6 for the first time the day before the show. "It's an intuitive system, with a magnificent work surface where all the pots, buttons and colours are revealed very distinctly, and everything is just a touch away," says Cebolas. "The LCD monitors are relatively large, with strong, vivid colours and high contrast, even when exposed to bright daylight. T

UK/World - FairTunes is a new charitable organisation dedicated to enhancing the lives of struggling communities in developing nations, through the power of music. The organisation's vision is "to mobilise local talent and empower musicians, artists by providing a platform to develop their creative potential".

FairTunes is a team of industry and technical experts with a simple idea - to target local communities in developing nations and build music studios and radio facilities in their neighbourhoods. They then train the community to use the facilities and continue to support them, until they are able to run the facilities themselves.

The charity also aims to apply the principles of fair trade to establish an online promotion and distribution facility for the music produced in the studios. This will "create a self sustaining cycle where artists will get paid for

Malta - A pair of E/T/C London's Christie Roadster HD18Ks delivered high power video projection throughout a special two-hour Rockestra concert in Malta recently. The show was the result of E/T/C London's Ross Ashton being asked by the President of Malta, George Abela, to create a high profile fundraising event for the Malta Community Chest charity.

President Abela is the patron of the charity, the largest on the island - and with an enthusiastic audience of 12,000 packing into the Malta Conference and Convention Centre (MFCC), this was one of the largest ever indoor events to date on the island.

The concert, under the music direction of Sigmund Mifsud included specially orchestrated versions of rock classics by Queen, the Beach Boys, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple plus instrumental pieces performed by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. Also appearing onstage w

USA - For an unprecedented 15 years, Crystal Cruises has been voted 'World's Best by Condé Nast Traveller magazine, and operates two top-rated luxury cruise liners - the 922-guest Crystal Symphony and the 1,070-guest Crystal Serenity. As part of a recent technical upgrade, Crystal Cruises has standardised on Innovason's Sy48 digital mixing consoles to be installed into the featured venue aboard both ships, the multi-purpose Galaxy Lounge.

Kyle Toth, entertainment technical director at Crystal Cruises explains, "We have the most extensive entertainment and educational programmes in the ultra-luxury cruise market and the Sy48 has become the backbone of our audio support for those programmes. We offer multimedia lectures, classical concerts, headline vocalists and instrumentalists, comedians and several full scale production shows. The most exciting application f

UK - White Light, a regular visitor to all of London's theatres, set something of a record in early September, supplying three different productions at the same theatre over the course of a long weekend.

The theatre was the Arts Theatre, located in the heart of London's West End; the three productions indicated the many different capacities in which White Light can help light a show as well as its ability to work to suit a production's schedule, however demanding.

The first of the three shows, an event in the theatre, saw White Light deliver lighting equipment on Friday for a Saturday show, then return late on Saturday evening to collect the gear from the theatre after the event.

The second saw White Light's Production team working with PositiveTV on an event in the theatre; the Production team provide a complete lighting service, including design, supply, crewing and more,

UK The Battle Proms are staged in the grounds of a number of stately homes throughout England over the summer and combine a classical concert and fireworks with military displays, including Napoleonic cavalry and infantry, a Second World War Spitfire and the ear-splitting accompaniment of around 200 cannons.

The 2009 season saw Battle Proms take in six concerts in July and August, with Yamaha Commercial Audio's digital systems manager Nick 'Biggles' Pemberton mixing the shows on an LS9-16 console with an SB168-ES digital stage box.

Audio supplier for the shows was Luton-based Concert Sound Clair, who supplied an EAW/Clair Bros/Showco front of house system, together with Schoeps microphones to get the best of the orchestral sound.

"It's actually a very simple setup," says Pembereton. "All audio processing is done within the LS9 and I have a laptop

Italy - Proel and Trabes have just signed an important commercial partnership agreement concerning Trussing products. It will allow Proel to offer its customers "a more flexible support policy and optimize its "problem solving" efficiency; at the same time, it will bring about increased strategic monitoring in these product lines".

To achieve a more distinct identity in trussing, the pre-existing partnership with Litec has been terminated.

"Proel and Trabes are two companies which, to some extent, share the same idea of business," explains Maurizio Amadori, founder and Chairman of Trabes. "Since it was established in 1985, Trabes has always worked in the market trying to meet the concrete needs of its customers and demonstrating its commitment to product reliability with accurate choice of materials and attention to detail, as well as with st

France - L-Acoustics has fully redesigned its website to offer improved navigation and more content information with a freshened-up visual appearance. This move coincides with the recent publication of the new L-Acoustics full line brochure. Behind the scenes, the website features a powerful and state-of the art database content management offering its visitors information in real-time.

The site boasts an enhanced layout both aesthetically and practically. The simplified navigation and quick access to information can be done with a minimum number of clicks. Drop-down menus with content preview and multi-tabbed product information and downloads "make the visit a breeze".

"Information on modern websites remains sometimes difficult to access despite the existence of many 'bells and whistles', animations and the like," says L-Acoustics marketing director St&eac

UK - Scottish Ballet has recently moved in to new purpose-built headquarter premises on the south side of Glasgow where the studios have been fully equipped throughout with Harlequin sprung dance floors.

The completion in May 2009 of the new building containing three studios follows an earlier project phase in 2008, which saw the conversion of two former stables at Glasgow's co-located Tramway venue. Here at the end of last year, British Harlequin installed Harlequin WoodSpring into the converted stables at Tramway; one being covered with Harlequin Cascade and the other with Harlequin Studio vinyl dance floors. All three new studios are also furnished with Harlequin WoodSpring basketweave floors and completed with a dance surface of grey Harlequin Cascade vinyl.

At 382sq.m, one studio is thought to be the largest in Europe. In addition to the new dance studios Scottish Ballet

USA - While MTV's Video Music Awards (VMAs) lit up the TV screens of millions of households on 13 September, lighting designer Tom Kenny utilised an extensive package of Coemar Infinity Wash XLs, Infinity ACLs and ParLite LEDs provided by Scharff Weisberg Lighting for the live show at New York City's Radio City Music Hall.

"An awards show of that size and pressure is like going into battle in the trenches," says Kenny. "In New York, everybody thinks they know how to be the mayor, the president of the United States and the lighting designer of the VMAs. You just have to hold your ground and do your show."

Working under such mission-critical conditions Kenny sought reliability and dependability as well as great creative scope from his lighting instruments. "I used Coemar Infinitys as the firepower on the show," he says. "All the lights pointing

UK - The new Soundcraft Studer factory in Potters Bar, near London is virtually complete. Based on a $7 million investment the company made four years ago, the new factory extends the manufacturing floor space by more than 100 percent plus additional storage space. "It will be a fantastic facility for our sales teams and distributors to bring their customers to impress them with our technology and quality, said Andy Trott, president, Soundcraft Studer.

In addition to the OnAir 500, OnAir 2500 and Vista 5 SR, all of which have previously been manufactured in Potters Bar, the new factory will now produce all Studer Vista, Router and OnAir products. The company has already appointed 15 new production staff to cope with the additional production workload, with more to join before year end.

Additionally, a new customer centre will feature two large dedicated acceptance test ro

UAE - After several years of growth in the region, Sennheiser has embarked on an ambitious expansion of its operations in the Middle East by establishing a new branch office in Dubai Airport Free Zone, headed up by Mig Cardamone, business area manager for the Middle East.

Sennheiser Middle East is a branch office of Sennheiser UK Ltd, long responsible for the distribution of all Sennheiser Group brands in the Middle East, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of parent company, Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co.KG.

With a diverse portfolio of products, this step has been taken to facilitate better support of its existing dealer network, as well as expanding its distribution channels, say Sennheiser.

Key areas such as consumer headphones and multimedia headsets - an area in which Sennheiser has achieved significant success in Europe and the US in recent years - as well as cockpit

USA - An extensive Electro-Voice XLD line array loudspeaker installation has raised the bar for the James T. Jeremiah chapel sound at Cedarville University in Cedarville, near Columbus, Ohio. Designed by Todd Gathany and Jeff Sanderson of consultants Onpoint Designs and integrated by AGI Professional (Kelly Baum & Kyle Anderson), the system features 36 XLD281 line array elements (two 10-box main arrays & two eight-box side arrays), 12 XCS312 cardioid subwoofers and two NetMax N8000 processors.

Cedarville University's chapel auditorium was built in 1996 and originally featured main arrays and a delay ring from another manufacturer. Preaching and worship are a priority at the school, and the whole student body comes together each day in the chapel - audio is an essential element of the worship experience at Cedarville.

"The old system was installed back when the contemporar

World Cup Concert - A major concert has been announced to kick off the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The three-hour show will feature collaborations between international stars and top African artists and appearances by football legends. The event, from the team behind Live 8, takes place on 10 June at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg.

The show is being staged by Kevin Wall, who told BBC News he has been "overwhelmed" by major artists wanting to get involved. "That's unusual, normally it's the other way round," he added. He admitted he will have to turn down some big name acts: "We are going to have a lot of the major African artists and really it's going to be about Africa so the slots for international artists are a rarity."

Wall believes the show could reach an even bigger TV audience than Live 8 and Li

UK - PSCo has added two top of the range projectors to its trade rental fleet of AV products. The Barco FLM HD20 and the Panasonic PT-DZ12000U models will now allow the company to offer high powered projectors as part of its portfolio.

Rental director Mike Nield comments: "This is another addition to the ever developing rental fleet and comes in response to clients looking for access to these very high powered projectors from a trade partner. We have invested in the two most advanced products available to the rental market at the moment and the initial uptake has been phenomenal."

(Jim Evans)

China - Philips Lumileds and Genius Electronic Optical Company (GSEO) have announced that GSEO is developing new solid-state street lights and street light modules with Luxeon Rebel for use on roadways throughout China. The first installations of GSEO's new streetlights are expected in early 2010.

"The solutions that GSEO is developing can bring great benefit to the cities that adopt and implement the new street lights," said Alvin Tse, VP Asia Pacific Sales at Philips Lumileds. "We expect that their design will deliver high quality, reliable street lighting for many years to come."

"GSEO's approach to creating new solutions is to choose the highest quality LEDs and to implement an optimised system design to ensure that the new luminaire is the best overall solution for its designated application," said Calvin Chen, director of LED Lighting BU at

UK - DB Systems is gearing up to supply equipment and services to events across three continents over the next three months.

The mammoth logistical exercise will involve the company transporting a variety systems, from LCD screen to video walls, tens of thousands of miles between October and December.

DB's European shows include EXPOMIL 2009, in Bucharest (18-21 October), which will showcase military technology, as well as Food Ingredients Europe 2009, in Frankfurt, (17-19 November), a global event for the food and beverage industry.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, DB will be at the Dubai Airshow, (15-19 November), which will include supplying AV systems for the BAE Systems, as part of its ongoing contract with design company RapierGroup.

Furthest to travel for DB will be two shows in South East Asia - Seoul Airshow 2009 (20-25 October) and LIMA 2009

France - The Blue Note Mystery is a new evening show devised by Yves Pépin and produced by ECA2 for Futuroscope theme park in Poitiers, France. E/T/C, specialist in high power AV projection, was called upon by ECA2 and has selected Medialon to be the main controller of the show.

The Blue Note Mystery is a visual extravaganza that transports spectators into a magical realm of sound and music, taking place every evening, in front of a 5,000-seat open-air amphitheatre at Futuroscope's lake. The 25-minute show, which takes place on a 7,000sq.m aquatic stage, includes an array of technical features including pyrotechnic effects, water effects, lasers, shrouds of mist, a multitude of twinkling lights, gigantic flames and more. During the show, giant images are projected onto two 25m and one 35m high water screens.

One Medialon Manager PRO and one Medialon Manage

Italy - Located within a deconsecrated 18th Century Florence church, the idea behind the €3m Cavalli Club has been described its by owner, Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, as "to let others into my world".

Featuring a bar/restaurant and live entertainment, the club measures around 22m long by seven wide. As the building is listed and nothing was allowed to touch the walls of the old church, architect Italo Rota built the club within a freestanding iron structure. The main bar and circulation area is downstairs, with a smaller first floor dining area above part of the main space.

The audio system was designed by Pierluigi Pecchenini of Direct Field Engineering. He needed a system that was compact enough not to visually intrude on either the historic fabric of the building or the club's plush décor. To achieve this, Alcons VR8, TS7 and LR14 loudspeaker

UK - Northern Light has provided the latest in architectural lighting to Glasgow's Trongate 103 - a new arts resource complex.

Philips Selecon's new Wing range of performance wall washer floods was being demonstrated at Northern Light's festival showcase in August and Jim Ewen, Arts Centre technician for project ability at Trongate 103, was one of NL's invited guests.

Ewen said: "Trongate 103's official launch was coming up on 8 September and I was looking for some architectural lighting to illuminate the exhibits. After consulting with the team from Northern Light and seeing the fixtures in action, I realised that the Selecon Wing 35W metal halide model would be absolutely perfect for our needs."

Northern Light provided a total of 142 Selecon Wing Wall Washers in architectural white for the client to install across a range of spaces within the six storey former Ed

Hungary - Pro audio sales, rental and distribution specialist Votec has become the first European rental company to stock the new Renkus-Heinz VerSys VLX3 externally powered high power, large format line array system.

The company, established in 1996 by owner Sándor Elek, which has used Renkus-Heinz loudspeaker systems in Hungary for many years alongside Trantec and Accusound, took delivery of its system last month. The firm has grown in size to 20 employees and is expanding its client base in live music, theatre and television.

"We have worked with Renkus-Heinz system to establish the brand in Hungary," commented Elek. "We began with rental basically and after a year or two sold some systems to theatres. We also started working with pop bands and with television, and became involved with the regular two-month-long series of summer concerts at the Dom Square

Italy - Trescore's music festival is one Italy's largest summer events held in the city of Bergamo, in the north of the country.

The event attracted tens of thousands of people who gathered to attend the shows at this year's festival where the cast included some of the best bands in the Italian alternative rock scene including, Afterhours, J-Ax, Calibro 35, Le Luci Della Centrale Elettrica, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti and Ministri.

Rental Company Airone S.r.l. chose RCF TT+ Series as the main PA system. TTL33-A Line Arrays coupled with TTS28-A Subwoofers were used for the sound reinforcement while TT25-SMA stage monitors were deployed on stage.

"The thing that impressed us the most was the incredible sound definition and the versatility of the system. In fact every night we had to amplify a very different kind of music and the system worked out just perfectly, commented V

China - China's first western managed concert venue opened yesterday (12 October) with an extensive rigging facility supplied by Star Events Group (SEGL).

Wukesong Arena was built in west Beijing for the 2008 Olympics specifically to host basketball. Privately financed by developer Bloomage International Investment Group Inc, the venue was managed by AEG and then closed post games for a total refurbishment.

The refurbishment maintains the basketball heritage, with regular appearances by the American NBA teams - basketball having a huge following in China. However, it now works as a major world class concert venue, the first in a planned series of 11 across China, all managed by AEG.

The venue's roof, covering some 14,400 m2, was designed for sports use rather than concert rigging and so the owners went to tender for suitable solutions for rigging. Bidding against worldwide c

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