UK - As every good conductor knows, even the most tried and trusted musical score can warrant a revisit from time to time. The same is true of production, as has happened on the latest outing of Classical Spectacular. "We have maybe 80 pieces of music in the repertoire now," said show programmer Tim Routledge. "I have been working with lighting designer Durham Marenghi for several years on this show so when he presented his new design I saw an opportunity to upgrade the control system."

"I have re-visited all the music," said Marenghi. "A new truss shape with a completely new lighting environment: total refreshment. The fact that Tim chose this moment to move from grandMA to grandMA2 seemed entirely logical; even if it was the first time he'd migrated a master show file from MA1 to MA2."

"I did ask him if he was comfortable w

UK - Held at Battersea Power Station at the end of October, Freeze Festival was two full on days of world class snowboarding, skiing and live music which, in combination with alpine style bars, a shopping village and gourmet food brought the joys of ski and, just as importantly, après ski to south west London.

Working for client Vision Nine (formerly known as Sports Vision) and with Robin Conway as Capital's project manager for the event, the line array tech and crew boss Marty Harrison deployed a Martin Audio LC system with 218 subs for the main stage, where Dave Poynter looked after FOH, Kevin Smith took up the monitor position and Duane Williams handle stage tech duties for sets from Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, DJ Shadow, Mark Ronson and Zane Lowe, amongst others. A smaller version of the system was sited adjacent to the ski jump, and a Meyer UPM system took care of the

France - With audiences of over 5m every Saturday night, the French version of Strictly Come Dancing (Danse avec les Stars), has proved almost as popular as its British counterpart. The live show is broadcast from the same TV studio in Paris that hosted the live shows of last season's The Voice. Meanwhile, recording of 'the Blinds' and 'the Battles' for next season's The Voice is going on in a different studio. TV audio solutions provider, Silence! has provided APG Uniline systems for both shows. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Channel, Plus 4 Audio who supply systems for Strictly Come Dancing in the UK, also supplied a Uniline system for the special Children In Need edition of Strictly from Wembley Arena in front of a live audience of 6,000 people.

Back in France, having built their formidable reputation on being brand-agnostic and supplying the

Mexico - After several months of intense work, the Onixeus Club has opened in the city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Onixeus is a club aimed at live performances while also running as a nightclub. With a capacity of 2,000 people, it is undoubtedly one of the most impressive entertainment centres in Mexico, indeed in Latin America.

For its primary audio system, Onixeushas chosen Nexo's compact line array GeoS12, paired with RS18 subwoofers. The club has a main system of six Geo S1210 cabinets plus two Geo S1230s in left and right arrays (eight per side) and an out-fill system of three Geo S1230s per side. The six RS18 subs are arranged in the centre. The entire system is processed and amplified by 3 NXAMP4x4 TDControllers.

All the cabinets have been installed using Nexo's fixed rigging accessories.

Onixeus technical manager Raúl García Rodríguez reports that "T

Brazil - Wireless Solution Sweden held centre stage at the 58th Barretos Cowboy Festival (Festa do Peão de Boiadeiro de Barretos), one of the largest rodeo and music events in Brazil, held at the Super Bull arena in the city of Barretos. For 10 nights, rodeo activities were followed by a long lineup of popular music acts, often lasting until dawn.

Lighting designer Francisco 'Pincel' Gabriel designed an enormous cube suspended over the main arena floor for maximum visibility by the entire crowd without interfering with the rodeo activities or blocking any sightlines to the main stage for the evening concerts. The cube held LED screens accentuated with Robe moving lights to allow spectators to view the rodeo events up close.

Because of the location of the cube, high above the centre of the arena floor, W-DMX BlackBox F-1 was used as Transmitter and Receiver to deliver a reliab

Ireland - On the far west coast of Ireland, an event and concert venue has been newly created, with a remarkable backstory. Not a surprise, perhaps, in this fabled land of poetry, folk song and traditional music, in which its soil is steeped; but this is a venture that, given the financial background of the country, has taken considerable energy to create one of the largest multipurpose venues in western Ireland.

The core impetus for this was the annual series of Sligo Live festivals, inaugurated eight years ago as a public-private initiative to promote the city of Sligo as both a musical centre and a tourist destination. The musical theme of the festival is based around folk, roots and indie, and is hosted by multiple pubs, bars and theatres in the city, the region's most populous area, a major tourist destination and former home to poet W B Yeats and Spike Milligan. The city i

Belgium - The first concert staged in the newly refurbished and re-launched Het Depot in Leuven, just outside Brussels, Belgium, featured four days of performance by hot emerging young Belgian singer / songwriter Selah Sue.

Robe fixtures were an integral part of Selah Sue's show - her lighting designer Joris Vandamme used 12 x Robin 600 LEDWashes on floor stands as a 'specials' package, an idea also being tried out for upcoming shows. He also used eight Robe MMX Spots that have just been installed as part of a new lighting rig at Het Depot along with Robe Actor 600 units.

Additionally, the first of Robe's new MMX WashBeams in Belgium were made available for these Het Depot shows by special arrangement with Robe's Benelux distributor, Controllux.

Selah Sue's material embraces an eclectic mix of styles including soul, R'n'B, reggae and blues. Her rich, deep, raspy voice is ver

Finland - The Roland M-480 Digital Live Mixing Console, M-48 Personal Monitors and S-1608 Digital Snake Stage units have recently been out on a three- week, multi venue tour with Finnish singer Eija Kantola. The Anniversary tour which celebrated 20 years in the business for Eija and her band Omega played in a variety of venues across Finland including dancehalls, restaurants and cruise ferries.

The Roland V-Mixing System was chosen for the tour by long term Eija Kantola tour technician, Mikko Kiviniemi, a freelance technician based in Helsinki, who works around 100 days a year with Eija Kantola and has been using Roland products since September 2011.

"I have used the RSG products for more than 120 shows - it is a reliable and great sounding system with reasonable FOH footprint," commented Mikko. "The overall workflow efficiency and surface layout is super

Belgium - Legendary Brussels live music venue - the Ancienne Belgique (AB) - has invested in 20 Robe Robin MMX Spot moving lights that have replaced the previous spot fixtures in a major upgrade to their lighting system.

The AB features a 2000 capacity Main Room with full over-stage grid system and a 16m wide stage, plus a smaller club performance space. It is one of the most prominent live music and performance venues in Europe, featuring many high profile artists, staging over 300 live events a year and featuring around 500 bands which are enjoyed by over 300,000 people.

Around 90% of the artists visiting the AB use the in-house lighting system, and approximately 75% of these will bring their own LDs, so it is vital that they stay at the forefront of a constantly evolving world, and are able to offer all the latest technologies.

The decision to invest in Robe moving lights

South Africa - Opened in 1997 by Nelson Mandela, the multi award winning Durban ICC celebrated its 15th anniversary with a Grand Banquet. With 33000sq.m of space available to clients, the Exhibition Centre is the largest flat floor, column-free exhibition/conference space in Africa.

This year the Durban ICC was named "Africa's number 1 meeting and conference centre" by the prestigious World Travel Awards, for the 11th time in 12 years. The ICC has welcomed kings, queens, presidents, actors, icons and entertainers and has hosted some of the biggest, most high profile conferences in the world.

The anniversary project's objective required event organisers to showcase the capacity, versatility and flexibility of the ICC to stage major international events

Makulu Events was awarded the tender to organise the event and with the ICC, invited a number of companies to propo

UK - Andy Bruce technical officer of the Kings Hall Theatre, Bradford, has chosen to upgrade the sound system using the Traction Sound SDS8i loudspeakers supplied by AC Entertainment Technologies.

Bruce first heard the product range at PLASA Focus and was overwhelmed at the audio quality of the loudspeakers which incorporate the SDS horn and said, "After arranging a demonstration on site on behalf of AC Entertainment technologies and RW Salt we were so impressed by the clarity and throw for the size of these loudspeakers against other well respected manufacturer that we decided these were the right choice for the venue. The versatility of the speakers has no end, they can recreate soft male and female vocals beautifully right through to rock and roll, this will be a big help with all the variations of shows that the theatre brings in."

Paul Atherton of RW Salt, who d

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) have supplied and installed two flown trussing grids complete with motors and control, a winch bar, 120 channels of dimming, DMX buffers and a new cabling management and infrastructure to Theatre on The Hill, Amersham & Wycombe College's (AWC) busy performance and training facility in Buckinghamshire, UK.

Producing a range of shows, awards ceremonies and events, the 120 seat theatre is a fully equipped space with a flexible format, used by students on the Performing Arts and Technical Theatre courses.

Based only a few miles away, AWC contacted ACSP when looking for a wheelchair-friendly, flexible and safe method for their students to work on rigging technical production equipment at ground level.

The project was led for ACSP by project manager, Lance Bromhead, who worked closely with AWC's theatre technician, Jake Edmonds to provide a cost e

UK - West London based lighting and visuals rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) is supplying lighting and video (LED screen and control) to the current Peter Andre Up Close & Personal UK tour, working with lighting designer Dave Farmer of THC Design.

It's Farmer's first tour with Andre, asked on board by tour director John Proctor, although he has known CSE's Haydn Cruickshank for many years and worked with the company on several previous occasions. CSE was able to supply both lighting and video in a very competitive package.

The tour is visiting a variety of venues, taking in theatres, concert halls and arenas, so Farmer's rig is designed with innate adaptability to work in all of these spaces. Farmer's starting point was a basic concept from show producer Christian Storm of Mass Movement, which included some specific video treatments from which Farmer star

UK - Channel 5 has chosen to specify eS21 Dimmers, a Palette VL console, a 301 Backup and a number of Selecon luminaires to satisfy the lighting requirements of its new suite of compact studios within London's Northern and Shell Building.

The brief for the new suite was to create a multipurpose studio complex suitable for C5 News, which uses Virtual Reality to generate the on air environment, ready to broadcast from mid-November.

With limited space, designing a system flexible enough to cover all eventualities was the design team's biggest challenge, as Antony Vine, project manager for installation company White Light, explains, "The studio has very limited head room and absolutely no space for a dimmer room. To overcome this problem we've used eS21 Dimmer Bars, with the Dimmers and Relays inbuilt. The modularity of the eS21 bar design is of particular importance as this

Canada - For an audio professional, creating a sound system for a large aquatic centre is not a simple task. The combination of high walls, corrugated metal roofs, and an abundance of concrete, glass, and water makes for an acoustical environment that is far from pretty, even before it's packed with noisy revellers.

Rising to the challenge was Chilliwack-based Go Audio, the company behind the audio installations at both Cheam Leisure Centre and cross-town neighbour Chilliwack Landing Leisure Centre. Both projects employed a very novel design approach featuring the Renkus-Heinz Iconyx digitally steered array.

Unlike most applications where the steered array is used as a vertical column line array, the approach at the aquatic centres involved suspending the Iconyx from the roof overhead, and steering the beams to focus the sound away from the walls and other highly reflective su

UK - Leading nightclub operator, The Luminar Group, has spent £750,000 refurbishing the former Liquid/Envy in Crawley town centre, which has now reopened as Moka.

After being closed for nearly a year, the 1250-capacity venue has been transformed by a dramatic 3D ceiling starburst using 120 of SGM's LT-100 LED pixel tubes, run from a proprietary media server. These have been rendered and pixel-mapped so that the lighting chase sequences can one minute resemble a spectrum analyser, before sending waves shimmering through the 1-metre long rods, which make up the inspired architectural chandelier - all the while offering a 2 x 170° viewing experience.

Right from the outset, Luminar CEO Peter Marks knew the venue was in need of reinvention, and brought in Design at Source to transform it. At the same time he promised, "Moka will have a state-of-the-art lighting rig s

UK - For some years now, comedian Matt Lucas has been a presence on UK TV screens and after the success of his last series, he is back for another with latest project the Matt Lucas Awards.

The entertainment series, filmed for BBC1 at Elstree Studios, is an adaptation of an original format he worked on, on radio - And the Winner Is......

It sees a number of celebrities each episode nominate artists or objects in weird and wonderful categories such as 'Smuggest Nation of People', 'Dullest Pastime' and 'Most Baffling Campfire Song' with the winner receiving a Lucas Award.

Roger Williams designs the lighting show with is provided by Richard Martin Lighting (RML).

The warm lighting rig includes Robe Robin 600 LEDBeam, Stage Bar 54, Chroma Bank, Alpha Spot 575 HPE and Source 4. The lights help enrich the lounge room feel of the show, which is designed to look like

USA - Sound Media, a sound and lighting production company located in Hollywood, Florida, having purchased the Turbosound Flex Array (TFA-600H) system a year ago, has experienced a growing presence in the south Florida market, necessitating further investment.

"Working directly with Turbosound and our area rep, Mainline Marketing, has been great. Both did a tremendous job in supporting our deployment of Turbosound products to our customers; this was a critical component of the success we have experienced," reports Lennox Foster, Sound Media's president and founder. "We bought 16 of the 75-degree boxes last year, and it took our business to another level. The TFA-600 is one of the best sounding boxes I've heard in a long time. Now we're expanding again, so it was natural to stay with the sound signature that has helped us get so many new and repeat customers. Now w

UK - Ambersphere Solutions has had a busy year, serving the needs of their regular customers whilst getting involved in many of the high profile 2012 summer events that took place across the UK. And with Christmas just round the corner, they are pleased to announce their Christmas Open Day!

The company has recently extended their premises to meet the increasing product and training demands of their customers, and have some exciting expansion plans for 2013. There is an expanded show room, and increased training facilities, a larger warehouse, and bookable programming suites.

There will be a sneak preview of the new Clay Paky Sharpy Wash, the Clay Paky A.LEDA range and the new MA onPC fader wing.

There will be plenty of Christmas snacks and drinks to get the party going. New and existing customers are invited to join the Ambersphere team from 2pm-8pm on Wednesday 19 December.

USA - Established in 1776, Royal Oak Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest congregations in the United States. Its rich history and the traditions associated with it are an integral part of their worship, says Pastor Alan Gray, but, he adds: "We're trying to merge our traditional services with new expressions of worship that are meaningful for the intergenerational nature of our congregation."

To meet that requirement, audio designer/installer K.D. Forsha specified a system comprised of Tannoy's new VLS passive column speaker arrays and Tannoy VS 10BP subs, thereby addressing the sonic challenges of the highly reverberant, roughly 450-capacity sanctuary, without detracting in any way from the aesthetics of the church treasured by its congregation.

Given the existing church was built in 1923, the acoustic challenges of the space were substantial. But, even with the

UK - Rental company Entec Sound & Light supplied lighting and audio production for award-winning Taiwanese Mandropop superstar Jam Hsaio's show at Wembley Arena.

Entec offered a flexible, cost-effective, quality technical package and illustrated how thorough planning can enable a high profile and ambitious one-off to be delivered to the best standards in a single day.

The show was the latest in a series of Asian megastars visiting the UK and Europe that have used Entec. Sound

Entec's sound department was crew chiefed by Ed Hammond, They drew on their vast experience of producing similar shows in Wembley combined with the spec from Jam Hsaio's engineers David Wang (FOH) and Alvin Kuo (Monitors).

A d&b J-Series was supplied comprising 10 x J8 speakers with two J12 down-fills per side for the main hangs plus side hangs of six V8s and two V12s, the latter being at the top of t

UK - Turbosound's Flashline line array loudspeaker system has garnered a chorus of approval at Alanis Morrissette's London O2 concert. The gig marked the first time Turbosound's Flashline system was rigged in a venue as huge as the O2.

"When I spoke to Bryan Grant and Lez Dwight at Britannia Row about the Turbosound Flashline system they said 'you have to try it - you will definitely like it' and I do," says Alanis's FOH engineer Maurizio Gennari. "Having used practically every system on the market on this tour, in a variety of venues from clubs to arenas, I have found this one to be extremely clean, clear and crisp. There's plenty of headroom and it has a natural sounding midrange. It's definitely powerful and precise, I am really looking forward to using the system again."

Supplied by long time Turbosound partners Britannia Row, freelance system engineer

Future Sounds - Fifteen of the most promising new music acts have been named on the BBC's Sound of 2013 longlist. Aimed at showcasing talent for the year ahead, the list was compiled using tips from 213 tastemakers, who each named their favourite three new acts.

Soul singer Michael Kiwanuka came out on top last year, with Adele, Jessie J and Ellie Goulding among past winners. The 2013 line-up includes boy-girl pop duo AlunaGeorge, Birmingham indie group Peace and Californian sisters Haim. Other acts tipped for success include all-girl post-punk band Savages, Glasgow electro-pop three-piece Chvrches and London rock quartet Palma Violets, whose debut single Best Of Friends was recently named track of the year by the NME.

The Sound of 2013 winner will be announced online and by DJ Huw Stephens on the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show on 4 January.

Theatre Awards - Danny Boyle's

Norway - The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Concert will take place tonight - 11 December - at the 9,700-capacity Oslo Spektrum arena. An annual musical spectacular, broadcast to more than 100 countries worldwide, this year's concert will feature Meyer Sound's new LEO linear large-scale sound reinforcement system.

Performing to an audience of national leaders and Nobel laureates will be artists including British soul singer Seal, Portuguese trio OqueStrada, Romanian Gypsy brass legends Fanfare Cioc?rlia, as well as Ne-Yo, Kylie Minogue and Milow. The show's diverse musical requirements certainly played a part in sound supplier AVAB CAC AS's audio selection, but above all, the call was for superlative audio quality and rock-solid reliability.

"The Nobel Peace Prize Concert is a very high-profile gig and is televised worldwide, so it is absolutely essential that we work with the hi

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