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14 March 2016

The concert - an intimate affair compared to Muse's usual stadium-headlining shows - saw them tone down their show to fit the theatre surroundings. Before the gig bass player Chris Wolstenholme told BBC's Newsbeat, "You don't want to be spending all the money on pyramids and flashing lights - that's money that could be going to charity."

Awards News - Opera magazine is to have its first annual international awards, presented at a ceremony in London on 22 April. The Operas, the brainchild of th

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14 March 2016

The rig houses only Vari-Lite moving lights: forty-four VL2500 Spots, twenty-two VL2500 Washes and five VL3500 Spots whilst conventional lighting consists of over 200 ETC Source Four fixtures. It's a fairly straight forward rig that was, according to Hamilton, expertly prepped at PRG, easily hung and there were very few problems to overcome.

"The overhead trusses go spot, wash, spot, wash, spot, wash and the ladders are all VL2500 Spots," explained Hamilton. "It's a great rig because you can put anything you need where you need it, plus it

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer Declan Randall is harnessing the diverse colour palette and rapid colour changing abilities of the PLCyc fixtures to dramatically enhance the shifting ambience during the production at Guildford's Holy Trinity Church.

"I'm treating the ceiling of church as the cyclorama, up-lighting the roof and using the PLCycs to throw shadows of scenic elements and the cast up onto the roof," says Randall. "The show varies from intense colour to more natural, gentle, skin tones and the PLCycs offer us speedy colour changes and an amazing palette to work with. What's great about the PLCyc LED luminaires is that they deliver both the natural and unnatural colours

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14 March 2016

Inspired by the beauty and the masterpieces of Rembrandt van Rijn, following a substantial investment, guests can enjoy authentic Dutch cuisine in a cosmopolitan atmosphere with open kitchen, whole listening to music through a premium RCF sound reinforcement system.

In fact premium is the watchword, since installer Mike Ho, of locally based service company 24/7 Audio, specified a TTL11-A active steerable column array, requiring only two systems with two presets to service all the requirements - literally 24/7 (including live music and a DJ on weekends).

"I first heard this system under demo at RCF's he

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14 March 2016

Located in the heart of London's East End and home to the 770 seat Great Hall, the theatre's transformation included a lighting and audio solution supplied and installed by specialist integrators Stage Electrics.

"Queen Mary, University of London is delighted with our newly refurbished venue and we're now getting a huge amount of interest from external hirers and promoters who are discovering this hidden gem in east Lo

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14 March 2016

Gaskell, of Pinnacle Productions, combined the razor sharp beams of the Clay Paky Sharpys, supplied by rental operation Colour Sound Experiment, with laser bounce mirrors to deliver a three dimensional prism of super bright almost architectural effects around the band. This worked as part of a layered lighting concept that combined evocative video, moody washes and striking effects during the dynamic, content rich show. The result was a dramatically striking, 3D world of light and images that worked as one with Orbital's music but at the same time also reached out and engaged the li

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14 March 2016

Hawthorn applied its own event expertise to transform their facility into a swanky party venue, where guests enjoyed a night of food, drink, networking and revelry. Giant video screens, sizzling catering points, glitzy dancefloors created a vibrant ambience in the main event room; then if guests walked through a giant logo structure they entered a series of 'games rooms' with Karaoke, 'drive simulators', and familiar computer games.

Founder and Managing Director Martin Hawthorn cut the birthday cake and thanked all present:

"It's great to welcome everyone here as we celebrate our achievement bringing the company from the humble beginnings to where we are today supplying an incredible range of events. We have developed some great

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14 March 2016

Jeffrey Goes commented, "The grandMA2 offered the best solution in networking and stability for this outdoor event. Especially in bad weather conditions it proofed to be a solid, stable control system. This was essential. Furthermore it offered us a perfect back-up solution as well as great network possibilities."

Daan Oomen continued, "We had to deal with pretty harsh weather conditions. Also some lighting positions were only accessible by helicopter. Furthermore the venue had a quite unusual shape unusual shape and an extremely steep slope. Making a

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14 March 2016

The awards highlight projects undertaken in 2012 and the judges said: "Unusual Rigging was a clear favourite in the voting process this year, showing how well respected and valued they are by their industry peers."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The new Manna Methodist Church has a seating capacity of 4,000, with around 10,000 worshippers attending each week. Services feature a live band, choir, organ and orchestra, so the audio system needed a high input channel count, as well as facilities to mix live audio for broadcast on its own Internet channel.

The church consulted DiGiCo's South Korean distributor Soundus Corporation, who supplied and installed an SD7 console at Front of House, with four SD-Racks and an SD8-24 to take care of the live broadcast mix. In addition, Soundus supplied an SD9 f

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14 March 2016

Leisuretec, a leading supplier to the trade community, will be offering Roland's professional range of video products. As a new venture for the company this enhances their product offering and further broadens their profile, says the company.

Cliff Dounting, commercial director for Leisuretec Distribution commented, "After a successful year in 2012, we were looking to further broaden the choice we can offer our customers with unique specialist products. As a result, we are delighted to have formed a working relationship with Roland Systems Group.

"Roland's high profile and professional reputation fits perfectly with Leisuretec's technical expertise and commi

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14 March 2016

In an exciting twist on 2012's R28 competition, the use of consoles WILL be allowed, due to popular demand among previous entrants. Of course, employment of the software's Cue List and Camera Path features is perfectly acceptable and encouraged - Members are simply challenged to create a two-minute video of a stunning wysiwyg design and upload it to the CAST Software Facebook page for appraisal, initially by CAST's hand-picked judging panel, and then by the public who can vote for their favourite video via Facebook.

CAST

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14 March 2016

The awards ceremony was presented by the Whatsonstage.com theatre news website at a lavish concert on Sunday night. The Whatsonstage.com Awards is the only major prize-giving celebration for theatre voted on by the theatre-going public. The Best Lighting Designer Award is sponsored by leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light.

Henderson secured the prize for his work on Sweeney Todd, which opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre and then transferred to London's Adelphi Theatre. Henderson's was not the only award presented to the show, which also won prizes for its leading performers (Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton), its director (Jonathan Kent), and for the show itself, which was named Best Musical Revival.

Henderson's fellow nominees in the category were Humphre

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14 March 2016

The MAC III Wash features a unique internal barndoor system (shutters) that enables designers to shape projection onto stages, performers, scenery, scrims, or any set element with great precision.

The MAC III Wash houses a 1:4 fully linear zoom that requires no lens changes plus the MAC III Wash maintains near full efficiency throughout the entire zoom range with no visible beam jump when zooming from tight to wide and no drop in lumens output.

At over 50,000 lumens

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14 March 2016

Heading up the action were plenty of electronic legends like The Chemical Brothers, M.I.A, Fedde Le Grand, Mark Ronson, Hot Chip, The Faders, Kimbra and many more.

Lighting equipment, together with lighting production designs for the event's three main stage areas, was supplied by Clifton Productions, one of Australia's highest profile rental operations ... and the one with the largest stock of Robe fixtures.

Stage One was based around M.I.A.'s spec and featured 22 Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs, eight ColorWash 2500E ATs and 18 Robin 600 Beams. The set centrepiece was an extensive upstage video wall.

The second stage was custom designed to accommodate the Chemical Brot

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14 March 2016

The LB-100's were supplied by production company, Supporting Role, who specialise in the broadcast rental sector, after being impressed by a system demo organised by SGM Germany's co-MD Thorsten Sattler.

Florian Wieder has taken a highly creative approach with the lighting - hanging the LB-100's as a curtain, split into separate sections, and as 'bridges' across the studio (one of which serves as the portal bridge to the stage).

These are fed by moving images from three Coolux Pandoras Box media servers.

Each of the 1500 strings measures 0.85m and contains sev

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14 March 2016

ECI Cultuurfabriek is a converted former chemical factory which was abandoned in the 1970s. After many years of discussion about the building's future, it was decided to refurbish it - replacing its missing roof and rebuilding the walls - and turn it into a space for the whole community to use. Incoming technical manager Maarten Janssen invested in 30 ETC Source Four Lustr+ and 22 ETC Selador Desire Lustr+ LED luminaires for its 244 seat theatre space, taking advantage of extra funding available for environmentally sustainable projects.

Janssen explains why he chose the ETC fixtures: "I saw the LED demonstrations on ETC's YouTube video library. The fixtures have incredibly smooth fades, which I've never

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14 March 2016

The set maximises the effect of StudioTak's high gloss finish and combines professional studio lighting to produce a visual impact that's not often rivaled by other self-adhesive studio floors.

Le Mark's Leanne Baker said, "The Love Machine is a really lively and stunning set. The camera angles perfectly capture the glossy floor finish, making the nightclub-style set design beautifully shine back on-camera."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Marseille-based Objectif Plus was commissioned to design and install the stadium's sound reinforcement system. The highest acoustic hurdle here - and one most ice rinks share - is the hall's long reverberation time. "Obtaining clearly intelligible sound under such conditions posed a real challenge," admits Jean Marandet, product & service manager with EVI Audio France, "especially since the budget for the project was relatively modest. It was necessary, therefore, to find a solution capable of pr

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14 March 2016

Squib has worked with the Band - whose lively mix of rocky electro pop has fed their hyperactive career trajectory - since 2010. They are a hard-working live act. Squib's first gig for them was at London's Heaven venue, mid-way through the cycle for their first studio album Tourist History, which segued almost immediately into Beacon.

He is a relative newcomer to using Robe fixtures, and it was the latest Robin series that caught his eye and encouraged him to look further at what the brand had to offer.

This was the first full production leg of the Beacon

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14 March 2016

A trademarked brand of the East Syracuse, New York-based company PPC, Perfect Path products debuted four years ago with a patented line of high-retention and locking HDMI cables that quickly garnered a reputation for performance and reliability within the residential AV, home theatre, and systems contracting markets.

With its headquarters located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Liberty AV Solutions is an AV supplier of solutions-based products ranging from bulk cable and connectors to custom plates, panels, racks, and signal distribution devices manufactured by its Intelix division.

"Partnering with Liberty is a perfect fit for our extension into the world o

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14 March 2016

"I have been using DPA microphones for a long time now and they are always my first choice of microphone because they give me the sound I want without any feedback problems," Mendez says. "Whether I am miking an acoustic instrument, voices for an event or a musical, I know these microphones will work perfectly every time and in all of these different areas of performance."

Raul Mendez is currently using a selection of DPA microphones to capture the sound of legendary guitarist, composer, dramatist and producer Paco Peña. Over a career spanning more than four decades, Peña has expanded the possibilities of flamenco and changed perceptions of the art form by

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14 March 2016

The concept of SIEL was reinforced this year with more than 40 workshops, lighting showrooms and audio classrooms. Prestigious conferences were also added to those professionals meetings, thanks to the involvement of exhibitors and partners : APG France, Clay Paky, DV2, Profession Spectacle and SGM. More than 150 visitors took the opportunity to attend Luc Lafortune's conference. Guest of honor, the lighting designer of the Cirque du Soleil, spent more than three hours sharing his work experiences, techniques and anecdotes about the shows Ka and O.

For this second edition of the SIEL 'new formula',the Etoil

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer Sooner Routhier specified 44 Legend 412 fixtures placed in custom-made wood carts behind the singer and symmetrically on the left and right side of the stage. "We needed to make sure that the floor package we used was easily configurable to accommodate the many different stage sizes," Routhier said.

"It needed to expand and contract based on the various widths. Luckily, the lighting company - Special Event Services - had some custom-built carts that they modified in order to pack lots of lights into small spaces." These props allowed the tour to set up a floor package and tear it down in record time for festival and opening act situations. "