USA - For the eighth year in a row, CAST Software has sponsored the USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology) Southwest Student Design Competition, an annual event which recognises young talent in the categories of Lighting, Sound, Set and Costume Design, Stage Management and Scenic Technology.

Each year, CAST bestows the winner of the Lighting Design category with an educational wysiwyg license, and announces that this year's winner is University of Oklahoma student, Leahe Knott, who scooped the prize for her work on Peter Oswald's translation of Friedrich Schiller's play, Mary Stuart. In a review of the production for the University's Routes website, Laurel Dix noted, "The purity and subtlety of Leahe Knott's lighting draws out each brilliant bit of colour from Lloyd Cracknell's sumptuous costumes."

Knott herself explains: "The story of Mar

UK - Now in its third year, Sennheiser UK's series of roadshows is aimed at the systems integration and professional audio markets. It is steadily increasing in popularity with pre-registration at an unprecedented level for 2013.

Once again using stately homes as a backdrop, Sennheiser will host three events during May and June. The first is once is again at Edinburgh's Hopetoun House on 21 May, followed by Carlton Towers in Yorkshire on 23 May then finally Knebworth House, Hertfordshire on 5 June.

The roadshows offer an educational and informative series of seminars and hands on workshops, playing an integral part in helping Sennheiser's customers achieve more from their working relationships and equipment, as well as offering support around the third-party brands that the company distributes.

"Each year we look at the issues that are affecting the industry and how we

USA - When the alternative rock band Neon Trees first burst onto the music scene, the four member band had no idea how quickly their lives would change. In February 2013, the group launched their most expansive North American tour opening for Maroon 5, with multiple tour dates across the globe set to follow immediately after.

As the production team prepared to bring the group's latest album Picture Show to life, lighting designer Matt Guminski would be inheriting part of the largest moving light rig they had ever used and they would capitalize on this by using the power and performance of the VL880 Spot luminaire from Philips Vari-Lite.

"I've been out with Neon Trees since May of last year when I joined them during the middle of their previous tour," began Guminski. "On that tour we really only had a ground package with small moving lights and strobes but

South Africa - Alistair Kilbee, managing director of Gearhouse Splitbeam, is proving over and over again that South Africa has what it takes to offer a technical solution for international Broadway production; the latest being Jersey Boys.

This multi-award winning musical is currently running at the Teatro at Montecasino, Johannesburg before opening at the Artscape, Cape Town, on 19 June 2013.

"I work extensively for Showtime Management productions, the SA Producer for Jersey Boys, on most of their productions," said Kilbee. "Showtime started talking about Jersey Boys three years ago... keep in mind that shows of this scale are always a couple of years in the making."

Kilbee kicked off Jersey Boys in Singapore in November 2012 and, over the 11 week run, the production received rave reviews. The performances in Johannesburg are enjoyin

Ireland - The University of Limerick is one of Ireland's most renowned educational establishments and enjoys a high reputation throughout Europe. As well as numerous lecture halls and seminar rooms, the facilities include a 1,000-seater auditorium, the University Concert Hall, which caters to a wide variety of needs. During the day, it is used for lectures, but in the evening it serves as a concert hall offering a diverse programme, with rock bands occupying the stage one day and classical orchestras and choirs the next, followed in time by a mix of folk musicians, jazzmen and chamber ensembles.

Such a wide spectrum places considerable demands on the sound reinforcement system - demands that the previous system was unable to meet. Something altogether more flexible was required, which is why those responsible decided in advance of the celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of

USA - Belmont University's annual Best of the Best Showcase honoured Bandit Lites with the 2013 Robert E. Mulloy Award of Excellence. The event took place on Saturday, 13 April in the Curb Event Centre and was hosted by the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. Brent Barrett, Bandits' business development officer, accepted the award on behalf of Bandit Lites.

Wesley Bulla, Dean of the Curb College stated, "Bob Mulloy loved creating opportunities for students to experience the music industry first hand through programs like our showcase series. Today, this program has become a rich tradition on Belmont's campus. Without the partnership with Bandit Lites, our students would not have the chance to produce the high-calibre shows we've seen over the past 10 years.

"These partners have not just loaned equipment for shows, the professionals from Bandit have

Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB's W-DMX is currently on tour with Beyoncé for the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. Pyro, confetti, fire, CO2 and laser effects company Strictly FX is charged with all special effects for the tour and uses the W-DMX BlackBox F-1 along with two Booster B-1000 2.45GHz antenna boosters for a particular confetti sequence in the show.

John Lyons of Strictly FX explains, "We have four confetti blowers in a truss over the crowd. At the end of the song 1 + 1, Beyoncé flies over the crowd from the main stage to the satellite stage. As she flies, she leaves a trail of gold Mylar confetti behind to give a 'pixie dust' look. The confetti canons are controlled wirelessly with the W-DMX BlackBox, making the installation fast, easy and reliable. Due to the location, it just make sense to go with wireless DMX, and 120VAC is suppli

USA - Clay Paky lighting got glowing reviews at the 15th annual Ultra Music Festival (UMF) in Miami's Bayfront Park where they added to the pulsating excitement generated by fans, DJs and electronic musicians under the tent-like Carl Cox Mega Structure.

This year's UMF was the first two-weekend, six-day event in festival history and the most successful to date drawing over 330,000 electronic dance music fans. Over 200 DJs and electronic musicians and emerging artists performed each weekend.

UMF also scored another first with the public debut of the Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330 in the US. Fifty Sharpy Wash fixtures were featured in the innovative Cox Mega Structure, which was purpose-built for the high-energy festival to showcase DJs and artists on stage and shelter legions of dancing fans. Stephen Lieberman of SJ Lighting designed the Mega Structure with lighting and build by AG

New Zealand - LumenRadio has announced the appointment of Kenderdine Electrical as their distribution partner for New Zealand. Kenderdine Electrical will offer the full product range of LumenRadio's CRMX products focusing on solutions designed for the theatre, live entertainment, studio and broadcast markets.

Kenderdine Electrical is one of the largest distributors in New Zealand with many years track record of distributing top brands such as Martin, Robert Juliat, Philips Selecon, Philips Strand Lighting and Osram.

"We are very excited to be working with LumenRadio", says Ruthe Kenderdine at Kenderdine Electrical. "We believe LumenRadio's innovate and reliable products are a perfect complement to our current product portfolio. With the CRMX products, we can provide turnkey solutions to all our clients. Everyone in our team looks forward to bring the CRMX brand

USA - Lighting designer Taylor Price needed a highly versatile yet compact and bright spot fixture for the large variety of venue types that American country music's Eli Young Band is playing on their current US tour. He found it in the Martin MAC Viper Profile, which he has teamed with another award-winning Martin fixture, the MAC Aura.

"I didn't want the small narrow-beamed fixture that is a one trick pony and way over used these days," states Taylor, who also wears the hats of lighting director, programmer and technician on the tour. "I chose the Viper for several reasons. Because of the wide variety of shows we are doing - headlining and support, clubs, theatres, sheds, festivals, and arenas - I wanted a fixture that was very versatile. I wanted something that is bright, but smaller than most of the 1200 W fixtures on the market because of our limited trailer

Belgium / Japan - ArKaos has announced that it has signed an agreement with Dirigent Corporation Japan for the exclusive distribution of the ArKaos GrandVJ product range.

"We are very excited about this new collaboration with Dirigent," says ArKaos business development manager, Agnes Wojewoda. "Dirigent has been established for a very long time and is ideally placed to bring our GrandVJ range to the Japanese music market. The team is very eager to start distributing our products, organizing workshops and product training and is in an excellent position to offer full and reliable after-sales support."

"We, Dirigent, have conducted our business in the field of musical instruments, software and DJ equipment in Japan for 24 years," says Dirigent's sales manager, Fukashi Nakaya. "Now we are greatly excited to make this collaboration with the world

UK - In partnership since 1970, one of the longest in the industry, Phil Brunker and Neil Rice, founding directors and shareholders of Optikinetics Ltd, have recently passed ownership of this world renowned UK manufacturer to Rob Stitcher.

Brunker and Rice will continue to serve OPTI as consultants to ensure a smooth transition and customer continuity.

Said Neil Rice, "I am delighted we have found Rob, whose experience in business management will, I'm sure, re-energise and re-focus our future.

"The recent introduction of LED projectors has revitalised that side of our business whilst Trilite continues to be the de facto brand in the exhibition sector."

(Jim Evans)

UAE - Melody House, distributors of HK Audio speaker systems have recently supplied Dubai-based rental firm Abacus Rentals with another ConTour Array system from HK Audio. The rental firm decided on the second purchase after experiencing the power, flexibility and clarity of their existing system.

"Abacus Rentals are expanding their inventory to meet the needs of their growing customer base," commented Sai Prasad, HK Audio product specialist at Melody House. "With their second ConTour Array system, they can either meet the needs of large events or split the system to handle two smaller events."

(Jim Evans)

Brazil - Distributor ProShows recently concluded a six-month marathon series of 500 workshops featuring the Behringer X32 digital mixer. Shortly after the Expomusic show in October 2012, ProShows embarked on an extensive series of workshops engaging professional audio engineers all over the country. The workshops showcased the functional versatility of Behringers's flagship mixer and focused on both live and studio applications for the X32.

Combined with a coordinated marketing campaign, the workshops generated enthusiasm for the X32 throughout Brazil. More than 1000 technicians and 700 sales representatives, in 50 of Brazil's major cities, were given hands-on training for the X32 as well as its compatibility with other Behringer products including the P16 personal monitoring system and the S16 digital stage box. The 500th workshop was completed on 15 April, 2013.

"We are

India - Midas and Klark Teknik have appointed Dhanashree Electronics Ltd. as their distributor for India.

Midas/Klark Teknik brand development manager, Richard Ferriday comments, "This provides a huge opportunity for growth due to our new competitive pricing policy - and Dhanashree are the perfect partner to take full advantage of that. I welcome Dhanashree to the MKT family and look forward to delighting their customers with plenty of high-quality, reliable and affordable MKT products."

Mr. Abhishek Toshniwal, director of Dhanashree Electronics Ltd. adds, "The Midas and Klark Teknik brands have earned the admiration of audio engineers all around the world for their sonic performance, feature sets and rugged reliability. We are excited to now offer their entire range of top-tier products to our partners. Our aggressive marketing campaign, coupled with highly-com

South Africa - Celebrating the best South African companies, their products and services as well as the people behind them, the South African Premier Business Awards was hosted in The Pavilion venue at the Sandton Convention Centre in March this year.

Keystone Productions were asked by their client Outlaw, to design the set and provide the technical for this lavish black-tie affair. MGG Productions assisted with the supply of lighting gear, while the set was constructed by Stage Works. Mark West was the Choreographer and Cap Events the creative director.

With a distinct African flavour, the awards embraced performances by the 26 piece Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Zahara, The Three Afro Tenors and three sets by the theatre production, Africa Umoja.

The set had a clean and unpretentious feel with vinyl covering arch like structures which served as a canvas on which to

France - In late 2012, Michel Sardou began a four-month Les Grands Moments tour across France, revisiting his biggest hits in a truly energetic show. Lighting designer Jacques Rouveyrollis used just one type of spotlight on stage throughout the tour - the MAC Viper Profile.

A total of 93 MAC Viper Profiles, supplied by the Dushow Group (who currently have 160 in total), were installed, 56 equally spaced over three gantries and 37 on the floor spread across four levels.

No traditional spotlights were used - a rare occurrence for such a show. The simple lighting plan acted as the sole stage design element and provided the performance area with structure by offering a wide variety of effects. At front of house, six MAC III Performances were installed behind the control desk for extra punch.

The MAC Vipers enabled Jacques Rouveyrollis to design several different lighting

UAE - Celebrating 25 years in the Middle East, Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises has recently established a new free zone entity under the title NMK Middle East FZCO. The mission of the new entity is to "continue the success of the professional audio, video and communications distributor across the Middle East and surrounding region". NMK Middle East FZCO will continue to maintain and build relationships with system integrators, rental companies, broadcast integrators and broadcasters for a wide range of manufacturers.

The free zone entity will facilitate the new distribution arrangements that NMK have obtained in the past few months which include representation of Neutrik across the GCC (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman) as well as Iraq and Iran. In addition, there will be other new distribution arrangements annou

Grand Opera - Russia's Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg has opened a new ballet and opera house with a gala ceremony attended by 2,000 guests. The new building sits beside the historic 19th-Century Mariinsky Theatre, the birthplace of ballets such as Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.

At $700m (£450.5m), it has divided opinion, with some criticising the modernist architecture and cost. President Vladimir Putin said it had "everything you need for a theatre". Addressing guests, Mr Putin paid tribute to the "boundless energy" of the theatre's ambitious director Valery Gergiev, whose 60th birthday coincided with the opening night.

Hop Farm Cancelled - The Hop Farm music festival has announced the cancellation of this year's event because of poor ticket sales. The festival had been due to take place in Kent on 5-6 July. It was due to be hea

UK - Building on an unparalleled figure of pre-registrations, PLASA Events welcomed a record number of visitors at the Royal Armouries last week as PLASA Focus: Leeds 2013 opened its doors for two days of unique access to the newest and most innovative products on the market.

As the sun came out in Leeds, visitor numbers broke all previous records, hitting a total of 2376 over the two days - an increase of nearly 12% on 2012 - demonstrating once again the size, strength and enthusiasm of the entertainment technology community in the north of England.

Amongst the many companies unveiling new products to the UK were Martin Professional, showing the first luminaire from RUSH, their new effects lighting product range, and White Light presented the latest CORE Lighting ColourPoint LED uplighter, whilst Artistic Licence premiered their new range of smart modular dimmers, sunDial alo

UK - PLASA returns to 195 Piccadilly - the iconic home of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) - on Thursday 30 May for its 2013 European AGM. Over 200 members and guests are anticipated at the event, which will include a review of the achievements of the last 12 months and an outline of PLASA's aims for future development.

The AGM is of great significance to the Association and the ideal occasion for every member to ensure that his or her voice is heard. It is this feedback that enables PLASA to react positively to the changes and challenges that members face in order to act effectively on their behalf.

Important decisions were made through 2012 to support and safeguard PLASA's future including moving the PLASA Show to Excel London, investing in new software which will provide members with new self-service features and enable much easier participation in As

UK - PLASA Focus: Leeds saw the first UK outing of ArrayCalc V7 from d&b audiotechnik, arguably the most useful addition to audio mapping yet. Enabling the acoustic simulation of d&b line arrays with point source loudspeakers and an export function to the d&b R1 Remote control software; ArrayCalc V7 now simplifies the process for those planning sound system design, creating remote control workspaces and configuring d&b amplifiers.

Meanwhile full houses in the Bury Theatre saw lively sessions from Oran Burns and Steve Jones as they addressed the thought processes that lie behind the choice of loudspeaker for a given task. Oran's Demystifying Audio Techniques allowed the attendees to gain a better understanding of what constitutes a well behaved loudspeaker and how it affects what the listener hears, whilst Steve continued the theme by exploring further the relationship bet

South Africa - The South African State Theatre in Pretoria has added more Robe LED fixtures to its lighting inventory ... specified by Head of Lighting Simon King.

The latest purchase includes 12 x MMX Spots, four DLX Spots and four Robin 300 LEDWashes and follows quickly on the heels of 40 x Robe LEDForce 18 PARs and eight new ColorSpot 250E ATs.

The Theatre also now has a total of 36 x LEDWash 600s, the first batch of which were purchased in 2011 from Robe's SA distributor DWR, after being specified by King who was keen to embrace the many advantages of LED stage lighting.

The State Theatre - housed in its distinctive and imposing building in the heart of the city - has five main performance spaces, the largest two being the 1300 capacity Opera Stage and the 650 capacity Drama Stage - and a fantastic reputation for excellence in multiple genres. It also likes to keep movin

Germany - After last year's highly successful shows in Germany, Canadian rock quartet, Billy Talent, returned to play another two sold out indoor concerts in late April, to warm up for the summer festivals that will come up soon.

For these gigs the conventional strobes that were originally specified were replaced by 12 of SGM's X-5 LED strobes - the first time lighting designer Dara Guiney had worked with them.

"Bernd [Wittenberg] from Go Audio Rental asked me if I would be willing to try them out and I loved them right away. Since most of my strobe effects are blinding effects, I was concerned if they would deliver the same impact - and they were perfect! They are really responsive - the white is amazing and not blueish at all. I am dying to try them in 7-channel mode next time, and use all the pixel effects."

Go Audio will be rigging almost all major festivals in

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