Australia - Nearing the end of a billion dollar transformation, The Star in Sydney's Pyrmont has morphed from a large-scale casino into a full-blown leisure and entertainment complex. With its panoramic views of Sydney's harbour and skyline, the venue has been designed to entice and host international headliners and A-list celebrities from around the globe. Situated within The Star is The Event Centre, a world-class entertainment space suited to intimate concert settings as well as domestic and international conferences, exhibitions and awards functions, which boasts a combination of DiGiCo SD10s and SD11s at the heart of its audio system.

The Event Centre is a huge 2400sq.m column-free space, the biggest of its kind in Sydney. The room caters for 4000 patrons in concert mode, 3000 guests with half seated, 1200 in a banquet ballroom setting and 1300 in a conference space.

Head

Brazil - Robe participated with local distributor Newart at the 17th Brazilian exhibition and conference organised by the AES (Audio Engineering Society) in Sao Paulo, taking the opportunity to highlight its latest innovative new products, including the RobinN Pointe, the MiniMe and the MMX WashBeam.

Attracting lighting, sound and video professionals from Latin America and the US, AES Brazil Expo registered a 10% growth in visitor numbers. AES Brazil president Armando Baldassarra stated, "More and more international launches are happening in Brazil which continues to raise the profile of AES."

On the stand, the new Robin Pointe and MiniMe fixtures were shown in Brazil for the first time, making a big impact on visitors who wanted to see them in action and asked for personalised demonstrations continually throughout the show.

Newart CEO Francisco Pinheiro commented,

UK - The upcoming ABTT exhibition will mark the London launch for entertainment industry training centre Backstage Academy's new two-year BA Visual Production degree.

The ABTT show takes place from 12-13 June at the Old Truman Brewery in the capital city, where Backstage Academy will feature amongst the exhibitors showcasing products, services and training for theatre, covering the latest in things like lighting, sound, staging, seating, stage engineering, projection, textiles, flooring, scenic paints and more.

Backstage Academy, who will be exhibiting for the first time at the show on stand number 27, will also be showcasing its backstage short courses and bespoke skills training to visitors, who tend to come from a wide variety of disciplines across professional theatre.

The new BA Visual Production course will launch at Backstage Academy's Wakefield facility in January 20

France / Benelux - Loud Technologies and Algam have announced a distribution agreement whereby Algam will serve as the distributor for the Ampeg and Mackie brands in France, commencing 1 June 2013.

"The Ampeg & Mackie brands are already well established in the French market with a strong and loyal following," explained Tony Williams, director of sales, EMEA. "Algam will be able to build on this success by providing a much improved level of French language-based brand communication."

"Algam has enjoyed a very long and successful story with Martin Audio and is delighted to reinforce this great partnership with Ampeg and Mackie," said Gérard Garnier, Algam CEO and founder. "Ampeg is one of the most iconic brands in the music industry and Mackie remains one of the most innovative companies on the market. Ampeg and Mackie will respectively

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light is pleased to announce its streamlined White Light Distribution network, focused on business to business sales and support for exclusive products and brands.

The enhanced distribution network will provide sales and support of White Light exclusive products to dealers in the UK, with some products available throughout Europe and worldwide. The new structure allows UK dealer access to products from 13 exclusive lighting, rigging, and effects manufacturers including ADB Lighting Technologies, Altman, ArKaos Pro, CORE Lighting, Chromlech, Galaxia Electronics, Interactive Technologies, James Thomas Engineering, JB Lighting, Look Solutions, LSC Lighting, Rainbow Colour Changers, and Wireless Solution.

White Light Sales Director, Peter Threadgold explained the company's focus on these essential brands, paired with expanded services.

USA - Staff members working on the new Broadway production of Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella turned to DPA Microphones' Miniature. Not only do the mics provide a transparent sound for the show's cast and orchestra; their compact size keeps them hidden from the audience, allowing spectators to enjoy the show without being distracted by the sight of bulky equipment.

This latest production of Cinderella, now playing at the Broadway Theatre, is based on a new book, written by Douglas Carter Beane. It incorporates the music of the original show with a modern take on classic theatrical elements, such as impromptu costume changes directly on set. Maintaining this atmosphere is critical to the overall impression of the show, which is why Cinderella sound designer Nevin Steinberg chose to outfit the cast with 30 DPA 4061 Omnidirectional miniature wireless microphones.

Belgium - Televic Conference has entered into a licence agreement with Audinate for the Dante audio networking solution. uniCOS, Televic's new multimedia conferencing system, will be the first platform to have a Dante interface.

"We see a growing need with our customers to interface their conference system digitally with third party equipment" says Bart Deschodt, general manager of Televic Conference. "We are excited to integrate Dante in our new products, not only because of its performance but also because Dante has become the standard in digital audio networking."

"Televic Conference is recognised in the industry as the leading supplier of audio communication solutions in the conferencing market," remarks Steve Greenall, director of sales EMEA at Audinate. "We are pleased that Televic Conference has identified Dante as the most reliable an

UK - Lighting and visuals rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and LED screens to Vodafone UK's annual conference staged at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole Hotel at the National Exhibition Centre.

It was the first year that CSE has been involved in the event, where they were working for producers, The Red Lodge Agency.

Three main areas needed technical production - the conference sessions in the hotel's Monarch Suite; a gala dinner and awards ceremony in the Palace Suite and then the after-show in the Kings Suite.

Colour Sound's project manager Fletch created a production lighting and visuals design for all three rooms and led a team of 11 technicians and engineers who worked closely on site with Rhys Sion from Red Lodge.

"The main challenges were the scale of the event and a short timescale - as is often the case," explains Fletch. "H

Czech Republic - In 2013, the Showlight Conference was staged in the Czech Republic for the first time, at Cesky Krumlov and with Robe Lighting as the main sponsor.

Nearly 400 visitors embraced the mediaeval town for the three days to enjoy a lively mix of presentations by industry professionals working in all areas of lighting and visuals plus networking opportunities as well as getting a taste of life in and around Cesky Krumlov.

Various fact-finding and sightseeing visits were an integral part of the conference itinerary, allowing delegates to see some of the local commerce and business activities first hand.

This included a tour of the city's famous Baroque Theatre complete with original wooden and rope stage machinery, and other specially arranged visits encompassed pencil and cosmetics factories and a graphite mine.The visit programme also took in the Mestske Theatre,

UK - 13 May saw 12,000 people pack into Manchester's Albert Square and thousands more line the streets as Premier League winners Manchester United travelled from the football club's Old Trafford stadium to an enthusiastic city centre reception. A Yamaha CL5 helped to deliver a free show by local band The Courteneers, as well as speeches by United team members and staff.

The event was heightened by the unexpected announcement, a week earlier, that United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was retiring after 26 years at the helm - transforming a football club that had under-achieved for many years into one of the world's most successful. As the open-topped bus made its way from Old Trafford, The Courteneers entertained the Albert Square crowd with a set that included Not Nineteen Forever - a song adopted by many supporters to celebrate the team's record 20th league winning season.

Iceland - In the three years since Of Monsters and Men first reached out from Iceland's shores and found an enthusiastic global audience, the quintet have rarely stopped touring. A package of Sennheiser microphones and in-ear monitors helps the band to deliver performances that are meant, as they say, "to be fun to sing along to".

The band's break came when they won Músiktilraunir, an annual Icelandic battle of the bands competition. "We just kind of...won. We weren't expecting it at all," says co-vocalist and guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, with disarming honesty. The worldwide release of debut album My Head Is an Animal followed in 2012, propelling the band to success.

Front of House engineer Richie Dempsey has been working with Of Monsters and Men for almost a year. Already having toured Europe, Japan, the USA and Asia, Sennheiser

UK - SES/Tempower supplied all the main power distribution equipment , cable and cable protection at Twickenham Stadium, for Chime for Change on 1 June.

The featured acts included Beyoncé, Ellie Goulding, Florence + The Machine, Iggy Azalea and Jennifer Lopez.

Tempower's client wasMike Ellen of MPE Power Solutions who installed all the production power and sub rented in the generator package which consisted of two 300 kva sets for broadcast power and six 500 kva sets for main stage power, all synchronised. These were supplied by Powerhire part of TGC International Ltd.

Tempower supplied the cabling and distribution for all the production and broadcast power including nine 400 amp 5-wire sets of power locks feeds for the main stage alone, one of these supplies splits out to the follow spot towers either side of stage with two 250 amp power locks supplies.

The equipme

Germany - Over 100 Robe moving lights are in action for the sixth series of the popular reality TV show Let's Dance produced by ITV Germany, which is being recorded in Studio 32 of the MMC Film & TV Studios in Cologne

The production lighting designer is Manfred Ollie Olma, one of Germany's best known LDs.

His company, mo2 design GmbH, is also based in Köln, and has executive lighting designer & director of photography David Kreileman taking care of the week-to-week running of the show's lighting. He's working alongside mo2 project managers Sebastian Kirsch and Matthias Allhoff.

They are using 40 x Robe ColorSpot 2500E AT fixtures and 70 x ColorWash 2500E ATs, together with a large generic and white light rig including some 270 x 1K fresnels hung around the side walls for a special tungsten 'starlight' effect.

An important aspect of the lighting is to make the coupl

USA - Using 12 of GLP's versatile impression X4 LED fixtures, Washington DC-based Pulse Lighting recently provided lighting for Slightly Stoopid's special one-off 'Hot Box' show at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado. The show, which also featured Cypress Hill, was scheduled for broadcast live on AXS TV the same evening.

Set up by brothers Paul and Preston Hoffman in 2005, Pulse Lighting were asked to light the Californian-based 'fusion' band in their own right for the first time. "The management knew we had experience of the venue, and in running concert lights for broadcast," said Preston.

The day of the event - 20 April 20- was also significant since it is the day when counter-culturists celebrate the love of cannabis, as Preston explains. "With cannabis legalised in the state in 2013, the 4/20 show was historic for everyone involved in that c

USA - Fleetwood Mac is back on the road and Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures have joined the iconic band on the Fleetwood Mac Live 2013 World Tour.

The new tour, which began in Columbus on 4 April and will wrap in Scandinavia in October, marks the first for the band since 2009's sold-out Unleashed tour. This year is also the 35th anniversary of their Rumours album, one of the most successful in recording history.

Lighting designer Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie of Minneapolis-based Toss Film + Design is Fleetwood Mac's long-time lighting designer. "I have to cater to four different personalities (Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks) and bring them together as one team," he explains. "For this show we have four big LCD panels and 32 Sharpy Washes on curved lighting pipes, some of them on the floor, some on the rigs and some

Germany - Recently, the event location Güterbahnhof (goods station) in Bad Homburg, Germany, invited the Nachtexpress (night train) show to dinner! Five courses of the menu were joined by show acts that fitted the destinations to which the night train was travelling. The night train was a construction that served as a stage as well as a projection area for the virtual journey.

Four MA VPU plus (Video Processing Unit) together with a grandMA2 replay unit and two grandMA2 light consoles were used for lighting and video control.

MedienReich - Gesellschaft für professionelle Eventtechnik mbH was responsible for the technical realisation of the event. Holger Turban worked as lighting technician and programmer, while Chris Pauli worked as video technician and programmer and created the video content.

Pauli commented on his choice of the MA system, "The MA system convinced u

UK - Few names carry more weight in theatre circles than the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, UK, whose renowned stagings of The Bard's works tend to set the global benchmark for how it should be done.

The main Royal Shakespeare Theatre auditorium and smaller adjacent Swan Theatre were re-opened in late 2010 following extensive re-modelling, accompanied by a substantial and ongoing investment in new production technologies. Just prior to the re-build, the nearby Courtyard Theatre was created as a temporary home for the RSC's productions. It is also the prototype for the new one-room theatre format proposed for the RST and Swan to create a more traditional Shakespearean performance area, characterised by a deep thrust stage surrounded by audience on three sides.

A recent purchase for the Courtyard's audio infrastructure has been a 48x48 TiMax2 SoundHub matrix with MADI o

Sweden - It may not be the Aurora Borealis, but the giant Christie MicroTiles video wall engineered by Electrosonic at the LKAB Visitor Centre in Koskullskulle, Sweden, is lighting up the north.

LKAB (Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag) is the world's technical leader in supplying iron ore pellets, acquired from underground mining, to the global steel industry. Its rich magnetite mines are located in the north of Sweden above the Arctic Circle. A new research centre in Koskullskulle includes a visitor centre that welcomes guests to the nearby Malmberget mine. LKAB's iron ore mining operations are among the most productive in the world and feature automated processes that result in the "greenest" production of iron.

Electrosonic's Stockholm office was tasked by LKAB consultant WSP with designing and engineering the audio-visual facilities at the visitor centre, inclu

Costa Rica - More than 50 high value fixtures from PR Lighting were deployed to support a massive concert in Costa Rica recently, given by French DJ/production superstar David Guetta.

More than 15,000 people turned up at the Autódromo La Guácima, where technical production company LuzArt provided a dynamic infrastructure. This included 18 of PR Lighting's super bright XR300 Beam, equipped with 300W Platinum 15R lamp and convex lens, and 36 compact XLED 336 LED moving heads. These were mounted on the backdrop truss, and on the ground, where they were used as floor FX.

LuzArt has been working with the Chinese manufacturer's products for the past three months and the company's owner, Francis Villalobos, confirmed that they were able to put up a compelling argument to the artist's production team for using the PR Lighting fixtures. "Although they weren't specified on the ri

Sweden - SGM equipped Malmo Arena's main stage with 52 X-5 white LED strobes and 82 SixPack LED blinders for this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Although SGM fixtures were also used throughout the EuroVillage, it was in the main action of the contest itself that these FX worked their magic, adding genuine dynamic for lighting designer, Fredrik Jonsson. Along with ESC's experienced technical director, Ola Melzig (working on his 11th Eurovision), he had first seen the impact of these LED solutions on the SGM stand at the PLASA Show in London and later at LDI 2012 in Las Vegas.

According to Melzig, "We fell head over heels in love with them and knew this was something we had to have."

Jonsson first evaluated the X-5 strobes during an X-Factor broadcast he had been involved with back in November 2012. "We rigged a few of them next to other strobes I had in

UK - ADB Lighting Technologies has confirmed White Light as its main distributor for the UK, continuing a long relationship between ADB and the UK based lighting specialist. White Light provides sales, hire, and technical services to the entertainment, presentation, and event industries across the UK, Europe, and worldwide. The company recently supplied ADB Eurodim TwinTech dimmers to the English National Opera for installation at the London Coliseum.

"We are very pleased to add ADB's considerable lighting experience to the White Light Distribution network," said Peter Threadgold, sales director at White Light. "We have seen ADB's commitment to quality and innovation over the years. This matches perfectly with our desire to deliver the best lighting solutions for our customers."

White Light will offer sales and support for ADB's extensive range of high perf

UK - Robert Juliat and Ambersphere Solutions have announced an exclusive agreement that will enable Ambersphere Solutions to represent French manufacturer Robert Juliat throughout the UK. This agreement enables Ambersphere to extend its sales, service, support and training facilities to cover all Robert Juliat products.

Ambersphere Solutions is the exclusive UK distributor for German lighting control manufacturer MA Lighting and Italian moving light manufacturer Clay Paky. "Robert Juliat offer a desirable range of theatrical lanterns and followspots which perfectly complement the existing Ambersphere product range," says Ambersphere managing director Glyn O'Donoghue. "Our Total-Support distribution model is ideally suited to Robert Juliat's exceptional product range."

Robert Juliat sales director Claus Spreyer comments, "Our products are based on optic

Glastonbury Countdown - The BBC has said it is having "ongoing conversations" with the Rolling Stones over how much of their Glastonbury performance can be broadcast on TV. Press reports suggested the band had refused to let their full set be aired. "Discussions with artists are business as usual for this stage of our festival planning," a BBC spokesperson said.

Speaking to The Independent, the BBC's head of music television Mark Cooper said the rock legends were "nervous about how much they should share". The Stones, he told the paper, were "stepping out of their comfort zone". He added: "At this point, I'm quite optimistic we'll get a sufficient amount of music." The BBC statement said: "We're confident that we'll be able to deliver fantastic coverage of this year's amazing Glastonbury line-up." The Rolling Sto

UK - High Wycombe-based lighting rental specialist Siyan supplied equipment and crew to lighting designer Vince Foster for UK rockers' Alt-J's recent nationwide tour.

The band are rapidly commanding respect and building a fan base with their original sounds, and are hotly-tipped for great things since their An Awesome Wave debut album won the 2012 Mercury Music Prize.

Siyan was asked on board by production manager Mark Ward from Proper Productions, with whom they have enjoyed a long and successful working relationship.

Siyan's director Nick Valdez commented, "It's been hugely exciting for us! The band is critically acclaimed, and it's great to be working with someone of Vince's calibre and see him develop a really stylish show."

The rig supplied by Siyan was entirely floor based - and as per Foster's design, completely asymmetrical - forming the core of th

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