USA - Located near Grand Central Terminal, in New York City's Midtown East neighborhood, Vitae is an upscale restaurant featuring a "New American" menu. Designed by architect Niels Guldager of New York interior design firm Studio CMP, Vitae draws on the history of Midtown while bearing a strong contemporary identity that includes sound and acoustics as important design elements.

Architect Guldager said, "Bad sound can ruin an otherwise perfect restaurant environment. I want the right background music level and clarity so people can hear the music but still hold a conversation. And clarity is key in getting sound into the 'sweet spot' as a design element."

Guldager worked with contractor David Schwartz of Essential Communications in East Hanover, NJ, to design the sound system for Vitae. "The restaurant's design didn't always allow us to place the louds

UK - Kent- based lighting rental specialist RML has recently made a large investment in Robe moving lights to service its busy ongoing schedule, which includes a wide selection of shows, events and high profile TV series and programmers.

RML's diverse clients are involved in all aspects of the entertainment industry and are forever keen to embrace the latest designs and innovations from all manufacturers. "Keeping our doors open is the key to keeping our finger on the pulse," says RML's operations manager Steve Wells.

The purchase of new LEDWash 600s, LEDBeam 100s and MMX WashBeams - all from Robe's Robin range - has been in direct response to this.

Wells continues, 'As Robe's profile and products continue to go from strength to strength we felt it was absolutely the right time to invest in the brand ... and it's been a great success."

He adds that Robe has

USA - Seminal power trio Rush is back on tour in support of their latest release, Clockwork Angels. Recently inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, the band is rewarding fans with a vastly different setlist and show than was featured on the Time Machine tour. In similar fashion, lighting designer Howard Ungerleider created bold new visuals with High End Systems Intellaspots and a host of other fixtures to punctuate the steampunk inspired themes of Clockwork Angels.

Howard explains, "When the band finished the recording, I had the opportunity to go in for a listen and was just blown away. I had already designed the backbone of the system; because it was called Clockwork Angels and was steampunk themed, I decided to create something angelic. Angel wings were in my design head and I wanted something in the rig to move like an angel, so I desig

USA - Working alongside designer Martin Phillips, Tait manufactured a range of DJ automation elements for Deadmau5's six month club residency at Hakkasan in the MGM Hotel, Las Vegas. The residency, which features special guests throughout the shows, sees two ABB Robots with Robotic Arts Roboscreens on either side of the DJ booth. The robots have a 1.5m reach and six axes of movement, with the ability to extend vertically, horizontally and rotate.

Providing the artists with a set that could be used in club spaces and toured internationally for festival shows, the Roboscreens can be swapped out and fitted with signature scenic Deadmau5 maus-heads created by the Henson Company during their set.

Automation for the robots was provided by Tait from movements translated by Robotic Arts, based on designer briefs. Pre-programmed movements were able to take place seamlessly during live

UK - After a break of one year, it was business as usual back at Worthy Farm site for this year's Glastonbury Festival. RG Jones once again turned to the Martin Audio W8 Longbow system, which again dominated the Pyramid Stage.

With visiting artists and sound engineers so complimentary about the sound system two years ago, specialist sound company RG Jones had no hesitation in fielding a similar PA rig, knowing that this would meet all compliances and propagation tests set by the acoustics consultants and organiser Michael Eavis ... and at the same time satisfy the vast crowds of around 150,000 who converge on the site for the four day extravaganza.

The Longbow hangs are now a familiar sight, book-ending either side of the iconic Pyramid, having fulfilled similar duties for the previous four festivals.

Once again dual inner and outer PA hangs comprising 14 W8L Longbow element

France - Originally designed in 1982, the stunning Fly's Eye was the creation of American inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983. 31 years later, his design was realised and put on display at this year Toulouse Art Festival.

The vaulted dome of the white spherical building in Toulouse was dynamically highlighted in pastel shades, designed by Brad Koerner of Philips Lighting. Eight ColorReach, four iW Reach and 30 ColorBlast fixtures from Philips Color Kinetics were supplied for illumination, all controlled with LumenRadio's wireless CRMX Slim products.

A wireless system containing five CRMX Slim receivers and one CRMX Slim transmitter was used to control over 40 high quality fixtures.

"One of the most important elements of this installation was to eliminate the need for any control cabling. It became clear early in the process that working with cabl

UK - Bangor Aurora Aquatic & Leisure Complex, the new leisure complex in the heart of Bangor, which houses Northern Ireland's first FINA standard 50m swimming pool, also boasts an advanced and adaptable site-wide RCF communication network.

This was installed across 15 zones, each with its own autonomy, by MGA Communication Ltd, and features well over 200 application-specific loudspeakers from RCF to meet all audio and PA/VA requirements. These are driven either by low-impedance HPS1500 amps with PR4092 preamps or 100V line UP2162 (160W) or UP2321 (320W) 100V line amps with ES3160'combi' mixer amps - all in dedicated local racks.

Managing director, Gerald McKeown said that the system was complex, but is designed to provide high-end sound broadcast throughout both internal and external areas, with user flexibility and ease of operation.

The speakers are fed from a central dist

UK - Orbital Sound reports that it has supplied a multi-purpose sound system for London's Battersea Arts Centre, based on the T-Series loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik. Housed in an architecturally renowned 19th century listed building, formerly Battersea Town Hall, the venue has a vast complement of performance spaces, offering audience capacities ranging from 10 to 500, and is regarded as one of the UK's most influential theatres. The new system's capabilities were recently tested to the full by Little Bulb Theatre's Orpheus, which featured a demanding live score ranging from hot club jazz to grand opera, including a ground-shaking baroque organ.

The new system is designed for semi-permanent installation in the venue's main room, as well as allowing flexible deployment in other spaces, and comprises a central hang of seven d&b audiotechnik T-10 enclosures, plus two ground-st

Korea - Korea has become one of the latest territories to provide large-scale exposure for Martin Audio's Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA).

Two prominent concerts in Seoul recently saw the system supplied to rental company Boom Audio by parent company, Rui Sound.

On 15 June in the 88 Olympic Park, the first Women Musicians' Music Festival (Muse In City) took place in front of an audience of around 12,000 people. Various genres of music were featured, including indie, jazz and ballads by eight women musicians - including famed Bossa Nova singer Lisa Ono, Australian singer Lenka, Lisa Hannigan and Korean K-pop star Lee Hyo-Ri.

Rui Sound / Boom Audio provided 20 x MLA and two MLD down-fills, split into two hangs, with 10 MLX in a stacked sub configuration.

The distance from stage to FOH position measured 30m and to the back of the audience 100 m with the sound system co

UK - Richard Martin Lighting (RML) has always remained at the forefront of moving light technology and has been in the thick of all things 'TV' for almost 30 years. With recent changes in the economic climate and our Industry, it has been a great opportunity to look at ways in which the company can grow and venture into exciting new projects and aspects of entertainment lighting.

The company jumped at the chance to supply lights for the new Disclosure video F For You.

Brothers Guy and Howard make up the electro duo. Their album Settle was released last month and shot to number 1 in the album charts.

RML supplied Sharpys for the shoot which complimented the video projection that was used throughout, along with LED wands provided by Light Initiative. Simple lighting and strong images enhanced the dance music and sounds perfectly. Their music has been described as

Europe - t&mSystems, the pro audio electronics and loudspeaker systems manufacturer, has expanded its European distribution with the appointment of Ascon Trading a/s for Denmark and M-Pro BeNeLux for Belgium and Luxembourg.

Based in Ibbenbüren, Germany, t&mSystems designs and manufactures a wide range of power amplifiers, mixer amplifiers, zone mixers, digital signal processors and loudspeakers, primarily for the fixed installation market.

Kai Böckmann, CEO of t&mSystems, commented on the appointments, "As an established brand in our domestic market, we are now concentrating efforts on international distribution with a good degree of success. We recently partnered with TAU Electronics for the Netherlands and to follow up with Denmark and Belgium gives us very good coverage in this region of Europe. I am particularly pleased with the quality of the distributors we have p

UK - PLASA London 2013 will close its free registration offer later this week, and is urging visitors to sign up at www.plasashow.com in order to save £20 on the standard ticket price. Over 6000 people have already registered for this year's PLASA London event, which takes place at the ExCeL Centre, London from 6-9 October 2013.

Jen Barratt, show manager, PLASA London 2013, says: "We have some fantastic speakers lined up as well as free training sessions, demonstrations of the latest technology, a comprehensive exhibition and great networking opportunities. There aren't many events that would offer so much valuable content for free, so we urge visitors to use these last days of free registration to get the maximum value out of their visit."

Visitors will also have access to AudioLab 2013, the hotly anticipated new attraction that will see the creation of a new

UK - One of the most stylish, discreet and popular PA's in the House of Worship sector has been installed by Rea Sound in the Donaghcloney Presbyterian Church, Northern Ireland.

The Martin Audio OmniLine micro array has been integrated in a design encompassing two separate PA hangs, with eight modules in each, along with Martin Audio's equally unobtrusive AQ5 for under-balcony fills - all powered by a single Martin Audio MA2.8Q power amp.

This process began when the church's technical representative, Wayne Buttery, visited the Rea Sound stand at the Church Resource Show in Belfast in February 2012 - and six months later made contact again with Martin Audio's Irish distributors.

Rea Sound duly won the contract to replace the existing PA system on the strength of their knowledge, product and adaptability.

The church's previous system, installed in the early 1980's, had reach

UAE A Turbosound Aspect loudspeaker system has been installed at the Café Del Mar in Meydan Beach, Dubai by audio designer Joe Chidiac of Pulse Middle East, creating a focused, high energy dance floor sound field.

Chidiac was invited to design the entire audio, lighting and rigging system based on the solid reputation he has built up in the UAE region, and by the high profile of his stunning audio-visual and lighting design at the Diablo nightclub project in Dubai, which is owned and operated by local celebrity DJ Cowboy.

Buoyed by the success of Diablo and the confidence he places in the technical support of the UK loudspeaker brand, Chidiac decided on a four-point configuration of Turbosound Aspect TA-500 three-way point-source loudspeakers to provide high level, low distortion sound quality where it really matters.

As the Café Del Mar venue is within the bou

USA - 'Light, little, and loud' was the d&b audiotechnik reputation around the 2013 Broadway Sound Master Classes. Every year, BSMC hosts students and professionals for a weekend of audio education and networking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Two full days of classes are concluded every year with a closing cocktail party and renowned industry awards ceremony, at which the d&b audiotechnik V-Series was honored with the Live Design Sound Product of the Year award.

"We are thrilled to be receiving this," said NE regional manager, Michael Eisenberg, who accepted the award on behalf of d&b. It was presented in the category of 'Sound: loudspeaker', though part of the d&b allure is their ability to provide complete sound systems, "The goal is to provide a full service for our clients. Of course we offer loudspeakers, but we also provide amplifiers, software, monitors,

World - Robe continues its support of innovative performance ... as a major technical sponsor of the Caravan Stage Society Inc., which presents theatre shows aboard its 30m tall ship theatre, the Amara Zee.

A diverse selection of international actors, musicians, artists and technicians work aboard the Amara Zee (the 'Caravan'). Performances are staged on the decks and in the rigging of the ship, delighting audiences on the shore or river bank with their vibrant productions as the vessel tours the coastlines of Europe and North America.

Robe SRO has now supported Caravan for two consecutive years.

CEO Josef Valchar comments, "Music and performance have been an important part of my life and I think it's vital to encourage others to enjoy and engage with the experience and positive energies. Caravan is an extremely inventive company that reaches out to so many who would ma

USA - From June 6 to 9, the Country Music Association (CMA) held its 42nd Annual Fan Fair, a four-day music festival consisting of dozens of country performances including current, chart-topping Sennheiser users such as Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band to 'heritage' artists including Kenny Rogers and Oak Ridge Boys.

Each year, the festival gains in popularity around the world and this year was no exception as the total number of attendees exceeded 80,000 over the course of the festival - a 13 percent increase in overall attendance compared to 2012.

Sennheiser supported the production with wireless equipment consisting of eight channels of EM 3732-II receivers, coupled with SKM 2000-XP handheld wireless transmitters and MMD 935-1 cardioid microphone capsules.

Curt Jenkins was responsible for the audio as project manager for Nashville-based So

Sweden - One of the major churches in south Stockholm, Katarina Church, was originally built by royal decree in the 17th century. It has been destroyed by fire twice and was reopened after the second rebuilding in 1995, restored to its former glory with a large dome and four smaller towers. It is a large and imposing building, seating up to 900 people in its wooden pews. In addition to its stone floors, white painted stone walls and splendid carved marble, is the gloriously ornate new organ, built by J.L. van den Heuvel Orgelbouw.

Like many churches, over the years Katarina Church had seen a variety of attempts to resolve the acoustics of its highly reverberant and complex space with different loudspeaker solutions.

Karl-Gustaf Kahlau of Renkus-Heinz Swedish distributor Luthman SMTTS AB explains, "The PA they had originally was a traditional horn system, and after that th

UK - XL Video continues its long association with singer Robbie Williams, supplying over 46,000 Barco FLX-24 pixels, HD camera system, D3 control, IMAG screens and crew to the Take The Crown stadium tour.

XL's project manager Phil Mercer is working closely with the tour's production manager Wob Roberts

The camera mix is being crafted by Stefaan 'Smasher' Desmedt and the stage set which includes a back wall video screen and a huge video mapped scenic piece of Williams' head, is designed by the late stage architect Mark Fisher. Artistic director and lighting designer is Willie Williams and the show's producer is Lee Lodge.

The impressive 12.6m high by 7.5m wide 3D head was modelled from a scan of Williams' face and is fully pixel mapped. It is central to the elegant theatrical visuality of the stage, and is fitted with the 46,000 Barco FLX 24 video pixels - the same one

Europe - With over 50 international dates on the horizon in support of her latest outing Girl on Fire, Grammy award winning artist Alicia Keys has surrounded herself with an adept team of engineers with support from Clair Global and DiGiCo mixing systems.

With a total of five SD racks (two for FOH, two for monitors, and one for opening artist, Miguel), they're also carrying a pair of SD10s (one at FOH and monitor world) to handle the eight-member band including the headliner. Newly positioned at FOH is Tim Colvard, who took over the European leg of the tour.

Although Colvard's employed DiGiCo consoles for many of his clients international tours, this was his first time on an SD10 (as well as his debut outing with both the artist and with Clair Global). He joins Clair FOH tech Randy Weinholtz and monitor mixmaster Antonio Luna for the already-in- progress global tour.

UK - London-based Pro System Services - leading supplier of sound, lighting and AV to events across the UK, specialising in UK Asian events - has boosted its hire stock inventory with a £60K investment into Chauvet Europe's pro lighting product range.

Pro System Services' commitment to the Chauvet brand is represented by a total of 26 Legend 230SR Beams - the 230W compact moving yoke beam fixture with a zoomable prism and motorised focus; 16 Q-Wash 560Z-LED - the best-in-class moving yoke wash with a wide zoom range and a variable beam angle; and 30 WELL 2.0 - the tri-colour RGB LED wash light run on a built in battery with 12 consecutive hour-capability.

Pro System Services MD, Brindan Sivanandan, commented, "The Chauvet products sold themselves to me straightaway - and they continue to do so. They are great quality, robust fixtures at a really affordable price. Th

UK - Production Resource Group (PRG) is holding a series of private demonstrations for industry professionals of PRG's proprietary products. This will include the most recent addition to the VX76 family of lighting control products, the V276 ON MAC, PRG's new software-only media server product, MBOX Studio, and our V-Series LED screens.

"The VX76 software application, has been an extremely successful product used with V676 and V476 control consoles on projects like the opening Olympic ceremonies of London 2012 and recently the V276 on Mac was awarded Best Lighting Product during the ABTT Theatre Show in London, in June," says PRG.

PRG Nocturne screens, are lightweight, yet rugged, purpose- designed for fast-deployment in flexible configurations and are being chosen by many touring artists this summer. They played a vital part on the Bon Jovi, Because We Can Tour

UK - The Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (CUADC) has used a selection of ETC Selador LED fixtures on its recent production of Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida.

The ETC Selador Classic Lustr+ and Selador Desire D40 fixtures were used to provide a range of rear colour washes to the stage. Says student Mitchell Clarke, "The Selador fixtures offered so many choices and flexibility which simply would not have been possible with the theatre's existing lantern stock.

"Scenes were transformed by the almost unlimited colour palettes, with live fades used to suggest changes in time, mood and place. For once, the number of fixtures or cost of gel was not the limiting factor in this production only the lighting designer's imagination."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Clair UK's first outing with the new Cadac CDC Four compact digital live console has been a major success for the sound company. The company's deployment of the CDC Four with the new Clair iMicro small format line array, on the Footstorm tour, for production company Accept Management, achieved new standards for low profile, large scale theatre-sound reinforcement.

An original dance and music extravaganza presented by the contemporary Irish dance company Prodijig, Footstorm debuted in Dublin's Olympia, before touring mostly sold out houses across the UK throughout April and May. Playing in major regional theatres and concert venues, like Birmingham Symphony Hall, Footstorm demanded a compact console capable of the highest quality sound reproduction, to maximise the performance capability of the iMicro system; the CDC Four offered Cadac sound and performa

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