UK - The eyes of the western world were on the Northern Ireland town of Enniskillen in mid-June, as its Lough Erne golf resort hosted the 39th annual G8 summit. As the heads of eight of the world's largest economies met to discuss 'trade, transparency and tax', Yamaha digital mixers ensured that not a word was missed.

With eight of the world's most powerful leaders involved - including Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, Vladimir Putin and David Cameron - media interest was exceptionally high. Satisfying a demanding brief was Delta Sound, who chose exclusively Yamaha digital mixing consoles to fulfil the summit's audio requirements.

Contracted by CTN Communications, Delta's experience of working at the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles and the 2009 G20 meeting of global finance ministers and central bank governors made them the ideal choice. Project manager Mark Sawyer

UK - PLASA London 2013 will feature more than 30 companies that did not exhibit in 2012, including Pioneer, Samsung and Sony, while many existing exhibitors have taken bigger stand space than last year. PLASA London takes place at the ExCeL Centre, London from 6-9 October 2013.

Jennie Barratt, show manager, PLASA London 2013, comments, "PLASA London delivers an attractive proposition to exhibitors, with over 12,000 high quality visitors who are eager to see the latest technology and are in a position of purchasing influence. We are pleased to welcome both new and returning exhibitors, from the industry giants to smaller yet innovative brands, many of whom have new products to present during the show."

Alex Barrand, audio specialist at Pioneersays, "We are returning to PLASA after a few years' hiatus as it is the ideal platform from which to launch our new Profes

Venezuela - Caracas-based PROmontaje has taken delivery of a Meyer Sound Leo linear large-scale reinforcement system, the first to be available in Latin America. The new system was initially deployed at the Vive Movistar Festival in Caracas this summer.

"We have been using Meyer Sound Milo and Mica line arrays with great success," says Pablo Bonilla, the managing director of PROmontaje. "Now, with Leo, we will be Venezuela's leading provider of large-scale audio production for big concerts, festivals, major sporting competitions and large-scale corporate, governmental, and cultural events."

PROmontaje's new Leo system comprises 30 LEO-M line array loudspeakers, 18 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, a Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with four Galileo Callisto array processors and a Galileo 616 AES processor. The system was purchased thro

Germany - Sennheiser's evolution microphones are among the most popular stage microphones altogether - and now, the audio specialist is presenting a series of short tutorial videos on how to get the best out of them.

With the help of these videos, even newcomers can perfectly mike and record their music and polish their performance, says the company. In addition to the most important product features, the short tutorials also provide many useful tips on positioning the microphones at an instrument and help vocalists to choose the ideal mike. The video clips cover the evolution 600, 800 and 900 series

In the rehearsal room and on stage, filmmaker Geert Verdickt - himself a musician and vocalist in a band - explains the individual microphones and shows how they can best reproduce the sound of each instrument or voice, respectively.

Oliver Ohrndorf, marketing manager MI for Sen

UK - Philips Vari-Lite's VL3500 Washes once more provided the backbone of Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage's versatile house-lighting rig.

Designed by Andy 'Fraggle' Porter and supplied by Neg Earth the rig had to accommodate a plethora of very different artists along with three headline acts, each of which played a single night of the festival, and each to record audiences.

"I knew I needed something powerful and reliable," comments Porter. "I also wanted a fixture that I knew was familiar to all the incoming LDs and that would provide the feature set for each of the very different lighting designs they wanted to deliver. Obviously many of the supporting acts are playing in daylight, so we needed something that would cut through on a sunny day! Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash and VL3500 Spots are ideal for this as they are super bright, extremely reliable and robust in all ki

Germany - Popular international reggae star Sean Paul recently toured Germany with an Adamson Energia E15 line array PA provided by Hamburg -based Cobra sound light.

The compact, 10-date tour took place in arenas across the country. Cobra sound light, a full-service provider for pro audio and event technology equipment, recently added the Energia E15 PA for its sound quality, scalability and simple rigging.

"The tour was very compact - Sean Paul played at 10 venues in 12 days with seating ranging anywhere from 3,000 to 7,000," explains Michael Buchner, partner at Cobra sound light. "It was important that the system be flexible and scalable. Fortunately we had just added the E15s to our inventory, which were exactly what was required."

The tour travelled with 24 E15 line array modules powered by eight Lab.gruppen PLM 20000Q amplifiers. The size of the left

Japan - RedNet is Focusrite's flagship modular high-quality audio networking system based on Dante's powerful digital audio network. AS Project Co. Ltd., located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, recently became the first users of RedNet in Japan.

AS Project Co. specialises in live and event sound and has been using the Yamaha CL live console series in conjunction with Pro Tools HD. As existing Yamaha CL series users, AS Project Co. decided to take advantage of the fact that the console has built-in Dante functionality by choosing RedNet 5. Two RedNet 5 units are connected to Pro Tools HD and to the Dante network, allowing 64 channels of high-quality, uncompressed digital audio to pass between the console and the recording system.

Sound engineer Masahiro Fukuhara spoke about his implementation and initial thoughts of RedNet: "RedNet 5 is recognised immediately as two 192 Digital I/O un

USA - Many times as music tours are being launched the preparation behind them gets left unnoticed. With custom design elements, these tours take months to prepare and the designers must find new and inventive ways to bring the music to life. With the Smashing Pumpkins 2013 world tour Shamrocks & Shenanigans, lighting designer Lawrence Upton had to find both a new dealer who could support his completely custom design needs, plus find a new lighting instrument to meet crucial design elements. He found his solutions in authorized Vari-Lite dealer LMG Touring, 24 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash luminaires and two Showline SL BAR 640 LED luminaires.

"The Smashing Pumpkins are a powerful and dynamic band with big colourful lighting and you have to keep the visuals fresh," began Upton. "The proof with VARI-LITE is that the VL3500 Wash luminaires are once again my f

USA - Las Vegas' brand new MGM Grand nightclub Hakkasan is rocking the famous strip with high performance Turbosound loudspeaker systems throughout its five levels and main room.

At the heart of Hakkasan is a 10,000 sq ft multi-tiered nightclub kitted out entirely with the UK brand's loudspeakers, comprising 24 TFA-600HW Flex Array modules and 12 TFA-600L low frequency loudspeakers, flown in four arrays of three low frequency cabinets with six wide dispersion mid/highs. In addition, the dance floor system employs six ground-stacked TFA-600B single 18" bass cabinets and three TFS-900Bi install-specific dual 18" subwoofers.

A total of 12 RACKDP-50 4-channel amplifiers power the 24 Flex Array cabinets. 22 TCX-8 compact passive two-way loudspeakers, and eight NuQ-6 ultra-compact passive loudspeakers supply under-balcony fill. Upstairs, a further 21 TCX-8 speakers have be

UK - Every year Lawnfest is organised by Camilla AlFayed for the AlFayed Charitable Foundation to raise funds for West Heath School. The one-day festival showcases a mixture of raw unsigned talent and name acts and was headlined this year by Billy Ocean.

SRD Group in Kent were asked to supply a unique lighting effect to add height, depth and texture to the stage. To do this they purchased 30x 1m LED tubes from MilTec (UK) Ltd. The tubes were used in two locations- 10 mounted on the curved roof of the stage, fanning out vertically to add height and 20 were hung vertically at the rear, forming a curtain of light. The tubes were pixelmapped onto an Avolites Pearl desk and used throughout the day to complement and enhance the stage lighting.

Colin Umbers, project manager for SRD reports, "The customer had a clear idea of the effect that was required but the original plan turn

Cyprus - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of Midas and Klark Teknik in the Middle East have supplied a new Midas PRO6 digital live audio system to local AV supplier Task Trading who installed the system in the Royal Hall in Nicosia, Cyprus.

"The Royal Hall is a historic venue on the Venetian walls encircling the old town of Nicosia, Cyprus. A lot of high-class events are hosted at the venue and the recent addition of the Midas Digital System meets demands of any event be it small or large," commentsMoswain Antao, head of marketing at NMK.

He adds, "The PRO6 is a mid-range desk which can be upgraded at anytime to a PRO9 to handle more inputs and auxiliaries if required making it a great return on investment for the venue."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Leona Lewis took to the road this spring with her Glassheart tour, taking in venues around Europe, including a number of sold out dates at London's Royal Albert Hall. London-based SW19 took on the coordination of technical requirements just weeks before the start of the tour.

Although a new name to the concert touring market, SW19 Production's team is packed with familiar faces and its involvement in the Glassheart tour was the result of close associations with key members of Leona's team.

"I'd worked with creative director Emma Bull and musical director Steve Anderson on Kylie Minogue tours, and with Leona's Front of House engineer Dave Wooster on many occasions," explains SW19 production manager Kevin Hopgood. "Leona had also changed management companies immediately before the tour and they were open to a change and a fresh eye on things.&qu

South Africa - Christie has named Stage Audio Works as its authorised service centre for South Africa.

Through this appointment, Stage Audio Works will provide the following technical support services to Christie's customers in South Africa: technical telephone support , service and repair Christie products under warranty and a local inventory of parts and consumables for Christie products

This arrangement will help to support the fast growth of Christie's business in South Africa since the opening of its first Southern hemisphere branch office in Johannesburg this time last year.

Dale Miller, vice president EMEA for Christie explains, "Our business in South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa has grown quickly since investment in our Johannesburg branch office. Now the appointment of Stage Audio Works to the role of Authorised Service Centre allows us to maintain the high st

UK - HHB Communications supplied Britain's Got Talent sound director Robert Edwards with a DK-Technologies DK2 Audio and Loudness Meter that was used for the show's semi-final and final episodes.

Watched by over 11m viewers, the Britain's Got Talent 2013 final was one of the UK's most-watched programmes of the year. Sound director Robert Edwards entrusted the compact DK2 meter to measure the live broadcast stream to check the programme's integrated LUFS level (the EBU loudness criteria). ITV maintains a dual acceptance policy for programme delivery, which means that programmes can be delivered with observance to the traditional +8dBm Peak level or to -23 LUFS (plus or minus 1 LUFS).

"It is vitally important to know where our programme sits in relation to these emerging standards," Robert Edwards says. "In the UK we have very strict delivery standar

UAE - Melody House, distributors of HK Audio have recently supplied Al Thuraya telecommunications company offices with the HK Audio IL 60-CT.

The HK Audio IL 60-CT is a compact two-way ceiling mount speaker designed for installation into ceilings.

Thuraya is a leading mobile satellite communications company that empowers people with tools to bring the organizations and communities they serve closer together. They offer "innovative, flexible and dependable technology that helps you overcome the toughest challenges and achieve the highest aspirations - facilitating reliable communications where and when it matters most".

"The IL 60-CT is a robust speaker solution for meeting rooms," commented Manivelu Saiprasad, HK Audio product specialist at Melody House. "It features a built-in 100V transformer offering selectable power taps, which may be activated o

Mexico - Playing to a crowd of more than 20,000, Seattle-based grunge band Soundgarden recently performed at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City during its international tour, running through summer 2013. The band's 26-song set list was highlighted with the band's extensive catalogue and was brought to life by a Harman Martin lighting system, deployed by OCESA PRG Mexico.

Throughout the stage, 34 Martin MAC Viper Profiles, 13 MAC 2000 Wash beams, 20 MAC Aura LED's, 12 Atomic Strobe 3000's and 12 Scroller 3000 lighting units were deployed, strategically designed to provide a spectacular visual landscape for the show.

Soundgarden's live production team ordered the Martin lighting solution specifically for the Palicio de los Deportes performance.

"We've been using Martin lighting for years and our inventory has been trustworthy and bright from the beginning," s

Serbia - Robe moving lights were used by lighting designer Marko Malesevic from Studio Berar - also the lighting rental contractor - as part of the rig for a massive performance by Balkan superstar singer Svetlana Ceca Raznatovic which coincided with the St Vitus Day public holiday (also known as Vidovdan).

The open air concert was staged by Miligram Music on a site at Usce in Belgrade, right at the confluence of the Rivers Danube and Sava ... and attended by an enthusiastic audience of 100,000.

The pressure was on to ensure that it was a memorable and spectacular event for everyone - all of those experiencing it live, plus the additional tens of thousands watching on TV.

Fifty Robe Robin 100 LEDBeams and 20 x ColorSpot 700E ATs were used to light the audience. With so many people and a live telecast by the Serbian Broadcast corporation on national TV, audience lighting was

UK - A bespoke automation system has been designed by Kinesys to open and close two large set doors integrated into the rear video wall backdrop on Robbie Williams' current Take The Crown stadium tour.

The doors - positioned stage left and stage right - each measure 7.73m high by 6m wide and open and close to allow set trucks with giant heads of the singer to enter and exit the stage.

Kinesys was contacted by the tour's set technical manager Nick Evans and head rigger Jerry Hough and asked to come up with a neat and safe automation solution for quickly opening and closing the doors - that had been mechanically engineered by Tait.

The particular challenge with operating these doors is they are required to tilt back 6 degrees before raising 7m to fully open.

The mechanics of the system were designed and engineered by Tait's Pieter Denijs and Jerry Hough and features a

UK - Manchester city-centre entertainment hot spot, Gorilla recently upgraded their front-of-house (FOH) mixing desk to a new Midas PRO2 digital console courtesy of Mason's Games Ltd. The 700-seat venue offers a broad spectrum of live entertainment spanning every imaginable genre and has quickly become a favourite among the night set.

An essential element of the installation, the included DL251 stage box serves as the digital snake, providing 48 Midas mic/line inputs and 16 analogue XLR outputs at the stage end. MIDI (In, Out, Thru) plus three AES50 ports and one Ethernet connection round out the DL251 rear panel. Connectivity to the FOH console is via shielded, twisted-pair Cat 5e cable with a range of up to 100 metres/330 feet. Dual-redundant power supplies are standard.

Trof Group, which operates Gorilla, The Deaf Institute, Albert Hall Manchester and Trof Northern Quarter,

UK - "It's a busy time; we've just purchased another large batch of Clay Paky Sharpys for our rental inventory and they arrive this week, yet we'll still have to sub' in a few extra lights to keep our regular clients happy." Rob Merrilees at Dry Hire Lighting is managing growth with a wise head. "We will take those extra lights, check and prepare them to our standards, then off they go.

"We don't rent to end users, we don't do production. This is plain black box rental," Merrilees confirmed. The company has grown five-fold in the 12 months since foundation in August 2012, "We build our relationships steadily. The investment we have made in Clay Paky equipment has been an important part of that growth; their distributor Ambersphere has given us fantastic support and truth is, the range of lights Clay Paky has is what everyone is asking for. We stock

UK - Nick Gray of London-based creative lighting and design practice Renegade produced an impressive stage design for Kasabian's Saturday night headline performance at the 2013 Hard Rock Calling event, staged for the first time at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to a sold out audience of 45,000.

Gray wanted to ensure it was a very special show with a high impact. It was essentially a large one off preceded by a couple of festival warm ups bringing to a close the band's impressive Velociraptor! album cycle.

The whole visual concept was inspired by the stark, contrasty and quirky music video for Switchblade Smiles directed by Aitor Throup.

With this in mind Gray and Throup draped the entire stage in white velvet including the walls, trusses and both of the floor based ground support trusses. A white Marley floor was laid, complete with white risers and fascias, plus

Australia - Jands has been appointed as the exclusive distributor of Movecat in Australia.

"Taking on the distribution of the German Movecat maintains Jands philosophy of only representing premium world class products," said Paul Mulholland, Jands managing director. "Germany is renowned for making the best mechanical products in the world and Movecat maintain this tradition and arguably provide the best designed and manufactured chain motor in the industry."

"The integrity of the company, the quality of the product, and its value for money and ease of use will excite the market," said Peter Grisard, Jands national manager - projects.

Jands Staging recently supplied 32 500kg Movecat chain hoists for the ANZ stadium in Sydney.

(Jim Evans)

Czech Republic - Rental Pro is the first rental company in the Czech Republic to adopt the Nexo STM modular line array, debuting its newly-purchased 24-set system on the Vysocina Festival in Jihlava in front of 10,000 rock, hip-hop and pop music fans.

The three-day multi-genre event featured local stars including Golden Nightingale TomᚠKlus, Krystof, Nightwork, David Koller, Pražský výb?r, Monkey Business, and Wohnout, Rental Pro provided the main stage with a STM system using 12 sets of M46 Main and B112 Bass cabinets per side, with 12x S118 subs groundstacked each side.

"When we saw and heard STM for the first time, we were so surprised by the unique modular concept that now we can't imagine a future for our business without the system," says Roman Zezula of Rental Pro, which has owned Nexo loudspeakers since the company was started in 2000.

Zezula cites S

UK - In the week his debut album Long Way Down was released, Brit Award-winning singer-songwriter Tom Odell played a packed-out set on the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury. The crystal clear sound of a Yamaha CL5 digital console at front of house helped inspire many in the audience to buy the album afterwards... sending it straight to No.1 in the UK chart.

A longtime Yamaha user, Odell's front of house engineer Davy Ogilvy became acquainted with the CL5 in his previous full-time role as a project manager at Dimension Audio. "We were looking at new digital consoles and we liked the CL5 so much that we invested in it as soon as it came out," he says.

"Since then I've used it at a number of shows. I love the way it instantly sounds great as soon as it's plugged in. You are immediately in a good place, which is the ideal position to start."

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