UK - One of the most popular theatres in Scotland, Pitlochry Festival Theatre (PFT)'s demanding summer rep season is complemented by an increasingly busy winter programme. More complex productions have meant that an improved audio mixing system was required, so the venue has invested in a Yamaha CL5.

For several years a Yamaha LS9 served the theatre at front of house. But the 2009 decision to stage musicals, with an annual pantomime added from the following year, meant that in due course a higher channel count and greater flexibility was needed. Following the venue's successful grant application to the Foyle Foundation, Edinburgh-based The Warehouse supplied a Yamaha CL5 and three R-series i/o units in time for the 2013 summer season, along with 24 channels of Shure ULX-D digital wireless microphones.

The Warehouse also supplied three Dante-MY16-AUD interface cards, allowing t

UK - For three days and three nights 135,000 Glastonbury revellers had the pleasure of seeing their favourite headline acts, lit by some of the best rock and roll lighting designers in the world, play the famous Pyramid Stage.

Taking care of the festival house rig was head of lighting, Andy 'Fraggle' Porter, who chose Clay Paky's extremely bright, effects-rich Alpha Profile 1500s and Alpha Wash 1500s to deliver dynamic beam shaping, vibrant colour and super bright effects to the long-running event.

2013's headlining acts included: The Rolling Stones lit by Patrick Woodroffe, Arctic Monkeys lit by Andy Watson and Mumford and Sons lit by Ed Warren. Each put Fraggle's house rig through its paces and all made dramatic and creative use of the Alpha 1500 Profiles and Washes. In addition each designer specified his own additional requirements for Clay Paky fixtures.

For the main ri

USA - An L-Acoustics' Kara/SB18 combination was specified by Audiotek for MGM Grand Hotel & Casino's two newest venues: Wet Republic Ultra Pool and Hakkasan Las Vegas.

In early April Audiotek purchased and installed six Kara loudspeaker enclosures and four SB18 subs in the DJ mix area of Hakkasan for its client, Angel Management Group (AMG), which operates the venue. Later that same month, an identical monitoring setup was installed at the AMG-owned 53,000sq.ft, adults-only pool club, Wet Republic. Solotech's Las Vegas office facilitated the sale of both systems.

"The combination of three Kara enclosures and two SB18 subs per side has truly become the EDM festival standard as well as an artist rider staple for all tours and clubbing events," says Audiotek managing director Frank Murray. "With Wet Republic and Hakkasan being two of the EDM world's highest-profile

UK - Bournemouth-based Complete Production Solutions Group (CPS) has made its first investment in Robe moving lights, including the new Pointe together with other fixtures from Robe's popular Robin range.

The company, headed by Richard Colegate and Chris Caton, has been providing rental and turnkey production solutions since 1996 and specialises in the high end corporate events market - including conferences and awards shows - the company also provides technical support for a lively mix of live performance events including dance shows, rock 'n' roll and outdoor classical concerts.

CPS is currently expanding steadily and the decision to purchase new moving lights followed careful assessment of all the options as part of a planned upgrade and replacement programme with their existing intelligent lighting stock.

It's CPS's first purchase of Robe products, which were delivered b

UK - When Divas, the on-campus nightclub at Swansea University, was in need of a sound system upgrade, local sales and rental company Total Sound Solutions were brought in to advise.

Chris Hooke's company has enjoyed a long relationship with the Students Union, providing hire systems for special events and carrying out general maintenance at their other bars and leisure facilities over a number of years.

The Uni was already a fan of JBL's PRX loudspeaker series as Hooke explained. "They have used our [active] PRX 612 enclosures for events in the past and absolutely love the sound. However, as we had only fitted Crown XTi 4000 amplifiers as part of a technical upgrade last year, we went the passive route and specified four of JBL's PRX 412M's."

The configuration needed to be switchable depending on whether Divas was hosting a band night (when a conventional stage PA

UK - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) supplied 12 channels of Axient, Shure's flagship RF microphone system, and 18 channels of PSM1000 in-ear monitoring to PA and sound services company Britannia Row Productions for use at Live Nation's recent Wireless Festival, which this year featured acts including Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, Nas, will.i.am, Calvin Harris, Tinie Tempah and A Tribe Called Quest at London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

"All UK summer festivals are busy, but Wireless is one of the busiest, with over 190 acts taking to the stages over three days this year," explains SDUK's Tuomo Tolonen. "Different acts are on different stages simultaneously all weekend; it's the very definition of a crowded RF environment, and this against the background of generalised spectrum scarcity thanks to the recent Digital Switchover. Fortunately, Axient is design

India - A QSC Q Sys audio management system, based around a Core 250i integrated processor, has been installed at the Tezpur centre of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Assam, north-east India, as part of a conference room refurbishment designed to provide improved audio input to an existing video conferencing system.

The new system, supplied by Pro Visual Audio, the QSC distributor in India, and installed by the Assam-based QSC System Integration Partner Cineworth Sales and Services, now offers ISI staff clear, echo-free conferencing facilities thanks to the inclusion of AEC, the Acoustic Echo Cancellation algorithm.

A standard feature in Q-Sys Designer Release 3.0 (and subsequent releases) and available for all Q-Sys Cores, AEC ensures that audio feedback is not introduced into the system to the detriment of speech quality and comprehensibility, says the company.

A

USA - Calling a nightclub 'Light' can be risky business. You're basically telling clubbers they should expect a mind-blowing illumination experience every time they step through its door.

Setting the visual creativity bar this high could be perilous for some, but not for developer/partners Cirque du Soleil and The Light Group, or for John Lyons Systems (Hollywood, CA), which provided the lighting design for this new nightspot at Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Part Cirque show and part dance club with 38,000sq.ft of space and a 35' high ceiling, Light features acrobats spinning overhead and world-famous EDM DJs spinning up front. To add to the multi-layered sensory experience, video is everywhere; 6mm video panels line the club's massive walls, its ceiling and cascade downward to the DJ booth.

Lighting a space a huge as this, where beams need to highlight performers on a vertical plane

UK - Britannia Row Productions Training has been granted the status of Approved Candidate for Accreditation by the British Accreditation Council for Independent Further and Higher Education (BAC) as a Short Course Provider. This is the outcome of an inspection carried out by the BAC prior to Britannia Row Productions Training's opening.

This status allows applicants from outside the EU/EEA for the Live Sound Technology course to apply for Student Visitor Visa in order to attend the course at the company's Training Centre in London, UK.

In July 2013 Britannia Row Productions Training started its first 12-week Live Sound Technology course. The intensive full-time course is the first of its kind and is based on full integration of theoretical and practical training made possible by the dedicated training centre.

The BAC's inspection as the next step in Britannia Row Productions

UK - Rigging is an area of the entertainment business where competency is an absolute requirement not just a preference. Load Cell Rental, who offer a fully customised weighing and load monitoring service using a calibrated weighing system, recently joined forces with Lift Turn Move (LTM) to offer opportunities for professional development for those working with motorised hoists. The first two LoadGuard Motor Schools of 2013 were two day courses hosted by Dave Ward (LTM technical manager) at the new training facility of Adlib Solutions in Liverpool at the end of February.

Using the LoadGuard brand of chain hoists, participants had the chance to strip down a machine to its separate component parts before rebuilding it and operating the hoist successfully. Going through that process gave attendees the opportunity to review and build on their technical competencies. From general el

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd, one of the industry's leading suppliers of specialist LED lighting and control solutions, is hosting a one day 'LED for Theatres' UK Workshop on Saturday, 17 August 2013 in the idyllic production environment of The Kings Theatre in Portsmouth.

With huge technical advances being made in LED lighting and control in recent years, more and more theatres are taking advantage of the latest generation of LED solutions when upgrading their lighting systems.

The LED for Theatres workshop has been organised in response to customer interest and follows a number of high-profile theatres and touring productions utilising LED technologies supplied by AC-ET.

The informal event will enable attendees to get 'hands-on' with the very latest in LED solutions designed for theatres - chosen from AC-ET's impressive portfolio of over 200 technology

USA - Located in the heart of Los Angeles, the Icon Ultra Lounge has been a nightlife hotspot since its doors opened in 2011.

The venue features popular DJs that perform in the 4,000sq.ft lounge and also on a similarly sized rooftop. Customers expect an immersive, high quality, audio experience.

Until recently the lounge and rooftop used a rented sound reinforcement system. After Arthur Guzman, general manager at ACI Pro Audio, put on an event at the Lounge he left with ideas on how different systems might fit the venues needs better.

After sharing those ideas with Icon's owners, it was decided that he was right; it was time to install something permanent and hard hitting for both dance areas.

"Right off the bat I knew a RCF system would fit their budget and their system requirements," explains Guzman. "We did a demo of HDL 20-A line array boxes with the SUB

UK - The L'Oreal Professional Colour Trophy held its first event way back in 1956 and by the 1960s there were hairdressers competing from up to 14 regional locations to gain a place in the London Grand Final. Today, it remains the most prominent hairdresser's competition in Britain with the regional finals consisting of a competition section, choreographed catwalk shows from big name designers and a traditional awards show that tours around the country.

Now widely regarded within the industry as the 'Vogue' of hairdressing award ceremonies, lighting designer David Miller needs to provide a rig that caters for an exceptionally broad range of venues and stage set-ups. "This tour is organised by Fisher Productions who are renowned for their high end production values. I went to Point Source Productions for control and lighting fixtures for this show as they could provide the q

USA - Martin's newly released M6 console has found its first permanent home, installed at Harvest Ministries in Riverside, California. When the house's original Martin Maxxyz console began to show its age after a long and prosperous run, in-house lighting designer Christopher Eguizabal began searching for an upgraded console to keep up with the constant stream of ever-changing events, varied lighting rigs and stage designs.

"The week we installed the M6, we had a guest artist playing and I was able to use it in a concert-style environment here at our venue," Eguizabal stated. "The console's encoder knobs made programming much easier and faster than I have experienced on any other console. M6's touch screens feel great and the amount of playback faders, combined with the play pairs and Submaster module, plus the amount of user-definable buttons, allows me to custom

Germany - Leading European lighting and visuals designer Manfred Ollie Olma of Cologne, Germany based mo2 design tried out 12 of Robe's new Pointe moving lights for a recent episode of Die Ultimative Chart Show, recorded at Nobeo 8 Studio in Hürth, near Cologne. The programme is broadcast weekly on RTL.

Olma has lit the show for the last ten years, all the time keeping it looking fresh, inventive and visually relevant. He also frequently uses Robe for his work, which embraces many disciplines including television, concert touring and music shows, special events and architectural illumination.

Initially six of Robe's new Pointe fixtures were delivered to the studio by Robe's German distributor LMP. It was the very first time that Olma had road-tested the Pointe ... he did not know what to expect ... and he was so impressed that he asked for more.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Event production and rental company OneBigStar once again chose Roland Systems Group (RSG) for the Glastonbudget tribute festival with the entire audio solution managed by RSG products including mixing, splitting, dropboxes and monitors. The Roland M-480 and M-300 Digital Consoles, the S-1608 Stage Box and M-48 Personal Monitors all played a key role in the setup which catered for live bands and acoustic sets.

Taking place in Wymeswold, Leicestershire, the festival which has grown in size and popularity year on year, presents the best in tribute bands and local music with over 100 performances on four stages over the May Bank Holiday weekend. For the first time the 2013 event added an 80's theme on the Saturday night including performances by Howard Jones, ABC, The Christians and Heaven 17.

"Having used RSG products for the past few years at Glastonbudget and also us

USA - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) recently wrapped its 50th International Conference, its first dedicated specifically to audio education. The conference took place 25-27 July, at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where more than 140 educators and industry representatives met to exchange ideas and experiences.

Attendance far surpassed the organisers' initial expectations, with attendees travelling to Murfreesboro from 25 U.S. states and 12 countries, including Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The event also for the first time included a significant focus on live sound as a component of a pro audio education curriculum, a fact underscored by the event's keynote address delivered by Bob McCarthy, senior education consultant at Meyer Sound, who gave an informative and entertaining presentation on the history of the live sound indus

USA - Over the past five years, the Free Press Summer Festival (FPSF), staged at Eleanor Tinsley Park just west of downtown Houston, has quickly grown into one of Texas' most eagerly anticipated music festivals. This year notably marked the first time that the event completely sold out in advance, ultimately drawing nearly 100,000 concertgoers to enjoy 90 national and local artists performing on six stages over two days.

Houston's LD Systems once again served as the primary audio, video and lighting provider for FPSF 2013 and supplied production gear and services for the festival's four primary stages. This year, however, the company chose to deploy L-Acoustics K1 systems on the two largest stages, Mars and Saturn.

FPSF' Mars stage featured night-closing performances from EDM superstars Bassnectar and Calvin Harris preceded by a broad spectrum of musical artists like Of Monste

Spain - Drawing an immense following since its debut in September 2012, reality television singing competition The Voice or La Voz in Spain, has become a social phenomenon. To help accentuate the live performances, live drama and the jury of popular Spanish singers: Rosario Flores, David Bisbal, Malú and Melendi, Madrid-based full-service rental, sales and installation company Citylight installed a complete Martin MAC lighting rig.

Citylight lighting designer Julián Perez's lighting design includes an abundance of Martin products including MAC III Profile, MAC 2000 Profile and Wash, MAC TW1, MAC 600 NT, MAC 550, MAC 250 Krypton, MAC 250 Wash and MAC 250 Beam luminaires, as well as Martin Stagebar 54 L battens and Atomic 3000 strobes. The upcoming 2013 season will also incorporate more than 30 of Martin's new Rush Strobe 1 5x5 effect lights.

Perez has been espec

UK - The Kings of Leon have a busy and varied schedule this summer in Europe. Venues range from indoor arenas like the O2 in London and the LG at Birmingham's NEC though to outdoor festivals like the Tennant's Vital Festival in Belfast and Denmark's Smukkeste Festival at Skanderborg. In between are the more intimate spaces of the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and the iconic Roundhouse in Camden Town. Paul Normandale's design has to have more than a modicum of flexibility at its heart.

The video element of the design is all supplied by Chaos Visual Productions - eight screens of differing sizes are arranged in a classically Normandale asymmetric form. "Although the optimum height for this rig is 50ft there are occasions when that can be reduced to 15ft. I also had to bear in mind that, on a festival stage, our rig could only occupy the last 10ft of the upstage area to allow other

UAE - UAE based lighting designer Terry Miranda specified over 120 Robe fixtures to realise an eye-catching design for Watan Al Ahlam (Country of Dreams), a musical performance staged by the UAE Ministry of Education at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Students from schools across the UAE participated in the event directed by a team of Emirati professionals. This enabled them to showcase their talents in front of an invitation-only audience comprising high ranking government officials and locals.

The Robe lights - along with the complete technical production - were all supplied by Dubai based Lighthouse Productions of which Miranda is also a founder / director. Lighthouse has a large rental stock of Robe, and Miranda is one of the leading LDs in the country, working on a diverse selection of productions.

The stage design was based on a futuristic theme, with video projec

Australia - International creative practitioners are invited to submit designs that will transform Sydney's most famous landmarks into a living canvas of light during the Southern Hemisphere's biggest annual celebration of light, music and ideas, Vivid Sydney, which next takes place from 23 May - 9 June 2014.

Light artists, lighting projection designers, companies and manufacturers, architects, students, graduates, creative industry companies and practitioners from around the world are being called on to put forward their innovative lighting and projection designs and installations for inclusion in Vivid Light 2014.

Vivid Light is the centrepiece and crowd favourite of Vivid Sydney, with more than 800,000 visitors flocking to Sydney's harbour and surrounds over 18 nights in 2013 to see the city transformed into a colourful after-dark playground of interact

UK - Damon Crisp's DAC Pro-Media Ltd has proved that even in recessionary times expansion is possible when the portfolio of products - and the markets they are aimed at - are carefully considered.

Following a period of sustained growth in the Audio Visual, Installation, Education and Commercial sectors - as well as his traditional heartland of MI/DJ - Crisp has announced a relocation of his operation to a new 3600 sq. ft warehouse in Surrey, the recruitment of a further sales rep and addition of a key brand to his burgeoning portfolio.

Explaining the underlying reasons, he states, "Over the past two years DAC Pro-Media has seen growth running at over 50% and now has 'Sole UK Distributor' status with many high profile manufacturers." These brands include Mono DJ Bags, Odyssey Cases, Symphony Acoustics, Panoramic Lasers, Laser Science and Newhank AV products.

In addi

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