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14 March 2016

dbn has worked on several projects at the Whitworth over a number of years, providing technical consultation and design services, ingenuity and equipment.

dbn Project Manager Nick Todd oversaw the Weekending event, for which several elements were lit, including the impressive front façade of the Whitworth Art Gallery itself.

Overall lighting schemes encompassed a world music stage, trees and art installations, with the visual high-point being Saturday night's li

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14 March 2016

After the systems from Villingen had already stood the test in 2012, this year the technical heads decided to realise the entire monitoring with ProAudio Technology, in addition to the main PA.

Mike Berus, graduate audio engineer comments, "The HT16 speakers offer an incredibly high resolution. Brilliant highs and never annoying upper mids. I don't know about any other system with such a great transient behaviour, which stays extremely clean even with high sound pressure levels. Simply top. Used in a cardio array, the SW18 and the SW28 subs delivered very punchy, tight lows, even at a distance of 30m (100 ft.).

"With the cardio I noticed a very good SPL reduction behind the PA. The M20 monitors were awesome. High sound pres

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14 March 2016

Unusual's managing director, Alan Jacobi, said, "Rigging is a key element of almost every event, with its ever increasing scale, size, weight and complexity making a considerable impact, but the consequences of getting it wrong can be disastrous. Conferences such as this are vital in ensuring we continue to debate and improve working practices and Unusual is proud to be this year's Platinum sponsor."

Robin Elias of Unusual Rigging, one of the rigging industry's leading and longes

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14 March 2016

The Witness Hilton Arts Festival produces a programme of cutting-edge drama, comedy, music and music revue, as well as an impressive array of arts and crafts appealing to all who visit.

This year Dave Whitehouse from DWR Distribution presented a talk on stage lighting, aimed at school pupils and teachers. These presentations, along with many other drama productions, were held in Black Coffee's new Tunnel Roof. For those who attended Mediatech a couple of months ago, it's the

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14 March 2016

Sennheiser UK has provided an on-site support and repair facility at the V festival's Weston Park site for several years. This allows Sennheiser UK to 'give something back' to the many hire companies, engineers and artists who have put their faith in the company's equipment. With, the additional presence of Tour Supply, a company closely affiliated with Sennheiser, providing a range of Sennheiser equipment available for purchase, both artists and audio companies were assured of comprehensive support.

This year the company's side-stage Portakab

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14 March 2016

"If you had asked me a few years ago if I would be investing in more stage monitors I would have said you were nuts," explains Randy Frierson, owner of Concert Systems. "With IEMs as the norm and two rider friendly monitor rigs already in inventory, why would I spend money on more stage monitors?"

Needless to say, that is exactly what happened. Frierson found that as the company grew the demands on it grew as well. It became apparent that they needed a world class, high powered monitor system for larger events.

"I decided that I wanted a wedge that would get loud but still be even tempered," Frierson says. "It also needed multiple angles and it would help if it looked cool."

After chec

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14 March 2016

In addition to a series of live performances the concerts also needed to be recorded, which gave sound engineer, Antonio Martino of MASclassica a problem in that he required a large number of ultra-reliable, remote-controlled mic pres and audio channels of exceptional quality to be installed unobtrusively, at a significant distance from the recording system. Another challenging requirement was that the setup nee

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14 March 2016

Working behind the scenes, lighting designer Clifton Taylor was given the challenge to blend all these production elements seamlessly together and to help him accomplish this he put together a comprehensive lighting package from Philips Entertainment which included Showline SL BAR 640, Philips Selecon PLCyc LED, Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Spot, VL1000 ERS and VL5B Wash luminaires.

"For A Dan

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14 March 2016

Products from both Sennheiser and Rane's acclaimed ranges are on show on Stand B47, including The Rane 61 and 62 DJ mixers plus the range of Serato Scratch Live Interface units, and demos from renowned DJ's will take place throughout each day.

As well as these familiar lines, Sennheiser is showcasing its special 25th anniversary HD 25 headphones, the HD 25 Aluminiumwhich has become the choice of DJs and music professionals the world over.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

"Actually, we had our eye on Robert Juliat and wanted to get this brand for quite some time now," commented Reg Habib, lighting manager at Sun City. Eventually the need, opportunity and availability came together and the followspots were purchased from DWR Distribution.

"The Robert Juliat Victor is a beautiful looking piece of equipment, excellent in design, and great to operate," said Habib. "Amongst features like hot strike, it has a smooth dimming ability that can be adjusted with one finger, without looking away from the stage or moving a hand."

Habib says a lot can be said for buying brand names. "Obviously quality creates desirability. The expected life and the after sales su

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14 March 2016

Design and Production company,59 Productions and interiors and exhibition designers Real Studios collaborated on the David Bowie is exhibition design. Expert systems integrator, Sysco AV configured the museum's existing inventory of technology and Dataton Watchout powered the multi-image display and presentation software in two areas of the galleries including a 7m high video wall display and TV displays throughout the exhibition. Sysco AV has worked with the V&A for many years on several exhibitions. Watchouit is support

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14 March 2016

From 1 September 2013, ECM will distribute the full range of Robert Juliat lighting equipment and concentrate on developing closer relations with all regions of the diverse Swiss market. In addition to its excellent product knowledge, ECM brings the benefit of its multi-lingual support team which speaks German, Italian and Spanish, as well as French and English.

ECM represents several worldwide brands in Switzerland and specialises in creating theatre and studio lighting systems. The company is constantly looking for environmentally-friendly products and believes in superior quality and optical excellence, like that found in Robert Juliat's new LED Zep and Tibo se

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14 March 2016

Michael Eavis said next year's headliners probably wouldn't surprise people. "There aren't many left [to play here]," he said. "It's the process of elimination isn't it? I think we've got three or four really good ones lined up for next year and we're sorting out 2015 as well."

In The Sale Room - An Essex artist's oil painting of late singer Amy Winehouse has been sold at auction as part

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14 March 2016

With economy at the forefront of his thinking, Guthrie sensed that the new X4S fixtures could not only be rigged quickly, within their own touring structures, but at the same time pack a lot of punch. "We haven't done a 'beamy' show for Chris in a while so I wanted something that was adaptable to the range of venues we were playing, and would provide us with options," he admits. "I also wanted a physically smaller light to fit with the scale of the show."

The venues themselves have varied considerab

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14 March 2016

Sigur Rós's provocative and interesting live visuals are a collaboration between LX and stage designer Bruno Poet, the band's artistic director Sarah Hopper, Damian Hale the editor for Third Company and video director/Catalyst operator Ray Gwilliams, all working towards creating a visual look that both reflects and adds to their musical style for live shows.

Gwilliams has been supported on the road by Robyn Tearle, the two of them forming the tour's core video crew.

Both of their roles have evolved since starting in May 2012, reflecting the fluidity of the video e

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14 March 2016

"A smaller, regional show, PLASA Focus is great for beginners, professionals, and anyone inquisitive about audio. It's not about selling products, in fact, we try to keep our seminars as product neutral as possible. It's about developing relationships and continuing education."

"This type of conference offers a more personal and in depth experience for all of us," confirms Joe DiFalco, the d&b regional manager for the Southwest United States. "The community atmosphere at PLASA Focus enable

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14 March 2016

"I have been using the ETC Eos platform for almost four years now, so it was an easy decision for me to make to use the Eos for Starlight Express," says Randall.

Specified by Randall and supplied by ETC's South African-based dealer Prosound, the system includes an Eos RPU (Remote Processor Unit) which will serve as backup and Net3 Gateways to run the eight DMX universes to support the high fixture count and data distribution required for the show. The desk also utilises a wireless Ethernet network hub for remote control.

Glenn Duncan, show progra

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14 March 2016

After several demos and extensive listening tests, PSS decided to invest in a full complement of APG equipment including a Uniline system complete with full APG racks (amplifiers and DSP) as well as the complete range of DX loudspeakers, SMX15 stage monitors and a number of dedicated installation products. In fact, PSS were so impressed with the sound and ergonomics of the Uniline system that it has gone straight onto a brand new music competition TV show called Mentor, taking the prime time slot on DR1, (the Danish equivalent of BBC 1) previously occupied by X-Factor.

"A significant factor in our decision to invest in APG for the Danish market was the reaction of a number

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14 March 2016

It is intricately designed over five levels and hosts residencies by some of the most exciting and innovative DJs on the planet including Tiësto, Calvin Harris Steve Aoki, deadmau5, ... and many more.

Robe moving lights are right at the core of a lighting design throughout Hakkasan Las Vegas nightclub - the biggest new build project in US clubbing history - that has been created by Frank Murray of Irish based installation specialists, Audiotek.

The brief for the lighting from the four very hands-on AMG principals, explains Murray, was simply to help create "The BEST electronic music and clubbing

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14 March 2016

As Mike Sinclair of Audio Incorporated, the audio designer for the US Open live events for the past six years, explains, "We needed to find a way to connect the roof of the Broadcast Centre building with our central patch area at the other end of the stadium in the photographers' pit. We had to be ready to transport the programme audio feed, Clear-Com Encore Analog Party Lines converted to 4-wire for a production channel and a lighting channel. We also used Optocore's 100Mb LAN tunn

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14 March 2016

Supported by the production design and manufacturing house, Specialz, lighting designer Willie Williams comments, "Although I'm credited with the design of the sigils, in fact the original idea came from Robbie himself - quite literally as some of these symbols are tattoos that he has. For my part, we needed to turn these into something dramatic from a stage perspective, effective from a lighting point of view and durable for extensive touring." (A sigil is a sign or an image that supposedly possesses a magical power so any audience member who spent hours trying to decode them would have been wasting their time).

Productio

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14 March 2016

With artists ranging from individual performers like Russell Watson, Katherine Jenkins and Katie Melua to large scale group artists such as The National Youth Orchestra and the English National Ballet, any lighting design would have to be flexible and dynamic enough to cover every demand and yet stay sensitive enough to function as a live show for a 600 strong audience whilst being filmed for a prime BBC TV Saturday night slot.

Event organ

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14 March 2016

Describing how SES became involved with the tour, Michael Brammer, SES director of touring operations, stated, "We did a trial show at the beginning of the tour, and due to the success of the MLA and the overwhelming positive fan response, the band decided to take us on the road. The band went from a bus and trailer to three trucks virtually overnight, in part because they fell in love with the Martin Audio MLA system."

The Avett Brothers are led by Scott and Seth Avett on vocals and a variety of stringed and percussion instruments, along with Bob Crawford (double bass), Joe Kwon (cello) and Mike Marsh (drums). With several chart albums including I and Love and You (2

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14 March 2016

Each year Country Arts SA tours national and international productions that entertain, challenge and stimulate a wide variety of audiences in their five performing arts centres in Mount Gambier, Port Pirie, Renmark, Noarlunga and Whyalla.

Recently the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre in Mount Gambier became home to a new ETC Ion 1000 lighting console which will enable them to provide fully integrated control of conventional and moving lights.

"We've always had a relationship with Jands equipment and systems so when the existing