UK - After 25 years in the business, in the year Artistic Licence celebrates its Silver Jubilee, the company is relocating to a new studio space in London's vibrant Kentish Town.

Based in Harrow, Middlesex, for over two decades, the lighting control specialist has previously occupied the sort of light industrial premises suited to a traditional manufacturer. However, Artistic Licence now operates more as a design house, outsourcing the majority of its product assembly needs.

CEO Wayne Howell explains, "Artistic Licence is an agile company, happy to reinvent itself as the market evolves. The decision to outsource manufacture was one such change, but it has left us in a building that is no longer well suited to the way we operate. Our company philosophy is all about ideas and pushing the boundaries of new technology, and the new studio provides just the sort of environment

USA - At the 65th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards, held in Los Angeles on 23 October, Lawo was awarded the Emmy Engineering Plaque. The award honours achievements that exhibit a high level of engineering and are important to the progress of the industry.

"I wish to thank all our partners and customers. They have always supported us and pushed us to develop products that better suit their needs and support their rapidly evolving workflow requirements. To me this cooperation is the key to Lawo's success", said Philipp Lawo, CEO of Lawo.

The Emmys' jury acknowledged that as one of the original manufacturers of audio networking technologies, Lawo pioneered the use of telecommunication protocols such as ATM/SDH (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and now RAVENNA (real-time Audio-over-IP technology), making it possible to distribute broadband audio in real time over WAN network

USA - Singer-songwriter Jack Johnson has taken his laid back acoustic sound on the road under the illumination of Bandit Lites. The month-long North American tour in support of his new album Here To Now To You concluded in October with every performance a sold out spectacular.

Lighting designer Scott Holthaus worked with Jack Johnson to create a simple tungsten look, using only scoops and lekos for the main part of the lighting design. Wooden battens and large pulleys give the appearance of "Roald Dahl meets the Italian circus" while 15 scoops and 15 lekos hang from random heights on the five bars.

"While we showcased the old technology, we have some moving heads hidden above in the support trusses to give a bit of pepper," explained Holthaus. "We (per lighting director Leif Dixon's idea) were worried that the artist would soon be bored of the s

UK - The newly opened Da Vinci Studio School was announced as the winner of the Locos in a Different Light competition at the National Railway Museum in York late last night. The competition which saw colleges and universities get to grips with lighting up Mallard and its sister locomotives ran as part of the Illuminating York festival and the museum's Autumn Great Gathering.

The students, who were judged by industry professionals were marked according to a number of categories including; theatricality, energy consumption, conservation and safety and conservation.

Da Vinci Studio School's creative lighting effects brought Mallard's freshly cosmetically restored sister engine Dominion of Canada to life, with subtle steam effects, a highlighted headboard and bell and dramatic red side lighting to provide contrast for its gleaming garter blue paint. Their work scored parti

Kenya - Following a large purchase of PR Lighting's premium discharge and LED automated lights, Nairobi-based rental company Homeboyz Entertainment Services has considerably broadened awareness of the Chinese company in east Africa.

Homeboyz, whose range of services includes turnkey event management, end-to-end event / AV production and hosting a famous urban FM radio station, has an outreach that includes other east African countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia.

Mainly specialising in rental/hire for the concert, corporate, theatre and club markets, they were attracted to the PR Lighting range after being introduced by the manufacturer's African sales manager, Lawrence Mao.

"We hit it off straight away," reports Homeboyz' CEO, Myke Rabar. "We had heard about PR Lighting in the past and seen them at international trade expos ... and

USA - A team of professionals with notable backgrounds in commercial and theatrical lighting, new product development, industrial design, engineering, finance and manufacturing have come together to form Aquarii, Inc., a provider of engineered LED lighting solutions.

Aquarii designs and manufactures LED light fixtures that bring unprecedented flexibility to venues, from front-of-house operations and house lights for performing arts centres to overhead lighting for municipal arenas. Created to make versatile LED lighting both practical and affordable for a wide range of facilities, Aquarii's lighting fixtures unite a variety of desirable features in one instrument, at price points that make it compelling to convert entire facilities from conventional lighting to LEDs, says the company. The company headquarters is located in Camillus, NY.

Led by Raymond Carrock as president, the

USA - Emmy Award winning lighting designer Oscar Dominguez from Darkfire Lighting used Robe MMX WashBeams for the first time on the 2013 NCLR American Latino Media & Arts (ALMA) Awards.

The star-studded extravaganza which celebrates the best of Hispanic talent, creativity and contributions made to film, television, music and the arts in the US was staged at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and presented by Mario Lopez and Eva Longoria. Longoria was also the executive producer of the ALMAs and kept everyone on their toes this year sporting seven different and equally stunning dresses throughout the evening!

This was the fourth year that Dominguez has lit the show, a task on which he collaborated closely with production designer Steve Bass.

His starting point for the lighting was the detailed set and his approach to lighting this was very architectural, accentuating its prominent

World - Heavy metal icon Black Sabbath continue their Reunion Tour in Latin America, Europe and the UK with a grandMA2 light console. The tour celebrates the band's reunion last year and supports their album 13, the first with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978. Baz Halpin is the tour's lighting designer and Michael Keller, lighting programmer.

Keller selected the grandMA2 for the tour since he's most comfortable programming that platform. "We're carrying the grandMA2 light with us now, but you can find grandMA2 in most places. grandMA2 does everything I need."

Keller initially migrated to grandMA2 "for its networking" capabilities, he says. Since then he's discovered that "it's a very friendly board. Once you get your profile set up it's easy and powerful. There's nothing you can't do on it." Upstaging provided the lighting for the tour.

(J

UK - The Hospital Club is a prestigious private members club located in the heart of Covent Garden, renowned for showcasing and supporting emerging musical talent. In a bid to strengthen its reputation further, the venue has opened a new performance space designed by the award-winning Russell Stage Studio, to accommodate live bands, DJs and comedians. At the audio helm is a Peavey Commercial Audio HiSys loudspeaker system, supported by a wide range of additional PCA kit.

The new 100-capacity Oak Room has quite a history: it previously housed Grammy Award-winning producer, Nigel Godrich's recording studio; and before that, it was the home of Eurythmics' Dave Stewart.

Under its new guise, The Oak Room has already treated members and guests to an eclectic mix of entertainment: The Reuben James Trio kicked off live music proceedings on 12 September, and a couple of days later Turi

UAE - Wireless Solution Sweden AB is creating magic at the new MusicHall in Dubai with a system that provides an intelligent solution to a multi-use space. The venue is the second of a concept opened by brothers Michel and Jean Elefteriades who opened the original MusicHall in Beirut 10 years ago. It serves as a live entertainment hot spot as well as restaurant and nightclub.

The brothers found the popular Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel on The Palm in Dubai, which was looking to expand on their large event space and saw MusicHall as a good fit. The space already had an adequate stage, lounge area and dining facility, so it just needed an interior makeover and new lighting scheme.

In addition to the proper areas in place, the venue had a good existing infrastructure which included four over-stage trusses with winch control and some existing power and dimming provision through a ha

Australia - The Cube Wodonga is the city's most recent and exciting attraction. Located right in the heart of Wodonga's CBD, The Cube Wodonga is a modern performance space that can house 1000 people standing, 320 people at round tables or 410 in theatre mode.

The flat floor capacity and a stage that can be flipped to allow performances in the courtyard make it unique to north-east Victoria and southern NSW.

Professional Audio Services were called upon to supply audio requirements to this multi-purpose space including a JBL VRX PA.

"The JBL VRX was specified by the consultant although we have a VRX rig ourselves which we had used a few times in the old venue and their technical manager was very impressed by it," commented Tony Boon, managing director of PAS. "We agreed it was the best PA for the new venue especially as we had plenty more to add to it if require

Spain - Robe lighting has just launched the Spanish version of its complete website (www.robe.cz/es/ ).

Users from Latin America, Spain and other Spanish speaking regions will now be able to find all the main content available in their own language, including information on all the new and existing products and their technical specifications, plus the latest from the company's busy newsroom.

Regional sales manager for Latin America, Guillermo Traverso, comments, "It's really great news to have the official Robe lighting site in Spanish now! It is a great opportunity for everyone using the Internet daily as an information and communication tool to be able to access this in their own language.

"It is also another great advance for the Latin market in general and we hope that, combined with our highly proactive social media channels, we can continue to provide an exci

Poland - Once described by tourist guides as 'the most beautiful cinema in Europe', the Capitol Theatre in the Polish city of Wroclaw has led a chequered existence. But a multi-million zloti rebuild and restoration saw the venue reopen in September with a whole new lease of life... and a comprehensive Yamaha audio system at its heart.

Originally constructed in 1929, the Expressionist building was partially destroyed during the Second World War. The damaged parts were rebuilt by Poland's post-war Communist regime in the angular architectural style of the time and, from 1955, it became one of Poland's best loved theatres. But disaster struck again in 1997, when further major damage was inflicted by flooding.

Thanks to a major EU grant, the venue has just reopened after a two year, PLN83m refurbishment, which sees pre-war, post-war and brand new architecture cleverly harmonised t

UAE - Thomsun Trading, Optocore's Dubai-based distributors, found that their creative presentation of the German manufacturer's intercom devices at InfoComm MEA paid dividends, and they received some excellent new enquiries as a result.

According to Thomsun product specialist, Alok Ghurde, the presence of two Optocore V3RFX-Intercom devices allowed them to connect a remote RTS DKP 16 CLD coloured keypanel to the ZEUS III LE+ 16-channel intercom matrix. "Due to the nature of the display, we also managed to promote and discuss BroaMan and how it could be used in an AV install/events venue," reports Alok. "We received excellent feedback and interest from system integrators as well as end-users - and this augurs well for our plans to showcase BroaMan and Optocore in a big way at the CABSAT show early next year."

In fact, Thomsun Trading has been receiving a goo

UK - As part of its on-going 30th birthday celebrations, Black Light is offering 30% off all pyrotechnic hardware hires (subject to availability). It is also running a '3 for 2' offer on all Le Maitre pyrotechnic sales. Both offers run throughout November and usual terms and conditions apply.

"These offers are perfect for anyone who wants to use pyrotechnics to make their stage show, launch or gig that much more memorable," says Black Light's events and hires manager, Calder Sibbald. "We are hoping to get more people switched on to the creative potential and technical brilliance of Le Maitre's wonderful range of effects and equipment."

Black Light stocks the full range of Le Maitre effects - from its theatrical flashes and stage gerbs, to its confetti canons, smoke puffs and fountains. All the associated hardware - including controllers, pods, detonators an

UK - Projection and digital art specialist Ross Ashton of London based The Projection Studio created two spectacular projection works in Wolverhampton, west Midlands for the inaugural Wolverhampton Enchanted City event, which attracted up to 8000 people each evening into the city centre

Ashton was commissioned to produce the works by Wolverhampton City Council following his work at the first ever Enchanted City 'pilot' event at Horncastle, Lincolnshire earlier in the year. Ashton is developing this event concept together with Brighton based Robin Morley of Magnetic Events, who also produced this show.

The giant 15m tall images were beamed onto two well-known local landmarks - the 1920s style Barclays Bank building in St Peter's Square, and the Wulfrana Street entrance to the University of Wolverhampton around 100 metres away.

The Oldest Place - This was the title of t

UK - Trade associations PASMA and SELECT have entered into a new partnership agreement, bringing together their respective members in the work at height and electrical contracting industries.

The agreement between PASMA, the leading trade association for mobile access towers, and Scotland's trade association for the electrical industry, SELECT, will ensure that PASMA training is more accessible to SELECT members.

Delegates who take this route will receive a joint-badged PASMA card with the SELECT logo as a sign of their competence to work at height. With falls from height the leading cause of death in the workplace, it is a legal requirement for workers to prove their competence before carrying out this type of work.

PASMA's managing drector, Peter Bennett, said, "Electrical contractors of course regularly work at height. We are delighted that this agreement will benefi

USA - Madison Square Garden - New York's iconic indoor arena - has unveiled its new state-of-the-art centre-hung multi-media display. The display serves as the centrepiece of The Garden's new LED video display system, known as GardenVision, which debuted 25 October, as part of the third and final phase of The Garden's unprecedented, E7.2m, three-year transformation.

This cutting-edge system, manufactured by video display specialist Daktronics, includes more than 20 individually produced LED displays and provides attending fans with an enhanced visual experience.

Hank Ratner, president and ceo, The Madison Square Garden Company said, "With the completion of our historic Madison Square Garden transformation, 'the world's most famous arena' has also now become the world's most state-of-the-art arena, ensuring that we continue our tradition of providing fans with the very bes

USA - When the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage at Theatre for a New Audience's Polonsky Shakespeare Centre opens this week, at 262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, well-travelled theatre-goers may get a sense of deja vu.

The 299-seat theatre's two galleries, steep orchestra seating rake, and modest capacity create a closeness between the actors and audience that will remind some of a groundbreaking theatre 3,500 miles across the Atlantic. A theatre that through its innovative physical flexibility, intimacy, and dedication to experimentation helped revive the form of the courtyard theatre: The Cottesloe Theatre at the National Theatre in London.

The similarities are not an accident. In the 36 years since it opened, the Cottesloe Theatre has exerted an immeasurable influence over the theatrical world, not only in nurturing legions of actors, directors, writers, and theatre professionals, bu

UAE - In a move that enabled it to engage with its existing and potential customers in the Middle East to spread brand awareness and highlight the capabilities of its ultra-compact audio solutions, K-Array, together with its distribution partner, the Sennheiser Group, successfully hosted a two day seminar at the Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.

Attended by over 35 A/V installation and consultancy professionals, the event featured presentations, delivered by Francesco Maffei, product specialist manager at K-array, on both live and installed sound elements. These were complimented by live demos of products which included the Anakonda KAN200 flexible array element speaker and the ultra-miniaturized KZ10 line-array element.

Commenting on his company's support of such customer engagement platforms, Mig Cardamone, sales and marketing manager, Sennheiser Middle East said, "Because K-

Australia - Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour is a production that combines Michael Jackson's music and choreography with Cirque du Soleil creativity to give fans worldwide a view into the spirit, passion and heart of Jackson.

Lighting designer Martin Labrecque was required to design a rig that provided a decent amount of front and side light, as sometimes the stage can have forty-nine people on it, and that could also compete with the extensive use of LED video screens.

Another challenge was weight allowance with the space above the performance area already crammed with video walls, scenic elements and acrobatic machinery.

Originally Labrecque planned to use all VL3500 Wash and VL3000 Spot fixtures but was advised that he needed to scale back considerably due to weight restrictions. Rather than cut back the amount of fixtures, he turned to some of Vari-Lite's newer an

UK - In 2009 XL Video started XL Events as a specialist division to focus on supplying the corporate and events industry with its technical AV equipment and services.

Since that time XL Video and XL Events have seen continual growth in the corporate video solutions market.

With this success in mind, and with XL Video's renewed focus on innovative video technologies and providing excellent customer service, the parent company has decided to re-brand XL Events, bringing it in line with the corporate identity across the entire XL Video group of companies. This change is effective from 1st November 2013.

Rich Rowley director of XL Video commented, "It has been an incredible journey over the last four years building a Corporate division for XL. The reason for the XL Events name in the first place was to show the industry we weren't just Rock 'n' Roll. I believe it has now se

Russia - A new sports and concert centre has opened in the city of Kursk. This project has been enabled through the joint efforts of building companies and technology contractors.

Participating in this project, Light.Sound.Contractor, NEXT-proaudio's distributor in Russia, was in charge of the comprehensive design to fit Kursk arena with sport lighting, art-lighting, sound equipment, truss constructions, hoist mechanisms (winches), and a state-of-the-art sound control system.

The opening was attended by Deputy Minister of Sports of Russia Pavel Novikov. Along with the governor and other executives of the region, he examined the new venue and concluded:

"I've seen a lot of similar venues, but this sports and concert centre is wonderful and functional, it will serve both the elite sport and the local community, because it is a beautiful concert venue," said Pavel Nov

UK - A new work-friendly part-time option of its Live Sound Technology course will be offered by Britannia Row Productions Training starting in January 2014. With classes taking place on one weekday evening plus one weekend day per week, the course becomes accessible for those who work full-time or have other commitments.

While contents and learning outcomes of the course remain essentially unchanged from the full-time version of the training programme, the curriculum will be delivered in three sections: 1. Live Sound Fundamentals, 2. System Engineering and 3. Mix Engineering. This structure allows for holiday breaks between the sections as another feature to make it feasible for people in full-time employment to take this course. The 13-week sections are delivered over a 47-week period with eight holiday weeks allowing for spring and summer breaks.

This expansion of course op

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