Australia - The Academy nightclub in Canberra, Australia is benefiting from a new Robe moving light installation which was supplied by locally based Elite Sound & Light and is designed to ensure that their popular EDM club nights and visiting live artists can enjoy the very best lighting and visual experiences.

Elite's Darren Russell was asked to propose a design and his primary concern was to spec fixtures that would give the flexibility and variety of effects needed for long periods of operation, that would enable the club to have a completely different look and feel according to its programme that night.

The Academy is the largest club in Canberra and is right in the heart of the city. It has an 800 capacity main room and the 150 capacity Candy Bar upstairs, which features a glass wall along one entire side offering a commanding view of the main club dancefloor.

The Robe

UK - Penn Elcom, manufacturer of flight case hardware, speaker cabinet hardware and 19-inch racking solutions, alongside sibling brands, Pro Audio Stash and CLD Distribution, has signed a partnership with industry charity Entertainment Workshops (EW).

Entertainment Workshops is set to produce a catalogue of product functionality videos accessible to customers via QR codes and website links. This partnership not only supports the charity with a guaranteed financial income over at least the next two years but more importantly provides real-life, hands-on experience for students to work on projects being used in our industry today.

Entertainment Workshops provides an alternative education programme for young people who benefit from a kinaesthetic learning style. The charity provides the students with opportunities to gain Arts Awards and BTEC's in areas such as stage, sound and l

South Africa - The National Arts Festival (NAF) is Africa's biggest annual celebration of the arts. It's hosted in Grahamstown, a small university city in the Eastern Cape, and takes place over 11 days every winter.

This year, from 3 to 13 July, 225 000 people attended some 2800 performances in 50 venues scattered across Grahamstown and its surrounds. Once again Electrosonic SA was a sponsor of this world class arts festival. This year, to celebrate the festival's 40th birthday, it was decided to do something special. Recently Electrosonic SA became the sole distributors of Green Hippo's Media Servers, and the festival presented the ideal opportunity to show what these servers can do.

The plan to use the Hippo to project images onto a large area was the brainchild of NAF Technical Director Nicci Spalding and Robbi Nassi (Electrosonic SA's project manager and programmer. Report

UK - The World Snooker Awards '14 took place recently at The Lancaster Hotel, London and saw the great and good of Snooker assembled to honour the outstanding performances of the 2013/14 season.

Hosted by TalkSport's Andy Goldstein, the event featured awards for nine separate categories and was dominated by Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Selby with Dennis Taylor and Cliff Thorburn inducted in to the Hall of Fame.

For the third year in a row MRL Productions supplied full production including lighting, staging, AV and camera feeds to screen. MRL also provided sound which meant that, also for the third year running, KV2 Audio loudspeakers were relied upon exclusively to transfer the presentation and performances to the audience.

The event had two stages - a live band stage and main awards stage.

For the band stage a KV2 Audio ES system was used whilst the main awards stage featur

USA - Completed in 1837, St. John the Evangelist is a historic Catholic church in Frederick, Maryland, with a Grecian ionic design and a cruciform floor plan. The church has carpeted floors but its spacious marble and plaster interior and hardwood pews create major challenges for voice intelligibility.

St. John's existing sound system had poor intelligibility and coverage and a recurring feedback issue., Eric Johnson of Audio Video Group offered St. John's a new system using Community's Entasys column line-source loudspeaker system. Johnson performed a live demonstration that showed his design could provide intelligible sound with even coverage while minimizing audio feedback.

St. John's new system has an Entasys ENT-FR full-range column and an ENT-LF low-frequency column on each side of the chancel tilted slightly downwards to avoid rear-wall echoes.

The left and right tran

Mexico - SAE in Mexico recently opened a new live audio engineering degree course, installing Allen & Heath's new Qu-24 compact digital mixer as the teaching console.

Supplied by Allen & Heath's Mexican distributor, Audyson, students will learn to mix using Allen & Heath digital mixers, starting with the Qu-24 and progressing onto larger consoles, such as the GLD-80. The course will also include practical sessions, placing students in real situations with live bands, where they will also mix using A&H consoles. One such session has already taken place with a Qu-24 at FOH, with additional IO provided by an AR2412 audio rack, and a ME personal monitoring system for the musicians.

"We are using the Qu-24 and GLD-80 with SAE students because we want the new generation of sound engineers to know about the excellent sound quality and ease of use, and way to mix of the Allen & H

UK - After winning a competitive tender to provide a technical infrastructure at the London School of Economics' new Saw Swee Hock Student Centre in central London, LSI Projects turned to the Harman Professional catalogue.

Responding to a specification drawn up by consultants, Arup - to supply and fit sound and communication, lighting and staging systems in the 850-capacity nightclub/live venue - they constructed their digital routing network around BSS Audio Soundweb London components, before turning to sister company Soundcraft's digital VI platform for the main FOH and monitor mixing consoles.

Named after an alumnus who made a sizeable donation towards the £24m development cost, the building itself was designed by Irish architects Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey (O'Donnell + Tuomey).

Set on seven storeys above ground and two high storeys below, it contains a nightc

UK - Smashing their initial target by over 1000% and then beating their increased target by over 20%, the girls at Le Mark did an amazing job at Race For Life on Sunday 20 July in Cambridge. The first of the girls came across the line in an impressive 28 minutes!

With over 6,000 women taking part, the event drew huge crowds of support and is expected overall to raise hundreds of thousands, if not more for Cancer Research.

Le Mark's Sam Cooke commented, "It was inspirational to run. We were an amazing team, both during the run and working together to raise as much as we could. Crossing the line was so emotional, with so many of the runners having their own personal story. We're all definitely going for it again next year, and we'll be bring even more people with us".

Donations may be made at www.justgiving.com/peasinapod1

(Jim Evans)

India - The foundation Universal Brotherhood has chosen SGM's G-Spot LED moving head for its Sant Nirankari Mission Fountain of Worship in India.

Lawrence Ryan of Eagle Eye Studios was tasked with designing and programming a show control interface for the beautiful fountain in Delhi known as the Fountain of Oneness.

The idea behind this unique architectural structure originates from the Guru himself as a symbol of people from different religions, cultures and languages coming together in one place. The structure is made up of adults and children holding hands in a circular formation, so large that the audience can walk around or through the fountain.

As a centrepiece, a huge sphere represents the world, denoting worldwide unity. Great care has gone into making it structurally sound, with the key focus being the huge weight of the structure and strong winds in the area

Australia - The poet W.B. Yeats once described the vast skies as "the heavens' embroidered cloths". Taking its title from Yeats' vision, Vivid Festival's Heaven's Cloth created a canopy of light, colour and sound - thanks to Arup MAS.

The installation was an active and porous ceiling that displayed projected light via LED RGB architectural luminaires to create intricate colour change effects based on the theory of complementary colours. Enriching the piece was a soundscape composed using synchronised harmonious musical intervals.

"The circle of fifths - which depicts all 12 tones and musical key signatures graphically in the form of a circle - is like the musical analogy of the colour wheel," explained Christopher Sims, Arup's acoustic and theatre consultant. "Just as complementary colours are visually harmonious, the musical interval of a fifth is mat

Brazil - The BBC relied on Calrec Audio's digital audio consoles during its coverage of the FIFA World Cup. The broadcaster used a combination of three rented consoles to mix the audio in Brazil for transmissions in the UK.

At the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Rio de Janeiro, two 24-fader Artemis Light consoles served as the first point of control in the signal path, responsible for submixing all sound associated with the matches and creating simultaneous 5.1 and stereo mixes. In addition, controlled commentary and controlled effects were passed on to all other users including the edit suits in the IBC, the various multiplatform control suites in the U.K., and the BBC's studio broadcasting center (SBC), also in Rio.

At the SBC, a 56-fader Artemis Beam was used to combine the submixes from the IBC with other sources, including studio mics, postproduction playbacks, co

Chile - On Saturday 19 July, the President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, with the local authorities of La Reina (a municipality in the eastern area of Gran Santiago, Chile), led the ceremony of the renaming of Avenida Larraín by Alcalde Fernando Castillo Velasco.

In an emotive ceremony, the president praised the architect and Mayor of La Reina who died in July of 2013, Fernando Castillo, who was not only the Mayor of Regina, but was also Mayor of the Metropolitan region and rector of the Catholic University.

The overall production of the event was by G2 Events, a company that has over 10 years in the audiovisual services market, with Sin Acople Producciones, dedicated to the production of events.

Among the materials used in the event we were Fenix lifting towers from the Megara series.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas presented its lighting designer Christopher Lose with the ultimate challenge: find a strong and stable fixture that could be hung at the pool-side stage all year round. Chris' answer quickly resulted in an order for 10 G-Spot LED moving heads for movement, beam versatility and patterns and four Q-7 RGBW for wash and strobing.

Chris explains, "The Pool Stage is a treacherous environment for lighting gear. It is an outdoor stage in Las Vegas. The temperature reaches 120 degrees [Fahrenheit - equal to 50 degrees Celsius] in the summer and below freezing in the winter. Las Vegas rarely rains but when it does it comes without notice. There is no time for crew to be dropping lighting fixtures on short notice. We needed 10 spare fixtures to service our 10 previous moving lights and I was looking for a fixture that we could hang all year

Europe - Cardigans' frontwoman, Nina Persson, recently completed a solo tour of Europe and the USA travelling with an Allen & Heath GLD-80 digital mixer to manage FOH and monitor sound.

Supplied by Swedish PA company, Parashoot, which recently invested in the GLD-80, the mixer is supplemented with an AR2412 remote IO rack and additional AR84. Together with one roll of Cat 5e and the mics set, the whole audio touring kit packs into four Pelicases.

"I like the new ideas and easy layout of the GLD-80," comments engineer, Oscar Soederland."It's very simple and quick to setup, and has all the greatness of iLive, such as dynamics, EQ and the killer FX, combined with great speed and sharpness. GLD is also very roadworthy with a thick steel shell, quality screen, nice hard rubber sides, and the feel is very sturdy."

The tour plays approximately 20 songs, which ca

Japan - The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Japan's Hyogo Prefecture - and founded a century ago by Ichizo Kobayashi, president of Hankyu Railways.

Following a tradition of bringing musical masterpieces to the stage, the latest 'Cosmos' revue troupe has revisited of The Rose of Versailles, which was first turned into a major hit by the Theatre back in 1974, to help celebrate its landmark year. And a Martin Audio MLA Mini PA system was on hand to assist.

The multi-cellular loudspeaker array was specified by Woody Land, the rental company that supports the Takaraduka Musical, to help reinforce the historic grand romance between Count Axel de Fersen and French Queen Marie-Antoinette in a magnificent production.

Woody Land, who recently purchased the MLA Mini system, ground-stacked eight cabinets above two MSX subwoofers, on each

UK - With entries for the inaugural Festival Supplier Awards (FSAs) now coming in thick and fast, organiser A.M.P. Events has announced a strong line-up of high profile festival organisers will judge submissions.

Cairing the expert panel is Nic Howden, a journalist with over 12 years' experience covering UK and Europe's largest festivals. Joining him will be Lee House, senior events manager for Coventry City Council and production lead for the Godiva Festival, UK's largest, free to attend, festival; Dan Craig, head of operations at Loudsound, event director for Field Day and operations director at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time and Hannah Farnham, Live Nation's head of production and events (UK) Music.

Howden commented, "I'm delighted to be chairing the judging panel for the inaugural Festival Supplier Awards, there's a refreshingly singular focus to the FSAs in

Italy - Outline Butterfly and Mantas loudspeaker systems amplified the voice of Pope Francis on the occasion of the Holy Mass celebrated on the Plain of Sibari before a crowd of 250,000 worshippers.

A stage 50m by 25m was erected for the event, along with the installation of four maxi-screens, 200 chemical toilets and 20 km of barriers. The "stalls" had seating for 35,000. The area to be covered by the audio system measured 650m by 250m and the sound reinforcement system installed was manufactured by Outline - to be precise a rig comprising 56 Butterfly modules, 24 Mantas modules and 24 Subtech 218 to boost the low frequencies.

In the vicinity of the Papal chair, two Outline DVS 8, two stage monitor H.A.R.D. 212 and two H.A.R.D. 115 speakers were installed. The choir had other H.A.R.D. 212 monitors at its disposal, while Tripla, Doppia and DVS 10 enclosures covered o

UK - ETC's UK dealers have now installed over 28,000 Sensor power control channels across central London, making ETC the most popular choice in the capital. If all the modules were stacked on top of one another, they would reach 980m, making them significantly taller than the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa - practically Lilliputian at just 820m - whose nightly strobe light shows are controlled by an ETC Congo control system.

The latest recipient of Sensor is the Prince Edward Theatre on Old Compton Street. The theatre's dimmers were last updated in 1993, and were due for renewal in time for the hit production of Miss Saigon. In keeping with other theatres in the Delfont Mackintosh group, which The Prince Edward is part of, five ETC Sensor3 power-control racks fitted with 240 modules, including ThruPower modules, were specified and installed. That gives a

USA - New York's Radio City Music Hall saw the commencement of the 68th annual Tony Awards on Sunday 8 June 2014, with a flamboyant Hugh Jackman hosting the show and a live broadcast televised on US network CBS.

The Tony Awards are a place of recognition for achievements in Broadway productions over the past season and this year's ceremony saw an array of shows from Aladdin, Hedwig and the angry inch, The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun to Les Miserables, Of Mice and Men as well as Rocky. With such a wide line-up the 15 Musical Tony Awards went to seven different musicals while the 11 Play Tony Awards went to six different plays.

This year's show was programmed and operated by highly experienced Hippotizer expert Peter Vincent Acken who designed a set-up using a total of 192 layers running over more than 48 DMX universes

UK - Proving last year that London's controversial Hyde Park festival site could be protected from noise leakage into the surrounding neighbourhood by deploying Martin Audio's MLA technology, promoters AEG Live adopted a similar solution for this year's Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park festival - but with significant enhancements.

While Capital Sound, again deployed MLA and MLA Compact to guarantee coherent site coverage, Martin Audio's R&D director, Jason Baird, was determined that new optimisations would enable them to eke out as much as an additional 3dB at front-of-house without increasing offsite pollution.

As a result, 102dB(A) was achieved for McBusted, with 73dB(A) recorded offsite, comfortably within the maximum allowable of 75dB(A), while both Tom Jones (during his more strident numbers) and Black Sabbath nudged 103dB(A).

Baird explained that the

USA - As the curtain rose on the 2014 summer season of The Public Theater's free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, Masque Sound was once again on-hand to offer its support to one of New York City's most beloved traditions, providing custom audio equipment packages for this year's line-up, as well as for The Public's array of other shows and events hosted throughout the year.

The Public Theatre boasts several expansive venues, including its landmark downtown home on Astor Place, which houses five theatres plus Joe's Pub; the Delacorte Theatrein Central Park, home to its free Shakespeare in the Park; and the Mobile Unit, which tours Shakespearean productions for underserved audiences throughout New York City's five boroughs.

Recently named audio supervisor of the famed establishment, Corrine Livingston manages upwards of 20 plus shows and producti

UK - Lighting specialist White Light has recently supplied production solutions for the George Benson 2014 UK Tour. The Grammy Award winning artist performed some of his greatest hits including Give Me the Night and Turn Your Love Around during the tour which visited venues across the UK during June of 2014. The tour made stops in Glasgow, Manchester, London and Bournemouth.

White Light provided a complete lighting package for the tour, which was designed by LD Simon Tutchener. He described his approach to lighting the tour:

"I wanted to include a lot of colour and texture into the lighting. This was my third George Benson tour, so I was able to incorporate my previous experience and knowledge into this tour and have some fun with it."

The lighting rig is based around a core of Martin Professional fixtures - namely the MAC Viper Profile - while also i

UK - Lighting designer Steven Bewley is using a primarily Clay Paky rig to light renowned trip-hop trio London Grammar during the band's current UK tour.

The delicate lighting design created by the Newcastle-based designer weaves the band's haunting music into a web of theatrical glamour and is already earning itself industry praise.

"The brief from the band was that they wanted every song to look different," explains Bewley. "So the creative concept for the lighting design came from the idea of merging looks from a TV show, a stage show and a gig. We wanted to create a real mix - there's some old-style lighting mixed with video as well some new styles layered with some cutting edge LED technology."

During the past six months Bewley has worked with the band on their UK and American tours, deciding to change up the rig during this current UK tour by specif

Italy - Superstar singer / songwriter Vasco Rossi staged seven stadium shows in Rome and Milan this summer playing to over 400,000 fans, complete with a lightshow to match the occasion designed by his long term LD, Giovanni Pinna.

Pinna used 68 Robe Robin LEDBeam 100s which were used as specials and for highlighting the ebullient audiences that flocked to see Rossi whose controversial and hugely successful career has spanned four decades, spawned 27 albums and several spats with authority. He is one of the great Italian showmen who is passionate about his performances and famous for his live interaction and very strong bonds with the crowds when onstage.

For these shows Pinna took the set design by Gioforma based on the album artwork as his starting point for lighting. The stage was custom designed for the show and he crammed every available centimetre with lighting fixtures -

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