UK - Leisuretec Distribution Ltd have confirmed their new trade partnership with Laserworld (Switzerland) AG, manufacturers of show laser systems, effective September 2014.

Leighton Buzzard-based Leisuretec are distributors of professional and commercial audio, lighting, video and special effects to the trade.

Cliff Dounting, managing director, commented on the new partnership, "It's extremely exciting to see your growth plans continue to develop and by adding a whole new product category to our portfolio is fantastic. We are very proud to be partnering with Laserworld and to have the opportunity to provide our customers with a greater choice of products. These are amazing show lasers designed and built to a very high standard and backed by great technical support. We are very excited to be able to provide even greater value and added services to our clients."

Sale

UK - Creative Technology have been involved with the provision of display technology to The Championships, Wimbledon for 15 years. In that time there have been numerous developments and evolutions, perhaps the most challenging taking place in 2014.

Alongside the large screen on the Aorangi Terrace (aka Henman Hill/Murray Mound), CT now provide 28 additional LED displays and a sophisticated production, routing and distribution system.

The four ticketed show courts each have a pair of full colour LED score boards and smaller ball speed indicators. The traditional flip dot displays were upgraded to full colour LED in 2007 to coincide with the redevelopment of Centre Court and the introduction of Hawkeye. Originally employing Barco's O-lite 612 system the displays were enlarged and upgraded in 2013 with Barco's new C8 technology.

Whilst the television viewer only ever sees the d

USA - The Penn State Nittany Lions play all of their home games at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania. With an astounding capacity of over 106,000, Beaver Stadium is the second largest stadium in the Western hemisphere (after the University of Michigan's stadium) and the fourth largest in the world.

A recent off-season upgrade to high-definition LED scoreboards inspired a parallel upgrade to a new high-definition sound system that relies on Danley Sound Labs Jericho Horns to throw sound from the south end zone clear across to the north end zone - and all areas between - with point-source, horn-loaded fidelity. Coverage is a remarkable ±2dB across that huge expanse, and eight Danley TH-812 subwoofers support the full-range content with honest, musical low end that shakes the stands.

Clair Solutions senior systems designer Jim Devenney designed the system with assi

USA - Watermark Community Church, a prominent biblical community with a worship presence in three Texas cities, has chosen Renewed Vision's ProVideoPlayer 2 (PVP2) to create dynamic, high-impact multiscreen video presentations at its 3,500-seat Dallas worship centre.

The PVP2 installation is a significant element of a larger technology upgrade, which includes a dedicated fiber network to connect its Dallas location with a 500-seat worship centrein Fort Worth; and a third worship centre opening in Plano in early 2015.

Les Brown, technical director for Watermark Community Church in Dallas, was seeking a reliable and affordable solution to replace a six-year-old Green Hippo media playback server, which reached end of life and could no longer be upgraded. He researched PVP2 following recommendations from media technicians at other houses of worship and drew on his experience using

UK - What have a raven eating a worm on a string, Dynamo the magician throwing Mr Bump at people and a man buying an £80 watch for £4,000 got in common? These were all things that actually happened at UKTV Live on 4 September 2014.

And if that all sounds too crazy for words, the logistics and systems to make this event happen were equally complex. An annual showcase of UKTV's new season shows, the event needed to be slick, exciting and wired with the latest technology. Cue Broadsword, a full service technical event company, who helped UKTV launch its upcoming programmes to the industry for the third year running, partnering with producers Momentum Events.

This year, the event was held at the Phillips Gallery in London. The open-plan venue was the perfect place to offer live stage shows coupled with lounge areas and exhibition booths. Key to this was using the space

Portugal - When the famous Rock in Rio Festival returned to Lisbon (Portugal) this summer, and crowds of up to 350,000 swarmed to the Parque da Bela Vista, they zeroed in on the main Palco Mundo stage, the façade of which was spectacularly lit by 120 GLP impression X4 LED heads.

This provided the setting for top tier acts such as the Rolling Stones, Arcade Fire, Justin Timberlake, Linkin Park, Queens of the Stone Age and many more to perform over the four days.

Having worked with Rock in Rio, one of the largest festivals in the world, for the last decade, lighting design company, bright! GmbH again turned to GLP's successful impression platform.

Thomas Giegerich, who runs the German lighting company with brother Michael, confirmed that they had successfully built on the legacy of the original impression 90s. "We used all the X4 to bring the metal stage structure to lif

Ireland - Chauvet Professional PVP LED video panel technology was specified by Dublin-based company, Just Lite Productions, to illuminate the main stage area at Ireland's Life Festival for the exclusively electronic music line-up, headlined by London's Groove Armada.

The back of stage area was rigged with PVP S7 LED video panels to create a 6-by-2m screen. The PVP S7 is a solid, high definition video panel with black face SMD LEDs and a tight pixel pitch of 7.8mm, suitable for a high-ambiance festival setting where high-resolution graphics and a high contrast ratio are required. The panels achieve equally crisp images in short- and long-viewing applications, as well as in the dark and in daylight.

The front of the DJ box featured PVP S5 LED video panels, providing a contrast with its tighter 5.2mm pixel pitch for shorter viewing distances. Again, the common PVP video technolog

UK - Britannia Row Productions Training is hosting an Open Evening on Tuesday 16 September - 6.00pm - 8.30pm at its Wandsworth Training Centre in London.

Says the organisation, "Learn about the course from the world-class sound engineers who deliver our training, and who will be running practical demos for you. Explore the facilities and hear from students how our training has enabled them to start their careers in live sound. Come along and tell us how we can help you!"

(Jim Evans)

Belgium - Production Resource Group (PRG) recently backed their Belgian division with a substantial investment in a new Adamson Energia system.

The company has taken delivery of 36 E15 line array enclosures with 24 E219 subwoofers scheduled to arrive in the fourth quarter. The E15 line arrays were immediately put to work at Festivalpark in Werchter, Belgium. PRG EML provided the Energia system for the TW Classic, headlined by The Rolling Stones and then for Rock Werchter, featuring Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon and Metallica. The E15 system is now currently out for a Spanish tour with Negramaro.

"The Werchter Festival is one of the biggest festivals in Europe," explains Patrick "Duim" Demoustier, senior sound engineer for PRG EML. "The E15 line arrays performed extremely well - they were fantastic and I was very impressed."

The Adamson system - used

UK - This year, the Bupa Great North Run was the first event of its kind in the world to reach its one millionth entrant. On 4 September both Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides, along with the River Tyne were transformed into a huge outdoor arena marking the countdown to this year's run.

The stunning opening ceremony included mass choreography, live music, boats, giant floating sculptures, projection mapping, pyrotechnics and more to tell the incredible story of the North East, featuring a creative team who have previously worked on the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Opening Ceremonies.

Aurora Lighting Hire provided lighting facilities for the event working with lighting designer Oli Richards, assisted by associate lighting designer, Seb Williams. Working closely with the design team was production electrician John Nowell and Aurora project manager Sam Crook.

Oli Richard

USA - With 21 tour dates across the United States, the Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival, presented by Funny or Die, features 25 of the nation's hottest comics.

On tour, the audio challenge presented for the tour technicians is vastly different from those seen on concert or theatrical productions. Needing to be precise with their audio coverage, Front of house engineer Nick Walsh, monitor technician Mike Norfleet, and production manager Chris Warndahl are relying upon the services of Miller Pro Audio AVL and a full line of the their Omega Corps PA system.

"I have been out with the Oddball Festival for the last two years and having played a lot of these same venues previously, we knew the challenge would be that they are pretty steep with long throws making them hard to cover," began Walsh. "There are a lot of factors to consider so we try to cover ourselves

Israel - The fifth annual Masada Opera Festival, held at the foot of Mount Masada-one of Israel's most popular tourist attractions-featured stunning performances of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata opera for an audience of thousands over the course of six days.

With Mount Masada serving as a stage backdrop and the sets incorporating the desert elements of the area, lighting director Bogumil Palewicz along with Michal Znaniecki, stage director, and Luigi Scoglio, set designer, deployed Martin Professional fixtures to provide stage and effects lighting.

The outdoor stage was created to depict the city of Paris, France rising from desert sand. Working with the stage designer and set designer to ensure the audience's view was not obstructed, Palewicz created a design that positioned the lighting equipment in the sand and on towers placed away from the main stage. Palewicz used

UK - XL Video has announced the launch of its new multilingual, multi-country website.

Working with Eindhoven-based digital agency, Beachhead, the site has been developed over several months in line with XL's group strategy.

The detailed specification for the website was created by a team with input from all XL's offices worldwide and included the key requirement that the new site must have a mobile-friendly responsive design. This aim reflects the growing demand of website-visitors for an online experience that is equally good whether the user is browsing on a smartphone, computer or tablet.

XL Video's new website is designed to be used by clients looking for video solutions in their chosen market sectors, as well as providing an information resource for technical producers and technicians with details of the technology items XL uses for its projects.

The website provides

Italy - Now in its 17th year, Italy's La Notte della Taranta (Night of Tarantula) is both the country's biggest music festival and its most important event dedicated to traditional culture. Three weeks of live concerts culminated in a huge show in the town of Melpignano, where four Yamaha CL and QL consoles weaved ancient and modern music seamlessly together.

The festival takes place throughout the Salento peninsula (the 'heel' of Italy) and is dedicated to the celebration of the region's folk music. 2014's festival featured 17 live shows on consecutive nights, each in a different town or village, with Salento music played in both the traditional style and fused with other types of music, including world, rock, jazz and classical.

Sound designer Cristiano Grassini of the Rooster Group chose two Yamaha CL5s, a CL1 and a QL1 to accommodate the varied line-up for the final show i

USA - Headquartered in Madison, the Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA) is 13,000 members strong and one of the largest trade organizations in the Badger State. Among the many services that it offers its members, continuing education is perhaps the most prominent.

Throughout most of its hundred-plus year history, members travelled to the WRA headquarters to keep current with seminars, workshops, and conferences, and its building contains flexible training and conference rooms to deliver those services. With the advent of modern telecommuting technologies, the WRA has sought to bring its continuing education to its members.

However, the staff's early experimentation with free web-based software and homespun AV technology proved frustrating on both ends due to poor audio and video quality. WRA hired Peak Systems Group of Reedsburg, Wisconsin to update their rooms with modern re

Belgium - Splendit is a Belgian lighting and sound rental company based in Liedekerke and headed by Marijn Broeckaert, who has a great passion for the industry and is also an LD / programmer in his own right.

He formed the company in 2007 with the ambition of becoming a premium equipment supplier to top-end professional production markets, offering the highest standards of excellence.

Splendit has built up a reputation for servicing some of the leading TV shows and lighting designers. In the last years Marijn also consciously made the decision to start investing in Robe moving lights to further service his clients.

The Robes have all been delivered by Robe's Benelux distributors Controllux, whose Bram de Clerk co-ordinated the deal and pulled out all the stops to ensure that the first purchase of 36 x LEDWash 300s were delivered just two weeks later as they were required for

UK - Two well-known figures of the pro audio industry, Barry Revels and Craig Lovell, have made a significant investment in Bel Digital Audio Ltd, resulting in the formation of the Bel Digital Group holding company.

The new holding company will also include British manufacturer 4HM Limited, which specializes in MADI related equipment for the professional audio, broadcast and live industries, allowing the merging the Bel and 4HM brands.

This combination results in a significant expansion of non-overlapping, yet complementary, products and will deliver the associated benefits to product development from significant investment in R&D and the adoption of new technologies.

The enhanced management team is excited by the opportunity afforded to take the well-respected Bel brand forward, with new products that will benefit wider market segments. The combined companies and their prod

USA - As the East Coast's first Olympic-calibre BMX track, Novant Health BMX in Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA, offers national and world-level BMX racing events. In 2015, Novant will host the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup Finals. This race will serve as the main qualification event for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The track has both an amateur and an elite supercross start hill as well as a pump track and offers amateur events and training. These features are expected to help Novant attract a large sports-tourism crowd.

During the planning stages, the city of Rock Hill contacted Butch Bailey and Keith Ludlam of B&K Pro Audio and Lighting to design an audio system for the track. The city wanted clear voice paging and high-quality music covering the entire venue which extends over several acres.

To meet these needs, B&K designed a system using Community's R Series loudspeakers

USA - California based sales and rental company Felix Lighting - headquartered in Los Angeles with a recently opened office in San Francisco - has added 40 x Robe Robin CycFX 8 moving LED batten fixtures to its rental stock, which also includes Robe Pointes.

The CycFx 8s were initially purchased for the Sunday Night Football introduction with Carrie Underwood on NBC, featuring lighting designed by Benoit Richard, and were part of a specification that also included 47 Pointes.

The new CycFX 8s are now part of Felix Lighting's rental stock where they are already proving popular.

Account representative Charlie Malings said, "We decided to purchase the CycFXs - as opposed to cross rent them for the event - based on research and what we are hearing on the industry grapevine. They are a welcome addition to our rental inventory and have been constantly in demand since they arr

China - Elation Professional's new high-powered Platinum BX beam and hybrid Platinum SBX moving heads debuted in a big way on the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games held 16 August in Nanjing, China.

Lighting designer Sha Xiao Lan, who wowed the world with his lighting design for the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, awed spectators once again with a brilliant light show that incorporated 400 Platinum BX and SBX fixtures. Production company for the event was Beijing Fengshang Shiji Culture Art Co., Ltd.

Held at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre and televised around the globe, Sha Xiao Lan created a number of spectacular looks including one in which he placed 20 Platinum BX units in a huge scenic astronomical telescope, which illuminated the night sky and became an iconic element that stood out as one of the main highlights of the ev

Switzerland - 2014 marks the sixth year that DiGiCo has sponsored the Montreux Jazz festival, supplying a wide selection of mixing consoles to all of the event's main venues. Just the place, then, for a Swiss audio company to invest in a new DiGiCo desk.

Based in Elsau-Räterschen, show-concept.ch is a production company that delivers a complete service for live corporate and entertainment events. The company has used DiGiCo's smaller consoles since 2010 but, with one eye on next year's festival season, felt it was the right time to invest in a major Front of House system.

"We have invested in our new flagship DiGiCo SD5, as well as being the first company in Switzerland to purchase a JBL VTX V20 line array. Together they mean we are very well equipped for both touring shows and the summer festival season," says Cyril Schmuki, audio/sales engineer at show-concept.ch<

UK - On behalf of Glastonbury Festivals Ltd, the event production services company was responsible for overseeing all production aspects. A local crowd of over 5,000 enjoyed a stellar line up, as headliners the Foals were supported by Ella Eyre, and local up-and-coming band Fast Decline.

Introduced by Michael Eavis, the event serves as a thank you to Pilton village that lives with the disruption the main festival can bring, with all money raised given in grants to different local organisations.

Managing director of EnTEEtainment Ltd, Dick Tee said, "With the likes of Kasabian headlining in 2005 when it was held at the village hall playing fields, the popularity of the event quickly outgrew its former site, and moved to Worthy Farm in 2007. Drawing on our depth of knowledge of the site and long standing relationship with Glastonbury Festivals, we were brought in to provide

UK - When it comes to the London premiere of the Marvel superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy, you know you're going to need a robust, reliable, and feature-rich console to control the lighting: step forward Luke Edwards and his Avolites Tiger Touch II.

Thousands of fans turned up at the capital's Empire Theatre in Leicester Square to see stars including Vin Diesel arrive on the red carpet and be interviewed on a specially created structure that boasted 20 x LED pixel tracks, amongst other fixtures.

Using the Tiger Touch II's pixel mapping feature, Edwards - who also works as touring LD for acts such as Gary Numan and Crystal Fighters - programmed a video-like look that wowed the crowds.

"Pixel mapper is a fast and effective way to achieve the 'wow' look when the budget doesn't cover media servers," says Edwards, who was working on behalf of Limited Edition

Australia - Sydney based EventSound has added a Soundcraft Si Compact and a Si Performer 2 console to their inventory and managing director Keith Clarkson reports that they have both been "great!"

"As an ardent Soundcraft fan, I was eagerly looking forward to the release of the Compact and Performer series of digital consoles," he said. "These were the first digital consoles I knew how to operate without even turning them on, from just their layout. I like to think of them as the digital console for the analogue guy."

Keith's first gig out with the Soundcraft Si Compact was for Jennifer Hawkins' engagement party held at Palm Beach with live performances from Martini Club and guest performer Guy Sebastian.

"With such an intuitive layout it was easy to set up for FOH and monitor mixes," he added. "Straight away you feel comfortable

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