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14 March 2016

"It seemed that every time we put some lights up, half an hour later they were encased in branches so it wasn't so much a matter of focusing more a matter of pruning," commented lighting designer for the event Richard Grenfell.

Richard wanted a look of dappled light coming through the trees but how to rig a fixture that delivers a fat and wide-angle beam with only a four metre trim in the venue, was a problem. The only fixture that could do this was the Clay Paky B-EYE which Richard used in a static mode.

"If you take the B-EYEs out of their disco / kaleidoscope mode into a nice fat breakup beam and then use the inbuilt effects to very slowly p

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14 March 2016

The production was designed by Florian Wieder and Matthias Kublik from Wieder Design. The circular main stage featured a backdrop of LED surrounded by a series of elegant, curved metal ribs to form a vortex style structure inspired by the show's 'Time Machine' theme. A thin curved catwalk extended into the audience and an award presentation area and glamour pit faced the main performance stage.

XL's crew was led by project manager Guido Ruysschaert assisted on site by two crew chiefs Kurt Verhelle and Daan Govaerts.

Once again XL worked closely with MTV event manager Maggie Mouzakitis and production executive Andy Derbyshire, and Ogle Hog who provided all the content control and screen management.

A total of 170sq.m of

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14 March 2016

Lafortune worked alongside show director Josh Mowczko to specify numerous Clay Paky fixtures, including the Alpha Wash 700, Alpha Wash Halo 1200, Alpha Wash 1200, Alpha Spot HPE 1200, Alpha Profile 1200 and Alpha Spot HPE 1500, with the fixtures delivering a range of beautifully absorbing textures, reliability and ultimate flexibility.

"This show was probably one of the first ever Cirque du Soleil productions with a specific storyline, which became the catalyst for many of the subsequent design choices," explains Lafortune. "The four main characters represent the four elements, which are reflected through colour so it originally made sense for the lighting t

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14 March 2016

According to Theatreplan partner, Dave Ludlam, the opportunity to expand into Hong Kong was not to be missed. "It was clear that in order to deliver the best possible service to the WKCDA, we needed a base in Hong Kong," he explained. "In addition to the enhanced service we can provide to the Black Box project, it also offers u

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14 March 2016

There were four positions available on the European Regional Board. Ed Pagett of Panalux was elected for a second term as Chairman, Peter James of Shure Distribution as representative to PLASA's Distributor members and Malcolm Burlow of Highlite was voted as the Dealer/Retailer representative. Robert Kronman joins the Board as the new Individual representative.

Four positions were also up for election on the North American Regional Board with Todd Spencer of PSAV elected as Vice-Chairman, Tracey Cosgrove of Rosco Laboratories as Secretary, Orestes

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14 March 2016

The regulator's decision will mean that radio microphones and other wireless audio devices key to the UK's thriving creative industries, including West End and regional theatres, could be forced to operate in less than two thirds of the spectrum to which they currently have access. Every night over 1000 wireless radio microphones are used in London's West End alone, largely operating within the spectrum that is to be cleared.

Fears remain that, if appropriate mitigating steps

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14 March 2016

The idea to address the issue came from the statistical evidence that when people sit in front of a movie screen they absorb 40% of the different sound effects whilst in a theatre this figure drops below 10%.The Békéscsaba Jókai Theatre has developed a system that crosses over between cinema and theatre sound in the form of a 8.1 channel surround so

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14 March 2016

According to Delta's operations director, Jonathan Bell, the decision to invest in Halo-C was straightforward. "The system has already proved itself to us many times over, not least of which by winning the tender with SBD to re-equip the Royal Albert Hall. Going through that process enabled us to evaluate the system extremely thoroughly. In short, it's an extraordinary product. The clarity and detail is exceptional, but what is truly outstanding in our opinion is the level of accuracy and ability to control dispersion over significant distances.

"When the time came to increasing our inventory of rental stock, we therefore decided on

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14 March 2016

The advert debuted during the season finale of Downton Abbey. Thousands of viewers across Britain saw it marking the end of a weekend of television packed with the Christmas adverts from major retailers, including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Argos and Asda.

The Christmas advert is the most talked about commercial advert in the UK. John Munro, CEO of Immersive, comments: "During a visit to the US, I experienced the whirlwind around Super Bowl adverts . . .

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14 March 2016

Working in collaboration with Wilson Butler Architects, Theatre Projects led the renovation of the 180,000sq.ft building's auditorium, theatre equipment, and support spaces. Nearly all of the renovations were conducted in phases, allowing the theatre to maintain its schedule of events.

Originally built as a Shriner Temple, the iconic venue opened in 1927 and became known as 'The Mosque' because of its tw

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14 March 2016

Lighting specialists for the film, television and entertainment sectors, Panalux, chose to invest in the new Magic Blades from Ayrton especially for this event. Panalux gaffer for the MTV event was Mark Gardiner who explains why: "I was first made aware of the Magic Blades when I was sent a web-link to a stunningly programmed video clip of them in action on the Ayrton web site...the effects were fantastic, very original. I then saw them a few days later exhibited at PLASA London and wasn't disappointed so we placed an order."

For lighting designer, Stuart Pring, this was his first encounter with the Bl

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14 March 2016

Olivier Delpeuch, sound engineer and head of the audio department at the Hexagon, recently underwent a search for a new sound reinforcement system for the theatre. After a thorough review, he opted for a distributed system made up of Adamson Point Series loudspeakers.

The solution was jointly developed by Adamson Systems' French distributor DV2 and sound company Music Plus. Antoine Maurel, project manager at Music Plus headed up the installation of the system.

The system is designed for flexibility, allowing it to adjust to the needs of the performances. Sound reinfor

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14 March 2016

Similar instructional laboratories previously relied on streaming live lectures to radio headsets, which created usability and safety concerns. The University of Sydney instead chose to use Dante to stream audio to hyper-directional loudspeakers positioned above each student. The Dante network delivers ultra-low latency streams over a standard network infrastructure, maintaining signal integrity and quality across the architecture to guarantee exceptional speech in

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14 March 2016

LD Vincent van Niekerk has been with the band for the past four and a half years and in July took ownership of an Avolites Tiger Touch 2.

"During my first three years I decided to work on as many different consoles as possible to learn as many as possible," explained Vincent. "But by doing that you can only imagine the complications when you arrive at a venue and you have to do a huge show off Light Jockey or DMX creator without a wing desk."

Since acquiring the Tiger Touch 2 Vincent says touring has become a breeze. "No matter what venue or what fixtures, the Tiger Touch 2 has all the personalities and all the versatility a touring desk needs. We've also started cueing all our

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14 March 2016

Lighting for the 25 minute Enigma show - produced by FilmMaster and staged in a 1200 capacity venue right in the centre of the complex - has been designed by internationally renowned LD Giovanni Pinna who specified a fully Robe moving light rig.

"'Enigma" is a highly visual show," he explains, "It's designed to illustrate the boundaries and the scope of illusion - one of the essential vehicles of filmmaking and storytelling."

It's a mixed media performance set to especially composed music featuring dancers, mapped p

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14 March 2016

Lighting and control designer Tupac Martir specified the flexible Clay Paky fixtures, which were supplied by Richard Martin Lighting, as an integral element of the set.

"The set is based on the concept of molecules, which I wanted to mirror in the lighting design through gobos," explains Martir. "When considering which fixtures I could use to give me that kind of look, the B-EYE was an easy choice."

The theme of the show evoked the forming of a human being, with the sound of a heartbeat kicking things

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14 March 2016

Located in Abbotsford, BC, Canada, Highstreet is a 600,000sq.ft open air shopping centre. This three-level centre features main street style shopping and dining with one and two storey buildings on the upper podium level, and a Walmart Supercentre with 1,400 covered parking stalls on the lower level. The development's compact design delivers a higher order of density than traditional regional retail projects, and is striving to become a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified project, which makes it one of the first in Canada for large scale retail projects.

The Highstreet development is by Shape Properties Corporation, one of the mos

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14 March 2016

High Society - Maria Friedman will direct a revival of High Society, as part of the Old Vic's 2015 season. The musical adaptation of the 1956 film will be performed in the round, and will have a four-month run at the theatre from 30 April until 22 August 22. Friedman said, "To stage High Society in the round at the Old Vic is a hugely exciting project providing the perfect immersive en

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14 March 2016

The refurbishment brings the quality of Bolton Wanderer's reception and media suite up to Premiership standards; the design was planned with the potential of league promotion in mind. The club's media suite is used for all pre-and post-match media activities including manager press conferences. Following the renovation the club also intends to hold pre-game media briefings in the facility.

During the re-fit, SPIE's Facilities Services division installed a new, energy-efficient lighting scheme in order to improve illumination quality, maki

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14 March 2016

Triple E's MD David Edelstein was initially approached by the Young Vic's technical director Igor, and then Far Away's production manager Ed Borgnis to design, supply and install an irregular-shaped track solution for a scene in the play requiring equipment trickery to achieve an inspired effect.

Far Away is directed by this year's JMK new directors award winner Kate Hewitt, with a design by Georgia Lowe.

"In the play there is a procession of people wearing hats, and the play leads us to understand they are on their way to be executed," explains Ed Borgnis. "Given that we are staging the show in our Clare Studio, with no space f

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14 March 2016

Lollapalooza was held 31 July - 2 August and headlined by Eminem, Outkast and Lorde with hundreds of other performers and bands on hand for the three-day celebration of alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop.

Lighting designer/lighting coordinator Seth Jackson did plots for Lollapalooza's four stages, working with the lighting designers who accompany the bands. "It's a three-month process going back and forth with the bands," he explains. "This year we had 10 B-EYEs on two of the stages, supplied by LD Systems, on the Lake Shore and Grove stages."

Lollapalooza marked Jackson's first time using B-EYEs. "I had seen a demo of the fixtures and was really excited

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14 March 2016

The Alexandra Palace show, in support of the band's third album Blackbird, rounds-off a successful year of UK shows, with a one-off at Village Underground in June, and a UK tour in October.

XL was asked to provide an HD camera system and IMAG projection for the show. To ensure the enthusiastic audience had the best view from anywhere in the venue, XL supplied three Sony HXC-100 cameras plus robocams, paired with four Barco 12k projectors doubled stacked on to XL's 16x12 ECT screens. The set-up was also used for opening DJ Mr Scruff.

Two of the cameras were situated in the pit, and used XL's track and dolly system for the close-ups, with a further static HXC-1

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14 March 2016

After recently topping the US Billboard country airplay chart with his 12th No.1 single, Drunk On A Plane, Dierks Bentley and director Wes Edwards have just added the CMA (Country Music Award) Music Video of the Year Award to the song's other accolades.

The country artist's 2014 tour is called Riser, after the recent album of the same name. It kicked off in May in Charlotte, North Carolina, with sold-out shows in amphitheatres and arenas across the United States and Canada - concluding in December.

The tour further builds upon Chris's impressive lighting design and rig for Dierks Bentley on last year's Locked & ReLoaded Tour with M

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14 March 2016

Fixed to a 500-tonne barge, the Star Events structure ran a ramp into the 5m loop, lined up with a round projector screen and the London Eye, accentuating Cortana's circular form.

Tasked with turning the event from paper to pontoon in just six weeks, Will Roberts, Production Manager for Microsoft's agency, Mission, sought out Star Events' significant experience with Thames' events and Vert ramps.

Roberts comments, "With that sort of deadline, you're designing, costing, scheduling, building and delivering in parallel and Star gave me a lot of confidence in the tender process. Their pricing was good, they have a big track record of ma