USA - Following an extensive top-to-bottom renovation, the Altria Theatre in Richmond, Virginia reopened earlier this month, reintroducing the community to the elegant 1920's style and spirit that drew in millions of patrons over the course of its storied history. Now equipped with modern theatre systems, improved seating, refurbished décor, and greater amenities, the theatre is better equipped than ever to provide a bridge between the arts and the theatre-going public.

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

UK - The red carpet moments at the MTV EMA Awards have grown into an occasion in their own right, demanding the kind of production values usually discovered once inside the show itself. This year's event at Glasgow took the red carpet celebrations to yet another level.

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

France - France's National Theatre, the Hexagon, has been a challenging space for sound reinforcement since it was built in 1976. The perfectly shaped hexagonal room, with a seating capacity of 560, hosts 35 shows each season. It also regularly offers arts community training programmes, conferences and debates.

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

Australia - The University of Sydney in Australia recently unveiled the X-Lab, a 40x20m space that houses up to eight classes using advanced live lecture streaming. Using a multipoint distribution strategy based on a Dante network from Audinate, the IP-based architecture efficiently streams lecture audio to ensure as many as 240 students receive a targeted, immersive, engaging and uninterrupted educational experience.

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

South Africa - Having just completed the 2014 Let the Night In European Tour, South African band Prime Circle are looking forward to playing across home soil during December.

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

Italy - Enigma is a spectacular stage-show and centrepiece at the new Cinecitta World visitor attraction in Rome - the first theme park dedicated to the rich world and history of Italian cinema - which has spawned numerous genius directors like Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Franco Zeffirelli and many more.

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

UK - For this summer's Camden Roundhouse's Reverb festival, singer-songwriter Imogen Heap curated four days of events, which culminated in a headline show from Heap herself. As per the experimental theme of the festival, 12 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures were pixel-mapped for one of the first times in the UK, as part of Martir's innovative show design.

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

Canada - As the quality of the experience becomes an increasing priority in retail, Highstreet Fraser Valley combines an outstanding environment with the latest technology to provide a destination with a fresh new approach.

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

Perfect Day - One Direction topped the winners list at the American Music Awards, taking home a total of three prizes. They were named artists of the year and also took home album of the year and favourite pop/rock album. "This has been a real perfect day... America feels like a second home to us," said Liam Payne. Katy Perry, who did not appear at the ceremony in Los Angeles, also won three awards, including one for best single for Dark Horse featuring Juicy J.

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

UK - Bolton Wanderers F.C is enjoying the benefits of a new media suite following a makeover by sponsor, SPIE. The new look was recently revealed at club manager, Neil Lennon's first press conference. As a sponsor, SPIE's branding will be visible on the backdrop of manager interviews until 2017 and bespoke ads will appear in match programmes.

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

UK - Entertainment equipment expert Triple E is sponsoring London's Young Vic theatre this month by donating a complex ERAIL track system solution for the JMK Award winning production of Caryl Churchill's Far Away.

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

USA - Lollapalooza 2014 returned to Grant Park, Chicago this time with Clay Paky's A.leda B-EYE K20 innovative, LED-based moving lights helping the annual music festival to shine.

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

UK - When one of New Zealand's leading bands, Fat Freddy's Drop, confirmed their headlining show at London's Alexandra Palace, they contacted XL Video to supply live video production for the sold-out one-off gig.

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

USA - Lighting designer Chris Reade is back on the road with his Jands Vista T2, S1 and M1 consoles, controlling an even more technically ambitious rig for the latest tour by Platinum-selling singer-songwriter, Dierks Bentley.

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

UK - Star Events provided a platform off Westminster Pier last week, for street trial cyclist Danny MacAskill to perform a spectacular water-borne loop-the-loop, aided and abetted by Microsoft's new Windows phone personal assistant, Cortana.

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

UK - In celebration of all things natural and nocturnal, nighttime visitors to Edinburgh's much-loved Royal Botanic Garden (RBGE) saw the familiar landscapes and buildings transformed by a magical light installation during November.

Designed by light artist Malcolm Innes, along with his colleague Euan Winton and supplied and installed by light solutions specialist Black Light the aptly named 'Night in the Garden' invited people to visit the gardens after dark to view and interact with an inspired display of light, art and nature.

The initiative was designed to bring a fresh sense of place and perspective to a familiar attraction and was two-and-a-half years in the making. It was made possible through the partnership of Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh Napier University, Unique Events, Event Scotland, via Homecoming Scotland 2014, and Black Light.

"This installation was

USA - An Outline GTO C-12-based line source sound system, recently installed in the Summit Music Hall in Denver by DSI Event Group (formerly Dowlen Sound), rocks the house for such high-power musical groups as Anberlin, Andrew McMahon and GWAR, to name a few.

The 1,100-seat venue, purchased by Soda Jerk Presents in 2010, needed the sonic adrenaline provided by the Outline GTO C-12 system to bring it to the next level. While this system could easily handle a larger outdoor audience of several thousand attendees, the GTO C-12 fits the bill for this venue, providing the clarity and power necessary for the performances without exceeding the flying-rig weight limits of the building's ceiling.

"We had been shopping for a line array since we first acquired the building," says Michael Barsch, owner of Soda Jerk Presents. "We looked at a lot of different brands, focusing

Spain - Originally designed for classical music, L'Auditori de Barcelona has in recent years turned to a more inclusive programme, welcoming even international pop stars to its stage. It's a familiar response to the vox pops clarion call, yet as home to the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, this is no lightly considered indulgence.

L'Auditori is, by Catalans, considered a national institution. Not without a clear sense of purpose did L'Auditori become the first concert venue in Spain to join the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) in 2007, a matter of some pride for a venue only open since 1999.

With such a focussed mind-set the Technical Directorate identified a key weakness for the expanded programme. "We already had a point source solution, and some delays due to the long size of the auditorium," said head of sound Toni Vila. "Y

Bali - Master Audio has supplied a complete suite of sound systems for the first ever hotel from the prestigious fashiontv brand. Love F Hotel by fashiontv is strategically located among the chic boutiques and glitzy bars of Legian on the island of Bali.

Supply, design and installation of the sound systems, in the hotel foyer, restaurant, café, Jacuzzi Bar, Private Cabana and F Love Bar, was carried out by Iken Thio of Master Audio's Jakarta based Indonesian distributor, Ken's Audio.

The hotel was designed by the internationally renowned firm of Marques and Jordy, who realised the luxury and glamour of the fashiontv brand in the hotel's uncompromising comfort and style. The six discrete audio installations demanded extensive and various system design solutions - ranging from outdoor line arrays to discrete diffuse background audio - incorporating product from across the

UK - Edinburgh-based Black Light helped the world-famous Gleneagles Hotel revamp its flagship conference venue in time for the 2014 Ryder Cup.

The project involved the installation of power, data, sound and lighting systems in the hotel's Gleneagles Suite. This is Gleneagles' premier event space and the location of many high-profile meetings and functions.

"Our work was part of an overall refurbishment of the suite by designers Sedley Place," says Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "Our role was to help the designers create more flexible lighting and AV options for event organisers. We worked closely with the contractor, Stag Developments, and the main user, Catalyst Event Production Services to bring this project to fruition."

The specific project brief was to install lighting and speakers, along with data, power and dimming channel

UAE - Effective October 2014 Eurotruss and Procom ME have signed a master distribution agreement for the Middle East.

Procom ME is established in Dubai with a significant presence in Beirut as well, and specialises in the fields of professional lighting, sound, video and rigging. Leading brands it represents include Clay Paky, Avolites and Meyer Sound. Procom also provides back up by a skilled creative and experienced team, plus comprehensive rigging solutions for all requirements in various fields and locations.

In addition to its turnkey solutions, Procom provides top of the line support backed by an extensive stock of Eurotruss products and a service centre in one of the largest showrooms of its kind in Middle East.

Eurotruss sales representative Charbel Zoghbi will continue as sales & support representative to guarantee the presence of Eurotruss in the market for custome

UK - Based on a true story as well as the 2010 film of the same name, Made in Dagenham is a new musical comedy at London's Adelphi Theatre about the equal pay strike by the women who made car seats at the London suburb's Ford factory in 1968. The show stars Gemma Arterton as Rita O'Grady.

The action unfolds against a lively soundtrack of 1960s-inspired song and dance numbers and brightly coloured sets. To automate the latter the show's production manager, Matt Towell selected Stage Technologies to supply a 39-axis overhead, stage level and sub-stage automation control system; and sister company Delstar Engineering to provide fabricated steelwork, tracks and engineering.

Stage Technologies' BigTow Classic, BT2-200 and BT2-390 winches as well as motors and hydraulics automate the 39 axes. Seven AU:tour 6 cabinets are stationed in the Adelphi's basement to power the system, and i

Russia - Founded by lead singer and only remaining original member Yuri Shevchuk in 1980, DDT is a popular Russian rock band named after the pesticide DDT, and is among the best known and most prolific Russian bands of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The band was recently back on the road again for its current Pellucid tour. Their lighting designer Andrejs Dubkovs (Lumen Art Division) used a grandMA2 full-size console and a MA NPU (Network Processing Unit).

Dubkovs explained his preference for MA control solutions: "I've been working with many lighting boards and brand names, but for the last seven years we've been mainly using MA equipment. This is because MA products are very reliable and offer a handy and user-friendly environment. My favourite two things are the timecode function and the macro programming as well as being able to set up your own working e

UK - Hawthorn, the independent supplier of technical production services, has named DPA Microphones as its primary mic brand. Established in 1987, Hawthorn employs over 120 staff from offices around the UK and handles over 1,000 events every year, including gala dinners, product launches, conferences and parties.

The company's product portfolio has seen a major investment over the last two years including lighting, sound, AV, rigging, staging and drapes. Among this considerable inventory is a wide range of DPA mics, including d:fine Headset, d:screet 4060 lavalier and d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones. Audio quality is very important to Hawthorn, which bases its reputation on delivering exceptionally high standards

"It all started a few years ago when we were looking for headset microphones to replace the brand we had previously been using," says Jon Curnew, Hawthor

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