UK - London based events production company PR Live ensured the Warner Music 2015 Brits After-party really rocked for 1,100 guests at the Freemason's Hall in Covent Garden, supplying all elements of the design and technical production - sound, lighting, video, rigging, set and staging, assorted custom built props - complete with lighting and sound design and bespoke video content.

The project - managed for PR Live by Justin Hammond - included spectacular large format projections onto the exterior of the building to welcome the guests, and pixel mapping a wall of LED battens in the main room, as well ensuring the seven different themed areas inside the building each had their own distinctive vibe and style, including private areas for double Award winning Ed Sheeran, Warner executives and VIPs.

PR Live designer Jenny Willard initially took a detailed brief from the client and t

USA - Industry leaders from around the world descended into Nashville 21 February for the 26th Annual Pollstar Awards, where Bandit Lites received its 22nd Lighting Company of the Year Award.

Hosted by comedian Ralphie May, the Pollstar Awards occur during Pollstar Live and celebrates the music industry's movers and shakers. This year's event took place at the historic Ryman Auditorium, which was also awarded Theatre of the Year.

Bandit chair and founder, Michael T. Strickland accepted the award, crediting Bandit's wildly successful year to both its employees and clients, and dedicating it to the late Bob See of See Factor. The award was presented to Bandit by Cinderella lead singer Tom Kiefer.

Strickland said, "To again be named the best in the business by our peers is too much for words. The entire staff at Bandit Lites works tirelessly to deliver the highest quality

UK - The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has confirmed the quality and standards of provision at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance following its review in November 2014.

A team of QAA reviewers visited Rose Bruford College and judged that its academic standards, the quality and enhancement of its student learning opportunities, and the quality of information about its learning opportunities all meet UK expectations.

The review identified a number of examples of good practice. These include the excellent arrangements for students to engage in professional practice, and the support given to staff in developing reflection and scholarship in their academic practice.

The review also highlighted the development and integration of learning technologies within the curriculum.

The review made a recommendation for improvement: for the College to imp

UK - Lighting designer Louis Oliver of Okulus has used an array of Showline SL NITRO 510C fixtures as part of his colour-rich and punchy lighting design for You Me At Six's UK arena tour.

Specifying 29 of the powerful LED units from Zig Zag Lighting, Oliver rigged 18 on spines of truss in the air. Eleven of the strobes also made up his floor package upstage, where they lined the bottom of the vast video screen.

"I really like the SL NITRO 510C, it's my LED strobe of choice," says Oliver. "My design for this show was very video-heavy, however the units held their own against the 58' wide 20' deep video wall, as well as the other lighting in the rig."

Oliver's design was based on the band's previous touring campaign for the Cavalier Youth album. However he magnified it for the arena run, commissioning the slick video content from Pablo Beckett of Bry

South Africa - Within just six hours of ticket sales opening, the Pretoria leg of the show Afrikaans is Groot was sold out. The Cape Town leg followed suite with its three performances selling out by the end of that day. With artists like Juanita Du Plessis, Theuns Jordaan, Steve Hofmeyr, Bobby van Jaarsveld, Bok van Blerk, Robbie Wessels, Lianie May, Karlien van Jaarsveld, Jay, Riana Nel, Jannie Moolman, Arno Jordaan, Jak de Priester, Corlea Botha, EDEN, Dewald Wasserfall and more, the show promised to be a hit.

Featuring this amount of talent meant that the set and production had to be on point. Designed by Michael Gill and built by Gearhouse SDS, the set was a balance of light and metal finishes. The lighting was conceptualised and programmed by Mauritz Jacobs of Dream Sets. Jacobs thoroughly enjoyed the task. His basic objective was to light for a live show that had f

USA - Vail Beaver Creek in Colorado recently hosted this year's FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2015, with athletes representing 68 nations participating in this grand event, which was viewed by an estimated television audience of 1 billion. This is the third time the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado has welcomed the Championships, which are spread over 13 days and two weekends of events and races.

A full programme of events was preceded by a magnificent opening ceremony. Theatrical Media Services Inc. (TMS) provided a full service package consisting of lighting, truss structures, staging and LED video floor. Selected for this ceremony were 37 Q-7 flood/blind/strobes and 16 P-5 wash lights, each chosen for their applicability in the lighting design.

Lighting designer and operator from TMS, Aaron Stinebrink, explains, "The idea for the opening ceremony was to make a ve

USA - Scottsdale is some 260 miles from Las Vegas, but for four nights in early February, visitors to this Phoenix suburb could have thought they were on the Vegas Strip; at least if they were among the 8,000 fans who turned out for The Coors Light Birds Nest.

A four day festival held in conjunction with the Waste Management Open, Birds Nest is one of the most eagerly anticipated 19th hole events on the PGA tour. This year's edition didn't disappoint, bringing in acts like Kid Rock, Capital Cities, Darius Rucker and Afrojack who performed in a 50,000sq.ft tent shipped in from Germany that resembled a hot new Vegas club thanks in part to a dynamic lighting design from Creative Backstage using gear provided by Valley Production Services.

Creative Backstage set off the event's DJ stage with a cross- hatched "birds nest" design made with pixel mapped EPIX 2.0 series fixt

Greece - The National Bank of Greece in Stadiou Street is located in the former building of the first Athens Stock Market. The beautiful neoclassical structure, has an impressive interior and many renaissance features.

Constructed in 1890, the building provides the National Bank of Greece with a cultural venue for exhibitions, events, presentations and meetings. To service this multi-purpose usage, the bank needed audio of the highest quality and vocal intelligibility, and commissioned Athens-based Automation Broadcasting Audio Security (A.B.A.S.) to design and install the system.

Kostas Drosos of A.B.A.S. explained the challenge, "The beautiful interior is highly reverberant due to all its surfaces being very reflective, combined with the height of the room which reaches 16 metres. We needed a loudspeaker which delivered the audio quality required within a narrow vertica

USA - Such is the abundant talent of Sara Bareilles that 2015 will see her score a new theatre musical, record her next album, and no doubt add one or two performances for the Nation's First Family for whom she has performed numerous times. All this from an artist who only recently completed her first full production headline tour, travelling right across the USA, rounded off with visits to Australia, New Zealand, and several Asian cities.

Trey Smith, who has worked for her since 2008, was particularly careful in his choice of audio system for the Bareilles tour.

"For about five years, we have been using Spectrum out of Nashville. In my early days as her sound engineer we were touring bus and trailer, so Spectrum might just provide a simple console package. They did that for a long time; started with a Profile, in-ear systems and a few d&b M4 wedges; it was six years till

UK - EM Acoustics has announced the appointment of Pro Audio Systems as a main dealer. The Bradford-based company is well-known for its work both in the UK and overseas in sales, installations and hire, handling a diverse portfolio of projects for local authorities, high-profile retail clients, theatres, houses of worship and education. Their independence and focus on delivering best-case solutions was a key factor in the appointment.

"Our business is really based on delivering bespoke solutions that have to meet both budgetary and operational criteria," explained PAS sales manager, Dave Simpson. "That has led to us working in just about every environment imaginable where pro-audio equipment might be sold, installed or hired. In order to keep developing that capability we need to ensure that our product portfolio is as flexible as we are.

"In this market it

Israel - You would expect an impressive and memorable show to accompany the launch of the newest and largest expo hall in the Middle East ... and that was exactly the brief received by lighting designer Eran Klein of Tel Aviv based creative design practice Cochavi & Klein from show producers The Gallery.

Eran rose to the occasion, adding a generous helping of his visual magic to the occasion assisted by around 160 Robe moving lights - including 28 x BMFL Spots, 36 x MMX Spots, 24 x LEDWash 1200s, 54 x Pointes, 16 x MMX WashBeams and 16 x LEDBeam100s.

The gala opening show, directed by Amit Fisher, needed to deliver a breath-taking immersive experience for thousands of VIPs, celebrities and invited guests, and an event to establish Pavilion 2 - 'Hall of the Universe' - at the Tel Aviv Expo as a multi-purpose venue.

Cochavi & Klein worked with a hugely talented creative team i

UK / Germany - AED Distribution, the exclusive distributor of QSC Pro Audio in Germany and the UK since 1 November 2014, has taken its first steps in building a QSC Pro Audio retail network in those countries. Partnering with selected dealers that are specialised in QSC's product portfolio of speakers, amplifiers and digital mixers, the company has officially appointed Leisuretec in the UK and Starpoint in Germany.

"Our selected dealer network allows us to redefine the local QSC Pro Audio market and the presence of the QSC brand in these two countries," says Kenneth Bremer, business development manager at AED Distribution. "QSC is a premium and respected brand when it comes to audio solutions and it was important for us to partner up with dealers that truly understand the QSC DNA and show great enthusiasm in selling, demoing and using the QSC Pro Audio range."

The Netherlands - As a way to better serve the Dutch market, ETC is changing their sales structure in the Netherlands from a distributor based model to a dealer based model. That means that beginning on 1 March 2014, a sales structure will be set up where ETC will handle promotions and sell through a dealer network.

Lightco Nederland B.V. has been ETC's distributor for many years and has done great work promoting ETC. However, ETC's continued growth and product family expansions make it a challenge for distributors to promote the complete ETC product portfolio. "It's a very big job to promote all ETC products across different segments of the market. This responsibility is a lot to ask of our distributors, but is a necessary job to do," says Tim Stokholm, ETC's regional sales manager for Northern Europe.

Lightco will continue its relationship with ETC as a dealer. Lig

World Music - De La Soul will be the headline act at this year's Womad, the festival's organisers have announced. Other highlights at the world music festival will include Tinariwen and folk music band Bellowhead. Festival director, Chris Smith said: "I'm really excited about De La Soul, hip hop is a big thing for Womad." Last year the event sold out for the first time since it relocated from Reading in 2007 to Charlton Park near Malmesbury, Wiltshire.

Hearing Health - People should listen to music for no more than one hour a day to protect their hearing, the World Health Organization suggests. It says 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of permanently damaging their hearing by listening to "too much, too loudly". It said audio players, concerts and bars were posing a "serious threat". WHO figures show 43m people aged 12-35 hav

The Netherlands - The Theater de Flint, in Amersfoort is a renowned performing arts theatre, hosting a variety of musicals, dance, cabaret and classical ensembles throughout the year. As a venue with more than sufficient space to host conferences, exhibitions, trade shows and other public events, the theatre recently shut its doors for a complete overhaul of the foyers, restaurants and other public areas in order to bring more flexibility to the space.

As a result of the renovation which also included an upgrading of new intelligent light armatures, the theatre's technicians, Flint Sjoerd Wierda and Ad Slotboom, realised that the theatre needed to extend and change its technical infrastructure in order to deal with the demands of the new system. Working together with Rolight, the exclusive ELC Lighting distributor for The Netherlands, they designed an ELC network into the re-fit

UK - Technical production rental specialist Entec provided sound and lighting equipment and crew for the recent UK tour by singer songwriter John Grant featuring a collaboration with the Royal Northern Sinfonia - orchestrated by Fiona Brice - and delivering material from his two albums, 2013's Pale Green Ghosts and 2010's Queen of Denmark.

Entec's system engineer James 'Kedge' Kerridge worked alongside John Grant's own engineers Gabriel Nicotra (FOH) and Matt Pengelly (Monitors) and Matt Grounds who mixed the 29 piece orchestra. Also onstage was a regular electronic band comprising drums, guitar, bass and keyboards / synthesisers.

Gabriel has a long-standing working relationship with Entec and so returned to the west London based company again for more excellent service.

He specified a d&b V-Series system with flown V-SUBS and Q-Series as fills. The standard sy

Australia - TDC - Technical Direction Company enabled graffiti artists to express their artworks using technology in a true world first as part of this year's White Night Melbourne, one of Australia's most celebrated cultural events, which took place on Saturday, 21 February 2015.

TDC provided the technology and expertise behind a world first graffiti-mapping artwork projected onto the largest mural in Melbourne - spanning five stories high and 70m long. This groundbreaking piece of street art was one of the highlights of White Night Melbourne 2015, a 12-hour nocturnal extravaganza running from 7pm to 7am, inspired by Paris' Nuit Blanche and the international network of White Night programmes around the world.

"With a stunning and expanded event landscape, White Night Melbourne 2015 offered a great mix of free and ticketed entertainment over 12 hours, featuring local, nat

UK - PLASA's Technical Resources Office would like to remind LSiOnline readers that the European RDM and sACN Developers Conference and Plugfest for 2015 will take place from 22-24 April, in the UK, at Gatwick Manor, London Road at Lowfield Heath, just south of Gatwick Airport.

The Developers Conference provides a European forum for manufacturers, designers, consultants and prospective users; and aims to ensure that the adoption of these new standards achieves desired levels of interoperability and reliability.

Conference sessions will cover the understanding, implementation and use of the published E1.20 and E1.37 RDM standards. Other projects in the current PLASA Technical Standards Program such as 'E1.33: RDMnet' and the various E1.37-X extensions will also feature.

The 'Plugfest' is a hands-on opportunity for product developers to try out their hardware and code implemen

Italy - Piccolo Teatro in Milan was Italy's first permanent theatre and was declared a theatre of major European importance by Ministerial Decree in 1991. It was founded in the immediate post-war period by Paolo Grassi, Giorgio Strehler, Mario Apollonio, Virgilio Tosi and Nina Vinchi.

The Piccolo consists of three venues: the Sala Grassi, the 19th-century Teatro Fossati, which reopened in 1986 under the name Teatro Studio Melato, and the Teatro Strehler.

The Teatro Studio Melato started life as an experimental theatre, a training ground for the young students from the Piccolo Theatre School, and home to the international master classes which are held there annually. Its circular design is greatly appreciated by directors from all over the world for the special relationship it allows actors to establish with their audience. The theatre was recently equipped with Clay Paky Alpha

UK - Green Hippo has always placed a great importance on creating good relationships with its clients and supports them with their needs when designing, programming or operating shows.

To catch up with a long-standing client and friend, Green Hippo's Mercedes Stevao-Boase and Stefanie Mueller made their way to Elstree Studios at the end of January 2015.

The latest Celebrity Big Brother season had reached its halfway point and the pair went to meet up with loyal HippoExpert Russ Grubiak.

Russ is a Lighting and video programmer specialising in TV and he has been involved in a long list of TV shows over the years.

With the recent release of the brand new Hippotizer V4 product range, Russ was one of the first UK programmers in the industry to get his hands on two pristine Hippotizer V4 Karst units.

Currently his equipment includes three Hippotizer V3 GrassHoppers and

Spain - XL Video supplied a substantial projection system and control together with HD cameras / PPU, HD LED screen, several hundred monitors, networking and fibre infrastructure plus audio systems for two high profile Microsoft events staged back-to-back at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via convention centre in Barcelona, Spain.

TechEd is Microsoft's premier event for IT professionals and enterprise developers, and this was followed immediately by Convergence, the Microsoft community's chance to network with other users, share and expand their experience and realise their potential.

XL's team was led by project manager Nick Askew assisted by Chris Ellis and Dick Crabbe and they were working for live event consultancy Nteractive headed up by technical director Matt Brownfield, technical consultant Andrew Vass and acclaimed sound designer Colin Pink.

The Nteractive team paid clo

UK - Ayrton is the latest manufacturer to join the family at Ambersphere Solutions who have exclusive distribution and customer service for the Ayrton range of products in the UK. Amongst the new 'R' (Radical) range is the Magicblade-R, a moving-head luminaire comprising 7 x 15W LED sources, flicker free management that make it ideal for TV and video applications together with continuous pan and tilt rotation. However, the basic technical specification does little to demonstrate the dynamic and exciting effect capabilities of this innovative piece of kit.

Darren Parker, MD of DPL Lighting has just taken delivery of a substantial number of Magicblade-R fixtures. Why Magicblades in particular? "Like all investments in new stock, there was an element of strategy to stay ahead of the competition, but I was pointed towards the Magicblades by one of our designers, Adam Power, who

India - Tannoy and Lab.gruppen's quality sound was recently sought after for one of the country's most luxurious hotels - the five-star JW Marriot in Pune, India.

In the world of luxury hotels, sound systems might not always come on top of the agenda when it comes to capturing opulence. However, the JW Marriot is one such residence which has managed to gather the required demeanour to gain its five-star status, and now, thanks to Tannoy and Lab.gruppen's sound technology, it has the kind of technology fit for such surroundings - inside and outside the building.

The project to bring this signature sound began when Pancheel Reality, a real estate development company based in Pune, were tasked with helping the JW Marriott 'redefine hospitality' in the city. Pancheel immediately looked to AV, specialists in systems integration, who knew exactly what solution was required for a job

Italy - The Nordeon-Group, a leading European lighting company has further strengthened its comprehensive proposition to the market through the strategic acquisition of Italian-based Griven. Griven specializes in architectural lighting solutions and is very complimentary to the Hess product portfolio and offerings to architects and lighting designers across the globe. As part of the Nordeon-Group, Griven will continue to operate independently under its own brand through its existing organization and management team in Castel Goffredo, Italy.

Patrick van Rossum, Partner of Varova, the owner of the Nordeon-Group, sees a win-win situation in the acquisition for both companies: "With its broad product and lighting solution portfolio, its extensive technological know-how and deep understanding of architectural markets, Griven will substantially strengthen the market position of

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