UK - Few rental companies have been as progressive as Wigwam in deploying Optocore optical fibre interfaces over the years, and configuring drive racks designed to give their sound engineers a much more 'fuel efficient', elegant and secure ride.

After initially devising the OptoRack data returns system, when Optocore announced the DiGiCo implementation last Autumn, Wigwam wasted no time in building the first multiplexed DiGiCo Fibre Ring systems, allowing a range of DiGiCo mixing consoles and Optocore devices to work seamlessly together.

And when the experienced Dave Bracey, FOH engineer with one of Wigwam's long term accounts, Björk, wanted a more compact, efficient and tourable FOH package, with no single point of failure in the signal flow for this summer's festival shows in the US and Europe, he again turned to Wigwam.

Alex Hadjigeorgiou, Wigwam's digital audio speciali

UK - XL Video are supplying a creative video package, including segmented LED screens and multi-channel camera system, for Ben Howard as he steps up to UK and European arenas on his I Forget Where We Were tour.

The show, designed by Owen Tozer alongside Andy Rowe features a cinematic video look thanks to content commissioned and created by Alan 'Willy' Williams.

For this tour, which includes three nights at London's Alexandra Palace, the screen design includes a central LED screen 10.8m wide x 6m high, flanked by three columns of LED either side, each measuring 1.2m wide x 6.6 m high.

To create this arrangement, XL Video have supplied their ROE Visual MC-18T LED, packaged in a combination of their custom touring frames in both full 4-tile and half 2-tile versions. The new half-touring frames allow show designers even greater flexibility when creating their screen set-ups.

UK - Over the past few years there have been a number of studios closing in London meaning that more and more work is being filmed in different parts of the country. So it was very refreshing when we recently filmed The Javone Prince Show in up-and-coming Rivoli Ballroom.

The South London building was originally built back in 1913 and is the only ballroom still intact in London. It has been used for a variety of different things over the years but the untouched cool, vintage interior now means it's the kind of trendy venue artists such as Noel Gallagher want to play.

The beautiful building was the perfect backdrop for a stand up style comedy show with a cabaret style twist.

After his success on shows such as Horrible Histories, I've Got No Head and PhoneShop, award winning comedian Javone now has his own new sketch show.

Javone trained at LAMDA and as

USA - A new contemporary live entertainment venue, Livewire, opened recently in Scottsdale, Arizona, outfitted with a large, professional lighting and video system from Elation Professional supplied by Elation dealer Fyxx Entertainment. Located in the heart of Scottsdale'sEntertainment District, Livewire is Arizona's newest premier concert and performance space, playing host to a spectrum of national touring acts (Jeff Bridges, The English Beat, Boyz II Men) and up-and-coming local bands all supported by state-of-the-art sound, lighting and production.

Designed from the ground up for live music, the 14,000 sq ft. venue occupies the same location that iconic Scottsdale nightclub Axis/Radius did for 16 years. Les Corieri, owner of Evening Entertainment Group, shut down the club last summer to make way for the 1,100-guest live entertainment destination.

Adrian de Pamphilis, owner

UK - Adlib has supplied one of the first Soundcraft new generation Vi Series mixing consoles to a landmark venue.

With its original art deco interior, the Grade II*-listed Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, home of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and one of the UK's premier arts and entertainment venues, received the new FOH desk as part of a complete new design and installation, masterminded by Adlib's Installation Director Roger Kirby and MD Andy Dockerty.

It is the latest chapter in a long relationship that has existed between the two organisations, which has seen the service providers frequently renting sound systems to the hall over the years.

Liverpool Philharmonic's technicians opted for the Vi3000 as part of a complete new audio infrastructure after attending a Soundcraft open day hosted by Adlib. This was followed by an onsite demo which enabled Dave Kay, Adlib

Top Gear - The musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is to tour the UK from December. The production opens at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on 2 December, where it will play for nine weeks. It will then begin a tour of the UK and Ireland, beginning at the Mayflower Theatre on 10 February, 2016. It is produced by WYP and Music and Lyrics.

Silver Scream - Primal Scream will be named musical icons at the Silver Clef award ceremony in July. The band, who were instrumental in shaping the indie pop scene in the early 1990s, called the icon award "a real honour". Previous winners of the icon award include Sir Cliff Richard, Dame Vera Lynn, Madness and Fatboy Slim. Rita Ora, a recent judge on The Voice, will be named best female, while music producer Mark Ronson will be given this year's innovation award.

The Silver Clef awards, which celebrate their 40th anniv

World - Shure Incorporated is celebrating its 90th year as an industry leader in professional audio. From its humble beginnings as a one-man company selling radio parts kits, Shure now offers a diverse portfolio of wired and wireless microphones, listening products, personal monitoring systems, phonograph cartridges, and conferencing and discussion systems.

Shure products have been used by such luminaries as Martin Luther King, Jr., Elvis Presley, and every United States President since Lyndon B. Johnson.

There have been many milestones in the Company's 90 year history:

The introduction of the first single-element unidirectional microphone, the Unidyne, in 1939 changed the way microphones are made to this day; an accomplishment that was honoured with an IEEE Milestone Award in 2014.

The SM57 and SM58®, developed in 1965 and 1966 respectively, remain two of the most pop

UK - Last month White Light had its first opportunity to light the way for Fast Forward, a fundraising gala evening at the National Theatre. Featuring an auction for once-in-a-lifetime experiences and excerpts from forthcoming productions, the event raised proceeds for NT Future - a transformative project providing new facilities for audiences, artists and young people.

Fast Forward took place on March 4, 2015 and attracted a glittering guest list including: Simon Callow, Olivia Colman, Frances de la Tour, Anne-Marie Duff, Sir David Hare, Ian Hislop, Patricia Hodge, Tom Hollander, Jeremy Irons, Lesley Manville, Andrew Scott, Fiona Shaw and Anna Wintour.

Held in the Olivier Theatre, innovative event design saw the stage utilised for dinner service, keeping the vast auditorium space free for the plethora of entertainment. Performances included: Damon Albarn showcasing a song fro

Japan - After an extensive renovation that took five years to complete, the historic Himeji Castle's grand reopening ceremony was an event not to be missed.

The renovation of what is considered Japan's most spectacular castle, which is frequently known as Hakuro-jo (White Egret Castle) or Shirasagi-jo (White Heron Castle) because of its brilliant white exterior, began in October 2009. It involved returning the walls to 'the white egret' whilst repairing the kawara tiled roof, and the recreation of the symbolic Shachihoko (Japanese mythological animal) decorating its ridge.

The opening ceremony, held before an invited audience of 1000 people (including government officials and politicians), saw Martin Audio's MLA Compact Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array brought into play, alongside the acrobatic aeroplane team, The Blue Impulse.

Kobe International Stage Service (KISS) was in

- Since India's first Hard Rock Café opened in Mumbai's busy upmarket Worli district about nine years ago, the venue has built up a great following, thanks to its role as a standard-bearer of the brand's successful combination of good food and good music.

More recently, a second Hard Rock Café opened in Andheri (with its 1.5m inhabitants, one of the most vibrant important Mumbai suburbs) and recent changes to the two venues' music policy have been followed by a decision to upgrade the older venue's sound systems, with an Outline rig (the newer HRC, centrally located in the affluent Andheri West district, surrounded by many corporations and movie production houses, was already equipped with the Italian manufacturer's loudspeakers).

Music has always played a key role in the success of Hard Rock Café's venues around the world, and the man behind the mus

UK - UK companies installing energy monitoring systems, such as the MeasureMyEnergy equipment offered by consultancy :entertaining sustainability, can now qualify for upfront financing from the Carbon Trust's Energy Efficiency Financing Scheme.

The scheme, which is run on behalf of the Carbon Trust by Siemens Finance, provides initial funding for the installation, with repayments made over a maximum of five years from the savings generated by working with the equipment.

The MeasureMyEnergy system - already installed at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio - utilises sensors on each circuit within a distribution board to log consumption, flag up anomalies and present real-time data via a secure web app.

Companies already working with the system - anecdotally report savings of between 10% and 20% through the ability to target the highest areas of consumption within a buildin

USA - Creative Stage Lighting is bringing its High End Systems Hog 4 training programme to PLASA Focus Kansas City 2015. As part of PLASA Focus Kansas City, CSL will hold a Hog 4 training course before the show at Harvest Productions, 18-19 May.

The ETC Ion Console May 18th training at XS Lighting is now sold out.

The PLASA Focus: Kansas City show floor and two days of additional Professional Development Programme seminars will be held at the Kansas City Convention Center 20-21 May.

The Hog 4 two-day hands-on training session will be taught by CSL sales engineer Phil Heid. Students will learn basic and intermediate Hog 4 programming techniques, including console layout, launching and managing shows, patching and editing fixtures, groups, palettes, directories and more. Students will be supplied their own HOG 4 controller to use for the duration of the class. Seats are priced

UK - Since it opened its doors (and, indeed, retractable roof) in 1999, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium has hosted myriad high-profile sporting and music events. From special rally stages and speedway races to concerts featuring the likes of U2, The Police and The Rolling Stones, the venue has welcomed them all.

But it's rugby with which the Millennium Stadium is most closely associated - it is, after all, home to the Welsh rugby union team and recently saw two of the Six Nations 2015 matches played out on its turf.

For several years a PreSonus digital mixer has been at the heart of the stadium PA used for the various announcements, commentary and entertainment that go to make up such events. And most recently a new StudioLive 24.4.2AI desk has taken the central role in a system supplied and maintained by Llanelli-based PAI Group and operated by AB Acoustics.

The StudioLive 24.

UK - Chroma-Q Color One 100 LED Pars made their debut at Worthing's Connaught Theatre beaming bright, primary colours for an all-star production of Aladdin.

Originally an early cinema called the Picturedrome, in 1935 the venue was turned into a theatre when the Worthing Repertory Company outgrew its own premises - bringing with it the name Connaught Theatre. Last year's pantomime, Aladdin, starred singer Jon Lee of multi-million selling band S Club 7, alongside Britain's Got Talent semi-finalists Kieran Sutcliffe and Sarah Jameson.

The Color One 100 LED Pars were purchased for use in the venue's Studio Theatre, but made their debut in the main auditorium for the panto, to provide bright and comprehensive stage coverage.

"The main attraction of the Color One 100s for me was the excellent colour mixing and replication along with the decent lens,"

UAE - Portuguese audio manufacturer brand NEXT-proaudio has announced the appointment of its new distributor for the United Arab Emirates. The distribution company is Echo Beats Electronics, and from now on they will handle the exclusive distribution of NEXT-proaudio products for that market.

Echo Beats Electronics is part of a regional group with more than 27 years of experience in professional audio, lighting and A/V Equipment and more than 10 years in the broadcast industry.

"We are very happy to start this distribution with Echo Beats. We found a very professional company that offers high quality solutions to the market since long time ago with a big experience on the professional segment," said André Correia, NEXT-proaudio's assistant manager.

"We were looking for a loudspeaker manufacturer specialized in touring and installation products with high

UK - The Technical Department Ltd, a specialist electrical contractor providing generators, switchgear, transformers, cabling and lighting for events worldwide, are a proud Bronze Corporate Benefactor of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Kensington Gardens, London.

"The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2015 has been designed by SelgasCano, our team look forward to supporting them later this year," the company says.

Belgium - Global visualization leader Barco is proud to launch Barco Capital, its new portfolio of equipment financing options. Barco Capital opens up new ways for customers to finance their investment in cutting-edge Barco technology to boost their business while balancing the payment spike.

The Barco Capital portfolio is initially available for the Digital Cinema, Venues and Hospitality, and Retail and Advertising product portfolios, starting with customers based in Europe and the Americas.

"For both current and potential Barco customers, it's essential to keep abreast of the latest innovation to generate business growth," says Sjoerd De Clerck, global director Barco Capital. "With Barco Capital, we help customers upgrade their equipment or invest in our state-of-the-art technology when the traditional capex-driven sales cannot be achieved or aren't appropriat

UK - A special version of Robe's Robin LEDWash 800 PureWhite SW fixture was specified by lighting designer and broadcast lighting and visual media effects specialist, Manfred Ollie Olma, from Cologne, Germany based lighting and visual design practice, mo2 design, for the new state-of-the-art Al Jazeera broadcast studio in London.

The studio, located on the 16th floor of The Shard in London features 80 of these Robe moving lights.

mo2 design was commissioned by set design and constructor Studio Hamburg, Germany's leading production service centre for film and television, which installed the studio's set and infrastructure on the strength of their designs for other high profile TV studio installations. These have included Phönixhof in Hamburg (also using Robe lights) and Sky Sports News in Munich.

The 600sq.m London studio is divided into two elements - the News Studio and th

UK - Acorn Event Structures has been awarded the prestigious contract to provide the complete staging package for the UK's No.1 electronic music festival - Creamfields. Held on the August back holiday, Creamfields is now considered the premier electronic music festival in the UK and attracts an audience of 70,000 to its Daresbury Estate venue.

Acorn will supply two 60m wide outdoor stage roofs using their Space Roof product combined with steel truss video wings to support 730sq.m of LED screen. Each main stage will be supplied complete with a newly designed cowshed arrangement, front-of-house structures and delay towers. In addition to the main stages, Acorn will also provide over 900sq.m of standalone stage platforms and wheelchair user platforms across 8 indoor arenas at the festival using its modular Layher decking system.

Ian Greenway, director of production company LarMac

China - Beijing-based RV Sun Acoustics has been appointed distributor for Pan Acoustics, the advanced steerable audio specialist from Wolfenbüttel in Germany.

Alan Li, vice general manager of RV Sun Acoustics explained their choice of Pan Beam, "With many column speakers available in the market over the last 10+ years, many companies have engineered their own solutions as part of an existing range of products in an attempt to tap into the growing market.

"We have been looking at the various solutions available in the market and all had their strengths and weaknesses, heavy, big, difficult to set up, so we were looking for a company that was specialised in steerable products but also offering a slim line of passive speakers, that had leading technology and the feature set that the market needed.

"We ultimately wanted outstanding performance combined with simpl

UK - Fulbridge Academy in Peterborough is a primary school that was recently judged as 'outstanding' by Ofsted. A culturally and socially diverse school with children from more than 25 countries, it is renowned for its creative approach to the curriculum.

In keeping with its pioneering, forward thinking ethos, Fulbridge has enhanced its internal surroundings with a thought-provoking series of themed areas that relate to specific topics being studied by its children. The school contacted integrators Playfords, with a view to adding a carefully manageable audio element to the project and they, in turn, consulted with Audiologic as to the best way to meet the requirements of the project.

The school wanted to add a separate audio element to each of 23 themed areas in three separate corridors and one to a communal hall. Each of three separate corridors running away from a main corr

UK - From its award-winning venue, to its business only focus and change in opening hours, PLASA 2015 has its sights firmly set on providing a show that delivers on every level.

"This will be our third year at London's ExCeL," says Christopher Toulmin, director of Events Division at PLASA. "Relocating events is never an easy decision to make but the closure of Earls Court made it inevitable. Our move to ExCeL- the only venue in London that can fully support the technical requirements of our industry- has proved the right decision and has enabled us to pursue our exciting plans for development."

With a track record of hosting world-leading events such as PLASA London, ExCeL is the UK's largest exhibition and conference venue and a compelling destination for business professionals. Part of a 100 acre campus, ExCeL boasts easy transport links to central London

UK - As one of Prolyte's distributors for the UK, AED Distribution UK are uniquely placed to provide a raft of solutions to Prolyte users by combining services from the AED Toolbox with the Prolyte trussing & staging offering.

First of those solutions is free product training and support. On 22 and 23 April a Prolyte Campus was held at the Distribution UK facility located in High Wycombe.

Over 20 professionals attended during the two days, taking away a variety of hands-on experience and real-life experiments.

The Campus is a Prolyte Group driven initiative to support its customers with the best and most up-to-date knowledge available. Providing the tools and training to use the Prolyte Group products safely and in compliance with applicable standards and regulations will help them in performing better.

Prolyte Campus offers a complete programme of learning activities to c

USA - In order to remake itself as a premier destination for all manner of educational, cultural, and artistic activities, the new $422m home of the Whitney Museum includes more than 13,000sq.ft of designated event space including four outdoor terraces, a restaurant, café, public gathering space, educational centre, library reading room, and on the sixth floor, a flexible, multipurpose theatre which will give the Whitney the freedom to host live music, theatrical performances, lectures, movie screenings, social events, and more.

The 2,300sq.ft theatre is a collaboration between Theatre Projects, design architect, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and executive architect, Cooper, Robertson & Partners. The flexible performance space features a retractable seating system, six catwalks, a variable acoustic ceiling, and an all LED performance lighting system-one of the first all-

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