UK - Unusual Rigging has opened a new warehouse at its headquarters in Northampton as the business continues to grow.

The 22x48m building, which is 12m tall and provides additional 1056sq.m of space, will be used to store the company's ever increasing rental stock. It also enables Unusual to build and test rigs more easily than before, as well as allowing for continued expansion. In line with company policy, Unusual has made every effort to ensure the new unit's 'green' credentials, constructing the building from an existing truss structure, cladding it in composite paneling and employing solar PV panels.

Unusual's Jim Dugan, who was behind much of the planning and overseeing of the new building, said, "As a company, Unusual Rigging aims to operate an environmentally friendly policy and we immediately saw potential to create a new space that would meet our green criteria.

UK - The School of Creative Arts at Queen's University in Belfast boasts some of the most desirable undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the country. With demand for spaces on the practical film making course drastically outstripping supply, the University recently built a new centre for students on the film studies pathway, complete with a purpose built 'black box' to give students the opportunity to film in a multi-purpose, professionally equipped studio.

"The facilities used by the School of Creative Arts are regarded as among the best in the British Isles while certain facilities within the School (such as the Sonic Laboratory) are unique in the world," explained Ross McDade, production manager of the Brian Friel Theatre within the School.

With this in mind, Ross called on the expertise of Doughty Engineering to supply a system of 15 lighting hoists for a

UK - Although the weekend of 6-7 June won't have been the first time Capital Sound have deployed almost 200 Martin Audio MLA elements simultaneously on major festival duty, it will have been unique in that one of those two events took place on a virgin festival site at a major inaugural event.

Billed as Disclosure & Rudimental Present Wild Life, the four-stage, two-day event was staged at Brighton City Airport, a general aviation facility in Shoreham where, as the title suggests, Disclosure and Rudimental were the headline acts.

Winds gusting up to 30mph on the opening day were an easy match for the power of MLA and the system optimisations comfortably satisfied the 75dB offsite sound requirements of consultants Vanguardia, while at one point achieving a staggering SPL of 105dB at the sound desk during Disclosure's set.

As Capital general manager Paul Timmins observed

Sweden - The magic stage of Melodifestivalen, the local song contest to decide Sweden's representative song at Eurovision, was once again alive with Clay Paky fixtures. The powerful Mythos played a crucial role in the six-week tour of Melodifestivalen 2015 visiting six cities across Sweden with the Finals held at the massive Friends Arena in Stockholm. Viewed by approximately 4m in the television audience, it is Sweden's most popular television programme.

Lighting designer Fredrik Jönsson of Eyebrow Designs in Stockholm designed the lighting of 28 songs in a total of 6 live broadcasts by SVT (Sveriges Television), the host broadcaster of Eurovision 2013.

Jönsson explains, "Once again, Clay Paky provided the backbone wow fixtures, including 51 Sharpys and 24 Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures, but this year we had a new cat among the usual suspects - the mighty Mythos from Clay Pa

France - During Prolight+Sound, Visual Productions and ESL France confirmed the new French distribution agreement. ESL will distribute the full range of Visual Productions lighting control products to all areas of the entertainment and architectural markets.

ESL France, established in 1992 has offices in both Montpelier and Paris. They introduced one of the most comprehensive catalogues of stage and entertainment lighting products to the French market which continues today to be a staple requirement for industry professionals. Coupling distribution and excellent technical service ESL have built a strong network of dealers and customers throughout France. In 2013 they introduced the architectural devision of ESL in the Paris based office.

The teams at Visual Productions and ESL have long standing business friendships with each other, that over the years have allowed both compan

UK - Entertainment production supplier White Light has reached a deal with video and lighting technology firm Shock Solutions that will expand the company's offering of video, media and projection services for clients in the broadcast, event production and commercial markets.

Founded in 1971, White Light is a leading supplier of technical production solutions throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide. Shock Solutions has over 10 years in the industry and is a forerunner in the field of LED lighting and audio-visual equipment solutions. The two companies will combine staff and assets under the name White Light and will be based from White Light's current offices in Wimbledon, London. Shock Solutions managing director Andy Hook will join White Light as technical solutions director.

He comments on the partnership, "We are proud to be joining forces with White Light after many

Norway - Lars Bakke and the sales team from Robe's Norwegian distributor Norsk Sceneteknikk based in Spydeberg, seized the opportunity to actively support local prog-rock band Sørgekape with additional lighting when lead singer Kim Lunde started working with them about a year ago.

They saw several opportunities in this. Firstly to learn more about the Robe fixtures they are selling, secondly, the gigs provide an opportunity for inviting potential clients to real 'live' demos of the products working in situ ... and thirdly, they were really happy to be supporting an excellent artist. It was a win-win scenario all round!

Sørgekape recently launched their new album Intelligent Kjaerlighet with a special showcase performance at Askim Cultural Centre (in their home town), which was also recorded for a DVD. Lars decided to 'push the boat out' with his creative l

Europe - Following the opening of its Middle East Africa regional office in Dubai last year, Shure EMEA has announced the opening of two market development offices in Switzerland and Austria this summer. The new offices will be responsible for strategic market development in these countries.

In addition, Shure has established a regional office in Moscow, Shure REE LLC, responsible for strategic market development in Russia as well as distribution management for the Russia Eastern Europe region.

Herbert Muff will head Shure's market development office in Switzerland, while Gerd Kostial will run the office in Austria. Angelika Oernfelt will lead the regional office in Moscow.

All new offices will report to Ron Marchant, general manager EMEA Sales, based at Shure EMEA's headquarters in Eppingen, Germany.

Markus Winkler, managing director of Shure EMEA, commented, "Establ

Worldwide Appeal - Foreign music fans visiting the UK for gigs and festivals boosted the economy by £3.1bn in 2014, a report by industry body UK Music says. The report said foreign visitors spent an average of £751 and helped sustain almost 40,000 full time jobs. Across the UK 9.5m people travelled to music events.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said the news was "fantastic" but not surprising as "British music is legendary around the world". He added, "Festivals like Glastonbury hold an iconic status on the world music scene and are one of the reasons why international tourism is booming in the UK, drawing in streams of visitors to all parts of the country. We know our UK creative industries contribute an astonishing £76.9bn to the UK economy but this report confirms they are truly world-class and a powerful advert for the UK.&quo

UK - Following the successful launch of Quantum of the Seas in November of last year with Elation lighting and video systems onboard, the second luxury cruise liner in Royal Caribbean's Quantum class of smartships, Anthem of the Seas, set sail in April, also brimming with a full complement of energy-efficient Elation Professional products. The third in the class, Ovation of the Seas, is planned for 2016.

As a sister-ship to Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas boasts the same lighting and video package template. "The ships mirror each other as far as entertainment lighting," says Christopher Vlassopulos, superintendent SLVR & architectural lighting for Royal Caribbean International, who coordinated the design and specification for all the entertainment equipment in the ship's public spaces, including the ship's entertainment lighting systems. "There was actuall

Australia - Show Technology provides cutting edge service and support to the professional lighting industry and has been doing so for the 21 years it has been in business. Industry leading figures rely on the company's support team for major projects on concerts, tours, arena shows and installations. The team not only provides training, advice, design, product recommendations and problem solving in both Australia and New Zealand but also has a dedicated service and repair facility at the company's headquarters in Silverwater, NSW.

"Show Technology has a wonderful service department," commented Jared Hawke, managing director of Frontier Lighting, Perth. "We deal mainly with Gino Lombardi in Perth and he is absolutely the number one rep in the business. He'll go above and beyond to help, such as opening up the warehouse at the weekend when we have an emergency. And

Argentina - Robe moving lights were chosen to light the stage and spectacular set that was the central event for the 2015 Vendimia grape harvest festival at the Frank Romero Day Greek Theatre in Mendoza, the heart - and soul - of Argentina's wine producing region.

The Robes - delivered to the event by Tecnica Vidal with the assistance of OVA Iluminacion and Prisma Luces - included 12 x BMFL Spots, 66 x MMX Spots, 12 x ColorBeam 2500E ATs, 14 x MMX WashBeam, 66 x Pointes, 56 x LEDWash 600s, 24 x LEDWash 1200s, 40 x CityFlex 48s, 60 x LEDForce 18 LED PARs and four CitySkape Xtremes.

These, together with some 526 conventional lights and six follow spots were deployed all over the massive stage -designed by Alejandro Rodriguez- comprising nine different areas, including one water stage.

Trussing superstructure was hung on a huge crane - with a 65m reach arm, and all lights on th

Belgium / USA - Barco has announced two new products in its Event Master series of screen management systems: the S3-4K, a compact processor, and the EC-50, a lightweight, Event Master Toolset-compatible controller.

Exactly one year ago, Barco unveiled the E2 image processor to rave reviews at InfoComm in Las Vegas. Supporting native 4K input and output, the E2 screen management system instantly raised the industry bar for live event processing, as the only solution capable of managing a 4K projector blend with refresh rates of up to 60 Hz.

S3-4K, the smaller version of the E2, boasts the same processing performance and image quality. Featuring 12 input channels, four programme outputs, four AUX outputs and two dedicated Multiviewer outputs, it is suited for the rental and staging market, broadcast studios and mid-sized performance venues. "The S3-4K is the E2's more comp

Switzerland - Microphone manufacturer Shure is continuing its long-established and successful partnership with the Montreux Jazz Festival, this year taking place from 3-18 July, as technical partner and also as headline sponsor of the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition.

"We are delighted, as ever, to provide our usual support to the Montreux Jazz Festival in terms of equipment and expertise," explains Nils Proesser, marketing director at Shure Europe. "And as every year, we're very excited to see so many great and varied entrants to the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice competition from countries all around the world. We wish all the participants the best for the semi-finals."

Established to encourage talented young vocalists internationally, the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition was founded in 2002 and has been sponsored by Shure since its inception. The fi

Vietnam - Photo journalist Martin Edström and National Geographic have shared an extraordinary expedition for everyone to experience: they have explored one of the world's biggest caves, the majestic and recently discovered Son Doong in Vietnam's Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park. Martin and his team of six - assistant photographers, logistics, communications and lighting specialists - took breathtaking 360° photos of the almost untouched cave and recorded its sounds with Sennheiser stereo and shotgun microphones for a fully immersive online experience.

Son Doong, also called the "Infinite cave" because of its massive size, was discovered by a native of the area in 1991. However, as the entrance to the cave is as unobtrusive as it is steep, it took him until 2009 to actually relocate the cave in the jungle and explore it with a group of British scientists. The 5k lo

Norway - Chroma-Q Inspire LED house lights have been installed at Stavanger Concert Hall's Kuppelhallen performance space, to replace an old tungsten rig and allow the lighting team to immerse the entire room in vibrant colours.

Kuppelhallen has been a performance hall since 1982. Newly renovated, the 1,000-seater multi-purpose space is especially suited to rock concerts, revues, choir and band concerts.

Project manager for the lighting refurbishment was Sveinung Hove, together with technical manager Terje Eids°r of Stavanger-based Hove Lysdesign AS. Hove Lysdesign AS is a sales, installation and rental company, that was established by Sveinung Hove back in 1983.

"We've been working with Stavanger Concert Hall for more than 20 years, and the team there trusts us to deliver the right lighting solutions," says Terje. "They were experiencing problems linked w

USA - Country music artist Billy Currington is out on tour with Tim McGraw for the Shotgun Rider Tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. Currington is promoting his fifth studio album Summer Forever, and just celebrated his tenth number one single, Don't.

Having worked with Currington since 2009, lighting designer Chris Lisle approached the lighting from an efficiency standpoint, as the gear would need to be able move on and off the stage quickly while still being able to clear doors and fit within the allotted truck space. "We based the design off utilizing the existing backline carts that Billy was already using, and incorporating lighting on them," explained Lisle.

The majority of the fixtures are based on the carts placed upstage over the band's heads. Nexus 4x4s are used for general eye candy and effects, while the Clay Paky B-Eyes p

Australia - Chart-topping Australian group Human Nature has just completed their 25th Anniversary Jukebox tour with PixelFLEX FLEXCurtain HD for visual support.

Jukebox, their eleventh studio album, brings the group back to what originally inspired their careers with a mix of songs from the '50s and '60s. The graphics for the live shows not only tell the story of those eras, but the story of their career.

Doing the tour without a high quality video screen was not an option for production manager David Rudder, but it had to be efficient and economical. That's where the 16ft-wide by 8ft-tall main 12.5mm FLEXCurtain HD wall helped support Human Nature and entertain fans.

"The main driving factor for the purchase was Australia is the same landmass as US, but with only 25m people, so huge distances are involved when travelling," said Rudder. "We have shows n

UK - White Light recently provided the production support for Macmillan Cancer Support's 29th annual Tug of War. Held on 2 June, the event saw the House of Commons take on the House of Lords as a means of raising funds for people affected by cancer.

The battle between the Houses was witnessed by hundreds of spectators at Westminster College Gardens, with the House of Commons coming out on top for the sixth year running. A regular feature in the White Light calendar, the complete production solution specialist was proud to once again assist on such a special event which supports a worthy cause.

The cheering crowds not only received the chance to see the politicians battle it out but also watched rival city firms, industry giants, armed forces and fire crews flex their pulling power. Whilst the various teams took to the ropes, BBC Radio 5 Live's chief political correspondent Joh

India - Formed in 1999, Sound & Light Professionals (SNL Pro) Mumbai has become one of the most respected sound reinforcement companies in India. It provides equipment for sound, lighting, video and staging, and technical services to a broad range of entertainment disciplines across India and the rest of the world. The company has recently invested in a DiGiCo SD10 and two D2-Racks, via DiGiCo's Indian distributor, Hi-Tech Audio Systems Pvt. Ltd.

SNL Pro has supplied audio to some of the best-known Indian and international artists, including the NH7, Sun Burn, Super Sonic, David Guetta, Norah Jones, Snoop Dog (India tour), Enrique Iglesias (India tour) and Swedish House Mafia.

In response to the growth and diversity of the events undertaken by the company, SNL Pro took delivery of a DiGiCo SD10 console and two D2-Rack, adding to its existing DiGiCo SD8.

"We work across

South Africa - Hennie Ellis, owner of Audio Quest has been using an Avolites Tiger Touch Console, LumenRadio Wireless DMX and his trusted 20 Robe 575 XT Scanners for various festivals, reports DWR.

Audio Quest supplied the lighting for the main stage at the Gariep KunsteFees last year, The Uppington Kalahari KuierFees and the Upington Landbou Expo. "On these shows I work with local artists such as Theuns Jordaan, Steve Hofmeyr, Elvis Blue and Ray Dylan," said Hennie. "My clients are always impressed with our work and we are pleased to receive ongoing compliments."

The Tiger Touch allows him prompt lighting cues between playbacks. "It's reliable and very user friendly, giving a lighting engineer quick access to any light via touch screen and pallets. I'm very happy with my products and the support from DWR."

(Jim Evans)

UK - A host of industry experts, including Tower of London Poppies theatre designer Tom Piper and Episodes actress Tamsin Greig, attended the 2015 Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance Graduate Exhibition and New Writing Season at the Bargehouse on London's South Bank from 10-14 June.

The exhibition, which attracted over 100 visitors, included work by upcoming graduates from the School of Design Management and Theatre Arts (DMTA), including Costume Production, Creative Lighting Control, Lighting Design, Performance Sound, Scenic Arts, Theatre Design and Stage Management.

In addition to the Graduate Exhibition, DMTA students collaborated with BA (Hons) Acting and BA (Hons) Actor Musicianship students to present the college's New Writing Season of three plays in association with The Bush Theatre, Theatre 503 and Theatre Ad Infinitum.

Professor Michael Earley,

USA - Lawo, renowned German manufacturer of pioneering audio and video equipment, and Waves, leading developer of audio plug-ins and signal processors, are premiering the seamless integration of Waves SoundGrid servers with Lawo mc2 consoles at this year's InfoComm.

As a result of the collaboration, Lawo's mc²36 all-in-one console now provides extensive real-time signal processing in addition to its internal processing engine. The system gives operators access to Waves' comprehensive plug-in library, allowing them to conveniently control reverbs, multi-tap delays, graphic equalizers and multiband compressors directly via the console's keyboard and touch-screen. No additional monitors or controls are needed - which results in a clean working space and less external hardware. All plug-in settings can be easily stored and recalled with the console's snapshots.

Mick Olesh, Waves

USA - Registration for ETC's CUE (Create. Understand. Experience.) professional development conference - to be held on 26-28 June in Madison, Wisconsin - is now closed, but you will still have the chance to see a handful of CUE sessions via live streaming video. The videos will be available live on ETC's website - with media partner LSA (Lighting & Sound America) - and then will be archived on the site for on demand viewing in the future.

The first live session will be the CUE welcome address and keynote by ETC CEO Fred Foster, on Friday 26 June, at 2:15pm UK time (15:15 CET). Foster will discuss current lighting trends, and may reveal some surprises. Another session will be a keynote address by lighting designer Josh Allen of Theatre Consultants Collaborative at 2:15pm UK time (15:15 CET) on Saturday 27 June, in which he'll talk about how power, lighting and theatre technologie

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