UK - Hit BBC show Mrs Brown's Boys has spent much of 2015 on a major UK and Ireland arena tour, with residencies in 12 cities. Although the roots of Brendan O'Carroll's sitcom lay in a theatre production as far back as 1999, the size of venues on the current tour has meant that production company Adlib has had to deploy a major Coda Audio system.

Taking in arenas in Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, the How Now Mrs Brown Cow tour is running from March through to December. Adlib has been working with O'Carroll and his team for many years and has used Coda systems on previous tours, so they knew it was the right choice for the current shows.

The entire production is tailor-made to suit each arena, ensuring that audiences always enjoy the optimum performance. Because of this, the

USA - They say you can find anything you want in Las Vegas. Adventure Combat Ops, one of the city's newest attractions, falls into that category. Located in a 77,000sq.ft former warehouse just off the famed Strip, this venue serves up a two-hour adrenaline rush of non-stop action by enlisting customers to battle an invading army of zombies in a realistic urban warfare setting.

The experience is, as its promotional literature proclaims, a "full sensory immersion". A big part of that immersive sensation is created by an army of LED fixtures from Chauvet Professional, deftly deployed by Steve Hansel of XS Entertainment LLC.

Hansel has installed eight Strike 882 high-output blinders, three Amhaze II water-based haze machines, four Atmos voluminous fog machines and eight Vesuvio RGBA water based foggers with LED lights throughout the sprawling urban battle zone that makes

USA - Dedicated to the celebration and preservation of American motorsports, World of Speed in Wilsonville, OR, is an educational museum featuring 53,000sq.ft of historic race cars, racing boats and motorcycles that tell the story of America's motorsports culture.

The museum's many exhibits and hands-on educational programs make good use of modern AV technology. Four 80-inch video screens with racing videos and music greet visitors at the museum entrance. A 150ft by 30ft video wall, entitled Zero to 1000 MPH, presents an exciting AV history of the world land speed records set at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

A Wall of Sound display, featuring classic guitars and vintage phonograph equipment, recalls the rock music songs that accompanied 1960s 'muscle cars'.

Delta AV of Gresham, Oregon designed and installed World of Speed's AV systems. Delta's Dave Garlett says th

Spain - A three day festival divided into distinct Day and Night programmes, Sónar features much electronic and experimental music, alongside more contemporary offerings from the likes of Duran Duran and the Chemical Brothers, or the current vogue for EDM artists such as Skrillex and DJ Fresh.

The fact that Sónar Day's main stage plays within the confines of what appears to be a fortress, surrounded as it is by high walls, presents a distinct challenge for Barcelona based sound provider Tour Serveis.

"This was why the moment we realized the potential of d&b's new ArrayProcessing tool we wanted to use it here," said system technician Josan Bravo. The technical director of the festival Pedri González supported Bravo's enthusiasm, "The location for our festival is ideal for a city venue in terms of infrastructure, transport, and public comfort and safety, but th

UK - Capital Sound's big weekend at Hyde Park, which traditionally brings the curtain down on the festival season, saw Proms In the Park link up live with the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, while similar events took place in Belfast, Swansea and Glasgow.

The sound company has now become accustomed to rigging its flagship Martin Audio MLA at the London site, mitigating its historic problems with offsite noise escape; working for promoters Festival Republic for the second year they were probably anticipating an easy ride following the successful system induction in 2014.

But 48 hours before the event the BBC decided to install two 'interview' tepees in the Guest Hospitality enclosure - a stone's throw from the right PA hangs and out-fills - and requested the sound to be steered away from this area in order that artist interviews between acts could go live to a

South Korea - The economy in South Korea is growing and so is the demand for entertainment technologies. In response, The Laserworld Group has opened an office there. Based in Daejeon in the centre of South Korea, Laserworld Korea handles sales in the area as well as providing local show laser light services.

"Especially high quality, high power show laser light systems of European manufacturing are in demand" says Peter Jeong, managing director of Laserworld Korea. "We definitely know of the demand for quality products in our country and thus see great potential for products of the Laserworld Group of any product series."

(Jim Evan)

UK - Singer songwriter Charli XCX has publically stated that she experiences sound-to-colour synaesthesia and 'sees' music in colours - so it was not a complete surprise to show designer Rob Sinclair and lighting designer Greg Hill when she requested coloured smoke for her current tour. Prominent smoke is also in tune with the 'horror prom' theme of the current live show.

Rob immediately knew the solution - Robe Cyclones - having used them very successfully on the Kaiser Chiefs' tour last year.

Greg, who is out on the road LD'ing the tour, has been working with the innovative and interesting Charli XCX since 2014, and Rob came on board in early 2015 as show designer. Some elements of the show look were already in place, including a set of false scenic Orange amps which are up-lit very effectively with LEDs, so Rob then chose lighting fixtures and positions to evolve the aesthe

UK - Sound for art, entertainment and emergency purposes will be the focus of this year's Reproduced Sound conference. Entitled Playing with Fire: sound for art, entertainment and emergency purposes, it will be held at the Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire from 10-12 November.

Keith Holland, RS chairman, said, "The programme includes a wide variety of interesting papers, from practitioners, consultants and academics, along with a number of workshops and demos.

"We are particularly delighted to welcome Siegfried Linkwitz to the conference to receive the Peter Barnett Award, and look forward to the return of John Watkinson who is speaking after the conference dinner. The papers cover many aspects of sound reinforcement, PAVA systems, sound quality, measurement, modelling and cinema sound and there will be an 'Anti-Workshop' on cautionary ta

UK - PLASA has announced the first of its nominees for the 2015 Awards for Innovation, which recognise and reward new product ideas. Nominated products should meet at least one of the Awards' criteria for 'Innovation' - to offer a new style of thinking, an improvement in existing technical practice, a new or improved aid to safety, a new commercial advantage, use new patents or unique intellectual property, or introduce new technology, materials or manufacturing techniques.

The final assessment of those claims will take place at the PLASA Show, where an independent panel of industry experts will judge the entries, based on the strength of their innovation alone. Respected for their impartiality, the panel will hear a five-minute presentation from each of the nominees, and have the opportunity for questions and answers, before making their final selections.

There are no product

UK - Last week, Photograph 51 opened at the Noël Coward Theatre in the West End to rave reviews. Marking Nicole Kidman's first appearance on the London stage for more than 17 years, Photograph 51 tells the extraordinary story of Rosalind Franklin, the woman who cracked DNA and the sacrifices she made in the pursuit of her place within scientific history.

The play is being produced by the Michael Grandage Company and this current run marks its UK premiere. White Light was called upon to provide the lighting equipment for this much-anticipated production.

The show was lit by Tony and Olivier award-winning lighting designer Neil Austin, who has an extensive history of working with WL. He comments: "Photograph 51 is an interesting show as it is told as a posthumous memory by the other scientists around Rosalind. It flicks between character dialogue to di

UK - Orbital Sound reports that it has supplied Stevenage's 500-seat Gordon Craig Theatre with a new d&b audiotechnik auditorium system, comprising principally T-Series loudspeakers, with B4 Subs and E6 front fills.

The new system also features Yamaha CL5 and QL5 consoles, with Rio stage racks, together with an essential element of show control hardware in the form of a Nemesis Audio UMT-2D USB MIDI Trigger. The Gordon Craig's new system is configured with a hang of six d&b audiotechnik T-10s per side, a further four T-10s in a centre cluster, six E-6 speakers as front fills, plus four B4 Subs, with the system powered by d&b audiotechnik's new 10D and 30D install amps.

The theatre and Orbital Sound has had a close working relationship for more than a decade, as Dave Nott, chief technician at the Gordon Craig Theatre, explained, "We needed to upgrade, as much of our previo

USA - With appearances at the summer's biggest music festivals and sold out concerts around North America, Southern rock group Alabama Shakes is currently on tour promoting its latest album, Sound & Color.

FOH and production engineer Shane Haase searched for the most "natural-sounding" equipment, including a Solid State Logic Live L500 console.

Inspired by the blues and soul of their Southern roots and the rock sounds of their generation, the band opts for a raw sound on stage, selecting a variety of both modern and classic audio equipment. "We start with the microphones, which have been chosen to compliment the band's overall dynamic and to express their voices in the most natural way," says Haase, who has been touring professionally for the past decade.

"From the microphones, it's simple signal processing just like anything else: microphone

USA / Japan - This September, the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) conducted two Plug Fests: the 2015 Japanese EtherCAT Plug Fest in Yokohama, Japan, and the 2015 North American EtherCAT Plug Fest in Newark, New Jersey, USA. Both events showed the typical high variety in EtherCAT devices, as well as a high level of system conformance.

The 2015 Japanese EtherCAT Plug Fest was held 10-11 September at the facilities of Beckhoff Japan in Yokohama. The ETG was pleased with the improved quality, variety, and functional range of devices at the event, even when compared to the equally impressive results from the year before. In 2015, the Plug Fest had significantly more devices exhibiting advanced features such as highly-precise synchronization through Distributed Clocks, as well as modular device description (Modules/Slots). Additionally, the number of new and unique EtherCAT Slave Cont

UK - Rambert is Britain's national dance company and has built a reputation of commissioning leading dancemakers, composers and designers from across the globe. It presents new and historic dance works to audiences in all parts of the country, performed by world-class dancers and accompanied by live music. The company recently decided to install a new lighting set-up in its London base, with this being used more and more frequently as a performance space. For both the purchase and installation of its new equipment, Rambert turned to White Light to draw on the company's extensive stock range and expertise.

Rambert is based on London's Southbank in an award-winning building which was officially opened by HM The Queen in March 2014. The move to the new location not only reflected the prominence of the company within British dance but also sought to provide the public with greater a

UK - Entec continues its lively working relationship as a lighting supplier to one of the UK's most innovative, interesting - and successful - contemporary artists, Paloma Faith, working closely with LD Tony Austin and lighting director / programmer Phil White

Known for her eccentric retro style, Faith's music career goes from strength to strength with another chart topping album and a 2015 Brit Award for best Female Solo Artist. She has been touring for around the last six months including a spring outing for which Entec supplied the full lighting rig. The shows have continued into the summer with the floor elements of the rig modified as a specials package for festivals and headliner gigs.

The full rig comprised four overhead trusses with two side trusses, for which Entec invested in a new Doughty Engineering H-Frame system which is highly versatile. It proved the ideal solu

USA - Elation Professional Cuepix Panel LED matrices and Elation Colour Chorus LED batten wash lights were used by lighting designer Bobby Grey to light the Tripolee Stage at the multi-genre Electric Forest Festival 25-28 June in Rothbury, Michigan.

Stage design for this year's Tripolee Stage was by Heather Shaw and her team at multi-disciplinary design firm Vita Motus Design Studio, who has created innumerable touring stages in the past and did it again at this year's Electric Forest.

Event co-producers Madison House and Insomniac decided to make something more out of this year's Tripolee Stage and asked Vita Motus to bring it into a more music appropriate space while maintaining the overall look and feel of the beautiful Electric Forest setting. Vita Motus's Future Present stage concept imagined an ancient relic built on earth by future generations erected 1000s of years in

USA - The Bay Area-based band Primus recently toured North America with a Meyer Sound Lyon linear sound reinforcement system to deliver its quirky, bass-driven brand of alternative rock. Described by FOH engineer Jason Mills as a "really fast" system with plenty of punch, the Lyon configuration was provided by Pro Media/UltraSound of Martinez, Calif.

"Lyon is a very snappy box," says Mills, who worked triple duty as FOH engineer, production manager, and system tech. "It's responsive, punchy and clear. The fans have noticed, too-I'm getting more compliments after shows than ever before."

The full system for the tour included 24 Lyon-M main and 4 Lyon-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers, 12 700-HP subwoofers, and four UPJ-1P loudspeakers as front fills. Two CQ-2 and four MSL-4 loudspeakers were deployed as needed for corner front and out-fill, w

UK - With the Rugby World Cup now well in train it's opportune to reflect on an event at the O2 Arena, when, as a curtain raiser to the England campaign, sponsors O2 presented Wear the Rose. For 20,000 dedicated England supporters this was an evening to engage with the team, but with a twist. A slickly presented hundred-minute question and answer (Q&A) session between team members and compere Vernon Kay was interspersed with video clip highlights from the various players. This was then followed with a 75 minute finale from Take That.

"This started with an approach from O2 for Take That to appear," explains production manager Chris Vaughan. "Once the band had agreed it was a just a short step for their creative manager Kim Gavin to come on board and provide a framework for the whole evening. This was to be a great send off for the team."

For the key v

USA - Scandinavian FOH engineer Mads Staerke, who has mixed Denmark's hip-hop artist L.O.C. for seven years, will be a guest speaker on the Meyer Sound Mixing Workshop webinar series. Staerke will be joining programme host and veteran mixer Buford Jones.

In the webinar, Staerke will discuss the danger of excessive audio compression, his experimentation with large-scale concert system configurations, and his approach to mixing with linear systems like Meyer Sound LEO. An open Q&A will be available for attendees' questions.

The Mixing Workshop schedule: Wednesday, September 30 7AM PDT/2PM UTC; 9AM PDT/4PM UTC. To attend these sessions, sign up for free here. http://www.meyersound.com/events/seminars/webinars.php

In addition to L.O.C., Staerke has mixed jazz (Caroline Henderson), electronic dance music (KATO), rock (Kashmir), pop (Kim Larsen), and more. When not on the road he

UK - Warehouse Sound Services helped this month's BBC Proms in the Park at Glasgow achieve a sensational sound experience after designing, installing and engineering the sound for event and the diverse range of acts involved.

BBC Proms in the Park returned to Glasgow Green this month. The live event took place as part of the BBC's wider Last Night of the Proms celebrations. The event featured X Factor winner Alexandra Burke, Young Traditional Musician of the Year Claire Hastings and world-renowned saxophonist Amy Dickson

The Scottish Symphony Orchestra, under Stephen Bell, performed a versatile show, with music ranging from Bernstein's overture Candide and Sibelius' Karelia Suite to a specially adapted Poldark Suite by composer Anne Dudley from her music for the popular television series, and a host of imaginatively crafted accompaniments to main acts that also included the lo

Europe - Hawthorn, one of London Stock Exchange's '1000 Companies to Inspire Britain 2015', has continued its reach into Europe with two significant events for September 2015.

The creative production company was commissioned by event management experts Taylor Bennett to design and produce all things technical for business events in Cologne and Barcelona.

Hawthorn delivered Taylor Bennett's creative exhibition stands for Adobe and Channel Advisor at dmexco, 16 - 17 September. The Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference 2015 is recognised as the premier global digital marketing event, drawing over 31,000 visitors to Koelnmesse, Cologne.

Last week, Hawthorn's technical team moved south to Barcelona to help realise Taylor Bennett's content rich party for Herbalife. Taking place at Poble Espanyol, over 3,000 guests were treated to a lively festival style reward and recognition

Italy - More than 100 Raptor moving heads from D.T.S. installed by rental company AMG International, highlighted the finals of Miss Italia 2015, hosted by Simona Ventura and broadcast live on La7 television on 20 September.

The beauty contest that crowned Alice Sabatini - chosen from 33 final candidates - was held for the second time at the Pala Arrex of Jesolo, a large modern multi-functional centre dedicated to concerts, congresses, fairs and sporting events.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - It has been confirmed that Showlight 2017 will take place on 20-23 May 2017 in the Renaissance city of Florence, Italy.

The colloquium, organised by lighting professionals, for lighting professionals, is now in its tenth incarnation, its peripatetic nature having taken it to London, Hollywood, Amsterdam, York, Ghent, Edinburgh, Munich, Glasgow, and most recently, Cesky Krumlov in 2013.

Showlight is a bringing together of lighting professionals from all areas of expertise and levels of experience, from wizened professionals to fresh-faced students! The emphasis is on sharing knowledge and enjoying the inspiration and variety our industry offers in a networking event without parallel.

An eclectic programme of speakers will inform and entertain delegates in a series of 20-minute sessions, interspersed by a micro-tradeshow, and accompanied by a social programme which inc

UK - What can just £5 do? It can win you an Amazon Gift Card for £100, £250 or even £500 - but more importantly it can help a colleague in need who has fallen on hard times because they, or an immediate family member, is seriously ill or injured.

Stop by the Behind the Scenes UK stand (C10) at the PLASA Show 5-7 October to do your part to bring help and hope to your colleagues in need. Raffle tickets are just £5 each and will be available throughout the show. The drawing will be held on Tuesday afternoon, 7 October but you do not need to be present to win.

The raffle is to help raise funds for the new UK charity Behind the Scenes which provides grants to entertainment technology professionals that may be used for basic living costs, some medical related expenses, transportation, retraining, or funerals. One grant recipient said, "I just want

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