UK Central Hall Westminster is Central London's largest conference centre. As Production Service Partner, White Light oversees all of the technical production support inside the venue and, over the next few months, will be installing the very latest lighting, AV and rigging technology. As part of this long-term upgrade, WL recently added a brand new motorised rigging system to the Great Hall, which will enhance any event that takes place inside this iconic space.

Prior to the installation, the rigging system inside the Great Hall had to be set up every time a different event took place. Jason Larcombe, WL's project manager, comments, "The motor rigging system consists of several LTM LoadGuard motors which are extremely adaptable to events of all sizes. Previously, if we wanted to rig equipment from the ceiling, this had to be manually carried and installed; quite an arduous

USA - It is one of New York's chicest event venues. Commanding incredible views of the city's harbour from Brooklyn's trendy Red Hook neighbourhood, Liberty Warehouse has been the scene of parties for big name celebrities from every field. Jay Z and Beyoncé danced the night away at this Civil War-era waterfront warehouse to celebrate the release of Hov's Magna Carta Holy Grail. When Hillary Clinton declared her candidacy for the presidency, her first stop in Brooklyn was at a Liberty Warehouse fundraiser.

When New York A-listers tie the knot, they often choose to hold their weddings and ceremonies at this prestigious facility. This was the case recently when a prominent event planner got married. She called on Jeffrey Kwan of Canal Sound and Light to light the ceremony. Kwan delivered an elegant lighting package with mood-setting uplighting and stylish pin spotting

UAE - A team of Avolites S4 servers, Expert Pro console with Wing and TitanNet Processors were deployed to control more than 350 fixtures and 150sq.m of LED screens for an extraordinary party to open WHITE Club Dubai's new season.

Procom Middle East, the Dubai-based professional audio, lighting and video equipment supplier and Avolites official distributor delivered the venue at the request of Addmind, the venue's owner and manager.

They teamed up with club lighting designer Dave Parry of Most Technical, lighting programmers Ross Chapple and Tony Chidiac, and Immersive's John Munro and Martin Harvey to create the awesome event.

"The club's opening party set a new frontier in entertainment technology, giving a 'reality-altering' experience with impressive lighting shows, effects and a cutting edge video mapping show on a 3D video wall," says Procom's Rami Harfouch.<

Canada - October is a big month for Montreal-based crowd activation pioneers, PixMob. After illuminating crowds at a massive event for every day of the month they're finishing the month with their own North American tour.

Four NBA teams chose PixMob to light up their season openers, taking place over three days. From 28-30 October the Sacramento Kings, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indianapolis Pacers will transform their audiences into a human canvas made of light.

After illuminating the NBA All-Star weekend earlier this year, PixMob has become the go-to company in the sports world, known for transforming an arena of 20,000 people into a crowd united by technology.

NBA season openers aside, next week will be a busy one for PixMob. Its creative and production teams will be in the following places simultaneously: Dubaï for Sensation, an electronic

South Africa - This year's Rocking the Daisies - which coincided with the festival's tenth birthday - was the biggest and best year yet. It was the fifth time that Kilowatt AV saw involvement in the festival, this year being commissioned to conceptualise, design and fully execute four of the eight stages (where they incorporated Avolites Ai technology and Robe fixtures) as well as multiple activation areas.

Rocking the Daisies was held at the start of October at the Cloof Wine Estate in Darling, under an hour's drive from Cape Town, and included a line up of international and local musical acts, camping, relaxing and good food. In fact the owners never suspected that what started off, as a small festival on their tranquil grounds, would turn into one of the most popular annual music occasions on the South African calendar.

"We were commissioned by Seed Experiences to prov

Sweden - Hyrljudet is a fast-growing technical production and rental company based in Goteborg, founded in 2005 by Kristoffer Jansson.

Literally translated, the name means 'Sound Rental', but Hyrljudet supplies complete production packages - incorporating design, sound, lighting and video - to a variety of concert tours, music events and corporate clients, with a special interest in the creative and atmospheric engineering of clubs and parties through exciting and challenging visual elements.

The most recent equipment investment has been in 24 of Robe's Pointe multi-purpose fixtures, which have gone to work over the summer in the two largest of the three separate summer club venues that Hyrljudet is servicing with equipment and crew.

"The Pointe is a good lightweight, medium-sized fixture with great cross-rental potential," comments Kristoffer, "Looking at the

USA - Japanese Broadcaster NHK has fielded a new OB truck in the US market fitted with Lawo technology and designed specifically to capture major US sports events and deliver a high-quality audio experience to its viewers back home.

The new mobile unit is the first RAVENNA-based truck in the US, utilizing Lawo's newest dual-fader mc²56XT mixing console. The console provides a 64 fader surface in an audio booth with only 84 inches of linear space. It accommodates 288 DSP paths with 8,192 x 8,192 audio routing capability and three DALLIS I/O stageboxes in a redundant configuration.

The RAVENNA technology fully supports AES67 and offers a proven solution for critical broadcasting operations. In addition, the truck is capable of up to 22.2 surround sound as a potential audio delivery format for the network. In a long-standing cooperative effort between NHK and Lawo, the two compa

UK - Pro audio provider The Warehouse Sound Services is teaming up with Audio-Technica, the UK distributor for Allen & Heath to showcase their digital mixing system, dLive.

A free demonstration will take place at Warehouse Sound's Glasgow Branch on 11 November. The Warehouse is the only Scottish supplier of the Allen & Heath dLive desks so the event will provide members of the live audio an opportunity to see the system in action.

The showcase will be hosted by Audio-Technica's Ben Hammond (FOH Engineer for Ugly Kid Joe, You Me At Six, Devin Townsend Project, Skid Row, While She Sleeps, We Are The Ocean). Hammond will spearhead dLive training and demonstration for The Warehouse Sound's UK customers and engineers providing industry professionals with in-depth training, demonstration and support.

Hammond comments, "The new dLive mixing system is an exciting new developmen

UK - The opening ceremony of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, conceived and executed by Take That's creative director Kim Gavin firmly focussed the attention of the world's TV cameras on the contest in uncompromising terms.

"I'm really pleased with what we did at Twickenham Stadium," said production manager Steve Nolan of Chromatic Productions Ltd, who were contracted to manage the event. "We put 14 truck-loads of gear on the field without damaging the turf. When the opening ceremony was over it took just nine minutes and 26 seconds to clear the ground so the teams could enter for the warm-up. That's all down to planning, and Tom Brown from Britannia Row Productions Ltd (Britrow) who provided all the audio infra-structure in the stadium and to broadcast, was highly instrumental in realising that plan."

"The pitch system was relatively straight forward,"

UK - dbn Lighting from Manchester recently designed and supplied lighting equipment to two innovative site-specific shows in Hull created by outdoor arts and performance specialists Walk The Plank, in their role as artistic directors of Hull Freedom festival - a diverse mix of arts, music and cultural events staged over three days in and around the city of Hull.

dbn is a regular collaborator with Walk The Plank, known for their 'out-of-the-box' approach and imaginative, eye-catching public art presentations which challenge, engage and appeal to wide and diverse audiences.

dbn's Stephen Page and Nick Walton lit the two one-off shows which formed two of the main spectacular set pieces for the festival.

Using the River Hull as the narrator, Voices of Freedom , the opening night spectacular took place along its banks in between the Scale Lane Swing Bridge and Myton A63 Ro

UK - HSL is supplying lighting equipment for the popular Bill Kenwright production of The Glenn Miller Story, currently touring the UK tour with veteran entertainer Tommy Steel in the lead role. The show features a lighting design by top theatre LD, Nick Richings.

HSL's John Slevin is project managing with Emma Nolan and comments: "We're really proud to be involved in this production, it looks and sounds great and is really engaging audiences old and young."

The action takes everyone back to the early days of Glenn Miller's career, his passion for music and the development of his distinctive and complex swing sound.

The lighting plot utilises seven over-stage LX bars and features a wide variety of lighting fixtures including over 60 moving lights. Forty of these are from Robe's DL LED series -luminaires especially built for theatre applications - which were

Australia - Melbourne hire company Resolution X is the first company in the world to purchase the new Martin RUSH MH 6 Wash, the moving head based on the popular RUSH PAR 2 RGBW Zoom, utilizing the same LED engine and zoom system.

"Res X has over 120 Martin MAC Aura yet however many we purchase, they are never in the factory as everyone wants them from theatre to TV to events," remarked Tim Hall, managing director of Resolution X. "For quite some time, we have realised that an Aura is actually too bright in a lot of the applications we have been using them. So as soon Show Technology and Martin told us about the Rush MH6 we knew we wanted them. It allows us to provide a more cost effective option for our clients without compromising on quality. Another bonus is that the optics match both the MAC Aura and the Rush PAR Zoom."

Designed for night venues and liv

USA - Impact Youth Camp in San Antonio is a two-week long church retreat that attracts high school and middle school students from churches from all over Texas. Over 1200 students attend, participating in group seminars, praise and worship.

The organisers of the event turned to DiTech AV of El Campo, TX to handle the lighting, audio and video design and production - and powerful fixtures from PR Lighting formed a major part of the lighting inventory.

The production has grown substantially since Paul Guthrie, owner of DiTech AV became involved with the event 10 years ago. This year they exceeded expectations and challenged themselves with a design that departed from anything they had done in the past.

Guthrie worked with his LD Dan Brunson to conceive the design. With the stage being so large, the biggest challenge was creating an intimate feel to the space, without losing it

USA - It was a capacity crowd at Rupp Arena 16 October, as the University of Kentucky's Wildcats took the court for their annual Big Blue Madness. The exhibition basketball game marks the first 'official' practice, and consists of grand spectacles, lasers, fireworks and stunning lighting provided by Bandit Lites. Bandit has provided the lighting for Big Blue Madness since 2011, and every year the team works to outdo the year before, with this year being no different.

Lighting designer Aaron Swetland worked to create a design that both filled the massive stadium and light the basketball court. The result was an enormous eight point star design with circle truss nestled in the middle covered in hundreds of moving lights.

"When you do a concert, you do 60 by 40 area, but Big Blue is huge, so we used a ton of wash fixtures like VL 3500 washes over the court to give a big fat

USA - Revamping major sports facilities and bringing them up-to-date now almost invariably involves a comprehensive review of the audio processing configuration so that it can cope with both current and future requirements. Providing the spring training home of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics since earlier this year, the Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona, is no exception - and as the result of its latest upgrade, now features an extensive Symetrix DSP infrastructure.

Minneapolis, MN-based Parsons Technologies systems engineer Mark Schultz, "The main objectives were to provide a quality audio upgrade and stay within the budget of Oakland Athletics. In terms of processing, we also needed to select equipment that would complement and support the Dante network being implemented throughout the site. After evaluating several possible scenarios, we determined that using t

USA - The new Gannon Recreation and Wellness Centre features nearly 52,000sq.ft of subdivided indoor space for year-round athletic, recreation and fitness activities, and is equipped with loudspeaker systems drawn from the catalogue of D.A.S. Audio.

Erie, PA-based Grisé Audio Visual Center, Inc., a design / build AV integration firm that also has a live events division, was contracted to design and install the new sound system at The Gannon Recreation and Wellness Centre. Greg Hardner, the company's sales & production manager, designed the sound reinforcement system, which included 69 D.A.S. Audio CL-6TB ceiling speakers, 22 Factor 8T loudspeakers, and 10 Arco 4T loudspeakers. He discussed the project and his fondness for D.A.S. Audio.

"The decision to install a sound system throughout the facility was approved with only six weeks of construction remaining before t

Greece - 360 event agency from Greece looked no further than Austrian engineering experts AV Stumpfl to meet its requirement for a 4m high by 30m wide Curve screen for presentations at an international conference of a Fortune 500 client that was held in Athens and attended by 500 participants from 28 countries.

"We turned to AV Stumpfl as the number one company to handle a project of this scale," explains Apostolos Papadopoulos, managing director at 360 event agency.

For this project, the AV Stumpfl Curve screen needed to be incorporated into futuristic architecture and design of the presentation. The screen was made to measure for its application and delivered ahead of schedule. 360 event agency integrated with five Barco HDX-W20 high-definition projectors and content was edge-blended onto the screen alongside state-of-the-art acoustic and video conferencing technol

UK - Hawthorn has been awarded the contract to supply lighting and video equipment for the New Order European Tour, which kicks off in Paris on 4 November.

Hawthorn has strengthened its position in the concert tour sector this year after supplying equipment for a series of prestigious European wide arena and theatre shows for high-profile music artists including Mark Knopfler, Squeeze, The Charlatans, Steven Wilson and Status Quo.

For the New Order shows, the Concert Touring division in Hawthorn is drawing upon its extensive range of hire equipment, supplying lighting to specification, including Martin MAC Viper Profile and Wash DX, Clay Paky Sharpy, Clay Paky Stormy and Robe BMFL fixtures, as well as providing the video element, which includes Glux 10mm LED panels. Hawthorn is also supplying rigging and drapes.

Mick Freer, concert touring manager at Hawthorn, said, "Ne

USA - Spanning the Willamette River in the US state of Oregon, you'll find a confluence of nature, light, art, engineering and architecture. Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People, is the first new bridge in the Portland area in 40 years. Accessible only by pedestrians, cyclists and public transport, it's an eye-catching spectacle both day and night, designed and lit to emphasise the importance of the river to the city and its inhabitants.

"I've always made sure that a bridge evolves out of the community, the environment that it's in," says Donald McDonald, the San Francisco-based architect who designed the bridge. As a statement on the importance of the river to the Portland area, Tilikum Crossing was designed to integrate compelling architecture and dynamic river conditions with a thrilling display of light art that now accentuates the Portland skyline, keeping the 5

USA - Over the past 12 months, Elation dealer Fyxx Entertainment has outfitted several top entertainment venues in Scottsdale, Arizona, with Elation lighting and video systems - live music venue Livewire and The District bar and nightclub for example - a list that also includes Dakota, a full service restaurant and bar located in the heart of Scottsdale's thriving entertainment district.

A project of Triyar Entertainment Group, Dakota is a new build venue that fills a niche in owner Shawn Yari's string of Scottsdale properties that include Maya Day + Nightclub, The District and the W Scottsdale Hotel. "All of the properties have different niches," explains Adrian de Pamphilis, owner of Fyxx Entertainment. "Dakota caters to a bit older and more professional clientele than Maya and The District, which target more the younger 20-something crowd."

Dakota is loc

Poland - Meskie Granie is a festival tour that showcases the music of some of the best Polish alt rock and electronic artists 'of the moment'. This year, the six-date tour headlined by the 2015 M?skie Granie Orchestra and featuring a different supporting line-up in each city, culminated in Zywiec where it was enjoyed by over 10,000 live audience and streamed via the internet to a further 265,000 fans.

Pawel Pajak (AKA Spider) from Fish Eye was the tour's creative visual director - creating the lighting, video and set designs - in 2012 and 2013. This year, the organisers asked him to take on this same role again plus co-ordinate the budget and suppliers needed to realise the various stage concepts, so he became the project's creative producer. For the main moving lights, he specified over 100 Robe products.

The client wanted good looking visually stimulating shows with high pro

Georgia - Funktion-One specialist, Blue Box London, has completed a nightclub installation in Georgia. The company, which played an important role in the loudspeaker manufacturer's introduction to Ibiza at the beginning of the millennia, has continued its pioneering ways by exploring some new territories in recent years. Its latest project - Bassiani - sees the first ever Funktion-One Dance Stack installation in Georgia.

The main room is home to two towering Funktion-One DS4 Dance Stacks. The DS4 configuration features two F221 21in bass enclosures at the base, two DS15 speakers for punchy upper bass and low-mid frequencies, and two DS210 loudspeaker enclosures, featuring dual axhead-loaded 10" mid-high drivers and dual 1.4" compression drivers.

Two Funktion-One Evo 6SHs - the skeletal addition to the new Evolution 6 range - have been deployed for infill. Amplificati

UK - Converted and maintained by a devoted team of volunteers comprising ex-BBC technicians, local builders and theatre enthusiasts, the Playhouse Theatre Whitstable is a performance venue suitable for a wide range of live entertainment. The theatre plays host to a variety of shows new and old and is home to drama group, the Lindley Players who are the owners and operators of the venue.

The hard work carried out by volunteers and members over many years has converted what was once the United Reform Church into the modern performance venue that is the Playhouse Theatre Whitstable today. The conversion work has involved building a stage, removing the balcony from the side walls, installing a stepped auditorium floor, building a sound and lighting control room in the balcony and installing additional seating. The lower floor has been converted into a bar, club room and dressing roo

Strong Box Office - Theatres across the UK took a total of more than £1bn at the box office in 2014, according to new figures released by industry body UK Theatre. UK Theatre member venues - predominantly theatres outside London - recorded £429m at the box office in 2014. When added to the box office for theatres that are members of the Society of London Theatre in 2014 (£624m), it reveals that theatre across the whole of the UK recorded a total box office of £1.05bn.

The report represents the first ever comprehensive analysis of sales data for theatres outside London. It found that 2014 was a stronger year than 2013, with a higher proportion of tickets sold and more cash value achieved.

Musical theatre accounted for £153m (38%) of total box office in 2013 and £162 million (39%) in 2014, signalling the genre's continued popularity across the

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