USA - Christie answered the call Monday night to bring a special experience to guests attending the world premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens by providing spectacular red carpet displays.

"Disney and Christie have been sharing projection and display ideas and innovations for several years now to provide audiences with unparalleled movie-going experiences," said Michael Kern, Disney's VP, special events production and technical services, "so there was no question regarding who we would enlist to provide spectacular red carpet displays to make this a special night for everyone attending."

The Christie team provided technical consultation at every stage of the installation, from concept creation, to pre-staging, onsite setup and delivery. To ensure this specific live setup went well and faced with an aggressive timeline, Christie pre-configured a

UK - This year, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew have been transformed into a festive wonderland, with a one-mile sparkling path offering a magical, after-dark experience. Packed with lights, festivities and vintage fairground rides, Christmas at Kew is curated by Culture Creative, who once again approached White Light to provide the lighting equipment. In order to create something unforgettable, WL drew on its extensive range of state-of-the-art lighting technology, which included the SGM G-Spot and P-5 LED Washlight.

This is the third year that Christmas at Kew has taken place and the third year in which WL has provided the lighting. Zoe Bottrell, creative producer at Culture Creative, comments, "Christmas at Kew is a really exciting event for us and we worked closely with Kew Gardens and Raymond Gubbay Ltd to create a breathtaking design within the landscape garden.&quo

Czech Republic - Powersoft has appointed Prodance as its new distributor in the Czech Republic. The experienced company, which started life in 1992 as a sales and rental agency before moving to dedicated distribution, has added the brand to its burgeoning portfolio of pro audio companies with immediate effect.

Martin Holas, Import Manager at the Prague-based company, said that Powersoft more than met their requirements after dropping their previous amplifier supplier. "We had been looking for a high power amplifier manufacturer for some time, as it represented an obvious gap in our portfolio. We had already experienced the sound and build quality of Powersoft's modules inside the active loudspeakers that we distribute, so it was not a difficult decision to make.

"On our first meeting at PL+S 2015 we discovered that Powersoft was already looking to extend its busine

UK - The new Trailblazer Live Event Rigger apprenticeship made a leap towards a 2016 summer launch following Assessment Plan approval by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

After the government approval of 59 group standards for Trailblazer apprenticeships earlier this year, the 'Live Event Rigger' working group lead the way in further developing the initiative to help more youngsters embark on careers in the live events industry. Employers who have supported the standard of the Live Event Rigger have been designing the apprenticeship over the past year.

The National Rigging Advisory Group's (NRAG) working subgroup, comprised of key industry representatives including PLASA and Blackout, helped design the assessment process to meet relevant business needs in terms of knowledge, skills and behaviours. NRAG agreed the range of assessment methods, grading a

USA - For singer-actress Ariana Grande, diamonds are definitely a girl's best friend. Lighting designer Chris Kuroda used a diamond motif for Grande's The Honeymoon Tour, deploying Clay Paky Stormys and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures to deliver a sparkling, jewel-like look.

The tour, Grande's first international tour, is playing 88 dates worldwide in support of her second studio album, My Everything. Kuroda, who is also lighting designer for Phish and Justin Bieber, designed the touring rig for the North American and European legs of Grande's tour as well as lighting for individual shows in Asia and South America. VER supplied the fixtures for the touring rig.

Prior to the start of the tour Kuroda sat down with Grande to discuss the feel of the show. "She really likes the look of diamonds," he says. "So we decided collectively to make the thrust diamo

Australia - TDC - Technical Direction Company is bringing Sydney-siders their large-format video projection technology to two prominent events this year.

Lights of Christmas 2015, St Mary's Cathedral: Once again, TDC has used its expertise to turn the façade of St Mary's Cathedral into a huge 75m backdrop of an imaginative representation of Christmas and what it means to Sydney. TDC created giant 17,640,000 pixel animated images using 264,000 lumens of projected light to illuminate the facade.

To manage the full HD content images, TDC's hardware needs massive processing power - two terabytes of content management, 48 cores of processing and 144 gigabytes of RAM.

"TDC projection video designers created special code and electronics so that the entire system is 'virtually wired' and controllable using an iPad device," says Michael Hassett, managing director at TDC

USA - Electrosonic recently provided audio-visual equipment and integration services for the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame when it remodelled its first-floor gallery and added a stunning interactive mobile in the Grand Rotunda. The additions are part of a two-phase renovation of the museum's galleries and public spaces.

Located in Fort Worth, Texas, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is the only museum in the world dedicated to honouring women of the American West, past and present. Its archives house more than 4,000 artefacts and information about more than 750 remarkable women; the Hall of Fame has 220 honourees, including author Laura Ingalls Wilder, Hollywood's Dale Evans, and Lewis and Clark's guide Sacagawea. The 33,000sq.ft museum is part of the Will Rogers Memorial Complex in the heart of the city's cultural district.

"Even though the museum

USA - Known affectionately as the 'Bud' and 'The Basketball Palace of Mid-America,' University of Arkansas' Bud Walton Arena has been the home of the UofA Razorbacks Basketball team since 1993. Over time, the 19,200-seat venue has undergone numerous upgrades. The most recent, includes a new scoreboard and an audio system driven entirely by Lab.gruppen D and C Series amplifiers - specified for their BSS integration and Lake Processing capabilities.

The project was decidedly entertainment driven, and designed to further enhance the game day experience, says UofA associate athletics director, Justin Maland. "It's not just about the game anymore, it's about entertainment, video, promotions not just playing canned music between time outs.

"Also, the configuration of the way we place fans in the arena has changed; for example, we have courtside seats we didn't have 20 ye

UK - Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supplied full technical production and design to the high profile Global African Investment Summit (TGAIS) event in central London, which attracted over 1,000 global investors, leaders and captains of industry - including several heads of State - to Africa's premier investment summit for power, agriculture, financial services, capital markets, oil and gas and critical infrastructure sectors.

The two day conference took place in the main event space at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, a grade II listed building designed by Edwin Alfred Rickards and built in 1905-11 to commemorate the centenary of John Wesley's death, in a premium location opposite Westminster Abbey and adjacent to the Houses of Parliament!

CPL was working for Swindon-based Live Communications who managed the event production for the organiser dmg::events. CPL's proje

USA - Friday nights in the fall are a big deal at Douglas County High School in Castle Rock, Colorado DCHS, and they just became a slightly bigger deal with the adoption of an awesome Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement system.

Two fully-weatherized Danley OS-90 full-range loudspeakers and two fully-weatherized Danley OS-115 subwoofer powered by two Danley DLA7500 processor/amps give DCHS high-fidelity sound in rain, snow, or blazing heat.

"Despite all of the excitement at Douglas County, their old sound system was pretty weak when it went in and only got worse over time," said Jeff Brotherston, chief design engineer at AV Colorado, the company that designed and installed the new Danley system.

"Intelligibility was poor, and support for music wasn't really there. They were motivated to improve the system, but their budget was tight. We looked at their sit

UK - This year, White Light has supplied the lighting equipment to more than 40 pantomimes across the UK. Amongst these is the star-studded Aladdin which is currently playing at Derby Arena. The venue, normally used as a velodrome and concert arena, has been transformed into a theatre space specifically for the show. With its strong reputation in theatre, WL was called upon to provide the lighting support on this extremely ambitious production.

Aladdin opened on 7 December and the huge space has allowed for a truly spectacular show, featuring pyrotechnics, special effects, a flying carpet and even a live band.

Alex Marshall was tasked with creating the lighting design. He comments, "Derby Arena is a fantastic facility for the city, offering everything from a gym to an Olympic certified cycle track. The Arena was also designed to provide a large capacity pe

Mexico - Banda La Trakalosa is a large, 20-member Mexican ensemble that turns to the extra impact that Elation Professional's powerful Platinum BX beam light provides when the band plays bigger venues and looks to impress larger audiences.

"The Platinum BX is now a part of the great concerts of this band," stated Edson Rivera of Elation partner Adimsa, who supplies lighting packages for many of La Trakalosa's bigger shows, including Platinum BX beam lights. "When it's a big show they want to up the production value. If it is a venue where there are 10,000 people or more then they look to make a bigger impact and the BX fixtures help them do that."

The band, whose members come from all over northern Mexico, plays a diverse blend of music from traditional to more alternative and is one of the most popular bands in Mexico. Originally only a regular act in ba

Romania - The official Bucharest Christmas Market is a tradition from 2012 taking place in the University Square from end of November throughout December with more than 60 wooden stalls hosted by merchants of handcraft and seasonal foods. To extend the Christmas atmosphere, the market also includes a 15m Christmas tree illuminated by 20,000 lights, Santa's House, daily carollers, concerts, donation of Christmas gifts for the less fortunate while surrounding buildings are illuminated in seasonal colours.

This market offers the visitors a rediscovering of Romanian arts, traditions and customs. This year also features 19 evenings packed with concerts held by renowned artists, children choirs and orchestras.

Ever since this tradition was created, SGM's partner FIVE'S International has been the technical provider of the event which is planned by Bucharest City Hall, organized wit

USA - Known simply as Pod # 2, the second phase of the Rock Lititz campus development in Lititz,PA, is a multi-tenant facility designed to attract businesses that serve the live entertainment industry. The 250,000sq.ft building will be located on 10.08 acres of the 96-acre campus. Construction of Pod # 2 at Rock Lititz is underway and aiming for a December 2016 completion.

As of groundbreaking, the facility is at 75% occupancy with nine companies committed as tenants, two of which are relocating their headquarters to Lititz.

"Joining the Rock Lititz Campus is a natural move for us. Atomic has enjoyed a 20-year relationship with industry giants Clair Global and TAIT in our hometown of Lititz. Now we'll have the opportunity to collaborate in more ways, while starting new relationships with entertainment companies moving into the area." said Daniel McPhillips, Preside

Luxembourg - Located in Senningerberg, on the outskirts of Luxembourg City and close to the country's main airport, Pro Audio Sound Light Vision is a steadily growing company, providing rental, production and installation services to a variety of clients. It has just invested in Yamaha TF1 and TF3 digital consoles to join its existing stock of M7CLs and LS9s.

Founded in 1989 by John Schreiner and currently employing five staff members, the earlier Yamaha consoles are a firm favourite with the company and its clients alike.

"Our existing Yamaha consoles are very user-friendly and they have always been extremely reliable," says Dan Schreiner, the company's manager since 2000. "As our customer base grows, we needed to invest in new equipment and felt that now is the right time to expand our Yamaha inventory."

Yamaha's Jan Prins visited Dan and his team to

UK - Robe gets into the great tradition of English Panto this festive season with over 50 fixtures - including the latest in the DL series luminaires which are built for theatre - specified by lighting designer Andy Webb for a lively and colourful production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, produced by UK Productions at Blackpool Grand Theatre.

Andy immediately thought of Robe again after pioneering the large scale use of LED moving and static lighting luminaires in commercial panto for Dick Whittington last year at High Wycombe, when he was approached to light another popular fairy-tale story laced with slapstick humour, hi-jinks and audience interaction.

One of the classic references to this Brothers Grimm story is the 1937 Disney animated musical fantasy film, and Andy "wanted to bring that truly 'Disneyesque' surface optimism and style to lighting t

France - A new installation of Fohhn Audio loudspeaker systems in the Opéra Bastille, Paris, has ensured that each of its 2745 seats is "the best in the house" with regard to sound quality and audibility. The German manufacturer's Focus Modular systems with Beam Steering capability beat off stiff competition in the quest to deliver highest levels of speech intelligibility and music reproduction to every seat, without impeding audience views or spoiling the hall's stunning architecture.

The opera house's main auditorium has seating on three levels - stalls and two main balconies, as well as eight side balconies. With the top tier 18m high and 40m from the stage, and other seating covered by the balconies, how to replace the existing system with a more effective solution posed a challenge for planners.

Focus Modular loudspeakers proved first choice for the mai

UAE - The Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque, recently inaugurated at Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, is one of the largest and most spectacular places of worship in the world.

This architectural work of art can host up to 28,000 worshippers and features 65 domes, six minarets (more than 80m) tall, 24 carat gold-plated accessories and precious hand-woven carpets. Work focused on a newly-built atrium area

Because of the mosque's size and its architectural features - in particular the high ceilinged domes that are typical of the Islamic style - the mosque is an extremely reverberant venue. Similar to other large-sized places of worship, the main challenge for RCF's engineers was to attain good intelligibility across the entire listening area without neglecting the requirement for minimum visual impact.

For these reasons the choice of the main audio system fell t

The Netherlands - Lighting designer Luc Peumans of Painting With Light has cast Clay Paky Mythos and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures to play a starring role in his design for a Dutch stage production of The Bodyguard.

The musical, produced by Stage Entertainment, opened in September at the Beatrix Theatre in Utrecht. Peumans specified 24 Clay Paky Mythos and 36 Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures from Ampco Flashlight, using them to swing his looks from the intimate during the more tender scenes, to the big and bold for the numerous concert moments.

"The narrative is well known as the 1992 movie, so one of the objectives was to give the show a 'cinematic' feel but also present the story in a contemporary setting using current technologies and high production values," explains Peumans.

Peumans worked alongside set designer Carla Janssen Hofelt, content producer Ad de Haan a

Germany - HK Audio's Contour series continues to be the stage monitor of choice for Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, who used his favoured pair of CT 112 speakers and CT 118 subs on the band's mammoth 2015 fall/winter tour.

Deep Purple co-founder Paice has the setup placed directly behind his kit for live shows, a solution he prefers to in-ear monitors.

Paice said: "I've been using HK Audio for 20 years, and there's something in the way the systems are put together which for drums just seems to work. They pick out the depth and the sweetness and the clarity at the top end that you need. The drums just seem to stay in balance and the frequency response seems to be working perfectly for everything I need. When you've got that, it just makes the whole process of playing an instrument you can't physically hear a lot easier."

During an interview with HK Audio before th

UK - The University of St Andrews is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world, A familiar landmark at this renowned university is the Students' Union of St Andrews, founded in 1885 to give support and provide representation to its students.

Tasked with providing a modern lighting solution for the refurbishment of the Student Union theatre and club - two traditional hubs of student life - Audio Light Systems installed 12 Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spot fixtures to award the Students' Union venues with an arsenal of modern lighting solutions.

The central wish of the Students' Union was for both the theatre and club venues to be upgraded with high performing fixtures to give both venues unique looks - a task which initially looked impossible due to budgetary constraints. However, thanks to the lightweight and tour ready Rogue R1 Spo

Norway - The need to accommodate a host of different activities as well as making operation as straightforward as possible for staff tend to inform the audio design for most educational establishments. These factors were certainly in play when technology supplier and installer Lindbak AS Gjovik set about a recent audio project at Storhamar High School in Hamar, Norway.

Work focused on a newly-built atrium area that was conceived to host presentations, cultural and educational events, performances, open meetings and more. Therefore, as well as tackling the reinforcement challenges resulting from a high ceiling and reflective surfaces, Lindbak A/S Gjovik needed to provide a mixing and processing solution that was both flexible and easy to use.

The answer came in the form of a Symetrix Jupiter 8 (8-in, 8-out) app-based digital signal processor - a product that project equipment

UK - Doughty Engineering is set to celebrate its first truly green Christmas this year, following the installation of 200sq.m of solar panels on the roof of its Ringwood headquarters.

Installation of the panels, which are estimated to produce 4000kW hours of energy a month, began earlier this year with an initial 98.5sq.m of panelling. Work has recently been completed to install the final 100sq.m.

Julian Chiverton, sales director at Doughty explained: "It's vital that manufacturers like us are doing everything within our power to become more eco-aware and eco-friendly. With initiatives like SiPA being set up to help businesses achieve their environmental goals and with support from the government, companies are running out of excuses for not doing their bit."

The move is an economical one as well as environmental - production at Doughty's factory is thriving and

UK - The first pilot assessment of the new National Event Lifting Certificate has taken place at Unusual Rigging's headquarters in Bugbrooke, Northampton.

The certification has been designed by the The National Rigging Advisory Group (NRAG), with contributions from NRAG members including Harry Box from UK Rigging, Mark Armstrong from RTM Rigging, Paul Riddiford, PLASA's NRC manager and Unusual Rigging's Robin Elias. It is being offered to those working in the entertainment industry - in lighting, sound, video and scenery - who are often called upon to undertake rigging work, and to carry out lifting operations, without possessing the relevant qualification.

Robin explained, "The one-day assessment consists of; practical exercises in marking out, a practical assessment of a rigging related task leading up to and including carrying out a lifting operation, an hour long ex

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