UK - The Eden Project in Cornwall has been wowing families during their summer holidays by hosting what they describe as “the ultimate space adventure holiday”, starring a mission to Mars, mini-golf on Mercury and a daring slide down the surface of a moon.
Running for six weeks, Expedition Space is an all-new programme of intergalactic activities that has been taking place across Eden, giving visitors “an extra-terrestrial holiday of a lifetime” including planet-hopping, meeting alien friends and enjoying out-of-this-world fun such as moon buggy driving and virtual reality experiences. Space explorers have even been able to climb aboard a rocket and blast into orbit while enjoying spectacular views of the Moon.
Enhancing the sonic realism of this trip around the Solar System has been a series of Martin Audio’s CDD-WR (Coaxial Differential Dispersion)

Spain - A number of headliners - including Depeche Mode, Queens of the Stone Age, Kasabian, Portugal The Man, and Underworld - at the recent MadCool Festival 2018 in Madrid came with SSL Live consoles, while the main live console for Stage 2 was an SSL L500 Plus.
The three-day event saw 80,000 music fans watch a packed line-up including some of the biggest currently touring bands in the world. Event company PRG, provided the technical services for all three stages, and chose an L500 Plus for FOH on Stage 2, connected via SSL's Blacklight II MADI concentrator technology to two ML32.32 stage boxes.
The L500 Plus features a versatile user interface. Any channel or path can be assigned anywhere on the three independent fader tiles, which are navigated in a convenient layer & bank system. This means the console can be set up quickly and simply to suit the user. New pa

UK - Current RMS will be back once again exhibiting at PLASA London in September, where they’ll be showcasing their latest features built for the AV, lighting and staging industries, including a number of new updates.
The team will be on hand to show how simple managing the entire rental process from start to finish becomes with Current RMS, thanks to the convenience and the ease of one cloud-based solution. See the real-time availability of your kit from any device, effortlessly create quotes and orders to send online to your clients, seamlessly scan to allocate and book out your kit, and manage your crew, transport and venues all from one system.
Since the success of last year’s PLASA London show, the team has been working to implement some of their user feedback, based on votes on their open Customer Wishlist. New updates have included Choosing Accessories

South Africa - The South African Roadies Association (SARA) hosted its fourth Annual Live Event Technical & Production Conference (LETPC 2018) at The Sunnyside Park Hotel in Parktown, Johannesburg, the current home of the LETPC. The three-day event attracted over 120 delegates from across the globe.
The LETPC conference has become one of the foremost platforms for international live event professionals to meet, network and discuss critical issues that are affecting the sector with topics such as such as health and safety, production, event management, venues, artist challenges, DJ and producer issues, technical advances being interrogated by the speakers and audience alike.
LETPC 2018 featured a range of local as well as international guest speakers, and as was intended once again, to expose the South African live event, technical and production sectors and practit

UK - Theatres Trust Conference 18: Adapt & Thrive will take place on Tuesday 16 October at the Lyric Hammersmith, London, exploring how changing artistic, business and operating models in the theatre sector are impacting on how we build, adapt and run theatres.
Through a mixture of inspiring plenaries and lively breakout sessions, the conference will look at how we can ensure our theatres remain viable in challenging economic times and how we can continue to invest in renewal of our theatre infrastructure.
Joining Michael Ellis MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Tourism and Cameron Mackintosh, producer and theatre owner will be speakers from Bristol Old Vic, arguably the country’s oldest continuously operating theatre and Manchester’s Factory, probably the newest, discussing how they are adapting to new artistic and busines

UK - Theatres Trust has extended the booking period for our Early Bird offer so you now have until Friday 24 August to take advantage of the discounted rate ( http://bit.ly/Adaptandthrive ).
Titled 'Adapt and Thrive', the conference, which takes place on 16 October at the Lyric Hammersmith, looks at new models for theatre buildings and new ways of funding.
Through a mixture of inspiring plenaries and lively breakout sessions, the conference w

UK - Registration is now open for ISCEx which takes place 5-6 March 2019 at Combe Abbey (https://www.isce.org.uk/iscex-event/)
If you’re working in commercial audio system design, integration, project management or sales, ISCEx provides opportunities to learn, engage and discuss commercial audio solutions in an intimate, non-imposing environment.
ISCEx is a multi-faceted event that includes seminars, training, networking dinner and an exhibition of the audio industries leading manufacturers and distributors. There are plenty of opportunities to meet up with industry colleagues, share ideas and discuss projects in informal environments.
(Jim Evans)

Italy - For the eighth year running, Music Inside Rimini (MIR) and LIVE welcomed a host of lighting companies including High End Systems to take part in the annual Italian event Live You Play. LIVE events began in 2010 with a resolution to provide visitors with the chance to experience audio, lighting, video and installation technologies from a live performance on stage. This year, there was both a virtual and a live show organised at the event.
Lighting designer Trevor Burk organised the structure of High End Systems fixtures in the virtual show whilst lighting programmer Francesco De Cave arranged the design of the same fixtures for music band ‘POP deluxe’ in the live show.
Francesco emphasised how “programming the lighting whilst showing the fixtures’ capability to the audience without losing the main focus – the show itself – was not an easy job

USA - It’s a 4th July tradition: the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular at the Edward A. Hatch Memorial Shell on the Esplanade along the banks of the Charles River in Boston. The event featured the celebrated orchestra, under the direction of conductor Keith Lockhart. This year, Michael Berger of LA-based Full Flood utilised Claypaky Scenius Unico and Mythos 2 fixtures, supplied by 4Wall, to support the production.
The Independence Day spectacular showcased an all-women guest line-up featuring Emmy award-winning Fight Song artist Rachel Platten, Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, and Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards-winner, Rita Moreno.
“We needed to make the orchestra the star of the show and provide opportunities for the guest artists to shine as well,” says Full Flood’s Micahel Be

UK - PLASA Show, the worldwide event for entertainment technology, is returning to London Olympia on 16-18 September with a whole host of industry leaders and influential brands primed to deliver popular products, inspirational talks and expert training.
The exhibitor list has been rapidly growing with international brands spanning lighting, audio, AV, rigging and staging, and the programme is filling up fast with critical updates, exclusive panels and the latest projects.
In association with LSi, respected lighting designer Rob Halliday and entertainment architects Stufish will present Giudizio Universale - Michelangelo and the Secrets of the Sistine Chapel, revealing the technical secrets of this stunning €9m immersive stage show created by Marco Balich, now at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome. Having worked on the show, Rob Halliday will discu

UK - Elation will be showcasing at PLASA Stand H40 the Smarty Hybrid, a full featured CMY colour mixing spot, beam and wash fixture. At the heart of the fixture is the new Platinum lamp using ‘FLEX’ technology which offers a "smartly” designed discharge lamp/ballast package (6,000 hour lamp life) for high output / compact performance at an efficient and affordable price point.
Elation continues to expand its award-winning Artiste series of creative moving heads. At PLASA, look for the Artiste Picasso, a theatrical-grade luminaire that 'connects art to engineering'. One of the brightest and most feature-rich profile LED lighting fixtures on the market today, it is a high-output (22,000 lumens), feature-packed (zoom, framing, CMY, CTO, gobo wheels, animation, prisms, frost and more) yet compact profile light featuring a new high-power 600W Cool White LED engine.

UK - At this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival visitors are not only enjoying comedian Abandoman’s freewheeling performance, but also got an inside look at the lighting that supports his on-stage magic. On Monday evening, 13 August, Chauvet Professional sponsored a behind the scenes tour of the popular entertainer’s FOH and lighting rig, which includes Maverick MK Pyxis and Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures supplied by SLX.
Taking place at the Fringe Festival’s Underbelly at George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LD, the ‘Open Day’ event featured a lively chat with Abandoman’s lighting designer Robbie Butler, ALD’s Tom Wilkes, Underbelly’s head of lighting Cat Neufeld, and a special guest on the inspiration and techniques behind successful improvisational lighting.
After the interview and subsequent tour, Wilkes donned his Chauvet hat (he is the company’s UK South pr

Italy - Six dLive systems were chosen to run the show at this year’s spectacular Primo Maggio event in Piazza San Giovanni, Rome. Over the course of the day, over 30 major artists performed in front of a giant crowd and a huge live TV audience, including names such as Gianna Nannini and Fatboy Slim, and a 50-piece orchestra.
With 36 acts, short changeover times and a live broadcast to the RAI national TV channel, Primo Maggio featured a spectacular revolving dual-stage setup, with each stage having its own dLive system, each consisting of an S5000 surface and DM48 MixRack at front of house, and an S7000 surface with DM64 MixRack and DX32 I/O expansion for monitors. Both M-Dante and GigaAce cards were selected for audio distribution.
Specified by contractor ABC, supported by Arcadia Digital and Exhibo S.p.A, the set-up also included a further two dLive systems compri

UK - Virtual reality (VR) specialist MelodyVR is working with the NEC Group Arenas to offer virtual access to live events in its venues.
Concertgoers will be able to access a selection of live events held at the Genting Arena and Arena Birmingham venues, using the power of virtual reality technology, including performances from chart toppers Royal Blood, The Script and UB40 Feat. Ali, Astro & Mickey.
Over the coming months, MelodyVR will also live stream real-time concerts via VR and offer virtual tickets to sold-out shows with the biggest artists, enabling an unlimited number of fans to attend in-demand concerts around the globe.
The concerts, as well as virtual tickets, will be available to purchase via the MelodyVR app, on Oculus Go or Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headsets (with more platforms coming soon). Information on upcoming shows will also be p

UK - The Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI), which celebrate international video and lighting designers for their creative work in the UK, has revealed the Theatre shortlist for 2018.
An expert panel of judges, all of whom have years of experience reviewing theatre, opera and dance, have watched countless productions over the last year and distilled the best of the best into the shortlist. The panel is made up of The Dancing Times critic, Zoë Anderson; The Guardian's leading theatre critic, Michael Billington; opera critic for The Stage and Opera Magazine George Hall; chief dance critic for The Stage, Neil Norman; co-founder of Exeunt, Natasha Tripney; and opera editor for Whatsonstage, Mark Valencia; led by broadcaster David Benedict, chair of the Theatre judging panel.

KOI Awards 2018 Theatre Shortlist

P

UK - The Association of Lighting Designers’ annual Michael Northen Awards launched this week. The awards are an opportunity for students just leaving their college or university course to gain practical skills and experience in creating a portfolio which sells their design ideas.
Entry is now open, and all submissions must be received before midnight on the closing date: Wednesday 31 October.
Johanna Town, chair of the ALD, comments: “What better accolade with which to enter the industry than with a lighting design award? The Michael Northen Bursary scheme (MNB) is a great aide to developing a lighting designer’s abilities in communication. To be able to sell your ideas and passions for a design to other industry leaders, is as important a skill, maybe even more so, as the design itself. For this reason, this particular award entry is so important to a designer

UK - This July saw the return of the Rock & Bike Fest in the historic grounds of Carnfield Hall, South Normanton. This year’s festival welcomed hundreds of campers and show-goers to Derbyshire for a 72-hour celebration of music, bikes and beer.
The live production of the event was provided by HK Audio commercial partners Dezign Audio and Sound Alliance, both of whom super-charged the sound via a fleet of HK Audio speakers and power amps.
Acts including Big Country, Lindisfarne, Fleetwood Bac, Women in Rock, Surreal Panther, Kesia Gill, and Grand Ultra entertained the crowds during the weekend, with the HK Audio Contour, Linear 5 and Premium Pro systems all involved in the set-up on the event's main stage.
Additionally, all performers benefitted from crystal clear on-stage audio thanks to the employment of HK Audio Contour and Linear 5 monitors. To bo

USA - ESTA and USITT have announced that the second New World Rigging Symposium is taking place 19-20 March 2019 in conjunction with the USITT Conference and Stage Expo 2019 in Louisville.
Symposium attendees will receive free show floor passes to the USITT Stage Expo opening on 21 March as well as a discount on the conference registration.
The event will provide an opportunity for riggers and those interested in the live entertainment rigging industry to network, discuss current issues and new technologies, and help shape the future of the industry.
In 10 sessions over two days, participants will be given a range of opportunities to further their technical knowledge, keep up to date with codes and standards, increase their understanding of structural issues, and learn about the challenges of working as a rigger in other segments of the entertainment industry. T

The Netherlands - At IBC 2018, Sennheiser will show the wireless Memory Mic for smartphones. Designed for journalists, the tool claims to offer superior sound compared to smartphone voice recording utilities.
Tobias von Allwoerden, senior product manager, professional audio at Sennheiser, comments: “High sound quality remains an important area for differentiation and a hallmark of quality for video content. Currently, there is no other product on the market that is able to compete with the Memory Mic and offer the same fantastic combination of audio quality, price and mobility.
“The benefits for the mobile journalist include audio pick-up in broadcast quality via the free Sennheiser app, one-touch synchronization of audio and video via Bluetooth, no issues at all with range, up to four hours of operating time and convenient recharging via USB.”
(Jim Evans)

UK - Cardiff-based events services provider 11th Hour has welcomed Matthew Morgan and Rhys Thomas as warehouse assistants, while Debbie Alexander takes the role of in-house bookkeeper.
Morgan has previously worked in various temporary capacities for 11th Hour across a range of projects and is an experienced stadium safety steward, having worked at Cardiff City Football Club. Thomas has experience as a freelance crew member in operations and logistics and has crossed paths with 11th Hour teams on many occasions. Debbie Alexander brings more than 20 years of experience in finance and accounts, accrued whilst working for a range of businesses in South Wales.
11th Hour director John Davies comments: “Demand for our services continues to grow and it is now common to find ourselves working simultaneously on multiple large-scale projects. Our staff are our greatest resourc

UK - Edinburgh Fringe Festival returns for four weeks of innovative, provocative and entertaining new theatre and performance embracing all genres.
Over 100 x Zero 88 lighting consoles - including the new FLX range and a variety of legacy products - are working hard across the 300+ venues running in and around the city during the event, and the company has once again been at the forefront of offering comprehensive onsite training and support.
At least 25 of Eaton’s new Zero 88 FLX S range consoles alone are involved, just nine months after the desk was launched.
Zero 88 consoles and control packages are featuring at some of the busiest and most popular venues, with FLX range products at Assembly, Underbelly, Gilded Balloon, Summerhall and Pleasance, all of which offer multiple performance spaces throughout the Festival, each staging approximately eight to 10

UK - Technical entertainment charity Backup collected a record amount of donations at its annual karting challenge held in July.
Kart-Fest 2018 raised £23,500 in donations - the biggest total for any Backup fund-raising event yet, and £2,500 more than in 2017.
Held during the first Wimbledon fortnight, Kart-Fest 2018 was themed around the tennis tournament and saw racers from 33 teams don big hair, sweatbands, tennis skirts and dubious prosthetics.
Backup trustee and event organiser Lee Dennison says: "It can be hard getting everyone together in this industry, as we’re all so constantly busy. But on the day, it felt effortless, and we were so pleased that 33 teams representing all areas participated. Rivalries stayed on the track and a common shared 'want' to support our charity and help our family out became the focus of the day."
In first pl

Namibia - The 2018 Namibia Annual Music Awards (NAMAs), an annual awards ceremony set up to recognise accomplishment in the Namibian recording industry, was broadcast live on Namibian national TV and saw the work and creativity of some of the best and most talented artists, performers and music producers rewarded in 24 different awards categories interspersed with 12 live performance showcases.
Production designer and technical director Micky Lehr and his team from Eventplus have been involved with the NAMAs since 2015 and were involved once again. South African LD Kurt du Preez was asked to design the lighting and around 140 Robe moving lights were prominent on the rig at the Dome in Swakopmund.
These were supplied by Namibian rental companies dB Audio and Mikel-Jes Productions plus MJ Event Gear from Johannesburg. All of these rental specialists have

UK - The Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI) has revealed the 2018 Concert Touring & Events shortlist.
This year's judging panel is led by chair Jess Allan, and comprises LSi editor Claire Beeson, TPi editor Kelly Murray, director of 18 Degrees architectural lighting Christopher Knowlton, head of lighting design at creative agency Imagination, Jonny Milmer, and account manager at Coloursound Experiment Jo Bierne.

Concert Touring & Events Shortlist

Award for Arena, sponsored by GLP German Light Products
Cate Carter for Elbow
Tim Routledge for Sam Smith
Rob Sinclair for Queen + Adam Lambert
Award for Stage, sponsored by Avolites
Bruno Poet and Matt Daw for Sigur Rós
Rob Sinclair for David Byrne
Samuel Tozer for Wilkinson
Award for Club, sponsored by MA Lighting
Tom

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