General

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14 March 2016

The Bristol Harbour Festival, now in its 39th year, is one of the largest UK free arts events, covering two miles of waterfront along the city centre's harbourside, with seven different performance areas.

Branding was created for the Queen Square and Millennium Square stages, which showcased a diverse selection of music and dance respectively. The Queen Square stage hosted the Friday night concert, officially opening the 2010 festival to an audience of more than 5,000, while the New York City Ballet made their debut performance in Bristol on the Millennium Square stage.

The scrims for the two stages were both made from Sunbab

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14 March 2016

The awards will provide public recognition for outstanding achievements in lighting design by UK based lighting designers, in a number of professional areas. At the same time, these awards will forge closer ties between the world of lighting design and the lighting Industry as a whole.

The awards for The Knight of the Illumination are nominated and judged by a panel of professional reviewers working in the specific categories, selected and coordinated entirely by STLD and ALD.

Television nominations

Light Entertainment

Mark Smithers for Mission 2110

Martin Kempton for Who Dares Wins

Lee Allen for Blue

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14 March 2016

Four new shows debuted at the maiden launch: Avalon, Cantare, It Takes Two and NYC. Another show on board is Garage Band, which is a re-run of a show that was debuted on the Ms Oosterdam last year.

The creative team for all five shows (which will run for approximately five years) includes show director John Charron at the helm

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14 March 2016

Mainland said ticket sales were strong and she was looking forward to a "successful" festival. She added, "We live in uncertain times. I think the thing about the Fringe is that it is an entirely open access arts festival. We don't decide who should take part in it. We don't decide how big it should be. We don't decide what the make-up should be. It will be interesting to see how it responds

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14 March 2016

Smoke Factory UK celebrates its first birthday at PLASA this year as they launched at PLASA 2009 as an exclusive distributor in the UK for the German made Smoke Factory range of Fog and Haze machines.

Smoke Factory UK hold stocks of spares and fluids and spare parts in its London warehouse for immediate despatch to any UK address.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

As we know, the Government and Ofcom have decided to clear TV bands 31-37 and 61-69 of all wireless microphones and similar technologies that operate on these frequencies. At the end of July, Communications Minister Ed Vaizey announced that the Government would be making a "significant contribution" to the replacement cost, but only for equipment that tunes to channel 69. Following on from this, Ofcom published a statement providing details on the compensation package, including eligibility criteria. Save Our Sound UK has since had time to digest the content and consult with stakeholders.

The SOS UK campaign has been successful in persuading the UK Government to take another major step towards addressing the needs of the PMSE community. Following the willingness of the authorities

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14 March 2016

Chaos' London based operation offers full production support, including equipment inventory and technical support.

Former head of European sales for Total Fabrications, Gary White has a broad production background, ranging from theatre, to television, to corporate conferences, to touring and finally founding his own full technical production company, creating live events for blue chip clients.

White comments, "This is a major investment for the company. There is no doubt that the market in the UK and Europe continues to grow. All of the core skills I acquired in the entertainmen

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14 March 2016

The IDA8 is based on the successful IDA4, which is well established in the market. Over the five years since IDA4 was launched, tens of thousands of units have been sold internationally. But technology and what users expect from equipment in the exacting PA/VA sector has changed, so work on a next generation version began 18 months ago, says the company.

With extended DSP memory and communications capability, the IDA8 is more technologically sophisticated than its predecessor but it is also easier to use and set up. Neil Voce, s

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14 March 2016

"MYC team has a solid competence technically as they often work with top artists and loudspeaker engineers in Asia. With the assistance from MYC, we will fully develop business in China and focus on both the installation and touring sectors," says Jürgen Freitag, managing director of Kling & Freitag.

"We had a lot of experience in the Chinese market and believe we can build a strong future with Kling & Freitag here," adds Jessie Chan, executive vice president of MYC Technology.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

"The D5 is my console of choice, I've been using DiGiCo for about five years and there's still no better digital console in my opinion," says Madigan. "I sometimes have to use other consoles on a one-off basis, but I always come back to my favourite because of its excellent sound quality and layout."

The tour is using a d&b J Line main system, with J-subs and B2s. Madigan sends left, right and sub outputs from the D5, from which sends for in, out and front fills are derived. All processing is done within the D5, except for Manley ELOP electro-optical limiters on vocal inserts and a Manley Variable Mu over the L-R outputs. "I

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14 March 2016

"We are very happy to have KSL Studio on board," says sales director Lionel Garraud. "Eastern Europe is a very exciting market at the moment and we need someone of the calibre of KSL to handle the growing demand for our products in Slovenia."

The appointment was finalised with some in-house training for the KSL Studio sales team at the Robert Juliat headquarters in Fresnoy-en-Thelle.

RJ product manager, Ludwig Lepage, provided two intensive days of training on all Robert Juliat products, including theatre and architectural spotlights, profile spots, followspots and the RJ dimmer range. Ludovic Machin and Sylvie Durosoy then concluded with comprehensive training in Robert Juliat's after-sales support.

The KSL Studio team of Dejan Zura, Bostj

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14 March 2016

Speaking of the appointment, Optocore sales and marketing director, Tine Helmle stated, "I feel we have found the perfect partner in Australia. PAT will concentrate its activities on Optocore's core markets, namely broadcast, permanent and live sound. We look forward to an extensive and successful period in this region together with Patrick and his team."

Owned by MD, Salloch and technology director Tony Fitzsimmons, PAT have spent the last 15 years providing Australian and New Zealand customers with technical solutions and enjoy a good reputation in

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14 March 2016

For the second year running, an iLive digital system was used to mix monitors at the Festival de Loup in Corbeyrier. The two day event is a celebration of everything Celtic, with Celtic food, folk tales, dance and music, featuring top Irish band, Grada, and top French band, Blackwater.

A modular iLive system, comprising an iDR10 MixRack and iLive-144 Control Surface, was employed by engineer, Roland Dupertuis, to manage musicians with a range of instruments from electric guitars and bass, to harps, mandolins, bagpipes and accordions.

"I have managed monitors for the festival for several years and decided to use A&H's digital system again this year," says Dupertuis. "As usual, iLive enabled fast set changeovers and was very simple

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14 March 2016

"Of course 3D mapping has been around for quite some time, but we have developed our own in-house tools in order to provide this service at the best quality possible," states the company's CEO, Hadi Al Bahra.

He specified two stacked Christie HD 8K projectors to handle the 3D mapping projection onto the stage. The native 1080 HD resolution three-chip DLP 8,000 ANSI lumen digital projector offers a variable contrast ratio of 1600-2000:1.

"The effect was sensational and the two projectors collectively prov

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14 March 2016

In a statement Festival Republic told BBC's Newsbeat, "(We) are informed by GN'R management that Guns N' Roses have NOT cancelled their performances at Reading & Leeds and that Axl Rose's Twitter account was hacked into and all claims of dates being cancelled are unfounded." That means that the band's recently announced UK arena tour - their first in four years - will still go ahead. The band are l

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14 March 2016

All three ETCP examinations will be given at the October 2010 LDI show in Las Vegas. The entertainment electrician exam is scheduled for Friday, 21 October; the arena rigging exam is to be given the morning of Saturday, 22 October and the theatre rigging exam is scheduled for that afternoon.

Candidates who wish to take multiple exams will receive a discount for the second exam. Interested applicants must submit their application, along with supporting materials and fee, to the ETCP office no later than 30 September.

Candidate information, including eligibility requirements and applications, is available on the ETCP website.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The new card provides 16 AES channels, with the ability to change the inputs or outputs in groups of eight. Complementing the existing Mic/Line conversion cards, the AES3 offers a number of new device options, providing flexibility way beyond the 64 AES/EBU channels offered by its primary DD32E network device.

The user-configurable architecture will "bring huge benefits to the pro audio community". For example devices equipped with an AES3 Card and an eight-channel analogue converter card will allow the user to decide whether he wants to use 16 AES channels (I/O switchable in groups of eight) or use the eight analogue channels combined with eight AES3 channels.

Optocore support engineer, Christian Pö

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14 March 2016

This year sees the diamond (60 years) anniversary of the spectacle, featuring over 1000 performers from this year's lead service, the Army, combined with a host of international talents, all choreographed in a lively and energetic mix of music, song, dance and drama, produced by Major General Euan Loudon.

Ross Ashton has been involved with the Tattoo for the last five years as the projection artist. This year he has just signed up a new three-year contract to produce the projections on the backdrop of the Castle, juxtaposed against all the action taking place on the Esplanade below.

"It'

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14 March 2016

Starting in February next year, this course will combine the industry know-how of a highly successful events management company, with the academic pedigree of the College's specialist staff.

Head of stage management, David Roxburgh said, "This is the first course of its kind available within a drama school environment. We're thrilled with this collaboration which gives our new course a genuine and targeted industry focus, allowing students valuable practical experience throughout the duration of their studies."

"We're delighted that there is finally a cour

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14 March 2016

The show comes at the end of a busytwo months which has seen the MLA system at work on the highly successful Fettes Brot tour (including the 15,000-seat Lanxess Arena in Cologne); debut in London at the month-long iTunes Festivalat the Roundhouse and now Stateside, on tour with Grammy Award winning country artists, The Zac Brown Band.

Martin Audio R&D director Jason Baird comments, "Our primary aim with MLA was to take the guesswork out of daily system design and enable the engineer's mix to be delivered throughout an audience with precision, consistency and repeatability."

"Based on the amazingly consistent results we experienced during the system's German tour debut, and now with the Zac Brown Band tour in the US, we are even m

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14 March 2016

To achieve pre-qualification to the nationally recognised and accepted threshold standard, the company's H & S processes and procedures were evaluated in detail to establish that safe working practices and correct risk assessments were being carried out on their installation projects.

With many organisations making CHAS compliance a condition for all contractors working on their sites, ACSP decided it was an essential requirement. It also provides peace of mind to all organisations that the company conforms to the industry's most widely recognised safety standards scheme and follows an unblemished record of health and safety over the years, says

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14 March 2016

During this ETCP recognised workshop, participants will receive training from industry experts over a day and a half. Day one consists of a half-day course on fall protection led by Bill Sapsis, president and founder of Sapsis Rigging, as well as a half-day course on truss design, use and theory taught by Will Todd, product support manager for Tomcat USA.

For the morning of day two, Will Todd and Keith Bohn of Tomcat USA will lead a session on ground supported and outdoor structures which includes an overview of design elements and safety consideration of these structures, examples of real world scenarios from the Tomcat portfolio, as well as an opportu

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14 March 2016

Cover It Up's installation director Craig Warrington jumped at the chance of getting involved in the high profile event, masterminded by leading global advertising agency M & C Saatchi (UK), in which Brook herself was there in person to unveil the posters.

He says, "It was a great challenge in all ways, which we turned into a reality with great teamwork, spirit and lateral thinking, working quickly and efficiently to deliver a practical solution and meet the fast turnaround deadline".

First of all, the Cover It Up machine room made up the black trevira drapes ne

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14 March 2016

The number of departments operating behind the scenes at the Wimbledon site is vast. RG Jones' engineers work closely with them to ensure that the Championships receives the audio service that this world class, leading tournament deserves. This includes liaising with the officials to ensure that the umpires can be heard on the courts, and their communication systems are functioning correctly, liaising with the broadcasters to provide the correct sends for their television/radio