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14 March 2016

The council's current annual grant of £449m is dropping to £349m by 2014 as a result of the Spending Review. Arts funding bodies in the rest of the UK are developing their own plans. Arts Council England hands out government funding to venues across the country from local companies to the Royal Opera House. Until now the body says there has been no process under which organisations could apply for funding.

Under the plans, all existing organisations are able to apply and new organisations

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14 March 2016

Under the design direction of think!OTS (TOTS) the creative team was tasked with conceiving a unique thematic infrastructure combining dynamic design with natural imagery. In collaboration with TOTS, Wood Marsh provided the architectural services that led to a unique shape, which was then constructed by TOTS' partner in the project, Bovis Lend Lease.

In planning the technical production TOTS contracted Paul van der Ent from Wizard Projects in Australia to be the executive technical director - both companies having been previously involved with a number of pavilions at expos for the Australian Government.

Wizard, having suc

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14 March 2016

The elections usher in a new Governance structure for both Associations as they unite under the PLASA name: the two Regional Boards will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day affairs in their respective regions, while the Governing Body will take a high level strategic role, acting in the best interests of the membership worldwide.

During the transition period into the new structure, every effort was made to allow current members of PLASA's Executive Committee and ESTA's Board of Directors to serve out their full terms of office.

As a consequence, seven positions were up for election on the new European Regional Board. Matt Lloyd of Global Design Solutions b

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14 March 2016

Originally opened in 1863 as the town's Corn Exchange, the Palace Theatre was joined by the Grand Agricultural Hall 64 years later. Despite an occasionally chequered career, the venues are still going strong today.

With audience capacities of 500 and 1300 respectively, these days the Palace Theatre and Grand Hall form a multi-purpose complex. However, attracting touring acts to the Grand Hall was starting to becoming a problem, as it had no in-house PA system.

"We had started to do a number of higher profile gigs in the Grand Hall, but a major obstacle to promoters was the cost of hiring in audio and lighting systems

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14 March 2016

With stops across the globe in a variety of different venues and Bublé performing along with a big band, the Crazy Love tour poses some audio challenges. The brass players have the most cues of all the musicians on the tour, making proper monitoring critical to the performance.

"Ease of setup and tear down were key factors when selecting gear for the tour," says Louis-Philippe Maziade, projects manager, sound department for Solotech, the Canadian production company handling the equipment and crew for the tour. "The A

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14 March 2016

"This project has been going on over the past 18 months and we have another three or four schools to do over the next year," says Black Light's installations project manager, Paul McGreal. "We secured the contract because we are cost-competitive and also because we are a trusted supplier to schools up and down the country."

The project involved Black Light working with a number of building service contractors, including NG Bailey and Spie Matthew Hall, as well as with South Lanarkshire Council. Black Light was asked to design and install theatre systems in assembly halls and games halls and to deliver a training package for teachers and janitorial staff.

All the systems Black Light installed were desi

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14 March 2016

A centrepiece of the on-course visual facilities was the 18th Studio screen. This comprised 20 (w) x 8 (h) panels (20.32m x 6.08m) of Lighthouse Rn7-ER 7mm outdoor enhanced resolution LED screen hung off and below the Sky TV studio. Visible from both the club house and the main hospitality area, this screen, along with two Rn7-ER IMAG screens measuring 6 (w) x 5 (h) panels (6.096m x 3.81m) each, was utilised for bo

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14 March 2016

An import of the famed Edinburgh pageant which also uses TiMax, the Basel Tattoo is staged outdoors in front of the 18th century Kaserne Hof barracks next to the Rhine. Various collections of marching or dancing performers are spread out over a 70m by 25m parade arena surrounded by audience seating on three sides.

Swiss sound designer Thomas Strebel this year specified a TiMax2 SoundHubR32 which received MIDI preset control and twelve groups of MADI audio from a Soundcraft Vi6 console, comprised of over 32 radio mics plus CD and ha

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14 March 2016

The move is part of a significant expansion for the Mont de Marsan-based pro audio specialists, who, in addition to the Uniline system, have also invested in a new Eclipse digital mixing console from Innovason, new outboard equipment AND new premises.

"It's fair to say that our feet have barely touched the ground these last few months," said TH Audio's Thierry Avignon. "However, we've also been incredibly successful, so we're not complaining!" The summer season has seen shows with noted French artists such as Jacques Higelin and San Severino, as well as Jamaican reggae art

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14 March 2016

Unusual Rigging & Engineering were involved in two particular projects at Ferrari World, one outside Galleria Ferrari, where three different red Ferraris have pride of place, hung on platforms on the walls as works of art. Placement was critical, requiring not just detailed measurements, but also a system that would enable careful manoeuvring for the final placement of the platforms.

Unusual's project manager, Leon Ingram, devised a hoist system which comprised a run of square truss and a runner beam carrying two hoists for each platform, thus enabling fine adjustments to be made both laterally and vertically.

The bare platforms were first offered to the wall and positioned

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14 March 2016

This is based on the success of the PRO-440 case - marketed as "The perfect hard case for 2 x CDJ 400 players, 1 x DJM 400 mixer and 2 USB sticks" - which to date has sold over 7000 units, in Europe alone.

The new PRO-350FLT offers lightweight and durable protection for Pioneer's 2 x CDJ-350s/DJM-350 portable professional DJ system. It also has some new features for which Pioneer returned to 5 Star - to continue the winning collaboration.

The main new physical addition is that the rear section now incorporates a cable management ('loom-box'), to ensure that the connectors and cabling are kept safe and neatly out of sight. This simple 90° up-stand creates the 'loom-box' area. (a separate structure was required on the PRO-440 c

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14 March 2016

The 30 CSR projects were completed following the sponsorship of and participation in the annual Springboard Awards for Excellence due to take place this November. Throughout the year the drpvideo team has slept rough to raise awareness of homelessness for

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14 March 2016

Highlights include of the event will include:

- Key note paper from Leo Beranek

- Paper from Jonathan Adams, the Architect of the Wales Millennium Centre

- Paper from Jeremy Newton, the Acoustic Consultant

- Gareth Fry on designing sound for the theatre

- Trevor Cox on "Sonic Wonders of the World"

- An intimate performance of Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 5, played by co

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14 March 2016

Project Templates are a selection of pre-configured, pre-programmed projects that are bundled with the Stardraw Control 2010 authoring tool. Each template represents a typical system type, e.g. boardroom, classroom, automated home, and contains the devices, their functions and a sophisticated user interface that is completely pre-programmed and fully-functional. At the same time, each Project Template is fully customizable, meaning that a system integrator can produce a complete control system front- (and back-) end, specific to a particular project, in minutes.

Critical to this is the addition of the next new feature, Driver Substitution, which enables you quite simply to drag a new driver from Stardraw

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14 March 2016

With nearly 1,000 different companies worldwide using HireTrack Eclipse, Navigator Systems, has been aware of the growing Indian professional production market, seeking a company like sound.com to help open up the market.

Director David Rose comments, "We are is delighted that this leading provider of professional concert sound and audio systems has recognised the reliability, robustness and ease of use of HireTrack Eclipse."

As well as being at the forefront of technology, Navigator Systems maintains its corporate responsibility with its'keep green' policy by regularly demonstrating their software over the internet using remote viewing systems and p

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14 March 2016

This year alone they have done the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Singapore Youth Olympics and now the Commonwealth Games Delhi. "The worldwide event fraternity knows that Norwest are not only easy and fun to work with, they ensure that nothing goes wrong and that nothing is a problem for them," says the company.

For the Commonweath Games, Norwest teamed with a regional, Mumbai-based sound production company Sound.com to supply the entire audio package an

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14 March 2016

This year's edition, hosted as always by Boston-area native Denis Leary, also featured performances by Jim Norton, Pete Correale, Thomas Dale, Lenny Clarke, Joe Yannetty, and other surprise guests.

The primary challenge for Scott Tkachuk, audio designer and touring operations director for Rainbow, was to create the illusion of an intimate comedy club in a reverberant 7,000-seat arena. To accomplish the feat, Tkachuk and Seth Hager, systems tech, deployed dual hangs of 12-each Meyer Sound Milo line array lo

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14 March 2016

"K-Array products are among the most pioneering products available today," says Sennheiser product manager Paul Nunnington. "They have proven reliability and an almost non-existent failure rate. The decision to extend the warranty period reflects our confidence in the quality of K-Array products but, even more importantly, it gives our customers complete peace of mind and the assurance that their investment is underpinned by this failsafe offering from Sennheiser UK and K-Array."

K-Array systems have recently been used on The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent as an invisible aid to the two-way process of the dialogue between stage and judges, as side-fills at Eddie Izzard's