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UK - Over the past few months Pearce Hire has embraced it's CSR (corporate social responsibility) and established a link with a local further education college to provide an internship programme for young people in their locality.

Peterborough Regional College runs a BTEC Extended Diploma in Music Technology. It is a two-year full-time vocational course covering all aspects of music technology and is equivalent to studying for three A-Levels. Subjects covered include live sound and production; studio recording; acoustics and audio engineering; and media, marketing and promotional skills.

The link established between Pearce Hire and Peterborough Regional College has enabled those students with an interest in the Live Events sector to go into the workplace of this busy production and hire company and learn the ropes in a bona-fide work environment.

The idea was originally moot

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Up and Coming - Fifteen rising music artists have been named on the longlist for the BBC Sound of 2014, which showcases some of the brightest new acts for the year ahead. The list was compiled using tips from 170 'tastemakers', who each named their favourite three emerging artists. Californian trio Haim came out on top last year, with Adele, Ellie Goulding and Jessie J also among past winners. This year's crop includes singers Sam Smith and Ella Eyre, who have both already featured on number one singles.

Junior Eurovision - Malta has won this year's Junior Eurovision Song contest held in Kiev, Ukraine. Eleven-year-old Gaia Cauchi scored 130 points with her ballad, The Start, which she also helped compose and write. She beat 11 other countries to win the trophy, with Ukraine and Belarus finishing second and third. It is the first time Malta has won the contest, after retur

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USA - At the recent LDI show, Dennis Varian of ETC presented a cheque for nearly $26,000 to Behind the Scenes, which reflected ongoing proceeds from sales of ETC's iRFR and aRFR (Radio Focus Remote) application for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android. The donation brings ETC's total Behind the Scenes contributions to date to just under $150,000.

"This app was developed by ETC software engineer, Chris Mizerak as a cool tool that ETC thought some might find interesting," says ETC. "When another employee in ETC's London office (Luke Delwiche) suggested that we give the profits to Behind the Scenes and its UK counterpart Light Relief, Fred readily agreed. Since then the sales of the app have exceeded expectations and both charities have benefited greatly."

ETC CEO Fred Foster says: "It's wonderful to see how successful this program has been. Simply by purchasin

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The Power of Advertising - Lily Allen has returned to the top of the UK singles chart with her cover version of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know. The song, used in a festive television advert for department store John Lewis, is tipped to be Christmas number one.

Critics' Choice - Three artists have been shortlisted for this year's Brit Critics' Choice award, won last year by singer Tom Odell. Chloe Howl, Ella Eyre and Sam Smith are in the running with the winner to be announced on Thursday 12 December. Howl has been compared with Lily Allen, while former Brit school student Eyre scored a number one as the vocalist on Rudimental's Waiting All Night. La, La, La, Smith's collaboration with producer Naughty Boy, also reached number one in the UK singles chart.

Voting for the 2014 Brit Awards opened for members of the music industry last week. Their shortlists fo

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UK - Designed to create an inclusive gateway to all things Jewish, London's brand new £12m Jewish Community Centre - JW3 - has opened its doors to offer a wealth of cultural and entertainment spaces - including a Performance Hall designed collaboratively by the project's architects, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and theatre consultants Charcoalblue.

The 268-seat Performance Hall has been created to provide a reconfigurable space for larger events and functions. Charcoalblue's head of technical design, Paul Franklin, advised on the design and fit out of the performance hall and oversaw the works on site during construction.

"The Performance Hall is a flexible, multi-function room, capable of hosting a wide range of events, including drama, dance, live music - both amplified and acoustic - as well as film and 'NT live' type events, lectures and workshops," explai

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UK - Case manufacture the 5 Star Group - parent company to 5 Star Cases Ltd. and Mossman Trunks Ltd. has launched an exciting new brand line - ProTect Bags & Covers.

This will specialise in the design and manufacture of tough, hard-wearing and practical bespoke padded bags, covers and associated products that will complement the vast range of case and trunk products offered by the 5 Star Group.

Manufacturing for ProTect is based at the existing 5 Star site in Cambridgeshire in a separate production unit recently acquired to help facilitate a general increase in business throughout 2013.

Being in a dedicated space will keep a separation between the case and the bag divisions and ensure maxim efficiency for the ProTect production process, which is headed up by operations manager, Andy Hudson, who has worked for 5 Star for over 23 years.

ProTect's products will bear all the h

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Gross Income - US rock band Bon Jovi had the biggest international music tour of the year, according to Billboard magazine's 2013 rankings. The group played to more than two million fans during 90 sell-out shows, grossing $205m (£125m).

Cirque Du Soleil's Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour was second on the list, followed by singer Pink. The Rolling Stones were the highest placed British act - at number six - raking in $126m (£75m) from 23 shows. They finished behind Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, who were fourth on the list after grossing $147m from 53 shows. Rihanna was at number five in the rankings after she played to more than 1.5m fans during the year, bringing in £137m.

Ticket pricing - A majority of audiences say booking fees for concert and theatre tickets are too expensive and any extra charges should be revealed up

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UK - If you work in the live events industry and are thinking about employing extra help over the Winter season, why not take on a Backstage Academy student?

The students are about to embark on a three-month Advanced Industry Practice module whereby they will be seeking work in the events industry, before they finish the course in March, when they will be free to seek full-time employment.

The Wakefield training centre has a number of students on its FdA Live Events Production course with a range of interests across lighting, live sound, staging, live visuals, set design, artist liaison, production assisting and stage management, to name a few. On top of their core subjects, they have also completed a range of industry-standard certificates to make them competent to work on site, such as the Event Safety Passport (SPA), Manual Handling, Working at Height, Emergency First Aid,

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UK - Jarrod Bischoff returns to the Gallowglass Group as head of training - responsible for the group's stand-alone events industry training company. Having joined events crewing firm Gallowglass in 2004 as senior crew chief, Bischoff moved to a client liaison role between 2009 and 2012, before leaving the company to hone his business development skills with coffee company, CaféPod.

"I've been willingly seduced back to the events industry - and my year's sabbatical has shown me just how far the bar has been raised in expectations of gold-standard event delivery," he said. "Many companies are taking speed, efficiency and safety really seriously nowadays, while others simply want to operate within the law. Either way, training has become an essential, not a luxury."

Gallowglass Training was launched in 2011, to build on the basic on-site induction cour

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USA - PLASA Focus: Nashville 2014 is set for success with organizer PLASA Events confirming new exhibitors and seminar speakers. The event is taking place on 18-19 February 2014, at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

The latest exhibitors to sign up include AC Lighting, Apollo Design Technology, Doug Fleenor Design, ETC, LSC America, Philips Entertainment Lighting, Show Sage and Link. They will share the show floor with other industry leaders including; Aeson, ETC, Bandit Lites, Group One, Chauvet Professional, Lightronics, Elation Professional, Creative Stage Lighting, and Applied Electronics, to name a few.

Three new sessions have been added to the PLASA Focus: Nashville 2014 Professional Development Programme, a two-day programme of free educational seminars and workshops running alongside the event.

Ben Jumper, the owner of Soundcheck, will present After the Flood

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UK - POLARaudio has recently engaged new staff to reinforce its team in the light of its continued success in adding new brands to its portfolio.

Three new faces have joined the internal sales team - Nigel Brake, Alison Knight and Allison Geal, whilst Jo Griffin has joined the accounts department (purchase ledger). On the logistics side, Juan Recouso has joined to bolster the warehouse operation.

POLARaudio MD John Midgley welcomes the new arrivals with enthusiasm, "2013 saw us take on a number of new and exciting brands, the addition of which, we believe, will continue the onwards and upwards trend of the business in 2014. Strengthening staffing levels is vital to supporting our operation as it strives to meet the increased demand brought on by our expansion. We place great emphasis on the value of our team members and are delighted to welcome the new recruits to the POL

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UK - Theatre consultant, manager, producer and founding member of the ABTT Ian Albery, has been awarded a Fellowship of the Association. Individuals are appointed Fellow if they "have rendered signal service to the technical aspects of the art of the theatre".

In recognising his outstanding contribution to theatre - including work as both production and technical managers and service as vice-chairman of the ABTT, as well as an executive member of the Society of West End Theatre - Nimax Theatre chief executive, Nica Burns, praised the former chief executive of Sadler's Wells Theatre, acknowledging the importance of Albery in her own career.

The list of ABTT Fellows now reads as follows: David Adams, Ian Albery, Jason Barnes, Fred Bentham (deceased), Richard Brett, William Dudley, Tim Foster, Roger Fox, Roderick Ham, Chris Higgs, Ethel Langstreth (deceased), Iain Macki

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UK - The team at LSi will be taking a break now until the 2nd January 2014. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all our readers for following LSI Online news throughout 2013 and wish you a very happy holiday season, however you might be celebrating.

The daily online news will resume on Thursday 2 January.

Merry Christmas!

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Seven PLASA standards up for reaffirmation are posted for public review on the PLASA TSP website http://tsp.plasa.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php. No changes are planned at this time for the requirements in the standards. Any changes would be limited to changing "ESTA" to "PLASA," updating the PLASA office address and copyright date, and so on. However, this public review period is a time when the public is invited to tell PLASA if they think changes are needed.

All the documents are available for review now, and will be through 3 February 2014. On February 4 they will be gone. In alpha-numeric order the standards are:

ANSI E1.5 - 2009, Theatrical Fog Made with Aqueous Solutions of Di- and Trihydric Alcohols

ANSI E1.5 describes the composition of theatrical fogs or

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UK / USA - Following a comprehensive review and analysis of the PLASA organisation, the PLASA Boards and staff have recently completed new strategic and operating plans to guide the organisation through the next several years of its development.

While the strategic plan focuses on building the membership from all areas of the entertainment technology industry, enhancing member value and continued development of PLASA's programs serving the industry, the operational plan details the structure, tactical approach and financial resource required.

Fundamental to the successful implementation of both plans is a revised senior management structure that will see three executive directors (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer), plus six divisional directors - of Membership, International Programs, Sales, Marketing, Events, and Media.

Matthew Gr

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Roaring Success - Long-running musical The Lion King was the most successful show on Broadway in 2013, taking almost $97m (£58.7m) in ticket sales in its 16th year. In second place and after a decade on Broadway, Wizard of Oz musical Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre created history in the last week of 2013 by becoming the first show to take more than $3m in a single week on Broadway when its nine performances saw ticket sales of $3.2m (£1.9m). Since opening in 2003, it has achieved cumulative box office earnings of $797m (£480m). It took $95.3m in 2013 (£58.0m).

Noises Off - Performances of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Apollo Theatre, London, have been cancelled for an extra week until 11 January. The venue had originally planned to reopen after 4 January. However a statement on Nimax Theatres'

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UK - Stage One, the company who realised Thomas Heatherwick's spectacular cauldron for the London 2012 Olympics, has appointed Adam Wildi to its senior management team.

Adam joins the creative construction and manufacturing company as Senior Project Director and will take specific responsibility for demountable structures and architecture.

Already a familiar face at Stage One, Adam's relationship with the company goes back as far as the late 1980s and, significantly, included the Hong Kong Handover Ceremony. He has collaborated with them on a host of projects including the 2004 Athens Olympic ceremonies, the Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion and 2012's Beach Volleyball Stadium on Horse Guards Parade.

Previously Technical Director for the 2004 Athens Olympic ceremonies, Adam brings with him an enviable Olympic pedigree as well as a strong understanding of the diversity of projects t

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UK - PSCo has announced the appointment of Richard Bovingdon as sales director.

Bovingdon will head up both the internal and external sales teams. He joins from Micro Peripherals Ltd where he was head of education & AV solutions, bringing over 16 years' experience in the AV/IT channel having worked for distributors, manufacturers and resellers on the development of business growth within their respective verticals.

Commenting on his new role RBovingdon said, "PSCo is a pioneering, forward-thinking company and I especially admire that it knows its strengths and puts everything into producing outstanding results. This new role will be an exciting challenge, and I feel I've joined at the perfect time to drive sales efforts forward into 2014 and beyond. My strong background in AV will help improve PSCo's presence within the channel and grow customer relationships."

&qu

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UK - LSi Online has learned the sad news of the death of the veteran theatre consultant Richard Brett. Richard had suffered from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer, for over a year, and died peacefully at home on 9 January.

A partner in the theatre consultancy Theatreplan, Richard was also known as the conference director of the International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference (ITEAC), which is due to hold its fourth event this year.

After studying engineering at University College London, Richard was trained by the BBC, and went on to work as managing director at Richard Pilbrow's Theatre Projects Consultants from 1967 to 1985, before forming his own professional practice. During his career, Richard was responsible for more than 50 major theatre projects and a large number of more modest performing arts schemes worldwide. He led the development of countless inno

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Foundation Funding - Andrew Lloyd Webber's charitable foundation has announced six grants, totalling more than £150,000, which will support apprenticeships within professional arts organisations.

Five theatre organisations and one music festival will receive funding. Shared Experience will receive £105,000 over three years to support one trainee director and producer per year via paid six-month apprenticeships; Tangled Feet will receive £14,000 over two years to help fund its participation programme for young people; Manchester Royal Exchange's Young Company will receive £10,000; Chickenshed will receive £15,000 towards its Young Creators Programme; Icon Theatre in Medway will receive £9,000; and the Lake District International Summer Music Festival will receive £10,000.

Since the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation was re-launched in 2011,

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UK - Former European sales manager at City Theatrical, Alex Cowan, has taken up a new post in the sales department at staging equipment, set construction and studio hire company LS-Live, in Wakefield.

He brings to the role a wealth of experience in sales and new business development, having secured big wins in previous posts for a variety of entertainment industry companies such as HSL Group, Pixelrange and City Theatrical.

Said Cowan, "I visited LS-Live to discuss business and couldn't believe this top of the range facility. I've been all over the world and there is nothing else like this out there.

"As soon as people understand that they can get everything from under one roof, from set design to final construction and rehearsals in the studio, they won't use anyone else.

"My job is to ensure that when anyone thinks about touring and live events, whether th

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UK - From January 2014 ASPEC members will be operating under the umbrella of PLASA, the international trade association serving the entertainment technology industries, as full members of that organisation and acting as a special interest group that continues to focus on the needs of the film, television and broadcast community.

Members of ASPEC will benefit greatly from PLASA's knowledge, experience and resources. ASPEC will be working closely with PLASA's Production Equipment Rental Group (PERG), its counterpart group based in North America, discussing and sharing common rental issues which affect all those involved in the sector. It will be the beginning of a new and exciting chapter.

ASPEC has operated in its present format since 1994, comprising many of the UK's facilities companies in the film, television and broadcast industries. It will continue to be a leader in the k

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Prog Rock Returns - 2014 sees the 40th anniversary of the release of Rick Wakeman's landmark concept album, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth based on the novel by Jules Verne. Wakeman and The New World Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by The English Chamber Choir and the English Rock Ensemble, will celebrate this anniversary with "a dramatic, live presentation of this epochal, classical-rock crossover work" - the Journey To The Centre Of The Earth 2014 tour. "This is the start of a new Journey," says Wakeman, "the original score for the album had been lost for so many years, making any new performances impossible. but after it turned up without warning , we managed to restore it and add previously missing music that was not included in the original performances. It has taken another half decade to develop it into this tour, but I can't wait

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UK - Production agency Mobile Promotions has joined forces with corporate events specialist Lloyd Paul Events. Taking effect from 20 January, Lloyd Paul Events will be integrated within and become part of Mobile Promotions, with the complimentary portfolio of clients strengthening the conference and incentive travel side of the company.

Both sharing legacies in the events industry of over 20 years, the two companies will work as one to grow all sides of the business, from brand engagement activities, roadshows and stunts to award, conference and event production, with an enhanced focus on overseas incentive travel for 2014.

Paul Lloyd will join the team as event director, and he comments, "When you meet the Mobile Promotions team you are instantly struck by the passion they exude for their clients, which is something that we very much have in common. We pride ourselves on

  1. Andy Johnston joins Blitz
  2. Backstage Academy inspires Sheffield students
  3. AC-ET sponsors racing driver Jack Goff
  4. The Week in Lighting & Sound
  5. Ken Berreen joins White Light
  6. PLASA launches international online job service
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