Plastic Ban - Plastic bottles could be banned from next year's Glastonbury Festival, organiser Emily Eavis has said. Ms Eavis, the daughter of founder Michael Eavis, told Radio 6 Music the ban was "the big project" for 2019. A Glastonbury spokesman confirmed the plans were in the pipeline but said it was "a bit early to put any flesh on the bones" regarding details. He said: "It's a massive thing which everyone at the festival is working on."
The festival, held in Pilton, Somerset, since 1970, is having a fallow year in 2018 to allow the ground to recover. It is due to return in 2019. At the NME music awards in London on Tuesday, Ms Eavis told BBC 6 Music: "There's lots going on at the moment. We're working on banning plastic bottles... which is an enormous project and it's taking a lot of time to tackle it with all the different people we work with.”
When asked how

South Africa - The South African entertainment industry bid farewell to Peter Anthony Crowther, a popular Durban-based electrician, who has passed away. Messages on Facebook poured in as tributes were made to a ‘very special and caring gentleman’.
“The news came as a shock to the entertainment industry, losing a friend, a colleague and good drinking buddy,” says Nicholas Barnes from DWR Distribution. “Peter was always there to help when help was needed and will be missed by friends, colleagues and family. So, here's to Pete, may you rest peacefully bud!”
DWR Distribution’s SOS Charity fund joined hands with the industry to contribute to Peter’s funeral cost. A celebration of his life was held on Friday, 16 February at the Slip Inn, which was Pete’s local for the past 17 years.
(Jim Evans)


UK - Hearing loop system providers Ampetronic has recently announced a new partnership with Trinity fire and security systems.
An independent fire and security services company, Trinity has 10 regional offices around the UK and has been trading since 1997.
Founded in 1987, Ampetronic offers a full range of induction loop and hearing loop systems and technologies. By working together, Ampetronic and Trinity can install and fulfil multiple customer requirements with minimal disruption and downtime.
(Jim Evans)

Cast Adrift - Cultural leaders have advocated for a special visa for performers and other creatives after Brexit, warning that Britain will be “cast adrift” if a solution that protects the arts is not found. Speaking at a House of Lords committee session, Andrew Hurst, chief executive of dance body One Dance UK, and the Musicians’ Union’s general secretary Horace Trubridge both argued that special immigration measures needed to be considered for cultural workers in the Brexit process due to the industry’s unique working patterns
These include touring to multiple countries, short-term contracts and the need to access talent at short notice. Trubridge said: “We feel that cultural and creative workers should be seen as a very distinct, atypical workforce who need special treatment post-Brexit. We would like to see a Europe-wide visa they could use to enable them to

South Africa - UK based Phase 3 Connectors has officially appointed DWR Distribution as its South African agent.
Said Robert Izzett, head of sales at DWR, “While we’ve been selling Phase 3 items for a number of years, we were recently appointed the authorized distributors in SA. Phase 3 Connectors need little introduction. The products are outstanding, designed, manufactured and assembled in the UK. These products are the unsung heroes at events.”
Phase 3’s Power Connectors product range includes standard and special application, harsh environment connectors for power, signal, optical and data transmission. In addition, Phase 3 offers complete interconnect system solutions, including cabling and distribution equipment.
(Jim Evans)

UK - TSG and sister brand Definitive Security have won Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) accreditation, the set of standards overseen by the Security Industry Authority (SIA).
Independently monitored, the ACS endorsement process examines how well an organisation is managed, how effectively it services its customers and how well it treats its employees.
Companies are judged across nine categories including strategy, commercial relationship management, resources, people and leadership.
A spokesperson for the SIA comments: “Approved contractors are committed to customer service and the compulsory licensing of their staff. This means their customers can rest assured that every private security operative deployed on their premises will be working within the law.”
TSG managing director, David Boswell, says: “It is a great feeling to achieve Approved Contrac

Celtic Connections - The festival drew to a close on Sunday night with record audience figures during its 18-day programme. The traditional music festival celebrated 25 years with 130,000 people attending more than 350 events. Venues across Glasgow welcomed more than 2,300 artists from over 30 countries on 28 stages.
Entertainment included a mixture of concerts, talks, workshops, film screenings, ceilidhs, art exhibitions, free events and late-night sessions. Councillor David McDonald, chairman of event organisers Glasgow Life, said, "There is nothing that compares to Celtic Connections and it is a huge part of our year-round cultural calendar, providing much needed entertainment and economic cheer to the city during the darkest winter months. Our first 25 years have seen the festival grow into a world-beater and I can't wait to see what is to come as we move forward with th

UK - Cardiff-based events services provider, 11th Hour continues to expand its team. Rising demand for its wide-ranging services has seen the company appoint a number of experienced professionals to key positions, to keep pace with continuing growth.
Simon Baker brings 30 years of sales and hire experience in the technical services sector to his role as 11th Hour’s warehouse manager and new administration assistant, Rachel Burbidge, adds the skills developed during 15 years in the areas of construction, insurance and health.
11th Hour director John Davies comments, “Last year saw us significantly increase the size of our team and our investment in equipment. Events such as the visit of The UEFA Champions League to Cardiff, demonstrated our capacity to provide services on a large scale and for very diverse requirements. It’s essential that we have the expertise, c

USA - The celebrated home of the champion Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks now features a 190,000 sq.ft addition with power distribution and trussing installed by Upstaging. Opened to the public last fall, the new atrium features the stadium’s box office as well as an expansive team store, dining options, business offices, and the eternally popular Michael Jordan statue, now indoors and artfully lit. Six-circuit power for the addition’s creative lighting includes nearly 3,000ft of white ProMolded 12/14 multicable assemblies.
“For this job, the ProMolded overmold assemblies were perfect for several reasons,” says Upstaging’s Steve Wojda. “First, everything had to be white and ProMolded 12/14 cable assemblies are available in a variety of custom colours. Second, in order to pass municipal codes, the 19-pin connectors must be tamper-proof and the entire assemblies must

Farewell Yellow Brick Road - Sir Elton John has declared he wants to "go out with a bang" as he revealed plans for a final world tour. The 70-year-old British musician - who has been touring for nearly 50 years - said he will no longer perform live following his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which is due to start in September. Announcing his retirement plans, the singer said his "priorities have changed" as he and husband David Furnish care for their two sons
Sir Elton said the mammoth 300-date tour was a chance "to say thank you to all my fans around the world and then to say goodbye." He added, "I have had a good run and I want to go out with a bang."
Grammy Awards - Bruno Mars and Kendrick Lamar stole the show, and most of the awards, at the 2018 Grammys. Mars provided the night's big upset, taking the album of the year trophy that most critics assu

UK - Formed only in 2015, The Hunna, a four-piece English rock band, kicked off 2018 by performing six back-to-back gigs in UK O2 Academy venues in early January.
Travelling with them was lighting designer, Tom Campbell, who chose MDG’s ICE FOG Compack low fog generator and an ATMe haze generator to provide the band with the right mix of atmospheric effects to guarantee they, and his lighting, would be seen to best advantage.
“Showcasing the lighting was especially important for this tour as the structure of the design forms the majority of the set,” says Campbell. “The backbone of the show design is centred around 108 lasers which are located on side towers. I use these to create various worlds, shapes and looks for the band to perform in, so I needed a hazer I could really rely on that would deliver a fine even haze day after day. MDG’s ATMe is ideal as it

UK - Ron Bonner, who has worked for PLASA for over 17 years, has announced that he will be retiring at the end of February.
Bonner has been an integral part of PLASA’s technical standards and resources department since early 2001, and has made a huge contribution to standards writing for the entertainment industry, both in the UK and internationally.
Under Bonner’s leadership, PLASA has instigated a wide range of standards which have contributed hugely to the safety of the industry.
Notable projects include the development of the European voluntary agreement for stage engineering that will shortly be converted to the first ever European stage engineering standard. He also led the way in guiding PLASA members on administrative compliance requirements for newly introduced European environmental legislation.
Bonner was instrumental in the creation of the

Poland - A new automatic rental platform for the video, audio, lighting and rigging sectors has just been launched.
This fully integrated system has just been established by ARAM, a member of PRG Alliance. Using the platform, companies who provide event production services can select the equipment they want to rent with a single click and send a request that will be automatically decoded by the A-RENTAL warehouse system. Then, after checking if the items are available and awarding the discount, the ARAM employee responsible for the rental process can quickly and easily send the relevant quote.
Apart from making the quoting process faster, this solution is designed to show the event industry the tremendous amount of equipment ARAM has at its disposal.
“Many of our customers are unaware of the number of items we have in stock, and they frequently happen to nee

Keeping Music Live - The music industry is hailing a major victory after ministers vowed to change planning rules in England to protect venues from complaints about noise. Stars including Sir Paul McCartney warned venues forced to pay for soundproofing neighbouring properties could be driven out of business.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said the rule, which applies to new housing schemes, was an "unfair burden". And he said the government would "right this wrong". Developers will now have to address noise issues if they opt to build homes near a long-established venue.
Industry bodies have said that under current laws, venues are facing "an avalanche of cases" in which residents of new developments were complaining about noise pollution after moving in. The Music Venue Trust said some venues, as well as other community and cultural organisations, were at risk of c

Europe - Cross 3 is a new high-performance cable protection product launched by Penn Elcom. Described as tough, durable and fire-retardant, the product is suitable for festivals, concerts, shows, events or exhibitions.
Cross 3, the first product in this new series, was revealed to the public earlier this week at the CUE 2018 expo in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It’s a three channel ‘crossover’ product manufactured from Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), chosen for its strength, high resistance to abrasion, flexibility and recyclability.
All elements of the Cross 3 product - top and base - are fire retardant and compliant to DIN EN 13501-1.
Penn Elcom has been developing Cross 3 over the last year based on extensive research and communication related to event industry demands for portable cable protection.
(Jim Evans)

Actor-Musicianship - Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance is to launch a master’s in actor-musicianship. It will be rolled out in October this year and will add to the school’s existing BA (hons) in actor-musicianship. The drama school claims the course is the first of its kind in the world. It is being designed by Jeremy Harrison, author of the book Actor-Musicianship.
Following an initial year, the students will have the opportunity to progress to a master of fine arts qualification. This will be followed by an optional second year of study. “With actor-musicianship very much part of the established theatre scene, in the UK and America, it’s a natural step for professional theatre makers. They will see an intensive and in-depth exploration of how musical and acting processes can interrelate and feed each other,” Harrison said. Rose Bruford is ho

Europe - In response to the news that the EU is once again contemplating banning the use of tungsten halogen light bulbs in entertainment lighting, the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) is co-ordinating a high-speed effort to gather reasons as to why this ban should not move forward, particularly from those who would be materially affected by such a ban, in time to create a formal response before the end of the proposal’s consultation period on 26th January 2018.
“The ban is not strictly new,” notes acclaimed, award-winning lighting designer Michael Hulls, who is leading the effort as a continuation of his earlier ‘Save Tungsten’ campaign. “The EU has been moving towards banning the use of all tungsten light sources for some years. However, theatre lighting has, until now, had an exemption from this ban. This exemption is what the EU is now proposing to end

South Africa - Staging and set company Dream Sets has purchased the Vectorworks 2018 design software from DWR Distribution.
Mauritz Jacobs, lighting designer at Dream Sets, reports: “As a lighting designer, I have been using Vectorworks since 2014. Vectorworks has all the needed built-in features that I need to create and manipulate plans from start to finish (set and technical wise).”
Jacobs continues: “As you know, our industry is very fast-paced and time is not always on our side. With the new Vectorworks 2018 they have really gone out of their way to make it as easy and quick as possible to get designs out in limited time. Once you know your way around it, it’s easy to do large designs in a limited time period. Also, the set side of the programme has many new features like the event design which speeds designing up on another level.”
(Jim Evans)

USA - Dreamforce, Salesforce's tech conference that recently drew more than 170,000 people to San Francisco, took place on 6-9 November at the Moscone North, South and West.
The scope of the event – of which many parts were recorded, live-streamed, and broadcast – necessitated the use of a tremendous amount of wireless equipment including microphones, IEMs, IFBs, and wireless intercom.
The conference planners called on Orlando-based Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) to provide wireless frequency coordination for the multi-day event. This year there were six film crews covering the convention centre halls and other buildings in addition to all the wireless RF devices that were in use for each show segment in the Moscone Centre and hotels.
“We decided to coordinate the film crews first, since they would be roaming throughout every room and building, and t

USA - Lighting designer Herrick Goldman, principal of HG Lighting Design, announced last summer that he would be donating a portion of his design fees throughout the year to Behind the Scenes and he recently presented his first cheque to the charity.
HG Lighting Design is the first firm to make an ongoing pledge of a portion of design fees to the charity and Behind the Scenes applauds Herrick for his leadership. HG Lighting Design provides lighting services for a wide variety of markets including theatre, dance, and corporate events, as well as for permanent installations and museums.
Herrick Goldman stated, “HG Lighting Design is thrilled to be a Behind the Scenes Pledge-a-Service Partner and we are proud to be the first design team to do so. We hope that many other designers will choose to join us in this worthy cause. As HGLD grows and adds team members and collab

PLASA has announced changes to its elected board including the appointment of Adam Blaxill as the new chair.
Blaxill joined the PLASA Board as the Professional Services Representative in 2012 and was elected as vice-chair in 2014. He has been voted as the new chair of PLASA through a simple majority vote.
Blaxill takes over from Ed Pagett who has served as chair for an extended seven years. During this time Pagett oversaw the de-merger with ESTA with the support of an executive committee which included Blaxill as vice-chair and Martin Hawthorn as treasurer. This valuable work enabled the survival and growth of PLASA.
Pagett will continue to serve as a non-executive director, contributing his extensive knowledge and expertise to advise and support the association as it continues its work in the industry.
As a director of Stage Electrics - one of the UK’s leading

UK - Lesley Harmer, a well-known face in the world of entertainment technology PR, has taken a step back from the industry to embrace retirement this year. The move sees the business change to the new name of Sprand Communications, under the management of Lesley’s colleague Sarah Thomas, and the closure of Harmer PR, the business which Lesley started almost 40 years ago.
Sarah says: “Harmer PR gave me my first job in the industry in 2002, where I stayed for three years, leaving to gain experience in the world of consumer PR. Lesley and I got back together in early 2012, when she closed the London office and I began to work for her again, this time on a freelance basis.”
Lesley comments: “Over the past six years, Sarah and I have known the end goal was my retirement. When I moved to the country a few years back, we began a gradual handover, so there has been no

China - Legally Blonde - The Musical opened in December to glowing reviews in Shanghai’s Culture Square Theatre at the start of its China National tour. From China it will move to Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre in May, before returning to the USA in October 2018. Produced by Big League and directed by Jeff Moss, with choreography by Grinch veteran, Bob Richard, Legally Blonde the Musical is a celebration of pop culture.
Responsible for the smooth running of the technology on tour is the team from Intelligent Lighting Services (ILS), led by lighting engineer and company founder, Paul Gould. As part of the tour’s lighting inventory Gould’s team supplied two MDG ATMe haze generators to provide the haze with which to show off Kirk Bookman’s fun and vibrant lighting design.
The two ATMe units were purchased specifically for the tour, but

UK - The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) announced the winners of its Michael Northen Award at the Annual Lighting Lunch on 18 December 2017 in London.
The Michael Northen Award is supported by a further two awards: the Francis Reid Award and the ETC Lighting Award; and is awarded annually to students studying in the UK, who have demonstrated strong, imaginative and creative lighting design.
Underlining its commitment to the nurturing of new talent in lighting design, the ALD placed the organisation and management of this year’s award into the hands of those closest to its effect; the ALD Student Committee. Head of the committee, Rory Beaton explains, “We have taken some time this year to implement improvements to the structure and processes of the award. As an example, to ensure greater consistency in the marking of the award we created more judges this y

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