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Charity Single - Rak-Su have been named the winners of the X Factor 2017. The Watford-based group beat Grace Davies in the final of the ITV singing competition - the first boy band to win since the show started in 2004. Rak-Su thanked viewers for voting for them, while their mentor Simon Cowell hailed them as "stars". Proceeds from Rak-Su's winners' single Dimelo will go to children's hospice charities Together For Short Lives and Shooting Star Chase.
Pearl Jam - Nearly a decade after last touring the capital, Pearl Jam have announced two London gigs. The band will play London's O2 Arena on the 18 and 19 June next year. Tickets for the shows will go on general sale at 11am on 8 December.
Lucky Dip - Plans have been announced for a new daily lottery for £10 Hamilton tickets. Members of the public can apply for a maximum of two £10 tickets p

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UK - HSL continues to strengthen its dedicated Theatre and Performing Arts division with the appointment of Ben Payne as key account manager (theatre) and Jo Sunners as business development manager (Theatre).
Both join HSL after working together for 18 months at a previous rental and production company. They will be based in London and the scope of their work at HSL will focus on supporting and developing this specialist sector.
HSL MD Simon Stuart comments, “We’re delighted to welcome Ben and Jo who are fantastic people, well respected, highly knowledgeable and have a vast amount of shows under their belt. In addition to sharing HSL’s core values of passion and commitment to outstanding service, their great synergy and colleagueship is ideal for our ever-growing family.”
Ben comes to HSL with 15 years theatre touring experience which has included light
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South Africa - The industry has been paying its respects to Richard Blamire, the owner of Cape Staging who died tragically in a motorbike accident on 8 November.
Richard, who lived in Bergvliet, Cape Town, was well-known in the South African events industry having previously worked at Gearhouse, Sound Harmonics and was a close collaborator with Dream Sets. For Sean Hoey of Dream Sets, Richard was one of his best friends. They shared a keen interest in all things mechanical and a love for their craft and family (and Border Collies). With an eye for detail and a creative flair, Richard was able to produce beautiful pieces for events, sometimes even furniture that you would only dream of having in your home.
He was greatly loved by his two sons and his wife, Lynne Poulsen Blamire, a pianist, singer, music composer, songwriter, programmer and arranger.
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City Limits - Five British cities competing to be the European Capital of Culture in 2023 have been left reeling after it emerged the European Commission is to exclude them from the competition. The news comes less than a month after final submissions were made by Dundee, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Nottingham and a joint bid by Belfast, Derry and Strabane.
A letter sent by the commission to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the UK’s decision to withdraw from the EU meant “the participation of the UK in the European Capital of Culture will not be possible”. Expectations had been high that a British city would be selected for the first time since Liverpool in 2008. A judging panel had been due to convene next week to assess the British bids.
Responding to the decision, a DCMS spokesman said it: “disagrees with the European Commission’s

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UK - London and Dubai based event technical design and production specialist Maestra has welcomed four new team members in London, in time for the busy autumn and winter season.
Justin Hammond, managing director of Maestra London, commented: “We are delighted to welcome everyone on board, and have been really impressed with the calibre of people interested in making a commitment to working with Maestra at this very exciting time in our development.”
Lizzie Bishop joins as senior project manager, Alice Dapling comes on board as a senior production designer; Sirajuddin Mohammed is focussed on the financials and accounts, while Jenny Bumanglag strengthens the operations division.
Lizzie Bishop graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Geography, then started off her career in events as an Events Co-ordinator for Wise Productions, specialising

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UK - 7thSense Design has claimed two awards at the 2017 Made in the South East Awards.
The creative software and technology company which manufactures the Delta Media Server was presented with the Export Award and Digital Engineering Technology Award at a finalist event on 23 November (Thursday).
7thSense will now stand as finalists in the in Export and Digital Engineering and Technology categories of the 2018 Made in the UK Awards to be held in Liverpool on 20 June.
Matt Barton, managing director of 7thSense, commented: “The competition this year was especially tough, there’s so many ambitious organisations and a great deal of innovation in the region. We are so honoured to have be recognised with both awards and this was yet another occasion where we can proud of our incredible team.”
Now in their fifth year, the annual Made in the South East Award

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Swift Sales - After just four days, Taylor Swift sold more albums in the US than any other artist this year. The star's sixth album, Reputation, sold 1.04m copies in the US over its first four days on release, says Billboard magazine.
That puts her ahead of 2017's previous biggest-seller, Ed Sheeran's ÷, which has shifted 919,000 copies to date. Reputation also becomes Swift's fourth album to sell a million copies in the space of a week, following 1989, Red and Speak Now. In fact, only she and Adele have sold a million copies of any album in a seven-day frame since 2012.
Extended Role - Edinburgh International Festival has extended director Fergus Linehan's contract for an extra three years, meaning that he will run the festival until at least August 2022. Linehan joined EIF in 2013, directing his first festival

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Canada - Radio Active Designs (RAD) Canadian manufacturer rep Zimbel Audio Productions has had a busy couple of months placing RAD UV-1G wireless intercom systems with the Canada 150 Celebration, Canadian Country Music Awards, Toronto Pride and Caribana parades and at historic Massey Hall in Toronto for the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame inductee ceremonies.
The four-day Canada 150 Celebrations at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square benefited from a six- drop UV-1G system that covered site-wide communication needs for the stage managers with just two antennas. The event featured more than 40 music acts including Drake, Belly, and Barenaked Ladies.
Another six-drop system was used at the Canadian Country Music awards broadcast in Saskatoon. Technical producer Neil Staite says, “The RAD comm system supplied flawless communications between our floor and stage manag

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Hungary - A range of Mojo Barriers aluminium crowd safety barriers are now based in Budapest with the announcement of a new Mojo distributor giving convenient, cost effective barrier rental for festival organisers and tours coming to Eastern Europe.
A stock of Mojo Barriers will be permanently located in Budapest for rental and it has already been hired out to create the front of stage barrier for the Gorillaz concert, in Budapest, Papp Laszlo Arena.
Mojo’s project and touring manager Stanley Jilesen states: “With the expanding live events market in Hungary and Eastern Europe, Mojo Barriers is proud to support organisers with local resource to help keep their events safe. Having worked with Sziget Festival for several years we are delighted to work with the innovators in this region pushing for higher standards.”
The new Hungarian distributorship is the co

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Romania - The Timeshift festival in Bucharest was the debut for the largest roof ever engineered and sold by Milos. The massive MR5 Heavy-Duty roof measured 31 x 18m and covered the main stage of the first edition of Timeshift Bucharest Music Festival - an event where technology and music come together.
The festival was a four-day event held from 20-23 July and featured a total of four stages, with the Milos MR5 roof covering the main stage. Featuring international artists such as David Guetta, DJ Snake and Bloc Party, Milos helped Timeshift ensure its mission of providing the means for its audience to “step into another dimension”.
The client for this project was A.S.C. Systems Sound & Light, based in Bucharest. A.S.C. Systems has been in operation for 17 years and is one of the leading rental companies in Romania for stage, light & sound equipment.

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UK - J&C Joel has won the Exporter of the Year category at the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards held at Grosvenor House in London on 14 November (Tuesday).
The Sowerby Bridge-based firm, which is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of flame retardant fabrics, drapery and stage engineering solutions, was praised by the judges for the pace of their international growth, the range of countries they cover and their strategy of offering of a range of value-added services suited for both their UK and overseas clients.
J&C Joel’s CEO, James Wheelwright, said: “We are extremely proud and honoured to have won this award, we weren’t expecting it as we were up against some really strong businesses. In recent years we have invested heavily in our export infrastructure; opening new offices overseas and expanding our operations to ensure we are offering the

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UK - Cardiff-based event service provider 11th Hour has appointed Gareth Clark, an electrician with 20 years’ experience.
Gareth has worked across the commercial electrical sector on landmark projects such as the O2 Arena, the Reuters Building and a number of other London locations, perhaps most notably as a supervisor for Honeywell during the construction of the new Wembley Stadium, where he had responsibility for turnstiles and escalators as well as installing PAVA and fire alarm provision.
Closer to 11th Hour's Cardiff base, Gareth is very familiar with regular 11th Hour territories, including The Principality Stadium and Celtic Manor. Although very comfortable handling large scale projects, Gareth has a broad-based background and recently completed a foundation degree in Live Event Technology at the University of South Wales.
(Jim Evans)

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USA - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has announced that David Scheirman has taken office as their new president.
Scheirman has over 40 years of experience and expertise in professional audio and has been a long-time active member of the AES, having served three terms on the Board of Governors and taken up numerous roles and chair positions at AES conventions and within the AES committee system.
“David has played a leading role in the past year as chair of the president’s strategic planning team,” said Alex Case, as he ends his own one-year presidential term. “David was instrumental in our development of new events and collaborations. With his broad and deep industry experience, he is uniquely prepared to lead these AES initiatives in the coming year.” Case will continue to serve on the AES Executive Committee as Past President, while also chairing the M

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USA - BroadWeigh is set to meet with several of its product partners and end-users at LDI in Las Vegas to introduce them to the latest updates and additions to its product range.
One of the company’s latest developments is the BroadWeigh TwistLink – a smart piece of kit which allows a BroadWeigh 4.75 tonne shackle to be quickly connected to a 4.75 tonne or 3.25 tonne shackle without having to mess around with the pin, nut and Rclip. It has holes at 90 degrees to minimise potential torsion loading in the load pin and conforms to the European Machinery Directive.
This will be joined by the new Wind Speed Sensor foam insert which holds Wind Speed Sensors in both large and small BroadWeigh flight cases. The large case has undergone some changes so that accessories can now fit cleverly within the lid.
Jonathan Purdue, BroadWeigh’s business development manager c

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UK - The new owner of SWX will work with local and national promoters to bring more live music to the Bristol club.
Electric Group, which also runs Electric Brixton, completed a deal for SWX last month, recognising “the performance potential in its outstanding atmosphere, production and sightlines”.
With Ticketweb providing box office and marketing support, Electric Group will manage the SWX live diary from Brixton under head of music Mike Weller’s direction.
Weller has been working with the SWX team to further refine the venue’s live set-up, technically and commercially.
Dominic Madden, Electric Group co-founder, comments: “We operate with an independent mindset, shaping an easy and collaborative culture for promoters to embrace SWX with as few financial strings attached as possible.
“Having invested substantially to make the venue pro

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MTV Europe Music Awards - Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes was the big winner at the MTV Europe Music Awards, picking up three awards including the best artist prize. Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello was honoured with the best pop prize, French DJ David Guetta won for best electronic act, while US rapper Kendrick Lamar claimed best video.
There were a number of British wins, with Ed Sheeran scooping the best live category, Dua Lipa collecting the best new artist prize, and Chris Martin-fronted Coldplay named best rock act. Irish band U2 collected the Global Icon gong, previously awarded to Queen, Whitney Houston and Eminem. Taylor Swift, who was expected to be one of the big winners of the night with six nominations, failed to win any awards.
In The Summertime - Michael Buble will perform at British Summer Time festival 2018 - his first gig since his

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World - Mojo Barriers is supplying almost 2km of its bespoke touring barrier this autumn to a range of this year’s most anticipated tours.
With Mojo’s European office supplying tours including The Rolling Stones, Queens of the Stone Age and Queen & Adam Lambert, and the US office working with Katy Perry, Gorillaz, Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruno Mars, 21 Pilots and Nick Cave, Mojo Barriers is in the midst of a busy touring season.
For Katy Perry’s Witness tour, the shape of the stage thrust required a carefully considered barrier configuration. The final design consisted of over 100m of barrier with many vario corners which enabled Mojo to create a flawless barrier set which followed the unusual contours of the stage perfectly. The system will be used for the remainder of the American leg and will continue to be used when the tour reache

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USA - Wireless Solution Sweden will be exhibiting at LDI with TMB, its exclusive distributor in the United States. W-DMX will be in booth 1491, within the TMB village.
The Swedish brand will be showing the new Generation 5 (G5). New features include patent pending tri-band technology, enabling transmission in 2.4, 5.2 and 5.8 GHz, bands and new and improved Adaptive Frequency Hopping engine able to survey and adapt its transmission to less congested wireless channels.
Further, W-DMX G5 features the world’s first double-up mode, a new method of doubling the number of universes transmitters per Wireless link (2 universes on F-1 G5 models, and four universes of F-2 G5 models), utilizing the existent hardware, without adding extra antennae. The double-Up feature works on all three frequency bands, allowing users to get more universes at the same cost.
Adding to th

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UK - A public appeal to secure crucial funding for the £48m redevelopment of Bristol’s Colston Hall has been launched.
The historic venue, which celebrated its 150th anniversary this year, will close in 2018 for a refurbishment which will include remodelling the main hall and The Lantern, transforming the cellars into a performance space and creating a learning suite.
The Bristol Music Trust, who runs Colston Hall, has already secured £41m and is now appealing to the public to raise the remaining sum by naming a seat at the Hall for as little as £5 per month for four years.
Louise Mitchell, chief executive of Bristol Music Trust, says: “This year as we’ve celebrated our 150th anniversary we’ve been overwhelmed by the number of personal stories and memories we’ve received, highlighting the significance the Hall has played in so many people’s lives.

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UK - The Scottish Ballet has appointed Matthew Strachan as its new technical director. He takes over from George Thomson, who has left for the English National Ballet.
Strachan said: "Having worked with Scottish Ballet for almost 20 years including extensive freelance work, I was delighted to be appointed technical director. I’ve had the fortune to work with a fantastic team during this time and I’m looking forward to this exciting new position."
Christopher Hampson, chief executive/artistic director of the Scottish Ballet, added: "Matthew was the obvious choice as our technical director as he is a highly talented individual and has delivered exceptional work for us over the years. I wish him every success in his new position." Strachan first joined the Scottish Ballet in 1998 as deputy electrician and has worked on numerous award-winning productions inclu

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UK - Southampton Solent University has upgraded its performance studios as part of a £100m facilities improvement programme running up to 2020, with VDC supplying the cabling infrastructure.
The university’s TV, Film and Media Technology department already boasts a number of professional-standard facilities including 4K-ready broadcast studios, radio suites and newsrooms, and the decision was made to invest in similarly high-quality facilities for the Music and Performance students. The department has nine rooms in total, five full studios and four smaller workstations which can be used for mixing. Studio 1 was upgraded in 2016 but the remaining studios hadn’t been touched for around ten years so much of the kit was showing signs of wear and tear.
When the decision was made to redevelop Studio 1, Technical Instructor Jon Wills contacted VDC to provide the cabling

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Backstage Wages - Backstage and FOH staff are being urged to vote in favour of a pay offer from West End managements that is less than half the increase they originally demanded. In August, backstage and front-of-house union BECTU announced it was seeking a one-year deal for West End theatre staff that included a 9% pay rise. At the time, BECTU said it had submitted an ambitious claim that was justified by the increasing cost of living in the capital.
However, after "intensive" negotiations with the Society of London Theatre at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service failed to secure an agreement, members will now be balloted on a significantly reduced proposal.
It sets out a 3.5% increase for 2017/18, and the same again for the following year, with a 2.5% rise in 2019/20. Under the offer, the third year's deal would be subject to the Consumer Prices

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USA - TMB Los Angeles celebrated the 10-year anniversaries of three of the company’s cable assembly technicians.
TMB’s Pro Cables division has worldwide cabling staff of over 50, with an average tenure of close to eight years.
TMB global operations manager, Jonny Starr, says: “Half our cabling staff have been with TMB for more than 10 years, and frankly, it shows. Experienced, conscientious and highly trained cabling techs such as Lidia Rodriguez, Rosa Hernandez, and Jose Granados, who were recently recognized in LA, contribute significantly to making TMB’s cable assemblies the standard to which all others are compared.”
TMB has supplied entertainment production and staging professionals with power and data cables and assemblies since 1983. The company developed a range of specialised proprietary cables for permanent installations, and has partnered wi

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Exit Stage Left - Lucy Woollatt has announced she will stand down as executive director of the Young Vic in December. Woollatt's departure comes as artistic director David Lan also prepares to leave the London theatre, in February 2018, to be replaced by Kwame Kwei-Armah. Speaking about her departure, Woollatt said: "My decade at the Young Vic has been the most rewarding of my career to date. I'm incredibly proud of what we have achieved night after night at the Young Vic, on tour and in the West End."
Interval Act - Justin Timberlake is to headline next year's Super Bowl half-time show, 14 years after his role in Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction". The US pop star revealed the news on his Twitter feed - with a little help from talk show host Jimmy Fallon.
Timberlake sang at the 20
  1. Midas signs with Himoinsa Power Solutions
  2. PLASA appoints commercial director
  3. The David Francisco Ride For Hope
  4. The Week in Light & Sound
  5. The ALD launches 2018 sponsored student scheme
  6. Current RMS launches two new features
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