USA - In 1882 Russell Conwell, a pastor and lawyer from Boston, arrived in Philadelphia to lead Grace Baptist Church. Conwell agreed to tutor a young man unable to afford a formal education. Soon thereafter others showed up for Conwell's evening classes at the Baptist Temple, and the number of students quickly grew into the hundreds. In 1888, a charter for Temple College was issued, and in 1907 the school became Temple University.

Temple played host to some prominent speakers during the mid-20th century, notably Martin Luther King, Jr., President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Margaret Mead. Alistair Cooke and Edward R. Morrow delivered commencement addresses. But despite the building's storied past, the Baptist Temple went unoccupied for 30 years and fell into disrepair.

Seemingly headed toward destruction, the Temple was recently certified a Historical Building by the Philadelph

Czech Republic - Architect Karel Jan?a decided on a fresh and vibrant approach when he was asked to design a completely new interior scheme for the Duel Sports Bar in the town of Zubri, Czech Republic.

An Anolis LED lighting scheme is an integral part of the new look and feel for the popular bar and eatery, owned by local entrepreneur Rene Doricak and frequented by sports enthusiasts and a lively young crowd from the local area.

Duel is adjacent to a busy sports hall run by the city of Zubri, located in-between two bustling Moravian towns - the historically significant and beautiful Rožnov pod Radhošt?m and the buzzing commercial centre of Valašské Mezi?í?í.

Jan?a approached Anolis's Czech & Slovak Republic sales manager Petr Kolma?ka, and together they discussed the best possible LED lighting solution.

Jan?a wanted to use power-efficient 'green' lighting to ad

Germany - The Aalto-Musiktheater Essen, one of the most renowned music theatres in Western Europe, has exchanged its old communications gear for a Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom system. Systemhaus Giebel Electronic- & Kommunikations handled the installation on behalf of Gemeinnützige Theaterbaugesellschaft Essen.

At the heart of the system is a Riedel Artist 64 mainframe. Due to its modular approach Artist systems can easily be expanded up to to 1,024 x 1,024 non-blocking ports.

Twenty control panels from Riedel Artist 1000, 2000 and 5000 series are used at the Aalto Opera. To provide for maximum of flexibility, two stage manager booths were set up - one on each side of the stage - with the ability to switch between the two booths. Both include an Artist 1000 series control panel plus three expansion panels providing a total of 76 talk keys, which can be doubled using

UK - Orbital Sound, the leading sound and communication systems specialist for the theatre, event and broadcast markets, recently supplied a new d&b audiotechnik Q7 system to the Theatre Royal Bath, one of Britain's oldest theatres.

Selected elements of the sound equipment were upgraded in the 800-seat capacity Main House, as part of a 6-month refurbishment programme in the Main House auditorium.

Orbital's relationship with the Theatre Royal pre-dates this project, previously supplying the Theatre Royal's egg theatre for children with its d&b Q7 system during 2010.

Theatre Royal Bath's Technical Manager, Joe Wright, detailed the refurbishment programme: "The Theatre Royal Main House is principally a receiving venue, handling a wide variety of different live entertainment genres, from stand-up and the spoken word, through live bands and playback, to full-scale musicals.

Australia - In November 2010 Jands completed their second installation of a CableNet system in Australia at the Sydney Catholic Vocational College in Burwood NSW.

The Sydney Catholic Vocational College is a multipurpose training facility catering for students who wish to learn skills ranging from hospitality, video recording, audio recording and production for live theatre.

The installation includes the CableNet system 18.7m x 12.7m and Jands JLX PRO Lighting Bars each equipped with DMX, house light and dimmable outlets

Over 1000m of Jands wool drape was used for this project including movable drapes surrounding the 'Multipurpose space' on two levels, a cyclorama and green screens in the Green Screen Room.

(Jim Evans)

Australia - New home of the Black Swan and Perth Theatre companies, and located inside the $100 million State Theatre Centre, the Heath Ledger Theatre is a 575-seat, multi-purpose venue for music, dance, and theatre.

The need for a new theatre was established around two decades ago and the Centre has been a long time coming - the result is an elegant new city landmark at the heart of the Performing Arts Precinct in the Perth Cultural Centre. And at the heart of the Centre itself is the deep-toned, gold-and-timber sanctuary of the Heath Ledger Theatre, an inspiring tribute to its namesake and a beautiful space in which to perform.

The $100m Centre opened earlier this year to speeches from the West Australian Governor and Premier, as well as Nyoongar elders and leading Australian actors. In addition to the Heath Ledger Theatre, the Centre also houses a flexible, 230-seat undergr

Nigeria - Construction has begun on Delta Leisure Resorts, a tourism and leisure facility which is being built in the Warri and Asaba cities of Delta State, Nigeria, and will be the first of its kind in West Africa. Sarner PFM (Africa) and Sarner UK are working together to design and create the leisure resorts which will cover over 150 hectares in each city and is estimated to be costing £167.4m.

The main park, located just 20 minutes from the airport in the Oleri village, will reflect the culture of the area while providing "a place of escapism, enjoyment and fun" and is set to include a water park, hotels, luxurious chalets, casino, golf course, historical attractions, family entertainment centre, children's area, sports facilities, spa and retail stores. The Oleri bridge, which is currently under construction, will link the park to the main road network for ea

The Netherlands - The media city of Hilversum, half an hour from Amsterdam, home to most of the Netherlands' leading television and radio broadcasters, is now the proud possessor of a new, a highly striking €11.8m concert building, with new sound and lighting systems from sister Ampco Flashlight Group companies TM Audio and Lightco respectively.

De Vorstin Poppodium ('The Queen Pop Stage'), a complex steel structure, that looks like a space-age remodelling of Manhattan's Flatiron Building, has no internal right angles - good news for the acoustics.

It was designed by Architecten Cie, which also has the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam to its credit, and similar attention to detail can be found at De Vorstin. High quality finishes and a wide range of additional facilities including a rehearsal studio add to features such as a dedicated artists' café.

With an audio and

USA - Austin City Limits Live, a live-music venue that hosts the long-running Austin City Limits television show as well as 60-100 concerts and other live events annually, has taken delivery of three Robert Juliat Victor 1159 1800W followspots. The fixtures, which were supplied by Texas Scenic, made their debut at the gala opening of the new venue.

Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theatre is a $40m, 2700 + person capacity venue on three levels. It offers in-house sound and a video control studio as well as a 40 automated head lighting package with innovative optics, and digital consoles plus a conventional lighting package for TV.

"The Robert Juliat Victors are dedicated primarily to our concerts," says Billy Heaslip. "As production manager, I knew that we'd be doing TV lighting beyond live concerts and I wanted an instrument with a excellent even fie

USA - Brigham Young University-Idaho turned to the Stage Technologies Las Vegas team to install an up-to-date motorized rigging system in the newly opened BYU-Idaho Centre at the heart of the school's campus. The building covers 435,000sq.ft, has a 15,000-seat auditorium and a multi-purpose area large enough for 10 full basketball courts.

The auditorium will be used for weekly devotional speeches and commencement addresses, graduation ceremonies and even regional church conferences. The building also houses a communications suite enabling the University to broadcast future events.

The system comprises 55 BigTow winches, control cabinets, a Nomad control desk and a Solo handheld control console. The system also includes two camera pylons - an engineering innovation from the Stage Technologies research and development team. The camera pylon enables perfect filming of motion shot

Germany - Esprit's flagship store in Frankfurt with more than 3600sq.m of retail space on five levels, is the biggest Esprit store worldwide.

To achieve an intriguing storefront and attract guests with a concept from Corneille Uedingslohmann Architects, Traxon's ultra bright and fully customizable Dot XL-6 RGB was installed on the flagship location's exterior.

Arranged behind a special glass diffusion material, each individually addressable Dot is given a blurred effect. Inside the store, a series of Dot XL-3 RGB are arranged above the escalator, behind the same blurring diffusion, establishing a connection between the exterior and the interior.

The installation was executed by Ben Hur and LightLife, both located in Cologne. As a result of the strong teamwork, Ben Hur was rewarded with the Innovation Award for Architecture and Presentation at EuroShop 2011.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Blackout provided bespoke drapes at Mikhail Gorbachev's star-studded 80th birthday celebration to transform the Royal Albert Hall, creating an opulent backdrop to the set from which Kevin Spacey and Sharon Stone hosted VIP guests to honour of the last leader of the Soviet Union.

The Blackout team was brought in by production company LarMac LIVE and liaised with producers Jo Mackay & Ian Greenway to ensure the drapes complimented the event's overall look and feel. Working closely with set designer Nina Kobiashvili, Blackout supplied drapes from their range that were in keeping with the Royal Albert Hall's distinctive style, creating a set that suited the high profile nature of the event.

Blackout project director Kevin Monks coments, "The main set screen was shadowed left and right with a pair of set prosceniums created out of red velour and organza. The piece was mad

France - Christie MicroTiles receieved 'Eco-Design' honours from the IFD at the Janus awards ceremony held in Paris at the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council recently. In attendance were governmental ministers Frédéric Lefèbvre and Pierre Lellouche, the heads of the Ministries of Commerce (for Craft Industries, Small Businesses, Tourism, Services, Professionals and Consumption), and International Trade, respectively.

Supported by the Agency for Environmental and Energy Management (ADEME), the IFD's Janus Eco-Design designation seeks to promote products and services with reduced environmental impact, beginning with the selection of materials, through the manufacturing stage, the product's distribution and use by the consumer, all the way to the end of its useful life.

Introduced to the EMEA market in February 2010, Christie MicroTiles have already

UK - London- based production company LarMac LIVE - headed by Jo MacKay and Ian Greenway - production managed and co-ordinated all logistics for staging the star studded Gorby 80 gala concert and awards event at London's Royal Albert Hall this week.

Everything was compiled and organised in an operation lasting just under four weeks. The high profile charity event fused entertainment and awards presentations in celebration of the 80th Birthday of former Russian statesman, Mikhail Gorbachev.

It was hosted by Kevin Spacey and Sharon Stone, featuring live appearances and a fusion of classical and popular music by artists including Dame Shirley Bassey, Bryan Ferry, The Scorpions, Katherine Jenkins, Paul Anka and Melanie C among others, some performing collaborations accompanied by the 92-piece London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) conducted by Valery Gergiev.

The whole event was

Russia - The premier showing of the new 3D Disney blockbuster Tron: Legacy took place on 17 December 2010 at the Karo Film Oktyabr cinema theatre. The film is the continuation of the original sci-fi film of the 80's about cyberspace. To create the appropriate atmosphere on the day of the premiere, of one of the most awaited and spectacular films of the year, Christie MicroTiles displays were installed in the lobby of the cinema theatre. It is the first time MicroTiles have been used for the promo action of a film in Russia.

Smart Look advertising agency, as the project manager, took care of the Oktyabr lobby design by employing digital media. Big Screen Service supplied the MicroTiles and ETC Russia created the content.

Two areas of the cinema theatre featured MicroTiles module digital displays. The main video wall installed on the first floor comprised 41 MicroTile mod

UK - LITE, UK distributor for Philips Solid State Lighting Solutions, has put a splash of color on the historical Tyne Bridge in Newcastle using Philips ColorReach PowerCore fixtures and LumenRadio's CRMX wireless lighting controls.

"A typical challenge with older structures is the lack of available wire ways for the control required to take full advantage of the features offered by color mixing LED fixtures. That problem was solved by integrating LumenRadio's CRMX wireless OEM modules into the Philips ColorReach PowerCore power supplies; eliminating the need for any control wiring", explains Andrew Milestone sales director at LITE. "Integrating the CRMX OEM modules was easy, the system worked out-of-the-box, and the reliability was rock solid. LumenRadio's CRMX wireless signal distribution is a true project enabler that we will use on a regular basis in a wide va

UAE - Part of an internationally successful chain, the Club Se7en opened its doors recently after around 12 months' intensive construction and installation activity. Like those of the Ratsky III and Mood Nightclub II, two of Dubai's other top clubs, Club Se7en's operators opted for a complete Dynacord sound system.

The installation was the responsibility of the Dubai-based sound company Phoenix LAS, whose MD, Mark Legaspi reports, "We've long been diehard fans of Dynacord because its products are reliable, extremely efficient and represent outstanding value for money. Also, the support from Tony Sawyer, Dynacord technical support manager, and distributor AVL Electronics is outstanding."

The sound system is built around VariLine loudspeakers reinforced by Sub 18 cabinets to provide maximum sound pressure at the bottom end of the frequency range. The requisite power is

Australia - With a previous installation at the Riverside Theatre, Sydney, a second Australian theatre has now embraced the audio qualities of Alcons loudspeakers. The Playhouse is a 618 seat venue in the Canberra Theatre Centre. A three-level theatre with proscenium arch, it is used for a wide variety of productions.

Alcons was specified for the job by one of Australia's leading theatre sound design companies, Notsui Consulting.

"A test system was then taken to Canberra to give the head of audio a listen, and we were awarded the contract straight away," says David Betterridge of system installers Loud And Clear.

For this installation, eight LR14 are flown as a centre cluster, with three LR14B flown above. Two pairs of VR12 and VR12M per side provide balcony and stalls side-fill, with two BF302 providing a full-bodied sub-bass. The system is powered by seven ALC2 a

Poland - Lauda-Audio has won the contract to fit a substantial Nexo Geo S8 sound reinforcement system into one of the country's most famous church buildings, St John's in the city of Gdansk.

The massive Gothic interior of this former house of worship in the heart of Gdansk's main town is now a spectacular venue, administered by the Baltic Sea Culture Centre as an exhibition space and auditorium, showcasing everything from classical concerts to world music. On Lauda-Audio's advice, an all-Nexospec has been drawn up; Adam Adamowicz explains why.

"As a prominent historical monument, the St John's Church is protected by law, and any modifications to the building are conducted under strict scrutiny. We faced quite a challenge to install so many speakers and still meet the curator's standards.

"The Geo S8 is a small cabinet but very effective. The venue management places

UK - City of Westminster College has recently moved into its newly built Paddington Green Campus complete with multifunction theatre space - into which were installed industry-standard PixelPars, from PixelRange, by LSI Projects.

LSI Projects responded successfully to a system design inclusive of all lighting, audio and AV integration, by theatre consultants, Drama by Design, who designed and specified all the technical systems for the theatre, worth half-a-million pounds.

Drama by Design's Andrew Stone comments, "The requirement of the College was to have a professional standard performance theatre - and that's why we opted for the PixelPars because they are professional standard, as opposed to some of the cheap alternatives. They offer bright, even light output. They are durable and they last. It is essential for technical theatre students to get experience of what they

Germany - The Mainzer Dom (Mainz Roman Catholic Cathedral) in Germany, one of the most historically important buildings in Western Europe, has undergone a complete audio visual refit.

The sound system which served it so well for the past 30 years was recently decommissioned and a new infrastructure designed and specified by media consultant, Rolf Mayer of Bischofsheim-based IFB Consulting. The audio network was based on a QSC digital Q-Sys platform.

Over 1000-years-old, this Romanesque Cathedral - with its striking red fascia which dominates the Mainz skyline - spans a length of 116m, while the ceiling height ranges between 28 and 54m.. From an acoustics perspective this produces an extraordinarily long reverberation time of up to 12 seconds - not an insignificant challenge to overcome.

In providing superior audio in an environment for congregations of up to 4,000 people, He

UK - The 600-capacity Under The Bridge, situated at Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge ground, has been built on the site of the former Purple Nightclub. Close attention to detail and an extremely high specification were the goals of the creative team, headed by concept designer Jim Cafarelli (of House of Blues fame), Ian Woodall (of XL Video) and Andrew Frengley (Matrix Nine).

Both Woodall and Frengley have worked closely together in the past and it was the latter's extensive experience of touring EAW systems for many years (while a director of premier rental company, Canegreen) that drove them to the brand.

But they weren't looking for an off-the-peg solution for the main PA system, as Ian Woodall confirms. "What we really needed was a KF730 on steroids," he quipped, referring to the company's small format line array. Such was their enthusiasm that they headed to Frankfu

Denmark - Kastrup, Copenhagen-based Litecom A/S has recently invested in James Thomas 52-inch SuperTruss - custom-sprayed in black - from Danish distributor, Light Partner. The truss forms the base inventory initiating the company's newly-launched rigging department.

Litecom took delivery of Supertruss amounting to 265m in length - more than two and a half football pitches - and it has been in constant use since. The truss has been on many major televised shows in Denmark including X Factor, and the Zulu Awards.

Litecom MD, Kristian Dreier, comments, "We wanted to start up our own rigging department to make everything easier, more flexible and to be able to rig our own projects, with black truss, instead of the normal aluminium look we could rent."

"No one in the television industry likes to look at aluminium trusses, so we've always had to cover

China - Clay Paky has supplied Chinese broadcaster Anhui TV with Alpha Profile 1500s for its traditional Spring Festival show.

Chinese New Year, the most significant of all the traditional Chinese holidays, is a time when families gather to celebrate the passing of winter with feasting and dining. In recent times, a new family tradition has sprung up in the form an all-night New Year's TV show featuring drama, dance, music and comedy.

Once the preserve of state broadcaster CCTV, the televised New Year's Gala is said to be the most watched arts performance event anywhere in the world with over 700m viewers regularly tuning in. This year, rival broadcaster Anhui TV produced its own New Year's special, filmed live at its 5,000sq.m Anhui Radio and Television Centre - the largest TV studio anywhere in Asia. The show featured acts by singers, dancers, comedians and acrobats both fro

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