UK - On 18 June The First Night Riders (FNRs) will once more rev up for an eight-day tour around the UK to raise money for The Theatrical Guild (TTG). You can join them for as long or as short a time as you like - a day, a weekend or, if you are feeling brave, the whole week!

On Saturday 18 June riders will depart from The National Theatre London and travel to the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. They will travel to Norwich where they will have a backstage tour of the Theatre Royal. After an overnight stop, riders will journey to Castle Acre where they will have coffee with Jane Slattery. Then it's on to Nottingham for a complimentary lunch and tour courtesy of Eric Oldham of Metool Reels.

If you're not available the first weekend, why not join the ride on Friday 24 June in Cardiff? The riders will cruise to Swindon Mechanics Institute. From there they will travel to Stratford u

UK - Cornwall's largest professional theatre, Hall for Cornwall, has dramatically improved its energy efficiency following an investment in the new Philips Selecon range of SPX luminaires. The Truro venue welcomes more than 180,000 theatre goers per year and is the first arts organisation in the UK to complete a year of carbon emissions cuts, as part of its commitment to the 10:10 climate campaign.

The venue says that it has reduced electricity consumption in the auditorium by as much as 60 per cent since it replaced it's Cantata profile units with the Philips Selecon SPX range of luminaires.

The move came after the venue hosted a fixture 'shoot out' in September last year where the Philips Selecon SPX range was pitted against a number of competitor brands.

"The decision was unanimous," says Simon Crick, Hall for Cornwall's head of operations. "The efficiency

UK - Edinburgh's Pleasance Theatre, owned and run by the Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) has installed a Yamaha LS9 digital console.

The 300-capacity Pleasance Theatre stages drama, live music, dance and comedy throughout the year, as well as hosting lectures, conferences and film screenings. Both professional and amateur companies use it and, with the venue also rented out for performances during the Fringe, it's rare to step inside and not find something going on.

"The theatre had previously had been an empty space with some tabs, a few hemp bars and a 125a socket," says Tom Lawes of EUSA. "It was used by a variety of student societies to put on various shows and occasionally some in-house events. We bought the LS9-32 in preparation for redeveloping the theatre, which was mainly the installation of a technical infrastructure which would allow

UK - Audio Light Systems has recently completed the audio-visual and lighting installation for a complete renovation of the V&A Museum's Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre.

The listed and elegant environment posed several problems including designing a subtle yet working infrastructure and providing a versatile system for use with lectures and concerts alike.

A Doughty custom curved lighting bar was installed to the rear stage area, with IWB booms installed to the left and right of the auditorium. Strand dimmers and Selecon lanterns were the chosen solution to provide production and feature lighting. A Strand Classic Palette II provided the user-friendly control needed in such a venue.

The digital projector installed was the new Christie DHD-670-E high-def unit which "impressively filled the 7m screen."

Audio control has the Yamaha LS9 at the helm with a QSC

UK - Unusual Rigging has completed the project management of a major installation - a temporary 600-seat pavilion housing the month-long run of performances by Garsington Opera.

Garsington Opera has moved to the estate of Wormsley in the Chiltern Hills, home of the Getty family, after 22 years at Garsington Manor. Wormsley is located on the Oxfordshire - Buckinghamshire border in a parkland setting of approximately 2,500 acres.

Garsington Opera instructed architect Robin Snell and, following a competitive tendering process, appointed Unusual Rigging, as main contractor, to manage this design and build project, including fabrication and construction of the pavilion. At the end of the opera season, the pavilion will be dismantled and loaded by crane onto some 40 trucks to be taken away for storage, ready for return next year.

Lifted above the ground to give an appearance of 'f

USA - During the weekend of 15-17 April 2011 Atlanta staged two large festivals at the same time and this year it was RCF TT+ systems that supplied the sound to a big audience at the SweetWater 420 Fest and the Atlanta Dogwood Festival.

The Atlanta Dogwood Festival is an arts and crafts festival held each spring at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Originally held for nine days across two weekends, it is now held only one weekend during early April, when the native dogwoods are in bloom.

The Dogwood Festival 2011 was celebrating its 75th years anniversary in the beautiful surroundings of Piedmont Park. With several stages with continuously performances the festival gives many upcoming artists and talents the opportunity to play their music to a wider audience.

On the festival there were performances by Charlie Wayne Watson, Arena Sound, Off the Grid, Frets on Fire, OGYA World Music

Turkey - An Istanbul branch of the Nomads club has opened in Istanbul, installed with an L-Acoustics coaxial sound system.

Nomads Istanbul follows the concept of the original Amsterdam venue, serving up a combination of European and Eastern culture in both its style and cuisine, with interior decorations and tableware sourced from Morocco and Egypt.

Attention to detail didn't end with the interior decor. The Su Entertainment Group also deemed technical design to be a crucial factor in the new club's success. The group thereby handed responsibility for sound and light system design and installation to L-Acoustics' Turkish distributor, Elit Light&Sound Technologies. Elit has installed a system of four L-Acoustics 12XTi and seven 8XTi coaxial loudspeakers and four SB18 subwoofers around the club, powered by three LA4 amplified controllers.

"At Elit Light&Sound Technologies

China - Babyface Beijing has undergone a major refurbishment including the replacement of the sound system, which is now APG throughout.

New owner Mr Dai was very clear about what he wanted to achieve: "I want this club to stand out from the crowd," he said. "And for that, I have to have the best sound system and the best lighting system available." He turned to local audio experts and APG distributors BVCAM to help him with his choice of equipment.

BVCAM organised a demo for Mr Dai at their dedicated APG demo room in Shenzhen that turned out to be extremely convincing. BVCAM's Danny Huen explained that Mr Dai understands audio and has listened to many brands over the years, so he was interested to have his opinion on APG. "Actually, he found APG to have a pure sound that set it apart from other brands, so he put our proposal on his list for considerat

UK - Robe moving lights and Anolis LED fixtures were specified by lighting designer Simon Marcus from Enlightened to illuminate Bath Abbey, Pulteney Bridge and other key architectural features around the UK World Heritage spa town's city centre for the opening night of the 2011 Bath International Music Festival - Party In The City.

It is the second year that locally based Marcus has designed a lighting scheme for Bath Abbey, which was founded in 1499. His client was Bath Tourism & Leisure.

He needed a selection of reliable, flexible, bright lightsources which could be rigged over four levels of the Abbey. Having large quantities of both Robe and Anolis units in Enlightened's hire stock, and long experience of using them for many applications, he knew they would be suitable for the job. He also took the opportunity to use six newly purchased Robe Robin 600 LEDWashes.

T

USA - A short but breathtaking drive from trendy Aspen, St. Benedict's Monastery reflects the natural serenity of its majestic surroundings. Nestled in a valley on several thousand acres in western Colorado's Elk Mountains, it offers spectacular views of nearby Mt. Sopris' twin summits. It is an idyllic environment for the Benedictine monks who mix their daily meditation and prayer with the running of a working ranch and bakery. The monks also operate the architecturally renowned Retreat House and Hermitages, hosting personal and group retreats, conducting daily liturgical services, and occasionally welcoming performances by world famous musicians from nearby Aspen.

Built in 1958, the Monastery's main chapel is simple but elegant, its rustic red brick walls accented by a quarry tile floor and barrel-vaulted, pine-beamed arched ceilings that soar to 32ft at their peak. A single 1

Turkey - The recently opened Nomads nightclub in Istanbul features Coemar's moving heads. The iSpot 575 MB models have been installed in the large room and are controlled via the Director 768 mixer.

Nomads Istanbul follows the concept of the original Amsterdam venue, serving up a combination of European and Eastern culture in both its style and cuisine, with interior decorations and tableware sourced from Morocco and Egypt. With views of the Bosporus, a bar hung with hundreds of colourful, handmade Arabic lambs and a hidden garden, Nomads is set to make a mark on Istanbul's vibrant nightlife.

(Jim Evans)

UK - PLASA Events Ltd, organisers of PLASA 2011 (11-14 September, Earls Court, London) have announced the launch of this year's PLASA Awards for Innovation, which this year will include the newly named Sustainability Award - and of the 2011 Gottelier Award nomination process.

The PLASA Awards for Innovation always draw a great deal of interest from visitors to the PLASA Show, who can view all of the nominees in the specially designed 'Innovation Gallery', which will this year again be situated near the Earls Court 2 entrance to the Show. Independently judged by a panel of industry experts from lighting, audio, video and rigging & staging specialist backgrounds, the PLASA Awards for Innovation are one of the most prestigious product Awards in the business. The judges will again have eight product awards at their disposal, with the option to award a 'Gold' to a product or products

Germany - Hamburg's oldest parish church, Hauptkirche St. Petri, founded in the 11th century, has been equipped with a state of the art sound system designed and installed by Cobra sound light. The Hamburg based live event and system design company has fitted church of the Hanseatic city with Renkus-Heinz IC Live digitally beam steerable loudspeakers.

Located in the heart of downtown on Hamburg's major shopping hub, Mönckebergstrasse, the 1,033-seat Hauptkirche St. Petri is considered the 'city church' and opens its doors daily to offer on oasis of calm and a place to meet.

Cobra sound light engineer and project manager Hendrik Thode says the company's roots in live events is reflected in its approach to installations. "In live shows we always meet a new challenge. The fascinating job definition now is using new tools which offer new potential even in difficult locations

UK / USA - Following on from the critical success of the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has further developed Charcoalblue's and Bennetts Associates' auditorium designs to deliver a 975-seat 'flat pack' travelling performance space.

The new, three-tiered structure has been built inside New York's historic Park Avenue Armory. Here, from 6 July - 14 August, Lincoln Center Festival and Park Avenue Armory, in association with The Ohio State University, are presenting the Royal Shakespeare Company for a repertoire of five of Shakespeare's plays - As You Like It, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet and The Winter's Tale.

"The flat pack theatre is a dynamic replica of the RST theatre, originally conceived by Charcoalblue and Bennetts Associates Architects," explains Ch

UK - Already boasting an illustrious following among lounge nightclubs in London's clubland, including Mortons, Raffles, Stringfellows, Vendome, Bungalow 8 and Le Pigalle, Nexo has been given a big boost by new super-club Pulse, which has chosen a Geo S12 system for its primary space.

Pulse, also known as Bankside Vaults, is built into four spectacular interlinked brick arches, right beside Blackfriars Bridge in central London.

Divided naturally into four main interlinked areas, the space can be adapted for any occasion. Its primary space is equipped with a performance stage, recently used by Erick Morillo for a record-breaking crowd of 2,500 people, which has been fitted with a Geo S12 system, underpinned by Nexo's RS15 subbass units.

The installation of Geo S12 in Pulse follows the success of a smaller system at sister club Arcadia. The two projects have been overseen by H

UK - CHAUVET, a leading manufacturer of professional lighting recently installed nearly 150 Chauvet fixtures in Troxy, a multifunctional venue for live concerts, corporate events, weddings, indoor sports and more. Lighting designer Dan Sanders capitalized on the dramatic uplighting opportunities of the art-deco style venue with a bevy of LED wash lights specified by JPS Sound & Light based in St. Ives.

Installed throughout the venue are 16 COLORado Tri Tour, 60 COLORband Tri and 10 COLORado Batten 72 Tour, as well as 36 LED PAR 38 wash lights. Sanders specifically sought LED-fitted fixtures due to their longer life and color changing capabilities.

"There are 150 fixtures installed throughout," Sanders said. "I didn't want to change 150 light bulbs. Colour-changing LEDs were selected because the interior is white and pastel and we could add colours and turn [the

UK - News of another interactive new feature area at PLASA 2011 has been announced. The Theatres Trust will return to PLASA 2011 with an expanded version of its innovative Ecovenue feature, the area that gives visitors the chance to see how 48 pioneering London theatres are putting sustainability into practice.

Located in Earls Court 2, the feature takes the form of a theatre-in-miniature, complete with 'auditorium', 'stage', 'backstage', 'foyer' and 'box office'. In each area The Theatres Trust will demonstrate proven sustainability techniques, as well as featuring technologies from PLASA 2011 exhibitors.

Tim Atkinson, theatre building services advisor to The Theatres Trust, comments, "The larger space means our stage will be able to accommodate a greater variety of presentations and events. Another key development is that, whereas last year we had only signed up half of

UK - Chichester Festival Theatre is one of the UK's flagship theatres, with a reputation for producing a wide range of theatrical productions, from musicals and comedies, to classic drama and innovative new writing. Since opening in 1962, the theatre has established an international reputation as one of the UK's leading regional venues. The Festival Theatre was founded by Leslie Evershed-Martin CBE and its first artistic director was Laurence Olivier.

With 1206 seats, the Festival Theatre was the first modern theatre in this country to have an open 'thrust' stage with the audience seated around it on three sides, allowing it a close involvement with the actors. The emphasis of the theatre's programme is on the summer festival, which runs from April to September and includes the show Singing in the Rain, which is based on the classic MGM movie.

GDS were commissioned to d

UK - Earlier this year The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST), along with 97 other architectural projects, won a much-coveted 2011 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award. Six of the 97 projects went on to be shortlisted for the prestigious Stirling Prize; the RST was one of them. The team at Charcoalblue Theatre Consultants, the company responsible for the design and planning of the theatre auditorium and the technical facilities, both in the auditorium and backstage, is delighted.

Managing director Andy Hayles comments, "This is the fifteenth project that the Charcoalblue team has worked on to win a RIBA Award and the third that's been nominated for a Stirling Prize. From the moment the RST opened it quickly and emphatically showed its strengths. The single-space, thrust stage format is an exciting, intimate and aesthetically enchanting space to inhabit.

"I

UK - The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury is set to become one of the country's landmark theatres. Following a £25.6m development project, the venue will open on 4 October 2011. Award-winning theatre consultants Charcoalblue was appointed by owners of the theatre, Canterbury City Council, and were responsible for the design, planning and technical specification of the auditorium and backstage areas for both the main auditorium and the multi-configurable Marlowe Studio.

Working alongside architect Keith Williams of Keith Williams Architects was project manager for Charcoalblue, Paul Crosbie. He discusses the development: "The Marlowe Theatre has always been an extremely popular venue but it had become tired and was quite simply not big enough. Part of Charcoalblue's remit was to increase seating capacity to 1200 to enable the Marlowe to host the biggest and the best in tour

UK - At this year's PLASA show, London-based theatre consultancy Charcoalblue will be joining the technical team of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) and Jonathan Porter-Goff of Stage Electrics to reveal how their designs, and the collaborative work they did with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), transformed one of the world's most famous theatre auditoriums into a world-class performance space.

Charcoalblue will discuss the design concepts that resulted in this critically acclaimed new performance space for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Andy Hayles, managing director of Charcoalblue says, "The Royal Shakespeare Theatre's transformation project, which was completed last autumn, was a singular development in world theatre. The space embodies a host of new techniques and technologies. The auditorium has been designed, without compromise, to create

Estonia - Dating from 1865, The Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu is one of the oldest and prestigious theatre of all the Baltic republics.

Through the local agent E&T, a variety of LDR double optic condenser profiles , Fresnel , PC and Cyclorama's have been chosen, installed and successfully used in the theatre.

"The Vanemuine theatre was looking to replace and improve the existing lighting stage inventory," says Fabiano Besio. "The installation proved to be successful and I'm proud to know that LDR fits and exceeds the theatre needs - A special thankyou goes to Olev Luhaäär from E&T that assisted the theatre during the installation and provided valuable local assistance."

Fabiano Besio adds, "In a time whenpeople confuse and forget the basic concepts of light I still believe in my motto 'Proper light in the proper place and here comes magic'. Surprising

UK / USA - As part of its ongoing merger activities and in response to the end of year departure of Ruth Rossington, executive director in Europe, PLASA has taken the opportunity to restructure its management team to ensure it continues to move the organisation forward while progressing a wide range of projects of benefit to members.

With effect from 1 October 2011, a new company structure will be put in place which sees CEO Matthew Griffiths heading up the association, whilst also temporarily overseeing the Events divisions in the UK and North America. Finance director Shane McGreevy becomes chief operating officer (COO) with responsibilities expanding beyond finance and core services into operational administration and personnel.

Lori Rubinstein, current executive director in North America, becomes the new director of membership, skills, standards & technical overseeing thes

USA - PLASA has announced the finalists for the fourth annual Rock Our World Awards, to be presented at the PLASA Cocktail & Awards Reception at LDI 2011. The PLASA Rock Our World Awards were created to honour groundbreaking achievement by its members and to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of the technology and the designer or integrator who applies it in a real world environment.

The finalists for the fourth annual Rock Our World Awards are:

83rd Annual Academy Awards - Green Hippo, PRG, TMB

ALEXA Digital Camera System - ARRI

coolux Widget Designer 3.0 PRO - Coolux GmbH

DataGate Mk2 - ENTTEC

Disney World of Color - A.C.T Lighting, Fisher Technical Services, MA Lighting, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Creative Entertainment

EverGrip Molded Motor Control Cables - Lex Products Corp

Garsington Opera - Unusual Rigging Ltd (UK)

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