UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians has named freelancer John Tapster as the ABTT Technician of the Year 2009.

Originally planning to teach primary school mathematics, 'Tappy' (as he is affectionately known) was enticed to switch direction to the theatre, after a visit in 1996 to see Phantom of the Opera at Manchester's Opera House, and being bowled over by the technical wizardry.

He cut his teeth at the Middlesbrough Little Theatre, before joining Basildon Towngate Theatre as a general technician. Work quickly followed, including a Belgium ice show, Open Hand Theatre Company, Liverpool Everyman (chief technician) and a stint on Eclipse at Blackpool's Pleasure Beach.

A move to Stoke-on-Trent's Victoria Hall proved fruitful, when he was also offered the chief electrician's job at the city's newly opened Regent Theatre, where he remained for four years b

UK - Lighting designer Tim Routledge of Blue Lens has won a BAFTA Wales Award (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) for Best Lighting Director. The Award was presented at the BAFTA Wales Awards 2009 held at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.

Routledge won the Award for Grand Slam, a two-hour "as live" concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff celebrating Wales winning the Six Nations Grand Slam rugby trophy last year. It was headlined by the Stereophonics and also featured performances by Feeder, Rhydian Roberts and Heather Small, plus interviews and Ruth Jones from Gavin and Stacey.

Routledge's challenges on the job included lighting a stadium sized show on a studio budget in a very short time - for which he used a combination of ingenuity, lateral thinking and classic lighting skills. "I was really pleased with the results" he c

The Netherlands - Prolyte has announced the appointment of Gert Felten as managing director of the Prolyte Products Group. This appointment is the final step in the gradual transition of the company's management team after the participation of the GIMV investment group in 2007.

Fokko Smeding, founder and shareholder of Prolyte, will stay active within the company, offering the management his professional vision and plans for the future. "Being able to put daily operations in capable hands, leaves me room to do what I'm best at," states Smeding. "My involvement with Prolyte will remain significant, laying out plans for the future holds a big challenge for me, all the more because this business is a thrill to work in."

Gert Felten was able to experience the many facets of Prolyte in his previous position as production manager and can rely on the support and k

Dubai - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the appointment of John Dodson to represent its sales and business development throughout the Middle East region, including Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Based in Dubai, Dodson was previously with Bose for 23 years. His positions included UK business development manager and national sales manager before he relocated to Dubai to direct Middle East and Africa sales operations 15 years ago.

"I am really pleased to be representing Community," commented Dodson. "They have an unequalled product range for all-weather applications on any scale, and great products across all areas of the installation sector. With some very high profile projects in the Middle East already, the sales potential for the brand is substantial, and I'm looking for

USA - Shure Incorporated has combined the sales, marketing, and support staff of the company's International Americas Business Unit with the US Business Unit to form the new Americas Business Unit.

"To drive sustained growth for the Company, we decided to align these two business units into one," said Chris Schyvinck, Shure's executive vice president of global marketing and sales. "This new structure enables us to offer a broader set of resources to support our channel partners throughout the Americas - Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean - while continuing the same high level of service and support to our sales reps and customers in the US."

Mark Humrichouser has been appointed general manager of the Americas Business Unit. In this capacity, Mark will lead the overall business for North America, South America, Central America, and

UK - New Zealander Rodd McClintock, a design student at Leeds Metropolitan University, is the winner of the 2009 Enlighten Design Competition run by Leeds-based High Technology Lighting.

The brief in the fourth annual contest staged by the Middleton Grove lighting design specialist was to design a luminaire for a high-end market using Philips matchbox gear and fluorescent lamps.

McClintock, 37, won the competition - it encourages innovation, raises awareness of the potential the lighting sector can offer and recognises and rewards good ideas - with his entry Lumin-Eye,centred around a sustainable world theme.

He explained: "My inspiration came from the sea, with the design based on brain coral and blown glass, which is made from sand, a highly sustainable resource with excellent reflective qualities and producing beautiful colours, though my winning entry was mad

UK - HHB Communications has announced the recruitment of Adam Parr to its sales team. Parr arrives at HHB following seven years at Total Audio Solutions.

"It¹s great to be joining an organisation with such a strong reputation for service and innovation, and with a 30 year history of successfully meeting the needs of audio and broadcast professionals," says Parr.

As media organisations continue to decentralise their operations away from the capital, Parr will be located in the Midlands part of an ongoing commitment by HHB to better serve its customers in the provinces.

"It¹s always been important for us to meet with our customers on site, and basing Adam in the Midlands makes HHB much more accessible to broadcast, post and recording facilities in Birmingham, Manchester and beyond," states HHB sales director Steve Angel. "We feel confident that our r

Denmark - Martin Professional has strengthened its customer care department with three new hires: Adela Güven, Marianne Kirk and Pernille Rosenkilde.

Located at Martin's headquarter office in Aarhus, Denmark, the new customer care coordinators' primary responsibility will be all manner of customer service, as well as to implement Martin's new e-commerce platform, Martin E-Shop.

Adela Güven comes to Martin from a similar position at TC Electronic; Marianne Kirk joins the company from a position as key account manager at Lind Furniture International; and Pernille Rosenkilde joins Martin from a similar position at Kvik Køkkener (Kitchens).

(Jim Evans)

USA - Shure Incorporated has announced that Rick Renner has joined the company as a regional sales manager. In this role, he will be responsible for managing sales for Shure in the Northeast US.

"It's great to have Rick on our team," said Jim Schanz, director of US field sales. "He brings a proven track record of successful sales experience in pro audio and extensive industry knowledge to our team, which will help us continue to grow our business in the US."

Before joining Shure, Renner served for seven years as regional sales manager and sales representative at Sennheiser Electronics Corporation. Before that, he was a staff recording engineer at Streeterville Recording Studios in Chicago.

(Jim Evans)

UK - In addition to the changes with PRG's UK operation, PRG has announced that Martin Lubach has been appointed as the new managing director of Essential Lighting with immediate effect. Lubach, previously Essential's technical director, has been with the company for more than 12 years.

Part of Production Resource Group (PRG) since October 2008, Essential Lighting works within the corporate, exhibition, live event and hospitality sectors, providing lighting and Scenic LED equipment, digital media and visualisation services. The company has three divisions serving the production industry and lighting designers as well as other lighting companies through a dedicated dry hire team.

As part of the restructuring of PRG UK's management earlier this year, Martin Locket moved from his role as managing director of Essential to become group CEO. He commented: "Martin Lubach has bee

UK - Production Resource Group UK (PRG) has announced that David March will take on the role of Director of PRG Distribution from 1 July. David has substantial experience in the entertainment lighting industry, starting with a 12 year period with Vari?Lite, up to 1999. He has also worked for High End Systems and most recently as managing director of digital and LED lighting sales company, Projected Image Digital.

Production Resource Group UK's CEO, Martin Locket, added: "David brings considerable skills and experience to lead the team at PRG Distribution. He will be developing and expanding the opportunities for the business as we build on the success of the brands we sell".

PRG Distribution is the European master distributor for Vari*Lite automated lighting fixtures, and also distributes products from Lycian, Pathway and Seachanger, amongst other brands.

March wil

Italy - RCF has announced the appointment of Alessandro Barbieri as the new sales area manager for the Far East.

Barbieri is no stranger to travel, having previously worked as area manager for other Italian companies in Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe.

Commenting on his appointment Barbieri said, "I feel that I'm joining RCF at very pivotal time, both for the group itself and the high level of products that they are manufacturing."

(Jim Evans)

Denmark - Martin Professional has strengthened its customer care department further by hiring Pernille Høgsberg and Andrea Heinz as new customer care coordinators, as well as Katrine Bøje as project manager & customer care coordinator.

Located at Martin's headquarter office in Aarhus, Denmark, the new coordinators' primary responsibility will be all manner of customer service, as well as to implement Martin's new e-commerce platform, Martin E-Shop.

Pernille Høgsberg comes to Martin from Nordisk Tekstil A/S where she was responsible for German market exports. She has also worked as an official translator. Andrea Heinz joins Martin directly from a similar customer service position at TC Electronic. Katrine Bøje joins the company from the Niels Brock business school in Copenhagen where she studied marketing management. She has also worked in retail and

UK - Sound Technology has announced the appointment of Vince Borrelli as tour sound sales manager. His previous experience includes working for Audio Technica and Mackie.

During his seven years at Mackie, Borrelli was responsible for sales and training across all product areas, including the TT24 digital live desk, DXB digital recording console, EAW products and others. He then joined Harman Pro and then went on to Headstock Pro to help create and launch a new PA range from team that created the Laney brand.

Borrelli comments: "I'm looking forward to channelling my knowledge of the pro audio industry into developing the presence of Sound Technology and the Harman brands across the UK's hire community."

(Jim Evans)

UK - At this year's ABTT Theatre Show, various product and achievement awards were presented at a reception after the first day of the event. The lifetime achievement award was given to Paul Sadler of Delstar Engineering and was presented by Jeff Phillips, who was a key personality and driving force at the Royal Opera House for many years before his retirement.

During his career at the Royal Opera House, Jeff worked with Paul on numerous occasions, a typical example of which would be the installation of heavy duty point hoist winches sandwiched onto the fly galleries for the Ring Cycle and used to operate Paul's engineering design for a lifting, hinged, turning platform.

Paul Sadler specialises in modern theatre hydraulics and is now acting as associate engineer for Delstar Engineering, the company which he founded in 1978. Since its formation, Delstar has been a major contrib

Australia - Show Technology, one of Australia's leading distributors of intelligent lighting and control systems including Martin, MA Lighting, Studio Due and Pulsar, is proud to announce the appointment of Darren McLanders to the newly created position of General Operations Manager.

The role was created to strengthen the company's position in the market and to better serve the company's strong professional customer base, tasks that Show Technology's managing director Emmanuel Ziino feels Darren is particularly suited to take on.

"Darren has been with the company since 2000 and in that time he has worked in many operational, sales and segment management roles and thus knows our company's operations intimately" said Emmanuel. "Darren has tackled every role with vigour and professionalism and is totally dedicated to the company. I am confident that he is the best

USA - Shure Incorporated has announced that James Ahlborn has joined Shure as vice president of finance and chief financial officer (CFO). In this position, he will lead the company's finance division and have full responsibility for all of its functions, including internal auditing, financial planning and analysis, treasury, payroll, financial reporting, cost accounting, customs, accounts payable and receivable, tax analysis, and credit. He will also provide strategic counsel as a member of the executive staff.

"Jim brings a broad financial management background to Shure," said Sandy LaMantia, Shure's president and CEO. "His experience with global manufacturing operations, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic planning will be especially important in helping the company to continue our long history of growth and profitability."

Before joining Shure, Ahlb

USA - Community Professional has announced the appointment of Ouzunoff and Associates as the company's new sales representatives for upstate New York. Based in Granite Springs, the staff of Greg and Carla Ouzunoff, Mike Gross and Faye Grazioso will represent Community in the state of New York, excluding New York City and the NYC metropolitan area of Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.

"We're pleased to welcome Ouzunoff and Associates to the Community family," says Mike Marr, Community's eastern regional sales manager. "Their proven track record makes them an excellent choice in a region that has traditionally been very strong for Community, and we look forward to a long and mutually successful relationship."

"Community is one of the audio industry's most respected and sought-after manufacturers, with more than 40 years of quality, value

Denmark - Martin Professional has announced that Torben Kaae Poulsen has been appointed regional service Manager for the company's new EMEA region.

Poulsen, who previously held the position of service manager at Martin Professional Scandinavia, is responsible for building and developing the regional service organization within EMEA.

His tasks include the implementation of repair shops and first line support, as well as the sales, implementation and execution of service contracts across the EMEA organisation. Poulsen is also in charge of implementing and developing Martin's service partner network in the region.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Prolific Music Producer Tony Platt was among seven entertainment professionals to be conferred the title of LIPA Companion as the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts celebrated graduation day on Friday 24 July.

Platt, whose career has spanned 35 years and almost as many musical genres, joined musician and actor Will Young, casting director Pippa Ailion, choreographer Natricia Bernard, artistic director John Fox, set and costume designer Richard Hudson, actor Joe McGann, to be honoured at the ceremony.

LIPA Companionships are awarded in recognition of contributions to the world of arts and entertainment. All Companions are also committed to sharing their expertise with LIPA students and most have provided masterclasses at the Institute.

Founding principal and CEO Mark Featherstone-Witty said: "When Paul and I created LIPA, there was no substitute for learning fr

USA - Loud Technologies has announced the appointment of veteran salesman Kurt Metzler to the position of North American sales manager, EAW.

"EAW is on a roll," commented Ernie Lansford, Loud's director of North American sales. "The combination of EAW's innovative product line - including the new JFL, NTL, MicroWedge and MicroSub - and Kurt's rock-solid reputation will make EAW the most preferred vendor to our consultant customers."

In his new role, Metzler will lead the existing EAW internal sales support team, North American rep force and distributor network to build EAW and EAW Commercial's market position, and share, among contractors and consultants. Metzler will report to Ernie Lansford.

Metzler joins Loud from Meyer Sound where he managed Meyer's A/V consultant relationships. This is his second stint at Loud -- prior to joining Meyer, Metzler spent

UK - PSCo has hired Sam Yates as business development executive. Based in the new PSCo Birmingham office, Yates is looking to build client relationships and improve PSCo's rental service, delivering advanced products to events and clients based in the Midlands and North.

Yates joins PSCo from Paragon Projection, bringing with her five years of trade rental experience, with a comprehensive knowledge of customer's needs and AV technology.

"Joining the PSCo team is an exciting move for me as I have a whole portfolio of new products to work with and the company is really focussed on customer service," says Yates. "I was looking for a new challenge and this role will enable me to get out and meet my clients face to face, learn more about their businesses and see how PSCo should be developing to help them."

Mike Nield, global rental director of PSCo explains: &

USA - Pharos Architectural Controls has announced the appointment of Thomas Ladd as its product manager for North America. Based in Boston, Ladd will provide support and training for Pharos users and be a point of contact for our distribution partners and key specifiers.

Managing director, Richard Mead, said: "The time was definitely right to establish a direct Pharos presence in North America. It is so important to us to provide great support to all our customers from beginning to end of their projects and having Thomas on the team will help us do just that."

Ladd received his introduction to lighting control while at Production Arts in New York City in 1999. Two years later he joined the New York Office of Electronic Theatre Controls. His position as field project coordinator for ETC paved the way for him to expand his controls knowledge and programming skills in t

Japan - Atsunori Abe, former general manager of Audio-Technica Corporation International Department (Japan) died on 10 July, 2009. Abe passed away in his native Japan and is survived by two brothers, a sister, his wife and their three daughters. Atsunori Abe (pronounced AH-bay) joined A-T in 1978, and in addition to holding the position of the general manager of Audio-Technica Corp. International Department, he also served on the company's board of directors. He retired in 2005.

During his tenure at the Audio-Technica Corporation, Abe helped the company grow internationally and was instrumental in launching groundbreaking products including the AT4033 Cardioid Condenser Microphone, the microphone that is credited as being the first high-quality, studio-grade microphone available at a price within the reach of the home and project studio market.

He was one of the key people who

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