UK - Each year, the very best in television is recognised at the National Television Awards. Taking place in late January, the awards, which are voted for by the British public, honour television shows, actors and presenters in a range of categories. Producers Indigo TV bring together a variety of technical suppliers to support both the glamorous red carpet arrival space and the awards at The O2 in London, which are broadcast live on ITV.
Continuing a long-running relationship, PRG XL Video supplied both video and lighting technology for this year’s event. Video account manager Paul Wood has worked with Indigo TV’s Andy Bates for a number of years, and this year supplied the production team with the main LED backdrop made up of ROE Visual 7mm LED. The screen is used for all the main title logos, category information and video clips in the hall.
Playback footage was

UK - Britannia Row Productions Training is running its core 12-week Live Sound Technology Course (LSTC) from early April. The 2017 course will be primarily delivered from South Thames College in Wandsworth, with some sessions being held at Britannia Row’s main headquarters in Twickenham and others on-site at Britannia Row shows. The tutors delivering the course will, as usual, be Britannia Row staff and freelance engineers and technicians.
Britannia Row Productions Training’s managing director Mike Lowe said: ‘We have missed running the popular LSTC. Last year we ran six 16-week part-time courses, held on Saturdays and Sundays at Twickenham, as well as bespoke courses tailored to the specific needs of companies in the industry who send their employees to us for training but just did not have the physical space to run the LSTC. Unfortunately, we were unable to run the

USA - If the impact of a man is measured by those who love him, Randy Travis is larger than life. Bandit Lites donated a lighting package for 1 Night. 1 Place. 1 Time: A Heroes & Friends Tribute to Randy Travis where Garth Brooks, Kenny Rogers, Alison Krauss, Kane Brown, Chris Young, Travis Tritt, Wynonna, Alabama and others honoured the man Garth Brooks said, “totally saved this music and this format.”
Part of the proceeds from the marathon tribute went to the Randy Travis Foundation which supports stroke research and rehabilitation. Three years ago, Randy Travis was gearing up for a two-week run when lighting designer Thom Roberts got the call that Randy had been hospitalized.
“Two days later he had the stroke, and that was that,” said Roberts. “Due to some experiences earlier in my career, I hate to use the word "family" when describing a road crew and

USA - Magical is a word that is often ascribed to Louis The Child’s spacey, ethereal sound. It also accurately describes this EDM duo’s phenomenal career path.
Their focus instead is on creating music that captures real moments, or as they once put it in an interview, “songs that are going to become the soundtrack to your life”. This spirit is very evident on the duo’s current tour, not only in its music but also in its immersive and highly original lightshow designed by Kendall Clark and programmed by Andrew Roman, using all Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Creative Production & Design (CPD) of Austin, Texas.
Like the music of Louis The Child, the lightshow on the group’s sold-out 21-city tour, is powerful, evocative and very approachable. “The lighting really reflects the music and what these artists are all about,” said Justin Jenkins of

Denmark - In late 2015 Theatreplan was invited to undertake a wide-ranging 10-year review of the “Operaen”, Copenhagen’s magnificent opera house and home to the Royal Danish Theatre.
In response to the Theatreplan report, the A.P. Møller and Chastine McKinney Møller Foundation (who funded the entire 41,000sq.m building as a gift to the Danish people) announced a substantial grant to maintain the Operaen’s sizeable technical infrastructure and ensure that the Operaen remains a world-class opera house.
Theatreplan enjoyed a successful collaboration with architects Henning Larsens Tegnestue on the original build and is delighted to have been re-engaged by the Royal Danish Theatre to design, specify and monitor the installation of: stage machinery control upgrades; enhanced orchestra elevators; upgraded sound, video and communications infrastructure; upgraded pro

UK - Bristol’s Colston Hall, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in September, has unveiled plans for a £48m refurbishment to make it a world-class music hub for the South West, February 8th, 2017.
The latest artist’s impressions of the ambitious project, which will involve remodelling and upgrading the Main Hall, Lantern cellars and historic foyer spaces to improve facilities for audiences and performers, have been revealed.
A public consultation exhibiting the new plans opened 8 February, 2017, and people are being invited to comment on the proposals before a formal planning application is submitted later this year.
The charitable trust which runs the city centre venue says the improvements will benefit artists and producers as well as audiences, improving the acoustics of the performance areas and opening up new venues in parts of the Colston Hall whic

Russia - An exclusive Claypaky rig of almost 300 moving-head fixtures delivered the high-impact lighting for international game developer and publisher Wargaming Group's highly anticipated debut video game event Wargaming Fest in Moscow's Expocentre.
Production and lighting designers Maxim Martynov and Jevgenij Juhnevich of Moscow-based production company MAX MAX Productions specified 81 x Claypaky Sharpy, 56 x Claypaky Stormy CC, 46 x Claypaky Mythos, 22 x Claypaky Alpha Profile 1500 and 76 x Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K20 supplied by Russian rental and production outfits Arlecchino Techno and MF Group.
"The work during the preparation period of the show was extremely detailed," says Max Martynov. "We discussed every second, every costume and every colour with the Wargaming team. This design tenacity followed through into our desire to achieve the 'perfect lighting quali

Russia - Opened in September 2016, Vegas City Hall is a multi-level, multi-function concert hall in the North West of the Russian capital of Moscow. Owned by the Crocus Group, the venue has been designed to be highly flexible, with different configurations accommodating a variety of events.
This flexibility needed to be reflected in the design of the audio system, with L-Acoustics loudspeakers providing a solution that delivers high quality sound system that can be reconfigured in under a half hour.
The audio system was designed and installed by Theatre Techniques and Technologies (TTT Group, Moscow), together with Sonoruss, certified provider of L-Acoustics products in Russia.
Vegas City Hall’s auditorium spans three levels in the form of an amphitheatre. In its standard configuration, used mainly for rock, pop and jazz concerts and children’s events, the ha

Nepal - When Lucy Peckham, co-partner of Anchorage-based Both Ears Live Sound, was contacted by Greg Mitchell, a design professor at UC Santa Barbara, she knew she would be a part of something special. Mitchell was looking for a sound engineer to go to Nepal to work on the first opera ever performed in that country. Peckham recognized early that she would also need equipment capable of performing under Kathmandu’s less than forgiving environment. Peckham found the solution she needed in DPA Microphones’ d:screet 4061 Necklace Microphone.
Peckham first heard of DPA after attending a Live Design conference in Las Vegas. “I started receiving Live Design’s online newsletter and DPA kept popping up in the articles I found most interesting,” she says. “One article in particular caught my attention: DPA microphones were used to mic the entire cast and orchestra of a San

China - PR Lighting has launched upgraded versions of two of its products, and has now released the XR 330 Beam II and XR 250 Beam II.
While the XR 330 Beam II is equipped with the Osram Sirius HRI 330W lamp the XR 250 Beam II houses a Philips MSD Platinum 11R 250W lamp to produce a laser-like parallel beam.
These products are designed to meet the requirements of small and medium installation applications. Rich in features, they are compact and easy to maintain and install.
Features include: colour wheel with 13 colours; fixed gobo wheel with 16 gobos and rotating gobo wheel with 12 gobos (three prisms and frost wheel. The fixture also contains: electronic strobe (0.3-20 fps); Dimmer (0-100%, linearly adjustable); Motorized linear Focus and Zoom.
The Head movement offers 540° (pan) and 270° (tilt), with auto position correction, and light angle of 3°.

Italy - Staged since 2006, Nextech is one of Italy’s longest lasting electronic and visual arts festivals, drawing top international EDM artists to Florence and enabling fans to discover suggestive locations in the Tuscan ‘capital’, creating a sprcial atmosphere with its mainstream and trendsetting sounds.
For the last four years, Nextech has been held in the Cavaniglia hall, in the conference hub hosted by Florence’s spectacular Renaissance Fortezza da Basso, and headliner at the December 2016 edition, Nextech Legend, was Germany’s Chris Liebing.
Liebing has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to the performance, production, distribution and broadcasting of Techno at global level. He has run a club and held residencies in many of the most prestigious venues worldwide, playing for established nights like Cocoon, Carl Cox and Music On in Ibiza, he now has

USA - History runs deep throughout the Lone Star State. Perhaps nowhere in Texas is this more evident than in the little town of Granbury. A look at the well preserved 19th century homes and original frontier storefronts that line the downtown district make it easy to see why Granbury bills itself as “The Place Where Texas History Lives.”
Although the people of Granbury celebrate their rich history, they also have their eyes firmly fixed on the future.This balance between the time-honoured and contemporary was evident recently when the local Acton United Methodist Church installed a massive new LED video wall in its traditional sanctuary.
Made with Chauvet Professional C6 Panels, the 26’ wide by 10’ high wall engages worshippers with crisp and colouful contemporary images, as well as text and IMAG video. Yet, when it’s not in use, this high-tech wall “virtu

UK - A substantial EM Acoustics HALO-C system has recently been supplied and commissioned into the main performance space at Dorking Halls in Surrey by Autograph Sales & Installations. Opened in 1931, the handsome inter-war facade of the Halls conceals a vibrant, contemporary entertainment and conference complex in which three separate spaces variously host live music, cinema, corporate events, comedy and theatrical productions throughout the year.
The new system resides in the main hall which has a capacity of 791 seated, rising to over 1000 when part-standing. Comprising 22 HALO-C compact line-array elements plus a single MSE-218 subwoofer per side and four EMS-61 modules, the entire system is powered and processed by just two EM Acoustics DQ20s and one DQ6 advanced system amplifiers.
According to Autograph’s sales engineer, Peppe Mallozzi, one of the first con

UK - Donny Osmond’s recent Soundtrack of My Life arena tour has given the entertainment icon not only a chance to promote the album of the same name (his 60th), but also take a trip down memory lane to cover five decades of material.
The fact that Donny-mania is still alive and well can be measured by the constant screaming of fans, drowning out the mainly arena auditoria, which in normal circumstances would threaten to envelop the sound from the stage.
In the case of Martin Audio’s award-winning MLA, Osmond’s tour manager (and FOH engineer) Chris Acton found so much headroom under the bonnet that this never became an issue.
Capital Sound, who supplied the rig, first worked with Acton on Donny & Marie’s tour of the United Kingdom two years ago. Introduced by UK event production company, LarMac LIVE, the relationship has blossomed - and Acton was highl

Europe - The Holiday on Ice Time show is back on the road with a new creative team and a new look, with lighting and visuals designed by Jeffrey Goes from Amsterdam based creative design practice Live Legends - and a lighting rig featuring over 170 Robe moving lights.
Holiday on Ice producer Kiki Venhuizen and new executive producer Jay Smith contacted Live Legends when looking for a new integrated design that would encompass lighting and video visuals for the re-launch of Time (the original show name was Speed), which has been a big hit with audiences throughout Europe.
Live Legends’ work embraces all sectors and genres – concerts and live music events, TV and theatre productions, corporate and industrials, but this was their first ice show.
“Holiday on Ice was looking for a fresh approach,” said Jeffrey who has been using Robe prod

USA - ImageCue has made available a new suite of free content preparation utilities for its users. The utilities are now available for downloading from the ImageCue website.
One of the new utilities is designed specifically for users new to the content preparation process. “We’ve encountered many potential customers that want to integrate projection and digital content into their productions but feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the process,” says Bill Hewlett, ImageCue CEO. “This new utility allows the user to plug a USB flash drive into their PC and the utility steps them through the process.”
The new utility prepares the USB drive for use with ImageCue and analyzes the user’s content, determining how best to convert or modify it for best performance with the ImageCue compact server. The tedious task of adding numeric prefixes to file names is handled

USA - Purpose Church, located in Pomona, California, 30 miles east of Los Angeles, recently installed a new Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) Adaptive sound reinforcement system to provide their church community with a more complete worship experience.
After the church decided to upgrade the 25-year-old system, Peter Wilson, audio tech director for Purpose Church, and Jeremy Rynders, audio/acoustic system designer, began to research their options.
The fan-shaped church sanctuary, with seating for 1,800-2,000, features a wrap-around balcony that necessitates 180-degree coverage. And, because the space is made up primarily of hard, flat surfaces – with little or no acoustic treatment – the room would benefit from sound reinforcement with custom-tailored coverage, easily defined by the user. Lastly, the church was interested in a system with the ability to vary the cover

USA - Located right outside Fort Hood, Texas - the largest military installation in the free world - the Christian House of Prayer was founded in 1980, and from its main location in Killeen and a satellite location in Copperas Cove serves a ministry that reaches across the country and into Europe.
As the need to improve the sound at the main sanctuary increased, Chris McKinney, the church’s head audio engineer and production manager, began researching the best way to go about modernizing the system there. His inquiries led him to the Focusrite RedNet suite of Dante-networked audio converters and interfaces, which he recognized as the perfect bridge from the church’s existing analogue sound system to the Danley PA system they intend to install later in 2017.
Supplied by Sound Productions of Irving, TX, a system comprising the following RedNet components provided the

USA - Located in Minneapolis, MN, Substance Church is a dynamic multi-site church that believes in doing things a bit differently by pushing the limits of the congregation’s expectations to build a stronger community.
In holding true to their foundation, they recently underwent a LED video installation at their Northtown Campus with one of the largest LED video walls in any house of worship known today. Led by Adam Frey, technical director for Substance, the church wanted to complete their full production design with a high-resolution and virtually flicker-free LED video solution, so they chose FLEXTour LED video from PixelFLEX, installed by REACH Communications, Inc. of Champlin, MN.
“The project on a whole was a new lighting, projection and LED video installation for our auditorium that was built about a year ago, and this was the final piece of the design for th

Canada - What better way to adorn a new Canadian seaside shopping mall than with a 45ft stainless steel and glass leaping salmon sculpture? Located near Vancouver, BC, the Tsawwassen Mills Mall opened last October and every night since, shoppers have enjoyed just such a noble work of art, brightly illuminated by a Solaris Flare IP RGBW outdoor LED wash fixture.
“The challenge was to bring out the colours of the dichroic glass ‘scales’ covering the fish’s metal skeleton,” says Chris Moreno of ShowTech AVL in Burnaby, BC. “Each two-foot square glass panel has natural hues which are quite evident in daylight. We wanted to achieve the ‘sunlight’ effect at night but LED fixtures we tried fell short, creating hot spots and making the glass look merely transparent.
“We found the perfect solution with the Flare IP HD RGBW outdoor wash. The Flare has the ideal

Scandinavia - Swedish PA company, Parashoot, flew out its new Allen & Heath compact dLive system for the world’s northernmost festival, held in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, located on a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.
Running since 1998, the Polar Jazz festival is a unique event, which year on year attracts well-known artists from across Scandinavia to perform. Parashoot managed audio requirements for Swedish singer, Ane Brun, for her headline performance, using their new dLive C Class C1500 rack-mountable Surface with CDM32 MixRack.
“This must be the furthest north a dLive has ever travelled!” comments Parashoot owner and engineer, Oscar Söderlund. “Our new compact set up was so easy to transport and load in/out, which was very important given the temperature was -13°C.
“We have several dLive S Class touring systems but for unusual or fly

UK - Ever the travelling troubadours, Two Door Cinema Club are currently touring the UK with sound engineer Ian Laughton at the controls of a Britrow K2 system. “I first met the band two years ago,” he said. “They have loads of talent, excellent musicians; I’d always liked them and wanted to work with them. Listen to their latest third album Gameshow, and I defy you to find a song you don’t like.
“The first shows at the Manchester Apollo was my initiation to Britrow’s L-Acoustics K2 system with the new’ish KS28 subs. I don’t really need the low end weight – I’m not looking to flap trousers, but I do want that low frequency information to be present. The PA gives me the room to put the full character of what is a very musical band into the mix, neglecting nothing.”
Craig Ross (aided by Steve Donovan on stage) looks after the system for La

Sweden - The twelfth Swedish Idol season started airing on TV4 in August 2016 with a finale show held 8 December at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm.
Scandinavian Rigging Service (SRS) has worked on each Swedish Idol Final for the last 10 years, and this year was responsible for the complete rigging from drawings and weight calculations to top rigging supply and rigging personnel. New this year however was the use of Eilon Engineering’s Ron StageMaster load cells to monitor the rig’s weight and distribution.
“There are no requirements to use load cells with large rigs in Sweden,” says Sören Durango, who has owned Scandinavian Rigging Service since 2014. “Not yet, anyway.” Sören does say though that there has been more awareness to use load cells on larger shows in venues like the Globe, an arena that seats 16,000 people. “I have a go

USA - Back in 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer opened on Broadway and forever changed the landscape of American theatre. A re-imagining of Puccini’s La Bohème, RENT follows an unforgettable year in the lives of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams without selling out.
Twenty years later, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece is still selling out theatres around the country and around the world. The 20th anniversary edition of the show began its run last September and carries with it an L-Acoustics sound system that conveys all of the power of its music and message of hope while keeping touring logistics and costs at a minimum
According to associate sound designer Mike Tracey, the touring sound system for RENT comprises two main left/right towers of 11 Kara enclosures per side, as well as two SB18 subw

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