Germany - The first Landesjazzfestival Bayern (jazz festival Bavaria) took place in Regensburg from 21-23 October, 2016. The event, which received prominent support - the patron was Bavaria's Premier Horst Seehofer - presented a top-class and diverse programme on all three festival days. Among the highlights were the shows of Grammy winners Ron Carter and John Scofield as well as the concert of Dusko Goykovich.

During their celebrated performances, the jazz legends shared the stage with equipment newcomers - the new Gravity stands, an Adam Hall Group brand. Once again the accessories showed off their qualities: easy handling, stability and an appealing design.

Winni Freisleben, head of the board of the Jazzclub Regensburg and co-initiator of the first Landesjazzfestival Bayern, noted, "We received positive feedback regarding the Gravity stands from several musicians. The s

Final Curtain - The curtain is coming down on the most celebrated circus in the US, the Greatest Show on Earth, run by Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. After 146 years in the business, the owners said declining tickets sales and high operating costs were to blame. Activists who campaigned for decades against the travelling circus's animal acts welcomed the news.

"After much evaluation and deliberation, my family and I have made the difficult business decision that Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey will hold its final performances in May," said a statement from Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment, the family business which has run the circus since the late 1960s.

Sep Outside Love - A life-size bronze statue of Cilla Black has been unveiled outside Liverpool's Cavern Club as the venue celebrates its 60th anniversary. The club, credited with launching

Europe - Evago AG, German event infrastructure provider, has acquired 100% of the shares in Mojo Barriers' global crowd barrier business.

The Evago Group, which includes German full service event company B

UK - PLASA Focus Glasgow kicked off the 2017 show season unveiling exciting new product launches and UK debuts including: EM Acoustics' ESP-8 and IC range, Allen & Heath's new dLive C1500 on SSE's stand, RCF's TT45-CXA touring and theatre series, Area Four's EXE Rise 500kg electric chain hoist, and ETC's new AV version of the Color Source desk.

The show, taking place at the SECC in Glasgow, attracted a record number of visitors on day one, hosting packed seminar sessions - including Phil Ward's panel entitled Is Point Source Fighting Back - and the Riggers Forum.

Chris Toulmin, director of PLASA Events says: "PLASA Focus Glasgow has gathered fantastic momentum in the Scottish region, attracting industry support from likes of the BBC, Department of International Trade and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The buzzing show floor is further testament for the thrivin

Italy - LITEC has recently introduced a new concept in heavy-duty portable roofs - the MyT Folding Steroid Roof System. The MyT Folding Steroid was purpose-designed by LITEC engineers to answer the needs of live event companies that require colossal structures with extreme loading capacities, while optimizing transport costs and reducing storage requirements.

The successful debut of the MyT Steroid Folding Roof System was at the San Paolo Stadium in Naples, Italy, which served as both a test build and massive roof structure for an important live concert. The custom made 30 x 15m MyT Folding Steroid Roof System was expertly delivered and erected by Massimo Stage, one of Europe's premier event production and rental companies that specializes in big events.

The modular, self-contained design of the MyT Folding Steroid Roof System consists of heavy duty components that are

UK - J&C Joel has announced three appointments as it expands its senior management team.

Nick Worton has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer, overseeing the company's financial strategy, accounting and IT.

"Nick brings over 20 years of financial, commercial and administrative experience to J&C Joel" said James Wheelwright, CEO. "His impressive background complements J&C Joel's dedication to excellence and growth." Prior to joining J&C Joel, Nick served as director of finance of Camira Fabrics.

In addition J&C Joel has confirmed two other senior appointments - Scott Carter, operations manager for purchasing, logistics and warehouse and Matthew Oldfield who joins as manufacturing production manager. Both appointments are part of the company's commitment to improving service whilst growing both the UK and international business.

Scott brings more than si

Germany - Guang Jian Gao, designer-in-chief and art director at the Chinese National Centre of Performing Arts in Beijing, will present a keynote lecture at this year's Prolight+Sound exhibition (Frankfurt, Germany, 5-8 April 2016). The lecture will be held on Thursday, 7 April at 15.30.

"Products and subjects relating to theatre and stage technology have gained greatly in significance for Prolight+Sound. Therefore, I am particularly pleased that, with this lecture by Guang Jian Gao, we can also present a special highlight for trade visitors from this segment at this year's fair", says Prolight+Sound Director Michael Biwer. "Our special thanks go to Florian von Hofen, CTO of Rouge AVE, who made contact with Guang Jian Gao and went to great lengths to make this extraordinary highlight possible."

China's leading stage designer, Gao has been honoured many times for his work a

UK - This week the Current RMS Team is celebrating hitting the 1,000-user mark with close to 700 rental businesses worldwide now relying on the system to manage their hire processes.

Launched just 15 months ago, Current has experienced rapid growth, illustrating the need for AV, lighting and production hire businesses to be able to work on the move, raise quotes on the fly, check stock availability and generate invoices from any device and location.

"Current has been so well received across the UK and we are now seeing significant growth across USA, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East - that's the beauty of the cloud, businesses can sign up within 60 seconds online and receive the same level of support from us, no matter where in the world they are," says business manager Lisa Kenward.

Since launch, Current has heavily invested resource in development, building

UK - PLASA has 39 years of experience in providing business events for the live entertainment technology industry, attracting a high calibre of attendees with more than £3billion spending power for the PLASA Show, £340m for PLASA Focus Leeds and £130m for the newest edition, PLASA Focus Glasgow.

PLASA prides itself on delivering a targeted audience for each show highlighted by the small audience crossover between events, with only 350 Leeds visitors and 52 Glasgow visitors attending the flagship London show. This unique audience is not just limited to shows organised by the PLASA Events division, but also includes competitor shows with 41% of PLASA Show 2015 visitors not having attended any other show in the past year.

Christopher Toulmin, director of Events Division says: "Engaging face-to-face is still the fastest and most effective way to build relatio

Canada - The new BlackTrax Beta 2.0 makes tracking even easier, faster to calibrate, programme and use. Developed for over a year, 2.0 has the largest number of new features, GUI and workflow improvements in any BlackTrax release yet.

"A lot of these improvements were developed from customer suggestions, requests and general feedback," explains Marty Cochrane, BlackTrax product manager. "This includes better system reporting, real-time chapter programming and more control over fixtures during the calibration process."

Highlights include: All-new GUI designfor BlackTrax, BTWyg, Tracker, and Follower - with full-screen mode for BlackTrax and new simpler basic mode for Tracker and Follower; new Fixture Calibration mode improvements ensure faster calibration; rigid and soft frames for more flexible tracking operations and objects. Frames combine a collection of Stringers (aka

UK - Following a year in which Doughty Engineering has upped its game in the film and TV industry, visitors to the company's stand E39 at BVE 2016 will see a range of its products specifically designed with the broadcast sector in mind. With two new additions to Doughty's award winning Modular Rigging System making their début at the show, as well as a selection of grip, rigging, suspension and lifting equipment on display, Julian Chiverton, sales director at Doughty, believes shows like BVE are more important than ever to the company.

"We really got our teeth into the broadcast space in 2015," he said. "We're involved in an ongoing job with the Stop Animation and Puppet Making faculty at the University of Staffordshire and have some fascinating projects within the media department at Queen's University in Belfast under our belt, as well as working with major shopping c

UK - Twenty-seven axes of Kinesys automation were in action on the 2016 Strictly Live UK arena tour, produced by Phil McIntyre Entertainments.

The completely sold out tour was presented by the Great British Bake Off's Mel Giedroyc and once again provided a highly successful sequel to the BBC's blockbusting Strictly Come Dancing phenomenon, offering fans nationwide the chance to experience all the glamour, glitz and excitement totally live.

Kinesys has featured on most of the recent Strictly Live tours - this was the ninth one - to move a combination of scenic elements and drapes as specified by the tour's technical director, Andy Gibbs. This year there were more movement elements than before with the system again provided by leading UK lighting and visuals rental company, Neg Earth, and Steve Kellaway operating for the second year running.

Steve, also an

South Africa - Every year DWR Distribution kicks off with the Prolyte Rigging Training Course, an internationally recognized five-day course presented by Rinus Bakker from Rhino Rigs. This year the Prolyte course has been evaluated and is registered to provide 48 CPD (continuous professional development) credits that can be used to earn and maintain the CertAV professional designations.

Kevan Jones, executive director of the South African Communications Industries Association (SACIA) explains, "In February 2015 SACIA was recognised by SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) as the professional body for the broadcast and AV community across Southern Africa. We have registered 6 professional designations and are in the process of developing additional designations for the theatre and live events sector. In order to earn and maintain a professional designation, candidates a

UK - Stage One Creative Services Ltd has completed its acquisition of WGH Transportation Engineering, the UK's leading leisure ride design and manufacturing company.

This move will see the transfer of employees and intellectual property and will secure the future of the WGH product portfolio under the Stage One brand.

This acquisition, says a statement, represents a significant joining of forces and enhances Stage One's engineering and design capability. Together, the two companies represent best of breed engineering and manufacturing in the creative, entertainment and theme park industries.

Mark Johnson, Stage One CEO, commented, "This represents a very positive step for our company and our clients. Our automation and engineering offering has always been well regarded. However, this recent development adds real breadth and depth. We're looking forward to better suppor

Germany - BroadWeigh's newly updated wireless load cell monitoring system will make its Prolight + Sound debut at this year's show. Distributors for the brand, including AC Entertainment (Hall 5 Level 0, Booths A26 & A27) Hof Alutec (Hall 3.0, Booth A44) and Louis Reyners (Hall 3.0 Booth C14) are all set to feature BroadWeigh's latest offering on their stands.

Jonathan Purdue, sales manager at BroadWeigh who will be on hand for the duration of the show to meet with customers, said, "We're delighted to have three of our European distributors demonstrating our updated system at Prolight+Sound. BroadWeigh has worked hard to develop a new radio module which gives four times the range of the previous system. Improvements in the omni-directional antenna have provided increased performance in more challenging environments such as high concentrations of truss or wall. We want our cust

Germany - Triple E is launching the 'universal building system', ModTruss, Europe-wide at Prolight + Sound Frankfurt 2016 in Hall 3, Level 0, Booth 19.

The team launched the US-designed ModTruss in the UK in June 2015, immediately winning 'Engineering Product of the Year' at the ABTT Theatre Show Awards in London.

Best described as full size Meccano, the ModTruss system features a lightweight aluminium construction and a repeating hole pattern, meaning applications are practically unlimited.

"When I first saw ModTruss at LDI in Las Vegas I was immediately inspired by its potential," says Triple E's managing director, David Edelstein. "We've put a lot of hard work in to bring this product to the European market and are extremely excited about what it can achieve for the industry. ModTruss is now available exclusively from Triple E and interest is incredible. There is no

UK - PLASA is pleased to announce the launch of its new National Event Lifting Certificate (NELC), with the support of the National Rigging Advisory Group (NRAG) and key industry sponsors including the BBC, White Light and Britannia Row.

The official NELC launch took place on Thursday 3 March at the International Live Music Conference Production Meeting at the Copthorne Hotel, Kensington, London, with PLASA's NRC Manager Paul Riddiford introducing the new certification scheme to those present.

NELC has been created to meet the needs of those who already work in the industry in disciplines other than Rigging, such as Lighting, Sound, Video or Scenery etc, who are called upon to carry out occasional Rigging tasks including lifting operations as part of their duties. It is also suitable for individuals wishing to be assessed for their skills within Rigging, without undertakin

Europe - Mojo Barriers supplied a variety of barrier products for the front of stage and front of house production areas, for the European leg and two Asian tour dates of Madonna's Rebel Heart World Tour.

Rebel Heart is the tenth worldwide tour from Madonna and supports the release of her 13th studio album of the same name. The tour kicked off on 9 September in Montreal, Canada and ran for six months, visiting 22 countries worldwide.

Mojo Barriers was contracted to ensure audience and artist safety for all of Madonna's 25 European tour dates, as well as at her shows in Taipei and Macau, which both took place in February 2016. The European leg of Madonna's tour began with the Lanxess Arena in Cologne on 4 November 2015 and visited 12 European countries.

Mojo Barriers supplied almost 200 pieces of kit, including vario corner sections, snake gates and flex corner sections

UK - When famous climber Jimmy Chin made an appearance on Good Morning Britain last month, the show's production team tasked host Ben Shephard with the challenge of interviewing his guest while abseiling down the side of the ITV tower. With just five days in which to put the segment together, production manager Malika Keswani and the programme's line producer Viviana White asked Unusual Rigging to provide rigging gear for the abseil along with competent manned crew to manage the rig.

"ITV has worked with Unusual on various other productions and so we knew we were dealing with a team that knew its stuff," said Malika. "We scheduled a recce with Unusual's Robin Elias, explaining the nature of the slot and Robin ran with it. One of the key aspects of this job, as a live event, was to ensure the rig was set to perfection from the word go. On live TV, there are no opportunit

Germany - Sommer Cable knows what it's all about when it comes to good sound: neutrality and musicality. The new hi-fi connection leads of the SC-Stratos line will precisely meet this demand. Moreover, they rely on a heat-dissipating design to ensure a long service life - especially when plugged into power amplifiers, which produce considerable heat also on the input side.

"A lot of budget-priced cables on the market show a noticeable decline in sound after only a short period of time," says Pascal Miguet, product & sales manager at Sommer Cable. "A porous jacket, shrinking insulation or oxidized copper are among the most frequent problems. Our new SC-Stratos line takes a stand for better quality here.

"During the development phase it was important for us to design a product that convinces both sound-wise and in technical respect. The combination of durability and a natura

USA - Motion control systems manufacturer Kinesys hosted a highly successful training event and open-house in its Lithia Springs, Georgia, USA facility, which was attended by over 50 people connected to the world of rigging automation and its application in the live entertainment industry.

The format included two days of technical and operator training on Kinesys products, presented by David Martin (head of training - Kinesys USA), which catered for a range of ability and experience levels. This was followed by two days of general 'open-house' product awareness sessions for potential clients, existing customers and associates.

The objective was to increase familiarisation with Kinesys' capabilities, methodology and interfaces, and to expand the pool of Kinesys-trained technicians in the United States.

David Bond (head of sales - Kinesys USA), says, "We were extremely h

Romania - Prolyte Group, renowned manufacturer of trussing and staging systems, officially open its new purpose-built factory in Piatra Olt, Romania, with a series of opening ceremonies this week. Distributors, press, governmental authorities and stakeholders were invited to join the celebrations at the new, ultra-modern manufacturing location.

"Prolyte started to translocate all its manufacturing facilities to Romania as part of a long-term plan in 2010. The commissioning of the new factory is the final and most important phase of this plan, consolidating all its European manufacturing capacity into a 5.000sq.m facility, with scope to expand to 16.000sq.m," the company says.

The new production facility features brand new automated production equipment, new welding jigs and state-of-the-art product lines. In addition, the building contains industry-leading employee welfare

UK - Hoist UK has welcomed Colin Jones to their sales team as technical sales engineer. Colin has been in the lifting industry for almost 25 years, having been previously employed by Chester Chain Co. where he started off on a temporary contract as a lifting equipment engineer, working his way through the ranks in various roles including site supervisor, & works manager, until he became General Manager in 2013.

He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience of standard & specialised lifting equipment, along with his formal LEEA (Lifting Equipment Engineers Association) qualifications.

"Having Colin join our team is a major asset for the company, as it is always difficult to employ a technical engineer with a proven track record in the industry" commented Hoist UK director Paul Jordan. "Colin has a vast knowledge of the lifting equipment sector, and he will be a re

Germany - Doughty Engineering is set to debut three new items at this year's Prolight+Sound show. Stand E24 in Hall 3 will see Doughty display and demonstrate its new Super Lightweight Drop Arm and Projector Mount - both new additions to the award winning Modular Rigging System - as well as its new Floor Stand. Visitors to the stand will also be able to see Doughty's extensive range of grip, rigging and suspension equipment and address any queries to the Doughty team.

Mark Chorley, design engineer at Doughty, said, "Prolight+Sound is without doubt one of the most important shows for us. It allows us to introduce our products to a truly international audience and gather feedback from them. What works for our customers in one corner of the world doesn't necessarily work for others and this sort of information gathering is vital to our product development."

This year, fans of

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