Germany - In their high-quality Epilogue series Sommer Cable has integrated both audiophile and technical qualities. The outcome is a reference cable for uptown tastes. The Baden-Wurttemberg specialist for professional cable and connection technology recommends the Epilogue series for linking pre and power amplifiers, CD and SACD players, turntables and also for professional studio technology.

"The cables of the Epilogue series excel by a neutral, pure and at the same time spatial sound image which is due to a highly sophisticated workmanship and up-market wiring. And all that with a convincing price-performance ratio," explains Pascal Miguet, product & sales manager at Sommer Cable.

Technically the Epilogue series relies on a quad-wire design with crossover capability. A tight copper braid with semiconductor provides 100 % shielding against interferences. Together with th

Germany - From 1-3 July, the city of Neu-Isenburg again became the music capital of the state of Hesse. Spanning three festival days, approximately 60 bands performed across 16 stages in the Huguenot city - and were cheered on by 35,000+ visitors.

Also on stage were Adam Hall Group's newest brand of stands - Gravity. Exclusively deployed across the festival's three main stages, Gravity stands have won the internationally-recognized Red Dot and IF Design awards, while being recently nominated for the German Design Award.

"For such a festival, it's important that the equipment meets the expectations right from the start. The Gravity stands have even exceeded these. Whether it's about stability or an attractive price-performance ratio with design to boot, Gravity convinced us in every aspect," said Michael Kercher, managing director of 12 L

USA - Pennington Entertainment, led by industry veteran Shawn Pennington, has announced a partnership with stage design and production company 44 Designs, headed by concert and event production expert Jeff 'Lava' Lavallee.

"Having worked with Jeff and the 44 Designs team extensively in recent years, I can tell you that there is not a more creative brain trust of individuals in the stage creative space in Nashville," says Pennington. "Every production that I have seen them produce, or been involved with has blown my mind every time! We could not be more excited about this partnership and the ability to deliver amazing production and event services in an affordable manner to the Nashville music community, and beyond."

Nashville-based 44 Designs enters the partnership with over 25 years of experience in lighting, touring and production. As a 360

UK - Performance and visual arts venue, The Lowry, in Greater Manchester's Salford Quays launched its first festival of arts, Week 53, earlier this year.

The 11-day festival, which brought together contemporary dance, visual arts, music and theatre in interactive installations, exhibitions and performances, featured more than 200 international artists, and will be held annually for the next three years with a view to extend into the future. The occasion was marked by the procurement of a new ATMe haze generator to complement The Lowry's 15-year-old MDG Atmosphere.

MDG's ATMe is an evolution of the Atmosphere which is a long-term industry standard. ATMe has an added degree of controllability which attracted the attention of The Lowry's head of technical services, Dave Woodward, and was supplied by MDG UK complete with a portability kit.

The ATMe was brought into use for

UK - This evening marks the world premiere of EXPOSURE The Musical at St James Theatre, London. The new British musical has been written by Mike Dyer and Quentin Russell and stars Michael Greco and Natalie Anderson. Alongside providing the lighting to The Stripper which is currently running in the venue's studio space, White Light has also supplied the equipment for this new production.

EXPOSURE The Musical tells the story of young photographer Jimmy Tucker who faces the biggest challenge of his life when a stranger commissions him to find and shoot the seven deadly sins within modern-day London. Yet, throughout the night, a series of encounters with girlfriends, family history and the world of celebrity reveals there is more at stake than just money.

The lighting designer on the show is Ben Cracknell. He comments, "Projection plays a huge role in E

Australia - The Adelaide Convention Centre has expanded its already impressive fleet of High End Systems consoles with the purchase of two Full Boar 4's and six Road Hog 4's, bringing their inventory to four Full Boar 4's and 10 Road Hog 4's in total.

The purchase is part of the plan for the anticipated mid-2017 opening of their new Plenary Building, a multi-purpose venue built on the site of the original 1987 Convention Centre, with a capacity of up to 3,500 seats. Local production and installation company AJS were selected to fulfil this government tender, and have developed a close working relationship with the ACC.

"This was all part of the Convention Centre's tender process for stock replenishment and the new Plenary Building," relates AJS's Luke Hattam. "We contacted Australian High End Systems distributor Lexair Entertainment for guidance. We were successful in our

Europe - From 1 July - 30 September, MILOS will be focusing on its range of Mobiltechlifts and offering a free transportation wheel kit with every Mobiltechlift purchase.

During its three-month promotion, MILOS will be releasing a product range video and expert instructional video by Marc Hendriks that will be available on the Milos website.

Mobiltechlift features include: Tested in accordance with draft of DIN 56950-3; Integrated wheels with brakes; Easy setup with a round spirit level; Rubber feet on the outriggers to protect sensitive floors; Practical design for ease handling; TUV Baumuster-approved and constructed to the design criteria of BGV-C1 and BGG/GUV-G 912.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Tomcat, the largest truss and support structure manufacturer in the Americas, has established a new office in Miami, Florida responsible for Central and South America - Tomcat / James Thomas Engineering Latin America. The office will be led by 27- year entertainment industry veteran Jose Luis Rosche, president / owner of Roc-Off Productions.

Tomcat is now able to offer its old and new Latin American customers convenient access to high quality Tomcat products with industry-leading durability and working strength. Through its education and training programs, customers will fully benefit from Tomcat's deep well of experience and acquire valuable information on how to work safely and effectively with its high quality products.

Says the company, Tomcat looks forward to creating a strong partnership with its Central and South American customers, and providing them with inn

USA - Milos was chosen as support structure supplier for the largest Ninja Warrior course in the United States. Located in Peachtree Corners (a metro area of Atlanta, Georgia), the 12,000 m2 course is part of the Slingshot facility and was designed by American Ninja Warrior contestant, Jason Huewe.

The course uses Milos QTL/QTV truss to support 24 challenging obstacles for different ability levels. Areas of the course include a peg board, slack bridge, gecko wall, disk slide, ropes and ramps.

Asked about Slingshot's decision to use Milos, Jason replied, "Some of the main deciding factors which made us go with them instead of some of the other brands out there was the strength of their product, the quickness that it could actually be assembled together by a limited number of people, and the price point."

Milos truss has given Slingshot the ability to strike a winning co

UK - If you own an sE Reflexion Filter Pro, you can now purchase a hardware upgrade to simplify its ease of use, increase stability, and provide better overall performance and durability.

In 2006, sE Electronics released the original Reflexion Filter Pro and created a whole new market of portable acoustic treatment devices. Ten years and six different sE Reflexion Filter products later, the company has sold over 120,000 units worldwide. In May of this year, sE introduced a special 10th Anniversary Reflexion Filter Pro, limited to 1000 pieces worldwide. This commemorative RF Pro included completely redesigned mounting hardware, which has now been made commercially available due to popular demand.

The new Reflexion Filter Pro Mounting Bracket Upgrade Kit is now available for purchase through authorized sE distributors worldwide. Customers who have purchased a Reflexion Filte

USA - Kinesys automation customers have a new choice in chain hoists for their systems. After successful testing of several models, Total Structures is has announced that Pointman Electric Chain Hoists have been approved for use with the Elevation drive system.

Currently hoists are available in

USA - Computer-based testing for the new Portable Power Distribution Technician examination is now available. ETCP needs as many candidates as possible to test by 23 August 2016 to obtain cut-score information on the new examination.

The first 25 candidates to apply will receive a free t-shirt with the new PPDT logo and their name if they receive a passing score. Because this is a new examination, score reports will be delayed during this time.

The ETCP PPDT certification is focused on the large population of industry workers in the roles of technicians, stagehands, portable power set/strike technicians, as well as facility maintenance personnel for a wide variety of venues. This certification targets the top two-thirds of people working with this technology at various types of facilities in the corporate, trade show, outdoor event, theatrical, and motion picture/televisio

Germany - The Lower Bavarian city of Straubing recently had every reason to celebrate: its picturesque tower - the town's visual flagship - celebrated its 700th anniversary. The round birthday was honoured with a large festival.

Joining the celebrations was Adam Hall Group's newest brand of stands, Gravity. Exclusively deployed on two of the four stages, Gravity stands have won the internationally-recognized Red Dot and IF Design awards, while being recently nominated for the German Design Award.

Michael Wittenzellner, head of rental company StereoMike and responsible for the production, comments, "The event in Straubing was my Gravity premiere. And I must say the optically outstanding stands also fully convinced me in terms of handling and stability. They did a great job - which is why I also relied on them for the Bluetone festival."

The StereoMike team was responsib

UK - ModTruss has been used for the first time in the UK as a structural piece of scenery at Sheffield's Crucible theatre.

At the end of June, a team from Triple E travelled up to The Crucible to support the installation of ModTruss for the Sheffield People's Theatre production of A Dream, described as a 'modern-day mash up of Shakespearan romance'. The structure was a 37' x 19' (11.27m x 5.7m) platform on 8' (2.4m) uprights made up of the three available sizes of aluminium ModTruss - 3", 6" and 12".

"The front span is 5.5m and had to be supported between two pillars. Achieving this with standard scaffold is do-able but would mean that we'd end up with a massive frontage to the set which wasn't desirable for the designer," Stuart West, technical manager for Sheffield Theatres, explains.

"However, a 12" box of ModTruss could do the span with no problems at all; w

UK - On behalf of Festival Republic, Dick Tee of 'enteetainment Ltd', was asked to look after the technical production management of the recent EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) show in Milton Keynes Bowl, working alongside his counterpart, production manager Jake Berry, who was representing Los Angeles-based Festival producer, Insomniac.

Electric Daisy Carnival UK returned to Milton Keynes Bowl for a one-day electronic dance music party. The main stage built by Serious Stages was some 70m wide and incorporated a huge Owl, a Dragon and two 'Guardians' as well as a massive 400m2 LED screen and a fully functioning 'waterfall'.

"It was a great challenge to be able to combine such a huge stage based construction with so much creativity and artistic design," said Tee. "Unlike conventional stages which offer complete weather protection to the performance area, the only 'on stage roo

UK - On Thursday, 23 June, the Queen Mary 2 returned to Southampton, remastered. Over the course of the luxury liner's refit, the interior and exterior had been fully transformed, offering those who step on board a first class experience at sea, where guests are treated to the very best in accommodation, dining and entertainment.

As part of the grand refurbishment, multi award winning piano dealership Chris Venables Pianos, was contracted to supply a premium hand crafted Yamaha CF6 recital grand piano for one of the entertainment spaces.

Will Venables, partner at the company, which is based in Ringwood, Hampshire, explained: "The new piano was not only a much better instrument than their existing model, but also significantly bigger in size. This might not sound like much of a problem, but when you realise that the piano has to fit under the stage, then the challenge becom

UK - After six years of negotiation, Jorge Otero Pailos' artwork, The Ethics of Dust: Westminster Hall was unveiled to the public on 29 June. The artwork, commissioned and produced by Artangel for Westminster Hall, is a 50m long translucent cast of the Hall's internal east wall, revealing how the dust and pollution which have gathered over hundreds of years register a broader environmental history.

To exhibit a piece of such scale in such a precious and delicate building, Artangel contacted Unusual Rigging for advice and expertise in suspending the piece from the Hall's 28m high hammer beam roof without damaging the building in any way.

Michael Morris, co-director at Artangel explained: "Westminster Hall is the oldest part of the Houses of Parliament and has been in continuous use for nearly a thousand years. Its walls have seen many political events - from the trials of G

UK - Serious Stages designed and manufactured a custom-built scaffolding system along with bespoke specials to accommodate the impressive 1,200m? Crystal Village stage at Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) UK, Milton Keynes, 8-10 July.

Serious Stages was tasked with producing a 30m tall by 70m wide stage structure, complete with cascading waterfalls, crystal towers and a giant owl's head, synonymous with this magical event. The EDC owl incorporated 1,000 lighting fixtures, over 400 video tiles, 28 lasers, pyro and 15 CO2 cannons, and Serious Stages was entrusted to ensure the stage could withstand its weight-loading requirements. Serious Stages also designed and built the stages' bespoke crystal towers, to ensure they were structurally sound.

To support the stage set and the three pyro platforms, the Serious Stages scaffolding was constructed using three heavy duty truss system

UK - Power distribution specialist ide Systems has launched ide Online (ideonline.co.uk), an online store where customers can buy power distribution equipment. The user-friendly interface and enhanced navigation ensures online orders are quick and easy. Free delivery is available on all orders and, as an introductory offer, all first time orders will qualify for a five per cent discount.

The range of equipment available to buy on the new website includes power distribution units, automatic transfer switches (ATS), site transformers, single and three-phase power cables ranging from 16A-125A, as well as a wide range of electrical accessories.

The new website will also feature an online exclusive in the form of the Vulcan range. This budget range of power distribution units features a high-visibility orange enclosure, making it ideal for outdoor use.

"We've launched ide O

Singapore - The Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) is a national ceremony held on 9 August 9, Singapore's National Day. This year's theme, Building Our Singapore of Tomorrow inspired the Singapore Armoured Regiment, organising the event, to create a Sky City for its show. ShowTex was involved in building this Sky City representing the future development of Singapore.

ShowTex Hong Kong supplied 15 large set pieces, shaped like buildings, making up the Sky City to represent Singapore's vision for 2065. Of the 15 buildings, 10 were futuristic buildings, measuring up to 35m high and five of them illustrated existing landmark buildings of the Singapore skyline. Each had a footprint of about 5m by 5m.

This large scale project was a major undertaking for which ShowTex tackled multiple challenges. One of the main concerns was the lead time given to design, engineer and man

UK - Continuing their longstanding relationship with the Ricoh Women's British Open, Arena Structures once again provided temporary event structures for the Championship, which this year took place at the prestigious Woburn Golf Club, 28-31 July.

Arena Structures, project manager Matt Clark comments, "This being my first project delivered since joining the company, I am delighted to have joined a team that took the same pride and attention to detail when delivering 25,0000sq.m of event structures at The Open, as they do sporting events with smaller infrastructure needs. It is inspiring to see Arena Structures go above and beyond to support every client, regardless of size, to deliver installations of the highest standards and bespoke creativity, maximising the impact for both the event and sponsor brands."

A total of 5,000sq.m of temporary structures was installed, includi

UK - Members of PLASA attending the 2016 AGM at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire were presented with the Association's plans for the next 12 months.

Ed Pagett, formerly managing director of Panalux Broadcast & Event and current chairman of PLASA's Board has led the organisation through very challenging times. In his speech Ed outlined the many changes that have taken place over the last year including bringing in a new managing director following the departure of former CEO Matthew Griffiths, and the demerge from PLASA North America (which has now returned to its former name of ESTA) after four years. This development, said Ed, although not desired by PLASA, had brought fresh clarity and new opportunities for PLASA, but had also resulted in a financial fallout with the North American organisation that has yet to be resolved.

Ed commented, "My role as Chairman has been to navi

Germany - When the Ehrlich Brothers needed a bit of special production magic to move a giant set of scenic doors smoothly and horizontally on and offstage to top and tail the two acts for their 2016 performance at the Commerzbank Stadium in Frankfurt, their production turned to Belgian automation specialist WIcreations!

Magic - The Unique Stadium Show is the first time that the magician duo has ever played a football stadium and it also signalled the end of a sold-out 120-date arena tour by the Ehrlich brothers in spectacular style.

WI's Geert Stockmans was contacted by production manager Thomas Bartz who was in charge of co-ordinating all the ambitious show's massive automation elements.

The stage was built at one end of the stadium and the production used the massive LED screen already installed for public viewings of Germany's UEFA Euro 2016 soccer championship matc

UK - HSL supplied lighting and rigging to Earth Wind and Fire's recent UK and European tour which included a closing headline slot on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury 2016 as the second show.

Lighting was designed by Merle McLain who has worked with the band for 23 years. He was on the road operating the key and conventional lights and also directing and switching seven robo-cams as well as keeping an overview on all-things visual. Running the moving lights was Robin Seefeldt. Lester Cobrin was HSL's project manager on the road, with everything at the warehouse end managed by Sean McGlone.

Earth Wind and Fire, one of the most successful bands of the 20th century have embraced many musical genres including soul, funk, jazz, hip hop, R'n'B, pop, rock, Latin and African - and have a huge and eclectic fanbase as a result. Their live shows are known for their vibrance and en

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