Australia - For the second year running, Victorian Opera staged a pantomime for children at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne.

Their 2013 production of Sleeping Beauty saw the return of the creative team behind Victorian Opera's first pantomime Cinderella, with set design by Julie Nelson and lighting by Richard Vabre.

The lighting was supplied by Resolution X with eight Martin MAC Vipers making their operatic debut in Australia.

"I had been eager to use Martin MAC Vipers for some time and so I pitched the idea to Richard Vabre," said Peter Darby, technical coordinator for Victorian Opera. "He was very keen too and used them throughout the show specifically for some fantastic gobo washes across the stage. The Viper's multiple gobo wheels are great fo

Canada - Longueuil, Quebec based rental specialist Ranger Son Éclairage has invested in Robe moving lights, initially buying 16 ROBIN MMX Spots and then following up with 24 x LEDBeam 100s.

The company was founded 15 years ago by François Ranger and is focused on servicing corporate events and presentations of all types, and providing design services and full turnkey solutions to the very highest standards.

This is their first purchase of moving lights, so not being tied in to any previous commitments or alignments, they had the freedom to consider all the options very carefully before making a decision on which brand was best suited to their needs explains lighting designer Anthony Ranger.

He arranged demonstrations of products from all the leading moving light manufacturers to ensure they could make an informed and well researched choice.

They ideally sought a fi

UK - Adam Pike has been appointed head of events for the Conference and Live Events division of audio visual company Saville.

After joining Saville Audio Visual in 2004 as a senior technician Pike quickly acquired a taste for developing relationships with top clients and after securing an approved supplier contract with the Gherkin in London he took on the role of account director for Tesco delivering 350+ events both in the UK and across Europe.

Says Pike, "Saville is a world class services company in AV/events providing levels of service that exceed clients expectations time and time again. This is in no small part due to the fantastic and passionate teams we have across our national network. We are all looking forward to the exciting challenges that lie ahead."

UK - There is something timeless about Kander and Ebb's Cabaret at the Savoy Theatre, London.

Sound designer Ben Harrison reports, "Orbital Sound happens to own some d&b F1222s, these are the successor to the F1220 that was launched in 1988. Despite the age I did specify them deliberately. I have had occasion to use them a few times on bits and pieces and always liked them for their smoothness and total transparency. I've been waiting some time, looking for a show to put them on." The product of Harrison's ardour is the venerable F1222, a two-way active loudspeaker with a precise 60 x 40 degree dispersion; a loudspeaker that occupies the mythology of d&b audiotechnik like some overwrought character from Wagner's Ring cycle.

"I did the sound design for the previous production of Cabaret when it played the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in 2006

Czech Republic - The O2 arena in Prague one again welcomed thousands of electronic dance music fans from all around the world for another Transmission show. Following the theme The Spiritual Gateway each of the performing artists had their own show that focused on an element of the spirituality of old religions and ancient ideas.

Lighting designer and programmer Bas Kemper worked with two grandMA2 full-size consoles and one x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) as well as one MA onPC command wing to control more than 240 moving lights.

Kemper commented, "In the past years we have had a good experience with the grandMA 'series 1' because of its excellent networking capabilities, the easy setup and the personalisation of the desk with the potential to previsualise the show using grandMA 3D. Now the grandMA2 makes things even more comfortable and enhances the perf

UK/Belgium - TiMax SoundHub-M is the latest addition to the versatile suite of TiMax2 SoundHub matrix processors and audio showcontrol products. Targeted towards museums, visitor attractions, rides, hospitality, retail and other AV installations, it provides a multi-channel playback server and multizone processor and controller linked with directional audio localisation and spatialisation for a higher level of message impact and immersion to the all-important visitor experience.

Out Board director Dave Haydon explains, "No other single box offers a similar combination of facilities for routing, mixing, processing and zone control, plus music and effects playback as well as 3D spatialisation and showcontrol - the savings on hardware and installation costs are significant. We go further by offering options for industry-standard networking such as Cobranet, Ethersound, Dante o

UK - For the first time ever, Guinness World Records has departed its London HQ, and gone out "on the road" with its Officially Amazing Science Live! show.

M4 Entertainment, producers of Brainiac Live! and Science Museum Live On Tour, are producing the 12-week tour which spans the length and breadth of the UK, exploring the best, the worst, the weirdest and the most unbreakable world records ever attempted ... in a brand new live extravaganza.

XL Events, working with M4 Entertainment, supplies projection and audio with XL Events director Rich Rowley acting as sound designer and AV programmer, with projection and audio control operated by Ashley Illman.

The shows utilise a Barco CLM 10 projector to display animations created by 'Pixelkid' Paddy Cannon.

For the audio elements, XL Events is supplying a Mac-based Q-Lab system with Sennheiser radi

Canada - The award-winning W-DMX technology by Wireless Solution Sweden AB was once again used on Canada's prestigious Grey Cup halftime show produced by Electric Aura and featuring famed Canadian performer Justin Bieber.

The Canadian Football League celebrated the 100th championship with the Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders at Rogers Centre in Toronto. The game, along with the SiriusXM Grey Cup Halftime Show was seen by a live audience of 50,000 and broadcast via TV and the Internet to millions in Canada, the U.S. and beyond, making the event the most-watched Grey Cup and halftime show in CFL history.

Vancouver-based production company Electric Aura was responsible for the design of the show. Production designer Robert Sondergaard and lighting director Jason McKinnon teamed up with producer Patrick Roberge of Patrick Roberge Productions and rental company Christie Lit

Portugal - The first Robe Robin MMX Spots in Portugal have been delivered to Aveiro based rental lighting and sound company, FM Formato Musical, by Robe's Portuguese distributors, NAN.

FM Formato Musical wanted a high output, flexible moving head spotlight with smooth CMY colour mixing that would offer plenty of creative options for producing different and spectacular effects.

They also liked the light weight and low energy consumption of the MMX Spot and the resulting reduction in on-going maintenance costs.

The managing partners of FM Formato Musical said, "NAN offered a product that truly met all our needs, as well as demonstrating the MMX Spots with great efficiency and knowledge ... which greatly contributed to our final decision to buy them."

In the process of updating its rental fleet with the latest and most energy efficient technologies, FM Productions w

UK - Lighting designer Peter Mumford has used ETC's latest generation of LED fixtures - the Source Four LED Lustr+ profile - to light Old Times at The Harold Pinter Theatre (formerly the Comedy Theatre) in London's West End.

Locked away in a secluded farmhouse, the three characters in Old Times reminisce about their early days together in London. But with conflicting memories and underlying sexual tensions, the past suddenly feels vividly present.

"Having 'road tested' individual fixture units previously," says Mumford, "I wanted to try them incorporated as a significant part of my rig design. This is the only real way that one can properly try them out in the context of a production. For Old Times, I particularly wanted to be able to change colour subtly within very long, slow changing cues.

"I used 24 units - in three banks of eight

USA - Miami Gardens-based Beachsound & Lighting, Inc. - now an official L-Acoustics Certified Provider - reports that it has installed a Kara system at Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek, Florida.

The new system went into The Pavilion, a Sprung structure that was converted into an intimate 1,200-seat performance venue during the casino's recent $150m expansion project.

Today, artists performing in the showroom benefit from left and right arrays each comprised of eight Kara enclosures flanked by LF arrays of three SB18 subs. Below each Kara array is an additional stack of three SB28 for additional low-end reinforcement, while five coaxial 8XT are spaced out across the stage lip for front-fill. LA-RAKs loaded with LA8 amplified controllers power and process the entire system.

"We installed a V-DOSC system into Hard Rock Live Hollywood, another Seminole property, several yea

UK - Marl International has transformed the sports hall at one of the North of England's most prestigious independent schools, Abbey Gate College, Cheshire, by installing LED lighting that improved the hall environment, and provided much brighter and more even lighting that comes on instantly.

Commenting on the installation of LED lights at Abbey Gate College, business manager Andrew Bache said, "The real appeal of Marl LED lights for us is the convenience and improvement in the environment. Though the sodium lights were adequate for football and gymnastics, the hall is also used for examinations and social events. We were able to dramatically increase the light level in the hall, ensuring the corners as well as the central area is brightly lit. The LED lights are much whiter and very much more even, since the output of the sodium lamps degrades noticeably as they age."

UK - Green Hippo has announced the launch of Hippotizer version 3.2 software available for download from the Green Hippo website.

After many months of developing and listening to user feedback version 3.2 sees one of the largest builds ever produced by the growing team at Hippo HQ.

With over seven new features and 100+ enhancements also included, V3.2 takes what many call the easiest server and makes it even easier, says the company.

Version 3.2 is available free of charge from the Green Hippo website and is suitable for installation on HippoCritter, GrassHopper, HippoPortamus and HD models.

Hippotizer product manager Lee House says, "Version 3.2 is the result of months of development for Green Hippo. We have concentrated on producing software that meets our customer's needs whilst retaining the ease of use Green Hippo are renowned for. The number of new features in

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