Croatia - The Outlook Festival is staged over four days in the beautiful and slightly desolate environs of Fort Punta Christo just outside Pula, the main city on Croatia's bustling Istrian coastline, known for its mild climate, smooth sea and unspoiled nature.

Outlook - this was the seventh edition - features the largest collection of dub step, bass music and soundsystem culture in Europe with an action-packed line up uniting some of the biggest names from these vibrant dance genres.

Overall project, production and site management for Outlook 2014 - and the four day underground electronic beats Dimensions Festival on the same site the previous weekend - was undertaken by Bristol UK based WNY, headed by Ben Price, with lighting design and rigging site wide by Fineline Lighting, a

World - Lady Gaga is on her tour, ArtRave: The Artpop Ball, and Clay Paky's A.leda B-EYE K20 innovative, LED-based moving lights and Clay Paky Sharpys are along for the wild ride.

ArtRave marks Lady Gaga's fourth concert tour. It is in support of her third studio album, Artpop and kicked off in Fort Lauderdale with 78 dates scheduled in North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia.

PRG has provided 120 B-EYEs for the tour as well as a large complement of Clay Paky Sharpys. Lighting control is performed with three full-size grandMA2s and 10 NPUs.

"Production and lighting designer Roy Bennett's approach to the show was to make it an immersive rave that reflected Gaga's non-stop party aesthetic," says programmer Jason Baeri. "That means active, alive, vibrant and high energy -- it requires us to be just as active on stage as in the crowd. The audi

UK - Two days after the close of IBC 2014, eligible residents of Scotland went to local polling stations to answer one question, "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

Irrespective of the outcome, the need to communicate the referendum and its ramifications for Scotland and the UK was vital. Trilogy Communications, a leading intercom supplier, has announced that BBC's coverage of the Scottish Referendum relied heavily on Trilogy talkback throughout the coverage. Trilogy's main system had already been installed in Glasgow in the primary studio that was used for the BBC's coverage, with links to two galleries on site that provided output, backup and graphics for the results coverage.

The Glasgow system was linked to Trilogy's flagship Gemini intercom system at the BBC's OB operation at Elstree Studios in England by virtue of Gemini's unique IP and distributed mat

USA - Meyer Sound systems made sure the two main stages at Boston Calling Music Festival were loud and clear. On the Red Stage, the Lyon linear sound reinforcement system made an impression on the FOH engineers, many mixing on this new Meyer Sound system for the first time.

"That rig really rocked," says Carl Davino, FOH engineer for The Replacements. "Lyon has transparent highs, broad and articulate mids, and adjustable low-mids to handle any desired punch. The band's performance was outstanding as well, and with that combination I felt like I could take the audience anywhere I wanted."

The Red Stage's 24 Lyon linear line array loudspeakers were augmented by 12 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements and three 700-HP subwoofers, plus four UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers for front-fills. A Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with four Galileo Callisto

Tunisia - At age 71, George Benson is still winning over the audiences with his signature soft jazzy touch. GB played a beautiful concert in the historic context of the Roman Theatre of Carthage, Tunisia, last 16 July.

The music performed was excellent, with energetic renditions of timeless hits such as On Broadway and Give Me The Night, in front of an audience that would have liked to hear even more songs.

Everything was perfect, including the expressive light show. The lighting system - including Raptor and NRG 1201 moving heads from D.T.S. - was installed by Sybel Light & Sound.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Creative Technology is again providing the wide range of visual solutions seen in the popular Saturday night dance show, Strictly Come Dancing.

The show's iconic art deco-inspired theme is visualised using two curved proscenium arches with CT's MiTrix LED display and Flyer LED back screens, and this year sees new Side Arch screens within the set. The studio floor comes alive with projected images from six Panasonic PT-DS20K Projectors, enabling each dance performance to be perfectly synchronised with different visual themes, the company says.

Project manager Nic Maag, who is heading up the CT operation with his dedicated team, comments: "It's fantastic to be back on the Strictly set; three months of weekly glitz and glamour! This show only gets better each year, and it's great to be a part of it."

(Lee Baldock)

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will showcase a selection of the very latest lighting, audio, rigging and video solutions available from their vast portfolio of premium brands - on stand P40 at PLASA London 2014.

Salesteams from AC-ET's four specialist product divisions will be on hand to demonstrate and discuss the latest technologies from leading marques which AC-ET are the exclusive UK reseller for, as well as over 200 leading brands available for immediate despatch from the company's multi-million pound inventory.

From AC-ET's Lighting division, the stand will showcase product highlights from the many UK-exclusive LED lighting brands available. Chroma-Q will unveil their new Color One 100 LED Par, which features an innovative fully homogenised beam virtually eliminating the colour separation and shadows synonymous with LED lighting - delivering above Par perfo

Belgium - Although it can look quite simple, a small multi-zone installation is not always and easy and small job for the installer. He needs to install and connect many electronic units (sources, amplifiers, wall panels...) in order to provide the perfect audio solution for his customer. With Apart's Audiosystem8.8 the installer now can propose a complete audio system to his customers that covers many small or medium sized applications... with just one unit.

The Made in Belgium Audiosystem8.8 audio matrix has eight speaker outputs (four stereo or eight mono zones) with each a built-in 30 watts digital amplifier and also has 4 additional line outputs. The unit has four FM radios built-in and it has 4/8 stereo/mono line inputs.

The installer/customer can easily access the integrated web server based GUI to configure and/or control the audio system. Audiosystem8.8 can be remote

Germany - Event industry experts now have an opportunity to help shape the content of two Stage|Set|Scenery formats at the international trade show and the International Stage Technology Conference. They are currently invited to submit their entries for papers at the International Stage Technology Conference and for the Safety in Action stage. The deadline is 3 December 2014.

The International Stage Technology Conference organised by DTHG will be an integral part of Stage|Set|Scenery. Taking place in Hall 4.2 and consisting of two parallel forums, it features an international symposium, lectures, workshops, seminars, round tables and presentations and is an ideal opportunity to find out about current and future industry developments and to actively contribute to the event. Applicants are requested to email their papers to: conference@stage-set-scenery.de. A jury will examine all

UK - Le Maitre's newly launched range of Coloured Ice Gerbs includes a spectacular and unique colour change effect. A deeply coloured flame enveloping the base of the gerb and a column of silver sparks shoot up to heights of 6-8ft. The effect which last for some 20 seconds has been achieved by Le Maitre's R&D team and is available in aqua, blue, green, orange, purple, red, yellow and pink or as a colour change version.

The Ice Gerbs are the latest in a number of great effects from Le Maitre and produced using their completely new production process which is greatly increasing factory production capabilities.

Other new products also just released by Le Maitre include:

New Large Intense Flames in blue, white, pink, yellow, red and green, which as the name implies produce an vibrant and intense effect in terms of both colour and heat with flames 10-12ft high and lasting 20 seco

USA - Pro audio brand Aphex has moved the company to Salt Lake City, in order to increase operational efficiencies by being closer to parent company DWV Entertainment and the core Aphex creative and engineering teams. The move, completed this month, includes opening a new Aphex warehouse in Utah to complement existing manufacturing and shipping facilities in California.

Aphex chairman David Wiener stated, "Aphex has been making big changes in recent months to take advantage of growth opportunities in Pro, Prosumer and Consumer audio, as well as licensing and new product development. Bringing Aphex HQ to Utah allows Aphex to take advantage of DWV Entertainment's facilities and creative resources.

"Our enhanced sales, marketing and operational efforts will give Aphex an added boost that's easier to achieve with people in the same zip code." Wiener added, "Aph

USA - It was a sight those in attendance would never forget: more than 50 soldiers, some who served in World War II, marched their way through sabre arches into a room where a thousand people gathered to honour their acts of bravery and courage for which they had been awarded the Medal of Honour.

Michael T. Strickland, Bandit's chair and founder, found himself deeply touched. "I was moved in a way I will never be moved again," he said. "To be in a room with that much greatness... simply defies explaining."

As a sponsor of the event, Bandit Lites donated more than a year's worth of labour, equipment and funds to ensure these Medal of Honour recipients received the star treatment they so richly deserved.

"It's a labour of love," said Strickland of the work chairman Joe Thompson and his committee did to bring the event to Knoxville. "It's a hu

UK - Launched last month, new cloud based rental management system, Current RMS, is already setting high standards in the rental software market and can't wait to show all PLASA London visitors and exhibitors what it has to offer.

Built from the roots up for the AV, lighting, production and events sector by CEO, Chris Branson, together with a close knit team around the product, extensive research into industry requirements, and cloud technologies were identified prior to product development.

"It was at this point, a gap in the market was acknowledged - the industry needed an online, intuitive and modern rental management system," said Branson. "A system that wouldn't hold this industry back, removing accessibility issues that are present with Windows based systems, allowing every user to action and manage all rental processes from any device and location."<

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