UAE - PR Lighting fixtures have been out in force at a number of major events and festivals in the Gulf recently.

Earlier this year, territorial distributors and event production company, TechnoPro LLC, produced the spectacular staging for the Muscat Festival 2009 at Al Qurum National Park in Oman, including lighting, audio, lasers, pyrotechnics and rigging equipment.

The gathering, which included Oman's royalty, and dignitaries from the government and private sector, witnessed the splendid lighting effects created on the set during the Opening Ceremony.

12 PR Lighting Mega Color 4000 CMY, 36 x XL1200 spot and 24 x XL1200 wash lights turned the set into a spectacular show, which reached its peak with a multimedia laser show and fireworks display.

All FX were triggered

UK - ABTT 09 saw the successful launch of Goboland UK which has been formed with the purpose of bringing Goboland's expertise in custom and collection gobos direct to its customers in the UK.

Goboland UK has introduced the 'Credit Crunch Custom Gobo'. For the next six months, customers can take advantage of this offer which aims to help with customers' production costs in this difficult economic climate. The 'Credit Crunch Gobo' is made from an alternative, non-coated, metal to the high grade Black Steel of Goboland's existing gobos. It is easier to etch and retails at £27.00 for the first gobo with copies at £6.00 each.

"The idea has been met with great enthusiasm," says Goboland UK director, Vicky Fairall. "Customers appreciate the additional option to our Black Steel custom gobos and see it as an extra facet to their - and our - production capabil

Austria - A combined Allen & Heath iLive and iLive-T system was used at the recent opening ceremony for the Vienna Festival, held in the city's Rathausplatz.

The inaugural event saw the debut of a specially-commissioned composition exploring the emotions and depicting scenes that characterise Vienna and the kindred cities of Paris, Lisbon and New York, traversing musical styles including blues, classical, Portuguese fado, French accordion, and jazz and soul from the USA.

Having used an iLive-144 system to manage the FOH orchestra mix at last year's opening ceremony, festival sound designer, Adolf Toegel, decided to use two iLives at FOH for the 2009 event.

A revolving stage was constructed to accommodate set changeovers for the many and diverse artists involved in the production, which included manoeuvring a grand piano on and off both sides of the stage. The blues band was

UK - Lighting designer Tim Routledge of Blue Lens has won a BAFTA Wales Award (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) for Best Lighting Director. The Award was presented at the BAFTA Wales Awards 2009 held at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.

Routledge won the Award for Grand Slam, a two-hour "as live" concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff celebrating Wales winning the Six Nations Grand Slam rugby trophy last year. It was headlined by the Stereophonics and also featured performances by Feeder, Rhydian Roberts and Heather Small, plus interviews and Ruth Jones from Gavin and Stacey.

Routledge's challenges on the job included lighting a stadium sized show on a studio budget in a very short time - for which he used a combination of ingenuity, lateral thinking and classic lighting skills. "I was really pleased with the results" he c

USA - Broadcast live from the Grand Ole Opry on Gospel Music Television, the 40th Annual GMA Dove Awards relied on audio input provided almost entirely by Shure. A total of 350 microphones were allotted to the task, 16 of which operated on Shure UHF-R wireless channels. Among these 16 channels, 12 worked with either KSM9 or Beta 58A handheld transmitters used for performances by Shure endorsers, including Chris Tomlin, Third Day, Natalie Grant, and MercyMe.

Grant - who appeared before the crowd with a KSM9 - also took home Female Vocalist of the Year honours, joining other Shure endorsers Casting Crowns (Group of the Year), her husband, Bernie Herms (Producer of the Year), and Third Day (Best Pop/Contemporary Album) as the evening's big winners.

"Although 16 RF mics may not seem like a lot for an awards show," audio producer Tom Davis of Nashville-based Seismic Soun

The Netherlands - Prolyte has announced the appointment of Gert Felten as managing director of the Prolyte Products Group. This appointment is the final step in the gradual transition of the company's management team after the participation of the GIMV investment group in 2007.

Fokko Smeding, founder and shareholder of Prolyte, will stay active within the company, offering the management his professional vision and plans for the future. "Being able to put daily operations in capable hands, leaves me room to do what I'm best at," states Smeding. "My involvement with Prolyte will remain significant, laying out plans for the future holds a big challenge for me, all the more because this business is a thrill to work in."

Gert Felten was able to experience the many facets of Prolyte in his previous position as production manager and can rely on the support and k

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technician's ABTT Theatre Show was another success despite fears that London's most severe tube strike for 12 years would play havoc with the visitor attendance.

The Show's organisers report that whilst pre-registrations were a healthy 10% up on last year, the total visitor count to the show was only slightly affected by the strike on London's underground system, down by 15% on 2008's figures.

Roger Fox, show director, commented: "We were delighted by the attendance at this year's show and very happy to have maintained our position as a leading event in the industry's calendar despite the tube strike. We were only 15% down overall on last year's visitor figures, which proved that people battled against the odds to attend. Feedback from exhibitors has been very positive. We're looking forward to an exciting 2010 Show on 16 and 17 Jun

USA - Shure Incorporated reports that a five-member team from the New England School of Communications is this year's Grand Prize Winner of the fifth annual Fantastic Scholastic Recording Competition. The five-student team of Levi Gray, Jacob Lansky, Tyrus Michaud, Cameron Smith, and Joshua Strange, with faculty advisor Dave MacLaughlin, won this year's Shure contest with an original composition by Samuel Chase and Yuri Nikolis Trusty entitled Never Ending Story.

"Congratulations to the winning team from the New England School of Communications, and thanks to all of the students who participated in the contest from all of the schools this year," said Dave Mendez, market development specialist at Shure, who coordinated the competition. "The scoring margin between entries was the closest it has been in years, which just goes to show the high quality of

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Spain - VMB has announced that Spotlight is to be the new exclusive distributor for VMB towerlifts in Italy. Spotlight will be responsible for all the sales in the Italian market and will also be in charge of all the servicing and support.

Spotlight celebrated its 40th birthday last month with a series of open days. Augusto Andraghetti, Spolight's president said: "The partnership between Spotlight and VMB is based on a similar strategic mission - our work, over the past 40 years, has been focused on continuous improvement, technical innovation and customer satisfaction, in order to always be a step ahead in providing solutions for the performing arts."

Spotlight exclusively distributes a number of brands including Arkaos, ADB, Compulite, Chainmaster, Eurotruss, Litestructures, Kleu and now VMB.

VMB's export manager Ben Sinclair comments: "I am looking forward

Croatia - The second ASP8024 recording console to arrive in Croatia was chosen by songwriter, Ante Pecoti? for his own ALBA Studio in Zagreb.

"The most impressive thing about the Audient console for me is the clear linear sound, a fantastic EQ section and an ability to get a wide and powerful sound," he says. Using the desk in tandem with an SSL XLogic Alpha Link 24 I/0 as the DAW interface, he emphasises how important it is for him to be involved in all aspects of the music-making experience. "I like to have a hand in every part of the process of creating songs."

(Jim Evans)

UK - LD Jonny Gaskell is using 12 of the new i-Pix BB7 LED wash lights - with the 20 degree wide angle lenses - on UK dance gurus Orbital's ongoing own shows and festival dates.

Gaskell has worked with the band since 1996. "Dynamics are always the key with lighting an Orbital show," he explains, "You have to keep everything pumping with the music, which is full on from start to finish, so you need a very flexible and versatile selection of fixtures."

Gaskell's style also usually involves adding a strong physical shape to the lighting rig - in this case achieved with V-shaped trusses and a VersaTUBE matrix. This is another reason he wanted to use BB7s - their flower-like looks bring spatial contrast to the sharp lines of the metalwork and LED tubes.

He first used the original 10 degree BB7s on Prodigy last year, and was impressed. "As always with i-Pi

UK - Following the recent announcement from the Department for Work and Pensions creating a £1 billion Future Jobs Fund, Creative & Cultural Skills has been lobbying to ensure that this ties in with existing government and industry commitments to Apprenticeships. The Future Jobs Fund is aimed at creating around 150,000 new jobs for young people aged 18-24 in long-term unemployment. It is thought that around 10,000 of these will be under the remit of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and offers up to £6,500 wage subsidy per job.

Creative & Cultural Skills feels that there is an urgent need to align this with the existing government targets for Apprenticeships, and this now looks possible, with subsidy available to support wages through the Future Jobs Fund, and the Learning and Skills Council continuing to support the cost of training. Creative & Cultural

Singapore - Recently, Singapore welcomed the first edition of the new beer festival, Beerfest Asia 2009, celebrated beneath a 30 x 70mtent. Over 1.500 people attended, and over 25 brands of beer got the party flowing. Singapore Flyer offered over 100 varieties for tasting in their stand as well as in the pit stop area of Singapore's Formula 1.

During the five-day festival, local and international artists - backed by D.A.S. Aero sound systems - took the stage. Among them were Hell's Belles, a girl-powered tribute to AC/DC, and Vertical Horizon, USA-style rock direct from Washington, D.C.

Eduardo López, commercial representative of D.A.S. Audio Asia, reports, "D.A.S. Audio Asia and Timbre Music Group were excited about possible collaborations since the beginning of the year. When Timbre Music began to organise Beerfest festival 2009, we saw a great opportunit

USA - Kentucky-based Goodwin Lighting Services recently supplied a number of PixelLine 110s to light an unusual bespoke wave set design for an annual sales meeting and party for a major insurance company - organised by Accent On Cincinnati.

The concept was realised by event designer Joe Rigotti and consisted of white stretched fabric over a custom made frame.

Lighting designer Glen Goodwin explains: "Each piece of the stage back drop is 4' wide and 30' tall. I lit each row top and bottom with a PixelLine 110 - setup so I had control of each strip. The challenge was make each function hosted in the ballroom look different. I needed to be able to transform the look of the stage and be able to create kinetic colour changes to make the set come alive."

The event was over three days - each day the ballroom had three room transformations - breakfast, lunch and a party at

UK - HHB has supplied an Allen & Heath iLive-T digital mixing system ­ comprising an iLive-T112 Control Surface and iDR-48 MixRack ­ to Tacet, organisers of the audio and breakouts for the winner¹s press conference of TV show, Britain¹s Got Talent.

As Tacet¹s Simon Bishop explains, the combination of such a high profile event with the obvious uncertainty of how many winners there would be brought some interesting challenges to the job. "We got the job through our colleagues at Hotcam who provide the cameras and crews for Britain¹s Got Talent. All the intelligence suggested that the winner was likely to be Susan Boyle, but I was suspicious that Diversity might just pip it on the night.

I needed to be ready for any eventuality, so was preparing for up to six mics to be set up on the top table, plus handhelds to pick up questions from the room. Although t

USA - Technomad reports that Functional Communications Corporation has installed 40 Technomad Vernal loudspeakers as part of a LEED-certified AV and intercom communications system at the new Price Chopper supermarket in Colonie, NY. The Technomad loudspeakers are installed throughout the store and at the entrance to provide audio reproduction for a Muzak Audio Architecture installation featuring music and in-store advertising; and voice intelligibility for live pages and other in-store communications.

Functional Communications Corp., headquartered in Syracuse, is an independent Muzak affiliate that managed the design and installation of the entire system. The company specified Technomad based on its compliance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System (LEED), developed by the US Green Building Council to provide standard for environmenta

Dubai - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the appointment of John Dodson to represent its sales and business development throughout the Middle East region, including Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Based in Dubai, Dodson was previously with Bose for 23 years. His positions included UK business development manager and national sales manager before he relocated to Dubai to direct Middle East and Africa sales operations 15 years ago.

"I am really pleased to be representing Community," commented Dodson. "They have an unequalled product range for all-weather applications on any scale, and great products across all areas of the installation sector. With some very high profile projects in the Middle East already, the sales potential for the brand is substantial, and I'm looking for

Romania - A major spectacular marked the Rumanian Soccer Association's celebration of its centennial in Bucharest's Parliament Palace on 13 May, 2009. Around 1,200 invited guests from around the world were on hand to witness a laser performance by tarm Showlaser that was the highlight of the evening's programme, and, once again, Ralf Lottig's team managed to top everything they had seen before.

Poweful, full-colour lasers projected ultrahigh-resolution graphics on movable, black gauze-screens stretched across the stage, creating the impression of giant holograms. The laser finale that followed filled the entire hall.

UEFA-President Michel Platini thanked the host organisation, describing the occasion as "a wonderful evening with the most creative, brightest, and colourful laser performance I have ever seen."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Yorkshire-based Harvard Engineering has won two prestigious awards. The first was won at the Yorkshire Digital Awards for its revolutionary LeafNut wireless street lighting system, in the category of Best Application of Internet Technology. The second was for Company Innovation at the 42 Under 42 Yorkshire Business Awards, and was also for the LeafNut system.

Harvard Engineering has spent over six years developing the LeafNut system, which is already in operation in a number of towns, cities and trunk roads throughout the UK.

LeafNut allows local and highway authorities the ability to accurately control and monitor all assigned lighting units by providing remote wireless, web based switching and dimming back to the operator through a webserver.

LeafNut's wireless management system interrogates and regulates individual street lanterns on a real time basis using the micro

UK - The festival season kicked off for rock fans and Peavey at Download Festival 2009 at Donington where acts included headliners Slipknot and a reformed Faith No More.

Peavey reports that its gear was heard from every corner of the festival, as 22 of the acts - including the headliners - are endorsees.

Those plying their trade with Peavey equipment included crossover icons Pendulum, returning for their second year. Download veterans Trivium, and old-school Canadian metallers Anvil made their first appearance at the event since 1982. Alongside them, the fresh blood of Architects, Bring Me The Horizon and technical masters such as Dream Theater and DragonForce.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Stage Electrics will exhibit at the first ever Excite! (24-25 June) at London's Earls Court, the new name for the Exhibiting Show.

Technical products on the stand will include: Stage Electrics' new LED screens with a colour spectrum of 1 billion colours, designed for indoor or outdoor use at sporting events, product launches and concerts; The Arkaos media server designed to seamlessly run real time video performances; Rosco Lite Pad HO - a bright and lightweight 'everywhere light' for TV and photography shoots, and Truss from Prolyte.

Anna Western, divisional sales manager at Stage Electrics comments: "We are thrilled to be exhibiting at the inaugural Excite! as we feel it is a dynamic environment in which to highlight the diversity of technical and creative expertise our Live Events division can offer."

(Jim Evans)http://www.stage-electrics.co.u

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