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 marg

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

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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

UK - When Lambeth College in south-west London undertook an extensive building programme to create a new 6000sq.m Sixth Form Centre including new Drama and Dance Studios, it was to local lighting supplier White Light that they turned for advice, equipment, installation and support.

"Both of the new performance spaces are flexible," comments Roger Hennigan, White Light's technical sales manager, "with the Drama space able to be divided into three areas depending on how the tutors want to use it. This required us to design and install three lighting grids as the space can be divided into three with acoustic partitions. The grids are internally wired incorporating both 16 amp dimmer and DMX data outlets, and the installation includes vertical booms, floor traps and wall-mounted outlet boxes also including dimmer and DMX outlets. A Triple E Chain track was installed t

Germany - Following speculation regarding the future of G-LEC, the leading innovator of transparent LED video, GLP German Light Products GmbH has announced its acquisition of all assets of the G-LEC business, with immediate effect.

Formed in 2001, G-LEC provides leading edge systems and solutions to the entertainment and architectural markets and enjoys a world class following. In acquiring the business, GLP has ensured the continuity of the innovative and pioneering technology for which G-LEC is renowned, while the association of the two companies echoes the converging use of lighting and video technologies.

G-LEC, now a fully owned subsidiary of GLP, has discontinued all rental activity and will focus on selling the G-LEC product range through the company's existing offices, as well as new sales channels. All owners of G-LEC products, whether for sales or rental, will contin

UK - A day after its UK launch, the new Digidesign Venue SC48 was in use on a Sam Kruger production at BBC Maida Vale Studio 3, with PA provided by Capital Sound. The show was arranged by the BBC for Paloma Faith to perform her new single Stone Cold Sober, a BBC record of the week, and other tracks from her forthcoming debut album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful. The event was recorded for Radio 2 Introduces... Paloma Faith, part of Dermot O'Leary's show due to be aired on 20 June.

On FOH was engineer Peter Whitelaw, who says, "The show was the first to fully showcase the complexity and dynamic diversity of Paloma's song writing. With 15 people on stage, including brass, strings, and backing vocals, I knew I needed a dynamic and comprehensive console. The Profile would have been my normal choice, as I'm a big fan of it, but with the launch

USA - QSC unveiled its new Q-Sys DSP platform to the industry at large for the first time at this week's InfoComm in Orlando, Florida.

Q-Sys takes an evolutionary step forward within the realm of DSP and integration, providing digital audio signal routing and processing technology combined with complete system monitoring and control. Q-Sys can easily meet the needs of applications ranging from the largest imaginable to those much smaller in scope and allotted budget, says the company.

"From concept to finished product, Q-Sys was developed every step of the way by some of the brightest minds in professional audio," said QSC director of marketing Evan McKenzie. "Known for their development of CobraNet and other groundbreaking products and technologies, the team of engineers from Peak Audio in Boulder, Colorado joined QSC in 2006, and have been working since that t

UK - Wednesday 10 June proved to be a memorable day for Litestructures (GB) Ltd as it marked the launch of its brand new division called Litestructures Live.

The company announcement says: "Litestructures Live is a unique, one-stop-shop facility, unifying three previously distinct areas of operation, Hire, Stage and Set, and Litestructures Studios, merging them into a single, powerful entity. Add into the mix on-site custom design and manufacture and you have the most capable, flexible, experienced and user-friendly force in the concert, touring and events marketplace. In short, Litestructures Live is a division formed by fusion."

The launch took place at Gibson Guitars showroom in London. After a speech and introduction from Julia Jones, Litestructures' consultant in the south, the evening kicked off with musical entertainment provided by Scottish band Our Lunar Act

USA - As a touring band, Of a Revolution (or O.A.R. as it is more commonly known) is still a campus favourite. Formed in 1996 by frontman Marc Roberge and drummer Chris Culos, the band took root within college life in its early years, penning hit songs based on the collective experiences of its members at Ohio State University, and growing on the strength of online distribution and word-of-mouth alone.

Onstage, O.A.R.'s technical evolution has brought them to a point where Shure UHF-R wireless is a primary player among the components responsible for capturing its sound.

"I love the wireless systems, and it's funny," saxophonist and guitarist Jerry DePizzo says: "we did a small club show at the end of our summer tour last year, and my guitar tech handed me a hardwired guitar. I played it for half the show unplugged because I'm so used to being wireless. Plugging

USA - As of 1 July 2009, Midas Consoles North America has been appointed as the exclusive distribution channel for Midas and Klark Teknik in the USA and Canada.

Based north of Los Angeles, Midas Consoles North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of JAM Industries, is a new distribution company dedicated to the sales and after sales support of Midas and Klark Teknik products.

"This is a huge new chapter in our company history," states David Cooper, sales and marketing director for Midas and Klark Teknik. "It ensures that our present and future customer base in North America is offered dedicated, brand-orientated sales expertise and technical support. We believe that a focused, brand led distribution channel is the best way of ensuring our already industry leading support is maintained and then continually improved. Our aim is simple: to establish the XL8 and PRO6

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