USA - Bakersfield's Valley Baptist Church provides three worship services every Sunday in its 1,800-seat Worship Centre - two services with a choir and orchestra to appeal to a diverse age group, and a third with a praise band playing guitars and drums. As its congregation grew and more young adults with children crowded the centre for the contemporary service, the church's leaders decided it was time for an update of the hall's technology.

A decade ago, the church had installed video projection screens, so the faces of the pastor and other celebrants would be very visible to everyone seated in the hall. The church also projects song and hymn lyrics on the screens, a feature that significantly increases the congregants' participation in the service.

A stage filled with musicia

UK - ASGB has recently completed a significant order for five 200kW generators for Warner Bros. Studios in the UK to support their film and TV production. These five power generator units were delivered on 18 ton Mercedes Benz Antos chassis between July and late September.

These ASGB-built power generators use the tried and tested combination of Cummins QSL9G-3 engines and Mecc Alte ECO40 alternators together with an array of continuous improvements over previous builds of this model. The major improvements have been in the way the handed inter-cooler and radiator are connected to the engine, with simplified water pipe routes and connections, making the regular servicing items even more accessible than before. Improvements were also made to the exhaust routing. Pipework has now been designed and drawn up on CAD models, enabling accurate manufacture and easing the assembly proce

UK - Regarded as the master of psychological illusion, Derren Brown recently returned to London's West End with his latest show Derren Brown: Miracle. Featuring astonishing illusions, unfathomable tricks and a magic spectacle, the show has already achieved mass critical acclaim. Following its work on Derren Brown's previous shows, WL once again provided the lighting support for the illusionist's latest outing.

Derren Brown: Miracle is currently playing at The Palace Theatre before it tours the UK, visiting cities such as Glasgow, Brighton & Hove and Bristol. Tim Mascall is the lighting designer on the production, having already lit four of Derren Brown's shows since 2006.

Tim comments, "Miracle is a really unique show. The aesthetic is led by Simon Higlett's beautiful set design and contains stunning video projection by Simon Wainwright. When lighting the

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ETC Ministar

ETC introduces the High End Systems Ministar, a game-changer in our automated lighting product line. Ministar brings exceptional versatility and performance at an affordable price point; with a compact footprint, punchy output, and a professional feature set, Ministar fits the spec and budget for small to medium-sized venues.

Japan - Clay Paky and PRG KK, the Italian company's sole distributor in Japan, held a workshop at the TFT Building Complex in Tokyo on 14 and 15 October. It was mainly focused on the Scenius, the Clay Paky spotlight that recently made its debut on the world market.

The Scenius features an exceptionally high CRI (96) and fits a 1400 W - 6000 K Osram discharge lamp. Together with the optical unit designed and developed by Clay Paky, this lamp ensures much higher light output than previous older 1500 W lamps. Thanks to its wide 8° - 50° zoom, modern focus tracking system (autofocus), extensive range of effects, and full colour and white light fidelity, the Scenius is a really versatile spotlight, essential for any top-ranking application.

The workshop was presented jointly by Alfonso Zarate Takano, Clay Paky area manager for the Asia-Pacific market, and Giulia Sabeva, a

UAE - Eclipse Staging Services has purchased two Green Hippo Hippotizer V4 Taiga media servers to add to their video inventory.

Simon Harris, Green Hippo's user experience / training manager went out to Dubai at the end of September to provide the busy video crew at Eclipse with three days of Hippotizer media server training. The Eclipse video team were in the middle of supplying and setting up full technical production for Dubai Music Week, so it was convenient for them to be able to have training at their video warehouse.

"I thoroughly enjoyed training the video team from eclipse. They took to Hippotizer V4 like ducks to water and to see the product quickly exceed their high expectations was an absolute pleasure. Eclipse have a very talented team of technicians and I can't wait to read about the projects they use their systems on in the near future," commented Si

Germany - The all-in-one Laser Show control software Laserworld Showeditor 2015 comes standard with the LAN interface Laserworld ShowNET and has a ready-to-go live laser show interface as well as professional timeline-show programming capability.

The software is delivered with 100 free laser shows plus pre-configured MIDI profiles for easy software control - in live mode as well as for laser show programming. The import and export of files in the ILDA (*.ild) standard protocol is supported, so the figures created in Laserworld Showeditor can easily be shared between different software and can be used for playback features.

Laserworld Showeditor supports both DMX input and output, so it can be remote controlled through DMX controllers or software, and it can control fixtures by itself - basic ones and intelligent lighting.

The enhanced MIDI capabilities allow for the creat

Canada - wysiwyg R36 lighting design and previsualization software from CAST Software now has a completely revised and enchanting look as well as highly anticipated compatibility improvements.

wysiwyg R36 will deliver highly efficient and accurate looks to any design. Depending on requirements, wysiwyg R36 will be available as three, six or 12 month lease and also for purchase as of December 2015. The new release is free for all wysiwyg Members in good standing.

Key additions include a new graphical user interface, customizable work layouts, and many importing improvements.

Key to the new release, wysiwyg has increased compatibility with the latest Sketchup 3D modelling software SDK and associated file formats. Users can import drawings directly from Sketchup into wysiwyg, and textures, layers, surfaces and object groupings are now preserved as they were created.

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Europe - Swedish rock band Backyard Babies are currently on a tour of Europe with Allen & Heath's dLive digital mixing system.

"I have been a loyal iLive user for the past four years, and have done about 500 shows, so the move to dLive is natural," explains the band's FOH engineer, Stefan Ljungkvist.

Stefan selected a dLive S3000 Control Surface with DM48 MixRack, accompanied by Neve pre amp, Sennheiser in-ears, Audio-Technica mics, and an Allen & Heath ME-1 personal monitor mixer for the drummer.

In-ear monitors are also managed from FOH, and in total the show it set up with 19 scenes.

"Eight shows in with dLive and I am comfortable with everything. The feel is very nice and warm, and the EQ and FX are high end. When I use A&H, the band say it is like playing in a studio," concludes Ljungkvist.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Getwell Road United Methodist Church in Southaven, MS, had clearly outgrown its stage lighting system in 2012, when Jeremy McCullough joined the vibrant house of worship as its technical director. "Stage design wasn't even an idea at that time," he recalls. "Yet the church was actively seeking to reach worshippers with dynamic new events that required a better stage presentation."

After trying to add isolated fixtures "here and there", McCullough decided something more had to be done, so he journeyed to the WFX conference seeking expert advice. He found it in the person of Greg Persinger of Vivid Illumination. What resulted was not only a new lighting system anchored by a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures, but an expanded and more impactful role for the church in its community.

"I went to WFX Dallas in October 2014 and atten

USA - At the 43rd annual American Music Awards, held at Microsoft Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles on 22 November, amplifier manufacturer Powersoft made its presence known with over (100) K10 DSP+AESOP amplifiers on site. With approximately 7,000 people in attendance, the programme was broadcast to over 10m viewers across the U.S. and featured performances by artists including Coldplay, The Weeknd, Demi Lovato and many others; the show was highlighted with a moving performance of Hymne à l'amour by Celine Dion, which eulogized victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.

In addition to hosting an evening of lively performances, the AMA presented awards to a range of chart topping artists including One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Rihanna, Fall Out Boy and many others. Country artist Sam Hunt was recognized with New Artist of the Year, while superstar Taylor Swift scooped

USA - Equipped with a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system, the new Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education in Memphis, Tenn., can be instantly optimized to host a wide range of diverse events. With the push of a touchscreen button, Constellation adjusts the acoustics in the 361-seat theatre to host everything from educational programs to a regional film series, dance recitals, and music concerts of varied genres.

"As much as I understood what Constellation did before the system was installed, actually hearing the different acoustical presets is still stunning," says Alice Roberts, vice president of programming and education at the Halloran Centre. "It's astonishing how you can experience the subtle characteristics of an acoustical space just by clapping your hands. This alone will be a tremendous boost to our technical training programs in sound for

Brazil - Lighting designer and director of photography (DOP) Carlos Nogueira specified almost 600 Robe moving lights for a recent DVD shoot by leading Forro singer / songwriter Wesley Safadao, staged at the Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha in Brasilia, Brazil.

The concert was attended by 50,000 fans who were all a part of the live experience as well as an essential element of the 24 camera - including a drone - DVD shoot, directed by Fernando Trevivan Catatau from UnicFilm.

The lighting kit was all delivered by Sao Paulo based Apple Producoes and included 160 Robe Pointes, a fixture which Carlos particularly likes for its brightness, power and versatility. One of the best known LDs and DOPs in Brazil, he is also a regular Robe user.

Also gracing the rig were 48 x BMFL Spots, 26 x ColorSpot 1200 ATs, 26 x ColorWash 1200 ATs, 120 x LEDBeam 100s, 60 x LEDWash 600s, 48

UK - The British Fashion Awards celebrate the breadth and depth of talent in the British fashion industry. This year's event took place on 23 November at The ENO Coliseum and was attended by some of the most recognisable faces in the world, including David Beckham, Lady Gaga, Naomi Campbell and Lewis Hamilton. Having already worked on several fashion showcases this year, White Light provided the lighting support, power distribution and project management for this event.

Across the evening, WL assisted with lighting of the building's exterior, the main auditorium along with the red carpet for when the high-profile guests arrived. This involved working closely with the Awards' lighting designer Petter Skramstad. He comments, "With the lighting, I wanted to keep it very clean and simple. We needed a few punchy effects for the actual award presentation yet we didn't want to cr

Russia - Moscow's Stanislavsky Theatre bears a rich cultural history and significance for the people of the city. Having recently undergone a technical overhaul, the theatre has opened its doors once again with an impressive sound system which includes, amongst other upgrades, a TiMax2 SoundHub-S48 audio delay-matrix plus a four-Sensor/twenty-Tag TiMax Tracker performer tracking system, all supplied by Moscow's Audio Solutions.

Going by the name of Electrotheatre, in homage to one of the first pre-revolutionary Russian movie theatres that occupied the same building in 1915, the theatre's current art director Boris Yukhananov is determined to combine truly avant-garde traditions with classical Russian theatre art.

The theatre has three main performance spaces, including the foyer which is often open for lectures, book presentations, discussions and children's plays.

The Ti

Europe - Shure Europe and U.S. based RF Venue, Inc. have announced that they have entered into an exclusive distribution agreement across the EMEA region. Shure Europe's regional distribution offices in Germany, the United Kingdom, and BeNeLux - alongside Shure Europe's third party distribution partners across EMEA - will now distribute and sell antenna and signal distribution products made by RF Venue that are designed to improve the signal quality and performance of professional wireless audio systems.

Boston, Massachusetts based RF Venue manufactures proprietary antenna products, RF distribution systems, RF to optical signal conversion modules, and spectrum analysis hardware and software for the professional wireless audio market.

"We're pleased to partner with the world's leading wireless audio brand to bring RF Venue products to EMEA regions," commented RF Ven

USA - Opening its doors for the first time in spring 2015, New York's Le District offers a very fresh take on French cuisine with a wide variety of vendors situated under one roof. The approach taken to the audio is similarly original, with music unexpectedly to the fore thanks to a high-quality infrastructure based around a single Symetrix SymNet Radius 12x8 EX open-architecture Dante DSP.

Locally-based El Media Group was enlisted to specify and install the audio system, and as co-founder and chief creative officer Ernie Lake observes, there were several primary factors that influenced the choice of DSP. "Firstly, this is a large site of around 30,000sq.ft and there needed to be the option to play back different music in different areas. Ultimately, the space was divided into eight zones - café, dining rooms and so forth - and we required flexibility of playback fo

Spain - Lío is the latest chapter in the Pacha success story. It's a top end restaurant, cabaret theatre, and world class club rolled into one. To deliver excellent sound fidelity and high sound pressure levels, with custom AmpPresets for different zones and program material throughout the evening, Lío has deployed a complete d&b audiotechnik solution.

Expectant guests arrive for a gourmet dinner and a live cabaret that rivals the best West End shows. Then, the restaurant turns into an exclusive port-side club where top DJs play until the small hours. Welcome to Lío Ibiza.

Part of the Pacha family, Lío attracts a discerning clientele. With its tempting food, service and entertainment, the venue, situated in the heart of Ibiza town, is booked solid throughout the summer months.

Because Lío encompasses a restaurant, cabaret theatre and club, it needed a flexible, high

China - Along the River During the Qingming Festival is one of the 10 most famous paintings in China. It captures the daily life of people and the landscape of the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng, from the Northern Song period. Successive scenes reveal the lifestyle of all levels of society from rich to poor, as well as different economic activities in the countryside and the city, with manifest period clothing and architecture.

Chinese violin artist Ms. Song Fei's Along the River During the Qingming Festivalmusical was based on the famous painting that was made nearly a thousand years ago. This performance combined music with image to create a tremendously authentic spectacle, leading the audience to walk through that period of time. SongFei's musical played two days in November, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China.

Combining au

Finland - Genelec has announced that Thomas Lund has joined as senior technologist. In his new position, Thomas will focus on professional audio, in particular film, broadcast, post production and music production.

Thomas has extensive experience in pro audio development; especially for loudness metering, sound exposure, dose management, true-peak detection, immersive sound and format conversion. From a background in medicine and cross-modal perception, Thomas has taken part in audio standardization globally, and hosted numerous seminars within film, broadcast and music. He is the current convenor of Genelec CLC TX108X/WG3, tasked with preventing hearing loss from spreading because of over-exposure to personal media players (PMPs).

"It is a great privilege to join Genelec Oy, one of the world's best loudspeaker manufacturers, says Thomas. "I worked for 18 years at

UK - Not yet a year old and Video Design has visibly made its mark on the touring and event industry. With systems currently out on Duran Duran and Marina and the Diamonds, since the company's inception in February of this year it has provided screens and video infrastructure for Take That's latest tour; Wear the Rose at the O2 London for the Rugby World Cup and all of last summer's concert events at Hyde Park.

"Yes you could say it's been a busy start," said the Video Design founder Alex Leinster, "in fact we've only now found the time to launch our company website. But for a young company we have a solid base of experience and frankly there's nothing we like better than engaging with a variety of demands. What we've done for Marina and the Diamonds and Duran Duran are good examples."

Show designer for Marina is the LD Rob Sinclair who comments, "Ma

Sweden - When car manufacturer Volvo needed perfect illumination for their Design Centre in Gothenburg, they turned to full production company Primetec. Known for delivering turnkey solutions, and with a track record within temporary events and installations for Volvo, Primetec felt confident to solve this task.

With full focus on the object being designer cars, lighting designer and project manager Mattias Oslak from Primetec chose the SGM P-5 W as his tool for this fixed installation. The P-5 W is a high performance luminaire with 44 x 10W cool white LEDs offering a stunningly bright output of 33,100 lumens with a 43? lens.

Mattias Oslak explains, "We step into an environment where the ceiling is white, and we need equipment that is compact and able to blend in the best way. For this purpose, the SGM P-5 W really makes sense in every way."

Colour temperature w

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