UK - Eat To The Beat (ETTB) part of the Global Infusion Group, supported the recent BBC Children in Need concert at The Royal Albert Hall. Following their work on the recent Take That Tour, ETTB provided all of the crew, artist and VIP catering backstage. "There was a fantastic buzz backstage and everyone was so pleased that it was such a resounding success," the company says.

ETTB director Mary Shelley-Smith said: "Any event of this scale and prestige takes a huge amount of logistical planning, hard work and effort from everyone involved. It is great to know that all that it's all paid off. It was a real pleasure to be a part of such an amazing night."

(Lee Baldock)

UK - Following a highly-demanding and successful evaluation of Soundcraft's Vi6 during the recent iTunes Festival at the Camden Roundhouse, W1 Productions have now invested in their own 64-input digital desk, which will go straight into hire stock.

The Bury St. Edmunds rental company is run by Stuart Turvill, who as production manager of iTunes supervised more than 60 artists (representing all genres), who played live at the venue throughout the month of July. Incoming sound engineers used the resident Vi6s, which completed arduous duty cycles in both the FOH and monitor positions.

"The obvious reason for choosing the Vi6 then - and for purchasing it now - was because it is extremely straightforward to operate," says Turvill. "We had mainly used other digital brands until then, and although these have their strengths, the Vi6 is a genuine walk-on digital desk.&q

USA - The Church of Redeemer in Baltimore, Maryland was erected in 1858 and abounds with that ornate architecture that brings with it a reverb time of well over a second. Intelligibility is less than optimal, whether acoustic or with the portable PA system used in previous years.

As the church's congregation has grown, the 400-seat venue has seen increased demand, including the addition of contemporary services to complement their traditional ones. As Joseph Schwartz of Baltimore-based HP Electronics explains, that demand eventually led to the installation of a new sound system centred around a pair of Community Entasys line array loudspeakers.

"With both traditional and contemporary services now being held in the chapel, the need for a versatile, high-quality sound system became clear," says Schwartz. "We had originally been discussing the idea of a small line

UK - Production Services Ireland (PSI) supplied all lighting equipment and crew to the high profile BBC Northern Ireland Children In Need event, staged at the Kings Hall, Belfast.

The gig was part of the multi-city fundraising effort in aid of the 2009 BBC Children in Need Appeal, which resulted in donations of over £20 million, which will be used to fund projects aiming to help make positive changes to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK.

Lighting was designed by BBC Northern Ireland's Jim Devlin and programmed by John Gallagher. PSI's project manager was Brian Reilly, who comments: "It was great to work with Jim Devlin on another prestigious event for BBC Northern Ireland. All went very smoothly for a production of this size, and the teamwork between PSI's staff and the BBC production team worked brilliantly."

PSI ha

UK - Le Mark Group, the leading provider ofspecialist self adhesive products and accessories, have won the UKTI Passport to Export 'Most Effective International Communications' Award at the Global Opportunities Conference, held on 19 November.

Stuart Gibbons, Le Mark's managing director, received the award from Lord Digby Jones - UK Business Ambassador for UKTI. Gibbons commented: "Winning an award of this magnitude and receiving it from Lord Jones was a personal thrill. It is testament to the hard work and innovative methods that Le Mark has committed to building an envious reputation for great products and service around the world. To support this development the management team looked to recruit native speakers where possible. Le Mark is very proud to include employees from Eastern Europe that regularly use their language skills to talk to our customers in Poland, Russia

South Africa - A Midas PRO6 live audio system is being used for a new production of Cats the Musical which has opened in Johannesburg. The PRO6 was specified by Mark Malherbe from Prosound, which has also provided the audio equipment for the show.

"The previous production of Cats in South Africa in 2001 used an analogue console, and I wanted to use this opportunity to not only go digital but to get the PRO6 into the country," says Malherbe.

Prosound's involvement in the earlier production was somewhat limited, with the majority of technical skills provided by System Sound of Australia, and the company used the experience to learn from them. "The level of preparation and dedication to detail by the System team was unprecedented at that time in the local theatre industry. Prosound took full advantage of this opportunity and has since adopted many of

Australia - Audinate reports that its popular training course Introduction to Dante Audio Networking has now been approved by National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA) for learning units (LUs), which can be applied toward the Certificate of Completion Programme and to maintain Electronic Systems Technician (EST) Certification.

Based on the broadening adoption of Audinate's Dante digital audio networking solution, there has been growing interest from installers, contractors, designers and manufacturers of professional audio equipment to deepen their understanding of Dante, says the company. Now attendees have the option to be recognised for developing their expertise in Dante by earning 4.0 LUs towards their certification programme offered through NSCA University.

The Introduction to Dante Audio Networking course is a one-day course for people that are looking to d

UK - Orbital Sound has announced the success of its annual autumn training course, Developing Sound Skills for the Theatre, held at the end of October. Attended by a full house of 24 students, from varied backgrounds in the theatre industry, the free two-day course provided an informative and practical framework for anyone wanting to broaden their skills in theatre sound - across wireless communications, digital mixing consoles, show automation and sound system design.

Orbital's autumn course represents an important and popular aspect of its theatre-skills training programme, which features a growing number of courses during the year, complemented by manufacturer-specific training.

The course featured two sessions each day, with Day One covering wireless communications, using HMEs digital wireless intercoms as technology examples, followed by digital mixing desks, in pa

UAE - The newest architectural marvel of the Middle East, YAS Hotel in Abu Dhabi, was recently completed with the launch of the first Formula 1 race held at the new circuit built around this hotel. YAS Hotel is the world's biggest LED project to date, controlled through RDM protocol by an advanced lighting control solution provided by e:cue lighting control.

The main design attraction of this five-star, 500-room, 85,000sq.m complex, is the curvilinear grid-shell covered with over 5,300 diamond-shaped steel panels, containing nearly 5000 RGBW LED fixtures, each controlled by e:cue's control server through RDM protocol. 32 e:cue Butler XTs, RDM capable, provide bidirectional communication between the LED lighting on the grid-shell, and e:cue's control server for status monitoring of LEDs. The system sends status reports to building management and automatically adjusts the intensit

Finland - Finnish lighting designer Mikki Kunttu has designed lights, screens and sets for the hit musical Play Me, a new production staged at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, based on a virtual reality game intertwined with a talent contest at the Q-Club.

At the core of the lighting rig are 18 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, together with some Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs. It is a compact sized rig for the ambitious visuality and storyline of the show, and as Kunttu puts it, the ColorSpot 700E ATs "really work hard".

The fixtures are hung above the stage in various upstage and downstage positions for optimal stage coverage, with some on the deck. Kunttu utilises most of their features and functions during the all-action show which flips between real and virtual worlds in a rich mix of music, visuals, acrobatics and choreography.

"Reliability, dynamics and real fl

The Netherlands - Early November saw two more successful open days at the Utrecht offices of Robert Juliat's Dutch dealer, Lightco, in conjunction with TM Audio.

The open days were well attended by close to 200 visitors. "614 sandwiches, 75 litres of Coca Cola and 453 cups of coffee ensured everyone was well wired and able to benefit from the 10 seminars that helped make this event a great success," says Lightco managing director, Marc Kocks.

One seminar was specifically dedicated to Robert Juliat followspots. Visitors were given a master class in Robert Juliat technology and had the opportunity to ask questions and try out the units, including a Super Korrigan and Flo, for themselves.

The RJ Super Korrigan is a powerful 1200W HMI followspot with a 7° - 14.5° beam angle and a high light output, making it ideal for medium- to long-throw venues. The RJ Flo is

Germany - The 2009 Europe Music Awards have taken place in Berlin and for the ninth year running Stage One were on board; on this occasion providing props for both the host Katy Perry and for the artist Shakira.

Working for MTV Networks Italy, Stage One worked to very short timescales, in order to provide several key props: a flown sign, star swing, moon swing and a giant champagne glass, all for Katy Perry, along with a dance platform for Shakira.

"We employ such a variety of skills in-house that we were able to draw on these and turn things around extremely quickly," said Neil Franklin, head of interpretation for Stage One.

Stage One constructed a multi-level chevron shaped dance platform for Shakira, which was designed to complement the overall set. Resembling the inside of a sauna, the dance platform was completed with a tile effect finish and contrasting gold

Germany - Harman Professional distributor Audio Pro Heilbronn has confirmed a major sale of Crown's new I-Tech HD amplifiers to German touring company, TDA Rental GmbH. The company has acquired a total of 56 amplifiers, divided between 32 I-Tech 5000HD's and 24 I-Tech 9000-HD's. This will add a further 376,000 watts of amplification power to the company's inventory.

TDA owner Stefan Todeskino says, "These are great amps, delivering a powerful sound, with a superb sounding DSP." Another feature that impressed Todeskino was the flexibility of the I-Tech HD's, enabling them to be used with all speaker types and in various applications. He notes that control is made easy due to Harman HiQnet System Architect software.

Todeskino, who has a strong relationship with Audio Pro for sales and service, explained the decision to purchase Crown. "We started off with a bunch

Italy - The Questo piccolo grande amore (This Little Great Love) project by Claudio Baglioni), features a journey through the artist's historical repertoire projected on a 16x6.8 mega-screen and is being recorded for a double live CD.

Lighting designer Mariano de Tassis reports: "The original idea for the lighting design came directly from the artist and was then developed jointly by myself and Fabrizio 'Bicio Marchi, production and designer manager. We needed to interpret this album concept with different colour schemes, paying great attention to the succession of individual scenic moments. The basic input aimed to confer maximum emotion to the characters and elements telling the 'story', with just a glimpse of the silhouettes of the musicians."

Much of the lighting system was branded Clay Paky: Alpha Spot HPE 700 to demarcate the space on the stage (arranged

USA - Two leading AV industry consultancies have teamed up to provide a new service for manufacturers, the Connectivity Readiness Check. The CRC is a diagnostic programme from Lab X Technologies and Stiernberg Consulting that helps companies definitively answer the question "Are you ready for connectivity?"

Combining over 25 years of systems integration industry experience, the Lab X and Stiernberg Consulting partnership will help AV manufacturers by assessing each one's current situation and making specific, targeted recommendations for how that manufacturer can meet both technical and business challenges head on. The CRC programme is designed to be fast, confidential, and low cost - a natural next step in establishing or improving product development and business development strategies in the interoperability era.

Commercial and residential AV systems are becoming

USA - Behind the Scenes, the charitable initiative of The ESTA Foundation has confirmed the winners of the 2009 LDI Raffle. The Grand Prize ticket for a $7,500 dream vacation was drawn by Rick Rudolph, the recipient earlier in the week of ESTA's highest honour, the Eva Swan Award. The Grand Prize was won by Mark McKinney of Lex Products who will share the prize with his wife Tracey Cosgrove who works for Rosco. The two were happily considering their possible travel destinations as the show wound down.

The winning ticket for the Second Prize of a $1,500 Amazon Gift Card was drawn by last year's Grand Prize winner, Ken Vannice. David Milly, the owner of Theatrical Lighting Systems in Huntsville, Alabama, was the lucky winner.

John Gebbie of Barbizon Electric was the winner of the Third Prize, a $1,000 Amazon Gift Card which was drawn by Matthew Griffiths, the Managing Director o

USA - Nashville's Sommet Center arena was a complete sell-out the evening of 11 November 2009 as the country music industry came together to celebrate the 43rd Annual CMA Awards, the Country Music Association's biggest event of the year.

The ABC broadcast saw a record total of 23 music performances on the show by artists including Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Dave Mathews, Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban. All of these performances were presented to the live audience with a large, multi-array JBL Vertec line array system supplied by ATK/Audiotek (Valencia, California).

The event system was designed by Pat Baltzell, principal at Baltzell Audio Design. It included five line array clusters made up of a total of 88 VT4889 full-size line array elements, joined by a separate flown cluster of 14 VT4880A full-size arr

France - The Champs-Elysées in Paris, has been illuminated again this year with a stunning display of festive lights thanks to GE Lighting, which has been a partner of this annual event since 2002.

More than two kilometres of the tree-lined street linking the Arc de Triomphe to Concorde have been illuminated using a combination of GE's Constant Color CMH lamps as well as LED technology. More than 400 trees, including both rows of trees lining the avenue, have been lit up to sparkle like a "glittering forest". A second line of 120 trees in the inside row are decorated with 30,000 dynamic flashing lights to represent the "light from falling stars".

"GE Lighting is very proud to have been chosen once again to illuminate one of the most prestigious avenues in the world. Using the most energy efficient CMH and LED technologies, we have created a magi

UK - XL video UK supplied a PixLED screen, cameras, PPU and crew to the 2009 Cliff Richard & The Shadows UK and European tour which has just finished.

Video and lighting was designed by LD Derek Jones. The idea of the screen emerged when Jones decided that it would be more dynamic and expedient on truck space to replace potentially chunky scenery pieces with a multi-functional scenic/IMAG backdrop in the form of a screen.

This enabled them to run abstract and ambient effects as well as show IMAG, adopting a completely new style of presentation for a Cliff & The Shadows tour. Jones was particularly keen to have IMAG concentrated centre stage rather than on the traditional two side screen set up as - given Cliff and the Shadows' generally older demographic and their requirement for a clear view of the onstage action - side screens were also felt to distract attention away from t

China - The National Games of the People's Republic of China, also known as the All China Games, is the most premier sports event of China of national level. It is usually held once every four years.

The Opening Ceremony of the 11th National Games at the Jinan Olympic Sports Centre recently relied on 2,500 lighting fixtures. This number exceeded the 2004 Athens Olympic Games opening ceremony and is very close to the Beijing Olympic Games. Furthermore the show utilised 246 PIGI projectors for a 20,000sq.m video screen, eight grandMA full-size and 40 MA NSPs (Network Signal Processor) controlled more than 40.000 parameters. Each MA NSP can calculate 2048 channels.

Lighting designer and chief programmer Weng Chun Pu reported, "The grandMA supplied us with an outstanding performance. If we haven't had the grandMA, we couldn't have realised the show the way it is."

Besi

France - Studio 106, one of the principal live studios at Radio France, has recently been equipped with an Eclipse digital mixing console from Innovason. This is now their seventh console from the French manufacturer. Nevertheless, it was far from being a foregone conclusion - the Radio France technical team tried out four different consoles from four major manufacturers before settling on the Eclipse as the optimum choice.

"Studio 106 is one of our most important live studios that plays host to all kinds of live musical broadcasts from rock and roll to classical concerts and everything in between," explained studio chief Pascal Coulloux.

"A regular fixture at Studio 106 is the daily radio program on France Inter, Le Fou du Roi with French radio and TV personality Stéphane Bern, which takes a light-hearted look at current affairs, entertainment and

UK - Scrub has supplied new 16 and 32 fader Icon D-Control consoles to BBC Studios and Post Production as part of an upgrade to facilities at Television Centre. Although a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the broadcaster, the company is required to tender competitively for BBC work alongside independent service providers. To meet customer demand there has been a gradual standardisation of its audio post production equipment onto the Pro Tools platform.

"Pro Tools is the industry standard, and it¹s essential that we can move projects easily between our own engineers and theatres, and work on sessions that may have been started externally," explains sound team leader Edurne Bengoa. "We have three dubbing theatres and two track laying rooms at Television Centre, two dubbing theatres at White City, and two dubbing theatres dedicated to Eastenders at Elstr

UK - The millions of shoppers and tourists who flock to London's Covent Garden during the Christmas season can enjoy a special and illuminating treat, courtesy of Litestructures. The area's central plaza has two Palladian-styled buildings, both of which now sport festive chandeliers.

Fulfilling a commission from Jackie Cooper PR, longstanding Litestructures customers United Visual Artists (UVA) specified four large chandeliers, two of them 6m high and another two 8m, one of each to hang in both buildings. The circular bases have 2.5m diameters constructed using LitePro290-3, all clad with black powder coated aluminium sheet.

UVA provided the creative driving force behind the project, with Litestructures interpreting the design into aluminium assemblies, pre-building and pre-wiring all elements off-site at their Wakefield base. Litestructures then coordinated the installation,

UK - Monitor engineer Nahuel Gutierrez has been using a Midas PRO6 live audio system for the Noisettes' UK tour. Having previously spent 15 months with its big brother the XL8 on the final Oasis world tour, Gutierrez found the transition to the PRO6 an easy one.

"I was able to mix on the PRO6 in the same way I did on the XL8, and after a short time learning where the controls on this surface were, I was flying again," he says. "Although it's a smaller surface, the PRO6 isn't missing any of the XL8's features. The sound quality equally as superb, and my favourite features were there, such as six full parametric equalisers on the output channels, which have allowed me to forget about graphic eq's for the last two years.

"Having fewer faders was never an issue working with the POP Groups, which once again were my main way of mixing. And I set up one group of f

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