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14 March 2016

With a fairly open design brief, Tower's James Mitchelmore and Pete Donald covered lighting design, and rigging respectively.

A Prolyte MPT system provided the stage cover with Prolyte S52 being used from the stadium roof some 40m off the deck, for lighting and PA hangs. Two dozen 2500w city colours formed the basis of the stadium lighting with 100no. assorted P64 doing detail and effect work.

Robe CS700s hung from the grandstand provided keylight for marching bands and break-up patterns on the track. Stage lighting was largely generic comprising 2k fresnels and S4 profiles and pars. Movement was by Robe 250 colourwashes.

The Tower power tea

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14 March 2016

In London, Love Never Dies, the long-awaited sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber's international hit musical The Phantom of the Opera, is using SpotTrack to manage its followspot cue sheets. The show is lit by Paule Constable, with the spots overseen by her associate lighting designer Beky Stoddart. Stoddart is also using SpotTrack on the new production of Oliver!, also lit by Paule Constable, at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and associate lighting designer Nick Simmons is using it to manage the followspots on the new UK tour of Les Misérables, again designed by the busy Constable.

The new West End production of Legally Blonde, lit by Kenneth Posner and Paul Miller,

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14 March 2016

Its sister venue in Southend, the smaller Palace Theatre, went all EV a couple of years ago, and with close collaboration and resource-sharing between the two houses, there were considerable advantages in staying with the brand and with supplier Shuttlesound.

The Cliffs Pavilion is a receiving house, seating over 1,600 for a theatrical production, but with flexible set-up arrangements enabling 2,500 to be accommodated for live gigs. As one of the premier division of regional theatre venues, Cliffs Pavilion has to balance the needs of touring bands bringing in their own systems with the needs of visiting theatre productions

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14 March 2016

After many years of singing and playing guitar, Heis made the discovery that he was a baritone, not a tenor as a music teacher had told him. This discovery revitalized his musical career and Caught In Paradise, which so far has been released in Austria on the local label Gerimi Classics, has come from this renaissance.

"I've been using DPA microphones for y

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14 March 2016

The installation at the St. Francis of Assisi Church initially presented many challenges to the team. It's a very large space with polished concrete floors, CMU walls and granite and marble covering the substantial altar platform, all of which work together to create a very reverberant room. There was a desire to maximize the presentation of sound without filling the entire auditorium with large, overbearing speakers, which is why Morgan Sound president Charlie Morgan ultimately chose the J

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14 March 2016

Dan Ristow of Fort Worth-base Heavenly Sound and Video comments, "Saginaw Church of Christ is a vocal-only church, so warmth and articulation in spoken word was a fundamental objective in designing their system. "We've worked with the Veris system in the past, and were particularly impressed with its performance on spoken word. The difference was clear, even in a side-by-side comparison with another more expensive loudspeaker."

The sanctuary's architecture presented some acoustical challenges as well. "The room has a high ceiling, with a rear entrance wall const

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14 March 2016

The new address details are: West Shore Trading Estate, West Shore Road, Granton, Edinburgh. EH5 1QF. All other contact details will remain the same.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The Awards are marked not by a gold statuette but, this year, by a miniature RS18 subbass unit. They are assigned by sales director Denis Baudier for outstanding progress and success in developing a market for Nexo technology, and in 2009/2010, there were some surprises in store.

Winner of the Nexo Distributor of the Year Award was Sonotec from Peru. This young company from Lima, just 10 years old, has amassed an impressive blue-chip distribution portfolio and is also achieving great success as a rental service company. Jesus Aguilar from Sonotec was pleased to collect his award in front of the whole Nexo international distribution network.

The award for Best New Distributor went to Malaysia's Audio Solut

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14 March 2016

"The addition of Dante significantly enhances the audio transport capabilities of our system while making it more flexible," stated Marco Piromalli, president of Link. "We look forward to debuting a system at InfoComm10 in Las Vegas this June."

DGlink; is the first multi-protocol enabled modular

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14 March 2016

Adlib's Tony Szabo (Australia) led the sound team, which consisted of Hassane Siahi (France), Otto Kroyman (Germany), Scouser Marc Peers and Carlos Herreros from Spain, who also acted as interpreter.

Along with the lighting crew led by Andy Rowe they worked to a tight deadline, with a 1.30 a.m. load in on the day of the first show.

The stage space was divided between a large dancefloor downstage, a catwalk upstage, and the band in between. The band and catwalk were sandwiched between a white cyc with a black gauze hung immediately in front of it and another black gauze in front of them, so they could be made to appear and disappear with lighting.

Baras' production brought the custom dancefloor with them, into which were int

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14 March 2016

Jackson, currently Dolby's Sound Platform Director, has a spectacular audio CV. Some 40 years ago he started a PA hire company in Australia called Jands (Jackson and Storey), before selling his stake to try his luck in The States. Here he became Elvis Presley's right hand 'sound guy' before spending a number of years doing the sound for Bruce Springsteen.

But Bruce's interest in sound always extended further than mixing front of house - the foldaway mixing console he designed for Clair Bros still provokes knowing nods of appreciation. So 30-odd years ago, when Fairligh

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14 March 2016

The Production Park will feature a state-of-the-art set production workshop for the Royal Opera House and a new centre of excellence for the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural Skills, where students from every corner of the UK will be able to train in backstage theatre and live music production. At the heart of the complex a restored group of Tudor farm buildings will form a contemporary visitor and conference centre offering experiences based on creativity and inspiration.

A feasibility study is now looking at t

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14 March 2016

"There are certain important advantages of using a digital console when dealing with the live recording and broadcasting of an event, and those advantages are well expressed on the C200 HD," says Karl Falkenham, music producer and recording engineer for the CBC. "With a live performance situation, the C200's knob per function design approach is very powerful and immediate. With other digital consoles, you have to go to page two, for instance, to change your EQ. By the time you do that, your opportunity to fix a problem with a guitar solo has passed

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14 March 2016

The main terminal building's large, curved roof stretches 400m over the length of the facility, and uses acres of glass to both bring in natural light and emphasize the impressive scale of the structure, which has become a national symbol in Uruguay. As much attention to detail was given to the technologies at work inside the airport as to the building itself, and design/installation contractors

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14 March 2016

More famed for its mint cake and being the eastern gateway to England's popular Lake District, over the past few decades the Cumbrian town of Kendal has rapidly become a hotbed for the performing arts, thanks to its further education college.

Kendal College's Music, Performing Arts and Technical Theatre programmes work closely together to provide resources for students who are seeking careers both on stage and behind the scenes. Combining academic tuition with real productions in real venues, the provision of up-to-date equipm

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14 March 2016

Held in Dm-Arena, the event was put on by US-based ministry Willow Creek Community Church of Chicago and was also broadcast live to a satellite location in Winterthur, Switzerland.

A Martin rig included an impressive display of LC Series LED panels. "The LC panels created an amazing visual experience for the 7000 people attending the conference and the 500 attending in Winterthur," commented Todd Elliott, technical arts director at Willow Creek Community Church.

"They went up without a problem, which speaks to the ease of use of the LC panels and also to having someone like Daniel Kaminski who understands how the product works and how to

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14 March 2016

Situated on 60 acres in the heart of the Richmond City Centre, the O Zone featured large high-definition video screens to display the competitions, along with outdoor ice skating, art exhibits, ice sculptures and even a virtual reality bobsled attraction. The O Zone also hosted theme nights celebrating Canada's diverse cultures and regions, including a Chinese New Year Celebration on 14 February.

"There were all kinds of performers throughout the two-and-a-ha

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14 March 2016

Wicreations of Tremelo, Belgium furnished all necessary equipment, engineering and people for the construction to take off. The fridge, a giant thermos was lifted by 14 0.5 T Varistar hoists. The two 40m lighting trusses that were mounted inside the box were lifted by 10 0.5 T zero speed lift-champ hoists. The major challenge was to synchronise all these hoists for the lift off to a height of 15m. All went according to plan, thanks to the Kinesys K2 3d software.

"As always we offered a complete motion control service," says Hans Willems, director of

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14 March 2016

This one-off event utilised the universal language of laughter to raise funds for the Nelson Mandela charities by uniting 10 of SA's cutting edge comedians - Trevor Noah, Marc Lottering, John Vlismas, Tumi Morake, Nik Rabinowitz, Ndumiso Lindi, Chris Forrest, David Kau, Riaad Moosa and Barry Hilton - all performing in the same evening.

Gearhouse's Tim Dunn was asked by promoter and show producer, Roddy Quinn, to create a visual concept for this high profile showcase that was enjoyed live by over 4500 people.

Dunn rose to several technical and creative challenges. One was producing a sophisticated, yet uncomplicated stage look that allowed the performers to communicate di

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer was Johan Ferreira who is also the LD and operator for the main stage at the Innibos Festival in Nelspruit, which sees some 100,000 people pass through the gate during the week and well over 45 000 people on the field for the Saturday performance, that usually includes international acts like Boney M (2008) and Smokey (2007).

InniBosVeld (In the bushveld) is a partnership festival between InniBos and Kurt Darren. "This is the second time that we did the Kurt Darren en Jukebox vriende show," said Ferreira. "The first time was last year at InniBos and

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14 March 2016

XL account handler Chris Saunders has worked with the band since they first started using video, circa 1998. At that time they were still playing relatively small venues and their use of video was considered groundbreaking. He also produced their longform Day At The Races video, and has been involved with all their tours and live work ever since. Throughout, he has seen the application of video in the band's show visuals grow in ambition and innovation parallel with the development and availability of the relevant technology.

The 'Phonics live video visuals have invariably been a lighting design driven element - and Saunders has seen several L

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14 March 2016

Using it at the initial rehearsal of the Schleswig-Holstein Theatre and Symphony Orchestra Jesus Christ Superstar production, Reinhardt explains, "All artists are a mixture of professional classical and musical singers, so the dynamics on the mix bus are a challenge. We had to find a decent volume solution without it attracting attention. When we tried the BB4 on the master bus switching the bypass, we were amazed: there was no colouring, even with the extreme

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14 March 2016

Gilray Densham, president of CAST says, "BlackBox is a live, realtime, 7D positioning and high speed communications solution that will change the way that productions are planned and produced in the future by providing a common communication interface for all the different technologies used in show production.

"BlackBox, to be released later this year after thorough beta testing, will use wysiwyg files as a primary source of information concerning the 'space', and then links to existing proprietary systems such as lighting consoles, media servers, 3D audio positioning systems, RFID tracking, imaging systems and the Raynok Motion Control system. Input data is received, the position(s) determined and then co

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14 March 2016

Designed by RMJM Architects and built by BAM Construction, the building is part of an extensive programme of rebuilding and refurbishment at the institution. Production-based degree courses benefiting from the new Gateway teaching facilities include Performing Arts (Film, TV & Stage) and Film and Television Production.

Having previously provided the lighting system for the University's Students' Union venue, The White Room, which is also used for teaching, A.C. Special Projects was commissioned by BAM Construction to supply and install equipment for the new performance facilities. The company also assisted with the systems' specification.

For the green-screen