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Business

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UK - JoeCo has announced that, following two very successful years distributing the BlackBox Recorder in the US, Nashville-based Full Scale AV will now also distribute the JoeCo product range in Canada.

The announcement follows the recent launches of the BBR64-MADI and BBR-DANTE BlackBox Recorder versions, which have increased the product range's live multi-channel audio capturing capabilities from 24 channels to up to 64 channels in the compact 1 rack unit format.

"Over the past two years we have established a very successful relationship with Full Scale AV, who have done an excellent job in introducing the BlackBox into a sophisticated and well informed marketplace," said JoeCo managing director Joe Bull. "With the introduction of new BlackBox versions and an expanding focus on disparate market sectors, we now look forward to building on this relationship and

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Spain - Spain became the first testing ground for the new Adamson 'Project Energia' beta launch. Adamson distributor Seesound together with sound provider Fluge arranged the first E15 system in Europe to premiere at the Low Cost Festival in Benidorm, featuring Mika and Ok GO! among many others. Now ready for a full tour, Fluge is putting the E15's to the test with the Spanish metal band Los Marea.

The tour begins in Arnedo, in La Rioja province in the North of Spain on 5 November, and finishes the year on 30 December in Madrid, starting the new year with a date on 14 January in Zaragoza. Their tour then continues to Argentina, Chile and Colombia in February 2012.

El Grupo Industrias Orquestales, the parent company of Fluge is a leader in the Spanish live production market and falls within the top 10 most important full service production companies in Europe.

In August of 200

Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

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Germany - With over seven million visitors, white-knuckle rides galore, and a convivial atmosphere in the gigantic beer tents strewn out over the vast Theresienwiese (the Meadow of Therese), the Munich Beer Festival (or Oktoberfest) this year once again lived up to its reputation as one of the largest and most spectacular festivals in the world. The two-week event kicked off, as ever, with the broaching of the first barrel in the largest tent: the Schottenhamel Marquee.

No less important, of course, was the quality of the sound reinforcement for the 10,000-odd revellers, which is why for the third year running the organizers commissioned StereoMike Veranstaltungstechnik of Straubing to look after the sound.

"Given the worldwide fame of the festival, expectations for sound quality are extremely high," says Michael Wittenzellner, StereoMike's managing director. "O

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Belgium - Ethersound-based audio is now used on live events of all sizes, aided by the ease with which it can be integrated with Yamaha's digital mixing consoles. Belgian company Swing is the latest rental house to invest in Yamaha equipment and take advantage of the many benefits of completely digital audio systems.

Based in Merelbeke, near Gent, Swing owns two Yamaha M7CL-32 consoles, which are in high demand for a range of events. Company owner Dany de Letter was keen to invest in an Ethersound 'digital snake' solution to enhance the audio quality of Swing's productions and so purchased two Yamaha SB168-ES stage boxes, plus two MY16-EX and two MY16-ES64 interface cards.

In addition, an LS9-16 plus a further SB168-ES and MY16-ES64 have also been added to the company's rental stock.

"TheM7CL was in great demand and I knew that Ethersound could be easily added via Yamah

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Finland - The charity concert Elämä Lapselle (Life of a Child) in the Hartwall-Areena, Helsinki, raises funds to help Finnish children in need. It has been staged annually since 1995 and has since been aired on MTV3. For this year's event, lighting and visual designer Mikko Linnavuori and lighting designer Eero Helle used two grandMA2 light, a grandMA full-size, a grandMA light and three MA NSP (Network Signal Processor).

"grandMA and grandMA2 are the only usable solutions when you need full tracking backup and a multi-user control platform", commented Eero Helle. "This is very important for us when we are working on live TV shows. The reliability of the MA network is so good that all of the lighting team were completely confident."

"One main reason for choosing a grandMA2 console is the excellent GUI for the framing shutters" said white light o

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South Africa - "When I first looked at The Durban Playhouse Company tender we'd won, I had to wonder if we would complete it," says Dan Riley, head of sales for Philips Distributor in South Africa, DWR. "It was a major job and the client had put in clauses stating that the theatre could not close and that shows must go on as normal. A tall order given DWR had been commissioned to change all the dimmers in the building! However I'm delighted to be able to say that the DWR boys pulled it off, on time and on budget."

DWR's Bruce Riley headed up an installation team that included JC Du Plessis, Gedeon Mpofu and Michael van Dyk. "The installation comprised: 11 x Philips Strand EC 21 96 way dimmer racks with full reporting capabilities, explains Riley. "Six have been installed in the Opera Theatre (originally they were MCM Dimmers), four in the Drama Thea

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France - LumenRadio and Philips Electronics lit up the Black Eyed Peas during a three-day event at the Stade de France as part of the group's The Beginning tour. The 80,000 capacity stadium was filled to capacity all three nights.

Fergie and the rest of the Peas wore costumes developed to showcase Philips latest LED and OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology and incorporating LumenRadio's CRMX wireless technology. The costumes were designed by Philips Lighting's chief design officer, Rogier Van der Heide in cooperation with B. Åkerlund, the Black Eyed Peas Los Angeles based lead costume designer & stylist, who has frequently working with music acts ranging from Lady Gaga to the Rolling Stones.

Rogier Van der Heide, and his design team in collaboration with the BEP production team developed the technical concepts and facilitated the practical integration of the

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Australia - The Australian Institute of Music has grown into a major player in education and training for the Australian music industry, performing arts and entertainment management fields. Recently this industry institution purchased two ETC Element consoles - one for the Pilgrim Theatre Sydney, for their Dramatic Arts programme, replacing the Jands 48 channel ESP, and one for their multipurpose 220 seat auditorium in Foveaux Street replacing a Theatrelight Scenemaster 24.

The ETC Element control console is designed expressly for modest rigs and maximum hands-on fader control. It is based on ETC's Eos control operating system but with a simplified feature set in an all in one package.

Jands conducted a training day for the students, with Rod McKinnon at the helm, and students were amazed at how quickly they could learn to operate the ETC Element console.

"The training

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USA - Outline reports that its Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. powered line array speakers were chosen as the centre stage, primary front-of-house speakers for the Broadway hit Relatively Speaking, playing at the Brookes-Atkinson Theatre in Manhattan.

The play, directed by actor/director John Turturro and penned by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, consists of three one-act plays that deal with the topic of family relationships. As each play is essentially dialogue-driven, clarity is of great importance for the success of the production. Mini-COM.P.A.S.S., with its Double Parabolic Reflective Wave Guide (DPRWG) technology and integrated power amplifiers, allows for extremely directed high frequencies, ensuring intelligibility throughout the main audience areas, says the company.

"The challenge for designing the audio system was finding a speaker/amplifier system capable of

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USA At the AES convention in New York this week, DiGiCo is debuting the SD10-24 console. The SD10-24, like the original SD Ten launched at ProLight+Sound earlier this year, is a console that "boasts features and benefits that i distinguish it from the others in the SD Series and every other digital console on the market, just in a more compact package".

"When we introduced the SD8-24, which was primarily designed with the corporate market in mind, it was an immediate hit," says James Gordon, DiGiCo's managing director. "The SD10-24 is based on the same thinking; to provide a smaller footprint console for a particular segment of the market, but with no reduction in functionality or number of inputs and outputs.

"With the SD10-24 we have smaller venues in mind and, because we also have the SD10-B broadcast specific product, we are producing an SD10B

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Albania - Ermal Gashi, owner of Diesel Hall in Tirana, was looking for a cost effective but high-quality wall-grazing fixture to dress up his popular bar-lounge. The fixture would need to include a colour mixing system and be able to project effectively up to three metres.

Kliton Gjika, sales manager at Prosound, Martin Professional's distributor in Albania, suggested the Martin Easypix linear strip light to fulfill the task.

Twelve Easypix wallwashers were installed to light the venue's interior façade in a variety of shades. The illumination, which complements naturally the surrounding architecture and interior, has created a more luxurious environment and lifted the venue visually.

(Jim Evans)

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Russia - The rebirth of Russia's Bolshoi Theatre this month will serve as the premiere for the world's largest installation of Oeko-Tex 100 certified stage drapes from ShowTex.

After six years of work by a cast of thousands, the Bolshoi Theatre is just days away from reopening night, with President Dmitry Medvedev concert on 28 October.

The black velvet velour fabric used for all acoustic panels, stage borders, legs, and backdrops was selected by the project's main contractor Rexroth in a blind test.

There were several requirements for the Bolshoi's new drapes, from fabric weight and colour, to density of weave and flame retardant certification level. In the end, the Molière cotton velvet developed by ShowTex stood out as the truest black that can be achieved in a staging environment. In fact, all three of the Ultrablack velvet velour fabrics from ShowTex absorb more than 9

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UK - Nick Gray of London- based creative lighting practice Renegade designed lighting for the main British Fashion Council (BFC) space in Somerset House and other rooms, along with numerous off-site shows in one of his busiest Fashion Weeks to date.

The off-site shows included Mulberry, Julien Macdonald, Temperley, Emilio de la Morena, Hardy Amies, Rocksander and others, all staged in an assortment of venues from Claridges Hotel to the British Museum atrium - engaging Gray and his team in a relentless week of activity - utilising four main lighting rental supplies - Neg Earth, Panalux, Shok London and White Light and over 50 crew.

Gray brought his own style and creative edge to the proceedings, together with his very individual approach of treating each space as a special environment into which the lighting and production should blend and harmonise.

For the BFC Tent at Somer

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UK - The University of Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre was Sir Christopher Wren's first building design and is therefore of tremendous historic importance, having been started in 1664. Adapting a Grade 1listed building for 21st Century use, while at the same time not losing any of its historic magnificence, has been a complex process. But a K-array audio system has meant the 343 year old theatre can now meet all those criteria.

The iconic structure is arch-shaped in plan, surmounted by a cupola and is one of the most photographed buildings in the city of dreaming spires. In addition to being used for lectures by invited guests, matriculation and graduation ceremonies, it also sees many thousands of tourists every year.

Peterborough-based B+H Sound Services was appointed to supply and install a new audio system, which would satisfy all the modern needs of the venue but not impact o

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UK - Up For Hire, the live interactive show about unemployment and job seeking, hosted by Richard Bacon and Tina Daheley, aired on BBC3, invites Industry experts to share their knowledge and each episode a celebrity guests comes in to share their stories too. Alongside this, Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills will also be running an Up For Hire theme in the breakfast show.

Roger Williams designed the lighting supported by Richard Martin Lighting (RML). Alpha Beam 300's are the main focus of the show. The rig is completed with Robe Robin 600 LED Wash's and a small LED package provided by EasilyLED.

(Jim Evans)

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Ireland - Production Services Ireland (PSI) energised its Northern and Southern Irish facilities in a massive operation to provide lighting, rigging and technical services for the 2011 Arthur Guinness Day celebrations.

This featured multiple events worldwide and in Ireland, incorporating major live stages in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick - plus a myriad of organically flowing pub-based live music gigs and celebrations in all those towns and throughout the entire country.

The main venue for the whole event was the Guinness Hop Store at the St James's Gate Brewery, where PSI supplied a new eight-legged Litec ground support and trussing system that was purchased for this event. They also supplied all lighting, trussing and over 60 points of rigging.

The performance line up of the Stereophonics, Paolo Nutini, The Saturdays, Yasmin and more was recorded and the highlights br

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France - The legendary Parisian venue, the Bataclan, was packed to the rafters on the night of 17 October as over 1000 people flocked to see their favourite artists take part in a massive charity concert on behalf of the homeless and those forced to live in dwellings unfit for human habitation in Paris.

Organised by the Abbé Pierre Foundation, the line up for the concert, Ne Lâchons Rien read like a Who's Who of the French music scene with performances from the likes of M, Zazie, Alain Souchon, Nolwenn Leroy, Laurent Voulzy and many, many more. In charge of monitors for the event was top French monitor engineer, Christophe Genix, assisted by Geoffroy 'Jeff' Leon and Cedric Pontieux. To handle stage monitoring requirements, Genix specified no less than 12 DX15 wedges from APG.

"I was delighted to be working with APG again for this event," said Genix. &q

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Germany - Lighting designer Stephan Aue of Ambion GmbH is one of the first LDs worldwide to use Martin Professional's new MAC Aura wash light and placed 42 of the award-winning fixtures on the German rock band Guano Apes' current European tour.

"The Auras came into the design pretty late," says Aue, who handled lighting, stage and set design for the tour. "In late summer, Markus Klüsener of Martin Germany approached me about seeing a new product before its official release at PLASA and as I was more than ready to see something new, I said yes. He showed me the Aura and I fell in love with its features right away."

The MAC Aura is the first compact LED moving head wash light with zoom that uses two independent colour systems to produce new 'eye-candy' effects plus functions as a highly capable single-lens wash with fully pre-mixed colour. It was launched at

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Italy - With catching environment and very stylish decoration the QI Clubbing in Erbusco, Brescia is a popular venue. Several times QI Clubbing has been named as one of the best nightclubs in Italy. In October 2011 the QI Clubbing will be opening their new Restaurant and Private Club facilities.

Opening a new facility gives QI a 360 degrees solution of entertainment of dining, nightclub, dancing and social life comes together under the same establishment.

The key of the success for QI Clubbing is the constant investment into developing a good atmosphere and surroundings. To keep the pace as one of the best club in Italy QI Clubbing is constantly upgrading their facilities and recently a new advanced RCF sound system have been installed both in the restaurant and in the private room.

A total of 20 RCF 88 monitors cover the restaurant area to supply the room with high fidelity

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UK - The Czech consortium of Tomato Production, their technical partners AV Media and creative company, The Macula, recently produced a stunning video mapping show on Liverpool's waterfront.

Using exclusively Christie projection, they helped the City's landmark Grade 1-listed Royal Liver Building celebrate its centenary, while marking the opening of the Museum of Liverpool - the largest newly-built national museum in Britain for more than a century. With both buildings sited at the Pier Head the event was fittingly entitled Reflection on the Waterfront.

The showstopper on each of the three nights was the pixel-mapping extravaganza, titled The Macula Spectacular.

The contract required carefully, geometry-aligned projection onto the two buildings - the history of Liverpool onto the Royal Liver Building and a series of modern art projections onto the Museum, which

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UK - The newly completed Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff - Wales' national music and drama conservatoire - opens to a new intake of students this month. Won by BFLS in international competition in 2007, the scheme comprises 450?seat chamber recital hall (the Dora Stoutzker Hall), a 180?seat theatre (the Richard Burton Theatre), four rehearsal studios, an exhibition gallery (the Linbury Gallery) as well as generous foyer areas, a terrace overlooking Bute Park and a new Café Bar.

The £22.5m project is funded by a grant from the Welsh Government, loan finance and £4m of philanthropic donations. The scheme has been designed to be BREEAM 'excellent'. The new buildings are situated within the Grade I listed Bute Park. Directly across the road from the new building is Cathays Park, the civic centre of Cardiff, consisting of a number of important liste

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UK - Backstage Academy is developing a network of professionals from the live events industry who are keen to get involved in delivering training.

There are various opportunities available, from tutoring modules on the FdA in Live Events Production (a 15-month degree starting this November), or running short courses, to taking students out into a real working environment to gain industry practice, or simply dropping in to spend an hour with the students on the FdA to pass on some of your knowledge and tell them what it's really like in the working world.

So if you'd like to get off the road or do something meaningful with your spare time, get in touch with the Academy at:enquiries@backstage-academy.co.uk.

The Academy is continuing to grow and develop new courses, and is always interested in hearing your ideas for how it can help raise standards in the live events sector.

T

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Spain - When the Headquarters of the Cervantes cultural institute in Madrid needed to update its ageing analogue conference system, the choice for the institute was a new all-digital DCN Next Generation system from Bosch. And to ensure optimum audibility throughout the acoustically-challenging conference chamber with its classic architecture, two Vari-directional arrays were installed, making for a total Bosch conference and communication solution.

The Cervantes Institute is a public institution set up by Spain in 1991 to promote and teach the Spanish language and to spread Spanish culture worldwide. The headquarters building in Madrid dates back to the start of the twentieth century, with a large conference room featuring a magnificent coloured stained glass dome which makes acoustics in this area quite challenging. A large circular table that can accommodate up to 60 people co

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Korea - Recently built, the Blue Square theatre in Seoul relies on a MA Lighting system that combines grandMA2 and grandMA series 1 consoles.

Kim Hong Sik, CEO of Hansam System Co, MA Lighting's exclusive distributor in the Republic of Korea, commented, "MA products are known as the most reliable and popular among lighting designers in Korea so it was an obvious choice to vote for grandMA.

" Furthermore we wanted a future-proof lighting control solution with plenty of headroom for upgradability to incorporate powerful new features and functionality. Also the grandMA2's ability to seamlessly integrate video sources of all types into the visual equation, and making these straightforward to program, were a reason to install these consoles."

Altogether one grandMA2 light, one grandMA2 ultra-light, one grandMA full-size and one grandMA light were installed in the b

  1. Farnham tours with Vari*Lite VLX
  2. White Light with the Horrors at the Roundhouse
  3. MAC rig for Songs of Praise 50th Anniversary
  4. Robe MMX Logic in Russia
  5. Sibelius Concert Hall upgrades with M'elodie
  6. Lighthouse at UM's Yost Ice Arena
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Astera - June 2025
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