Switzerland - Green Hippo's Swiss distributor, IQunlimited attracted yet more people with another set of popular training sessions.

After the successful training sessions organised in conjunction with Green Hippo at Theatre Basel in the autumn of 2011, IQunlimited scheduled another two-day training seminar for an extended range of clients.

The training took place Tuesday and Wednesday 13 & 14 March in a Cultural and Community Centre close to Zurich with invitations going to IQunlimited's customers as well as potential clients.

With attendees ranging from various fields including rental companies, theatres and operas, TV/Broadcast, cultural centres, concert halls as well as freelance designers and operators, IQunlimited managed to reach a wide range of market sectors, increasing Hippotizers profile even further in Switzerland.

Once again the seminars were held by Green Hipp

Bahrain - Festivities are underway as Manama, capital city of Bahrain, celebrates its appointment as Capital of Arab Culture 2012.

As part of the festivities the city produced a spectacular opening ceremony, Path of Pearls, which was packed with magical imagery and effects. Responsible for the stage and lighting concept was Belgian Lighting designer from Painting with Light, Luc Peumans, who employed 170 Clay Paky fixtures to light the vast tiered stage, full sized orchestra, aerialists and dancers.

Long-term Clay Paky stockist, Eclipse Staging Services supplied local Bahrain Company, AVL Concepts, with Clay Paky Alpha HPE 1500, Beam 1500, Wash 1500 and Profile 1500 along with a large number of Sharpy fixtures.

Darren, general manager for Eclipse, comments, "One of the fields in which Luc Peumans and his company Painting with Light excels is in utilising the latest tech

UK - Canford has announced that it has acquired the brand Enclosure Systems, based in Borough Green Kent and will take over manufacture and distribution of the range from this point forwards. Enclosure Systems (ES) has a range of high quality racks and accessories and is a leading player in the audio-visual, IT and data networking sector. Having been one of Canford's principal suppliers of 19 inch racks for the last 10 years, the brand has established a very strong position within sections of the broadcast systems integration and audio and video installations markets.

Canford will retain and develop the core ranges and will maintain continuity with existing ES customers and markets whilst expanding the brand's reach further into the broadcast and installer sectors. Chas Luchford, ES's sales manager is moving over to join Canford and will retain the ES portfolio ensuring complete

UK - Centric Commercial Finance, an expert in SME funding, has provided Martin Audio with a £1.3 million invoice discounting facility. The additional working capital will be used to ensure the on-going growth of the business.

Martin Audio is an affiliated portfolio company of Sun European Partners, LLP ("Sun European Partners"), the European advisor to Sun Capital Partners, Inc. This is one of a number of deals completed by Centric with private equity houses in the first quarter of 2012, the company says.

Tim Hawkins, commercial director at Centric, comments: "As the popularity of ABL [asset based lending] grows and proves itself to be a flexible alternative to traditional bank overdrafts, we're increasingly working with private equity houses. Thanks to its superior products and established position, Martin Audio is an ideal candidate for the type of fundi

UK - The 3rd Annual PLASA Rigging Conference will take place on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 September 2012 at the Earls Court Conference Centre in London. This unique 2-day international event explores and debates all aspects of this specialist section of the industry. Running alongside PLASA 2012, the Rigging Conference has become a regular date in the diary for anyone involved in rigging and working at height for temporary installations.

As the only annual event of its size that is dedicated solely to the global rigging community, it attracts professionals from over 30 countries. Out of around 200 delegates, over 40% are international visitors. These include not only rigging practitioners themselves, but venue technical staff, production managers, health and safety staff and policy makers, providing an exclusive platform to examine and debate the use of newly devised products, in

UK - Chauvet DJ LED Shadow blacklight wash panels featured on Coldplay's recent European tour. Supplied by TMB and specified by Lite Alternative, the fixtures will resume their tour when Coldplay returns to Europe in the fall of 2012.

An element of the live tour performances well suited for a blacklight, are the glowing wristbands - called Xylobands - that concertgoers receive before the show. The bands glow once the music begins - due to the imbedded data receivers - making the audience part of the overall visual experience of the show. This sea of glowing lights surrounds the energetic stage design of neon colors complemented by Chauvet DJ LED Shadow.

(Jim Evans)

USA - When it was ready to upgrade its venerable Meyer Sound MSL-3 loudspeakers of more than two decades at its 2,472-seat Andrew Jackson Hall, the Tennessee Performing Arts Centre (TPAC) in Nashville chose Meyer Sound again, this time a system based on the M'elodie line array loudspeaker.

"The MSL-3s had served us well since the mid-80s," says Larry Bryan, TPAC's chief audio engineer. "But we were ready to step into the 21st century with the latest Meyer Sound line array technology."

As typically deployed, the system comprises left and right flown arrays of 16 M'elodie loudspeakers each, plus six deck-stacked 700-HP subwoofers, eight MINA line array loudspeakers spaced across the stage lip as front-fill, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with a Galileo 616 processor for drive processing. The system was provided by Blackhawk Audio of nearby White

Australia - The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959.

The 54th Annual TV Week Logie Awards were held at the Crown Entertainment Complex in Melbourne, and was televised Australia wide on the Nine Network.

Performers at the event included British-Irish boy band One Direction, Flo Rida, Tony Bennett and the The Voice mentors, Seal and Delta Goodrem.

Showtech Australia provided all the rigging services for the broadcast and had the opportunity to use its BT280, BT200 winches and Nomad Control Consol that set a new benchmark for scenery mechanics at the Logies.

With six winches in total, four BT280 and two BT200 the set design called for six panels on three tracks to move throughout the evening to create many different looks for different segments of the production. 4 900 Kg LED video wall panels and 2

UK - Established international lighting distributor, MGC Lamps has announced a new name and a new identity. The business which operates in over 90 countries worldwide, has now become MGC Lighting Group.

"MGC Lighting Group better reflects the market areas we operate in and reinforces that we are the lighting distributor of choice for our customers," said managing director James Greig. "We have worked hard over the last 30 years to establish a good reputation. Although the old name has served us well, we needed a facelift to reflect that we are a large, modern company with global coverage, a loyal customer base, and a team that possess technical knowledge that is second to none in our industry."

MGC Lighting Group was conceived after a six-month process that involved the whole team working at its three offices in the UK, Germany and Spain. Workshops were hel

USA - Developed by OTG Management, Bar Brace and Croque Madame in JFK's Terminal 3 are not your average airport restaurants. In addition to allowing customers to order directly from their seats via iPads provided on site, the award-winning eateries feature menus developed in collaboration with local chefs.

To create that atmosphere, OTG depends heavily on custom music programming and Audica Professional MICRO series audio systems provided by NYC's EL Media Group. "Airports aren't known for good sound," says EL's chief creative officer, Ernie Lake, "but it's not just about the food for OTG. They're very in tune to music, so we have to have incredible programming and incredible sound."

Featuring Class D amplifiers and onboard EQ, Audica's MICROzone controller/amp and MICROplus 4-channel power amp combination are compact enough to fit into a small cabinet at e

UK - When Nissan's luxury car marque Infiniti set about expanding its presence in Europe, it wanted to engage with potential buyers in a new and unusual way. The result was a digital art competition, the finalists of which have their work featured at the opening of the new European showrooms. Essential to presenting the artwork are BrightSign digital media players, providing each event with a dramatic visual focus.

Distributed in the UK by Pixels, seven BrightSign media players were used at the opening of Infiniti's new showroom in Stockport in late 2011. The event was devised and managed by London-based Oil Productions, with the technical aspects managed by The Big Idea and installed by Entserv Audio Visual.

"We had used the BrightSign players on the Doctor Who Experience. They were extremely reliable, gave fantastic resolution and were able to be synchronised accurately

The Netherlands - Fans of the Dutch football team Ajax are getting a kick out of the new Ajax Experience visitors' centre in Amsterdam. The multimedia site was designed and produced by Montreal's gsmprjct with audio-visual systems integration by Electrosonic.

Ajax formerly had a 'museum' in its stadium some distance from central Amsterdam. The new visitors' centre is within walking distance of popular areas of the city and easily accessible via public transport to team supporters and tourists alike.

The highlights of the Ajax Experience are the interactive exhibits, which give visitors an opportunity to experience what it's like to be an Ajax player. The exhibits include T.I.P.S, which emphasises Technique, Insight, Personality and Speed; and a series of virtual exhibits where visitors take the place of players in the locker room, players' tunnel and stadium.

T.I.P.S. Techni

UK - For the second year running, entertainment lighting specialist White Light supplied the lighting rig to the Olivier Awards Ceremony, which rewards the best of London theatre created during the previous 12 months.

The awards ceremony was held this year at London's Royal Opera House, with the lighting designed once again by Ben Cracknell.

"It actually feels a bit like the perfect gig for us," comments White Light's managing director Bryan Raven. "It celebrates theatre, with which we have a long historic involvement - many of the shows nominated this year use lighting rigs supplied by us - and yet it's staged as a giant event, like the many other corporate and live event productions we are now involved with. It also uses the full range of equipment we offer - everything from LED moving lights to the good old-fashioned PAR can!"

White Light supplied the

China - The AVC Group has completed a three-week Asia Training Tour, which attracted more than 300 distributor and dealer personnel to its three stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok.

According to Ken Johnsen, international training manager at The AVC Group, the tour gave distributors the opportunity to engage in brand specific training on the ELAN, Niles, Xantech, Sunfire and ATON brands. The tour is part of a new programme rolled out at ISE 2012.

"We were able to extend the success of our European Training Tour with this three-city tour of China and Thailand, training hundreds of our Asian partners on every aspect of each brand's product line in a comprehensive three-day programme in each city," Johnsen said.

The focus of The AVC Group's international education effort, Johnsen said, is to 'train the trainers' to be complete experts in all of the five brands' pro

UK - March 2012 saw Sennheiser UK hosting a series of Digital Mic Days at Koolworld Studios in Luton, Bedfordshire. The 'Digi Days', held in conjunction with UK digital console manufacturer, DiGiCo, were designed to demonstrate to engineers from different sectors of the pro audio industry just how simply digital microphones can now be integrated into today's audio systems.

Sennheiser UK's sound reinforcement specialist, Dave Wooster, was on hand to show attendees the benefits that digital microphones can offer. A full complement of microphone models from both Neumann and Sennheiser were deployed in the studio's live room, with musicians on hand each morning to provide live signal feeds that were captured, via the digital mics, into Protools.

Microphones used included Neumann TLM 102 D large diaphragm condensers, KM D digital output stages fitted with a variety of capsules and,

UK - Independent distributor of pro-audio products Nova Distribution, has announced its UK exclusive distributorship of Eve Audio speakers, the new range of active monitors from Berlin based manufacturer EVE Audio. Nova will be supplying dealerships across the UK.

EVE Audio was founded and owned by Roland Stenz, a man with a long background history in the audio industry. The products cover a range of sizes and applications from the SC204, the smallest in their studio monitors line to the largest four-way system monitor that EVE Audio produces at the moment, the SC408. Along with a range of subwoofers, built with quality in mind.

The SC204 may have a small footprint. But they will probably be the biggest sounding speakers in your setup, says the company. They also have the added convenience of threaded screw inserts on the bottom and the back so that the SC204 can be mounted on

UK - One of the popular features of recent ABTT Theatre Shows has been the free seminar programme, and visitors to the Theatre Show in London's Old Truman Brewery on 13 June this year will be treated to a rare chance to hear William Dudley, the country's preeminent stage designer.

Looking back over his extraordinary career of more than 40 years designing for theatre, opera and ballet throughout the world, Bill Dudley is taking as his theme Virtual scenery. Roger Fox, director of the Theatre Show said, "Bill will compare projected scenery then and now, and will introduce an international time line initiative which aims to foster a better general understanding of older theatre technologies."

Arranged to coincide with an international meeting of OISTAT, the opening seminar will be held at the Theatre Show from 11:00 to 12:30 on Wednesday 13 June. This will be a s

UK - Electronic dance group Chicane were back on form last week when they played to a massively 'up for it' crowd at Koko. The much anticipated show was to launch their new album Thousand Mile Stare .

Richard Martin Lighting (RML) supported LD Pip Rhodes in his choice of a simple yet striking rig including Martin LC2140 panels. The vibrant and bold images used with the screen help compliment the psychedelic trance tunes of the Ibiza favourites.

The LED based video screen has a semi transparent design with easily connecting panels that allow for area coverage of up to 14m in height and no restrictions in width. Each panel frame is 1m x 2m with LEDs laid inside an acrylic tube. The pixel pitch of the panel is 40mm which allows for excellent resolution and the design of the panel creates a seamless image. On hand to help out Pip was Hannu the house LD at Koko and Tim the s

UK - The new Canada Water Library in London's southeast Docklands is an impressive and striking building, with artistic ambitions that take it way beyond the standard repository of books, CDs and IT services.

Stage Electrics was brought in by the electrical contractor, Inviron, who in turn worked for the main contractor, ISG Jackson, to create a highly flexible ground floor performance studio space, capable of hosting anything from art exhibitions through to music concerts. Added to that, the massive dock doors, which open out on to a courtyard, act as a proscenium for an audience sitting outside, with the studio forming the stage.

Built from the edge of the former Canada Dock, Southwark Council's £14m investment is an integral part of the local community and popular with commuters who flock to the café for a quick cappuccino or lunchtime sandwich. Its live arts p

Singapore - Wireless Solution Sweden AB Singapore distributor Laservision recently delivered the award-winning creation of Wonder Full - the largest light and water spectacular in South East Asia. This breathtaking multimedia spectacular is currently on display at the doorstep of the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Wonder Full is the story of water and light creating life, told with cutting-edge water and light technology. This free 13-minute show is a water, land and sky based 360-degree experience unlike anything seen before. A three dimensional fantasy showcases the mediums of enormous water screens, vibrant multi-colour high powered lasers, searchlights, spot lights, fountains, surround sound, strobes, bubble factories, flame effects, LED lighting, high definition video projection and other special effects, spanning the 38 acre Marina Bay Sands site. The attractio

Germany - Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS), the German equivalent of The X Factor, the international talent show franchise, has now reached its ninth year and is attracting great interest as always. Over 35,000 aspiring singers performed in the casting calls that took place in 35 cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The lighting designer Manuel da Costa has accepted the challenge of staging the nine live evenings, which will be broadcast from the MMC Studios in Cologne-Ossendorf, after the preliminary casting calls and recalls.

When choosing the lighting equipment, Costa opted - among other lights - for 30 Clay Paky Sharpys and 16 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500s, along with two full-size grandMA2 consoles, four full-size grandMA 'series 1' consoles and 10 video processing units (MA VPU plus).

"Because of budget limitations and the space and weigh

Australia - In these financially difficult times, maximising the potential of facilities has become a key issue for the education sector. At the same time as delivering high quality education in line with modern expectations, schools need to ensure that their facilities generate their own revenue. These are the reasons why one Australian primary school has invested in DiGiCo, opening up a new market for the console manufacturer.

Helensvale Primary, located on Queensland's Gold Coast, recently finished a new performing arts centre, complete with a full audio-visual solution designed, supplied and installed by Dominica Sound via DiGiCo's Australian distributor, Group Technologies.

"The school was previously hiring halls at its local arts centre for its events, but wanted to become self-contained in order to cut some of the operational overheads," says Steve McCallum, d

Czech Republic - Robe lighting has implemented LumenRadio's award-winning wireless CRMX (Cognitive Radio Multiplexer) wireless technology on all its current Robin series products, and this will now become a standard feature of all future Robe products.

In addition to the Robin Series, CRMX is used in Robe's LED Series including the popular CitySkape Xtreme fixture and the brand new CityFlex 48. It is also available as an option for several other Robe product lines and as a standard accessory for the LEDWash 1200.

Czech Republic based Robe lighting has chosen to partner with LumenRadio as the Swedish company is also a leader in its specialist field.

The CRMX system is fully RDM (Remote Device Management) compatible and also supports multiple other protocols including DALI, Art-Net, Streaming ACN, ETCNet, ShowNet, Pathport and KiNet 1 & 2.

It avoids interference by using inn

UK - Participants in this year's First Night Riders charity motorcycle ride are being offered a unique tour of London's Royal Albert Hall.

The annual First Night Riders event - which raises money for industry charity The Theatrical Guild (TTG), the only charity dedicated to looking after the interests of backstage and front of house personnel - is already attracting international attention with riders from around the world signing up for a good cause and a good time.

On Friday 22 June a group of the daredevil riders hailing from all sectors of the entertainment technology industry will set off from the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London for a four-day open-air tour of the south and south west of England.

Along the way they will visit key sites including Bristol's Theatre Royal, the Theatre Royal Plymouth, Hall for Cornwall and the incredible Minack Theatre at Land's End and

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