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Belgium - The Pukkelpop Festival has grown from a small one-day event to become one of the biggest festivals in Europe, with over 180,000 music fans attending over the course of the three-day event to witness performances from the likes of The Stone Roses, Foo Fighters, Bjork, and Eagles of Death Metal.

Thanks to leading sound company EML Productions - now part of the PRG Group - all eight stages for this mammoth event were this year powered exclusively by Lab.gruppen amplifiers.

EML Productions have been behind the sound for the festival since the early days, and the relationship with Lab.gruppen is one that has also been longstanding, as Patrick Demoustier, Chief of Sound at EML, testifies.

"We first started using Lab.gruppen when we decided to change our systems some years ago," said Patrick. "We did some careful A/B testing and comparisons, and we ended wi

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Sweden - Lund Cathedral in Sweden, the country's oldest and largest church and which dates back to 1080, has expanded its permanently installed RHAON-equipped Iconyx digitally steerable system with the addition of a further IC16/8-R-II active array above its altar.

The cathedral's size - in normal use it seats 1,800 but can accommodate an extra 800 during major events that are frequently televised - reflects its historical status as the Seat of the Archbishop for the whole of northern Sweden and the other Nordic countries.

Its cavernous nave had long proved a challenge for bishops whose voices would become hoarse trying to project down such a long space. Many years ago a sound system was installed to help, originally with four wired microphones and a conventional loudspeaker system.

The last time it was replaced was 1987, when the church felt it was time for something more c

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Canada - Pop legend Peter Gabriel gives a rare glimpse of his nostalgic side in his new Back to Front Tour, which recently opened in Quebec City with a full performance of his classic 1986 album, So. Many aspects of the show hark back to the past, and lighting and show designer Rob Sinclair is using Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800 fixtures in an application employed by him 25 years ago.

Gabriel wanted to bring back some of the elements from the tour that launched So, including camera booms with lights mounted on the end, one boom for himself and one for each of the original touring band members who have reunited with Gabriel: bassist Tony Levin, guitarist David Rhodes, drummer Manu Katche and keyboardist David Sancious.

"We brought the technique up to date by having five manually-operated camera booms with three Alpha Spot QWO 800 fixtures on each of the

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Australia - Mojo Barriers has opened a permanent Australian office giving event organisers and venues across the continent access to the full Mojo Barriers product range with enhanced logistical capabilities and customer service.

Mojo Barriers Australia officially opened doors on 2 October, and the operation is already in full swing for the start of the Australian event season. The main office and storage premises are based in Sydney and will house over 1,500m of stock, with additional barriers located across other major cities to allow for the most efficient and cost effective service.

Since the crowd safety product was first introduced to Australia in 2002, Mojo Barriers has firmly established a leading positioning the market, supplying events including Big Day Out, Soundwave and Future Music Festival via local partners. Now, in response to client demand, Mojo Barriers has b

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USA - Bringing home "one of the best results from any international trade show", this year's LDI Exhibition saw an outstanding level of development in Le Mark's USA distribution network, says the company.

With four new dealers ready to take stock of the entire Dirty Rigger gloves & accessories range straight after the show, plus an additional 80 high profile enquires, the team have again been overwhelmed with the response.

Dirty Rigger product manager Steve Marshall said, "Within a little over 12 months we've managed to secure 11 new distributors across the USA for our rigger gloves & tool pouches. With the results of a second impressive LDI show, I have every confidence this will at least double in the first quarter of 2013. It's been a really amazing show."

Also featuring heavily at LDI were Le Mark's Professional dance floors and the all new 'TripLine'

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UK - Black Light has installed an external lighting system at the recently completed, £20m, sports centre at Lancaster University. The project, which presented a number of key technical challenges, highlights the company's national reach and the fact that it can offer turn-key solutions of the highest quality.

"We were asked by the consultant, ARUP (Manchester), to provide a lighting system to highlight the building during dark hours and make it stand out from the street," says Jock Wallace, Black Light's installations manager. "As the sports centre is a brand new building we had to ensure that our work complemented it aesthetically. We also had to be extremely careful that our installation was faultless and that we achieved a perfect finish."

To ensure that the project's goals were achieved, Black Light carried out a demonstration of equipment on sit

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UK - As the Theatres Trust's Ecovenue project draws to a close, Tim Atkinson - who has headed the project since 2010 - has announced that he will leave the Trust at the end of the year to launch Entertaining Sustainability - a new website and venue auditing service.

Atkinson will primarily be carrying out energy and sustainability audits and delivering Display Energy Certificates and Advisory Reports for theatres, performing arts venues and entertainment industry suppliers and distributors from January 2013, under the name: Entertaining Sustainability.

The accompanying website aims to offer a mini social network for those interested in entertainment and sustainability to stay in touch and share news, ideas and experiences. The website launched this week for two months of 'public beta', before becoming fully-fledged in January 2013.

Atkinson comments: "I am keen that it

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USA - At the 2012 biennial Ryder Cup golf tournament, a team of USA all-stars challenged the European Cup-holders at the private 640-acre Medinah Country Club in Illinois. Lighting for the event ceremonies was provided by Theatrical Lighting Connection (TLC) of Chicago.

The lighting rig included 100 Martin and 55 Color Kinetics fixtures. Control data from two Martin consoles was transmitted via a total of 2,000 ft. of ProPlex Fibre Cable to two ProPlex GBS 10-port, dual-fibre, managed GigaBit Switches, and then via ProPlex Ethernet cables and ArtNet converters to four ProPlex Opto-Splitter 2x8 units, linked to the fixtures via ProPlex DMX cables.

"We've been using ProPlex data cables for about 10 years and never had a problem," says Otto Schlesinger, production electrician at TLC. "Based on our experience, it made sense to adopt the new ProPlex Fibre Cable. This

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USA - Orbital Sound Inc opens its doors today, bringing the well-established Orbital brand directly into play in the US market for the first time. Headed up by industry veteran Jim Shearing, Orbital Sound Inc is headquartered in Springfield, NJ, just outside New York City, and is staffed by a pool of seasoned professionals, including Jeff Hahn, Lorne Grabe, Luke Lytle and Ray Mancison. Mirroring the structure of the highly successful UK-based company, the US operation will be focusing principally on servicing the theatre, live entertainment and corporate event sectors.

Orbital Sound Inc's President Jim Shearing comments, "Orbital's professionalism and technical capabilities are highly respected on the international stage, providing us with a fantastic platform on which to build the US business. All of us in the Orbital Sound Inc team have many years' experience, and we shar

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd's Video division has supplied XL Video with two of the latest Green Hippo v3 HD i7 media servers, which have gone into immediate use on tour with 2010 Mercury Prize winning UK indie band, The xx.

The sale was co-ordinated by Peter Butler for AC-ET and Paul Wood, XL's project manager for The xx tour. Wood also liaised closely with XL Video's technical project manager, James Morden.

The Hippotizers were specified by the band's lighting director, Michael Straun and were specifically chosen as they were the only media servers able to fulfil the exact functionality and system requirements necessary.

Two of the Hippotizers are run live, while the third is used as a 'hot' backup - all running on the latest 3.1 version software.

The tour has included a wide variety of European festival dates.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light supplied the lighting to the Horse of the Year Show, a long-standing fixture in the British event calendar, held at the Birmingham NEC. The event features equestrian displays, show jumping, and more. The show is an annual must-see for equestrian fans.

The Horse of the Year Show is organised by Grandstand Media Ltd, with Production Team as the production company led by artistic director Nadia Raibin. The show's lighting design was by Mark Strange, with Ben Fox as technical producer - who gives "a big thumbs up from the whole team to White Light for a great event". White Light supplied lighting for the main Andrews Bowen International Arena along with the smaller Caldene Arena.

"We've been through a few different lighting companies on the Horse of the Year Show over the last few years," comments Ben Fox, &quo

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France - Over 200 Robe LEDWash 600 RGBW LED moving lights were again central to Peter Heilig's lighting design concept for the BMW and Mini booths and press launches at the Mondial de l'Automobile 2012 à Paris (Paris Motor Show). This was staged at the Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles and attended by over 1.2m visitors over two weeks.

The lighting fixtures were supplied by Rock Service from Salzgitter in Germany and specified by Heilig after his very successful use of Robe's LEDWash and PureWhites for BMW at the Geneva Motor show earlier in the year.

Thirty-two LEDWash 600s were positioned on the floor at the back of the BMW stand - designed by Mutabor Hamburg - for the press launch and unveiling of the new eco-friendly BMW Concept Active Tourer vehicle at the event.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Edinburgh-based technical installation specialist Northern Light is the first company to purchase the newly launched SDRIVE motorised track system by Triple E.

Following an industry and press launch hosted by Triple E's managing director David Edelstein at Portsmouth's King's Theatre in September, Northern Light project manager Martin Tarpy purchased the SDRIVE system for The New Waverley School in Birmingham.

"We wanted to deliver the best possible solution for the school's main proscenium theatre and consulted a range of suppliers, including Triple E," says Tarpy. "The SDRIVE had launched that very week and appeared to meet all of our technical criteria, as well as our budget."

The SDRIVE system is a compact and simple to use motor intended for curtains weighing up to 50kgs and is suitable for drama stages in buildings such as schools.

The new Wa

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UK - Shine Systems has selected the Mackie DL1608 as the console of choice for the 24,000-capacity Welford Road Stadium, home of the Leicester Tigers rugby club.

Director of Shine Systems and audio engineer for Welford stadium, Phil Taylor, explains, "The DL1608 is used to play music before/after the match and at half-time (both from the iPad and from a Macbook Air running Traktor), together with playing pre-recorded announcements and to control the match announcer microphones."

The large stadium is divided into 17 discrete zones and employs a robust wireless network that was suitable for the DL1608. "I was also able to walk round the ground during the pre-match build-up with just my iPad and adjust levels as required using the ground-wide wireless network." continued Taylor. "I would usually use a larger-format digital console for this, but I am confi

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UK - Manchester-based lighting, rigging and visuals rental company dbn designed and supplied a large ground support system for the Games Time outdoor stage spectacular, which played its final performance at Derby last weekend.

The show, produced by Walk The Plank and Déda, was a mixed-media performance combining music, dance, video, lighting and pyrotechnics, directed by Lea Anderson and starring members of the local community. Four teams - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow - sporting fabulous carnival style costumes designed and made by Mahogany - competed to win the Games Time Finale.

dbn's Stephen Page was asked to design the truss and lighting for the event, which played four towns - Skegness, Loughborough, Northampton and Derby - celebrating the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the East Midlands.

dbn invested in a new Slick ground support sys

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Australia - Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith Lakes hosted one of the most successful outdoor dance party events of its kind on 15 September 2012. The outdoor festival featured seven stages spanning over the Island, with the main stage, also known as the 'Red Stage' hosting 22,000 people who came to dance to the beats spun by Wildstylez, Headhunterz, Frontliner, Code Black, Psyko Punkz, Toneshifterz, Zany, Max Enforcer, S Dee vs Hektic, and XDream.

The event was hosted by MC Villain, produced by Matt Chromatic and promoted by Q-dance Australia. Norwest Productions provided complete sound production; staging, lighting, and pyro were executed by LX- PRG, Lasers- Oracle, and Pyro-Howard & Sons.

Audio system design was executed by the event FOH Engineer Scott Harrison, on the new Adamson Blueprint AV Software, enabling the plotting of the four hangs plus a front-fill.

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USA - Audio-Technica is celebrating its 19th year of supporting the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards by providing an extensive selection of vocal and instrument microphones for its annual awards show.

The 46th Annual CMA Awards aired live in 5.1-channel surround sound Thursday, 1 November, 2012, on the ABC Television Network from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and featured over 200 Audio-Technica microphones, including an impressive array of hard-wired mics and Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless Systems.

The team responsible for the audio at this year's CMA's again included a who's who of broadcast audio. The audio was supervised by award-winning audio producers Tom Davis and Paul Sandweiss; ATK/Audiotek provided the sound system with FOH (front-of-house) mixers Patrick Baltzell and Rick Shimer; the broadcast music mix was handled by New Jersey/California-based M

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UK - Flightcase manufacturer 5 Star continues to enjoy brisk business this autumn with a wide variety of projects including a substantial supply of cases to Edinburgh-based lighting, sound and AV specialist, Black Light.

The cases - a series of general purpose and custom items - were purchased to protect and transport Black Light's newest equipment investments, including lighting and rigging kit.

5 Star designed, manufactured and delivered the order with their characteristic speed and efficiency so the cases were able to go straight into action on a range of events and hires.

5 Star was selected for its reputation for producing robust, premium quality cases as well as the expedient turnaround, and was project managed for them by John Barsby out of the company's Wisbech HQ.

Eight Eurotrucker road trunks with full trays, one ETC Gio lighting console case, two Selecon Acclaim

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Turkey - SGM's new generation LED strobes have arrived on the Aegean coast. In one of the world's biggest open air venues 18 of the XC-5 RGB strobes pulse beneath the night sky of Bodrum. The stylish Halikarnas, which overlooks the Aegean, was completely redesigned this summer by its millionaire owner Süleyman Demir.

Lighting stalwart Andy Graves, of Turkish-based LEDsistem, supplied 18 of SGM's innovative XC-5 RGB strobes among the lasers and special effects that animate this luxurious multi-zone venue. They had been specified by Arch Lite's Matthew Button and Trent O'Connor, who between them undertook responsibility for the architectural, theatrical and club lighting design.

Button, who masterminded the stage lighting design, had no hesitation in choosing the SGM solution over conventional strobes, stating, "In terms of power, this fixture not only outperforms a standa

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UK - The Bristol Old Vic, one of Britain's most historic theatres, founded in 1766 by 50 merchants, lawyers and politicians, has been given a spectacular £12.26m makeover in the first phase of a major redevelopment.

Originally designed by the Bristol architect James Saunderson, the theatre is believed to be the oldest working theatre in the UK. Stage Electrics was awarded the contract to design and install a completely new technical infrastructure and production lighting, audio and communications systems. The project has been headed by consultants Charcoalblue with design by John Stevens and project management by John Woodley; architect Andrzej Blonski and builders Galliford Try.

The refurbishment includes the raising of the stalls and gallery to dramatically improve sightlines throughout the Georgian auditorium, a new, flexible thrust stage format, conversion of the pai

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Australia - September saw five very different acts take to the stage in Melbourne, Australia, as the city's RMIT University staged its seventh annual MAVIS showcase. With all of the production's technical tasks carried out by students, a highlight was the fact that they were able to get hands on with a DiGiCo SD7.

A collaboration between RMIT's Music Industry (Sound Production) and Audio Visual Technology departments, the MAVIS project is an opportunity for final year students to apply their skills in event planning, live sound, audio and visual recording in a professional setting, using industry standard equipment.

This year they were faced with a variety of acts, performing on two stages. The music ranged from cartoon metal warlords Barbariön, country rockers Alford's Band of Bullwinkles and psychedelic beatniks Wolfy & The Bat Cubs to singer/songwriter Violetta Delconte Ra

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South Africa - South Africa was the destination for a roadshow with Robe, Avolites and LumenRadio from 30 October - 2 November 2012. The event was put together by DWR Distribution and demonstrations were held in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

The UJ Theatre, The Playhouse Company and the Baxter Theatre were the hosting venues.

Overseas representatives promoting their latest equipment were Robe's Josef Valchar and Harry von den Stemmen, Phil Blue from Avolites and Peter Kirkup from LumenRadio.

"I feel like I'm coming home every time I come to South Africa," commented von den Stemmen. "When we do demos like these we never arrive with an average mix of products but choose novelties to show clients something different."

Robe focussed on the Robin DLX, DLS and DLF which are versatile and of equal interest to television studios, clubs and just about any

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The Netherlands - The Gelredome in Arnhem was sold out recently for the world premiere of a new production of the truck-busting, ear-crunching spectacle known as Monster Jam.

For the first time in the worldwide history of Monster Jam, the event brought together the world's biggest monster trucks, along with daredevil demo riders and, of course, the FMX-ers from Team Marvel and Team Destruction - creating the largest ever extreme sports battle.

Last year almost 70 Powersoft Duecanali amplifiers were installed in the Gelredome arena by TM Audio. Olaf Landzaat created the system design and headed the installation team. In collaboration with Italian engineers at Powersoft, a custom-made Media Matrix plugin was written, enabling the amps to be integrated into the system seamlessly.

The house system at the Gelredome (also installed by TM Audio several years ago) has

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Hurricane Benefit - Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi are to perform at a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy on Friday. The rock stars are natives of New Jersey, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the storm. They will be joined by Billy Joel, Sting and Christina Aguilera on the live one-hour telethon to be broadcast on NBC. Money raised from Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together will go to the American Red Cross relief efforts.

Hosted by Today show presenter Matt Lauer, the concert will be recorded from NBC's New York studios at Rockefeller Plaza. It will be broadcast live across NBC's other cable networks including Bravo, CNBC, E!, Syfy and USA at 20:00 EST (00:00 GMT) and tape-delayed on the west coast. The commercial-free telethon will also be streamed live on NBC's website. NBC organised a similar benefit after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which raised $50

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