UK - Artistic Licence Engineering's ongoing commitment to industry education saw company founder, Wayne Howell, present a seminar to the Society of Light and Lighting entitled Controlling Interest - The Future of Lighting Control.

Taking place in mid-December at the London Transport Museum, the 'Taking Control' evening was the final event in the Society of Light and Lighting's current programme to inform and educate participants about trends in lighting, providing a forum for debate.

Lighting designer and chairman of the Society's London Events Committee, Peter Phillipson, introduced Wayne Howell as the inventor of the lighting protocol Art-Net, a method of distributing DMX512 over Ethernet. Howell's company, Artistic Licence, makes control devices that use many lighting protocols, and is a world leader in DMX512.

Howell compared and contrasted the major control proto

Angola - Maybe it is because Luanda - the capital city of Angola - lies south of the Equator that news of a major event has only just reached these shores; for back in late summer a major tri-Wi wireless audio system was used at the closing ceremony of the MPLA 2012 Angolan legislative election.

The event took place in the Camama Stadium 11 de Novembro in front of an audience of 100.000 and featured several major Angolan artists and the President of Angola himself, José Eduardo dos Santos who delivered the main speech.

Clearly, presidents like to be heard and, being no exception, José Eduardo dos Santos' words were distributed to an audience covering some 110.000sq.m by a large Adamson Y-Axis system powered by LAB gruppen amplifiers. Three delay towers, each situated some 500m from the main PA and equipped with tri-Wi Rx units, were fed their respective audio sig

USA - The Ohio State Buckeyes football team finished an undefeated regular season with a boost from its new Meyer Sound LEO linear large-scale sound reinforcement system. In this first permanent LEO installation in the world, the sound system filled the vast 105,000-seat Ohio Stadium with crisp voice announcements and fan-pumping music over the loud, energetic crowd for all eight home games.

The core LEO system is anchored by twin hangs of 14-each LEO-M line array loudspeakers with bass bolstered by ten 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements. A Galileo® Callisto loudspeaker management system with two Callisto 616 array processors supplies drive and optimization. Mounted inside the video screen scoreboard structure at the south end of the mammoth oval, the potent LEO system projects sound across the bowl, reaching over 900 feet to the top seats on the north end.

"The

Russia - On 6 October, in Russia's second capital of St. Petersburg, leading Russian rock band Leningrad played a special concert at sports complex Yubileyny. The event, arranged by company Euroshow, was distinctive for another reason - it marked the Russian debut of Martin Professional's new 1000-watt MAC Viper Profile moving head.

A variety of original effects, designed by Elena Morozova specially for the Leningrad concert, included looks from the first 10 MAC Viper fixtures delivered to Russia.

Aleksandr Blednykh, an owner of Euroshow, shares his impressions of the fixture. "The Viper is a great product. It's fast and bright," he says. "I like it very much and we are looking forward to receiving more of them. Another important thing for me is that we have finally got a serious alternative to the Sharpy. There are too many of them out there and it is a one-fun

USA - Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill, named after the singer's 2003 hit, I Love This Bar specialises in classic American fare, from food and drink to country music. The chain put a strong emphasis on great sound when specifying sound systems for the clubs, seizing on the rider-friendly MidasPRO2 as its console of choice.

Handling the A/V systems for the chain is LiveSpace, a Michigan-based design/build and live events company. "The first PRO2 we installed was in the Dallas location," says LiveSpace president Josh Maichele. "It was the third PRO2 shipped in the US. The price point of the console for the amount of versatility, usability and sound quality we get out of it has been a big home run for us."

With the success of the chain's early locations, LiveSpace was brought on board to create a cohesive, professional presentation as Toby Keith's I

UK - When BBC One's The One Show was chosen to launch the BBC One Christmas line-up, they commissioned arts and technology collective seeper to produce a large scale projection on to the front of the BBC.

The projection was used to map seeper's specially-produced promo film of the BBC's upcoming Christmas shows including Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who, Miranda, and EastEnders on to the building in Wood Lane, west London.

In the weeks running up to the launch, seeper brought in XL Events to specify and supply the projection element of the project. Several meetings and site visits were required to select the most effective placement for the projectors.

With companies such as Network Rail and Marks and Spencer in the close vicinity, great consideration was taken as to how the rigging of the projectors would affect the neighbours of the chos

USA / Europe - 2012 has been a banner year for the Meyer Sound MINA line array loudspeaker, the smallest and youngest member of the MILO family line array loudspeakers, the company reports. Dozens of new installations in small- to medium- sized theatres have come online around the world, and MINA's exceptional power-to-size ratio has made it a highly adaptable workhorse for Meyer Sound rental companies in a range of applications.

European AV companies including PRG, POOLgroup, Creative Technology Germany, Dushow, and Blue Noise have deployed MINA as the main, front-fill, side-fill, and under-balcony systems in their work of all genres and scales. To name a few examples, MINA has been used during an auto show in Paris, symphonic showcases, a soccer season opening, numerous corporate events, and on tour with Udo Jürgens and Michel Sardou.

In North America, MINA provided support

Australia - Music Group has announced the appointment of Galactic Music as their distributor for Behringer, Bugera and Eurocom products in Australia. Effective immediately Galactic will assume all responsibility for sales, distribution and service to a network of dealers across the country. In order to better serve their dealers, as of 14 January, 2013 Galactic will relocate to larger premises in Melbourne.

"We remain fully committed to providing our customers in Australia with outstanding service and support, and the appointment of Galactic Music will allow us to provide a 'best practice' customer experience," commented Music Group's VP of sales David O'Kelly. "Having served the Australian market directly for the past decade, we want to ensure the smoothest possible transition; and with Galactic we feel we have made the very best choice of successor."

Gene

Slovenia - Slovenia welcomed the 2012 Festive season in huge style at the Red XMas Party, the country's largest and hottest dance event, headlined by Armin Van Buuren, staged at the Arena Stožice, Ljubljana by Black Pony Entertainment and enjoyed by 12,000 wildly enthusiastic fans.

At the core of the lighting rig - a design based on a plot by Van Buuren's LD André Beekmans, and operated by Michael Seeverens both from Dutch based company The Art Of Light - were 70 Robe moving lights supplied by Slovenia's largest lighting rental company, Event Lighting.

The Robes were positioned all over a series of 12 trusses hung above the stage and comprised Robe Robin 600 LEDWashes, Robin 600 Spots and ColorSpot 1200E ATs.

As well as forming a dynamic nucleus for Van Buuren's high energy set, they were the workhorse lights for the other DJs in the eight hours of non-stop performan

USA - Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures are living up to the name of Kelly Clarkson's Stronger Tour with their punchy performance on the road. "With their very bright concentrated beam and fast effects, the Sharpys hold their own for such a little light," reports lighting designer Roy Bennet. "They really add another layer to the picture."

Clarkson has been headlining her fourth tour in support of her latest studio album, also called Stronger. She has played dates in North America, Europe and Australia.

Bennet equally divides his complement of Sharpys in the air and on the floor upstage in vertical racks. "I use them primarily for effects," he says. "I key people with them to play around with the prism and the frost, which is an interesting effect on people. The overall look of the show is very clean; there are a lot of soft goods on th

USA - California's San Mateo Union High Schools District is currently in the process of remodelling - and, in some instances, totally replacing - the theatres of six of its high schools: Aragon, Burlingame, Capuchino, Hillsdale, Mills, and the flagship San Mateo location. Theatre consulting for each of the venues was provided by San Francisco's Shalleck Collaborative, which specified L-Acoustics loudspeaker systems throughout.

Two of the projects - the new 614-capacity Aragon venue and refurbished 90-year-old Burlingame space with 593 seats and reopened balcony - have already now been completed. Both rooms feature left and right arrays comprised of six Kiva elements flown beneath a single SB18 and driven by LA4 amplified controllers.

The remaining four theatres are all scheduled for completion prior to the start of the 2013-14 school year. Two of the schools boast nearly 800 s

USA - For the upcoming January sweeps of ABC's new hit series Nashville, fading country star Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) and rising country ingénue, Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) find themselves on a co-headlining stadium tour.

Since Bandit Lites provides concert lighting for some of country music's biggest stars, including Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, it made sense that the producers of Nashville trusted Bandit Lites to provide the rig used at the Bridgestone Arena for the country rivals' concert.

Earlier episodes took place at The Grand Ole Opry, country music's most famous stage, and the historic Ryman Auditorium. Bandit provided both venues with permanent installation systems and fixture packages for their in-house lighting systems.

Viewers will have to wait until the show returns 9 J

UK - London-based projection artist Ross Ashton, returned to Gateshead's Saltwell Park for the Enchanted Parks 2012 event, with a large format show Glass House celebrating the work of Victorian stained glass artist, William Wailes.

The six and a half minute piece was projected on to the front face of Saltwell Towers, Wailes' magnificent former home in the grounds of the Park, and ran every evening for the duration of the after dark experience.

It was accompanied by a soundscape created by Karen Monid and the whole work was designed from the start as an integral visual and audio narrative.

A single PIGI 6Kw projector with a double rotating scroller was used to project the images, fitted with a 25cm lens and located 35 metres away producing a 20 metre wide picture.

Challenging environmental conditions included temperatures down to -5ºC and 15 cm of snow on the ground

China - Recording at high altitudes is not something most sound engineers tackle every day, so when Danish producer and engineer Hans Nielsen, of Focus Recording Studios, was asked to record a choir of 500 monks in a Chinese temple that was over 4,000m above sea level, he knew he would need a very resilient microphone to cope with the challenging conditions.

"I've always been a big fan of DPA Microphones and have used them regularly for over 25 years," Nielsen says. "When I realised this project involved recording at high altitude I knew I had to take my DPA microphones with me because they were the only mics I could rely on to capture the high quality sound I wanted in such extreme conditions."

Hans Nielsen was recording the album with internationally acclaimed folk singer and song writer Sa Ding Ding. A mix of Han and Mongol ancestry, Sa Ding Ding sings i

Australia - As the big international acts start to head down under for the busy summer season there is one thing many of them have in common - Vari*Lites.

Elton John's lighting designer Kevin 'Stick' Bye, a former Vari-Lite technician, prefers to use Vari-Lites and for this run he preferred to have around 52 VL3000 and 12 VL2000 washes. Lighting was supplied by PRG.

Nickleback's lighting designer Butch Allen also used PRG's Vari-Lite 3000 fixtures as well as six VL2500 washes with Chris Maeder in control.

The most talked about concert was Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto World Tour where lighting designer Paul Normandale used Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX units to create a lighting experience to perfectly complement the band's ultraviolet spectacular.

"The band wanted a vivid ultraviolet feel, with a sphere of energy that could transform from small to massive," explained

Europe - Deep Purple lighting designer Louis Ball has just given Martin Professional's new MAC III AirFX lighting fixture a thorough workout on the definitive rock band's November / December arena outing across Europe.

A classic rock 'n' roll show it is, complete with guitar and drum solos and row of on-stage Marshall amps. Once recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as 'The globe's loudest band', Deep Purple can still put on a powerful, energy-filled show, and that goes for the lighting rig as well.

Deep Purple's latest tour may not be as ear-splittingly loud as year's past thanks to sound exposure limits but there are no limits on how bright or active a lighting rig can be. And Louis Ball takes full advantage.

"They really take a hammering," he says of the 1500-watt moving head fixtures, supplied for the tour by TDA Rental. "The show is evolving ev

USA - Mixing veteran Jeff Peterson wrapped work recently on two high-profile gigs: Spike TV's Video Game Awards and CNN's Heroes: An All-Star Tribute. Peterson mixed both the production elements and live bands on an SD5 console provided by Hi-Tech Audio in conjunction with ATK. Peterson landed 112 inputs from two 56-pair splitters into two DiGiCo SD racks, with signals traveling to and from the consoles via an Optocore fiber optic network. Two 56ch ATK splitters were used on both shows to split signals between the SD Racks, monitors (in the case of CNN) and the broadcast trucks.

"On CNN Heroes, I had the only DiGiCo console," Peterson recalls. "Monitors were handled on a PM5D. On The Video Game awards, my FOH SD5 and a [stage monitor] foldback SD10 shared two DiGiCo SD Racks backstage for 112 inputs and 64 outputs divided between the two consoles. Wh

UK / Venezuela - Wisbech UK based 5 Star Cases has supplied a substantial quantity of cases to OB specialists Megahertz.

The cases form part of a shipment of eight vehicles that have been dispatched from Ely, Cambridgeshire based Megahertz to South American broadcaster, Vision Venezuela (ViVe), a government owned cultural broadcasting organisation.

The project comprised two complete Mercedes 2532 OB trucks and two 2532 Tender vehicles which carry all the flightcases containing the 'loose' gear, plus four further vehicles, two for satellite news gathering and two for production - all built on Toyota Land cruiser bases.

Megahertz has been using 5 Star for at least the last 10 years for its case requirements. Megahertz Production Manager, Bill O'Flynn comments, "5 Star are excellent, always reliable, the products are well made and quality engineered while the turnarounds a

Europe - The Nitro Circus Live show is an action fuelled performance led by Freestyle MotorX star Travis Pastrana. It features a star studded array of like minded friends who push the envelope of freestyle trickery. Recently the show was back touring Europe. Lighting designer Paul Collison relied on two grandMA2 light consoles to control the show's lighting.

Collison commented: "The biggest advantage of the grandMA2 platform on this project was the simplicity of the networking. Being able to have a control surface on the floor and one in the arena grandstand really helped manage the plotting. The show is viewed around 270° and covering the riders evenly from both sides on the ramps was of paramount importance. Having control surfaces on both sides of the arena also really helped with achieving this in the short timeframe. The show producers wanted a really simplistic lo

USA - Free registration is open now for PLASA Focus: Orlando 2013. The first PLASA Focus show to hit the Sunshine State, it will bring the world's latest entertainment technology to a local Florida audience, taking place on Wednesday 15 May and Thursday 16 May, 2013 at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, Florida.

Companies already signed up to exhibit at the show include Elation, Group One, CAST Software, A.C.T Lighting, Chauvet, Robe, Tomcat, SEAL, High End and TMB. With many other applications currently being processed, companies interested in exhibiting are advised to move quickly to secure their spot.

The show will play host to Florida's most talented production professionals and features game-changing technology, world-class speakers, live product demos, free training sessions and unparalleled networking opportunities.

Running alongside the exhibition is the Orlando edition of

Benelux - Italian loudspeaker manufacturer RCF has announced that it has appointed Electric Sound Benelux BV as distributor of its Commercial Audio, Installed Sound and Forum product lines in the Benelux region. Electric Sound will take over distribution of the lines - which include RCF's VSA and voice-evacuation products.

Lars Yoshiyama, RCF sales manager for Commercial Audio and Congress Systems, comments, "Electric Sound is a distributor with decades of history and we are very proud to be represented by such a renowned and successful company in this key European region."

Mr Yoshiyama concludes, "Electric Sound's breadth and depth of experience are such that as well as being a partner in RCF's distribution network, the company will become a valuable resource for our R&D programme, contributing unique insights that will allow us to develop and promote new produ

Germany - Nearly 200 Robe moving lights added glamour, sparkle and dynamics to the lighting design by Manuel da Costa for The Voice of Germany (TVOG) 2012.

The popular talent show was produced by Schwartzkopff TV Productions GmbH & Co KG and Talpa Distribution B.V. and recorded in Am Studio 20 of Studio Berlin. It was broadcast on ProSieben and SAT.1, and featured a live audience of 1200.

Da Costa also lit the first TVOG series in 2011, for which he also used Robe fixtures at the heart of his design. He had a relatively open brief on lighting this one, and had to fulfil all the main criteria of a high profile TV show - being flexible enough to give each artist an individual look for their different performances and to ensure it worked well on camera and looked good to the studio audiences.

Also, there needed to be a visual harmony with Florian Wieder's impressive mode

UK - Cinimod Studio in conjunction with Prolyte Group's Special Projects Division, Litestructures, have delivered the most epic of public lighting installations to mark the highly anticipated launch of the Halo 4 Xbox 360 game.

Agency AKQA (acting on behalf of Microsoft/Xbox) commissioned Cinimod Studio to create this spectacular illuminated structure - based on the Halo 4 Glyph symbol - which would be one of the largest and brightest man-made structures to ever fly over a capital city.

Cinimod Studio turned to Litestructures to help bring their concept to life. The solution drew on Litestructures' experience of creating 'impossible' structures using aluminium components. To fulfil the brief, a selection of proprietary products from the Prolyte range were specified, including the main structure frame created from a combination of S36R truss straights and custom corners. The in

Canada - Constructed in 1923-24 and designed by Montreal architect Joseph-Raoul Gariépy, who specialised in theatre and hospital projects, the Rialto was inspired by the Neo-baroque-style of the Paris Opera House. The Rialto Theatre is one of the most iconic buildings in Montreal, and is a former movie palace which today is designated as a 'National Historic Site' of Canada.

Today the main floor supports 708 people in standing mode, 450 people in theatre row seating, 350 in cabaret style seating. The newly opened balcony holds an additional 450 seated people.

Recent technical upgrades include a new Adamson SpekTrix loudspeaker system powered with Lab.gruppen PLM with Dolby Lake processing. In order to preserve the architectural beauty and clean sightlines, the ground stacked PA system is made up of four Spektrix 5 degree boxes mounted atop a double 18" cardioid Sub

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