USA - Chauvet Professional took on the stage during the exuberant halftime show of the 2013 Discover Orange Bowl, organised at Sun Life Stadium and broadcasted by ESPN. Nexus 4x4 eye-candy wash lights accompanied country singer Jake Owen, who entertained the large audience as the halftime headliner.

Randy Taylor, lighting designer and founder of Design & Productions Dallas-based full-service design and creative services company, specified 36 Chauvet Professional Nexus 4x4 pixel-mapping fixtures for the show. Taylor placed three arrays of Nexus 4x4 on stage right behind Owen: a central wall of 20 fixtures, flanked by two smaller walls of two-by-four wash lights.

For the halftime show, the Chauvet team operated the wash lights through Kling-Net control on the ArKaos Mediamaster software. The cues were triggered via DMX from the grandMA lighting console, using the Enttec DMX USB

UK - West London-based technical solutions company Entec Sound & Light continued its long working relationship with The Bootleg Beatles, the most successful and widely recognised tribute band to the legendary British musical group.

Entec has provided technical production for the band since 1994 - testament in itself to the artist's satisfaction with their production - in which time the band has regularly toured worldwide, playing to old and new generations of Beatles enthusiasts.

Entec's lighting crew chief Pete 'Pepper' Schofield ensured that all lighting designer Brendan Albrey's requirements were met.

It was Albrey's first tour with The Bootleg Beatles. He was chosen from several applicants who initially answered an ad to submit concepts that was circulated in the Association of Lighting Designers' (ALD) E-Newsletter. It was also his first time working with Entec.

The l

Norway - The annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert, held in Oslo, saw an extensive network of Midas live audio mixing consoles ensure artists, including Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Hudson, and Seal, sounded spectacular.

Hosted by the American actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Scottish actor Gerard Butler, the concert was recorded live and televised to over 120 countries to reach more than 500m viewers worldwide.

Set across three stages, the centre stage accommodated a full size orchestra conducted by Nick Davies. The three stage design ensures that the live televised show runs seamlessly from beginning to end as artist performances alternate between stages.

Norway's biggest rental house - and long-term Midas partner AVAB-CAC, supplied full production for the show. The company deployed two Midas XL8s front of house: one for the 55 strong, individually mic'd, Norwegian Radio Orchestra a

Philippines - Allen & Heath has appointed JB Music as its exclusive distributor in the Philippines. The A&H brand has been rapidly gaining market share in South East Asia, and JB's established dealer network, excellent service department and in house technical expertise mean they are able to serve this growing customer base.

"We at JB Music Philippines are very proud and honoured to finally exclusively distribute and promote Allen and Heath. Allen & Heath has been an institution in the pro audio industry and now we can officially say that we are a complete musical and pro audio company," said Jerico Fernando, VP sales & operations and marketing director at JB Music.

"We are so excited and encouraged by JB Music's team. They bring a level of professionalism that has been refreshing to watch and experience. We expect to see great things in the important Philippine

Australia - The National Institute of Dramatic Art has taken delivery of Jands HPC12 dimmer racks to be utilised in their new atrium performance space.

"We needed dimmers that had a "rock and roll" approach to allow for quick and easy setups," explained Adrian Wright, lighting supervisor at NIDA. "This is especially good as a learning tool for our students as they also get an understanding of the use of the Jands Power Distribution System and mains cables.

"Having already purchased the HPX dimmers for one of our larger venues, the purchase of the HPC dimmer racks were a very good choice on value for money, the ease of operation and most importantly the reliability."

(Jim Evans)

UK - XL Video supplied full video production including LED screens, cameras / PPU and control, IMAG projection system and crew to Madness's recent sold-out UK arena tour.

This capitalised on a high profile year for the band that included epic performances on top of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Golden Jubilee - complete with stunning projections by XL Video onto the front of the building - and at the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony.

'Luton' Pete Hosier's stage and video design offered a mix of visual humour and slick aesthetics, based on a fusion of circus and theatricality, with sumptuous red drapes, gentle arcs and impressive animations and imagery.

XL's project managers were Jo Beirne and Phil Mercer, and crew chief and video director on the road was Toby Vogel, who was working for the production.

Hosier specified a large Stealth LED screen upstage, 30 panels wide by

UK - Entertainment industry training centre Backstage Academy has released dates for its new year short courses at its base in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Those looking to acquire new skills or re-qualify in backstage disciplines for live events can now book on to one of the following courses via www.backstage-academy.co.uk:

Rigging Course, Wednesday 16 - Thursday 17 January

Event Safety Passport (SPA) Course, Wednesday 27 February

Stage Pyrotechnics Course, Thursday 28 February

The two-day Rigging Course takes place in the arena-sized studio on site at LS-Live and is tutored by industry veteran Eric Porter. It's a practical and theoretical training course targeting anyone who works with rigging equipment and wants to improve their equipment knowledge, safety awareness, practical techniques and theory. Delegates will carry out practical sessions on a truss rig in the stud

Uzbekistan - The newly built Bunyodkor Stadium was inaugurated at the end of August in conjunction with the celebration of the 21st Uzbekistan's Independence Day, recurring on 1 September 2012. On this occasion, Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan, was enlivened for several days by numerous sports events, folk shows, musical happenings and craft fairs enhanced by amazing fireworks and breathtaking city lighting.

As a part of this newly conceived metropolitan illumination concept, the Bunyodkor stadium - now the biggest sports facility in Uzbekistan giving home to the local football team - demanded a well-framed lighting plan that would be able to overcome the many structural obstacles this pioneering arena involved.

Supported by 64 columns, the three-dimensional sail-like canopies that embellish the entire exterior perimeter of this bowl-shaped stadium, were identified as

UK - Goodnight Mister Tom follows the story of eight- year old evacuee William Beech who is sent to live in the heart of the English countryside in the quiet village of Little Weirwold during the Second World War. The show has been capturing the hearts and minds of audiences around the UK during its current tour and after packing houses around the country the tour has come into the West End for a nine-week season.

Sound design for the production is by Gregory Clarke whose credits include Equus on Broadway for which he won a Tony Award for Best Sound Design in a play and he received the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design for Journey's End.

It's not the first time Clarke has used the AXYS loudspeakers on a show, his first experience of them was on Misterman at the National Theatre earlier this year. When asked for a quote on how th

Serbia - The National Driving Academy (NAVAK) just outside Belgrade was the venue for a four day Serbian VW dealers event which focussed on the Golf Mk7 Series. Robe's LEDBeam 100s were certainly in the driving seat as far as lighting the main presentation was concerned.

This was designed by event producer Aleksandar Kukanjac, with equipment - lighting, LED screen and PA system - supplied by the leading Serbian entertainment technology specialist, Studio Berar Projekt.

The event, attended by around 300 people in total divided into three groups per day, was staged in 'The Balloon' - a stylish tented structure that is permanently installed at NAVAK and used as a multi-purpose event space.

The 24 LEDBeam 100s were positioned on the floor and either side of the LED screen. They were rigged to the Balloon's integral trusses and positioned around its sides, used to enhance the atm

UK - The Racecourse Newbury hosted BBC Stargazing Live on 9 January, where 1,500 budding astronomers put into practice everything Professor Brian Cox had taught them throughout the series with experts on hand for demonstrations and to answer any questions.

The racecourse was one of 12 locations in the UK chosen as the beacon of the South for its accessibility and flexibility. The event took place in the Grandstand which offers over 1000sq.m of pillar free floor space, ideal for the array of practical activities taking place.

Each of the three floors represented a different zone with Explore on the ground floor, Discover on the first floor and Reflect on the second floor. Activities included workshops teaching people how to use thermal imaging cameras, inflatable planetariums, talks from astronomy experts and an interactive web chat with a NASA astronaut. The outside are

UK - In the past 12 months Stage Electrics have supplied DiGiCo SD8, SD9 and SD11 digital mixing consoles to over 10 venues across the country with recent sales to Embassy Theatre in Skegness, Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre, The BRIT School in Croydon; Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Eton College, Peterborough Key Theatre, and to Newcastle College who have installed two DiGiCo SD9's in their main house and studio theatre. The college also plays host to the company's successful annual Tyneside exhibition which takes place in the autumn and is set to take place again on Tuesday 22nd October 2013.

Nick Rogerson, instructor at Newcastle College Performance Academy said, "The purchase of these two desks has allowed us to upgrade the resources available to our Stage Management and Technical Theatre students and stay current with the equipment in use in the industry. I was i

Italy - The second sound engineering course organized by the Department of Science and Methods for Engineering of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, in cooperation with RCF SpA has been scheduled for 6 May - 6 June, encompassing 120 hours, divided into a five week period, from Monday through Friday. The course will be held in English.

The primary goal is to provide engineers with a specific knowledge of the state-of-the-art technologies related to sound, transducers and speaker systems and their applications in the professional market.

The course is organised in modules taking the participants through a learning process from the basis of electro-acoustic components like transducers, amplifiers and digital processors till the design of a complete audio project based on a real case study. An international reference project carried out by RCF engineers will be used as a

Australia - To celebrate Australia's annual 30-night Brisbane Festival last fall, 3000sq.m of brilliant lighting, visible for over 10 kilometres, lit up downtown Brisbane's business district. Sponsored by Santos GLNG City of Lights and designed by John Rayment, the festival's spectacular lighting was provided and installed by Chameleon Touring Systems of Sydney and Brisbane.

The challenging urban venue of three skyscrapers, a 20x50m floating barge, and a freeway overpass constituted three distinct lighting and control domains. Eighteen Panther 7k searchlights blazed from the city's tallest buildings. The barge and freeway systems featured 18 additional searchlights, and 210 moving lights.

A LumenRadio system, recommended and supplied to Chameleon by TMB, distributed control data wirelessly to all lighting elements of the event. A lighting controller located on the barge linked

The Netherlands - The latest Robe moving light technology - MMX Spots, LEDWash 1200s and LEDBeam100s - were chosen by Robin van der Plas, head of lighting and media at Patronaat, a popular high-profile alternative music venue in central Haarlem, Netherlands, which has received a recent technical upgrade.

The Robes replaced the original moving light system that was installed when the building, designed by architect Paul Diederen, opened in 2005.

Patronaat has two concert halls - at 950 and 350 capacity - both featuring an action-packed programme of the latest sounds and contemporary music, from underground to jazz and dance and electronica to acoustic performance.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Lighting designer and operator Ed Warren of Next Level Lights turned to Martin Professional's MAC Viper Profile for Mumford & Sons' Tour of Two Halves (first half theatres, second half arenas), which hit dates in the UK and Ireland in November and December as a leg on their extended Babel world tour.

The award-winning 1000 W fixtures were recommended to Warren by Rob Sinclair, who worked as visual consultant for the tour. "He'd used them previously and recommended them due to their tungsten abilities, and their general usefulness," said Warren, who has been with Mumford & Sons for almost four years.

"My show is very tungsten-heavy so it was important to achieve a warm CTO from the fixtures, which mixed perfectly with the many light bulbs on stage," Warren continues. "They were also very punchy with very clear beams as well as a decen

Benelux - The last three months of 2012 have seen popular Belgian rock band Zornik on an extensive tour to promote their latest album Less > More. Playing 25 dates in their home country, plus four in the Netherlands, a range of venue sizes has meant that a flexible audio system was required. A Coda Airline LA8 system was chosen.

The system has been supplied by Studio Haifax, based in Sint-Martens-Bodegem, on the outskirts of Brussels. Company owner Pieter Begard is touring with the band as crew chief and, as he puts it, "general technical problem-solver".

"Last year I was invited by Coda's Belgian distributor, Apex Audio, to its presentation of the Airline LA8 system and they also provided a complete LA8 system for a few demo shows," says Begard. "Both I and my system engineer, Yves Van Moerbeke, were impressed by the audible 'truthfulness' of t

Europe - German electro pop pioneers, Kraftwerk will use the dynamic interactive and 3D features of Dataton Watchout multi-image and presentation software, for all on-stage digital scenography at their hotly anticipated tours and concerts' programme throughout 2013.

Watchout manages projected 3D content on a large stage backdrop creating a powerful abstract presence in front of audiences wearing polarized 3D glasses. Two more Watchout channels feed the flanking LED screens. To create the lighting effects on the four oversized illuminated keyboards, a Pixel-gate LED video controller uses an additional DVI output from the main screen using the Watchout 'Tier' feature. The main timeline in Watchout is chasing timecode from Kraftwerk synthesizers (MTC converted into SMPTE). The Kraftwerk synthesizers are also used for live visual interaction controlled via MIDI commands.

FredrikSv

UK - Unusual Rigging has been nominated as Favourite Rigging Company in the annual TPi Awards, which take place on 11 February 2013, with the company saying it is 'delighted' with the nomination.

Nominations are voted for by industry professionals, making this shortlisting an accolade of Unusual's standing in the business. The awards highlight projects undertaken in 2012, which has been a particularly busy year for Unusual who constructed, among other things, the tallest tower and the longest cable camera in the world, at 100m and 2.5km respectively.

Other diverse projects have included Sports Personality of the Year 2012, the current Hollywood Costume exhibit at the V&A, The Bodyguard in London's West End, UK tours for

Phantom of the Opera, Lion King and Oliver!, production services for Piccadilly Circus Circus and the strengthening of the roof t

Argentina - DPA Microphones were present in abundance at the Gran Rex Theatre in Buenos Aires when keyboardist and composer Rick Wakeman played two concerts featuring his best-selling albums Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

The concerts were the culmination of a South American tour that also included six band-only shows in Brazil, Chile and Argentina. The final two sell-out concerts in Buenos Aires involved two different full orchestral shows, complete with a five-piece rock band, a choir, narration and solo singers.

Front of House sound engineer and co-production manager Ian Barfoot, who has worked with Rick Wakeman on numerous occasions since 1985, was given the task of specifying the audio equipment for the tour.

"The two orchestral concerts in Buenos Aires involved more than 90 channels, of which more a third used DPA

Germany - PR Lighting's popular 5000 Series has been proving popular on the European tour of Australian new wave metal band, Parkway Drive.

Audiences of up to up to 4,000 recently witnessed impressive light show at 19 shows across the continent - designed without compromise by Austrian company, MartinKames.com. Along with lighting designer Gunnar Loose (www.revolutionlights.de), Kames and system technician Markus Fichtler, developed a technical setup that met all requirements of the show.

Multiples of PR Lighting's PR-5000 Spot and PR-5000 Beam were selected for their advanced featureset. But the intensive tour schedule, with long drives between the locations, challenged the logistics and this became a further reason for specifying PR Lighting's PR-5000 Series. Notes Jens Ottenhus from German distributors, Focon Showtechnic. "With its 1.5 kW discharge lamps and a weight o

UK - More than 1000 LED light sources from SGM have brought the new 1800-capacity Wonderland nightclub to life in Maidstone, Kent - turning it into "a Madison Square Garden type atmosphere".

From the moment clubbers walk up the escalators, edged with pixel-mapped LED's they are immersed in a surreal escapist world of SGM paper lanterns in the foyer and walkways. Turning into the 'Tomorrow' nightclub - the biggest of the three spaces, and designed like a rock 'n' roll arena - their senses are immediately assaulted by flown arrays of eight SGM SP-6 Six Pack blinders and four banks of four SGM X-5 white strobes, which pulse onto the dancefloor, punctuating the beam action from 24 SGM Beam 300 moving heads.

But the main focus of attention is the largest SGM centrepiece ever produced - a massive overhang comprising 225 of SGM's 1m length pixel tubes (LT-100), interspersed

UK - 2013 got off to a spectacular start for Star Events Group (SEGL) with the event engineering and seating specialist providing stages and structures to three of the UK's leading New Year celebrations.

Edinburgh's Hogmanay - celebrating the 20th anniversary of the world famous street party SEGL were contracted by Unique Events for the 13th successive year and provided a 15m VerTech stage system for the centrepiece 'Concert in the Gardens' show featuring Scottish 80's legends Simple Minds.

The stage specifically designed to integrate with the listed Ross Band Stand structure located in West Princess Street Gardens was erected over two phases spanning the Christmas festivities. The 41m wide frontage provided rigging facilities for four audio hangs and stage right and left wing Imags to give the audience a great view of the show. Production access features including substructur

UK - Fuelled by a significant upgrade to the original 1978 concept, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds, The New Generation as it is now known, has been playing to packed arenas throughout the UK and Northern Europe this winter.

The 'new generation' prefix heralds a fresh cast but the tried and trusted team of Simon Honywill (FOH engineer), Mark Edwards (system technician) and Steve Watson (monitor engineer) remain the same ... with sound production company RG Jones again fielding Martin Audio's MLA Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array system to create the soundscape.

The production sees Liam Neeson take over the Richard Burton role as the journalist and Kaiser Chiefs' Ricky Wilson as the Artilleryman. There were to be other changes as Marti Pellow was added to the cast as the Voice of Humanity and Jason Donovan returned - this time as Parson Nathaniel, wi

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