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UK - Out Board have posted five TiMax SoundHub Tutorial videos at their new YouTube TiMax Media channel.

Each short video runs about 4-6 mins and the set provides a fast-track training course for the versatile PC/Mac software used to program and control the powerful TiMax SoundHub audio matrix, playback server and showcontrol unit.

Titles include The Mixer basics, through Files and Cues, Triggers and Events, Cues and The Timeline up to a final System and Utilities roundup.

Following detailed briefs from Out Board, the videos have been compiled and narrated by Canadian sound designer and post-production engineer Alan Hardiman as he demonstrates the software's comprehensive feature set.

Rendered in full HD, the videos look like the real thing when watched full-screen, and ProTools was used to help edit and balance sound effects demonstrations and also for mastering the narra

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France - The nuclear blast at Hiroshima in 1945 is often described in Japanese as a flash (pika) followed by a bang (don). Last year, a performance lit with ETC Source Four LED Lustr+ fixtures aimed to represent the unexpected terror of the pika don through the medium of dance. Un Coup de Don, by dance company Ariadone and led by Carlotta Ikeda and Ko Morobushi (Japan), was part of the Festival Automne in Normandy, France.

Lighting director Eric Blosse says, "We all agreed that we needed to restart from the beginning, rather than seek to replicate the actual flash itself: we were left with a blank white space focused on the body in a trance."

The style of dance, Butoh, is traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion, which is well suited to trance-like movements and subtle colour shifts.

Says Blosse, "The

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Hungary - Christie projection is at the centre of what is believed to be the first permanent outdoor pixel mapping project ever staged in Europe.

The initiative of saving the small early 19th century Breda Castle, situated close to the eastern border of Hungary, by developing it into a new tourist attraction is the result of a collaboration between owners, the Megyeri family, and the initiator, Informax Ltd. Working with Bordos.ArtWorks and Invited Artists (run by Budapest-based 3D artist László Zsolt Bordos) and András Schmid (of Christie technical partner DNN|360) they have mapped the façade in a series of animated tableaux.

From 15 June onwards, an artistic video mapping show will be projected every day (and every hour) after dark, using the 3kW xenon light engine of a Christie Roadster HD18K (18000 ANSI lumens) projector, equipped with 1.8-2.6:1 HD zoom lens. And it is

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Australia - The recently opened, and largest flagship restaurant for the Hurricanes group, Hurricanes Grill Brighton Le Sands is an expansive venue which overlooks the beach.

When deciding upon a suitable audio solution for the venue, Steve Sidd (general manager) wanted great sound but was under the impression that a JBL/Crown/BSS solution may have not been within his budget. Fortunately Con Constantinou, managing director of Constant Technology Pty Ltd, recommended a quality JBL audio solution which the client was delighted to learn was affordable.

"Steve's perception of the JBL brand was that it would be too expensive," explained Constantinou. "Once we presented the quote to the client he was really surprised how much of a cost effective solution it was."

The main challenge was that the client didn't want the speakers to be visible and so Constantinou h

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Fundraising Fellowship - The Arts Council is to fund a new fellowship programme to train arts fundraisers of the future. The Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Fellowship will offer 11 places for entrepreneurial graduates at organisations including Opera North and Tate Liverpool. The programme is the first of its kind in the UK. With continuing spending cuts it is thought fundraisers will be increasingly important for the arts. A recent study by the charity Arts & Business suggested a growing divide in donations to the arts between London and the rest of England. Philanthropic giving to theatres and galleries rose 10% in London between 2011 and 2012. while donations elsewhere fell 3.5%. The trainee fundraisers will take part in an intensive 12 month training programme and it is hoped that they will go on to be leading directors of arts organisations in the future.

Budget Cuts<

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UK - Members of PLASA attending the 2013 European AGM at BAFTA in central London recently were presented with the Association's Strategic Plan for the next five years by Matthew Griffiths, PLASA's CEO, and Ed Pagett, Managing Director of Panalux Broadcast & Event and current Chairman of PLASA's European Regional Board and overarching Governing Body.

The Strategic Plan is a blueprint for PLASA's future growth and will inform the tactical and operational plans needed to transform this collaborative document into a reality. It was clear that effective implementation would only be possible with the full support and involvement of the membership and, with this in mind, a concise version of the Strategic Plan would be delivered to all members during the summer.

PLASA worked to set the scene through 2012 in support of launching the plan and members were informed that the most signifi

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USA - The submission deadline for the fifth annual Rock Our World Awards is one week away; all nominations need to be in by 21June 2013. The awards, which recognize extraordinary achievement of products, projects or product application by PLASA members, were designed to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of technology and the designers or integrators who apply it. The process is easy and helps make your colleagues shine.

Anyone may nominate a PLASA Member for an award, so if you've seen something revolutionary that has rocked your world in the last year, now is your chance to tell us. It could be a piece of equipment you worked with, something you saw at a trade show, read about in an industry magazine, or an event you experienced. It could also be something your company created. Nominations for the 2013 awards must have been available in the market or premiered between

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UAE - Barco LiveDots, a Barco company, has entered into a strategic partnership with Dubai-based audiovisual expert Venuetech.

Venuetech will be the exclusive distributor of LiveDots' full LED portfolio in Saudi Arabia and a non-exclusive reseller for the GCC (Kingdom of Bahrain, Kuwait, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates). LiveDots is confident that Venuetech will help to expand its business in the Middle East market.

Venuetech provides both system integrators and local channels with a wide range of products and services - from consultation, design, supply, training through to after-sales services. Its team of qualified system designers and in-house engineers is committed to ensuring total customer satisfaction through expert advice and support.

"Distribution partners can help us increase the number of customer touch points and improve our customer s

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Belgium - Hifi-Center Melis and Jan Geerts have completed the installation of a new Community Entasys sound system for Sint-Leonardus Church, located in Aartselaar on the southern outskirts of Antwerp.

With its oldest parts dating back to 1792, and additions in 1861, Sint-Leonardus Church is a traditional building with a beautiful interior, but its dimensions and highly reflective surfaces presented difficult acoustic problems.

The supplier Hifi-Center Melis, and installer Jan Geerts, worked closely with Olivier Massart of Community's Belgian distributor, M-Pro BeNeLux, to determine a solution that would provide the wide coverage required for the congregation with the very narrow vertical dispersion needed to avoid reflections.

Calculations showed that the entire area was best covered by just two Community Entasys FR full-range column-line-array loudspeaker systems positione

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Australia - Canberra's National Science and Technology Centre Questacon has become the first Australian institution to invest in Philips Selecon's fully tuneable high output LED PL1 luminaires.

The centre - which attracts more than 420,000 visitors each year - has purchased 20 of the PL1s, which draw on Philips' pioneering technology to meet the everyday challenges of illuminating the museums, art galleries and stages.

"As an interactive Science Centre our requirement for lighting is based on more of a theatrical approach than traditional museum lighting," says Christine Hendry, creative manager at Questacon. "We use a combination of focused light and colour washing luminaires and needed to have an integrated approach to our gallery lighting with a plan for implementation over several years. The PL1s were seen as the perfect solution for us.

"Our main cri

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India - Leading south Indian rental company Nitin Speakers & Electrical has invested in Robe moving lights to upgrade their lighting inventory.

Run by Sachin Naik - who has connected with many politicians, dignitaries, VIPs and celebrities in the course of his work - the Pune based operation supplies technical production to events of all types from vast political rallies for half a million people or so to concerts and musical extravaganzas to corporate presentations.

Known for many years as a high quality audio rental company and also for building large portable venue superstructures, Nitin Speaker's & Electrical opened its Intelligent Lighting division a year ago.

"We were being asked more and more frequently if we could supply lighting," explains Naik, "So we decided to do it properly and make a substantial investment so we could stock and supply the very be

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Europe - "Basically what we've got here is a massive TV screen," says Andy Tonks, video crew chief from Chaos Visual Productions on the current Muse production doing the rounds of European stadiums this summer. Made up of WinVision 12mm, there is a total of 1092 active tiles, each one measuring 56cm x 56cm. That makes a total screen surface of 450sq.m..

Flown off 25 x two-ton motors, the panoramic screen surface is split into five units and rigged across the rear of the stage, upstage of the drum riser which is itself clad in active tiles. As Tonks says a lot of thought has gone into making the logistics of rigging a screen of this size manageable in a touring environment: "Where we can the points are pre-rigged or in some cases we load in the whole screen system the night before the rest of the production.

"When broken down, the interlocking panels fit int

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Russia - Moscow's Teresa Durova Teatrium na Serpukhovke performance venue has invested in Philips Selecon's colour changing PLCyc1 luminaires in a major upgrade to its lighting equipment, replacing 121250W asymmetric tungsten cyc floods.

The Theatre's head of lighting, Vladimir Evstifeyev, invested in the PLCyc1s after testing them in the venue in early 2013.

"Vladimir and I were amazed at the PLCyc1's brightness and homogeneous filling without coloured shadows, and also absence of visual crossings of the light flows from adjacent fixtures," says Andrey Isotov, lighting designer at the Maly Theatre. "I was keen to be able to use the latest in LED lighting technology while working on The Scarlet Flower show, and the PLCyc1s do the job perfectly."

"Each PLCyc1 LED luminaire can replace the equivalent of a traditional four-colour, 500W per circuit cyc l

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UK - For the third consecutive year, Adlib Solutions supplied an L-Acoustics K1 PA system for the popular Capital FM Summertime ball event, staged at Wembley Stadium, London, which this year seriously upped the ante with line up hosted by Justin Timberlake, and featuring Robbie Williams, Taylor Swift, Lawson, Jessie J, Disclosure, Rudimental, Ellie Goulding and more.

The K1 was tuned by KSE & systems engineer Tony Szabo, who was joined by an Adlib crew of 16 including crew chief Marc Peers, and Dave Kay who worked as RF Co-ordinator.

Ian Nelson operated the presenter console, Michael Bernard Flaherty supervised the patch while Adlib's project manager Phil Stoker collaborated closely with the event's technical producers Production North, specifically their sound supervisor Andrew 'Baggy' Robinson and production manager Sarah Hollis, on the logistics.

Time was super-tight. The

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South Africa - Philips Vari-Lite's LED VLX Wash luminaires have been used to deliver 'breathtaking' lighting to celebrate the launch of Samsung's Galaxy S4 smartphone in Johannesburg.

Event production manager Victor Vermaak and lighting designer Renaldo Van Den Bergfrom AV Unlimited (AVU) specified 12 of Vari-Lite's 14,000 lumens output VLX luminaires for the spectacular show at the city's Sandton Convention Centre, which was attended by more than 2,500 guests.

"We used the VLXs in the Presentation area to light the Honeycomb roof. We chose them because of their colour richness and punch," says Vermaak. "The VLXs were used to create colour and mood changes and worked perfectly. The lights were positioned quite a distance from the roof and no other LED wash light in our company would have created what we were looking for over that distance. Plus the awesome zoom

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UK - Manchester based dbn Lighting supplied lighting equipment, LED screens and a top crew to seven performance areas at the vibrant 2013 Parklife Weekender Festival in Manchester, which moved for the first time to a new venue in Heaton Park, complete with an expanded capacity and up to 50,000 guests a day.

dbn's Nick Walton and Nick Buckley project managed the event, taking care of lighting and visuals for the Main Stage, Stages 3, 4, 7 and 8, the VIP area and the Tree House.

Working for Ear To The Ground, they provided over 250 moving lights site-wide and engaged in extensive advanced planning to ensure that everything ran smoothly and seamlessly once on location. The operation involved 12 dbn crew the week before, all working efficiently to maximise time and resources.

Nick Walton and Nick Buckley produced a production design for all the areas in which they were involved.

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Belgium - As well as live music, theatre, sport and broadcast, Yamaha's CL series digital consoles are increasingly being specified by colleges teaching state-of-the-art sound mixing and networking. One example is Belgium's Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD), where a CL5 is a vital part of its live production courses.

IAD is located in the planned town of Louvain-la-Neuve which, since 1969, has risen from farmland to having a permanent population of over 30,000, plus many more students during term time. Originally developed to house the Université Catholique de Louvain - with which IAD has a close relationship - the city is now host to a number of education facilities, as well as a science park, exhibition centre, live venue, museums and other amenities.

With its focus on theatre, live music, cinema, television, radio and multimedia, IAD has to ensure its students are

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Iceland - LazyTown Entertainment in Iceland is using DPA miniature microphones to capture the audio for the multi-award winning LazyTown pre-school television show, which is now shooting its fourth series in Iceland.

LazyTown is a leading and highly respected children's entertainment brand comprising an award-winning TV series, live stage shows, sports events, publishing, and more. The LazyTown concept is entertainment for children and the whole family, dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle in a fun and engaging way. The TV show has become an international success since it was first launched in 2004 and has been broadcast in over 170 countries, reaching over 500 million homes and dubbed in over 30 languages.

LazyTown's sound supervisor, Gunnar Arnason, who also owns a recording and post production company called Upptekid, is responsible for selecting all of the audio equi

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UK - Le Maitre effects were on full view this past weekend at major festivals around the UK.

The Killers were the headline act at the Isle of Wight Festival where Le Maitre effects included 25' Silver Mines; Mortar Hits; 30' Silver Comets with tail; Flash Reports;1x25' Silver Gerbs; 30x20' Silver Cascades; 30' Red Comets'; 25' Red & Purple Mines; Blue & Purple 30' Comets with tail; 25' Gold Glitter Mines; and 30 Air Canons.

In addition, Mines, Gerbs, Mortar Hits, Flash Reports, Flame Projectors were also going off at the Download Festival for Iron Maiden and Airbourne.

Le Maitre were working in collaboration with Pyrotek Special Effects Inc.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Bubble & Squeak, the specialist PR, marketing and events agency for the broadcast and media technology sector, has been appointed to provide marketing and PR services for PLASA London, the world's premier annual pro-audio, installation and entertainment technologies event. The 13 year old agency was appointed due to its industry knowledge and extensive experience with media industry events; its clients include Broadcast Video Expo (BVE), the largest UK trade exhibition for the broadcast and film industry, as well as UK Screen's Conch Awards which recognise excellence in audio post-production, and it organised the Music Producers' Guild awards from 2010-2012.

PLASA London is the key exhibition in PLASA's international events calendar, and takes place from 6-9 October 2013. This year's event brings an added challenge as PLASA London transitions from Earls Court to its new hig

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Brazil - Paul McCartney's Out Thereworld tour kicked off in Brazil with three shows and a lighting design created by Roy Bennett.

The shows were supervised by Bennett and operated by lighting director Wally Lees. Lighting equipment for all three was supplied by leading Brazilian rental company LPL Professional Lighting and included Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash luminaires, together with other moving lights and generics.

LPL's Erich Bertti project managed all three Brazilian dates which saw McCartney perform for the first time ever in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), Goiânia (Goiás) and Fortaleza (Ceará).

The production used 12 x Robe ColorWash 2500E ATs located on the stage floor, nine ColorSpot 2500E ATs on overhead trusses and 20 x ColorWash 1200E ATs distributed on the side and followspot trusses. "As usual the Robe fixtures worked really reliably," said

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UK - The 2013 Olivier Awards saw the new Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330s take charge of their first event since they became a recent addition to White Light's ever growing arsenal of entertainment technology.

For the third year running the Awards, which were broadcast from the Royal Opera House's glittering auditorium, were lit by respected lighting designer Ben Cracknell.

Lighting designer Humph McDermott continued the lighting theme outside on the Radio 2 Stage, where special live performances and live streaming of the Awards were watched by hundreds of theatre fans on the Covent Garden Piazza.

And it was outside that the brand new Sharpy Wash 330 came into its own. McDermott used them, alongside Sharpy Beams, to cut through the daylight and complement the sparkling theatrical atmosphere inside the Royal Opera House.

McDermott needed a super bright fixture to cut through the

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USA - When the annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival got underway, with its 24/7 schedule and desert location, Clay Paky lighting took centre stage for the Main Stage performances of California rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Lighting designer Scott Holthaus had 70 Clay Paky Sharpys and 23 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s in his inventory for the Chili Peppers' night-time shows on both festival weekends. "The Sharpys were on moving pods on the stage while the 1500s were on top of my vertical towers, on the floors and screamers; eight 1500s were front of house," he explains.

Holthaus recounts how "one show was nearly cancelled due to a sandstorm. There were sand dunes on the stage. Our video portion and many of the fixtures were disabled. All I had was Sharpys and Alphas." With so many particulates in the air Holthaus wanted fixtures "that throw a beam

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Sweden - Woodlite is a leading Swedish lighting, trussing and rigging dry-hire rental operation founded in 1995 by Magnus Jansson. Headquartered in Karlstad, the company now has around 150 Robe fixtures in its rental fleet and over 1100 moving lights in total.

In March 2012, a new office and warehouse was opened in Stockholm to enable Woodlite to service its clients and the generally buoyant business in the area even more quickly and efficiently.

Midway through 2012, Woodlite started purchasing Robe's Robin LEDWash series fixtures - both 300s and 600s - and more recently it has invested in the new Robin DLX LED Spot fixtures.

This increase in business with Robe has been prompted by the demands of their rental partners ... and in turn their clients who are specifying Robe increasingly frequently for shows, concerts, tours and events.

"We also like to be proactive in ou

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PLASA Media Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 4111709 - VAT Number GB 762 5913 14
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