Italy - Around 100 international guests recently attended a series of open days, product demonstrations and technical workshops hosted jointly by Outline s.r.l. and Cadac in Brescia, near lake Garda in northern Italy.

Staged within the beautiful Teatro Palabrescia during the third week in September, the main hall was given over to the complete portfolio of Outline loudspeaker systems. The Eidos 265, Mini-COM.P.A.S.S., Mantas, Spectra, Doppia, DVS and iSM stage monitor ranges were all on operational display, as was the all-new GTO C-12 compact high-power line array system. In the large and ornate foyer area, Cadac presented their Live1 analogue console plus the CDC Four and CDC Eight digital models.

Visitors from as far afield as Thailand made the trip to Outline's hometown, joining guests from the UK, Holland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, Greece

UK - The stage is now set for the fourth annual PLASA Rigging Conference & Riggers' Forum, unmissable events for anyone involved in entertainment rigging. Taking place alongside PLASA London on 6, 7 & 8 October 2013 at ExCeL London, this year's forum & conference are all set to open their doors from Sunday.

The conference's keynote speech will be given by one of the rigging industry's leading and longest-serving practitioners, Robin Elias of Unusual Rigging, whose light-hearted account of his long career will act as a vehicle to illustrate the challenges and rewards of working as a rigger. Then Cristiano Giavedoni at Kinesys Projects explores control systems and the operation of automated scenic movement, examining ways of achieving a safe environment without over-engineering systems.

Codes of Practice - The Next Steps, presented by Lori Rubinstein, Director of Skills a

World - PLASA Members worldwide have begun voting in the Association's yearly elections, which commence this week.

The month-long ballot will decide places on PLASA's European and North American Regional Boards, together with a single seat on its over-arching Governing Body.

The role of the Regional Boards is to represent the interests of members affiliated to those regions, ensuring that PLASA offers strong on-the-ground support to members. Both the North American and European Regional Boards are looking to fill a number of places for 2014.

For the European Regional Board, Adam Blaxill, of Stage Electrics, has put his name forward for the position of Vice- Chair; Duncan Bell, of Autograph Sound Recording Ltd., has put his name forward for Secretary; Mark Cooper, of SES Entertainment Services Ltd., Peter Heath, of Roland UK Ltd., and Matt Lloyd, of Global Design Solutions Lt

Brazil - Around 250 Robe moving lights were used on the two main stages at the 2013 Festa do Peao de Barretos staged over 11 days and nights in Barretos, Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was the first use of Robe's new Pointe fixture at such a large event in the country.

Festival organisers Barretos based Os Independentes asked Sao Paulo based Apple Producoes to provide full technical production and equipment. The two companies have partnered for the last 11 years on the event.

To ensure a successful event, both companies started work for the 'Barretos Peon Party' four months in advance, preparing all the project's elements, and co-ordinating the staff, materials and logistics that would be needed.

Apple Producoes also created the lighting and set design, which was developed by Gabriel Pincel, their lighting designer and technical manager in collaboration with designers Joao Batista an

UK - At PLASA London 2013, Roland Systems Group will host the UK launch of the Roland VR-50HD all-in-one AV Mixer with outputs for web streaming and recording. The Roland VR-50HD fully integrates an audio mixer, video switcher, multi-viewer touchscreen and USB video/audio streaming into a stand-alone device controllable by a single operator. This unique product adds HD/multi-format capability to the very popular VR Series that includes the Roland VR-5 and VR-3 AV mixers.

"The all in one VR-50HD saves time and money, reducing the hardware and the set-up time required and providing a plug-in-and-play solution for live events large and small," says the company. "Instead of needing a number of separate products, the VR-50HD combines an audio mixer to mix the audio inputs from various sources including microphones, a video mixer to mix video and computer sources using

UK - PLASA London 2013 is ready and raring to go, with new attractions, free seminar sessions with high calibre speakers and excellent networking opportunities all lined up for the visitors from all sectors of pro audio, lighting and stage technologies. Those that have not yet registered can still save 50% off the door price by signing up at www.plasashow.com. Over 15,000 industry professionals have already registered for this year's PLASA London event, which takes place at the ExCeL Centre, London from 6-9 October 2013.

PLASA London is supported by Platinum Sponsor Robe Lighting, Gold Sponsor Martin Professional and Silver Sponsor Clay Paky.

Chris Toulmin, Head of Events, PLASA London 2013, said: "Our move to ExCeL has given us and our exhibitors the scope to truly get bigger, brighter and louder. We are very proud to unveil the AudioLab feature which brings the latest a

As Technical Partner to PLASA London 2013, Roland Systems Group (RSG) products and people will take an active role in the AudioLab Arena as well as hosting two seminars at the show. The AudioLab Arena is a new purpose built pro audio demonstration facility where the latest products for club sound, mobile and large format systems will be showcased. The Roland V-800HD Multi Format Video Switcher will feature at the core of the set-up in the Arena which will host shoot outs from exhibitors such as Adam Hall, Dynacord and FBT.

Peter Heath, Sales and Marketing Director for RSG UK will present a business seminar in Seminar Theatre 1 on Monday 7th at 5.00pm entitled 'Maximising Sales Efforts'. This is a session aimed at sales people/managers about the benefits of pro-active calling and selling. It will also look at building and managing sales pipelines; digital contact versus telephone contac

Following its sell-out at the ABTT Theatre Show, additional copies of the new edition of TECHNICALSTANDARDS FOR PLACES OF ENTERTAINMENT 2013, also known as the Yellow Book, are available forpurchase during PLASA London at a special 'trade show' price.

Stock of this essential book - the first new edition in five years and now including material previously containedin the Model National Standard Conditions for Places of Entertainment - can be found on the ABTT's Stand,A53, at ExCeL London, from this Sunday 6 October, at a reduced rate, held for all four days of the show.

Edited by David Adams and published by the Association of British Theatre Technicians, the Chartered Instituteof Environmental Health, the District Surveyors Association and the Institute of Licensing, the book sets out thephysical standards for buildings, their equipment and the good management of the premises so as t

USA - Rational Acoustics has been appointed exclusive US distributor for SG Audio's 10EaZy SPL monitoring software & hardware systems. Distribution rights have also been granted for Canada on a non-exclusive basis.

Developed in 2005 by SG Audio Aps., 10EaZy has become a European standard for "accurate, reliable, easy-to-use IEC/ANSI Class 1 and Class 2 compliant SPL monitoring solutions for live sound".

"Rational Acoustics is very excited to partner with SG Audio and represent 10EaZy in the United States." says Karen Anderson, Rational Acoustics COO. "10EaZy is an incredibly slick, powerful and modern approach to real-time SPL monitoring, particularly for live sound. We at Rational are, obviously, fans of innovative software & hardware solutions that provide audio professionals with the tools they need for greater system analysis, optimization and cont

France - Renowned French music festival, Le Cornouaille, hosted several world-known artists including Steve Hackett (Genesis Revisited), Dan Ar Braz, Murray Head, Salif Keita, and Goran Bregovik among others. The festival, held in the French region of Brittany, featured three main stages each supported by several of Martin's lighting consoles and luminaires. French rental company SIWA provided the gear.

Lighting of the main stage, Espace Gradlon, was controlled with a new Martin M6 console operated by François Guillet of Lumières Utiles and Jo Nihouarn of SIWA. "The M6 T-Bar and CITP are very powerful tools for improvisation. The M6 allows me to choose media directly with media thumbs and crossfade smoothly between video cues and media speed. I really enjoy working with those two splendid tactile screens," commented Guillet. The lighting desk was backed up with a net

Brazil - Allen & Heath digital iLive systems were used for the recording of a new DVD by one of Brazil's most popular singers, Claudia Leitte. Recorded at a major gig in Pernambuco Arena in Recife, an iLive-112 Control Surface with iDR-64 MixRack was used by monitor engineer, Roque Fausto, and an iLive-144 surface with iDR-64 rack using Dante, was employed by famed engineer, Beto Neves, in the mobile recording truck.

Claudia Leitte is a Brazilian axé singer and former vocalist in the group, Babado Novo. The singer is currently one of the coaches in Brazil's version of The Voice, and this latest DVD recording entitled Axe Music, is the third DVD of her solo career. The recording took place during a concert The Greatest Show In the World, which also featured performances by other well-known Brazilian artists, Saulo Fernandes, Anitta and Wesley Safadão.

Canada - MDG, exclusive distributors of Robe and Chromlech in Canada and manufacturers of industry standard MDG atmospheric generators, provided lighting, fog and haze effects for Mumford & Sons' mammoth 145-date international 2013 tour.

MDG supplied 15 Robe Robin 600 LEDWash and 16 Robe Robin 1200 LEDWash moving heads, plus a quantity of Chromlech Elidy LED lighting panels composed of 64 Elidy-Wall LED panels arranged in a 16 wide by 4 high video backwall, and 12 Elidy-Big and 12 Elidy-S panels rigged above and behind the band on stage. The tour marks the largest installation of the French lighting manufacturer's new product to date and the first project for MDG to supply with Elidy since its appointment as exclusive Canadian distributor.

MDG also provided two of its own dual fog and haze generators, MDG theONE. These were located on either side of the stage to provide a high

Denmark - Big Mick Hughes, Front of House sound engineer for the US heavy metal band Metallica, is using DPA's d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones to capture the sound of drummer Lars Ulrich's cymbals and toms.

"After 30 years with Metallica - and 15 years miking Lars' drums with another brand of microphone - I was finally persuaded to test DPA microphones by Morten Uldbæk, who is the Danish distributor for Midas consoles," says Hughes. "I have to admit I had never considered DPA as the right kind of microphone for live rock music, but after giving them a try I was really impressed with their brightness and crispness."

The final impetus to switch to DPA came from the studio engineers who were working on the soundtrack for Metallica's 3D film Through the Never, which will hadits first public screening at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in

UK - The Music Producers Guild is holding its East Midlands Autumn Speakeasy on 6 November 2013 at the Mezz Lounge, the Broadway, Nottingham.

Doors open at 6 pm and everyone is welcome - entry is free and you do not need to be an MPG member to attend.

Producers Mick Glossop and Andrew Hunt from the MPG executive board will at the event to discuss initiatives and the scope of what the MPG can offer.

John Paul Braddock, MPG East Midlands coordinator, says, "Speakeasy events are a great opportunity to network. As many producer and engineers work in isolation, they provide a chance for music industry professionals to meet, exchange stories, discuss problems and develop new ideas and partnerships."

(Jim Evans)

UK - During the long evolution of Novus Leisure's Tiger Tiger brand, beginning with the pilot unit in London's Haymarket in 1998, much of the technical infrastructure work has been serviced from companies within the SSE Audio Group - initially Green-i and now the installation division of SSE Audio itself.

Green-i's Ian Woodall, in particular, had been a strong advocate of BSS Audio's early pioneering Soundweb platform, and as the Tiger Tiger footprints and zonal requirements became more ambitious, the iconic BSS SW-9088 'Green' DSP devices and remote SW-9010 'Jellyfish' local remote wall panels started to abound.

But in the world of digital processing and sampling rates, technology moves fast - and the Soundweb Originals were duly superseded by Soundweb London. This constantly evolving series offered more flexibility, enhanced I/O configuration, dual-redundant CobraNetTM audio

USA - On Thursday 26 September, Vintage King Los Angeles (VKLA), was the place to be as Focusrite presented a showcase of its RedNet Ethernet-networked interfaces, which are based around the industry-standard low-latency Audinate Dante audio networking system.

The event's attendance read like a who's-who of the pro audio community, with such leading industry figures present as Chris Lord-Alge, CJ Vanston, Michael Bradford, Dave Reitzas, Herb Tarwick, Al Schmitt, Steve Genewick and Dean Martin Hovey.

"The event was a huge success," stated Phil Wagner, president of Focusrite Novation Inc. "Vintage King's Los Angeles facility was the perfect place to hold this event, because of their extensive installation network infrastructure and customer base. The quality time we got to spend with key members of the audio community was an invaluable experience. Everyone at VKLA

UK - British loudspeaker technology company, Flare Audio, have announced the release of a new series of bass enclosures whose objective is sonic invisibility of the loudspeaker box. Flare's Space and Vortex technologies combine to create high definition natural sound.

Applying Flare Audio's theory of Waveform Integrity, Flare Audio has revolutionised bass enclosures with the release of SB21, SB18 and SB12. These compact enclosures (less than half the size of typical 21", 18" and 12" sealed design bass loudspeakers) deliver clear strong bass over the driver's full frequency range without false enhancement.

The SB21C features a 21" 1400w driver in a 600mm x 600mm x 300mm 42kg enclosure, the SB18C houses an 18" 1200w driver in a 513mm x 513mm x 261mm 23.5kg enclosure and the SB12C, a 12" 900w driver in a 374mm x 374mm x 178mm enclosure.

Employing F

Benelux - Robert Juliat has appointed AED Distribution as its official distributor for the Benelux countries, with effect from 1 January 2014.

In preparation AED, which has represented Robert Juliat in Belgium and Luxemburg since 2011, will expand market coverage and commence sales of Robert Juliat solutions in the Netherlands from 1 October 2013. Lightco, which has been distributing Robert Juliat products until now, will continue to do so in parallel with AED until the end of December 2013.

AED Distribution is the exclusive distributor of several professional AV brands across the Benelux territories, supplying AV professionals only.

"I'm very happy to complete our product portfolio in The Netherlands with a state-of-the-art product like Robert Juliat," says Hans Vanderheijden, MD of AED Distribution HQ. "AED Distribution is careful never to compete with its o

Denmark - A year and a half ago, Peter Johansen took ownership of the Italian lighting company SGM and started up in humble facilities in Aabyhoj, Denmark. Now the entire production, warehouse and administration are combining in a new 6,500 sq. metre facility in Aarhus.

In the intervening 18 months since Peter Johansen became CEO, a complete new LED product range has been launched, a global distributor network established, top international touring references have appeared across the world's media - and now the entrepreneur aims to establish a dedicated Danish base. What this will mean is Danish manufacturing, Danish employment and - to a great extent - Danish and European sub-suppliers.

"We anticipate that this move will create up to 400 new jobs over the next two years," stated a bullish Peter Johansen, announcing the decision.

The strategy is based on the winnin

UK - In order to maintain a successful sound rental company Chris Hooke, of Swansea-based Total Sound Solutions (TSS), knows the importance of a regular inventory review in order to meet all requirements within his diverse customer base.

This includes a fleet of mixers to meet all budgets and demands. "For example we will typically use Soundcraft 16-channel EFX mixers for weddings and speakers - however, when we recently did Swansea Uni summer ball, with 4,000 people and three stages, we provided two Soundcraft Vi1 digital desks on the main stage."

Having just celebrated 10 years in the business, Chris Hooke's relationship with Soundcraft's new generation models began with the purchase of an Si Compact 24, and in April last year the company took delivery of its first Vi1. Exactly 12 months to the day, the company's second Vi1 arrived, along with the new popular, port

Switzerland - Merging Technologies has announced that from 1 October 2013, Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup Sdn Bhd (Stagetec Asia) has been appointed the distributor for Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

This appointment is the latest in a number of changes being made to Merging's worldwide distribution in a quest "to find young, dynamic companies that have sales and marketing ability and sufficient technical resource to satisfy demanding customers in rapidly growing markets".

Merging's sales and marketing manager, Chris Hollebone comments, "Stagetec Asia came highly recommended and the first time I met David Chan and his team, I was extremely impressed with how they presented themselves and their brands. Having now spent more time together, I know the choice is right."

Managing director of Stagetec Asia, David Chan remarked, &

UK - Renowned engineer, Ben Booker, employed an Allen & Heath Qu-16 compact digital mixer to sub mix eight channels of keys with scenes at the Stephen Lawrence Unity concert, held at the O2 Arena in London last weekend.

"I used the Qu-16 as it gave me an option to run each song as a different scene, so levels, EQ and compression could be change per artist," Booker explains. "I also used the QuPad app to remotely mix the keyboard levels and adjust compression and HPF on channels in rehearsals."

(Jim Evans)

France - XL Video was one of the principal worldwide technical production suppliers to Roger Waters' seminal The Wall Live world tour, which finally wrapped in Paris on 21 September with a sold out Stade de France show, exactly three years and one week after its opening show in Toronto in 2010.

Richard Turner, the tour's video director worked closely with XL's project manager Phil Mercer throughout, together with tour director Andrew Zweck and creative and video content director Sean Evans. The production featured both stadium and arena versions.

The show visuals were projected onto the wall by 36 of XL's new Panasonic PT-DZ21K 20K projectors - divided into nine screen areas - each covered by a quad stack rigged on standard Leyher scaffold platforms at FOH.

Seamless edge-blending was achieved by custom manual shutters clamped onto the scaffold towers. Physical shutter

UK - The British Safety Council has formally launched its 2014 International Safety Awards, which are designed to recognise an organisation's commitment to good health and safety management during the 2013 calendar year.

2014 will mark the 56th year of the International Safety Awards, which have made a significant contribution over that time to promoting and celebrating the benefits that well-managed and proportionate workplace health and safety bring.

The awards are open to organisations of all sizes and sectors, both members of the British Safety Council and non-members in the UK and overseas. Applications are welcome both from past winners and first time entrants; there is nothing to stop a first time entrant being successful if they can demonstrate clearly their commitment to good health and safety management in the application process.

Last year, 470 organisations from

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