USA - Home of the American Hockey League's Providence Bruins and Providence College Men's Basketball, The Dunkin' Donuts Centre is the major sports and entertainment venue of the Providence, Rhode Island metro area. Seating approximately 13,000 depending on configuration, the arena hosts not only games, including NCAA Men's Division I Basketball, but also corporate events, trade shows, commencements and concerts from artists including hit-makers such as U2 and Elton John.

The facility, which was extensively remodelled in 2008, benefits from solid acoustic design and good interior treatment. Even so, the sound during games was lacking until a recent sound-system upgrade featuring loudspeakers, power amplifiers and digital routing systems from Electro-Voice.

"The two main issues with the old system were lack of coverage and lack of intelligibility," says Tom Barrett, p

USA - Since the launch of its Impact series of LED video display panels -featuring Cree high-brightness SMD (Surface-mount diode) LEDs - Lighthouse has dominated the outdoor SMD LED display market with more than 107,639sq.ft of active outdoor SMD LED area. Powered by LEDs from Durham, N.C.-based Cree, Lighthouse and its partners have wowed people around the world with installations such as the 2013 display at Safeco Field, home of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners.

At Safeco Field, ANC Sports Enterprises installed a Lighthouse display distributed by Panasonic which is the largest LED video screen in Major League Baseball. A Lighthouse Impact 16 using Cree CLV6 LEDs, Safeco Field's new LED display is 1080p high by 3840p wide, the equivalent of two side-by-side high-definition screens. Standing 56.7' (17.28m) high, stretching 201.5' (61.42m) across, and totalling over 4m pi

Germany - AVM Event GmbH recently invested in Clay Paky - it increased its stock with 60 A.leda Wash K10s, as well as various products made by other companies.

These lights were used for the first time in Halle 7 in Bremen, where several events took place in the second half of October. AVM has organised shows of all kinds for 20 years, including summer festivals, megashows and industry conferences, with between 100 and 20,000 guests.

"With its A.leda K10, Clay Paky has come up with an exciting LED washlight from every point of view," said Mr Wiegandt, the head of the German rental company. "Thanks to the individually controlled LEDs, the light offers an incredible variety of effects and functions. However, of course, the extremely high standards of Clay Paky lights also play a key role. They are extraordinarily light and therefore suitable for use everywhere.&qu

Europe - The Christmas Metal Symphony 2013 European tour blazed its way through Sweden, the Czech Republic and Germany to packed houses appreciating the metallic full force of the Magnum Opus Rockestra directed by Joost Van Den Broek, a collaboration between the Metalforce 1 band and a 32 piece Hungarian symphony orchestra.

The featured vocalists for 2013 were Michael Kiske (Helloween), Joey Belladonna (Anthrax), Chuck Billy (Testament), Joacim Cans (Hammerfall), Udo Dirkscheider (ex-Accept) and Floor Jansen from ReVamp and Nightwish.

Lighting this mix of metal mayhem was Nick van Balen, who is based in The Hague, The Netherlands ... an experienced designer with a particular penchant for lighting the various genres of rock music.

He chose to light the 2013 Christmas Metal Symphony entirely with Robe LED Wash moving lights - 44 x LEDWash 300s and 12 x LEDWash 600s to be preci

Foundation Funding - Andrew Lloyd Webber's charitable foundation has announced six grants, totalling more than £150,000, which will support apprenticeships within professional arts organisations.

Five theatre organisations and one music festival will receive funding. Shared Experience will receive £105,000 over three years to support one trainee director and producer per year via paid six-month apprenticeships; Tangled Feet will receive £14,000 over two years to help fund its participation programme for young people; Manchester Royal Exchange's Young Company will receive £10,000; Chickenshed will receive £15,000 towards its Young Creators Programme; Icon Theatre in Medway will receive £9,000; and the Lake District International Summer Music Festival will receive £10,000.

Since the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation was re-launched in 2011,

Norway - When Ibsenhuset Theatre in Skien, Norway, was about to undergo a complete refurbishment, the technical managers looked for new lighting fixtures and controls that could take the theatre well into the 21st century. They ended up specifying over 100 ETC Selador Desire LED luminaires, along with two different - but connected - ETC Unison control systems.

The installation was complicated by the existing mix of DMX and DALI systems at the theatre, according to Benjamin Reinhoff, project manager at Elektrik Solutions, who supplied the products and helped with specification. "We installed two Unison Paradigm systems to control the new Selador LED lighting in the auditorium and around the stage area, as well as in nearby rehearsal and side rooms. There's also a new Mosaic processor for controlling the 600 DALI lights in the 800 square metre foyer, which is used as a perfor

France - Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris is one of the most fashionable streets in the world, and it is here that the flagship store of Hermès is located. This famous luxury department store, dating back to the 18th century, recently decided to decorate its façade and called in the established Paris-based technology specialists Lumière et Son to help fulfil the project.

Offering close cooperation, SGM's French distributor, Sonoss, delivered 360 LB-100 LED Balls (measuring 30 x 12m). The company's product and project manager, Vincent Criulanscy, explains, "They were looking for a 'soft' kind of illumination; different from that of a Christmas tree - more elegant."

It is not the first time Lumière et Son has selected SGM fixtures for their projects. Previously, the SixPack LED blinder has been used to great effect for fashion shows by Yves Saint Lauren

Greece - The leading AV turnkey installation and theatre sound specialist in Greece, Telmaco S.A., has installed the last ever Cadac R-type console in the landmark Thessaloniki Concert Hall.

The R-type was installed by the Athens based company in the main 500 seat Amphitheatron Hall, in the Thessaloniki Concert Hall's new M2 building, as part of a major turnkey project that included sound reinforcement, projection, conference and interpretation, video and audio relay, intercom and stage management systems. "The client requirement was for a console of the highest audio quality and reliability that was quick to install. The Cadac R-type fulfilled these demands better than any other comparable console," says Telmaco sales engineer, George Regginiotis.

Telmaco previously installed a Cadac S-type console in the central control room in the M2 building when it opened in 201

USA - Preston Hoffman provided a dynamic lightshow with a difference for the third consecutive year at the annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam. He decided to use GLP's new compact impression X4S almost exclusively, bolstered by few other discharge or conventional tungsten effects.

The Pulse Lighting designer is no stranger to GLP's impression series (or the U.S. Cellular Center, Asheville, NC where the show takes place). Last summer he pulled 12 of GLP's larger X4 fixtures for the Red Rocks show by Slightly Stoopid in Denver, so he knew all about the strength, intensity and flexibility of the lightweight LED sources.

For the 25th edition of Christmas Jam, Dizzy Gosnell at Bandit Lites' San Francisco office - described by Preston as "one of the best in the business" - provided 56 of GLP's X4S for the special Christmas show, enabling the technician to group 36, divided

UK - Stage Electrics' popular regional exhibition, hosted by the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, heads to the city of Cardiff on Friday 21 February. The one-day event aimed at schools, colleges, theatres, the arts, broadcast and entertainment includes over 25 industry leading manufacturers exhibiting their latest products in audio, lighting, video and staging in an intimate friendly environment.

The 2014 event welcomes new exhibitors, Allen & Heath, Chroma-Q, 5 Star Cases, Doughty and Robert Juliat, alongside Prolyte, Martin Professional by Harman, ETC, Avolites & Avolites Media, Le Maitre, Rosco, Philips Entertainment brands Selecon, Strand, & Vari-Lite, EM Acoustics, DiGiCo, Lee Filters, Sennheiser, Clay Paky, MA Lighting, Yamaha, ELC, Analog Way, Chauvet, Zero 88, Roland Systems Group, Pulsar, Swisson & Magic FX.

"We are looking forward to welcoming visitors to

Austria - One of Austria's Leading recording studio complexes, Prime Studios, tucked away in Mils near Innsbruck, has added a third control room, C , and a fourth live area to house its latest addition; a classic EMI TG12345 MkIV console, built originally for Abbey Road Studios. One of only two in the world, the console's twin is owned by producer Mike Hedges. Prime Studios opened in 2008 and is favoured by such producers and engineers as Chuck Ainlay, George Massenburg, Christian Seitz and Alfons Weindorf.

Studio C is acoustically separated from the main building and features a customised 5.1 surround reference sound system by Surrountec. All the cabling and connectors for the new installation is by Van Damme, specified and ordered from VDC Trading using their new online YouSpec system, now an integral part of the VDC website.

The cabling included 24 pairs of 7m Blue EDAC90 c

UK - Nexo has just a few places left on its forthcoming ETC1 training seminar, to be held in London 28-29 January. The venue is the youthful and dynamic Soho Theatre in Dean Street, making this seminar a particularly interesting one for theatre sound technicians.

Nexo's ETC programme offers convenient and affordable education, training and certification in general electroacoustic principles, and real-world practical operation of Nexo line array and point-source systems in the live production environment.

The foundation module, ETC1, has been designed for sound designers, engineers and technicians working with Nexo equipment. Taught by Nexo instructors, this two-day event progresses from theoretical classes in general acoustics, line array concepts and the case for point source systems, to practical hands-on training with Geo S12 line arrays.

Technical overviews of Nexo's pro

USA - While the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) is dubbed the 'Wizards of Winter' for their heavy-metal holiday songs, show designer Bryan Hartley wears the magician's hat as well. He made this year's The Lost Christmas Eve tour a bigger production than last year with the amazing trick of shrinking it - making three trucks and extra generators simply disappear!

His secret? Switching from some standard lighting tools to over 100 pieces of Robe's smaller-brighter-lighter Robin series fixtures - Pointes, LEDBeam 100s and LEDWash 1200s... all supplied by VER in Los Angeles.

TSO's $20m-plus production has performed for more than 7m people in over 80 U.S. cities in the short duration of this leg of the tour (under seven weeks). Because of the show's popularity during the short holiday season, they created duplicate productions to simultaneously tour the East and West coasts of

UK - A year after the purchase of the ASP4816 for its Fulham studios, Tech Music School London has invested in another Audient console: the large format ASP8024. As with the first one, this latest 24-channel desk with integrated Dual Layer Control (DLC) was supplied by educational technology experts Academia, and according to head of production, Johan Englund, is "...a great sounding desk."

BA (Hons) Music Production degree students spend the most time learning their craft with the Audient desks; in fact the individual courses, Recording Skills and Mixing & Audio Production II were both written with the Audient consoles in mind. "The main features that make the Audient an excellent tool for education is the easy to understand signal path & routing system along with great preamps," explains Englund. "Its straightforward signal path makes it very easy to t

Malta - Since the first terminal building was constructed back in 1956, Malta International Airport has seen continued development as air traffic has increased. One of the latest facilities is the SkyParks Business Centre, where Denon Professional audio equipment is helping to keep the Mediterranean island's executives fit and healthy.

Despite Malta's comparatively small size, frequent direct flights to many European destinations mean that customer expectations have risen in line with airport facilities on the mainland. Opened last year, the SkyParks Business Centre is a mixed office, retail and leisure development which equals anything that other European airports can offer.

The Sky Spirit Fitness Lounge is its latest facility, opened in October, featuring state of the art equipment and fitness programmes. Audiovisual equipment was installed by Fgura-based Futuretech, who ins

World - Lighting and stage designer Andy Hurst is utilising the razor-bright beam of the Clay Paky Sharpy for electronic dance music duo Chase and Status's first ever arena tour.

Inspired by the dance clubs of the nineties Hurst has put together a theatrical stage design of curvaceous trusses and Clay Paky fixtures, provided by Blackburn based hire company HSL, along with a set backed by five large video screens.

"The feeling of the new album is kind of nineties so I went for that look in my design," explains Hurst. "I remember how all the clubs were designed in circles, loads of circular tread plate everywhere so I have rigged lots of curved trusses on stage to give it that nineties rave sort of feel.

"I chose the Sharpys because I needed a small, lightweight fixture that was easy to rig but can still produce a bright enough beam to punch through all the

Germany - New Year's Eve in Berlin! Silvester is one of the largest New Year's Eve parties in the world, attracting around one million people to the city's famous Brandenburg Gate to hear international stars on a variety of show stages, and of course to see the fireworks display.

For several years, Berlin-based rental company artecom Veranstaltungs GmbH has favoured Nexo systems for this event, which involves long throws over the 1.5 km 'party mile', very large crowds and extensive networking demands. To ring in 2014, artecom chose to put Nexo's new modular line array, the STM Series, onto the main stage at Platz de 18.Marz in front of the Brandenburg Gate, using Nexo geo D and Geo S systems for the other two stages and for delays.

Twenty four sets of Nexo STM were used for the main stage PA, comprising 24x M46 Main and 24x B112 Bass cabinets flown left and right, with 24x S11

USA - For the Unity Church of The Hills in Austin, Texas, a new sound system was way overdue. The church congregation has grown over the years to now require three services on Sunday with different musical styles and audio mixes required in each.

"We had a flying junkyard, a traditional array of a bunch of boxes. Add to this, our worship sanctuary has a lot of floor to ceiling glass windows so there was a limit to our volume levels due to the reverberation," says Jeff Sarich, sound engineer for the Church.

When it came time to make a decision on which mixers to acquire, Sarich and his team were already leaning toward a pair of Allen & Heath consoles.

"We read a lot of articles in Church production publications and online in blogs and forums. You hear the same thing over and again about Allen & Heath consoles: amazing sound, lots of features and great pricing,&

UK - Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout returned to Olympia creating a large pristine arena for the London International Horse Show, 16 - 22 December 2013.

For the 12th consecutive year, Blackout worked with organisers Innovent to transform the venue for the prestigious equestrian event. The team utilised 2,500sqm of drapes to enclose the ground floor auditorium and create the entrance tunnels to the seating blocks.

The brand presence of sponsors was maximised through a wall of advertising on the outside of the arena for which the team constructed framework scaffolding to attach the banner wrap.

Chris Brain, installations director at Blackout, commented, "We also installed a backdrop of starcloth above the main competitor tunnel which we used to enhance the iconic golden galloping horse statue.

"Our draping package enables us to completely enclose an area for

UK - The Institute of Acoustics this year celebrates the its 30th consecutive Reproduced Sound conference and exhibition on 14-15 October at Birmingham NEC. Organised by the Electroacoustic Group of the Institute of Acoustics in collaboration with ABTT, AES, APRS & ISCE, this year's event coincides with the Institute of Acoustics' 40th Anniversary.

Part of the UK's Institute of Acoustics annual conference programme, Reproduced Sound is the IOA's longest running conference; it is well known for its balance of papers on theoretical and practical developments. Says IoA, "We encourage you to be part of this special event and invite you to submit papers on: Perception and Quality, Intelligibility, Measurement, Loudspeakers and Microphones, Room Acoustics and Audio Technologies. All papers on the above topics will be considered. Offers of presentations or posters on any electroac

Italy - Audio-Technica Europe and SISME have announced the formation of a new division dedicated to the distribution of Audio-Technica professional products in Italy. The division, part of SISME, will begin operations on 20 January 2014.

Following an extensive analysis of the Italian professional audio marketplace, Audio-Technica Europe's senior management team identified a need to establish a new approach in terms of distribution within a territory that, along with other Mediterranean countries, has been affected by issues such as the economic downturn.

Taking these issues along with the 'globalisation' of the European marketplace by large corporations and the cross-border activities of on-line retailers into account, a review of the business models that have survived for the past 30 years is now inevitable.

Both the Audio-Technica Europe and SISME management teams share a

UK - Flare Audio Limited, the award-winning British loudspeaker technology company, has announced the appointment of leading UK pro audio supplier Orbital Sound as its exclusive distributor for the UK and Irish markets.

Commenting for Flare Audio, MD Kristin Hanson said, "Our two companies have complementary backgrounds - live touring, entertainment installations, studios and events - making for an extremely powerful combination. At Flare Audio, we are introducing what is essentially a new approach to sound reinforcement, making the choice of our first major distributor absolutely key. We were looking for a company that would embrace new ideas and relish the prospect of bringing real innovation to the marketplace, while always putting the customer first. Orbital Sound has an outstanding reputation on all counts, and represents the ideal match for us."

Orbital Sound w

Benelux - Coda Audio has announced the appointment of Viladco bvba as its new distributor for the Benelux region. Headed by Hans Engelen, the appointment of Viladco ensures seamless continuity of service for Coda customers.

Hans is very familiar to Coda users throughout Europe, having been a specialist for the company's audio systems for several years. An audio engineer for over 20 years, he formed Viladco with his business partner Peter van Meensel and is very excited about the company being awarded the Coda distributorship.

"Coda is always seeking new challenges, looking to make new advances and works tirelessly to deliver the best sound reinforcement products," he says. "The company and its users are also like a real family, which is a great thing to be a part of."

As well as distributing the product and offering after-sales service, as an experienced

Austria - Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of additional commercial distribution partners for the SSL Live console with TSAMM as its distributor in Austria and AudioMonde for Hungary.

"As an SSL distributor for many years, we had the opportunity to be involved in many discussions regarding what would be needed in a live console of the 21st century, to cover both touring and theatre applications," says Mario Reithofer, owner of TSAMM. "We visited with SSL several times in the last three years both in Vienna and the U.K., but even I did not expect something so perfect right from the start. The Show Control System and the almost non-existent audio latency has blown us away."

"I have personally been representing SSL in Hungary for more than 15 years," says Peter Csillag, owner of AudioMonde. "When I established my own company, Audi

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