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UK - The end of 2013 saw Jessie J playing the major arenas of the UK and Ireland on her 20-date Alive tour. Monitor engineer Andy 'Baggy' Robinson's DiGiCo SD5 helped to ensure that the UK songstress put on a show to remember.

"I've mixed in my usual style of using a DiGiCo console; making it work for its money," smiles Baggy, who has to account for a four-piece band and three backing vocalists as well as Jessie herself. "I doubled up on quite a lot of channels for Jessie, so I was using all but six of the faders."

As well as monitoring, Baggy also had a comprehensive talkback system set up. This allowed him and the band members to all talk to each other during the show, without distracting the leading lady and he could also talk directly to Jessie when required.

Sound quality and flexibility are a given, but what Baggy appreciates most about the SD5 is i

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UK / USA - Following a comprehensive review and analysis of the PLASA organisation, the PLASA Boards and staff have recently completed new strategic and operating plans to guide the organisation through the next several years of its development.

While the strategic plan focuses on building the membership from all areas of the entertainment technology industry, enhancing member value and continued development of PLASA's programs serving the industry, the operational plan details the structure, tactical approach and financial resource required.

Fundamental to the successful implementation of both plans is a revised senior management structure that will see three executive directors (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer), plus six divisional directors - of Membership, International Programs, Sales, Marketing, Events, and Media.

Matthew Gr

Doughty - Banner - from 8 Aug 2025

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UK - Martin Audio's MLA Mini loudspeaker array made another high profile appearance at a recent private party, when production and event agency - Penguins, staged an 'invitation only' gathering at Searcy's at the Gherkin, for around 200 prime donor/sponsors of the British Airways/Comic Relief UK Flying Start charity.

Special guest Katherine Jenkins delivered a stirring operatic performance - as Matt Manasse's company Bluefish Audio faced the inherent reflections of the glazed dome roof in this landmark London skyscraper, and the difficulty of manually humping all the gear 180m up to level 40.

Fortunately for Manasse's team, the MLA Mini is both lightweight and portable. A top line sound engineer in his own right, he was already familiar with Martin Audio's compact philosophy when he became the first sound engineer to air the W8LM Mini Line Array - on tour with Katie Melua way

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Denmark - A new concept and tradition has been born in Denmark: a light festival in the city of Kolding. With the purpose of presenting a new and different experience for the city, local business people pooled together to add culture, beauty and technology to the public domain.

Project manager from Get Visual, Jacob Elsig, delivered lighting installations to many of the graphic and innovative projects and participated in the creation of the urban attraction together with the festival's coordinator and his lighting designer, Christian Vigs°. With the environment in mind, a key factor for the festival was to utilise light sources based on LED technology.

"It seemed natural to contact SGM in relation to this festival," says Elsig who was involved in The Spanish Steps, The Train Station Square's installation named The Spider, Hotel Saksildhus and other smaller one-da

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UK - ETC's SineWave dimmers have helped bring silence to the new production of Henry V at London's Noël Coward Theatre - stripping out the filament noise from the eight DHA Digital Light Curtains that formed a core part of lighting designer Neil Austin's rig for the show.

"I've been using the DHA Light Curtains for a long time," comments lighting programmer Rob Halliday, "and while we've always been aware of the noise they make - a combination of the filament ring from six Par56 lamps and the buzz of the transformer driving them - it's never really been an issue before, perhaps because we've often used them on loud musicals, or perhaps because they were hidden behind masking. But on this show, with an exposed rig, a hard, curved back wall that seemed to throw even the slightest sound straight out into the audience, and a director and lighting designer dete

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USA - When the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago was planning its newest permanent exhibit, Future Energy Chicago, it turned to Electrosonic to provide the audio and video systems for the exhibit's film and simulation game, which challenges guests to compete on teams to make wise energy choices for a more sustainable city.

Exhibit-goers begin by rediscovering the nature of energy in the dynamic Energy Garden area, where they can transform energy from one form to another via a series of electro-mechanical devices and immerse themselves in a short film that dramatically presents the story of energy in our world. Guests then convert their knowledge into action via a multi-player simulation game in which they design an energy-saving car, house, neighbourhood, transportation system and city power grid.

Electrosonic teamed with exhibit designers Evidence Design, interac

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Roaring Success - Long-running musical The Lion King was the most successful show on Broadway in 2013, taking almost $97m (£58.7m) in ticket sales in its 16th year. In second place and after a decade on Broadway, Wizard of Oz musical Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre created history in the last week of 2013 by becoming the first show to take more than $3m in a single week on Broadway when its nine performances saw ticket sales of $3.2m (£1.9m). Since opening in 2003, it has achieved cumulative box office earnings of $797m (£480m). It took $95.3m in 2013 (£58.0m).

Noises Off - Performances of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Apollo Theatre, London, have been cancelled for an extra week until 11 January. The venue had originally planned to reopen after 4 January. However a statement on Nimax Theatres'

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USA - On New Year's Eve, approximately 17,000 'Bassheads' converged at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena to usher in 2014 with Bassnectar, the electronic music DJ whose immersive live shows have earned him legions of devoted fans. To ensure an equal experience for all attendees, the 360-degree event featured a rotating stage, as well as the largest Meyer Sound Leo large-scale sound reinforcement system to date.

"The sound was spectacular, and incredibly even for an in-the-round setup," says Brendan Hoffman, FOH engineer and production manager. "From FOH at one end of the arena up to the stage and the higher seating sections, differences were negligible. It was a gut punch on the floor and a gut punch at the top level."

Supplied by VER Tour Sound, the Leo system comprised 96 Leo-M line array loudspeakers deployed in four arrays of 14-each for long-end throws, an

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USA - Game Seven Grill is a barbecue restaurant located in the Gila River Casinos Plaza at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. With a name that evokes the D-Backs Championship victory in Game Seven of the 2001 World Series, Game Seven Grill's casual atmosphere and family-friendly style are reflected in its interior design which builds on the brick and open-beam architecture of the building.

Before opening in March of 2013, Game Seven Grill underwent a major renovation including new seating, championship décor and a new sound and video system featuring Community CP6 pendant loudspeakers for the interior and R.25-94T loudspeakers for the Grill's outdoor plaza seating.

Game Seven's sound and video systems were designed and installed by Parsons Technologies of Phoenix, Arizona. Mark Schultz, Systems Engineer, designed the systems at Game Seven Grill

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France - Four JoeCo BlackBox BBR64MADI systems were recently used for virtual sound checking and recording 224 channels of audio at one of France's largest and most impressive live music events. The Lorraine de Choeur 2013, held in the Galaxie d'Amneville, featured a 2000-strong choir, soloists, a 50-piece orchestra and electric band under the direction of Jacky Locks. The event takes place every two years and this year's performances attracted audiences from far and wide.

Philippe Barguirdjian, technical director of DUSHOW, and his sound team were responsible for mixing and recording the three shows, each of which lasted around four hours. For rehearsals, four linked BBR64MADI systems were connected directly to the front-of-house DiGiCo SD7 and SD10 consoles. Here, the recorder's virtual soundcheck facility came into its own, enabling singers to save their voices ready for the

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Canada - Justin Timberlake kicked off his 20/20 Experience World Tour in Montreal and Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpy Washes were out in force. Solotech provided the lighting equipment.

True to its name, the tour is "an experience rather than a show," says lighting director Nick Whitehouse. "It's very visual with lots of projection and lighting and a lot of new technology. We got pretty creative with everything and had fun putting it all together."

The tour is in support of Timberlake's third studio album, which has a sophisticated vibe. The singer will play dates in North America, Europe, Australia and South America.

"We did seven weeks of rehearsals," Whitehouse reports. "The gear really got a work out - 20 hours a day." On the tour "the whole rig is hidden behind a scenic back wall and ceiling. We have 80 Sharpys and 130 Sh

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Belgium / China - XL Video has announced an investment of more than 15m US dollars in a range of new LED products and accessories to support its plans for growth in 2014.

The LED investment has been made with a range of suppliers including Shenzhen-based Unilumin Group Co and its subsidiary Radiant Opto-Elec Technology Co Ltd to purchase a series of LED products based on the latest technologies. In total more than 1200 m2 of LED products for the XL Video rental business will become available from February onwards.

The LED investment covers amongst others: State of the art 2.5mm high contrast LED; Super lightweight 3.9mm Utile LED; 18mm Magic Cube outdoor and indoor LED; 7mm blackface Magic Cube outdoor and indoor LED - the first of its kind in this segment; The latest innovation of 18mm Hybrid LED which combines LED screen with LED spotlights in the same panel. This invention

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France - Every two years, sound, lighting and production specialist West Evenement stages an open day which allows its partners, clients and business associates a chance to get together and explore new developments. Here, in an atmosphere of hospitality and professionality, participants give presentations and provide training for the other guests, bringing them up to date on new technology and services.

For its 2013 event West Evenement chose a new venue, the huge Le Liberte function hall in nearby Rennes, which has capacity for 5,300 people. The company had many new things to present, and wanted to choose the best venue to maximise the presentations. Eight demonstration areas were set up within the hall, and among new developments to be introduced here were sound systems and technology from Nexo.

Nexo's commercial director Jean Jacques Vias, together with concert sound specia

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Finland - One of the most dynamic startup ecosystems on the planet, Slush, took place on 13-14 November, 2013 at the Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland. Slush is the leading startup conference in Northern Europe and Russia. LumenRadio's Finnish distributor Sun Effects was responsible for the whole visual design and supplied the wireless CRMX Slim products, which played a key role for the two-day event.

"Slush was a really prestigious project for us and there was no room for any mistakes. When you do projects like this, it is extremely important to consider what kind of equipment you're planning to use and how to use them. Sun Effects has a reputation in Finland to only deliver high quality equipment that works, even in the most demanding environment," says, Riku Sourama from Sun Effects.

Slush is a nonprofit, two-day technology and startup event where the most promis

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South Africa - Magnetic Storm is a technical solutions provider and rental company based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The company has been running successfully for 33 years servicing a wide range of high quality corporate clients and live events, and is the oldest established and also the largest such operation in the Eastern Cape region.

Magnetic Storm originally invested in Robe moving lights - the 575 series - some years ago, which have proved reliable and solid for many years done dealing with Magnetic Storm's busy schedule of events.

When the time came to upgrade with the latest technology, they decided to go with LED and purchased four Robe DLS Profiles and four DLX Spots from Robe's South African distributor, DWR.

LED was chosen because it's good value, longer lamp life, lower ongoing maintenance and expedient power consumption made good sense economically and env

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France / Indonesia - Amadeus reports that its product line is now available across Indonesia through their newest distributor Acoustic Sound Image Integrated Solution (ASIIS).

Andy M. Sutikno, CEO at ASIIS, explains his reasons for bringing Amadeus live sound equipment on board to the company's prestigious product lineup, "Once again I found a brand which really suits our philosophy about high-end sound. The Amadeus speakers have a very detailed mid-high frequency performance, very warm, yet transparent mid frequency response, and a fully articulated low end," he says, recalling his introduction to Amadeus during listening sessions at the 2013 Prolight + Sound show at the Frankfurt Musikmesse.

"Their products' sound quality, which definitely comes from Amadeus' high-end studio design experience, is apparent in its live sound systems with the ability to deliver a

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Germany - Robe moving lights were right at the heart of the lighting action on the main stage in front of Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, one of the largest public New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide.

Robe Pointes were also used to illuminate elements of the 'Fan Mile' covering five major roads in and around the event site as part of a lighting design by Lars Murasch, and were supplied together with other lighting equipment for the event by rental company TLT Event AG.

The show's glittering international artist line up included the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Overtones, Scooter, Adel Tawil and TVOG winners from 2012 and 2013 Ivy Quainoo and Nick Howard respectively plus many others. It was attended by nearly one million revellers and watched live by over 4m on Germany's national ZDF TV channel, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display to welcome in 2014.

Twenty

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USA - Now in its fifth season, The Voice on NBC has become one of the most watched reality talent competitions worldwide. Throughout the run of the production which features three stages of competition concluding with live performances, the pressure placed on the competitors to showcase their talents is rivalled only by the pressure placed on the crew to make sure the show is both technically sound yet exciting to watch.

Behind the scenes, lighting designer Oscar Dominguez and his lighting crew have accomplished all this winning the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for Variety Series using a rig that relies heavily on VL3015LT Spot, VL3515 Spot, VLX Wash, VL3500 Wash, VL3000 Spot and VL550 Wash luminaires all supplied by Illumination Dynamics.

"For me, the Vari-Lite luminaires are the backbone to this lighting rig,"

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USA - LakeRidge United Methodist Church in Lubbock, Tex. has markedly improved the sound in its main sanctuary with the installation of a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system. Having previously selected Meyer Sound systems for two other areas of the church, Lubbock-based Moyers Group was called upon to design and install the new system.

"Since the new Mina system was installed in the main sanctuary, everybody has noticed the difference," says Elec Winner, the church's director of technical ministries. "The clarity of the high end is amazing. Now everything has its proper place in acoustic space, and the coverage from front to back is completely uniform. Our senior pastor is extremely happy. The sound check before the service takes less time, and the gain before feedback is much higher."

The new system comprises left and right arrays of seven Mina

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The Netherlands - XL Video has chosen the city of Amsterdam as the new location for their operation in the Netherlands. The new Amsterdam sales office benefits from its central location in Europe and is within the dynamic and creative environment of Houthavens, Amsterdam.

The office's new address from January 2014 is: XL Video The Netherlands, Haparandaweg 67 E3, 1013 BD Amsterdam.

XL Video's new office will act as both a meeting point for clients and partners as well as its regular daily operations.

Houthavens is known as the new hotspot of Amsterdam's creative industry. The area harbours creative companies from different industries, from fashion to design to media. This will present XL Video with an inspiring environment to work in, hosted in a brand new office space, says the company.

Lucas Covers, group C.E.O. of XL Video comments, "2013 has been a year full of ne

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UK - Colour Sound are deploying the the new Robe CycFX 8 fixtures that they purchased off the stand at PLASA London 2013 on the current White Lies Big TV tour with lighting & visuals designer Matt Waterfield.

Colour Sound is supplying all lighting and LED screen for the tour where Waterfield is working closely with laser designer and camera mixer Matt Buttons to produce a spectacular visuality for the tour which has helped win them sand the band plenty of rave reviews!.

Waterfield wanted to introduce some architecture into the design and also have the flexibility of the rig being as floor based as possible, so he started with five upstage trussing towers, which Colour Sound designed and had specially fabricated by James Thomas Engineering.

These measure 1.2 by 1.2m wide / deep and are 3.6m high in full-height mode, but designed to break down into two sections at 1.2 a

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UK - Supergrass frontman, Gaz Coombes, has just completed a UK tour with an Allen & Heath iLive digital system at FOH, ME personal mixers managing monitors, and Dante for recording.

Showcasing Gaz's new solo material, the tour took place in churches across the country. Engineer, Gavin McComb, selected an iLive modular system comprising an iLive-80 Control Surface and iDR10 MixRack to manage FOH, with iLive apps and PL controllers for additional remote control.

"Apart from being a very well designed piece of kit, iLive is also extremely compact, with a footprint of around 1m sq. so you can slot it into virtually any situation, even if you're going to a small venue that already has its own in-house stuff. As a system, the audio quality is fantastic, all the internal effects are very easy to use and sound great, whether it's a small, medium or large-sized venue."

Gavi

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UK - January and February sees SSE Audio Group's Sales division hosting two separate, free training days which will be of special interest to users of Yamaha digital mixing consoles.

Hosted at the company's HQ in Redditch, one of the days will focus on using Dante networking with Yamaha CL Series digital mixing consoles and Nexo NXAMP amplification, while the other focuses on Waves plug-ins, including integration with Yamaha digital consoles via the WSG-Y16 SoundGrid interface.

Taking place on 12 February, the Dante networking course examines the close integration which is possible between CL series consoles and Nexo's NXAMP 4X1 and 4X4 Powered TDcontrollers, via Dante.

Jointly developed with engineers from Yamaha, Nexo TDcontrollers provide full integration of speaker and amplifier control, with output capacities that deliver a highly cost-effective solution for both instal

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USA - London-based event design and production specialist Eclipse Presentations designed, produced, specified and co-ordinated all the technical production elements - lighting, video - including creation of all content, audio, staging, rigging, etc. - for the 14th annual Platt's Global Energy Awards in New York.

The high profile event, considered the 'Oscars of the energy industry' and presented by CNBC news anchor Amanda Drury, recognises and honours excellence in leadership, innovation and performance in the highly competitive world of energy. It was staged in the famous Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, one of the city's landmark venues, and attended by top international executives from the leading energy companies worldwide.

A production team of four from Eclipse Presentations was led by Robin Purslow who says, "We have worked on this event for the last 14

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  6. Keziah Jones on the road with Nexo monitors
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