UK - OneRepublic's headlining Native Tour wraps in the UK after spending last year circling the globe. The tour was programmed and operated from a grandMA2 light platform. The American pop rock band toured Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand last year in support of its third studio album, Native. OneRepublic's tour has continued in 2014 with more dates in Europe and the UK.

On this final leg of the tour lighting designer Chris Lisle has carried over a diamond-shaped theme from last year, which features trusses, video screens and even some of the same fixtures. "The show has some big visual moments, so I had to come up with a design to meet that need," he says. "The band likes cutting edge, so using the latest technology is important to us."

Programmer Scott Chmielewski notes that, "Chris always designs his projects with

USA - TNDV has had a busy mobile production schedule through the first quarter of 2014, with Amnesty International's Bring Human Rights Home Concert last month standing out as its lead project. The event, which took place at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, featured a roster of interesting musical acts aligned with the organization's mission of fighting injustice and promoting human rights.

TNDV brought its 40ft expanding side truck, Aspiration, to capture live performances for in-venue image magnification; and to serve as the central command centre for content acquisition. The dramatic elements of the event - which included a rousing speech and performance of two recently-imprisoned members of the Russian musical act Pussy Riot - influenced TNDV to make some changes to its mobile production workflow. This included the use of Canon EOS C300 cinema cameras, which introduced new p

UK - New sessions have been added to the Professional Development Programme taking place at PLASA Focus: Leeds 2014, at the Royal Armouries at Clarence Dock, only a short distance from the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 April 2014.

The Professional Development Programme runs alongside a two-hall exhibition of the latest entertainment technology products. It is free to attend and offers visitors access to sessions presented by some of the most talented names in pro audio, lighting and video.

As access to new technology and music is made easier and more affordable, it has changed the working DJ's role. A panel of DJs, led by Paul Arnett, chairman of the National Association of Disc Jockeys, will discuss these issues in Now Everyone's a DJ, What's Our Role? Arnett will be joined by: Danny Rampling, a household name in the UK who is well-kno

UK - Liverpool based Adlib designed and supplied lighting and sound equipment plus technicians for multi award-winning comedian Jack Whitehall's massively successful in-the-round UK arena tour.

Neil McDonald was production manager and Johnny Dodkin stage manager, working with Adlib's Sam Proctor who specified a Coda PA system and was joined on the road by systems tech George Puttock and PA techs James Petch, Richard Cook and Michael Madsen.

Coda Audio was chosen as the "Most suitable" option for two primary reasons - its light weight meant more boxes could be flown in the centre of the rooms, and the proprietary HF planar wave drivers ensured they could get clarity and detail into every corner of the room.

The venues all varied slightly, but the average set-up featured eight hangs of Coda, each comprising 12 x LA12s and four ViRAY downs per array, all flown on thei

Switzerland - Global creative business Imagination, who retained the Jaguar Land Rover three-year global exhibition programme last year, revealed the company's new global stand at the recent Geneva autoshow.

Imagination worked closely with the company over the last eight months in the development of the new high tech digital stand ensuring it reflects the core values of the iconic British brands.

The new stand name - 'The Residence' - was chosen because Jaguar Land Rover are welcoming customers to their autoshow home and would like them to experience first-hand the two great British brands.

The lighting of The Residence was crucial to set the right tone and feel. It also had a direct relationship with the way in which the stand would be operated and toured. Imagination's approach was to deliver a soft and warm multi-layered light throughout. This was punctuated by highlighte

UK - Speed was at the essence of the all-Robe moving light rig specified by lighting designer Paul "Smiffy" Smith for the latest UK tour by lively hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks, with kit supplied by High Wycombe based rental company, Siyan, project managed by Tom Grant.

Smiffy initially lit the band when they were opening for Ed Sheeran - for whom he was working as Lighting Director - in early 2013, and at the end of the year, was asked onboard to create an eye-catching design for their own production tour.

The core of the rig was floor based on eight vertical trussing towers. Rigged on each of the six upstage ones were six Robe Robin Pointes and 18 x Robe Robin LEDBeam100s. Six ROBIN LEDWash 600s - three per side - graced the most downstage pair of towers providing low level front light skimming across the stage, and described by Smith as "Absolutely awesome".<

Australia - The Emerson is Melbourne's latest glossy entertainment venue spanning three levels and is part bar, part club and part restaurant. The ground floor club has a grand bar, lush booth seating, and a dance floor whilst the upstairs cocktail bar features a number of private booths. Up one more level still is the Emerson Rooftop, all laid back beats in the sunset and day beds to lounge on.

South West Solutions were contracted to design and supply a lighting & video package to principally cater to the dance floor & to add movement an element to involve the VIP level in what was happening below. They were delighted to get some of the first Martin RUSH available from Australian distributor Show Technology including six MH2 Wash, four MH1 Profile, and four MH3 Beams.

Unfortunately, as is the case with many venues, lighting was a bit of an afterthought and the necessary cabli

UK - De Montfort Hall in Leicester, which plays host to concerts, stage productions and many other events, has recently received a comprehensive lighting upgrade courtesy of its local technical supplier, Hawthorn.

The upgrade consisted of one behind-the-scenes change, replacing the venue's dimming system, and one change visible to an audience, updating the lighting of the auditorium itself, all helping the popular venue celebrate the centenary of its 1913 opening.

For the dimmer upgrade, Hawthorn supplied and installed four new ETC Sensor dimmer racks to replace aging Strand LD90 racks, "De Montfort's staff were worried about being able to maintain the LD90s in both the short and long term," explains Hawthorn's head of install, Alan Jackson. "This ultimately led to the decision to switch to something in current production with strong support from its manufacture

Korea - Solid State Logic reports that HanSeo, SSL's long-established console distributor in South Korea, has been appointed as its Live console partner for the territory.

"The Korean marketplace has high expectations for the new Live console from SSL, both in terms of sound quality and reliability, and particularly from the house of worship market which is very strong in Korea," says Je-Ho Shin, president of HanSeo. "As a long-time partner of SSL, I think we are well positioned to provide the necessary sales and support resources for the Live console as we enter into this new and exciting marketplace.

"The response to the console we exhibited at KOSOUND was very positive, and several engineers visited us there to specifically see the console. I think there is a very bright future for SSL and HanSeo in the Korean live market."

"SSL and HanSeo ha

USA - This February everyone seemed to be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. For one group of fans, however, celebrating the legendary quartet is more than just a once-in-a-half-century event. Every year these devotees gather in New York at The Fest For Beatles Fans, the longest continuously running Beatles festival anywhere.

Given the significance of 2014 in Beatles history, the event's organisers pulled out all the stops this year, offering performances by rock 'n roll Hall of Famers and creating a Sgt. Pepper's-like rainbow of colours on stage with the help of 18 Q-Wash 419Z-LED moving heads from Chauvet Professional.

Held over a three-day period at the Grand Hyatt at 42nd and Lexington, just over a mile from the Ed Sullivan Theatre where the Beatles made their debut, The Fest For Beatles Fans feat

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd's Audio division has supplied a versatile RCF HDL line array sound system to cater for the diverse programme of events at Cumbria's popular theatre and arts venue, The Forum.

The 500-seater Barrow-in-Furness venue, which is owned and run by the local Borough Council, plays host to everything from stand-up comedy to rock 'n' roll to musicals. The Forum's technical officer, Lee Winter, reported an increase in problems with the venue's 30-year-old FOH point source system, and recognised the need to upgrade to a modern speaker system that could "handle it all".

"The problems were notably with the amps, the degradation of the speaker woofers, and the restricted sight lines due to the size of the speaker stacks," says Lee. "We were granted some money from our council to update the FOH speaker system and amplif

Vietnam - VDC client QV Sound has recently installed a very successful sound system for Saigon's new Dong Tien Church using Van Damme cabling throughout. One of the largest and most beautiful churches in Saigon, the 2500 sq. m Dong Tien Church consists of a central aisle, left and right wings and a 24m high dormitory ceiling.

Saigon's Bishop Tran Thanh Cao said, "The most critical element of Dong Tien Church is not in the beauty or the architecture or the landscape but in the sound system. The sound system needs to deliver the natural sound and clearly convey any single spoken word of God."

A typical church layout is a distribution system with multiple speakers hanging low just above ear-level. The result is the members of the congregation only hear the closest speaker, either from the left or the right hand side. The QV Sound team designed the speaker layout with a

UK - His first time working as a video director, lighting man Robin Haddow has always been the inventive type, yet has set himself some high hurdles in the way he manages the Ellie Goulding show for designer Cate Carter.

"There are multiple screens hanging at various heights all over the rig. Using the grandMA2 to map the content to the screens it's the Catalysts that do all the work, the MA2 is just the control surface. But having used lots of different desks I'd say it's the perfect surface for the job. It's elsewhere that I really stretch the desk. What do I mean by that?"

"I approached the MA2 initially as if it were just like any other desk with which I'm familiar, but it's not. In fact I struggled at first but eventually I found that all I needed to do was switch to the MA way of thinking. It has a sort of German logic to it, and I mean that in an affectio

USA - The Abundant Living Faith Centre (ALFC) in El Paso, Texas, is a nondenominational, multicultural church with a large congregation of 20,000+ members and a spacious 3,620-seat main auditorium. The ministry sought to improve the quality of the auditorium stage's visual backdrop and recently installed a large high-definition LED video wall by Elation Professional.

Design and systems integration company Michael Garrison Associates (MGA), who has a history of cooperation with the church dating back to 2004, replaced the mega-church's original centre projection screen with a 6mm pixel pitch EZ6 LED screen that produces high definition video. The EZ6 video wall is 38' wide by 20' high (20 x 11 panels, 1920 x 1080 pixels) and is suspended by 8 chain hoists allowing for vertical movement when desired.

After researching their options for high resolution LED video on both a technic

USA - Meyer Sound invites visitors to explore its new website, redesigned to streamline the navigation of essential product information and enhance the overall user experience: www.meyersound.com.

In addition to its more pleasing appearance, the new website highlights a number of improvements that make finding critical information easier for customers. They include more intuitive product selection parameters that enable quicker access to product descriptions, datasheets, operating instructions, and AutoCAD files. The improved support page gives more direct access to tools like the Amperage/BTU Calculator and rigging guides.

The Meyer Sound website provides access to product information, technical support resources, webinar archives, videos, and project stories, all of which combine to give an overview of the company's solutions. Website users can continue to download software

The Netherlands - Sound Adventure has purchased a DPA Microphones' d:vote 4099 Rock Touring Kit, which features 10 d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones and accessories. The kit was immediately put to use by Yamato - The Drummers of Japan, for which Sound Adventure has been providing live audio services during its recent European tour.

"We've been using DPA mics on stage for a few years now," explains Erik Bouwmeester, owner of Sound Adventure and Front of House engineer for Yamato. "We already use the d:fine 4066 Headset Microphones for vocals or flutes and the d:screet 4060 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphones for string instruments such as the guitar-like Japanese Samisen. It made perfect sense to use the DPA Rock Touring kit for these shows as well."

Bouwmeester was introduced to the d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones on Yamato's previous European tour by

USA - XL Video's new Radiant MC-18 Hybrid LED screen is on the road for the first time in the US with the Kings of Leon on their Mechanical Bull tour, where it was specified by production designer, Paul Normandale.

The high-impact 74 ft wide by 38 ft high Radiant MC-18 Hybrid screen is used at the back of the stage, showing playback visuals created by the tour's creative director Casey McGrath and the Kings of Leon team, combined with IMAG footage directed by video director, Phil Woodhead.

Normandale specified the screen because the band - who have been judicious in their approach to integrating video into their live shows - this time around wanted a massive upstage LED screen.

Normandale wanted to try something that was new - and - as is his oeuvre - a bit different and slightly quirky.

Having seen a plethora of big screens over the years, he was keen to use a prod

Brazil - The world's number one DJ Hardwell recently took his acclaimed I Am Hardwell show to Brazil playing the 8,000 capacity Espaco das Américas in Sao Paulo where lighting rental company Apple Producoes supplied over 100 Robe moving lights for a design by Dutch LD Andre Beekmans of The Art of Light.

Lighting for the show which is produced by Alda Events was operated by Tom Spaan from The Art of Light.

Apple, one of the country's top rental companies provided 25 x Robin Pointes, 16 x ColorSpot 1200E ATs, 6 x ColorSpot 2500E ATs, 14 x ColorWash 1200E ATs and 42 x Robe 100 LEDBeams for the gig which was completely sold out.

The stage design includes a square LED screen behind the DJ booth with an additional frame of LED surrounding it which is integrated into the actual booth structure, adding a real 3-dimensionality to the set up. Either side of the DJ booth

Australia - Late 2013 saw Kneehigh Theatre's production of Noel Cowards Brief Encountertour the country for three months. Production for the tour was provided by the Adelaide-based Novatech Creative Event Technology who worked closely with Arts Projects Australia and Kneehigh in developing a turnkey touring audio and lighting solution to cater for the shows in depth technical requirements.

Kneehigh's Brief Encounter started life in the UK in autumn 2007 and the rig as it stands for the international touring today, was settled by early 2009. Despite advances in technology, lighting designer Malcolm Rippeth has been very happy to stick to a rig of ETC Source Four Revolutions and Source Four profiles, which have served well on tour in the UK and US as well as for the show's Broadway run.

"There isn't anything to match the versatility of the Revolution as a tung

UK - The leading UK projection specialist formerly known as Projection Advertising has undergone a full rebrand to better represent its extended range of services, which now include full-scale event and conference production, creative services, and software and custom app development.

Now rebranded Projection Artworks, the company first made its name in 2005 as a guerrilla projection specialist but has since expanded, creating bespoke projection shows worldwide for conferences and events for brands like Red Bull Racing, Heineken and Unilever.

It has also created longer-term installations, including an interactive driving experience for Nissan at the O2 Arena, which is in place until 2017. Such projects have been made possible by a team of in-house animators and developers working with TouchDesigner, LEAP motion sensors and Oculus Rift virtual reality technology.

"We're

UK - Aurora Lighting Hire has secured a deal with London Light Production Services Ltd a UK-based theatre, corporate and special events lighting company.

London Light's rental business will merge fully under the Aurora umbrella with immediate effect. The coming together will benefit existing customers of both parties with a new increased inventory pool. This integration combined with substantial equipment investment reflects the forward momentum at Aurora, says the company.

Aurora's managing director Nick Edwards says, "We are delighted to implement London Light's infrastructure into our growing operations. In recent years London Light has built up a strong reputation for technical excellence and strong customer relation values. At the same time I'm equally as excited to be welcoming Sam Crook to our management team."

London Light's technical director Sam Crook com

Belgium - DiGiCo has appointed Amptec as its new distributor for Belgium. Founded by CEO Bart Willems in 1990, Amptec is one of the BeNeLux region's best-known professional audio distributors and solution suppliers. With a strong reputation for quality and service, the company's installation department has worked on high profile projects in live music venues, theatres, broadcast, post production and recording studios across the region.

"We have followed the DiGiCo story with great interest and not a little admiration over the years. We have always had great respect for the company's products and the market position they have achieved," says Harald Vanherf, sound engineer and Amptec sales director.

"After serious consideration by both sides, we agreed that DiGiCo products are a perfect fit with the high end brands that Amptec represents. Most importantly, DiGiCo

UK - Projection Artworks designed and produced a bespoke video-mapping show in Trafalgar Square as part of a global call to make the third anniversary of the Syria Crisis the last year marked by bloodshed. The event was commissioned by Save the Children and was backed by 114 other human rights and humanitarian groups.

Taking place on 13 March, the projection show included, as a focal point on Nelson's Column, an exclusive reworking of Banksy's iconic street art, There Is Always Hope, and a 3D soundscape created with actual voices of Syrian refugees. Triggered by a child placing a candlelit jar on the ground, the projection then spread into hundreds of lights in the shape of a world map, focusing on Syria and key cities of support including London, New York, Washington, Paris and Moscow.

The show was part of a global candlelit vigil held in over forty countries in a camp

Nigeria - The Rock Cathedral is a multipurpose facility that houses the headquarters of The Rock Foundation and the House on the Rock in Lagos, Nigeria.

The building has a total floor area of 32,000 m2, (the largest footprint for a single building in Lagos State) and includes facilities for worship, education, healthcare, community development and social rehabilitation to name a few and has a total capacity of 14,000 people.

House on the Rock were seeking to cooperate with a European company to help implement new audio and visual systems as well as acoustic treatment in the venue. Africa has a passion for the art of music and sound and having screened many possibilities they found that Audigys - KV2 Audio's Greek distributors - shared the same ideals.

The main concern was to create a sound system that would be powerful, accurate, flexible and easy to operate whilst being abl

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