Europe - Top Gear Live (TGL) - the show that presents all the adrenaline, excitement, humour, serious motoring stunts and moments of the top TV show in a breath-taking arena extravaganza - has just completed a whistle-stop European tour playing Prague, Budapest, Zagreb and Turin.

Lighting designer Steve Sinclair lit this using nearly 200 Robe moving lights - and for the first time no generics - not even a single PAR can or Molefey in sight!

The show saw TV show hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Stig add their irreverent and quirky humour to this extraordinary motoring theatre event, alongside some of the world's most expensive, powerful ... and most absurdly modified cars.

Sinclair has been lighting the popular TGL show worldwide for some years. This tour featured a completely new design, and the decision to go only with moving lights was to he

USA - Rebelution has been reinvigorating reggae with an irresistible sun-splashed playful sound that's been acclaimed as being "easy on the ears." Its highly anticipated Count Me In Tour is offering something else too: a lightshow that's easy on the eyes and souls of the group's free spirited fans thanks to a colorful and quick moving design by LD Kenny Gribbon of Pulse Lighting that features Legend moving fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

"Rebelution is on a roll, drawing big crowds, and riding high on the charts; so there's a lot of excitement surrounding them," said Gribbon, the group's LD, noting that its Count Me In album debuted at No. 14 on the general charts and topped the reggae list. "We wanted bright, colorful high impact lighting to convey this uplifting feeling."

Kevin Mignone of KM Productions (Hicksville, NY) provide

USA - Cache Creek Casino Resort, (CCCR), located in Brooks, CA, recently completed upgrading the lighting system in its popular entertainment hub, Club 88. Along with extensive audio and video production upgrades, the 700-seat multipurpose venue is now a premiere state-of-the-art performance space equally able to showcase entertainment acts as well as sporting events booked at the Northern California casino.

Club 88's technical team wanted to move beyond the limitations of the original, more conventional lighting equipment. They were looking to more effectively address the audiences' expectations and the technical requirements of the full range of events hosted, including the numerous national and international musical acts, top-bill comedians, and live boxing. It was important to the CCCR team that the production systems are more than capable of supporting the first class enter

UK - Martin Professional is expanding the manufacturing capabilities of both Jem smoke machines and Martin lighting in the UK with a new factory at Louth in Lincolnshire. The new factory will house identical production facilities to those found in Martin's main production plant in Fredrikshavn, Denmark, and heading the new facility will be managing director Soren Kjer and production planner Birgitte Jakobsen.

(Jim Evans)

Hungary - Interton Ltd has designed and installed a Community loudspeaker sound system for the new Nagyerdei Stadion in Debrecen, Hungary. An all-seated football stadium, Nagyerdei has a 20,340 capacity, making it the third largest capacity Hungarian football stadium and the second largest Hungarian League stadium.

Home to the Debreceni Vasutas Sport Club, Nagyerdei Stadion was opened on 1 May 2014 and the first official match was played between Debrecen and Újpest, which ended with a 3-1 victory for the host team. As well as hosting Debreceni VSC games, the stadium will host matches for the Hungarian national football team. The ground also incorporates conference and banqueting suites and has a club shop selling Debrecen merchandise.

Zoltán Horváth, chief engineer of Interton Ltd, explained the basis for the system design, "Community loudspeakers are our first choice

Europe - Designed to be closer to its customers and distributors, FaitalPRO's new website facilitates the search of information that everyone needs in Spanish-speaking countries.

The new website is built on a very fast platform and offers visitors a more complete and easy to use structure as well as being equipped with a new and powerful search engine that can provide faster and more accurate results.

Flavio Naggi, Pro-Audio Division manager of FaitalPRO, declares,"Our goal is to provide a comprehensive knowledge of our professional speakers through a hypertext structure which is easily accessible, in order to present the most viable solutions -and in a better way- to our customers and whoever needs to manufacture professional enclosures for installation, OEM and touring."

The Spanish version site is very rich in contributions and technical specifications needed to

Singapore - The penetration of Martin Audio's MLA multi-cellular loudspeaker array in new territories increases unabated. In the Far East, Singapore-based EXPO AV-INSYNC PTE (EAI) significantly boosted an inventory that also includes Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Array, by purchasing the country's first MLA System 36 from local distributors Swee Lee.

EAI managing director, Gerard Rodrigues, said he was proud to be the country's first investor in the ground-breaking system. Speaking of the acquisition, he said, "We wanted a larger format, steerable array system to add on to our inventory and it needed to represent a significant upgrade. The other main reason is that the next four upcoming gigs are all rider specific."

He says the latest purchase continues a rich legacy that began with the old Martin Audio Wavefront W3/WS2 range. "We wanted to be the first company t

Russia - Another dilapidated theatre, another story of successful regeneration. Ho-hum. But then Robert Lepage stages a performance of his interpretation of Hamlet and the world begins to sit up and take notice. While Hamlet is the tale of a man who confronts his conscious self, the rebirth of the State Theatre of Nations, Moscow, is one man's confrontation with an entirely different state of being.

Fortunately, Yevgeny Mironov's tale has a happier outcome, but the trials of resurrecting a once grand theatre that had, like Hamlet become insecure and unstable, are no less compelling.

Mironov, an ambitious young star of Russia's stage and screen, was appointed artistic director of the theatre in 2006, just as it achieved independence. His initial verdict of the venue was, "It was a real disaster, the building looked like it had been bombed." It was

UK - Universal Event Production (UEP) supplied full technical production - sound, lighting and video - to the Nike Phenomenal House, a one week only pop-up experience to celebrate football, street culture and style, music and fashion staged at the Old Sorting Office just off London's New Oxford Street.

UEP was working for brand and live communication specialist XYZ. The Tring, Hertfordshire based company has worked on many different Nike events in recent years and also with Will Mould, MD of XYZ. However this was the first time they had worked in the Old Sorting Office space which is a regular venue for offsite London Fashion Week shows and other events suiting its semi-industrial and slightly edgy ambience.

The lighting design for the Nike Phenomenal was developed by UEP's James Fickling and Mike Lindsay to encompass an eclectic collection of exhibition and interactive areas

USA - KVLA Television in Huntington Beach, California, a TV station that broadcasts to the large Vietnamese speaking community in Southern California, has recently added two new studios and is using LED strip lighting from Elation Professional to colour the sets.

Christian Choi of Emergent Entertainment Group was production and lighting designer, as well as fabricator for the project, and explains that the client initially sought to create three areas within two studios - a segregated news area, two talk shows and a home shopping set (which was eventually postponed).

Choi came up with rendering ideas for both the news and talk show sets, something he says he enjoys doing in order to get everyone's creative juices flowing. "Since the building was nothing more than a warehouse with attached office space, basically a shell, it was a bit difficult for everyone to picture what

USA - Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky held the very first Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks horse races in 1875, the year it opened. The track acquired its now-iconic twin-spires grandstand in 1895 and subsequently added to it on either side in pieces during the last century, bringing the grandstand's current capacity to 52,000.

In anticipation of the 2014 Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs commenced installation of a 171-ft. by 90-ft. video screen, the largest 4k video board in the world. Because the facility's low-fi sound reinforcement system had been designed ages ago for only spoken word reproduction, the new screen would require a serious sound system upgrade to realize its full potential and impact. Dallas-based Marsh/PMK International, LLC designed the new sound reinforcement systems for all of the outdoor areas including nearly sixty clusters in the grandstands comp

UK - XL Video renewed its long and productive working relationship with Robbie Williams, supplying a custom video solution and crew to his current and massively popular Swings Both Ways tour.

XL's project manager was Phil Mercer with Nilkanth Patel overseeing the technical aspects and, for the first time on a Robbie Williams tour, Jon Shrimpton was live camera director.

Once again the stage set and visuals took on a completely new and different dimension and the aesthetic was carefully crafted by show producers Lee Lodge and Willie Williams, both also involved in commissioning the video playback content, mostly created by Shop Studios in Bristol.

A large part of the look and feel of the show was established by the time Shrimpton joined the team, including an impressive 22.8m wide by 10.8m high upstage scenic LED wall made up from XL's Pixled F-12 product. They had als

Spain - Lighting designer Edu Valverde and Madrid-based AV group Geometrica Studio have created an urban-inspired lighting design using the exact beams of the Clay Paky Sharpy for a show celebrating Spanish jewellery brand Aristocrazy at this year's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week (MBFW) Madrid.

Taking inspiration from the 80s cult classic film Blade Runner, the design comprised of a clever mix of architectural, video mapped and lighting elements that combined to create an urban set reminiscent of the gritty architecture featured in the science-fiction blockbuster.

"The lighting acted as the unifying core between the audience and the set," explains Valverde. "The idea was that with the long reach of the Sharpy beams the nocturnal, urban mood of the show would be extended out from the set and into the audience to create a really immersive atmosphere."

Va

Italy - Based just outside of Milan, the latest addition to Audient's global distribution network is Leading Technologies. Responsible for Audient's compact product range, including the USB interface, iD22 and the 8-channel mic pre and ADC, ASP880, the company takes on the mantle of distribution throughout Italy, this month.

"We are very excited to start this adventure with such a high quality brand that perfectly fit into our portfolio complementing and completing our offer," says Leading Technologies' CEO Marco Porro. "The addition of Audient products will help expand our reach into high tech audio across the country," he adds, citing the fact that the majority of the British manufacturer's products feature the renowned mic preamps designed by industry heavyweight, David Dearden.

With nearly 40 years of experience in the pro audio industry, Leading Techno

UK - Allen & Heath's new Qu-24 compact digital mixer has been installed in the prestigious Cambridge Union Society.

Founded in 1815, the Cambridge Union can claim to be the oldest continually operating debating society in the world, with participants including heads of state, business leaders, actors, academics and politicians.

Having extensive experience in the university, cathedral and heritage sectors, installer About Sound was appointed to specify and install a new audio system as part of an AV refurbishment. The brief was to provide a digital console that inexperienced users would be able to walk up to and operate.

"Qu-24 fitted the brief perfectly, and has lots of fantastic additional features. The mixer is housed on a balcony over the chamber, so the Qu-Pad app is a great benefit, allowing the engineer to judge levels and mute and unmute channels from within the

Chile - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden is heating up the airwaves in Chile on Channel 13, one of the most prestigious television stations in the country. W-DMX distributor Iluminacion Profesional Valook SA, based in Santiago, is currently using W-DMX for the station's productions to great success and is looking to expand the use and knowledge of the product through educational seminars.

Francisco Yanez Valdivia, trainer & product manager for Valook explains, "Channel 13 works with a very high standard of quality. At present they use the W-DMX F-2 model linked with some integrated receivers on the fixtures and R512 receiver. I had the opportunity to talk with one of the lighting technicians and he said that this wireless system is very reliable and stable."

In an interview with Channel 13 lighting designer Luis Quiroz said of W-DMX, "With W-DMX I solve timing

The Netherlands - AVL has a solid track record of selling and supporting ChamSys in Belgium and Luxembourg with the highest standards of customer training and support which will be expanded to the Netherlands.

"We are confident that with AVL's skills and experience there will be a high standard of customer service, support and training in the Netherlands," says ChamSys.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The Live Event Hire Programme is a new initiative from Roland that has been established to promote the growing network of UK rental companies supplying Roland professional audio and video products for hire. The Roland Systems Group website (www.rolandsystemsgroup.co.uk) provides the hub of the programme, creating an online resource for customers wishing to source Roland products for hire and get in touch with suppliers directly.

"The aim of the Live Event Hire Programme is primarily to help raise market awareness of the service providers in the rental market by giving prospective clients a clear picture of which companies have which products available for immediate hire - and of course making it easy to for them to get in contact by following a link from the Roland Systems Group website," says Chris Webster, RSG business development manager.

"We are looking

USA - A hotdog eating contest might not sound like much of a sound production challenge, but when one of the Fourth of July's more unusual celebration events attracts over 30,000 people to a three hour show, featuring an MC, rock band, loads of playback and the actual contest, on a Coney Island street corner, providing professional sound reinforcement across the impromptu "venue" is no walk in the park. Add the seasonal steamy humidity and an edge of a hurricane downpour, and things get pretty sticky.

This year's - the 98th - Annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest saw the event's regular sound production company and FOH engineer since 2005 - Audio Production Services (Amawalk, NY) and Mark Fiore - take their first 'test flight' with the Cadac CDC eight-32 digital production console. "The Cadac was available from the company's new US division

Portugal - Among the things that have made The Voice such a runaway international hit is that every country seems to find its own different way of enhancing the show, adding a local feeling to what has become a global phenomenon. This is very evident looking at A Voz de Portugal. In 2011, it introduced a rule change that allowed viewers to vote back losers of battle rounds for live shows. This year the Lisbon-based show raised its game again, by taking pixel mapping on its set to a new level with the Nexus 4x4 LED panel from Chauvet Professional.

Marco Silva, LD and programmer for A Voz de Portugal, used 28 Nexus 4 x 4 panels to create a stunning front stage façade, which he had pixel mapped by João Canoso of FX - Road Lights. Working with an Mbox Studio media server, Canoso created a stunning design that coordinated with the 6 mm LED upstage video wall.

"

Belarus - Clay Paky's multi-zone A.leda B-EYE was the star of the show at the recent Belarusian TV Awards beaming complex aerial effects as part of a lighting design by Kirell Zelenko.

TV LD Zelenko worked with assistant lighting designer Ilya Piatrouski of Minsk-based production house Blackout Studios to design a rich, glittering light show for the popular annual event - now in its tenth year - which celebrates the best in Belarusian television.

"We needed to create a balanced design that actually enriched the video mapped elements occurring on stage," explains Piatrouski. "The lighting needed to be effects based as well as practical to create the sumptuous, detailed look we were after."

Zelenko and Piatrouski specified a host of Clay Paky fixtures for the ceremony, including 24 x A.leda B-EYE K20, 12 x A.leda Wash K10, 24 x Sharpy, 20 x Sharpy Wash 330

USA - When two of music's long established bands prepared to embark on their 38-city North American co-headlining tour, the design teams behind Journey and Steve Miller Band had to find the best way to support the style of each group. With the challenge of sharing the same rig, lighting designer Kevin 'Deuce' Christopher had to decide which automated luminaires would provide the most flexibility as the main lighting instruments for both show designs. Working with Tour Tech East, he chose 38 VL3500 Wash and 25 VL3000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite to be the lighting backbone for the complete tour.

"In the design for the Journey tour, we have a large video wall that we treat as a surface for I-MAG, so I knew we needed automated lighting that could punch through the intensity of the video wall," began Christopher. "During the design process, we looked at seve

USA - One hundred and forty Robe Pointes were at the core of the production lighting design for the 2014 Essence Festival in New Orleans, which was created by Matt Foucheux of Solomon Group, production designers and equipment suppliers for the Main Stage in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Musical acts included Prince, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige and Jill Scott.

The Solomon Group has worked for the vibrant and diverse "party with a purpose" - which started in 1995 - for the last three years, and for the last two has also been responsible for producing the 60,000 capacity Main Stage at the four day event.

This was the first time that Foucheux and Solomon Group have used Pointes and actually the first time they have ever worked with Robe products. The fixtures were supplied by VER, and it underlined a real confidence in the brand and its reputation to commit to so many Poin

USA - A virtual plethora of Elation Professional lighting and video gear was used this year to light up Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas, North America's largest dance music festival. Produced by Insomniac Events and held the weekend of 20-22 June at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, more than 400,000 attendees danced and raved their way to the latest EDM beats in front of eight stages, seven of which featured Elation products.

EDC is a spectacular scene, a multi-sensory testament to the popularity of electronic dance music with some of the biggest names in the genre performing, including Avicii, Diplo, Afrojack, Carl Cox and Tiesto, many helicoptered in from the Vegas strip 20 minutes away to play to tens of thousands at each stage. Ferris wheels, fireworks, glowing sculptures, desert heat and beams of pulsating light all make up the EDC Las Vegas experience.

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