USA - In their first significant use on a major tour, 165 Solaris LED 16x1 fixtures have been performing flawlessly on Jason Aldean's 2014 Burn It Down tour.

"I chose Solaris 16X1s because, based on my experience with the amazing Solaris Flare, I knew they would perform well for my needs," says Mike Swinford, the show's lighting and production designer. "We use them to outline the overhead trusses and also to outline the T-shaped thrust. They're performing very well and ride on the trusses everyday so they do not have to be handled at every show.

"As with the Flare product, I am really impressed by their high output, plus linear effects when used with the MA console driving them. The 16X1's individual LED "pixel" control is a real plus". Production personnel include tour LD Keith Hoagland and lighting programmer Mark Butts. The Solaris LED pr

Spain - Every September thousands of revellers descend upon the streets of Barcelona in Spain for La Mercè, a five-day, free-to-attend celebration. Live music, dance and theatre take place in venues across the city as locals and visitors alike bid farewell to summer and welcome the cooler days of autumn. This year, Mojo Barriers was called upon to provide its crowd control solutions at one of the festival's busiest venues, El Parc del Forum.

Mojo Barriers' Gatekeeper 2.0 intelligent turnstile system attracted organisers BSM, which needed to ensure capacities of the open air concert venue - which also hosts Primavera Sound festival - weren't breached. The venue welcomed live music fans across three nights who danced the night away to a host of local and international acts.

Leon van der Velden, project manager at Mojo Barriers, said, "The Gatekeeper 2.0 is the ideal soluti

UK - Wireless Lighting is a new company and online portal dedicated to the dry and cross hire of battery powered wireless lighting technologies for the show and event industry in and around London.

Founder Justin Hammond, who has been at the sharp end of the professional lighting, video and AV rental industry for eight years, spotted a gap in the market for quick, simple, reliable and no-nonsense service providing wireless lighting kit.

He states, "There's been a massive surge in popularity and use of wireless LED lighting over the last two years - there's no messing around with cabling, and the lighting fixtures can instantly transform any environment. Wireless Lighting is designed to provide a fast, efficient and straightforward service to all those wanting to make use of this technology on their events."

Clients can log in to the website, place their order, sele

USA - Following the successes at its Meyer Sound-equipped New York flagship and Chicago locations, City Winery recently selected a Mina line array loudspeaker system to help bring a quality live experience to its food- and wine-loving clientele in Napa.

Like all other City Winery locations, the philosophy behind the new 350-seat, cabaret-style listening room in the historic Napa Valley Opera House is a meticulous attention to sensory delight. The sound system is no exception acoustically or visually, according to Ed Greer, City Winery's chief production officer.

"Because we focus on singer-songwriters, we needed a PA that is extremely accurate acoustically, that can deliver with complete transparency," says Greer. "The Mina arrays achieve that goal, and their sleek profile also fits with the elegance of the room. Any system we install in City Winery will be Meye

Sweden - HD Resources (HDR) is one of the premier High Definition resource providers in Sweden. Based in Stockholm, the privately owned company offers fully equipped, high specification HD studios and a number of HD OB vehicles for outside broadcast purposes and is thus capable of covering almost every type of live or studio recording.

Known mainly for their work in horse racing, sports, music and entertainment, HDR works with all of the major Swedish broadcasters including the public broadcaster, SVT, and TV4 who is the country's largest commercial broadcaster.

HDR has recently built a new state-of-the-art OB vehicle featuring a number of DirectOut products that is presented as version 2.0 of their current HDR 6 24 Camera Expandable HD OB truck offering 24 seats with a true 5.1 audio mixing area. The new vehicle was built under the technical supervision of Sony's Martyn Smith

UK - The PLASA 2014 exhibition sees the culmination of Robe's 20th anniversary celebrations, with the Czech Republic based manufacturer making a big impact in the 1,000sq.m Robe Arena at London's ExCeL Centre.

The Robe Arena is the company's largest exhibition area to date, and will highlight Robe's just launched BMFL Spot, a new mega-bright long-throw signature fixture which needs a large environment in which to be demonstrated most effectively.

Additionally, there are another 12 new innovations launched by Robe at PLASA 2014, together with all the current product range luminaires on this spectacular booth, which will also feature one of Robe's dazzling exhibition lightshows.

CEO Josef Valchar states, "We attend many exhibitions around the globe, but it's always good to be back in London, and this has always felt like THE lighting show for us. We wanted to do something

UK - MDG Fog Ltd has appointed two new distributors for its range of fog and haze generators.

From 1 October 2014, MDGfog UK, a trading division of Robe UK Ltd, will take responsibility for the exclusive distribution of the full MDG product range in the UK & Eire. This new division will be headed by Matt Wiseman, a well-known face in the UK entertainment industry who brings 20 years of experience to the role.

"I am looking forward to the new avenues and responsibilities this arrangement brings," says Wiseman. "It will allow MDGfog UK to focus wholeheartedly on promoting and servicing the MDG brand across the UK and Eire, with the added confidence of solid backing from Robe UK's established administrative, service and warehouse facilities in Northampton."

Mick Hannaford, Managing Director of Robe UK, adds, "We believe the quality and performance of th

UK - Two TV rental specialists - one operating in London and one in Glasgow - pooled their respective SGM inventories to great effect recently during the recent Scottish Independence Referendum.

With most of the broadcast activity centred on Glasgow, Tony Kennedy's Teknique Systems, having purchased 12 SGM P-5 Washlights from SGM UK, joined forces with Richard Martin Lighting (RML) to provide lighting infrastructure in two very different venues.

The live televised debate between Alistair Darling (leading the 'No' campaign) and Alex Salmond (Scotland's First Minister, heading the drive for Independence) - held at the historic Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum - was followed by the action through the night as the votes were counted. This took place in 'The Street', the central atrium area of the ultra-modern £72m BBC Pacific Quay, which only opened seven years ago.

&quo

UK - When lighting designer Amarasri Songcharoen (aka Marci Song) of Seam Design was looking for the best lighting fixtures to light the 500 year old Raphael Cartoons - a series of large artworks by Rafael on display in London's Victoria & Albert Museum - she knew she needed something special. It had to be something which would output minimal or no ultraviolet light, as well as provide a perfectly lit atmosphere for a giant mirrored sculpture which was to be installed as part of the London Design Festival.

As part of the month long Precision & Poetry in Motion exhibition, design agency Barber Osgerby developed a system of two giant mirrored aeronautical 'wings,' which were suspended in the room and would slowly rotate on motors, altering the reflections of the Raphael Cartoons as they did. To light the artworks, she used 16 ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr fixtures, con

Italy - Fox Sound Service has purchased the first Meyer Sound Lyon linear sound reinforcement system in Italy. Adding to Fox Sound's large Meyer Sound inventory of more than 170 loudspeakers, the Lyon system has supported a range of classical, rock, and dance events across the country.

"I was extremely impressed with the technical advantages of linear sound reinforcement offered by Meyer Sound's Leo linear large-scale sound reinforcementsystem, but we had been waiting for a more compact version better suited to the Italian market," explains Carlo Volpe, technical director and co-owner of Fox Sound. "Lyon is exactly what we need. It has the performance and versatility ideal for any production, from open-air classical music presentations to jazz festivals and rock concerts. My partners and I are proud to be the first in Italy to supply this new technology."

F

USA - Mexico's pop icon Juan Gabriel is touring the US with an SSL Live, console. One of Mexico's most successful vocalists, Gabriel is a Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame inductee and six-time Grammy nominee who has sold over 30m albums and performed throughout the world. When his Volver 2014 tour prepared for its US leg, front-of-house engineer Rodrigo López was excited to mix on SSL's latest innovation.

"As soon as it was available, I wanted to use it," López says of Live. "Just by reading 'SSL,' you know it's a quality console. An engineer friend of mine who used Live for another US tour provided the only training I needed. It's very user-friendly. Sound check was my rehearsal with the console. It just sounded correct, it was really great. Everything was there, the way I wanted it to be."

SSL Live's sonic quality was particularly noticeable on violin

UK - Black Light has played a key part in the 50th birthday celebrations for one of Scotland's most iconic pieces of engineering. The Edinburgh-based company provided all of the lighting for the concert that was a highlight of the festivities surrounding the Forth Road Bridge's anniversary.

"We designed, supplied and operated all the equipment for the main Bridge Party concert stage and performance arena," explains Russell Cobden, who was Black Light's project manager for the job. "It was an exciting thing to be involved with as it was a high-profile event that attracted a lot of media attention."

Black Light worked on the project with the organisers Unique Events. The two companies have a long-standing working relationship having collaborated for many years on world-class events such as Edinburgh's Hogmanay. Feedback was extremely positive, with Rab Randal

UK - Having become the first UK investor in Martin Audio's MLA Mini system, London Speaker Hire (LSH) - the AV rental division of The Hive Partnership - has underlined its commitment to the award-winning platform by purchasing an MLA Compact system.

The company has added 16 MLA Compact enclosures to its inventory and pressed the system straight into service on the inaugural On Blackheath Festival, featuring Massive Attack, and promoted by Harvey Goldsmith.

With 25,000 people descending on Blackheath Common in south-east London, with its three stages, there was a strong desire to keep the sound away from local residential properties. According to LSH director, Grant Turner, the promoters were well aware of the extraordinary control capabilities of MLA's Multi-cellular Array control technology, having witnessed events at Hyde Park for AEG Live, where for noise pollution reasons

USA / Europe - Following the recent success of their highly successful solo tours, Beyoncé and Jay Z have combined their talents to deliver a 'Bonnie and Clyde' themed stadium tour, On The Run. The tour recently completed a 20-date North American leg before heading off to Europe earlier this month.

For the duration of the tour, Beyoncé and Jay Z have relied on Sennheiser's Digital 9000 wireless microphone system, which was purchased specifically for the tour by Eighth Day Sound Systems, Inc. at the recommendation of front-of-house engineer Stephen Curtin and monitor engineer James Berry - both veterans of the tour.

The tour amalgamates band members from both the Beyoncé and Jay Z touring camps and features two stages, a massive video wall and an elaborate lighting design - making it a sufficiently challenging environment from an RF perspective. Soni

Directors' Cut - Leading theatre figures including Marianne Elliott, Matthew Warchus, Vicky Featherstone and Jeremy Herrin have launched the industry's first body aimed at representing stage directors. Increasing fees in the sector is one of Stage Directors UK's first priorities. It will also represent directors on issues such as royalties, contracts, digital rights and copyright, as well as leading on training initiatives. Directors can become members of Equity, but SDUK says the lack of an organisation dedicated to the needs of opera and theatre directors has "led to an increasing sense of anger and frustration" in the sector.

Who's Next - The Who have unveiled their first song in eight years as they mark their 50th anniversary. Be Lucky includes lyrical references to Australian rockers AC/DC and French electro band Daft Punk and will be included in a d

USA - The new Discovery Park of America in Union City, Tennessee, USA, has been supplied with leading-edge media serving technology from 7thSense Design in the UK. The Delta Media Server has been installed inside the Earthquake simulator by system integrator, Electrosonic and serves as one of many state-of-the-art educational and entertainment experiences on display at the centre.

Part museum, part education centre, Discovery Park of America sits on a 50-acre site and the benchmark of the park is Discovery Centre, a 100,000 square foot building with 70,000 feet of exhibits in Obion County, Tennessee - two hours from the city of Memphis. Hailed as a world-class educational space and filled with a range of exhibits, the family attraction holds ten experience galleries - most of which feature audio-visual equipment installed by AV integrator, Electrosonic.

As one of the most prom

UK - This year saw the Philips Selecon RAMA LED Fresnel, which features full warm white output, make its Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut. The luminaires took up residence over the festival period in one of the Fringe's most exciting venues, C south, part of leading Edinbugh Fringe venue producer C venues, where a range of theatre companies put on up to 12 productions a day.

Another new addition to this year's rig was the Vari-Lite VLX Wash. Together the luminaires blended seamlessly with the numerous Tungsten fixtures, providing the various productions with a plethora of LED associated advantages.

While the RAMA LED Fresnel luminaires took care of the warm and cool Front of House wash light two VLX Wash luminaires were installed as key light FOH with two additional luminaires providing back key light.

"Both the Selecon RAMA LED Fresnel and the Vari-Lite VLX Wash luminai

UK - The last 30 years has seen a wide variety of world changing events. The fall of the Berlin Wall, an ever increasing amount of military conflicts, several royal births, deaths and marriages along with major developments in sport and entertainment.

What do these have in common? They've all been subject to the attention of an increasingly dynamic and technically developing media circus. As a result there is also a very good chance they've been audibly recorded using equipment supplied by Raycom.

Since 1984, Raycom has used its close working relationship with the UK's premier broadcasters and location sound engineers to secure distribution rights with some of the world's most innovative manufactures of professional broadcast quality audio solutions. The radio microphone and IEM ranges from Wisycom of Italy and US based Lectrosonics are recognised as the top of their field for

USA - In addition to being the alma matter of pop icon Gloria Estefan, Our Lady of Lourdes Academy (OLLA) is a paragon of Catholic academic excellence and has been since it was founded in 1963. To continue to effectively fulfill its mission in the twenty-first century, however, the school embarked on a four-phase, $15m improvement project, which included construction of a state-of-the-art gymnasium.

Revelation Sound, Inc. (RSI), a state licensed A/V specialty electrical and integration firm that has niche markets to houses of worship and their associated academic institutions since 1984, was awarded the contract for the audio, video and intercom portion of the project.

The acoustic consulting and analysis for the project was done in partnership with Robert Bernecker of SEFI Consulting in Dallas, Texas. RSI has partnered with SEFI on numerous projects, with the collaboration re

UK / Germany - Following the company's recent restructuring into global, channel-specific business units, Costa Mesa, California-based QSC Audio Products LLC has announced a realignment of its distribution in the UK and Germany, with effect from 1 November 2014.

The company's Systems business unit, serving the integrated systems channel, will continue to be represented by Shure Distribution, the QSC distributor for all the company's Pro and Systems products in the UK and Germany since 1992 and 2007 respectively.

"Shure's capability to support our rapidly-expanding Integrated Systems technology in the region is unparalleled. Their complementary product portfolio, combined with their technical knowledge, vast experience, and highly developed sales and marketing functions make them an ideal partner to deliver compelling QSC System solutions to customers in the region,"

UK - Industry veteran Peter Maddison has announced the launch of a brand new company, PCM Distribution Ltd, at the PLASA Show next week (5-8 October, Excel, London). The company, a UK distributor of professional lighting, sound and accessories, has already been appointed UK sales agent for Amp-Pack Cases and for the Italian lighting brand, Studio Due, as well as UK sales agent for Mach Audio - and the company will be displaying a selection of the latest Mach speakers on the Amp-Pack Cases stand from Sunday 5 October.

(Lee Baldock)

USA / Canada - Clay Paky Sharpys illuminated the Journey and the Steve Miller Band along for the ride that took them to 30 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

The tour united two of the groups that helped define The San Francisco Sound. In careers spanning 40 years, Journey has sold 80m albums worldwide and the Steve Miller Band more than 30m records.

Tour Tech East Ltd. in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia provided lighting support for the tour supplying 34 Sharpys and 20 Sharpy Washes. Senior account executive Tracey Ploss has worked with Journey and the band's lighting designer Kevin "Deuce" Christopher for eight years.

"Last year Deuce used a couple of Sharpys, but this year he specifically wanted Sharpy Washes for the tour so we added them to our inventory," says Ploss. "We've made a significant investment in the Clay Paky fixtures." Sharpys are very p

Croatia - The Outlook Festival is staged over four days in the beautiful and slightly desolate environs of Fort Punta Christo just outside Pula, the main city on Croatia's bustling Istrian coastline, known for its mild climate, smooth sea and unspoiled nature.

Outlook - this was the seventh edition - features the largest collection of dub step, bass music and soundsystem culture in Europe with an action-packed line up uniting some of the biggest names from these vibrant dance genres.

Overall project, production and site management for Outlook 2014 - and the four day underground electronic beats Dimensions Festival on the same site the previous weekend - was undertaken by Bristol UK based WNY, headed by Ben Price, with lighting design and rigging site wide by Fineline Lighting, also from Bristol. They were working for the event organisers, NVS Promotions.

Each year the produc

World - Lady Gaga is on her tour, ArtRave: The Artpop Ball, and Clay Paky's A.leda B-EYE K20 innovative, LED-based moving lights and Clay Paky Sharpys are along for the wild ride.

ArtRave marks Lady Gaga's fourth concert tour. It is in support of her third studio album, Artpop and kicked off in Fort Lauderdale with 78 dates scheduled in North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia.

PRG has provided 120 B-EYEs for the tour as well as a large complement of Clay Paky Sharpys. Lighting control is performed with three full-size grandMA2s and 10 NPUs.

"Production and lighting designer Roy Bennett's approach to the show was to make it an immersive rave that reflected Gaga's non-stop party aesthetic," says programmer Jason Baeri. "That means active, alive, vibrant and high energy -- it requires us to be just as active on stage as in the crowd. The audi

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