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14 March 2016

Now in their second year, the Technical Theatre Awards (TTAs) were established to give due credit to the often unsung heroes and heroines that work backstage to make the theatre magic happen.

The winners are:

The Douglas Turnbull Award for Outstanding Achievement in Stage Management (Supported by Opera Holland Park)

Sharon Hobden

The Philips Entertainment Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting

Richard Rhys Thomas

The PRG Award for Outstanding Achievement in Production Management

Paul Hennessy

The Triple E Award for Outstanding Achievement in Flys & Rigging

Karl Meier

The Rigging Team Award for Outstanding Achievement

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14 March 2016

Orbital Sound's MD Chris Headlam comments, "As Flare's UK & Eire distributor, we can introduce the Flare concept to a much wider audience by setting up this new demonstration centre at our Brixton headquarters - complemented by having an expert technical team on hand in support. With such extraordinarily innovative design as Flare Audio, you need to be able to provide the right environment for people to listen and explore the range in detail.

"We are incredibly excited by what Flare has achieved, to the e

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14 March 2016

For the 17th edition, both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies were held in the 62,000-capacity purpose built Incheon Asiad Main Stadium, with K-Pop stars and Gangnam Style singer Psy headlining the star-studded opening show.

With 'Diversity' as the theme, the large rental company Canlite drew on huge quantities of PR Lighting fixtures, deploying nearly 200 heads to perform specific tasks - comfortably the largest single brand represented. At the same time it met the specification of lighting designer, Han Soon Na, and his programmer Yoiung Gu Kang.

The inventory included more than 100 powerful PR 5000 Spot, Wash and Framing variants - many of them positioned, along with XR 330 Beams on the top of

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14 March 2016

The Ross ballet, consisting of 90 horses from various top European stud farms and 200 performers, fascinated around 7500 visitors in the Marbach Arena. The Württemberg Philharmonic of Reutlingen accompanied the spectacle with symphonic live music. Alcons Audio facilitated a perfect sound everywhere with the LR24 pro-ribbon line-array system.

dlp motive GmbH was entrusted with the sound for the event as technical supplier and put the Alcons LR24 pro-ribbon line array for their first time to the test. The LR24 is a larger line-array system that can both be permanently installed as well as be used in touring. It was developed for a 1:1 linear reproduction of th

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14 March 2016

The most visible element of Creative Technology's (CT) package was the numerous large screens positioned around the course, on the Opening and Closing Ceremony stages and in the three park and ride centres. A total of 21 screens ranging in size from 8m2 to 100m2 were installed; many in extremely inaccessible locations. The overall screen area totalled 750 m2, an increase of over 50% compared to the 2010 event held at Celtic Manor in Wales.

Pixel pitches of 8, 12 and 16mm, LED products were selected to match the display size and viewing distances, providing a consistent overall resolution, character size and subsequent text legibility. Independent feedback and switching of sour

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14 March 2016

It was originally built as a concert venue and coffee shop for the Royal Liedertafel Souvenir des Montagnards - a Dutch association, founded in 1845, to further broaden cultural objectives including vocal and instrumental music, opera and theatre.

Since 1916 the building has functioned as a cinema, as well as hosting concerts, theatre, exhibitions, lectures and presentations. It has hosted numerous high profile artists, including Vladimir Horowitz, widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time.

Taking the name of Rome's high profile Cinecitta film studio in 1982, the building continues to be of major socio-cultural signifi

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14 March 2016

The iMapp Bucharest 555 years anniversary event saw the 270m wide, 23.000m2 facade of the Bucharest Parliament Palace transformed into a giant outdoor theatre for the celebrations, which mark 555 years since the first documented mention of the Romanian capital.

The Panasonic PT-DZ21K projectors created the huge display by using edge blending and geometric mapping software to create a single seamless image.

"We chose the DZ21K mostly because of its size, and being so robust we were able to make stacks with lots of projectors," said Adrian Pochiscan, technical director of 360 Revolution, the company that produced the show. "We liked its resolution, its remote control capabilities fro

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14 March 2016

The Bursary is awarded annually to a student or recent graduate who has demonstrated strong, imaginative and creative lighting designs. It is organised by the Association of Lighting Designers, a professional body representing lighting designers in the live performance industry.

Northen was both a former Chairman and President of the ALD and the first credited lighting designer in the UK.

Each year an award of £500 is presented to a young lighting designer who has shown excellence in the field of lighting design. The project must be a performance-based lighting design in or out of the college environment. Two runner-up prizes of £250 each are also presented: an ETC sponsor

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14 March 2016

"PLASA 2014 was awesome in every way!" declared the Czech moving light manufacturer's CEO Josef Valchar.

"We welcomed an incredible number of visitors on the booth every day, we met a wide selection of innovative lighting and visual designers all showing a keen interest in our products, we saw representatives from most of the leading UK rental companies ... and winning the Innovation Award was the icing on the cake! We could not have asked for a better show - it absolutely rocked!"

As well as all of the above ... PLASA 2014 was special for Robe in many other ways.

The 1000sq.m Robe Arena was the biggest physic

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14 March 2016

Industry/exhibitor reaction to the show was positive. Richard 'Fez' Ferriday, brand development manager at Cadac observed: "We have a constant stream of serous visitors who have been really knocked out by the new features in the new version 2.3 operating software for the CDC eight. Surprisingly we have had a lot of theatre people on the booth."

Mercedes Stevao-Boase, marketing and PR at Green Hippo said: "AC Technologies has a great stand space. It's been really busy, lots of overseas visitors from Asia to Eastern Europe."

Karl Christmas, sales & marketing

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14 March 2016

Clay Paky's Chief Operational Officer, Pio Nahum, graciously accepted the Gottelier Award on behalf of his friend and colleague. The other nominees - Richard Belliveau, David Cunningham and Dr Christian Heil - withdrew from the running following the sad news. The lighting industry has lost a great character and a true pioneer.

Every year, PLASA recognises products that demonstrate progress, through attributes like a new style of thinking, an improvement in technical practice, new technology, materials or technique

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14 March 2016

FACE CEO Karel de Piere comments, "We are very happy to widen our Benelux distribution of the TiMax products which we already represent in Belgium for some years. TiMax fits well with our other high quality brands and suits perfectly our core activities in system solutions and integration."

The FACE team's broad skill set and in-depth experience across the live event and installation sectors are a good match for TiMax SoundHub, a scaleable audio matrix and playback server for system management, vocal localisation, sound effects, spatialisation and audio showcontrol in theatrical productions, events and venues as well as AV installations such as museums, the

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14 March 2016

Projection mapping specialist Maxin10sity was called in by local rental stager 360 Revolution to handle the colossal task of creating a videomapping as well as organising all content, acting as a curator for this artistic performance.

Each animation was a symbolic 5'55'', and boasted a staggering 23,000 sqm projection area. "For a project of this scale, 8K resolution quickly became obvious. We wanted the audience to experience this wow factor while at the same time create some emotion,&qu

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14 March 2016

Suzanne told LSiOnline: "Prior to the event I was quite overwhelmed to receive so many messages of support . . . doing this had clearly made people think, and some had even decided to do their own fund-raising, which is great. I also met one of the Macmillan ladies, Stephanie, who had been through cancer twice, and the way she faced it and embraced it was quite inspirational - I was in awe. I had bought a wig before-hand, but once I'd spoken to her and listened to what she'd

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14 March 2016

Supplied by LMC Audio and installed by Scan Audio, the micro-line array system was identified as being the perfect solution for the application from the word go. A feature of the hall is that the 1000 seater auditorium can be split into two self-contained 500-seat spaces. The rear walls of the hall move - splitting the auditorium via a central removable divide when it needs to open up.

The installation was carried out by Surrey based Scan Audio. Scan's Dee Couchman specified the Van Damme cable. He said: "We have used Van Damme cable for many years and this project was no different. It has always been the cable of choice for us."

The system is primarily an AMX control with a Marti

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14 March 2016

The judges praised Blitz | GES' work during the Olympics, and admired the way it had capitalised on that work to propel growth. They added, "Blitz | GES has made smart investments to accelerate performance and is a very well-managed company with a shining future ahead of it. Despite the tough economic climate, Blitz | GES more than doubled its revenue in the last four years and has grown from 80 to 115 staff while investing over £5m in new equipment and paying of £3m off debt."

The award was presented to Paul Hutton, managing director of Blitz | GES and Munir Samji, the outgoing executive chairman, at a cere

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14 March 2016

The scholarship is awarded to students based on their academic performance in their first year, and is part of an education partnership between the University, in Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, and Sennheiser.

It was presented to Callum Paxton, who was among six students shortlisted who were interviewed by Phil Cummings, Sennheiser's marketing projects manager, and singer-songwriter Nellie Bell, who is sponsored by Sennheiser UK.

Callum, who is a second-year student, also received a Neumann TLM 103 microphone as part of his award.

He said: "The money will help to pay for recording equipment and to set up a covers band I will be playing with to finance my university studies.

Phil Cummings said, "All of

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14 March 2016

Following his death and as a testament to the huge respect 'Paky' had garnered over the years, the remaining Gottelier Award nominees, Richard Belliveau, David Cunningham and Dr Christian Heil, unanimously agreed to withdraw from the running.

Coming from humble origins the young entrepreneur Pasquale Quadri grew up in an extremely creative environment. The son of a magician he was raised in a small provincial Italian town. 'Paky' established Clay Paky in 1976 and in j

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14 March 2016

"It was another key opportunity to communicate and explain the strong solutions that AED can offer to AV Professionals, going from Rent and Distribution, through Lease, Second Hand, Store and even the AED Studios. As Master Distributor for respected brands, we were able to discuss how we provide training and product support to truly underpin our customers so they can concentrate on their key strengths."

HOG Factor, which was organised and hosted for the first time by AED Distribution

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14 March 2016

Quality sound is clearly a top priority and Tomorrowland has called on the audio pros at NoizBoyz and Phlippo Productions for the last four years. The sound crew's task is complicated as the Tomorrowland site encompasses multiple stages that are not only in close proximity, but also constantly run simultaneous acts. Reduced sound spillover from stage to stage is a key factor to festival-goers' enjoyment, but the local authorities also impose restrictions on noise l

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14 March 2016

The company says: "The Mythos made its world première at PLASA 2014 and won a PLASA Award for Innovation. Clay Paky's founder and chairman Pasquale Quadri, who passed away last month, received a posthumous lifetime achievement award [the Gottelier Award]. The Knight of Illumination Awards, created and organised by the Italian company, were more popular than ever and very highly acclaimed. Above all, Clay Paky's new lights were able to reveal their outstanding performance to the world, thanks to a specially set up, thrilling multimedia show."

Pio Nahum, Clay Paky's CCO, reported that "the success of the demo show went beyond all expectations. Not only was the seating packed every day of the fair,

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14 March 2016

Soulsound presented and coordinated a total of seven sessions, kicking off with Funktion-One founders, Tony Andrews and John Newsham, who were joined by sound consultant, Jim Cousins. The trio, who have an illustrious history in audio, discussed Point Source. Line Array. What do these terms really mean? - providing anecdotes and explanations along the way.

Shure's Tuomo Tolonen followed with Wireless Mastered, which unravelled some of the mysteries of radio frequencies, enabling engineers to be confident in their dealings with radio mics and IEMs, which are

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14 March 2016

The band's new studio album Concrete Love was also released a few days prior to playing the two high profile gigs to great acclaim and enrapt audiences, and they also announced a major UK tour for the autumn, so it was quite a big week for everyone involved.

Hill wanted to ramp up the excitement and make the Reading and Leeds appearances as visually fabulous as possible, and designed a high impact specials lighting package which was supplied by UK rental company Siyan. Siyan also supplied the 'house' lighting kit to both NME / Radio One stages at two sites.

He decided to recreate elements of the big tungsten feel that featured very successfully on the last tour,

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14 March 2016

"We drew on our expertise and experience in the worlds of theatre and conference venues to come up the right mix of equipment to suit the client's technical requirements, creative vision and budget," explains Phil Haldane who led the team that carried out the installation. "In particular we used Q-Sys to manage all the AV and lighting systems. We also installed Selecon LED theatrical lights onto Prolyte Truss to allow a wide range of lighting schemes to be easily set up and implemented. These were recalled via an eCUe replay unit over rs232 from the Q-Sys Core."

The solutions Bla