World - In a nod to her status as working mum pop star, British singer Lily Allen has been touring both the festival and venue circuit in front of a backdrop of baby bottles laced with LED strips and controlled by Avolites Ai.

Allen first unveiled her baby bottles set - a concept conceived by acclaimed stage designer Es Devlin - at Glastonbury 2014 and went on to perform with the bottles throughout the US, UK and Europe in the autumn as part of her Sheezus tour. In January and February 2015, the tour continues to Asia.

The bottles were designed by bespoke lighting creators Light Initiative and feature LED strips inside, making up a mapped 'video screen' of colours and effects.

For the tour, Ai operator and content creator Aislinn 'Ash' Clifford and Ai programmer Toby Dennis are using two MacBook laptops with Ai software licences to control the array of effects running throug

USA - Everyone knows that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but some things are too good to keep a secret. Specifically, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards, where champion Kevin Harvick was honoured for his incredible win. With lighting provided by Bandit Lites and hosted by comedian Jay Mohr, the televised event featured performances by soul/R&B star Aloe Blacc, country super group Lady Antebellum, and the talent sister duo Lennon and Maisy from ABC's hit TV show, Nashville.

"The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards present the opportunity to spotlight the biggest names in NASCAR, and we are thrilled to augment that star power with some of the most popular personalities in the entertainment industry," said Zane Stoddard, NASCAR vice president of entertainment marketing and content development.

In addition to celebrating Harvick's win, The NASCAR America group

USA - Severn School is among the largest and most august private schools in the nation. Situated midway between Baltimore and Annapolis in Maryland, Severn School was founded in 1914 as a preparatory school for the U.S. Navy. Today, it serves 800 students from kindergarten to twelfth grade. In recent years, Severn School has been updating its buildings and grounds, including new turf fields for football, field hockey, soccer, and lacrosse adjacent to the new Edward St. John Athletic Center.

For a few years after their installation, the school used a portable system for every football game, a solution that proved to be of low quality and, moreover, quite a hassle. Severn School called on Baltimore-based A/V contractor HP Electronics to design and install a permanent system. Citing their value and sound quality, HP Electronics installed an Ashly MX-206 six-channel microphone mixer

USA/Canada - The CP Holiday Trains are spreading the joy of the season - and filling local food banks with donations - across Canada and the northern US. Supported by Meyer Sound systems, the brightly decorated trains draw thousands of people who brave the winter cold to partake in the festivities.

With two separate 14-car trains travelling west across Canada and the US, the Holiday Train programme delivers free live music shows in more than 150 US and Canadian communities, encouraging attendees to bring donations for local food banks. As the crowds grew year after year, the organizers decided to look for more powerful and higher-quality audio reinforcement for the 2014 edition.

"The difference the Meyer Sound systems provide is stunning, despite their smaller footprint," says Randall Prescott, president of Rip Roar Productions in Eastern Ontario, and producer of the

UK - Triple E has emerged as the prince charming of equipment engineered for entertainment this Christmas as Cinderella opens at De Montfort Hall, Leicester using 192m of Unitrack.

The concert hall has no fly tower and in the theatrical format, with a false proscenium, has a seating capacity of 1,490. It is generally a receiving house and in more than 20 years this is the Hall's second year of producing a pantomime.

Jim O'Mahoney is the Hall's Principal Technician and technical godfather. He notes, "As we have no flying we needed to hang 19 separate cloths over 14 x 16M swipe tracks. These are all hand swiped other than two roped tab tracks. We have no wing space for the down pulleys.

"We already have a large quantity of Triple E track in house and wished to augment it, as we find that Triple E products offer a very reliable system. We rarely get issues with

UK - The ABTT has issued a statement following the update issued by Westminster City Council into the Apollo Theatre Investigation.

"The Association of British Theatre Technicians has been leading on the development of advice to theatre owners concerning Suspended Fibrous Plaster ceilings in theatres for most of 2014. A group of experts was convened following the request for further guidance to be added to Technical Standards for Places of Entertainment.

"Now in the final stages of consultation with various stakeholders, the ABTT expects that this comprehensive guidance will be published in February 2014 in the form of a specific Guidance Note, which it understands will be adopted by the Health and Safety Executive as well as becoming a substantial addition to Technical Standards.

"The advice will call for an initial joint survey by both a structural engineer

UAE - Adamson Systems distributor Thomsun Trading continues to expand the reach of Adamson Systems within the United Arab Emirates region. The company recently delivered new line array systems to Stagecraft Events and SAS Event Production - both prominent sound companies located in Dubai.

"Both companies invested in full, turnkey, SpekTrix line array systems," explains Alok Ghurde, application support manager, Thomsun Trading. "The SpekTrix performance package consists of 16 SpekTrix line array enclosures. Eight SpekTrix subwoofers powered by four Lab.gruppen PLM 10000K amplifiers. They both purchased Cisco network switches for Dante audio distribution as well."

Adamson's SpekTrix line array is a three-way loudspeaker loaded with two dedicated 8-inch Kevlar Neodymium drivers and one 1.4-inch exit high frequency compression driver mounted on a proprietary wa

UK - Featuring mainstay attractions including the Magical Ice Kingdom, Zippo's Circus, the 1,600m2 Lycamobile Ice Rink, an authentic Bavarian Village and the iconic Giant Observation Wheel, Winter Wonderland in London's Hyde Park has welcomed more than 15m visitors since it was first introduced in 2007.

The latest edition of the Capital's most popular and dazzling winter event - open for six weeks from November 21 to January 4 with free admission - saw PWR Events and The Royal Parks collaborate to deliver and even wider menu of entertainment, and Showstars returned to help ensure that the event was set up on time and in perfect shape.

Hired directly by PWR Events, Showstars has been working on Winter Wonderland since its very first year with its crew preparing the whole site to enable the various suppliers to arrive and set-up their entertainment attractions.

Reporting to PW

UK - Cable specialist VDC Trading has announced its partnership with UK wide electrical specialist Edmundson Electrical, which serves the country from over 350 locations, each carrying a comprehensive stock and run by experienced and highly motivated staff.

VDC Trading will act as a full partner in the business providing technical and sales support, tendering, and the production and supply of, audio, video and data cabling from its London headquarters.

VDC Trading CEO Niall Holden said: "A major strength of Edmundson is that, like VDC Trading, the company is committed to satisfying the demands of its customers with innovative, high quality and cost effective 'branded' products sourced from the world's leading manufacturers. Likewise we both value each customer, regardless of size, and we are committed to providing a comprehensive, unrivalled service and attention to quali

UK - Digital Insanity's Richard Bagshaw works on a wide variety of projects, from music festivals to movie premieres, and uses his Hippotizer media servers on projects week after week to great effect and success.

The last few weeks have brought a couple of prominent movie premieres to London's Leicester Square and Digital Insanity were all over the high profile red-carpet gala, which saw dozens of Hollywood stars grace the cobbles outside the Odeon Cinema.

The Interstellar world premiere took place on Wednesday 29 October with stars such as Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and director Christopher Nolan in attendance.

The red carpet set up was created in two parts with the entrance showing off a curved LED screen made up using VER's Win9 air screen but further down at the end of the red carpet was the jewel of the premier, a 14m tall by 4m wide LED screen! Both set-

Canada - Caesars Windsor Hotel and Casino in Windsor, Ontario has added 26 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 LED-based moving lights to the inventory of its concert venue, The Colosseum.

A 5,000-seat venue, The Colosseum ranks #15 among venues in North America in desirability, service and shows, reports production supervisor Dan Leroux who toured for 25 years with Metallica, Pearl Jam and other top bands. "Artists come through this venue and are blown out of the water. We have close to 600 fixtures in the air, 10 moving pods on back and front truss, and all the latest lights, including B-EYE K20s.

"When a recent artist came, they left their lighting truck in Detroit because they didn't need it. Another major headliner didn't need to bring in their two trucks. Our rig is used by artists 90 percent of the time, which saves time and labour. They bring their ground packages and

UK - Audiologic has taken on the exclusive distribution of Aurora Multimedia in the UK. In what is a bold move, says the company, Audiologic is investing in and significantly extending the scope of its products and services with an eye on delivering an even more comprehensive AV solutions package for its customers.

Aurora Multimedia is a US-based manufacturer of the industry's first non-proprietary web-standards based IP control systems, as well as advanced HD video distribution and processing. Not only does ready access to these products widen the field of choice for Audiologic's customers in finding control solutions for a host of installations, it also acts as a catalyst for Audiologic's further capacity to engage more deeply with customers on the Visual side of the AV brief.

Andy Lewis, sales and marketing manager at Audiologic has no doubts that this is an important coup:

Switzerland - Auviso audiovisual solutions, one of Switzerland's leading players in the event equipment/services market, has purchased 14 high-brightness Barco projectors to raise its rental fleet to new levels of performance. The AV expert chose Barco's HDX- and HDF- projectors on account of their exceptional brightness, robustness and reliability, as well as the outstanding services provided by Barco distributor Baranday. With this order, auviso becomes one of the first Swiss AV suppliers to offer Barco's high-brightness HDF- and HDX- projectors.

Auviso is a market leader in central Switzerland and one of the key players in the country. Besides offering technical services and consultancy, auviso also boasts a large fleet of advanced audio, video, lighting and rigging equipment to help its customers stage successful events. "Every three to four years we replace our complet

USA - Clay Paky Sharpy and B-EYE K20 fixtures helped light up the New York City sky when Nights by Absolut launched on 12 September with a high-volume, high-energy twist on the club scene.

Vita Motus, the design studio of Heather Shaw, transformed the Pier 9 Container Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn into one of the most exciting clubs in the world for just one night. The iconic silhouette of the Absolut vodka bottle took center stage with the New York City skyline illuminated behind it. DJs Alvin Risk and Araabmuzik took command of the music on the stage below and built suspense for a surprise appearance by guest DJ Zedd.

The event, produced by VICE, was part of the innovative Absolut brand campaign, Transform Today, which launched last year. Nights by Absolut staged in Johannesburg, Berlin and Sao Paulo followed.

DMDS7tudios of North Miami Beach worked w

France - Ayrton, French manufacturer of original LED lighting solutions, reports that its MagicPanel 602 LED panel fixtures are touring the world with the 2014/15 Queen + Adam Lambert world tour.

Following this summer's sold out dates across the Far East, Australasia and North America, the champion combination of Queen + Adam Lambert is due to embark on a 26-date (11-country) tour of Europe in early 2015. From the very beginning, lighting designer Rob Sinclair chose to light the show's iconic centrepiece, a giant 'Q', using Ayrton MagicPanel 602 LED lighting fixtures.

"I have worked with Queen since 2012 and know that Brian May and Roger Taylor have definite ideas, born of long experience, in the production values of their shows," explains Sinclair. "When they requested the reproduction of the iconic 'Q' stage for the tour, I knew we needed a lot of lights to cr

USA - Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to lighting beauty pageants, getting things right means adhering to an exacting set of standards. So say Darren and Tyler Lussier, who speak from experience. Aside from lighting concerts and major league sporting events in New York and New England, their company, Image Production Services, has become a beauty pageant maven, illuminating no fewer than six state segments of Miss USA in 2014.

This year, the father-son team added a new twist to their pageant lighting when they replaced the fabric curtains they had been using on stage risers with MVP Ta8 Curve 8.33 mm pitch LED video panels from Chauvet Professional. "The panels have taken us to a whole new world when lighting pageants," said Tyler Lussier. "They give us much greater flexibility to change colours and scenes to match what's happening on t

Italy - Located a short distance from Venice, Italy, Nave de Vero is a new shopping centre which, like most modern malls, offers more than just retail outlets. Entertaining shoppers is an important part of its business, which is why it features a live performance area complete with high quality Yamaha digital audio system.

Situated in the municipality of Marghera, Nave de Vero is only a 15 minute drive from Venice and 30 minutes from the city of Padua. As well as 115 stores, it includes 15 dining outlets, most of which are concentrated around the first floor Piazza de Vero. The Piazza also features a stage and flown PA system, which are used for a wide variety of live entertainment.

Bologna-based Rokepo was chosen to supply the audio system, which includes a Yamaha CL3 digital mixing console and Rio3224-D i/o unit. The CL3 is fitted with an MY8AD24 interface for eight local an

Singapore - In a prominent intersection on the outskirts of Singapore City in Paya Lebar lies the Trinity Christian Centre, Trinity@Paya Lebar. Designed to imitate the vast canyons of the Israeli deserts, the building's beige-coloured facade mimics the folds of the desert landscape and now boasts Martin Professional lighting.

The original lighting scheme did not live up to Trinity Christian Centre's aspirations to become a neighbourhood night time landmark. In fact, even the next-door gas station outshone it and made more of an impact on the surroundings with lights. In consequence, ONG&ONG (Lighting Design) were commissioned to design and implement a new lighting concept for this house of worship.

ONG&ONG (Lighting Design) installed 14 Exterior 400 Image Projectors, 28 Exterior 410 fixtures, all controlled by Martin's M-PC controller. Inspired by the original visions, ONG&ONG

UK - TV presenters Ant and Dec have recently turned their popular TV show Saturday Night Takeaway into a touring arena show, which saw a over a hundred Clay Paky fixtures delivering brightness and portability to the complex production.

Lighting designer Adam Bassett of Woodroffe Bassett Design specified 57 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1500s, 32 Alpha Profile 1500s, 4 Alpha Spot QWO 800s, 20 Sharpys and 12 Sharpy Wash 330s, supplied by Neg Earth, to add ultimate versatility to the design. The design house also relied once more on their associated collaborator Roland Greil of Einstein and Sons as lighting director and operator during the run of the tour.

"The basic idea was to create a versatile lighting design to generate looks that would suit the very different parts of the show," says Bassett. "It was important to create a classic TV show look as well as a stron

UK - Liverpool technical production specialist Adlib is supplying the sound system and technicians for pop mega-star Enrique Iglesias' latest UK and European tour.

The multi-talented, multi-lingual and multi-award winning Enrique - who also enjoys a highly successful writing, record producing and acting career - as well as performing to an enormous fanbase worldwide - has sold over 100m albums and is dubbed 'King of Latin Pop' by Billboard. His meteoric international career kicked off in the mid-1990s after recording a demo tape as a supposedly unknown Guatemalan singer, not wanting to trade on the family name to get any breaks or opportunities

Adlib's history with Enrique is slightly more recent, dating back to the 2014 Capital FM Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium in June. Adlib supplied audio for the event, and the singer was amongst the star-studded line up. Enrique

UAE - Leading Dubai-based equipment distributor Procom ME has been named as the exclusive Philips supplier for UAE in a move to further expand its offering to the high profile Middle Eastern market.

UAE is an ever-evolving landscape of innovation and construction, with many new projects under development from universities to theatres and hotels, all of which generate strong demand for professional lighting.

"We are confident Philips will have a significant share of the new-build market, for several reasons," says Procom's business development manager Rami Harfouch. "It is a highly recognized brand name, and its catalogue of high quality products is extensive, with a strong LED offering which meets the increasing requirement for energy-saving solutions. Philips also has strong local support in terms of design, commissioning and servicing of the equipment and Proc

USA - Peter Pan Live!, NBC's live primetime television production of the classic Broadway musical, aired last week with audio support from Firehouse Productions and DPA Microphones. The live TV 'film,' which followed the success of the network's 2013 depiction of the Sound of Music, raked in over nine million viewers.

With a live show of this magnitude, Firehouse needed an audio solution that would provide pristine audio quality expected with HD television while still giving audiences the feel of a grand theater production. To accomplish this, the sound reinforcement company called on 48d:screet 4061 Miniature Microphones to support the entire cast, which included Christopher Walken as Captain Hook and Allison Williams as Peter Pan.

With each lead and principal actor double-miked, and a single mic on each member of the ensemble, DPA's d:screet 4061 was the exclus

Brazil - The Main and VuuV stages at the 2014 TribalTech Reborn Festival in Brazil buzzed with energy and over 200 Robe moving lights which were integrated into two very different but equally eye-catching lighting designs, by UK based LD Alex 'Junior' Cerio of Smash Productions.

The vibrant 20,000 capacity multicultural dance / trance extravaganza staged at the Fazenda Heimari showground in Parana, Brazil, was completely sold out, offering 13 enigmatic live music stages delivering the very best of techno, house, electronica, trance and psytrance action over 20 hours of non-stop intense dance music and entertainment.

The lighting equipment for the two main stages - and for most of the rest of the site - was supplied by Sao Paolo-based Apple Produções, one of Brazil's leading rental companies, which has a substantial amount of Robe fixtures in its hire stock.

Junior - well k

Latvia - Dataton WATCHOUT helped bring a welcome burst of colour and light to the Latvian capital during darkest November. The Staro Riga 2014 Festival of Light attracted an estimated 500,000 visitors with light processions, art installations and architectural projections. Dataton WATCHOUT multi-display software provided projection mapping on four of the city's landmark buildings.

The Staro Riga Festival of Light is the biggest in the region and this year's event also celebrated Riga as the joint European Capital of Culture 2014. System integrator Solaris, based in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, supplied WATCHOUT systems and hardware for projection mapping on the facades of the Astor Riga Hotel, Congress Centre, St Peter's Church and the Academy of Arts during the five-day festival.

"We were brought in to realize the technical aspects of the shows in the city based on our m

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