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14 March 2016

Posthumous Hit - Cilla Black landed her first ever number one album, with her Very Best Of comp

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14 March 2016

Visitors traverse the meadow via sunken pathways so that they experience the bees' natural environment at head-height, and end up in the 14 metre high abstract beehive structure which hosts a multi-sensory immersive experience. TiMax propels a constantly changing composition of music and bee sounds around

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14 March 2016

For the impressive stage setup, no less than 100 x SixPacks blinders and 50 x P-5 wash lights from SGM were integrated into the light design. Lighting designer, Sebastian Pachciarek, explains that he chose the P-5s due to their many advantages such as powerfulness and viewing angle. He used the SixPacks as wall LEDs, and for this purpose, he particularly emphasizes the ease of combining a large amount of fixtures. He then adds, "The fact that both types of fixtures are IP65-rated was quite important - especially for concerts under the cloud." He adds that both the P-5s and SixPacks performed flawlessly.

Pachci

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14 March 2016

Under the title 'Grown in Britain & Northern Ireland', the UK's response is a stand-out Pavilion, designed by award-winning British artist Wolfgang Buttress. Inspired by pollination and by scientific research developed to monitor the health of beehives by physicist and bee expert Dr. Martin Bencsik, the UK Pavilion highlights the crucial role of pollination in our food supply, drawing attention to issues such as food security and biodiversity.

The UK Pavilion has been developed around th

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14 March 2016

SenovvA, an American-based design and management group specialising in the entertainment, special event, architectural-construction and media services industries, was tasked with the design and integration of this one-of-a-kind multimedia project.

Bill Sage, SenovvA Account Executive for the project, explains: "We worked with the Rockwell Architectural Group in New York and Bergman Walls and Associates in Las Vegas. They came up with this immersion concept for the Vista Lounge that makes you feel like you're at the top of a skyscraper looking out of the windows down at panoramic skylines of cities like Dubai,

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14 March 2016

This included 24 x XS1200 Spot; 6 x XL1200 Spot; 40 x XR 200 Beam; 16 x XR 230; 4 x XR 330 and 40 pieces from the XLED Series. All were suspended from the lighting grid to create a dynamic visual right around the stadium.

According to lighting designer Dinusha (Chanaka) Perera these were ideal for TV with their fast response and quiet operation. Having successfully undergone camera tests for colour temperature etc they met all technical requirements.

While the powerful XS and XL Spot have become established fixtures in inven

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14 March 2016

As the home of UW-Stout's men's and women's basketball, gymnastics and volleyball teams, the arena is primarily used for athletics, but it's also the site of the campus' annual commencement ceremonies and required an audio system to provide high intelligibility and even coverage regardless of whether the venue is set up for games, competitions, practice sessions, or commencement.

"The old system was installed roughly 25-years ago," says Lori Anda, Director, Recreation and Sports Complexes at UW-Stout, "but it wasn't efficient for events that weren't athletics. The speaker cluster was above the centre of the court so dur

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14 March 2016

This was a milestone for the festival and Patrick Demoustier explains the reasoning behind making such a fundamental change. "We had talked a lot about moving Rock Werchter's house system from analogue to digital consoles and how we were going to do it," he says. "We didn't want to take any risks; if it went wrong and the experience was bad, our reputation would be bad too.

"We decided we could only do it using DiGiCo

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14 March 2016

Originally created by Freddie Fellowes on his family's 6000-acre farm in Huntingdon, the festival has grown from a single stage, with a few thousand people, to around 32,000 spread over at least 15 stages.

This eclectic music and arts event surrounds a river and a lake (bearing a different eye popping sculpture each year) - and this year featured for the first time a Martin Audio MLA system on its premier stage (The Great Stage) - courtesy of Capital Sound.

Capital were introduced to the event five years ago to mitigate the site's historic sound problems and worked again alongside environmental sound specialists, CBA. The

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14 March 2016

The decision to open an Asia-Pacific headquarters was fuelled by the overall growth of the AV industry in Asia and the widespread adoption of Audinate's Dante media networking technology in the region. According to InfoComm, Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market in the professional AV industry, and that holds true for Audinate as well. Audinate now has 44 Dante licensees in Asia, and 47% of those manufacturers have signed in just the last 12 months.

"This expansion reflects Audinate's success in this important market," states David Myers, COO of Audinate. "The new office will focus on business development and support activities for customers in China

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14 March 2016

"I was blown away by the coverage," reports Mads Mikkelsen, long-time FOH engineer for Volbeat. "It's great to know that fans in the back hear the same thing as I do when mixing the show. That's really what I'm aiming for. The band should translate perfectly to every corner of the audience, and the last seat in the house should enjoy the same feeling that I get when I hear the guitars kick in."

Providing pristine coverage across the 160m deep audience area, the main system arrays comprised 14 Leo-M, two LyonN-M main, and two Lyon-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers each. Two arra

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14 March 2016

Designer Chris Lisle ordered up a big batch for the new Miranda Lambert tour, and as popular as they are, several dozen were specified for the Firefly Festival in Dover, Delaware. Now, designer Dave Butzler has inserted 50 BMFL's on the current Garth Brooks world tour, a show that was already on the road. Dave saw them and had to have them, but he had to wait as demand outstripped supply.

The BMFL joins the current Bandit stock of other Robe

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14 March 2016

The UK Government has committed to delivering three million apprenticeships by 2020, and is giving employers a greater say in designing high quality apprenticeships which meet the needs of their respective industries.

Trailblazer groups create the Standards which become the blueprints for apprenticeships.

PRG has taken the lead on the Standard for the new Live Event Technician apprenticeship, and has been supported by AdLib Solutions, Britannia Row Productions, Entec Sound & Light, Fineline Lighting, Hawthorn, HSL Group, LS Live, Neg Earth Lighting, Nitelites, Skan PA, SSE Audio, XL Video, Wigwam Acoustics, and White Light in creating the Standards for this n

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14 March 2016

"Rigging Team has outgrown our current locations and it's now time to gather together under one roof," says operations manager Claire Gilligan, who has the task of coordinating the move. "It's not often companies get the luxury of a blank slate when it comes to organising warehouse space, the Stevenage office and warehouse has come at just the right time for us."

Director Adam Searle comments, "Our new premises will allow us to better serve our clients with increased storage and prep areas as well as dedicated test & inspection facilities. The location has excellent road and rail links giving easy access into London and around the UK."

The new address is: Unit 16 Gunne

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer, programmer, operator Harold Fernandez used three grandMA2 full-size consoles on this year's show.

Fernandez had many reasons to rely on the grandMA2. "As the industry changes, so do the challenges of lighting and its products. They are both more flexible and complex and an easy way to operate these products is via the grandMA2. One can create so many different viewing options and layout formats with the console. Also the MA 3D visualizer is great and lets you see your design from various vi

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14 March 2016

"I've been a Hog user for years," reported Craig. "The Road Hog 4 ticks all the boxes in terms of what I want out of a desk. I like the layout and the large screen real estate. I prefer everything to be on the one screen, as opposed to a larger desk that'd have screens and controls spread out laterally." Since its purchase, Craig has already had it out on gigs as diverse as contemporary dance shows and the launch of the film Magic

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14 March 2016

Rodgers not only performed on stage with Chic, he hosted the two-day festival, bringing together an eclectic mix of friends and collaborators while "mashing up music cultures", as he told the press. The mash featured sets by Pharrell Williams, Beck, Duran Duran, Chaka Kahn, Q-Tip and Keith Urban, among others.

"There was a sense of electricity in the air throughout the festival, and we were happy to be a part of it," said Jason Ayala of ProSho (New York), which provided the lighting rig. "We wanted l

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14 March 2016

Supported by a Martin Audio PA, the 2015 edition again took place in the beautiful city's Piazza Duomo over the course of nine evenings (between July 1-24) - organised by the Associazione Blues in conjunction with the Comune di Pistoia, (City of Pistoia).

Today, the event has diversified far from its authentic blues roots, and headliners this year included Mumford & Sons, Counting Crows, Hozier, Passenger, The Darkness, The Dream Theater, Santana, Sting and an Italian Blues Night.

Technical infrastructure was provided by the long-standing Electra Service, headed by Roberto Buttarelli, with the main PA system - Martin Audio's flagship

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14 March 2016

Although the Community Sound-based system that went into the arena when it was built in 1995 served it reasonably well, a supposed upgrade of the electronics a decade ago crippled it, rendering speech unintelligible and music boxy and lifeless. Without replacing the original Community loudspeakers, live sound and A/V integration firm Simon Productions (Winnetka, California) revitalized Coussoulis Arena with Ashly Audio processing, amplification, and user control.

"The original loudspeakers went in with a custom-made, proprietary controller that included al

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14 March 2016

The show was written by Da Vinci with Gino Landi and Paolo Caiazzo, and combines music, sketches (entrusted to the actor Lello Radice) and narratives (read by Pasquale Panella).

"I met Sal Da Vinci," lighting designer Francesco Adinolfi reports. "During the amazing success of C'era una volta Scugnizzi (Once upon a time there were street urchins), a musical written by Claudio Mattone (music and lyrics) and Claudio Mattone and Enrico Vaime (script) in 2002. The work was inspired by the 1989 film Scugnizzi (street urchins) directed by Nanni Loy. The musical was staged for the first time in 2002 and, because of its enormous success, restaged during the 2010-2011 winter season."

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14 March 2016

VDC Trading supplied the Van Damme cabling which was used throughout the facility with all speaker lines running on Van Damme Star Quad multicore cable to minimise interference from the lighting system and power. In addition the Van Damme stage box connected at three points around the room used Van Damme Blue Series multicore and all cable stock used Van Damme Classic Mic Cable.

Justin Spier said, "We specified Van Damme cable, as we always do. Van Dam

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14 March 2016

The report, Creativity and Constraint, leadership and management in the creative industrie paints a picture of unstructured learning environments, little time for training and development and a fairly widespread lack of understanding of the strategic goals of companies, especially in smaller enterprises and amongst freelance staff less able to access training.

It highlights the need for support on leadership, strategy, innovation, financial and people management - and mentoring is cited as the preferred means of developing management skills.

Dr Amy Armstrong, of Ashridge

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14 March 2016

Commenting on the partnership, Sam Barnett, owner of Stardream, said, "Nearly 39 years after my father found a product in Europe to have sole distribution rights, we are now delighted to have found the same with Astera LED. The future most definitely looks bright for Stardream." Astera/Stardream will be exhibiting at this year's PLASA show from 4-6 October 2015 (stand C12), and at this year's BPM event from 12-14 September 2015 (stand F091).

Commenting on the partnership, Sebast

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14 March 2016

Engibaryan, 22, is currently studying on the Master Programme at the Prince Claus Conservatoire in the Netherlands, having entered jazz music school in her native Russia at the age of five. She swayed the jury with her renditions of My Gentleman Friend, Chick Corea's You're Everything and James Moody's Mood For Love.

The competition's second prize and audience choice was won by South Africa's Vuyo Sotashe, while the third prize went to Yumi Ito from Switzerland.

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