UK - Production design and solution specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) provided full technical production - lighting, sound and video - to Bright Productions for a major global sales conference event hosted by Education First's corporate solutions division. The organisation specialises in the development of language training, educational travel, academic degree programmes and cultural exchange.

The event encompassed a two day conference with two evenings of themed entertainment and was staged in the beautiful and majestic environs of Ashridge House in Hertfordshire. Nestling in 190 acres of impeccably preened gardens and parkland, the impressive stately home was built between 1808 and 1814 on the site of the original Ashridge Priory dating back to the 13th century. It is now owned by the National Trust, and more recently, full business conference facilities were added.

UK - Projection artist Ross Ashton and The Projection Studio produced another spectacular work The World Machine onto Durham Cathedral in the UK for the 2015 Durham Lumiere light festival which attracted upwards of 200,000 people to the city over four nights of light installations.

It was the fourth time that Projection Studio has created an art installation onto the Cathedral, but the first time it's been done using video projectors. In the past, PIGI film projectors were used.

The projection system involved 14 Christie 20K machines which were positioned on a series of custom towers and hides strategically located around the perimeter of the Cathedral. This was carefully calculated to ensure that all the front facing walls and their various return surfaces were evenly lit.

There is a depth differential of 25m from the front to the back projection surfaces which inclu

Italy - More than 50,000 people assembled in Florence's Artemio Franchi Municipal Stadium on 10 November to welcome Pope Francis on his short Italian tour, to mark the Fifth National Congress of the Italian Church.

The Holy Father celebrated Mass accompanied by a 400-piece orchestra, a giant chorus of 1,037 people - and an expertly designed Martin Audio MLA system to distribute the message to the faithful who had flocked to the stadium.

No fewer than 132 Martin Audio cabinets were deployed across the stadium - provided by Lucca based Amandla Productions, while the All Access consortium (of which they were founding members) supplied the award-winning Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker array.

The success of the event was due to the close cooperation between the technical managers of the respective companies, Wolfgang May for Amandla Productions and Paul 'Red' Talami for All Access.<

UK - Doughty Engineering has invested in a new CNC saw at its Ringwood headquarters as the company continues to look at effective ways to increase production and meet customer demand for its products.

The new piece of kit replaces two existing saws and will be used to cut all of the company's aluminium extrusion. With the saw cutting faster and to an unbeatable quality, Mark Chorley, design engineer at Doughty explains that it's purchases such as this that help Doughty to stay competitive within the market place.

"This new CNC makes a huge difference to the production of all our items. The speed at which it cuts means we are able to increase our output, thereby meeting customer demand with minimum delay between order and shipping time. Customers will receive a top quality item produced with unbeatable precision and an extremely clean finish."

Doughty has invested h

UK - Sky Garden is a space in central London that not only offers a 360 degree view across the capital but also features a landscape garden, the Fenchurch Restaurant and the Sky Pod Bar; all of which play host to various parties and live music events. Run by rhubarb catering group, they wanted to enhance the existing space and create an unforgettable atmosphere for those visiting the venue. As a result, they called on complete production solution specialist White Light to help to achieve their vision.

PB Jacobse, managing director of rhubarb, comments, "Sky Garden is a unique venue as it is one of the few event spaces that offers panoramic, breath-taking views of London. That said, for those visiting the space on an evening, there was no actual lighting set-up. Therefore we wanted to create something which would not only compliment the space and surrounding views but also c

Secondary Ticketing - The music industry has called for action over secondary ticketing sites. Rock band Coldplay and managers of acts including Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Blur and Radiohead signed an open letter to the government calling for action over secondary ticketing sites.

Published in The Times, the letter said fans are being "ripped-off by touts who anonymously exploit fair ticket prices via online ticket marketplaces". It urges the government to put "the public's interests before the touts". A government consultation on the resale of tickets closed last Friday. "As artist managers, we deplore the increasing industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation of tickets for music, arts and sports events by ticket touts," the letter says. "The consequence in many cases is that fans will attend fewer shows, meaning that the profits made

UK - An Edinburgh company which has designed light installations for the SSE Hydro and Gleneagles Hotel has announced it is to become employee-owned.

The move by Black Light Ltd will see its 21 members of staff given the opportunity to become owners in the business.

Black Light designs, supplies and installs lighting and AV equipment to theatre, architecture, education, entertainment and retail. The company has an annual turnover of £3m.

The business was founded over 30 years ago by Gavin Stewart as a mobile disco. In the years' since it has developed a worldwide reputation for its innovative lighting solutions, with other projects including the Botanic Lights at Edinburgh's Royal Botanical Gardens.

Gavin Stewart, managing director, Black Light, said, "I was looking for an exit strategy that allowed the firm to continue to grow and flourish. A sale to the employ

Secondary Ticketing - The music industry has called for action over secondary ticketing sites. Rock band Coldplay and managers of acts including Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Blur and Radiohead signed an open letter to the government calling for action over secondary ticketing sites.

Published in The Times, the letter said fans are being "ripped-off by touts who anonymously exploit fair ticket prices via online ticket marketplaces". It urges the government to put "the public's interests before the touts". A government consultation on the resale of tickets closed last Friday. "As artist managers, we deplore the increasing industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation of tickets for music, arts and sports events by ticket touts," the letter says. "The consequence in many cases is that fans will attend fewer shows, meaning that the profits mad

Bulgaria - Located in the heart of the capital, Sofia, the Bedroom Premium Club is one of the largest and highest profile nightclubs in Bulgaria. A recent upgrade has seen the club's desire to deliver the very best sound satisfied by an L-Acoustics system.

Emil Yanakiev - owner of Forte Music, one of the country's biggest audio importers and rental companies - had previously supplied an L-Acoustics system for events at Bedroom Beach, Bedroom Premium's summer extension venue. Here, sets by high profile DJs had demonstrated the positive difference that the quality of L-Acoustics loudspeakers makes to the clubbing experience, so when Vesselin Borisov, the 800-capacity venue's co-owner, decided to install a new audio system in Bedroom Premium, he approached Emil Yanakiev for advice.

For Bedroom Premium, a team comprising Emil and Forte rental manager Alex Pigov, acoustic consult

Belgium - A crowd of over 200 lighting professionals marked the grand opening of Chauvet's new branch office in Ghent, Belgium, as well as the company's 25th anniversary, by enjoying an evening of festivities, product demonstration, music and a breathtaking lightshow. The invitation-only event, which drew guests from a variety of countries, also featured a cornucopia of food as well as beverages, including a sparkling special edition Chauvet branded champagne.

As Chauvet's second European facility, the Belgium office will cater to demand in the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg regions. In conjunction with Chauvet's UK branch, the new office will also play a key role in servicing and supporting distributors elsewhere on the European mainland, with particular emphasis on France, Germany and Italy.

Among the highlights of the evening was a lightshow of epic proportions that

UK - Cambridge based alt-rockers Mallory Knox have been rapidly gaining fans and critical acclaim from their energetic live shows and rousing festival appearances this summer running on the back of their second album Asymmetry released in late 2014.

Right in the thick of all the Mallory Knox live onstage action is lighting and set designer Jordon Cooper who has worked with the band since 2013 after initially being asked to light a one off gig which they liked.

On the previous tour, Jordon has used Robe Pointes, and for this one as a floor package he chose 24 x Robe LEDBeam 100s which were supplied by north Yorkshire based R&M Productions together with four strobes and some LED battens. They hooked into the house overhead rigs at each venue.

R&M additionally built the set which was designed by Jordon and the band and inspired by the Asymmetry album artwork.

With

Portugal - Nexo has appointed Merging Select to represent its products in Portugal. Based in the capital city of Lisbon, Merging Select handles a portfolio of blue-chip brands, including Yamaha Commercial Audio, Steinberg and Nuage, which are sister companies to Nexo, as well as AuviTran and Powersoft.

Founded in 2007, Merging Select serves both the rental market in Portugal as well as the installation business. Projects include auditoria, theatres, multi-purpose and conference spaces, hotels and retail operations.

Merging Select aims to offer the Portuguese professional audio market something over and above 'black boxes', complementing technical solutions with a high degree of support, education and training. According to commercial director Joao Velhinho, there are two priorities. "First, helping our market to spend its money coherently in these difficult economic tim

UK - Earlier this year, KV2 Audio reported on its successful collaboration with Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance- one of the UK's top specialist higher educational institutions - during the College's annual symposium.

KV2 representatives were on hand to discuss the company's approach to loudspeaker design and offer information on all KV2 Audio's products and philosophies.

Following their experiences during the symposium, Rose Bruford College chose to invest in a number of KV2 products.

Having listened to a large selection of ESD, EX, ESM and ES products in a variety of the college's performance spaces, technical manager Jonathan Hill decided that a pair of EX 26 active 2-way 2x6" loudspeakers and the EX 2.2 active 2x12" subwoofer would be the ideal solution for a fixed install in their studio space.

In addition to this, six EX 6 active 2-way 6&

USA - The 49th Country Music Association Awards programme took place at a packed Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday 4 November. With country music stars Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood returning as hosts for the live ABC telecast, the show again lived up to its reputation as Country Music's Biggest Night, with three hours of live performances that combined country royalty with fresh newcomers, while sprinkling in several collaborations with country outsiders.

To keep the packed program on schedule, the production relied on wireless microphones and in-ear monitors for quick set changes, eliminating cumbersome floor wedges and cables. For monitoring, the performers typically bring their own custom earphones, all of which were powered by Shure PSM1000 wireless personal monitor systems.

As always at the CMAs, all major wireless microphone brands were represente

UK - The Tony Award-winning musical In The Heights will stand out from the crowd on a custom printed stage floor produced by Le Mark Floors. With a design printed and produced specifically for the production, the floor is set to endure months of performances. Even more so since the show has been extended due to popular demand.

With heavy foot traffic throughout every performance, both the stage floor and the printed design needed to be incredibly durable yet still provide a comfortable surface for the performers themselves.

"We explained what we needed and Le Mark were quick to provide a quality product. They were professional all the way: from placing the order right through to delivery. It was exactly what we needed for this musical." said Tristan Baker, producer at Runaway Entertainment.

The bespoke design was printed on to Le Mark's most popular floor

Slovakia - The Malá Fatra mountain range in the north-west of Central Slovakia is both a national park and a popular winter sports area.

In this beautiful scenery, Hotel Impozant is situated in Valca Valley. The hotel owner has for a long time sought the nearby creek illuminated by a light source which could be hidden under the bridge. His intention was to increase the attractiveness of the site to a new and higher level. Therefore, he turned to Milan Ondisko, sales manager of City Light Slovakia s.r.o., who quickly arranged a demonstration on one summer evening during sunset.

"The hotel owner preferred two strong quality lights instead of several smaller fixtures. Once we turned on the light, no more words were necessary. The SGM P-5 talked for itself and proved to be the perfect tool; plenty of rich coloured light output to illuminate the creek with its banks and sur

UK - The Great Hall in Winchester, built almost 800 years ago, is an impressive building by any standards, having borne witness to some important events in British history, as well as containing King Arthur's Round Table.

The Hall is all that remains of Winchester Castle, after Oliver Cromwell ordered the demolition of the Castle, keeping the Great Hall for assemblies and the county Assizes, and it is where Sir Walter Raleigh stood trial in 1603 and where the notorious Judge Jeffreys condemned supporters of the Duke of Monmouth to death as part of the Bloody Assizes of 1685.

The famous Round Table of Arthurian legend hangs on the west wall, attracting thousands of visitors every year to admire not only the table, but also the magnificence of the Great Hall, which has been dubbed 'one of the finest surviving aisled halls of the 13th century'.

So it comes as no surprise to

Finland - Matrox Graphics reports that the Kamppi Centre shopping mall in Helsinki has upgraded its digital signage installation with a 14.4m-high LED screen powered by Matrox Mura MPX Series video wall capture & display cards.

Selected by integrator Craneworks to power the installation - roughly three times the size of its predecessor - Mura now delivers the platform to showcase everything from advertisements to live events.

Craneworks, who also manages the day-to-day operation of the digiLED outdoor screen, leverages a Mura MPX-4/4, four-input, four-output board, inside an HP Z600 system, to display content from various inputs, including a Mac mini media player, local DVI input, and live feed. Mura also scales and switches between content for different ad campaigns, with the resulting signage seen by the 700,000 Kamppi customers every week. Meanwhile, Matrox MuraControl fo

UK - Edinburgh-based lighting and sound theatre rental specialists Blue Parrot has bought the West End to Glasgow having taken delivery of its new Meyer Leopard Line Array system. With only one day to check and test the system it was straight out to Glasgow Kings Theatre for The Pantheon Club's production of Legally Blonde the Musical.

Head of sound Mike Somerville explains: "It's a very busy show for sound and having Leopard for our sound reinforcement was the ideal solution to deliver the best overall sound possible. With nine Leopards and 2 900-LFC subs each side I've never heard anything in that theatre sound so good. I was extremely impressed by the way the sound was very even across the entire frequency range as you walked both towards and away from the arrays. It was a much smoother progression, in both level and consistency of frequency response. To me this

USA - Shaping Sound, the contemporary dance company founded by Emmy-nominated choreographers Travis Wall, Nick Lazzarini, Teddy Forance, and dance visionary Kyle Robinson is back on the road with Bandit Lites, bringing their energetic and visually compelling story that is part pop show, part traditional dance, and part rock concert to stages all across North America.

The dance team that can be seen in Carrie Underwood's Something in the Water and So You Think You Can Dance? created a show that is immaculately choreographed, requiring lighting designers Seth Jackson and Nathan W. Scheuer to create a rig mainly comprised of VL 3500 Spots.

"We needed the framing shutters, the zoom, the iris, all of those elements to lock in with the incredible specificity of the choreography," said Jackson. In addition to the Spots, Bandit provided Impressions for wash f

USA - Way back in 1955 American Reformed Church held its first service with just 30 families in the lovely city of Luverne, located in the extreme southwest corner of Minnesota. After decades of steady growth, the now vastly-larger congregation recently completed construction on a new 800-seat state-of-the-art worship centre.

Twin Cities-based Audio Video Electronics (AVE) signed on to the project mostly after the facility layout was planned and designed. The architect for the project was Architecture Inc, based is Sioux Falls, SD with Derrick Knight, Derrick Knight Acoustics, as acoustician.

"American Reformed Church is definitely big into music," said Stefan Svärd, owner and president of AVE. "They have a progressive, contemporary worship style, but their old sanctuary had a distributed system that didn't have a lot of impact. They were looking forward to g

UK - Influential British electronic dance act Underworld has chosen a Solid State Logic L500 as performance tool for its live tours. The console joins founder-member Rick Smith on stage as a fast, versatile, creative instrument, allowing him to combine old-school dub mixing techniques with the best in performance technology.

It has been 20 years since the original release of Underworld's ground-breaking album dubnobasswithmyheadman, and the anniversary was marked with a remastered release, accompanied by a tour that showcased the band's legendary live work. For this and the subsequent global festival tour founder member Rick Smith's new instrument of choice was an SSL L500 console, allowing him to combine old-school dub mixing techniques with the best in performance technology.

To Smith, live performance is about "being in the moment and having absolutely no choi

Sweden - W-DMX by Wireless Solution once again played an important role in the recent Lights in Alingsås event in Sweden. The event is Northern Europe's largest lighting workshop in public spaces, this year attracting a record 87,622 visitors.

Once a year, leading lighting designers and companies are invited to Alingsås to demonstrate their expertise, attend networking events and hold workshops. For five weeks, the dark evenings of Sweden are transformed into beautiful lighting installations around the town.

The theme for Lights in Alingsås 2015 was The Evolution of Light, from the big bang to the present age, with a specific focus on how new technologies such as LED can help reduce the environmental impact. W-DMX was used to demonstrate the elimination of excess cable.

Lighting designers Bertil Göransson and Johan Moritz from the company Luxera were responsibl

Germany - The Bavarian city of Regensburg is renowned for its medieval centre, nowadays a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But just a few minutes away is one of Germany's most modern sporting stadiums, the new Continental Arena, where a Yamaha audio system has achieved the goal of great sound without the penalty of going over budget.

Opened in July this year, the Continental Arena has replaced the city's 89-year old Jahnstadion as the home of football club SSV Jahn Regensburg, which plays in the Regionalliga Bayern (Germany's 'fourth division').

A modern stadium in every sense of the word, as well as being a football ground the 15,200-capacity stadium can host other sporting events and concerts. It features two 'Business Clubs' and four 'Lodges', which host a wide range of business and leisure events, all with a panoramic view of the stadium's pitch.

A major feature of the sta

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