General

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30 January 2017

"Obviously, we're delighted," said Stardraw.com CEO, Rob Robinson. "We had already recorded close to 25% growth during 2015, and we were up nearly another 20% again over the course of 2016. Our usage stats bear out the same story with an average of 10,000 sessions per month opened during 2016 which increased to a staggering 15,000 per month in 2016. That we should be enjoying this kind of growth in what has been a precarious year in so many other ways is particularly gratifying.

"There are doubtless a number of factors

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30 January 2017

"After much evaluation and deliberation, my family and I have made the difficult business decision that Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey will hold its final performances in May," said a statement from Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment, the family business which has run the circus since the late 1960s.

Sep Outside Love - A life-size bronze statue of Cilla Black has been unveiled outside Liverpool's Cavern Club as the venue celebrates its 60th anniversary. The club, credited with launching

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30 January 2017

Working directly with the team at Dubai Opera, as part of its on-going contract with the venue, and long-standing client, Sports & Entertainment Solutions, the Showforce team supported the touring production throughout the load in, the three-week run of sell-out performances and subsequent load out.

Initially, a team of 10 crew members was tasked with the unloading of no less than 17 40-foot shipping containers, that had arrived in Dubai from Singapore, the previous stop on the tour. Dur

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30 January 2017

Chartered safety and health practitioner, Eddy Grant, joins the North West office as a legal and safety consultant. With over 30 years of industry experience, Eddy has worked with the Event Industry Forum and HSE to produce the new Purple Guide and has overseen health and safety on a variety of events including The London 2012 Summer Olympics, the Tour de France 2014, and was employed by Liverpool City Council to deliver the city's 2008 Capital of Culture programme.

Also joining the North West office is Graham Picken as safety consultant. A former member of Merseyside Police, Graham was part of the major events planning team and became lead logistics officer for Aintree Grand National Planning Teams and the lead pla

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30 January 2017

Also lined up for the Oxfordshire event is The Trevor Horn Band. The producer will front a 14-piece all-star band featuring fellow producers Steve Lipson and Lol Creme. The setlist will be packed with songs the trio have produced - between them they've had over 200 hit singles - and there may be guest appearances from some of the musicians they have worked with.

Dark Times Ahead - Gori

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14 December 2016

The second biggest selling artist of 2015 was Ed Sheeran - despite him not releasing a studio album during the course of the year. The IFPI says its top 10 chart is the only music industry ranking to accurately capture the worldwide popularity of artists across physical formats, downloads and streams.

Early Bath - Coldplay played to an estimated

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14 December 2016

"Aaron brings great technical skills and a strong mechanical background to the Apollo team," said Mr. Joel Nichols, president of Apollo Design. Prior to joining Apollo Design Technology, Creps worked at Fort Wayne Nissan in the service department. He holds a Technical Certificate from Universal Technical Institute. "I'm excited to join Apollo," said Creps. "It's a great opportunity to grow my mechanical and technical skills while working with a fun group of people."

(Jim Evans)

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14 December 2016

Paul began his career with Sennheiser in 1990, after 15 years with former UK partner Hayden Laboratories, which saw him establish a Sennheiser pro-audio network in the UK and head the company's professional division as sales and marketing manager.

On joining Sennheiser he helped establish Sennheiser UK as a wholly owned subsidiary and, as managing director, oversaw the company's continued UK expansion. His exceptional technical and organisational skills saw him being promoted to vice-president North West Europe. In 2007, h

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14 December 2016

The TSP exists because hundreds of individuals from across the industry volunteer their expertise and significant amounts of time throughout the year to write standards that increase safety, solve problems, and make life easier. These awards are particularly meaningful to the recipients because the nominations are made by their peers within the Technical Standards Program.

The Above & Beyond Awards for 2015 were presented to:

Tyrone Mellon Jr. (Electrical Power Working Group) was cited "As a significant contributor to ANSI E1.24, Dimensional Requiremen

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14 December 2016

The AIMS board has been appointed, comprising three directors, chairman Michael Cronk (SVP, strategic marketing, Grass Valley), vice-chairman Steve Reynolds (CTO, Imagine Communications) and Financial Officer Andreas Hilmer (director of marketing & communications, Lawo).

Following their appointment, the board in turn has appointed Kerry Wheeles (CTO - networking, Imagine Communications) as chair of the AIMS Technical Working Group, and Scott Barella (CTO, 5280 Broadcast) as deputy chair.

Commenting on the appointments, chairman Michael Cronk said, "I am

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14 December 2016

Nick Worton has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer, overseeing the company's financial strategy, accounting and IT.

"Nick brings over 20 years of financial, commercial and administrative experience to J&C Joel" said James Wheelwright, CEO. "His impressive background complements J&C Joel's dedication to excellence and growth." Prior to joining J&C Joel, Nick served as director of finance of Camira Fabrics.

In addition J&C Joel has confirmed two other senior appointments - Scott Carter, operations manager for purchasing, logistics and warehouse and Matthew Oldfield who joins as manufacturing production manager. Both appointments are part of the company's commitment to improving service whilst growing both the UK and international business.

Scott brings more than si

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14 December 2016

"Products and subjects relating to theatre and stage technology have gained greatly in significance for Prolight+Sound. Therefore, I am particularly pleased that, with this lecture by Guang Jian Gao, we can also present a special highlight for trade visitors from this segment at this year's fair", says Prolight+Sound Director Michael Biwer. "Our special thanks go to Florian von Hofen, CTO of Rouge AVE, who made contact with Guang Jian Gao and went to great lengths to make this extraordinary highlight possible."

China's leading stage designer, Gao has been honoured many times for his work a

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14 December 2016

The Behind the Scenes Boutique will also be open for business during the show featuring an assortment of great Behind the Scenes swag and the famous Long Reach Long Rider T-shirts and kazoos.

Tickets for the raffle are an affordable $5 each or five for $20 and can be purchased at the Behind the Scenes booth throughout the show. Winning tickets for nine regular prizes and one grand prize will be drawn at 1pm on Saturday, the final day of Stage Expo.

The prizes, provided by t

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14 December 2016

Ed Sheeran also won his first two Grammys for song of the year and best pop solo performance for his number one hit Thinking Out Loud. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars won two awards for their hit Uptown Funk, including record of the year, while Meghan Trainor was named best new artist. Muse won best rock album for Drones, and Tony Bennett collected his 18th Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album.

There were also a number of acts who gave tribute performances - Lady Gaga sang a medley of David Bowie songs, Jackson Bro

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14 December 2016

Running is in Brian's family, it's what his brothers and uncles do, and the sport he has participated in for the past 27 years. He trains every day, twice a day in fact when he is not working.

Based in Johannesburg, Brian makes use of public transport to get to the Two Oceans in Cape Town. It means catching a mini bus and travelling some 1 400 kilometres.

When he arrives in Cape Town, usually on a Thursday, Brian stays in a tent in Newlands at the Runner's Village, designed to give runners who have financial const

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14 December 2016

Launched just 15 months ago, Current has experienced rapid growth, illustrating the need for AV, lighting and production hire businesses to be able to work on the move, raise quotes on the fly, check stock availability and generate invoices from any device and location.

"Current has been so well received across the UK and we are now seeing significant growth across USA, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East - that's the beauty of the cloud, businesses can sign up within 60 seconds online and receive the same level of support from us, no matter where in the world they are," says business manager Lisa Kenward.

Since launch, Current has heavily invested resource in development, building

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14 December 2016

With more rental companies choosing to move their entire software solution to the 'cloud', MCS has met this demand by integrating MCS-rm with the Xero accounting software solution for those clients who wish to host all of their key business applications remotely. The technology union will help businesses to work smarter and faster, improve team collaboration and give a holistic view of their operations and finances.

With the integration of the two systems, users can automatically sync and seamlessly transfer financial transactions such as invoices, credit notes, cash payments, depreciation and client details from Xero to MCS-rm and vice-versa. In addition, they can view aged debt, any outstandi

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14 December 2016

"A lot of these improvements were developed from customer suggestions, requests and general feedback," explains Marty Cochrane, BlackTrax product manager. "This includes better system reporting, real-time chapter programming and more control over fixtures during the calibration process."

Highlights include: All-new GUI designfor BlackTrax, BTWyg, Tracker, and Follower - with full-screen mode for BlackTrax and new simpler basic mode for Tracker and Follower; new Fixture Calibration mode improvements ensure faster calibration; rigid and soft frames for more flexible tracking operations and objects. Frames combine a collection of Stringers (aka

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14 December 2016

The acquisition will pave the way for Production Park's popular Backstage Academy and Cato's specialist "Roadie School", Cato Academy, to create a Centre of Excellence for training the next generation of touring and production professionals.

The Cato Academy - based in South West London - is the only training centre in the world that educates future tour and production managers, backline techs and live sound engineers under one roof; whilst the Backstage Academy is renowned for its high quality delivery of degree programmes and courses dedicated to the live events industry. Both Academies have been pioneers in the f

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14 December 2016

Beatles For Sale - A lock of John Lennon's hair that was cut off as he prepared for a film role has sold for $35,000 (£24,298). The four-inch pie

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14 December 2016

In his new role, Phil will become a key member of the senior management team and will be responsible for over 70 sales personnel including all regional directors and managers. He will primarily be responsible for spearheading the company's growth plans to double in size again over the next five years. Matthew Buck will succeed Phil as UK Sales Manager.

Commenting on his promotion, Phil said "This is an amazing opportunity to lead our highly ski

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14 December 2016

Should you have any information regarding the whereabouts of the equipment, contact Sean Sims at seans@mediafilmservice.com or +27 (0) 21 511 3300.

(Jim Evans)

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14 December 2016

CIE-Group is already well recognised for its provision for AV training, not least its support for the HowtoAV online training channel, and the two organisations will now jointly be delivering the HDBaseT Installer Expert Program at locations across the country. The first dates are already announced with events taking place in London, Leeds and Nottingham during April 2016 with more to follow throughout the year.

The HDBaseT Installer Expert Program was launched by the Alliance in 2014 and almost 2000 delegates throughout the world have completed the course. Almost 4000 AV installers have registered at the Alliance's Installer Zone,

The courses cover HDBaseT technology principles, installation advice and best pract

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14 December 2016

Sweden Bound - Pop duo Joe and Jake have been selected to represent the UK at May's Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden. The singers, both former contestants on The Voice UK, won a public vote with You're Not Alone, an uptempo, piano-driven song "about unity and love". The duo will be hoping to avoid the fate of last year's entrants, Electro Velvet,