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UK - With entries for the inaugural Festival Supplier Awards (FSAs) now coming in thick and fast, organiser A.M.P. Events has announced a strong line-up of high profile festival organisers will judge submissions.

Cairing the expert panel is Nic Howden, a journalist with over 12 years' experience covering UK and Europe's largest festivals. Joining him will be Lee House, senior events manager for Coventry City Council and production lead for the Godiva Festival, UK's largest, free to attend, festival; Dan Craig, head of operations at Loudsound, event director for Field Day and operations director at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time and Hannah Farnham, Live Nation's head of production and events (UK) Music.

Howden commented, "I'm delighted to be chairing the judging panel for the inaugural Festival Supplier Awards, there's a refreshingly singular focus to the FSAs in

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Future-proof Theatre - The Chichister Festival, one of the largest theatres in southern England has officially reopened after a £22m revamp. The first play in the main 1,300-seat auditorium is a new production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, starring Rupert Everett as Salieri and Joshua McGuire as Mozart. Artistic director Jonathan Church said the theatre had been "future-proofed" for audiences for the next 50 years. "This building wasn't built by a politician or the Arts Council," Church said. "It was built by local people - and that engagement has been what enabled us to celebrate 50 years."

Change Of Plan - Microsoft's plan to compete with Netflix and Amazon by producing its own TV shows has come to an early end, as the firm announces 18,000 job cuts. Xbox Entertainment Studio will close by the end of the year, Xbox chief Phil Spe

HOF - Banner Apr 2025

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UK / Ireland - uTRAC has bolstered its drive to become the go-to workforce management application for events with the appointment of Kate Connolly as director.

In her previous roles as a consultant at Deloitte and a lecturer of engineering in Trinity College Dublin, Kate's experience includes the development of new technology, marketing, globalisation and supply chain management.

uTRAC is an online service that allows various event suppliers and venues to manage their personnel from recruitment all the way to payment. Its comprehensive solution improves efficiencies in all aspects of managing labour for an event, with operations managers finding an easier way to co-ordinate their crew and financial administrators finding a quicker way to process billings and payments.

Kate will oversee uTRAC's growth into targeted areas beyond the UK and Irish events sector, saying, "It

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A Man from the Future - The Pet Shop Boys unveiled their latest work, a tribute to wartime codebreaker Alan Turing, at the first of this year's Late Night Proms. The 50-minute 'musical biography' featured an excerpt from Gordon Brown's public 2009 apology for Turing's 1952 conviction for homosexual activity. Narrated by Juliet Stevenson, A Man from the Future received a standing ovation at London's Royal Albert Hall. Chrissie Hynde also performed alongside Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe themselves.

Back to the Future - Further shows of Secret Cinema's Back to the Future extravaganza in London were cancelled at the weekend. The organisation stated, Secret Cinema Presents Back to the Future, is our most ambitious production to date out of the 45 large scale productions. Unfortunately, we have experienced some difficulties and have had to cancel tonight [Fr

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USA - Production Resource Group has announced that Jeremiah J Harris, chairman and CEO, has promoted Stephan Paridaen to the role of president and chief operating officer. Paridaen has served as PRG's chief executive officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa since 2009.

In his new role, Paridaen will apply his management expertise and services to supervising the global operations of the company, the delivery of new technologies and services offerings, and the further development of PRG's efforts in the corporate and global special events markets.

"Along with attracting world-class talent to the company, one of my top priorities is recognizing and developing PRG's existing leadership team," said Harris. "Stephan has demonstrated exceptional operational leadership in Europe. He has earned the respect of the entire PRG team, our customers and our partners. This

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UK - The Theatres Trust has announced its fifth round of small capital grants to theatres. Among the five successful theatres in this round are the Grade II listed Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells and the community-owned Shanklin Theatre on the Isle of Wight.

Grants from the Trust's Theatres Protection Fund Small Grants Scheme have been awarded to:

Shanklin Theatre, Isle of Wight: This Grade II listed theatre receives £5,000 towards its 'Fly-tower stabilisation' project to repair the brickwork of its fly-tower.

Theatre Royal Stratford East, London: This Grade II listed East London theatre by J.G. Buddle, and later refurbished by Frank Matcham, receives £5,000 towards its 'Repair the stage curtain' project to clean and mend the fabric of its trompe l'oeil curtain.

Players Theatre, Thame: Its 'Building A Better Theatre' project receives £5,000 to install

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Games Over - The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games formally closed with a much-lauded spectacular ceremony at Hampden Park. Kylie Minogue, Lulu, Deacon Blue and more than 2,000 performers brought the curtain down on what has been praised as the "best Games ever". The closing ceremony marked the end of an almost seven-year journey for Glasgow that began on 9 November 2007 when the city was awarded the Games. The focus will now begin to turn to what legacy the sporting extravaganza has left behind and whether it was worth the time, effort and huge amount of public money spent.

Fringe News - Thousands of performers from across the world are in Edinburgh for the start of the world's biggest arts festival. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe will see more than 3,000 shows staged across almost 300 venues. Several new venues will feature in the August extravaganza, to accommod

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UK - From a long list of hundreds to a shortlist of five, including women at the top of their game in architecture, planning, construction and contracting, Anne Minors was awarded the 2014 First Women Award for The Built Environment for her success in four continents and her pioneering of theatre consulting in Kazakhstan and Turkey.

Described as 'the doyenne of the international theatre consulting world, creating wonderful pioneering performance spaces,' by Gwyn Miles, ex-director of Somerset House Trust and ex-head of projects of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Anne has spent 30 years combining science with art to produce spaces that look and sound beautiful and inspire further creativity.

Bestowed at the London Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square in June, the First Women Awards were created by the CBI and Real Business to increase diversity in the workplace. The broad canvas

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Digital Theatre - An immersive interaction between live theatre and online gaming to be produced by National Theatre Wales has won the first £20,000 Space Prize for digital innovation in theatre. The new biennial award, a collaboration between BBC Writersroom and The Space - a website for showcasing digital arts - was announced in Edinburgh at Northern Stage's Think Big event at the company's King's Hall fringe venue.

NTW will use the money to create Border Games, a piece of live, immersive theatre, alongside a simultaneous online version available on The Space that will allow a second audience to interact with the live experience. John McGrath, NTW artistic director, said that digital theatre had been a key part of the company since it was formed in 2009. "Some of our best work has grown out of the interactions of site specific and digital theatre. The

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USA - Masque Sound recently presented a charitable contribution to Road Recovery, a non-profit organization devoted to helping today's youth overcome addiction and other adversities. With this donation, Road Recovery will continue its mission of empowering the younger generation to face their adversities through its range of music-focused programmes and events.

An organization that is important to Stephanie Hansen, vice president and general manager at Masque Sound, Road Recovery was founded in 1998 by music industry veterans Gene Bowen, a tour manager and recovering addict, and Jack Bookbinder, an artist manager who struggles with Type II diabetes, to help young people battle addiction and other adversities by harnessing the influence of entertainment industry professionals who have confronted similar crises and now wish to share their experience, knowledge and resources.

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UK - VDC Trading Limited, the London based company distributing the Van Damme cable brand, has again broadened the scope of its online ordering system. It now facilitates the ordering of data single leads and assemblies online. Already a great success for both the audio and video cable buyers, the online 'YouSpec' system now allows web visitors to design, specify, price-up and order completely bespoke data cable solutions - 24 hours a day, every day.

Cables available include 22 different Van Damme and standard network cables. These include Van Damme Tourcat F/UTP, U/UTP and SF/UTP tactical Cat 5E cables, Cat 5E solid conductor cables, screened and unscreened, Cat 5E U/UTP stranded patch cables in 6 colours and Cat 6 and Cat 6A standard network cables.

A whole range of connectors can also be specified including screened and unscreened RJ45 connectors, Neutrik Ethercon connector

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UK - ACC Liverpool has welcomed five new starters to its production and technical department, taking the team to 19.

Rich Neale has joined as production manager for entertainment and sport. He joins from Saville Audio Visual where he was conference and live events manager for six years.

Tom Kaye has been recruited as senior rigging technician while Greg Chapman, Anthony Cowley and Mark Anderson join as production technicians. Their roles include preparing, installing, operating and dismantling of production equipment, from small conference breakouts to large scale arena set-ups, to ensure the smooth and effective delivery of events.

The department has provided a series of in-house productions for conferences this year such as NHS Confederation, the British Association of Urological Surgeons and Accelerate 2014. The National Cancer Research Institute in November is among fort

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UK - The inaugural Jonathan Speirs Memorial Lecture will take place on the evening of 25th September 2014, from 6:30pm in the Satinwood Suite, at Glasgow City Chambers, Glasgow. Jonathan Speirs (1958-2012) is widely acknowledged by architects, lighting designers, building services engineers and many others to have been one of the world's finest lighting designers. To celebrate his vision and passion for lighting, the Jonathan Speirs Memorial Lecture, entitled 'Light + Dark = Architecture,' will be given by his long term creative partner, Mark Major, fellow founder of Speirs + Major.

This lecture offers a wonderful opportunity to see a presentation given by one of the world's foremost lighting designers, Mark Major. It will hold great appeal to all those interested in lighting and architecture, including architects, interior designers, landscape architects, lighting designers, li

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UK - The Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers (ISCE) has for the first time offered PLASA members the same discount on training courses as is offered to its own members.

Upcoming courses taking place in September include 'An Introduction to Sound' which will give attendees a good understanding of how sound behaves and hopefully inspire them to delve deeper into the world of sound and communications engineering, and 'Designing for Speech Intelligibility' which takes a look at the relevant British and European standards for speech intelligibility for voice alarm systems and gives an interpretation of their requirements. The course also takes a detailed look into the factors affecting speech intelligibility and how they can be controlled.

For more information, please visit: www.isce.org.uk/training-2014.

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Hogmanay Date - Lily Allen is to headline Edinburgh's Hogmanay Concert in the Gardens, organisers have announced. The Londoner will bring in the New Year with a performance in West Princes Street Gardens. It will be Lily's last show of her 2014 world tour and follows her second No 1 album Sheezus. Lily said, "I've always wanted to spend Hogmanay in Scotland so the fact that I get to do it this year but performing onstage in front of a whole load of people up for the best time makes it extra special. I can't wait."

Steve Cardownie, Edinburgh City Council's festivals and events champion, added, "Edinburgh's Hogmanay has long been the envy of cities across the globe and the celebrations to bring in the start 2015 are set to be no exception. Headliner Lily Allen is sure to be a big hit with revellers, and coupled with an absolutely spectacular fireworks display

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UK - Bubble & Squeak PR and marketing agency for the broadcast and media technology sector, has appointed Andrew Winter as client development consultant. He will join on 1 September from SGL where he was marketing director and will be working on new business development and providing marketing services to Bubble & Squeak's client roster.

Prior to joining SGL, Winter held marketing director roles at Orad and IBIS. He started his broadcasting life in radio production and presentation at Capital Radio. Part of the launch team at Southern Sound, he then joined BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) serving in Gibraltar, Belize and Hong Kong. He returned to the UK to launch BSB then BBC World, BBC Prime and the Arabic BBC, gaining invaluable experience in managing creative, editorial and technical teams.

Winter will head up the agency's new #noheadcountrequired service for comp

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South Africa - The Tshwane University of Technology's Faculty of the Arts, in partnership with the City of Tshwane and DWR Distribution, will launch Hello, a community theatre arts festival this weekend. The festival aims to expand the boundaries of theatre by interacting with local and emerging artists at the Breytenbach Theatre on Friday, 29 and Saturday, 30 August.

The opening event at the Breytenbach Theatre will feature a musical show based on the story of 50 Gogos (grannies) who decided to leave their comfort zones and to meet each morning for activities to keep them healthy. At one of these meetings the idea came about to start a stage production called the Gug'Othandayo Musical Show.

The two-day multi-purpose programme will showcase performances by 11 community groups from Mamelodi, Hammanskraal, Refilwe: Centurion, Mnandi, Nkangala, Mabopane, Sunnyside,

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Camera Shy - Kate Bush has asked fans not to film her 22 Before The Dawn shows at Hammersmith Apollo which start tonight. The Wuthering Heights singer has said it would "mean a great deal to me" if people did not use their phones or tablets during the concerts, which mark her return to live performance after 35 years. Mobile phone technology and home computing were in their infancy when she last performed live in 1979.

Writing on her website, the singer said, "I have a request for all of you who are coming to the shows. We have purposefully chosen an intimate theatre setting rather than a large venue or stadium. It would mean a great deal to me if you would please refrain from taking photos or filming during the shows. I very much want to have contact with you as an audience, not with iPhones, iPads or cameras. I know it's a lot to ask but it would a

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USA - The Behind the Scenes Happy Hour, hosted by PLASA will go on sale to the public on 2 September 2014. The biggest pre-LDI party of the year will take place on Thursday, 20 November, from 6pm-8pm at the Westgate Las Vegas (formerly The Las Vegas Hotel). Tickets are $50 each and includes an open bar, hors d'oeuvres and music and all proceeds go to benefit the Behind the Scenes charity, the only industry charity that provides grants to ill or injured entertainment technician professionals. $30 of each ticket is tax deductible, and tickets are expected to sell quickly.

Starting 2 September, tickets can be purchased online. They can also be ordered through your LDI registration.

Current sponsors for the Behind the Scenes Happy Hour include: 4Wall Entertainment (Diamond), Altman Lighting (Diamond), CHAUVET Professi

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UK - Pearce Hire has announced its first time sponsorship of the 2014 Technical Theatre Awards. The Technical Theatre Awards were launched in 2013 as a way of formally recognising the outstanding achievements and dedication of the backstage 'unsung heroes' of the technical theatre industry. The awards are presented annually at the PLASA London exhibition at ExCel each October. The nominees are shortlisted from individuals elected by their industry peers at the beginning of the year, and then voting conducted between June and September decides the final recipient of each award.

This year there are a total of 17 awards and Pearce Hire is sponsoring the 'Outstanding Achievement in Stage Crew' award. This award highlights an individual within any role of the Stage Department, who is renowned for their dedication and effort to this discipline and respected amongst the technical theat

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UK - The Theatres Trust has named Ross Anthony as its first full-time planning adviser.

This new role brings together all aspects of the Trust's planning work, including its role as a statutory consultee on theatre planning applications, the development of policies which promote and protect the social and cultural value of theatres in local and neighbourhood plans, and the protection of theatres in national planning policy.

Ross Anthony initially joined the Trust in January 2014 on a part-time basis taking responsibility for the statutory planning casework referred to the Trust by local authorities. Following the retirement of the Trust's part-time planning policy officer, in this new combined role, he also takes on responsibility for the Trust's advice on local and neighbourhood plan-making and national policy consultations.

Since 1976, The Theatres Trust's planning work ha

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UK - Riding high on its students' recent exam success - a 100% pass-rate achievement from students completing the Arts Award, for the second consecutive year - Entertainment Workshops (EW), is throwing open its doors to the industry for the EW Open Day, on Monday 22 September from 3.30pm - 7pm.

Entertainment Workshops educates young people of secondary school age, in the technical skills of production, video, audio and lighting, with a view to creating the next generation of technicians, designers and sales representatives for the Entertainment Technology industry. As a charity, EW relies on the support of patrons in the industry to ensure students learn best practices on the latest industry-standard equipment - and so EW welcomes you all to meet the students at this successful time.

The Open Day will showcase the EW charity's students past and present, as they demonstrate com

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UK - GMG Network is a new consultancy; a community who work collaboratively and consistently at every stage of the event journey.

Corporate, commercial, local, global, front of house, back of house, consultancy, delivery, advice, support - GMG Network has it covered, says the company.

"GMG has created an environment whereby all those associated with their network can benefit from the knowledge within," says director Matt Green. "Be it an event concept looking for a creative edge, an event planner looking for a technical solution, a conference looking for a sponsor or a roadshow looking for venues. GMG Network is your network."

Having spent years working for others across all aspects of the global live event industry, including a recent period at Eclipse Presentations, directors Matt Green, Jayne McFahn and John Gibson thought "the time was right to c

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Tax Relief - The government's forthcoming theatre tax relief scheme will help to revive regional theatre and ensure the industry's success is felt across the country and not just in London's West End, Chancellor George Osborne has said. Speaking at Theatre Royal Brighton ahead of the tax scheme which came into effect yesterday (1September), Osborne said he hoped the initiative would put a stop to the decline of regional theatre and touring productions by making it easier to put on these shows.

Osborne said: "Regional productions have dropped off over many years - even though the West End has been very strong in London - and I want to change that around. I want to make sure we get the benefit of our great theatre industry and our culture felt all over the country. More job opportunities for those working in the theatre sector as well as those working in the tourist industry

  1. PLASA 2014: Gottelier Award shortlist announced
  2. ABTT announces new chairman
  3. Win your dream vacation at PLASA London
  4. Pasquale Quadri, founder of Clay Paky, passes away
  5. PLASA London 2014: uTRAC returns with new features
  6. The Week in Lighting & Sound
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