UK - A public appeal to secure crucial funding for the £48m redevelopment of Bristol’s Colston Hall has been launched.
The historic venue, which celebrated its 150th anniversary this year, will close in 2018 for a refurbishment which will include remodelling the main hall and The Lantern, transforming the cellars into a performance space and creating a learning suite.
The Bristol Music Trust, who runs Colston Hall, has already secured £41m and is now appealing to the public to raise the remaining sum by naming a seat at the Hall for as little as £5 per month for four years.
Louise Mitchell, chief executive of Bristol Music Trust, says: “This year as we’ve celebrated our 150th anniversary we’ve been overwhelmed by the number of personal stories and memories we’ve received, highlighting the significance the Hall has played in so many people’s lives.

UK - Bristol-based Utopium illuminated TEDxBristol as influencers from all over the world took to the stage to inform and inspire attendees.
Now in its fifth year, TEDxBristol is one of the largest TEDx events in the UK and attracted over 4,000 delegates, with thousands more joining online through a live stream. Taking place over two days at Bristol’s Colston Hall, the programme of talks was loosely based around a wider theme of ‘disruption’.
Utopium provided SGM G-4 LED IP 65 Wash lights, a new addition to its inventory, to light the stage presentations and audience from the front truss. The stage was also lit from the balcony with Utopium’s ETC 64s.
The set was lit with a number of Miltec LED Batten 2s and backlit with Martin MAC Quantum Profiles. Chauvet Nexus 4x4 LED fixtures were built into the set panels and also suspended around the s

USA - Exhibition and event marketing company 1220 Exhibits was appointed to carry out an interior AV renovation at amusement park Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas.
The company needed to renovate the Aquarium Pyramid and specified a FLEXLite NXG LED system from Nashville-based PixelFLEX for the lobby. Originally, the brief called for a 25K projector system, but the company convinced its client that using an LED video system would be a better long-term solution.
“One of our primary goals with this renovation was to create a dynamic, immersive experience for guests the moment they stepped foot in the Aquarium Pyramid,” said John Zendt, president/CEO Moody Gardens. “The clarity and crispness of the image on the PixelFLEX video wall helps us achieve this goal and is exactly what we hoped for from this design.”
Dan Chadwick, director of interactive services at

UK - Manchester-based film, television and photographic equipment rental company PKE Lighting has invested in 16 LSC Lighting Systems consoles to provide its customer base with simple manual control of fixtures on high-profile film and television production projects.
PKE Lighting were looking to invest in fader-based consoles that would provide ease of use for end users working on studio, stage and on-location projects.
PKE's Matt Evans approached LSC's UK-exclusive distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET), who supplied six LSC MINIM 24 fader consoles, plus four maXim M 48 fader and six MaXim XXL 120 fader desks.
He commented: "The LSC desks have been in and out on film and television production jobs ever since we purchased them, and without any issues at all. We and our customers are really happy with them. As always, the service from A.C. has been e

USA - Chauvet video panels were used for the video wall set up at Vexata's booth at the Oracle Open World conference held in October.
Digital Dynamite Productions, which provided the audio and video for the booth, specified Chauvet Professional F3 LED panels. 
Austin Jansen of Digital Dynamite Productions comments: “We wanted to have a video wall that didn’t look like a video wall. Our challenge was to find an LED panel that had a minimal footprint and one that hid the rigging and rear of the display. The LED video display had to look as though it was part of a large graphic, so visitors could not tell it was really an LED wall.”
Jansen mounted 68 F3 LED tiles on plywood panels. “The panels were positioned on six separate surfaces that we custom built out of birch plywood

UK - Scottish-based GAB Audio Engineers recently equipped Heriot-Watt University (HWU) with a variety of flagship solutions from the Martin Audio portfolio.
The sound requirements were part of a major refurbishment of two lecture spaces - James Watt 1 (JW1) and James Watt 2 (JW2) - which form part of the university conference centre. Discussions with Martin Audio began at the ISE Expo in Amsterdam, back in 2016.
Stated GAB director, Jim Bryan, “Our relationship with Martin Audio started in the mid-90s when we were looking for high quality loudspeakers for our hire stock. We invested in Wavefront, then soon started to install EM series, Blackline, AQ series and most recently CDD in our church systems. It was therefore logical to turn to Martin Audio again to meet these requirements.”
In fact, GAB, which was originally set up in 1984 to specialise in a range of

UK - DiGiCo consoles are enhancing London Grammar’s live sound on their tour in support of the Truth is a Beautiful Thing album.
The desks are supplied by Triplex Productions, who became involved with the band when the musicians decided to push their live production up a notch and invited Triplex owner Mark Sunderland to production-manage their technical requirements.
Ross Cornwall, managing director of Triplex Productions, says: “The collaboration has worked really well and the tour has gone everywhere - the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia. It’s so successful that we don't always know where we’re going to be, as dates keep getting added to the band’s diary. The venues are a real mix from large festivals (Glastonbury, Pukkelpop, etc) to the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith and O2 Academy Brixton. It’s been a real challenge for the team to deliver

North America - L-Acoustics have implemented the largest AV bridging (AVB) touring system on Arcade Fire’s Infinite Content tour.
This is the first time the company has used an AVB system on tour. Supplied by L-Acoustics North American certified provider Solotech, with support from Germany’s Black Box Music, the system’s benefits include simple deployment with minimal network configuring, long-distance network communication, low latency, improved synchronisation and reliability.
The tour is carrying a total of 92 AVB-equipped L-Acoustics LA12X amplified controllers, 48 K1 and 80 K2 loudspeakers, 56 KS28 subs, eight ARCS Wide and eight X8 coaxials. Processing is being handled by a pair of redundant Meyer Sound Galaxy units, one driving analogue lines over copper for system fallback.
All equipment from L-Acoustics and Meyer Sound is certified through

USA - Little Ceasars Arena in Detroit opened in September, with nearly 1,700 custom LED strip lights from Elation Professional mounted to the venue’s vast wire grid.
Designed by HOK architects, the $863m, 20,000-seat arena is part of District Detroit, a major new development in the city centre.
Lighting and multi-media design firm, Illuminating Concepts (IC), was the lighting designer on the project, responsible for lighting the public spaces through to the theatrical lighting in the bowl. The dynamic ceiling is just one part of the arena’s large integrated lighting network in which all lighting is interconnected – indoors and out – to act as one themed environment.
Illuminating Concept’s design for the arena uses lighting to create a space that engages, guides visitors, creates moods and disseminates advertiser information. IC brought in production d

UK - Persian-language broadcaster Marjan Television Network has just upgraded its four-studio complex with new LED lighting rigs featuring Chroma-Q, Spotlight, ProLights and Quasar Science fixtures - supplied, along with all associated cabling, by A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET).
Designed so that all four of the studios can be controlled from a single gallery, the facility needed to be flexible to accommodate the wide range of productions, whilst maintaining a contemporary aesthetic. The installation had to be energy-efficient with a multi-purpose lighting package that delivered good colour rendition on camera.
Ian Muir, who heads up AC-ET's specialist Film & TV sales division, oversaw the supply and specified a variety of LED lighting solutions, including 22 Chroma-Q Space Force soft light fixtures; over 100 Spotlight Fresnels; and Quasar Science Q-LED li

USA - FOH engineer and sound designer Stan Miller is mixing Neil Diamond’s 50 Year Anniversary World Tour on a JBL by Harman VTX Series sound reinforcement system, provided by Sound Image.
Miller has mixed FOH for Diamond for nearly 50 years and has relied on JBL audio systems for Diamond’s tours for many years. For this tour, he selected a JBL VTX V25 system.
“I think the sound for this tour is the best we’ve ever had,” Miller says. “We have better control over the system, and we have better technology than in the past. We have better consistency from venue to venue, whether it's indoors or outdoors. And with the Crown amplifiers we’re carrying, we have gobs of horsepower to run everything, but we never blow loudspeakers. Our show runs somewhere around 100 dB max, or maybe 101 or 102. We don't want to overpower people.”
The tour system inc

USA - The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) has announced that the 2017 production of the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, presented by Chase, has undergone a technological overhaul.
The production has been enhanced with updated technology including a new 8K LED wall and digital projections that will extend to all eight of Radio City Music Hall’s iconic proscenium arches that will make audiences feel like they are part of the show.
The new content for both the projections and the LED wall was created by design studio Obscura Digital, which is behind the world’s preeminent architectural projections including the innovative Empire State Building graphic light shows for Academy Award-winning director Louis Psihoyos’s film Racing Extinction.
Additionally, returning this year as designers for several of the Christmas Spect

Europe - Lighting designer Steve Bewley has been deploying GLP LED moving heads on the tour of Dizzee Rascal.
Over the course of his career, Bewley has turned to successive generations of GLP LED moving head solutions, starting with the original impression 90, before moving onto Volkslicht and X4/X4 S. Explaining his preference, he said, “I’ve always liked the products that GLP release as they are always of a premium nature.”
Bewley works across a range of music genres from grime to hip-hop, soul and even rock. He notes: “I could instantly see an application for [GLP products] across the board,” he admits. “I have seen X4’s on multiple tours and at trade shows - and as for the JDC1 [GLP’s new versatile hybrid strobe], I had a little play with one at Christie Lites and loved them straight away.”
the JDC1 have become a central part of his design

Czech Republic - Robe BMFL moving lights were used to light the first Laver Cup international tennis tournament.
The new indoor hardcourt men’s tennis tournament is staged for the first time in Prague’s O2 Arena, with the action broadcast worldwide.
The fixtures were a mix of 108 x BMFL Spots, WashBeams and Wash XFs, plus 80 x Spiider LED wash beams. The BMFLs were the primary light sources for the main show court, which saw two teams - Europe (captained by Björn Borg) and World (captained by John McEnroe) - battle it out for the trophy.
The full lighting production was designed by SMART Productions, providing a team of 28 riggers and lighting technicians on site led by SMART’s Josef ‘Pepa’ Zenisek who was also the event’s overall technical director for the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and the host broadcaster.
It was Pepa who suggested uti

UK - For Robbie William’s Heavy Entertainment Show, sound engineer Simon Hodge is mixing on a Digico SD7 using an L-Acoustics K1 based system from Britannia Row Productions (Brit Row) and has not found it wanting.
“We have played some very tricky venues, acoustically speaking,” said Hodge. “The new amplifiers and subs that Brit Row has invested in have made a big difference. I was expecting the new subs to be better but actually the difference is pretty phenomenal - they produce notes that I’ve not heard before with what feels like effortless power. The new amplifiers have made a difference to the HF as well which seems extended in to the range that only dogs can hear. I have ultimate respect for Josh Lloyd’s system design and line up but that combined with the new system has resulted in the most even coverage that I’ve ever heard in stadiums.”
Lloyd’

UAE - World Class Events supported DXB Live and WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 in the safe and successful delivery of WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) from 15-18 October.
Project director John Adkins, senior project manager Brian Gowen and six project managers planned and oversaw the event build, which welcomed 1,300 competitors, 10,000 international visitors and 100,000 visitors from the UAE.
John Adkins, managing director of World Class said: “Make no mistake, the de-rig for World Skills Abu Dhabi 2017 was a mammoth undertaking! The scale of the event, size of the venue and large quantities of kit, equipment and exhibits and the timeframe we working to meant that nothing less than a precise and efficient plan would ensure a successful outcome. The way that Showforce switched on all of its departments to mobilise the numbe

Spain - A sizzling 2017 Ibiza summer season saw new clubbing experience Hï burst on the scene with fresh energy and impetus mainlined into the heart of the Balearic dance scene via visual productions created by Romain Pissenem and his team from High Scream.
Over 200 Robe moving lights helped Romain define Hï’s two spaces – the Theatre and the Club. These included 72 x Pointes, 24 x Spiiders and 36 x Spikies in the Theatre and 100 x Spikies and another 20 Spiiders in the Club, all supplied by their regular lighting rental partner, France based the SLS Group, who also supplied all Hï’s video.
The building was previously known as Space for years by the clubbing fraternity, so a major aesthetic objective was the total transformation involving everything apart from the exterior walls.
Romain teamed up with acclaimed show, lighting, set and video designer Will

UK - Ayrton fixtures were used in the lighting design of the 2017 Slam Dunk Festival.
The alternative music event was headlined by rock band Enter Shikari and held in Leeds, Birmingham and Hatfield, with warm up shows at The Dublin Academy and Belfast Limelight and a further headline date in Barrowlands.
LD Steve Bewley used Ayrton’s MagicBurst LED graphic strobe fixtures and MagicPanel-602 units to achieve the dramatic visual effects needed for the event.
Bewley said: “For this show we designed four rotating towers which we wrapped in haphazardly-arranged LED strips, and used these to flank the drummer by deploying two towers either side of him. We then rigged three MagicBurst units vertically inside each tower towards the rear which, concealed within the towers, we use to shoot huge blasts of light out between the LED strips – much to the surprise and del

Hungary - Around 1,000 dance aficionados arrived at the Dürlin Budapest Event and Performance Space in Hungary recently to celebrate Bladerunnaz, the traditional annual opening of the autumn/winter season.
To ensure one of the country’s premier drum & bass events made its usual impact on the dancefloor, service company and Martin Audio partner, BG Event , provided its MLA Compact PA system.
According to BG Event’s Balázs Szentiványi, the promoters opted for Martin Audio’s technology after specifying the MLA Compact on the drum & bass stage at the Balaton Sound festival, which they also promote.
Szentiványi said: “We knew that MLA Compact, accompanied by the mighty MLX subs, would unquestionably provide the ultimate gear for such a bass-heavy event. Due to MLA’s sonic capabilities over the full spectrum it was an ideal choice. We were

USA - Audio-system integrator Solotech recently completed the world’s first permanent installation of JBL by Harman VTX A12 loudspeakers at The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor Hotel & Casino resort.
The Colosseum is a 5,000-seat venue that hosts a wide range of performances - from chart-topping rock bands to acclaimed comedians. In order to improve the sound quality in the venue, The Colosseum hired Solotech to replace its entire audio system in three separate phases. In the first phase, which was completed earlier this year, Solotech replaced the venue’s aging main hangs with 26 VTX A12 loudspeakers, JBL’s latest line array technology.
“We've got a world-class venue, and thanks to the VTX A12, we now have a world-class PA,” said David Cyrenne, production supervisor and audio engineer at The Colosseum. “We needed something reliable and versatile to complem

Finland - Helsinki City Theatre, the biggest professional repertoire theatre in Finland, has recently reopened its doors after an extensive three-year refurbishment and upgrade process. The technical part of the multi-million Euro renovation project was designed and managed by international theatre consultants Theatreplan.
“We were first approached by HCT in 2014 to work with them on a complete refit of the entire building,” explained Theatreplan director and stage engineering specialist, Dave Ludlam. The project started in March 2014 and was delivered in July 2017 for inauguration in August to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the modern Finnish nation.
Theatreplan carried out work on two of the six stages within the building: the ‘big stage’ with a capacity of 947, and the 347-seat ‘small stage’. The big stage now benefits from a re-shaped proscenium

UK - Southampton Solent University has upgraded its performance studios as part of a £100m facilities improvement programme running up to 2020, with VDC supplying the cabling infrastructure.
The university’s TV, Film and Media Technology department already boasts a number of professional-standard facilities including 4K-ready broadcast studios, radio suites and newsrooms, and the decision was made to invest in similarly high-quality facilities for the Music and Performance students. The department has nine rooms in total, five full studios and four smaller workstations which can be used for mixing. Studio 1 was upgraded in 2016 but the remaining studios hadn’t been touched for around ten years so much of the kit was showing signs of wear and tear.
When the decision was made to redevelop Studio 1, Technical Instructor Jon Wills contacted VDC to provide the cabling

Europe - Production manager Will Wilkinson engaged the services of Video Design, Negative Earth lighting and SSE for sound during Lady Antebellum’s recent European tour.
The band visited the Netherlands, England, Scotland and Ireland during the European leg of the tour comprising six dates between 1 October and 10 October, with the crew and band arriving on the continent on 27 September.
Wilkison says: “When you tour with such a tight schedule at an arena level, the key is being able to source close what we use in the US. In that sense of matched equipment, it was a very smooth transition from the US into Europe. As far as Video Design was concerned, our biggest concern was over the video content. With almost no time for production prep ahead of our first show in Amsterdam we needed to send our content over before we arrived and have it loaded onto the server.

UK - Rental company Ian Livie Concert & Corporate Lighting helped set up Paul Rodgers’ Free Spirit Tour with a minimalist rig of moving light and Leko fixtures and video content on Resolume controlled from a grandMA2 console.
Ian Livie and LD Jared Trinnaman are committed MA Lighting control aficionados. Livie says: “I had worked with Warren Cracknell for many years on Joe Bonamassa, the US blues guitarist so when he discussed the option of working with Paul Rodgers on the Free Spirit Tour I knew I had to invest in a console I was confident would stand the test of touring time both now and into the future. The LD, Jared Trinnaman felt the same way; I saw the show at the Royal Albert Hall and was so impressed with what he did with the console.”
Trinnaman himself had already invested in MA control. He says: “I’ve been an MA user since 2012. I

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