UK - FOH engineer, Dave McDonald, selected his favoured Allen & Heath modular iLive system for the US and European tour of Broken Bells, an American indie rock band composed of artist-producer Brian Burton (better known as Danger Mouse) and James Mercer, the lead vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band, The Shins.

McDonald, whose clients include Adele, Air, Frank Ocean and Florence & the Machine, chose an iLive-112 Surface with iDR10 Mixrack, with the addition of a Dante network card delivering up to 64 channels to a recording rig.

The tour will continue into the autumn and is in support of the band's first studio album. McDonald is utilising many of iLive's renowned built in FX to emulate the band's recorded sound, including the Symphonic Chorus, ADT Doubler and Echo Chorus.

"There's so much going on with the band's vocals - it's very 'Beatles-esque' and psyched

Brazil - In Sao Paulo, the first edition of Miss Supranational Brazil was held recently. All 26 Brazilian states participated in the contest with their respective representatives in order to win the national title.

The contest was held at the Shopping Eldorado, Sao Paulo. Rental company Barella Eventos provided a wireless CRMX Nova DMX system containing one single universe DMX transmitter and multiple single universe DMX receivers to control the lighting rig throughout the show.

Explaining the choice, Barella Eventos founder and general manager, Giancarlo Barella said the decision was based on reliability and the need for a time effective setup. "When you are working with beauty contests of this magnitude, every moment of the night is special and crucial. Everything needs to happen at exactly the right time, so there is no room for any delays. A live broadcasted event exp

Europe - London based projection specialist The Projection Studio worked as a consultant for live communications agency Wasserman to activate a pan European large format video projection campaign for the Vodafone Firsts initiative.

This took place via a series of giant projections in key cities across Europe through which Vodafone inspires and engages people to do something remarkable for the first time using mobile technology.

Projection Studio's Ross Ashton and his team were asked on-board by Wasserman's Production manager Mark Bustard after seeing their work in the same capacity for Jack Morton Worldwide at London's New Year Eve celebrations and festivities along the South bank of the River Thames. The projections then were onto the Shell Building.

The latest project involved conducting comprehensive site surveys in all eight cities - which included Budapest Sapientia Col

USA - DPA Microphones recently joined cello-rock group Break of Reality as advocates for the importance of music education in schools. In conjunction with its tour schedule supporting its latest album, TEN, the group hosted a month-long Music Education Tour, making its way to at 10 school districts across the US.

At these stops, students attended workshops and performances hosted by the quartet to learn about the art and appreciation of music. In an effort to provide music programmes with the opportunity to experience quality technology, DPA Microphones donated three d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones to Edmond North High School (ENHS), in Edmond, OK, deemed by the band to be the school in greatest need for an audio solution.

"Next year, we will be kicking off our Strolling Strings programme, the first of its kind at Edmond," said Peter Markes, orchestra direc

Poland - Lighting designer Sebastian Pachciarek used a variety of Clay Paky fixtures in his rich lighting design for the celebration concert of the late pope Saint John Paul II at the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Krakow, Poland.

Pachciarek put together an elegant lighting design for the large outdoor stage that was careful to complement the show's large LED video element. Inspired by the colours and architecture of the church, the classic design captured the attention of hundreds of local and international pilgrims that had come to Krakow to celebrate the sainthood of the late pope.

"It was important to remember that this was no ordinary show," explains Pachciarek. "This was not a jazz or pop concert but a celebration of huge importance to those present, so the lighting had to be exactly right. In addition it was being filmed for broadcast, so in addition to it bei

UK / Brazil - The recent AES Expo in Sao Paulo provided an opportunity for pro-audio UK brands to test the water in one of the world's most vibrant and rewarding markets - Brazil.

Under the umbrella of the APRS / UKTI national booth which branded itself as the 'GREAT British Audio Embassy', companies from the pro-audio, live sound reinforcement and broadcast sectors shared a single space at the AES Expo and Convention. It attracted a steady flow of new customers and existing clients cementing over £750k of immediate business, plus a catalogue of future deals that are making the prospect of South American trips increasingly alluring.

Brazil offers an enormous domestic market but is also seen as a gateway to the entire South American continent.

The success of these exploratory trips, which have enjoyed considerable government support, has encouraged the APRS, the MIA and

UK - The historic Royal Opera House (ROH) in London's Covent Garden has worked closely with the lighting division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd - an official UK sub-distributor for the High End Systems product range - to seamlessly upgrade their Wholehog III house video control desk to the flagship new Hog 4 console.

AC-ET's senior technical sales executive, Ben Taylor, was invited by Gareth Shelton, deputy manager of the ROH's sound & broadcast department, to demo the Hog 4 console in-situ to the venue's technical team.

Gareth comments, "Our department looks after all aspects of video projection on main stage shows. Specifically, we use our console for video projection programming with our media servers, so it was really important to ensure that the upgrade would provide a more powerful console capable of satisfying the venue's increasingly ambitious pro

France - The Zenith de Strasbourg recently played host to a magnificent cine-concert of the first film of Disney's hit Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Curse of The Black Pearl. The film was screened in front of 6000 people to the accompaniment of the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra complete with a 24-strong choir who brought Klaus Badelt's magnificent soundtrack to life.

The Zenith de Strasbourg, which is the biggest indoor arena in France was packed to the rafters for this spectacular one-off event. Strasbourg-based rental company, Lagoona, were brought in to supply the PA system, and Lagoona in turn, called on digital audio networking specialists, Espace Concept, to supply and manage the FoH console, microphones and networking. For the very first time, Espace Concept used an mc256 console from Lawo.

The suggestion came directly from Lawo's Hervé d

Chile - The Vina del Mar International Song Festival (Spanish: Festival Internacional de la Canción de Vina del Mar) is a music festival held annually since 1960 in Vina del Mar, Chile, and considered one of the most important musical events in the Americas.

Staged at the Quinta Vergara Amphitheatre, the festival features a song competition with two categories (pop music and folk songs), interspersed with performances by international music stars from around the world, encompassing a diverse mix of genres like rock, multi-lingual pop, merengue, salsa, reggaetón, bachata and many others.

To deal with this variety in the music lighting designer Luis Pastor trusted in a highly flexible lighting control - the grandMA2. In total he used an MA System comprised of two grandMA2 full-size, two grandMA2 light, four MA NPU (Network Processing Unit), six MA 2Port Node and two MA VPU plu

Spain - YCD Multimedia has announced its participation with Coca-Cola in creating the Coca-Cola lounge at this year's CineEurope 2014 convention in Barcelona, Spain, June 17-19 2014.

Working in close cooperation with Littlebit Technology, as well as NEC Displays Solutions and Intel, YCD brings a rarely seen immersive digital signage solution to the Coca-Cola lounge. Coca Cola is the main sponsor for this year's CineEurope show and "it was important for us to help Coca-Cola showcase a complete digital signage solution for cinema complexes," said Eran Sharon, VP product management for YCD Multimedia.

From box office ticketing, concessions, future film promotions and wayfinding, each solution shown addresses today's Cineplex needs and business goals while incorporating immersive and experiential elements to enhance the movie-going experience. Content will be presented i

UK - Contemporary UK folk band Bellowhead celebrated their 10th anniversary with two high profile shows at London's Royal Albert Hall and Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, for which lighting designer Emma Thompson created an eye-catching scheme which included Robe CycFX 8s, Pointes, LEDWash 600s and LEDBeam 100 moving lights - all from Robe's Robin range.

Emma has been working with the band for the last three and a half years. They tour regularly each year in autumn and spring and she is also a big fan of Robe products. The lighting design for these two special shows referenced that of the last tour but on a vastly expanded scale, with a big increase in the amount of kit used, most of which was supplied by Southampton based rental company, GLS.

"I've always used Robe fixtures in my Bellowhead shows," says Emma. "It's great technology, very solid and there is always

UK - Engage Production Ltd, specialist in interactive technologies for branded environments, has supplied technology and technical expertise to the world's first Bloomberg Hub, which has been unveiled at London City Airport. Engage supplied a digital display, media wall with audio distribution, as well as all the hardware necessary for technical integration.

The Bloomberg Hub provides "timely and relevant news, data, and information within a visually-compelling, technology-driven space". Engage's electronic wizardry, along with Bloomberg's rich content and design, all combine to create an interactive, energetic, and functional space devised "to make the business traveller's journey more productive, more efficient, and more enjoyable".

"It's a great privilege to be asked to work with Bloomberg again, particularly on such a big project and a world's firs

USA - When Sound Designer Darron L West and associate sound designer Charles Coes were looking to create a dazzling audio experience for William Shakespeare's fantasy play The Tempest, they turned to Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, to provide a custom audio equipment package.

The Tempest is a co-production between The Smith Centre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas and the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The play premiered under a big top tent in Las Vegas on 1 April and is now playing at the A.R.T's Loeb Drama Centre.

The Tempest tells the story of shipwrecked aristocrat Prospero and his daughter Miranda who wash up on the shores of an enchanted and strange island. They find themselves immersed in a world of trickery and amazement, in which Tom Waits' and Kathleen

Australia - ArKaos PRO's Australian distributor, ULA Group, were once again a proud sponsor of 2014 BMW Bruce Lynton Charity Ball, a prestigious event hosted in May at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on Australia's Gold Coast. Working together with Jesse Radatti from Digital Lighting Solutions, the team delivered a spectacular production for the ball, which has become one of the Gold Coast's prime events.

Australia's famous Choirboys, supported by local group,The Accidents, were entertaining the crowds until late into the night. The evening's celebrations were crowned by a pixel mappable chandelier, installed as a centerpiece in the Grand Ball Room. This was controlled by ChamSys MQ 60 console through ArKaos PRO media server technology to create a festive atmosphere for the event.

Bruce Lynton Prestige Automotive Group dealer principal, Beric Lynton, explains that the event's sole

UK - On the eve of the International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference 2014 (ITEAC 2014), taking place this Sunday until Tuesday (8-10 June), the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) looks forward to welcoming leading experts in the backstage arts, to London for 'one glorious week in technical theatre'.

As recorded in its Memorandum of Association, the ABTT was founded to achieve "the advancement of public education in the technical subjects connected with the theatre and theatrical presentation and the promotion for the benefit of the public of good theatre design and technical presentation of theatrical works".

Both ITEAC 2014 and the ABTT Theatre Show at London's Old Truman Brewery on the following two days (11-12 June), fulfil this objective through the exchange of ideas and information amongst those concerned with the accommodation and

South Africa - When Canadian singer-songwriter Tamia came to South Africa on her three city tour, six Robe Pointes were used for the Johannesburg leg of the tour hosted at the Carnival City Big Top Arena. Magz Schoeman, head of lighting at Carnival City was the lighting designer for the show hosted on the 27-28 April.

Schoeman started her journey by getting her hands on Tamia's music. "Tamia's sound is very chilled and after the first song, I thought pink." With soft pastel colours in mind, Schoeman used six Robe Pointes, eight Robin 100LEDBeams, eight Robin 300s, four Robin 600s, six Robe MMX Spots, four Martin MAC 550 Profiles and 12 MAC 575 Krypons and six bars of 6 LED pars to create something special and a design which was complimented by the event organizer.

"The Pointes were great," said Schoeman. "It was the first time I used them and I love th

UK - Blackout was commissioned to transform East London's Old Truman Brewery to make it catwalk ready for Graduate Fashion Week (GFW) 2014.

A platform to showcase fashion's future rising stars and known for launching careers of the likes of Stella McCartney and Julien MacDonald, this year's GFW attracted over 25,000 guests, hosted 20 catwalk shows and showcased over 40 talented universities.

The annual event, in its 23rd year, made the move to the edgier East End, deciding on the Old Truman Brewery as its new venue. Blackout's experienced rigging and draping team were called in to install two catwalk structures; one using ground supported truss and the other flown using 10 half ton motors.

"The two catwalks were held in completely difference spaces, Catwalk A was upstairs in a much lighter room with skylights and Catwalk B was located on the ground floor," explaine

UK - At ABTT 2014 Sennheiser UK will focus on the parts that the company's products can play in delivering perfect audio in all manner of theatre productions and installations.

Sennheiser's Digital 9000 Wireless Microphone system offers premium quality uncompressed digital audio for those theatre professionals who are unwilling to compromise on sound. With its intuitive, easy to navigate menu system and comprehensive feature list, including the ability to choose from up to 12 microphone heads for the handheld transmitter alone, Digital 9000 delivers unparalleled sound quality and takes professional users to a whole new level of dynamics, previously unavailable to wireless system users.

For those visitors on tighter budgets, Sennheiser's 3000/5000 Series of wireless products will also be on display. The SK 5212 II body-pack transmitter, along with the EM3732 II receiver, have b

UK - Tinie Tempah's 11-date UK and Ireland arena tour this spring was backed by staging rental outfit LS-Live.

The Temptation tour, which travelled from Wolverhampton Civic Hall and finished at The O2 Dublin in April, replaced cancelled shows from 2013 and showcased music from his Disc-Overy album and the more mature grime-pop sounds from his recent album Demonstration.

LS-Live welcomed the opportunity to work with Tinie Tempah and the team once again to design, build and modify the set at its arena-sized rehearsal unit. LS-Live designer Gaz Mallon worked closely with show designer Anthony Randall and production manager Phil Broad to ensure their creative vision was aptly brought to life for the relatively brief, but big-bite, tour.

Said Gaz, "They wanted to create the look of an underground, grimy car park, like those you find beneath city apartment block

UK - SMG Europe, the largest operator of sports and entertainment venues in the United Kingdom and Europe, have selected amBX dynamic lighting control for the iconic Phones 4U Arena Manchester. amBX will enable flexible and dynamic control for the upgraded lighting in the Concourse area as part of a significant investment in the famous venue.

Neil Macdonald, chief executive of amBX said, "We are delighted to have the unique capabilities of amBX recognised by such a major operator in this way. In addition to managing all the operational lighting requirement, amBX Light-Scene Engine will also be providing a flexible and dynamic solution to enhance how lighting can be used to enhance the experience of the venue."

The amBX Light-Scene Engine is the latest lighting control offering built on amBX technology. The Light-Scene Engine has been designed to be easily integrated

Spain - A Marte Cabaret (A Mars Cabaret) is a full-on intergalactic party, action packed with humour, eroticism and fun - in a secret place that's full of mad characters and idiosyncrasies where humans can explore fantasies and crazy ideas without inhibitions.

Produced by Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar - responsible for the long running eponymous musical and numerous other shows along Gran Via Madrid's main theatrical artery AKA 'Spanish Broadway' - this show staged at the off Gran Via Rialto Theatre, and has been lit by award-winning lighting designer Felipe Ramos.

The overall theme of the show - inspired by some of the grand cabarets of Paris but with a definitely space age twist - gave him plenty of scope for imaginative lighting design - and he chose 12 Robe Pointes to be right at the core of the lighting rig.

A Marte Cabaret is his first collaboration with the producers, alth

Europe - Copious Clay Paky beam fixtures have been employed by lighting designer Jerry Appelt in his 'reach out and grab you' lighting design for Scooter's European tour 20 years of Hardcore.

Appelt's design is an eye-opener, with the German lighting designer rigging a mix of over 100 x Clay Paky Sharpys, 26 x Alpha Spot HPE 1500s and 12 x Alpha Beam 1500s supplied by PRG Hamburg, in strict configurations across huge fingers of truss that reach out across the audience.

"The concept behind the design was not to worry too much about the stage and really play out to the audience," explains Appelt. "We built four vertical columns upstage upon which we rigged the Clay Paky beam fixtures. These columns then lead out into four 'fingers' of curved truss heavily rigged with Sharpys. The fingers are designed to reach out above the audience creating an all encompass

Brazil - Allen & Heath's iLive-112 digital systems were used at Brazil's famous carnival celebrations to manage the live performances of renowned international artists including Claudia Leite, Jota Quest, Pericles, and Michel Telo. Mixes were also routed to four GLD-80s, which handled the worldwide broadcast feeds.

Allen & Heath's distributor, Teleponto, supplied the consoles, designed the systems, and managed the live performances and global transmission of the carnival. Six teams and a total of 70 staff were required to ensure the successful operation of 6 straight days of transmission and 72 hours of live broadcasts.

The GLD-80 consoles were used to handle audio feeds sent from several remote locations spanning over 2km. In addition, four AR2412 and eight AR84 audio racks and over 7km of optical fibre cable were used.

"With more than 2m people in attendance and simul

Brazil - This month Brazil hosts the FIFA World Cup for the second time, now with technology playing a major part in ensuring the enjoyment and safety of visitors.

Estadio Mineirao was the first of three 2014 World Cup stadia to be completed using Community loudspeaker systems. Soundvision Engineering, the largest professional audio and video contract integrator in Brazil, was commissioned to design and install the audio systems by Emílio Miranda of Johnson Controls Brazil, the contract holder for Estadio Mineirao.

Soundvision's CEO, Antonio Tadeu Torquato, and new business manager, Leandro Freire, carried out an extensive evaluation of loudspeaker systems that would provide the best solution for the arena. They concluded that the first choice was Community, proven for all-weather reliability, well-defined coverage and high intelligibility.

After installation, performance a

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