UAE - Lunch and Learn Technology from Spain, organized by Work Pro together with Arthur Holm and LDA Audio Tech Pro, and in collaboration with Secartys, the Association for the internationalisation and innovation of Spanish companies, took place in Dubai on 15 December.

This innovative concept aimed to offer attendees a training day in which to inform them about the latest trends and developments in the sector, as well as the solutions that these three manufacturers have developed and made available for the professionals in the AV and integration sectors.

The warm reception of the event made clear the existing interest in this innovative 'Lunch and Learn' concept. With the main objective that everyone interested in the event could attend the meeting from other countries close to Dubai and take advantage of the day, the event started at lunch time during which, simultane

UK - Woodworm Studios was established over 30 years ago as the private recording studio of folk legends Fairport Convention, a battered sign at the entrance still welcomes you to 'the Woodworm Hilton', the original name of the studio.

Situated in a converted chapel in the heart of the beautiful Oxfordshire Cotswolds, it was bought by recording engineer Stuart Jones in 2012 and renovated to high standards, and is now based around a Pro Tools HD system, a 24-channel Solid State Duality SE console and a surround array of PMC TB2S-A MkII speakers, with a pair of MB2 XBD-As serving as the main stereo reference monitors.

"I've had the TB2s for a while and have always been a PMC fan, hence the surround array," explains Jones. "I needed some high-quality large-scale reference monitors for Woodworm when I finished the renovations, but the nature of the room doesn't lend

France - Live sound engineer Verlaine Levis used to think that DPA microphones were only suited to classical music and never imagined that their microphones were also appropriate for pop rock tours. Since using a selection of DPA mics on the current Cats On Trees tour, Levis is the first to admit that his initial perception was entirely wrong.

"When DPA's French distributor Audio² gave me the opportunity to try the company's microphones with Cats On Trees, I was happy to accept the challenge," Levis says. "It didn't take long to discover that these great microphones have beefy pickups and are perfectly suited to rock and pop acts. We're now using three d:facto Vocal Microphones, as well as a d:dicate ST2011C Stereo Pair with 2011C Compact Cardioids and a number of d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones for drums and violins."

"The tour is awesome and they

The Netherlands - Opened in 2005, Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw aan't IJ is the Netherlands foremost venue for contemporary classical music. For the past nine years, the audio mixing requirements have been reliably taken care of by a Yamaha DM2000, but a recent technical refurbishment has seen it joined by a CL3 system.

Physically, Muziekgebouw aan't IJ's main auditorium, the Grote Zaal, is exceptionally flexible, featuring a ceiling, walls, floor and seating which are all moveable. These features make it an equally space for everything from intimate chamber music to full orchestras.

Acoustically the auditorium is extremely quiet so, when funding became available to upgrade the audio system, the venue's technical team needed a mixing system that was virtually silent in operation, as well as fulfilling all the technical requirements.

"At the beginning, we wrote down a list of

Finland - Finnish rapper Cheek recently made part of pop music history with a sold out show at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. To ensure the show packed a huge punch, Eero Helle and Mikko Linnavuori from visual design company Visual45 chose an array of Clay Paky fixtures to add power and reliability to their bold design.

Cheek enlisted Visual45 to create the entire show design, including staging, video content and lighting, after the company designed two of the rapper's sold-out shows back in 2013 at the nearly 8000-capacity Ice Hall in Helsinki.

"After the Ice Hall shows, the artist was really impressed with our work so got us on board for the fantastic Olympic Stadium concert," says Helle. "Our brief was to create something completely exciting and never-seen-before for the artist, so working closely with him we specified the Sharpy, Alpha Beam 1500 and Alpha

Turkey - HK Audio will increase its presence in Turkey significantly in 2015, after the German sound reinforcement firm signed an exclusive distribution deal with Yildirim Muzikhal.

The experienced Antalya-based distributor will be taking on the entire HK Audio product line-up - including the pro sound, install sound and MI ranges - in what is one of Europe's largest and fastest-growing pro audio markets from 1 January.

The relationship between the two companies began after HK Audio decided to make a strategic change of distributor in Turkey, and talks intensified when the two firms realized the vast opportunities working together could bring.

Florian Kunz, HK Audio's international market manager, said, "The decision to work together with Yildirim Muzikhal was taken after a comprehensive meeting in Antalya. Our future distribution partner has an outstanding history of p

USA - Symphony Centre, in Chicago's Loop district, is home to the Grammy Award-winning Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and historic Orchestra Hall. Although the CSO traditionally performs acoustically, when visiting jazz and pop artists stop by for shows using amplified music, the venue now has a new secret weapon - DiGiCo's SD9.

Installed by The Sound Co-Op LLC, the same sound reinforcement company that also provides Symphony Centre's sound system for amplified performances, the SD9 is called into service when visiting artists perform both with and without the CSO, such as on a recent show by Washington, D.C.-based a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Symphony Centre's new SD9 console includes the Rack Pack Tour (RPT) package. This combination boasts 72 mic/line inputs (64 being on stage), digital snakes, redundant power supplies (in both console and stage racks), 48 Fl

USA - How do you add extra bam to one of the hottest A-List after parties during the ultra-hip internationally acclaimed Art Basel art show? At Mansion Nightclub, the answer was obvious, sometimes blindingly so, as 38 Nexus 4x4 Panels from Chauvet Professional created a searing and intense design at the VH1 + Scope party.

"Lighting designer Joe Paradise and the VH1 Production team created an awesome design that took full advantage of the Nexus panel's intensity," said Jorge Tellez, who was lighting director for the Mansion/Opium Group at the time of the party. "The panels were positioned to create a three-dimensional effect using Mansion's current LED system. They were rigged in three different positions, on the stage, front stage truss and main room truss. The arrangement provided a very nice depth illusion and an interesting lighting effect. The panels were also

USA - A collection of roughly 175 COLORado 1-Quad Tour par-style LED fixtures from Chauvet Professional provided by Barbizon Lighting Company were used to help illuminate and enhance the more than one million lights at Busch Gardens Tampa's Christmas Town.

Most of the fixtures provided external lighting for the attraction's impressive 50' tall tree.

(Jim Evans)

USA - The Sheraton Houston Brookhollow Hotel is an all-purpose hotel that recently refreshed its meeting and banquet rooms with a dynamic lighting scheme that includes decorative colour looks from Elation LED Flex Tape, a high-output yet energy-efficient solution.

As with many hotels that keep a close eye on overhead costs, energy savings was at the forefront of the new design but because the hotel specializes in wedding receptions and cultural weddings, system designers Louis Kong Architects sought a product that offered more than just the typical ambient lighting.

Jay Cid of Elation rep firm PSLP (Professional Sound and Lighting Products) introduced Louis Kong Architects to Elation Flex LED Tape, thin and flexible RGB LED tape with 40mm centres that can be cut to any length and easily installed no matter the size or shape of the space. After Jay provided on site demos, Louis

UK - London-based large format projection specialist, The Projection Studio (TPS) created a stunning festive projection onto the central tower at Windsor Castle, which was enjoyed by all residents and visitors to the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, Berkshire, over Christmas 2014.

Ross Ashton and his Projection Studio team were approached by Windsor's Town Centre manager Paul Roach after the success of Ashton's works commissioned by LOCOG for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which saw the same tower on Thames Street illuminated, together with two others, a display that attracted over 85,000 visitors to the city centre.

Aston, who has also projected multiple times onto Buckingham Palace as well as numerous other structures and buildings worldwide, was delighted to be involved in the project. "It was an excellent piece to create in terms of imagination and style, it is

Norway - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden AB recently joined legendary Norwegian alternative rock band Seigmen on stage for a three-day show in Tønsberg, Norway, lit with an impressive rig designed by lighting designer Petter Nilssen.

In total, five universes were run via W-DMX by Wireless Solution. Nilssen used W-DMX F-2500 G4 and three W-DMX BlackBox F-1 G4 MK2 units with 16 W-DMX Micro R-512 G4 receivers spread across 4 truss sections and the floor. The concert received "fantastic" reviews both in Norway and abroad.

Nilssen explained, "The reason for choosing W-DMX was to be able to not have several universes sent through the audience with cables, and to really test W-DMX in different situations. I used 5 DMX universes all sent wirelessly. The possibility to easily change the design without having to deal with a lot of cables that needed to change was

USA - The interactive Beatles tribute show, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah (Y3), made its New York appearance at 42West, a venue that served as a mid-town Manhattan parking garage, before being transformed into one of the city's hippest nightspots.

The low ceilings of the former parking structure created a special challenge when it came to lighting the group's performance. Lighting designer Ben Danielowski met this challenge in impressive fashion by utilising the zoomable prism on Legend 230SR Beam from Chauvet Professional.

"The club is a fantastic venue that's very popular in New York," said the LD. "However, as a former parking structure it does present some challenges when you're trying to light a rock show. With 12'-14' ceilings, and large support beams blocking most of my first choices of angles, it was difficult to get many of the great clean shots I was able to

Canada - Elation Professional's new SixPar LED multi-chip PAR colour changers are being used to colour several areas of Foresta Lumina, an illuminated night trail through the forest in Parc de la Gorge de Coaticook, a top tourist attraction near Quebec.

Wanting to attract a larger and more diverse group of evening visitors, the park commissioned media and entertainment studio Moment Factory to create a multimedia experience in the natural forest setting. Moment Factory's creative team took inspiration from the legendary characters found in folk tales from Quebec and around the world.

After dark, visitors explore the park's charms at their own pace, experiencing a scenography featuring lighting effects and video mapping accompanied by an original soundtrack. All along the 2 km 'garden of wishes' trail visitors meet fascinating beings that lead them into a fully immersive advent

Malta - Over 200 Clay Paky fixtures including the popular A.leda and Super Sharpy recently provided exciting lighting effects for the 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest held in Malta. Lighting director Nick Malbon and creative director John McCullagh specified the setup with stunning results.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC) is an international song competition first organized in 2003 by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The competition has many similarities to the wildly popular Eurovision Song Contest from which its name is taken. Each participating broadcaster sends an act, the members of which are aged between 10 and 15 years old. They must perform an original song to compete against the other entries. Viewers from the participating countries are invited to vote for their favourite performances by televoting and there is also a jury from each participating cou

UK - On a street that boasts the most famous front door in the world, it's fitting that the Downing Street Christmas tree is a vision to behold. Over the holiday period, the tree outside Number 10 appeared countless times on television news reports. So when Future Group Lighting Design was asked to do something a little out of the ordinary to coincide with the International Year of Light, Doughty Engineering was brought on board to provide some expert advice.

Peter Phillipson, award winning lighting designer and Principal at FGLD explained "Back in August we were asked to design something special for the Downing Street tree that signified the International Year of Light without looking like a corporate sponsorship. We considered many types of projection but went for backlit motifs resembling baubles in order that it could be left unmanned."

Turning to artist friend I

USA - The Masonic has been a landmark in San Francisco since opening in 1958 and is now operated by concert promotion company, Live Nation. The venue recently underwent a massive renovation that included the addition of a new concert stage, luxury VIP boxes and flexible, tiered open floor space for both general admission and seated shows-which brought capacity to 3,300.

Among the several major enhancements unveiled, The Masonic now features a new stage lighting system with more than 45 of Martin Professional's MAC Viper and MAC Aura fixtures.

Developed by San Francisco-based Impact Lighting, which began working with Martin Professional in 2003, the new lighting design was tailored specifically for the flexibility of the new space to ensure optimal lighting for every event held at the venue.

"Live Nation initially requested a state-of-the-art lighting system," said

USA - At the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre (NJPAC) 2014 Spotlight Gala presented by The Women's Association, attendees would be treated to a night of Tony Award-winners in a production entitled Nothin' Like A Dame. Behind the scenes, lighting designer Al Crawford of Arc3design was asked to create a complete lighting design that captured the full spirit of the leading ladies of Broadway. To do this, Crawford needed a lighting instrument that could offer him a wide array of performance capabilities so he turned to 4Wall New York who supplied him with VL4000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"This was my eighth year with the event and every year is a new story to tell," began Crawford. "When looking at the lighting tools to use, I first look at each event space and how to best tell this story through light. For the evening's performance, I needed a f

Poland - Aram was once again a supplier of multimedia and a part of lighting for the New Year's Eve stage that was built in Wroclaw, Poland. This time almost 400sq.m of LED curtains and screens and several hundred lighting fixtures from Clay Paky, Robe, Vari Lite and Fourlight were deployed.

New Year's Eve in Wroclaw city was, by all accounts, an amazing event. Leading Polish stars and foreign artists performed on the stage accompanied by finalists of The Voice of Poland. During the six hours of the show, the audience gathered on Wroclaw main square and viewers watching on TVP2 channel, enjoyed more than 50 "Greatest Polish and European music hits".

Aram was responsible for the multimedia and part of the lighting equipment. The set-up included the main screen, screens for the audience as well as the complete system to control lighting and multimedia based on f

Denmark - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has issued a call for papers to be presented at its 58th International Conference on Music Induced Hearing Disorders.

This is the second AES conference on the topic, and will continue the important task of presenting and discussing advances in the state of the art in hearing loss diagnosis and prevention, as well as strategies, technologies, and devices related to safe yet impactful music production and reproduction. The event will take place at Hotel Comwell Hvide Hus in Aalborg, Denmark, 28-30 June, 2015.

Researchers from both the audiology and pro audio fields are invited to submit papers for presentation at the conference. Proposed topics for presentation include: Music versus Noise as an Exposure Agent; Hearing Exposure Measurement and Control Devices; Sound Level Management for Live Events; Active and Passive Hearing Protecti

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd. has announced their appointment as the exclusive UK & Ireland distributor for the GLP range of award-winning LED lighting solutions. The company has also confirmed its appointment as exclusive UK & Ireland distributor for the Dynamic Audio Device (D.A.D.) range of audio solutions.

The GLP agreement follows AC-ET's success supplying the innovative impression LED moving heads line-up and other GLP products to various entertainment sectors, and helping to strengthen the brand in the UK market.

GLP president, Mark Ravenhill, commented, "It's great to be working with AC-ET as our exclusive distributor. They have a highly committed team of people and we are looking forward to working with them all, to promote and grow GLP in the UK and Ireland."

AC-ET's UK sales director, Jonathan Walters, commented, "We're delighted

UK - Six high brightness Panasonic projectors will be used to light up King's College Chapel as part of the 2015 e-Luminate Festival in Cambridge.

Panasonic will once again sponsor the festival (11-15 February) and will team up with 3D projection expert Ross Ashton to project on to the iconic chapel.

Hartmut Kulessa, European product marketing manager at Panasonic said, "Digital mapping is becoming an integral part of how we celebrate at many public events. It is a relatively new and exciting way of engaging audiences, so we are delighted to demonstrate the best of digital mapping as part of e-Luminate 2015."

This year's festival is one of the UK key events to mark the United Nations International Year of Light celebrations.

Alessandra Caggiano, festival director and curator, added, "We have invited talented individuals from the Arts and Technology to collab

Korea - Through the diligent work of their South Korean distributor, Marshall Pro Sound, Inc., Amadeus speakers are now the centrepiece of sound for the Korean Congress in the general assembly hall within the National Assembly Hall building, located in the heart of the country's capital of Seoul. During the past 10 years sound requirements for the entire The National Assembly building have been managed by Marshall Pro Sound, Inc.

Because of the general assembly hall's environment, the new system required both large hanging speakers and very compact yet high SPL speakers at the podiums. Marshall Pro Sound felt the Amadeus DIVA XS speakers were the solution for the main hall, and Amadeus PMX suited the personal monitoring needs at each podium. The 28-speaker install at the National Assembly Hall is one of the largest and most prestigious in Asia for Amadeus.

Based in France, Ama

Germany - Astera LED Technology GmbH has announced that after many years residing in Rüdesheim an der Nahe, it will now advance to the wealthiest city in Germany; Munich. Being one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany, Munich provides Astera with a greater ability to serve its German customers. Transport and infrastructure are much improved, impacting on logistics, product demonstrations and brand awareness.

The sales office will now be twinned with a technical office for immediate customer support, and overseen by Simon Canins, the R&D director at Astera.

Balazs Maar, financial controller at Astera, commented, "There are two main drivers for this decision, which we made after thorough analysis of various options for the location of our office. First, our Rüdesheim office was costly and too large for our needs. Second, moving to Munich will give

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