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14 March 2016

"We are confident that the appointment Music & Lights as our distributor is our most effective step to ensure our continued growth in the Italian market," says Avolites managing director, Steve Warren. "We are extremely impressed with the potential of Music & Lights and CEO Fabio Sorabella's highly effective team are enthusiastic, dynamic and focused on growth."

Warren's words are echoed by Avolites sales director, Koy Neminathan. "Music & Lights have proved that they are capable of providing excellent service training and support, both pre and post-sale. Avolites have invested in the development of new and unique features for both lighting and video control and it is of the upmost importance that we

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14 March 2016

The UK Sound Archive includes recordings of local accents and dialects used to monitor the evolution of the English language and sounds of rare or extinct wildlife. It also includes full recordings of theatre productions going back 40 years, including the opening night of Hamlet in the Old Vic, starring Peter O'Toole and

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14 March 2016

More than three dozen broadcast and cable networks in the US and Canada telecast Stand Up to Cancer. The show, staged at LA's Dolby Theatre, featured celebrity guests, music by Lupe Fiasco, Jennifer Hudson and Common, The Who, the Dave Matthews Band, and Ariana Grande, and inspiring stories about patients who have benefited from the research supported by the organization. Atomic Lighting of Lititz, Pennsylvania provided the Clay Paky fixtures.

"This show really means a lot to me," says Brad Hafer, vice president of account management, at Atomic Lighting. "Stand Up to Cancer is about something real - it's not just do

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14 March 2016

The musical depicts a 1940s Hollywood writer working on a film noir thriller; the play switches between gritty, black and white film scenes, and the real writer and his friends, shown in bright, vivid full colour.

"This is the first time the show has been revived," says Harrison, "and one of the biggest challenges was performing it in the 250-capacity space - we needed flexibility of colour without using too many fixtures. I'd heard about Source Four LED Series 2, but had never used them, and despite not having the time or resources to do any kind of tests or shootouts, I was keen to give them a try. They turned out to be exactly the right thing."

The colour changing abiliti

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14 March 2016

Robe Lighting France S.A.S. will be headed up by two senior managers. Managing director Bruno Garros, a familiar face in the world of the French professional entertainment lighting market takes the helm of the French operation alongside Elie Battah, who as business development manager for France, will spearhead the parent company's business plan.

The new subsidiary is part of Robe Lighting s.r.o.'s planned medium-term expansion strategy, and follows robust trading worldwide in recent years.

Robe Lighting France joins four other highly successful fully Robe-owned operations worldwide - in the UK, USA, UAE and Singapore.

Also responsible for Robe Lighting France will be Ingo Dombr

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14 March 2016

The free all-day event will feature presentations, training workshops and interactive panel discussions led by industry design consultants, AV installation contractors and IT networking experts. The event will also feature a major interoperability networking demonstration of Dante-enabled products and systems, several of which are debuting at ISE from the industry's leading audio manufacturers.

Twenty-five leading audio equipment manufacturers are co-sponsoring this year's conference including Ashly, AtteroTech, audio-technica, Bosch, Bose, BSS, Crest Audio, Delec, Focusrite/RedNet, Harman Professional, Lab.gruppen, Lake, Nexo, NTP, Peavey Commer

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14 March 2016

"The result of Constellation is subtly but fundamentally transformative for both audience and performer," says David Ogden Stiers, resident conductor for the Newport Symphony Orchestra (NSO), who has more than 20 years of experience at the PAC. "We have gone from an okay performance space to an actual, audible concert hall. Frankly, I was sceptical about the system at first - but am now totally won over."

The proposal of the Constellation solutio

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14 March 2016

The installation, which was the culmination of the University's 10-week Urban Lighting course, used the Singapore National Design Centre's expansive space to bring a true on-of-a-kind experience to life with help from Martin Professional Exterior 400 LED lighting fixtures.

Throughout the University's Urban Lighting course, students learned about the effects of both natural and artificial light on space as well as fundamental design concepts. The students then had the opportunity to develop an installation for the Singapore Night Festival as part of their final course project and according to the SUTD student team leader, Kenickie Cher Jia Jun,

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14 March 2016

Its lighting division was started two years ago with an immediate investment in Robe moving lights with the purchase of 16 x MMX Spots and 16 x LEDWash 1200s

Director of sales, Nidheesh Hari explains that Abacus provides full production for conferences, exhibitions, product launches - large and small - award ceremonies, and small to medium music concerts, offering including lighting, audio and video. They can offer design services or work with the client's own design team and concepts - depending on the set up.

They assessed all the options carefully before choosing Robe, and also sought advice from other industry prof

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14 March 2016

"We want to make the recycling of old lighting fixtures as straightforward and cost-effective as possible, especially for those who are investing in our Comus range of LED lighting," explains CLD chair Nigel Howes.

Recolight was set up by and for the commercial lighting industry to maximize the recycling of all lighting kit relevant to the 2006 WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment) regulations.

It provides a comprehensive recycling infrastructure across the UK for the di

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14 March 2016

The European tour was spearheaded by Sound Image out of Escondido, California, with UK-based Wigwam providing the Adamson PA.

Kyle Hamilton, FOH engineer for Williams, specifically chose the Adamson Energia line arrays to support performances at major arenas throughout Europe.

"They asked me what PA I preferred when we were preparing for the tour and I immediately chose Adamson - it's the system I always wanted to tour with," explains Hamilton. "I couldn't let that type of opportunity go by, it was definitely Adamson."

The main PA consists of left-right line arrays each made up of 15 E15 and three E12 enclosures. Out-fill is provided by two more lin

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14 March 2016

As part of the move they commissioned two new high-spec gallery spaces. Following a comprehensive study of other manufacturers' products they turned to Dedo Weigert Film GmbH, Munich to supply state-of-the-art lighting fittings.

The innovative lighting system was specified in-house by Phillips gallery manager Ian Bell, working closely with Ossie Jung of Prolight Direct. The fittings were customised by Dedo and delivered and installed on time and on budget.

Thirty years as a gaffer in TV and film meant Ossie knew all about the unparalleled engineering, flexibility and quality offered by Dedo film and TV products. "It was a

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14 March 2016

Over the course of the summer of 2014 several promoters hired in Traction rigs for events where they required a superior sound to what was already installed, and the manager Robbie Whishaw and then owner John Holland were won over by the high clarity, big bass and high SPLs achieved from very few boxes. Discussions began to have new systems installed on both floors ready for Audio's 10th Anniversary celebrations on 12 September.

Before it was Audio, the venue was called The Escape and ruled Brighton's nightlife for 20 years. It's basement saw names such as The Stone Roses, Carl Cox, Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk grac

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14 March 2016

In 2013, in an on-going effort to reach out to more people and at different levels, Ward began to offer four different worship styles in three different venues, all on the same campus. When a contemporary service was launched, Bryan Guelzo was brought in as part of a full A/V renovation.

"When the current building was built about 15 years ago, no one had dreamed that Ward would be holding a contemporary service, let alone shoot HD video, Imag and stream services online," stated Bryan, who has worked as Ward's full-time AVL engineer since July of 2014, working alongside Austin Germain (director of production for worship), Billy Petty (director of wo

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14 March 2016

Hangar B2 at Cotswold Airfield in Kemble, Gloucestershire, UK, a vast space built as a World War II RAF station which also served as a base to the Red Arrows aerobatics team until 1983, it's been largely utilized for storage since then ... was transformed into a gleaming modern airport fantasy world for the event.

Bright developed the design concept and CPL helped realize this by providing the full technical production - rigging, staging, power, video, sound and lighting.

CPL's project manager Lee Gruszeckyj led their crew of 10, working closely with Bright's production manager Andy Oswin.

While the building structure is well engineered and has a de

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14 March 2016

The band just marked the debut of their fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter which was quickly followed by performances at their own Knotfest in San Bernardino, California. They began headlining the Prepare for Hell tour afterwards.

Trevor Ahlstrand, lighting designer/production designer for Slipknot, is using a grandMA2 full-size and amongst others 30 Clay Paky Stormy, obtained from Christie Lights, on the shows. Ahlstrand chose the grandMA2 for the show for "its reliability and worldwide availability".

He says the grandMA2's "speed and precision with individual parameter timing and effects are grea

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14 March 2016

The band last played the Sportpalais four years ago, in a series of landmark multi-date end-of-year shows that had become an annual end of year concert experience. Back in 2014 in some style with a six-month tour, they wanted to end the year with a performance phenomenon that was high-impact and memorable and different.

The initial concept discussions between Luc and lead singer Koen Wauters started nine months in advance. Of all the shows that the band have performed in Belgium's favourite arena ... they enjoyed 2003's in the round presentation the most.

Clouseau have

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14 March 2016

"When setting up this type of lighting design you really have to be aware of your position and fixture choices," began Grill. "While the physical set-up of the stadium and the realities of lighting an outdoor event will dictate these choices to some extent, you really have to make sure you choose the right manufacturer's fixture for each position and purpose. I have worked with Vari-Lite luminaires f

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14 March 2016

An American country music band from Texas, The Eli Young Band released its 10,000 Towns album earlier this year. During its career the band has had three singles reach number one on the Billboard country charts. The band is currently on a North American concert tour and just finished hosting its popular yearly House Party concerts on back-to-back weekends at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas and Minute Maid Park in Houston.

"The overall design of the tour is high-impact versatility," says lighting designer David Carr. "We deliver a lot of speed with fast moving lights and design."

Carr uses eight Clay Paky Sharpys as floor lights for t

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14 March 2016

The lighting for this special one-off - which also celebrated the start of moe.'s 25th year - was designed as a larger version of their recent touring system which had featured 12 x Pointes hung on a custom structure and used to create most of the signature looks.

For the New Year's Eve show, the Pointe count was upped to 24 ... plus a few wash lights and strobes. The additional 12 Pointes were flown on the venue's house bars and helped fill in the spaces with additional lighting.

Preston loves the almost endless variations on the beam offered by the Pointes.

"There's so much scope that I can keep a whole show fresh throughout just by using Pointes as the hard-

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14 March 2016

Despite having painstakingly kitted out his studio with a lot of coveted vintage outboard gear, his work involved so much travelling that it was often left unused. "Finding a set up that I can take with me is what I've been working on more recently," he explains. "I wanted it to be clean, reliable and mobile so I went straight for the ASP880 combined with the iD22. The clean sound and separation I get from the units is amazing; that combined with the quick ease of use is perfect for any project studio."

Hogan has always found himself drawn to production - even in the early days. He confesses, "Most of my time in the studio (when n

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14 March 2016

The striking video feature - which moves on all axes and rotates throughout the show - is at the hub of the spectacular and inventive set, lighting and visuals show created by Gunther Hecker.

In addition to displaying conventional playback video, its different fascias are used as alternative lightsources. In the second half of the show, three large sections of gold mirror surface rise up from ground level around three sides of the stage, and the video takes on yet another dimension with these used to bounce and reflect its ambient light back onto the stage.

The Wicreations team led by project manager Yves Vervloet, was approached by Ste

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14 March 2016

Stage manager Nik Rea approached All Access to provide the tour with a riser package. A multi-level riser system was put together with the decks in a diamond configuration which was filled in along the back from our stock triangular decks to produce areas for the band to move around on.

The production also used All Access rolling risers throughout the summer on their festival tour.

The All Access Versa system is designed so you can create the stage you require. Whether it is onstage risers or our proprietary rolling stage system.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The Festspielhaus was built by STABAG (the general contractor) and designed by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Vienna. It seats over 862 people (there are 732 seats in the galleries and 130 removable seats in the orchestra pit area) and has the largest orchestra pit in the world (160 sq.m / 190 sq.yd.). The building covers no less than 7000 sq.m / 8372 sq.yd. Johannes Laugwitz (CA GmbH) from Königsbrunn was called in as technical lighting manager and grandMA2 operator for El Juez.

During his task, he was able to count on Clay Paky A.leda Wash K10s, A.leda Wash K20s and Alpha Wash 1500s.

Laugwitz faced a real challenge owing to budget and rigging limitations: the lighting technicians, led by Andrea Steiner, Ludwig Sigel and Roger Irman, only ha