Australia - TC Group has confirmed the appointment of Audio Products Group (APG) as the exclusive distributor of Lab.gruppen and Lake in Australia and New Zealand. The new business agreement commences on 1 February 2014, when APG will take over from the current distribution partner Hills SVL.

This appointment consolidates TC Group's relationship with the Australian distribution company, who have enjoyed great success with Tannoy since taking on the loudspeaker brand in 2010. From 1 February next year, APG will now also offer the amplification and processing technology from Lab.gruppen

Sweden - After selling out shows across Europe last year, Travis Pastrana's Nitro Circus Live is back on tour - beginning at the new 40,000 capacity Tele2 Arena in Stockholm.

Capital Sound provided the sonic backdrop, including their Optocore X6R-FX interface rack, as some of the world's hottest and best extreme sports stars of freestyle motocross, BMX and skate took part. The show also featured tricks and stunts on the 15ft high Nitro 'Gigant-A-Ramp' where skis, tricycles, skateboards, freezers and boogie board stunts were featured.

However, the state-of-the-art football stadium, w

Belgium - ETC's northern region is set to hold its second Masters training session for dealers and distributors in Belgium in the new year, concentrating on entertainment control systems.

ETC Masters is a series of training sessions developed for all distributors and dealers which gets together three times a year to share their experiences and learn from ETC staff. ETC's regional manager for northern Europe Tim Stokholm explains, "We work hard to ensure our customers get the best possible support from ETC. The most effective way of doing that is with an effective and knowledgeabl

UK - For the first time this year, regular audio supplier to the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, Plus 4 Audio made the move to a fully DiGiCo system, with the UK-manufacturer's consoles seen at each of the awards show's mix positions.

Held at North London venue The Roundhouse, hosted by Lauren Laverne and won by James Blake for his album Overgrown, the Barclaycard Mercury Prize is judged by a panel of music experts, so supplying audio for the live event holds a large degree of gravitas.

"We've been working on the Mercury Prize event for the past 10 years," says Plus 4's

China - Shanghai Mook Club, one of the most popular nightlife hotspots in the financial capital of China, recently installed a full Martin lighting system, creating an exciting experience for Shanghai's partying public. The club's vibrant and urban-style interior design is complete with a vast number of Martin lighting fixtures.

Mook combines local music with international flavours for a premium clubbing experience, hosting world-renowned DJ's and bands on a monthly basis. Therefore, it needed a lighting system as versatile as Martin to accommodate its broad music selection.

To brin

UK - The streets of Derry Londonderry were thronged with visitors on the final night of Lumiere Derry Londonderry as around 45,000 people flooded into the UK City of Culture to see the light festival, which is sponsored by Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE).

Festival organisers Artichoke are delighted with the spectacular success of the festival, which has transformed the UK City of Culture 2013 into a giant outdoor art gallery.

An estimated 179,000 visitors have attended the festival over the four nights. Queues on Saturday night stretched all the way down past Queens Quay and Airv

UK - Herts-based light, sound and video experts, Technical Arts, have long been the preferred installation partner for Luminar Leisure venues and have partnered lately with Chauvet Europe to complete the supply of a recent spate of lighting upgrades across Luminar's portfolio.

Venues benefitting from the inclusion of Chauvet DJ bright and powerful LED ranges include Cambridge Ballare, Cambridge Kuda, Bristol Pryzm, Preston Evoque, Ashford Liquid, Leicester Liquid and Lava and Ignite in Oxford.

The lighting system in Cambridge's Ballare gained a full overhaul comprised of six Chauvet

New Zealand - An Allen & Heath GLD-80 digital mixer was recently employed at the National Jazz Festival held in Tauranga, New Zealand. The annual event has included a line-up of New Zealand and international jazz musicians such as The Blind Boys of Alabama and Earth, Wind and Fire to local favourites, Kokomo and Bay Dixie performing in various venues in Tauranga's historic Jazz Village, a re-creation of New Orleans' French Quarter.

The GLD was installed in the Layfayette Church, one of the Jazz Village's boutique venues.

"I'm mostly a studio guy these days but I can honestly sa

UK - Arcstream AV, specialist provider of interactive technologies and special effects for events and permanent installations, has been commissioned by Sony to supply two 20k Christie projectors to Scotland's newest venue the 12,000 seat SSE Hydro in Glasgow. Used to promote events and deliver other communications, the projected images are overlaid to display an image of 20m x 12.5m on the roof of the building above the front entrance.

As the high-quality projectors have to endure harsh Scottish winters, Arcstream also supplied temperature-controlled enclosures created by Tempest Ligh

New Zealand - LDR has appointed Theatrelight NZ as exclusive distributor for New Zealand. The joint decision was made after meetings at the PLASA London 2013 between Lisa Papi, of LDR and Rex Gilfillan and Tony Bullock of Theatrelight.

Both manufacturers have an excellent reputation as professional, reliable and flexible companies and their shared interests in this market have immediately materialised in a distribution agreement with a significant initial purchase order from Theatrelight.

"Theatrelight, founded in 1972, supplies a flourishing export market in many countries wor

Italy - Rigging Services has acquired the entire rental stock of Prolyte Truss from Naples based, Italian production coming company, Eurostage.

Since its formation in the 1990's Rigging Services has been one of the largest stockists of Prolyte Truss and Staging for dry hire , and one of the UK's largest dealers of Prolyte for resale .

Italy has seen a general slow-down in live events since the global economic problems hit Europe some five years ago. Contrasting this global trend, the Rigging Services business model has stimulated growth over the same period of time and has doubled i

Sweden - Peavey Commercial Audio has appointed Rvrb as its distributor for Sweden. The company will look after all three brands: MediaMatrix, Crest Audio, and Architectural Acoustics.

Rvrb is headed up by two long-time Peavey advocates, Anders Nicholasson and Jorgen Larsson, the latter of which also has decades of pro-audio experience and has worked on a number of key Peavey Commercial Audio projects within the region. According to Larsson, the main goal is to maintain and manage the continued growth of Peavey Commercial Audio in the territory.

"I've actually had more than 30 y

Brazil - Immersive today produces Adidas' unveiling party for the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament ball, Brazuca, complete with 3D projection mapping on a 2m ball and on the historic mansion in the Parque Lage, in Rio de Janeiro.

The party is set to attract some of Brazil's highest profile celebrities as well as international football stars Cafu, Hernane and Clarence Seedorf; who are also giving speeches during the live broadcast event. ESPN, FOX and GLOBO will all be airing the unveiling alongside 47 other broadcasters.

This is the first large-scale football launch party for A

USA - At the recent LDI show, Dennis Varian of ETC presented a cheque for nearly $26,000 to Behind the Scenes, which reflected ongoing proceeds from sales of ETC's iRFR and aRFR (Radio Focus Remote) application for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android. The donation brings ETC's total Behind the Scenes contributions to date to just under $150,000.

"This app was developed by ETC software engineer, Chris Mizerak as a cool tool that ETC thought some might find interesting," says ETC. "When another employee in ETC's London office (Luke Delwiche) suggested that we give the profits

Brazil - Singing brothers Diego & Diogo have recently filmed their debut DVD at the Nestle Auditorium in São José do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, using nearly 150 different Robe fixtures - including the brand new Pointe - with lighting services provided by São Paulo-based Showdesign.

Lighting designer Leonardo Oliveira and director of photography Rogério Fernandez, both of Showdesign, were in charge of creating and supervising lighting to achieve great results for both live audience and the cameras that registered on all 17 songs for the soon-to-be-released DVD.

In total,

South Africa - Gearhouse Group, South Africa's largest rental staging company, has increased their audio visual projection stockholding with the recent purchase of sixteen 20K projectors - eight Christie Roadster HD20K-J 3-chip DLP and eight Panasonic PT-DZ21K 3-chip DLP units.

The Group services a very wide range of event types from a 50 pax conference in a hotel boardroom to a globally-broadcast closing ceremony in a stadium and the Group stocks an equally diverse range of brands to meet client preferences and service the various applications using the most suitable product.

Altho

USA - Marc Anthony, Carlos Vives and Draco Rosa shined among the top winners of the 14th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. The awards show, televised on Univision, took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Centre in Las Vegas. Since the annual telecast debuted entirely in Spanish on Univision in 2005, the Latin Grammys have become one of Univision's most watched and highest rated shows, delivering strong social media results thanks to its high regard among Hispanics. The award show featured live performances by some of the biggest stars in Latin music, the majority of whom used Shure microphones

USA - As summer heads towards winter in the Northern Hemisphere, there is still time for warmer places to enjoy some outdoor entertainment before the temperature drops too much. Such is the case in Greenville, South Carolina, where Alcons audio systems are a feature of the Fall for Greenville civic festival.

Taking place over three days in mid-October, Fall for Greenville is a festival which promotes the city's notable and varied culinary excellence, accompanied by a soundtrack from six stages of live music.

Equipped by local rental company Audio Solutions Inc, three of the stages f

South Africa - The much loved rock sounds of Prime Circle played at PM Ideas Marketing Awards, held on 1 November at Theatre on the Track, Kyalami. Showgroup supplied the full event from technical to decor.

"There was no specific brief for the event," said Andries Liebenberg, lighting manager at Show Group. Inspired by a Kings of Leon Concert, Liebenberg used square shapes to create striking effects.

Liebenberg had a total of 66 Longman LED Bars and Parcans which were positioned on stage steps and ladder structures to create a clean and striking look. The show also used pu

The Netherlands - Since its inception in the USA 70 years ago, Holiday On Ice has entertained over 230m visitors around the world with its mix of skilled skating, artistic choreography, passionate music and spectacular special effects. Nowadays based in Amsterdam and owned by one of Europe's leading live entertainment companies, Stage Entertainment, sound designer Jeroen ten Brinke has specified Yamaha digital mixing consoles for its latest productions.

Managed by Stage Entertainment's subsidiary Stage Entertainment Touring Productions, all Holiday On Ice shows tour with

USA - Ashly's nX family of two- and four-channel power amplifiers has been expanded with the addition of 12 new 800 Watt and 400 Watt models. These medium output amplifiers complement the high-output 3,000W and 1,500W nX models.

All nX Series amplifiers feature Ashly's programmable outputs on each individual channel using rear panel DIP switches to select Low-Z (down to 2 Ohms), or High-Z, (70V or 100V) constant-voltage outputs.

The nX8004 has four channels rated at 800 watts per channel across all programmable outputs. The nX8002 is the two-channel version. The nX4004 offers four c

Germany - A dynamic new event sound design team called Panix has emerged in Germany, specifically focused on bringing the latest audio concepts and technologies to corporate and special events. With particular emphasis on audio showcontrol, imaging and spatialisation, the core team at Panix consists of partners Jorg Rapp and Stephan Diebel who founded the company in late spring of 2013. Recent projects include the vast VW stand at the Frankfurt 2013 IAA motor show plus branding and conference events for Adidas and the Fraunhofer Institute.

Both designers have previously worked on a wi

Latvia - Challenged with lighting a huge concert featuring 20,000 performers celebrating Latvian culture in an open air space, lighting designer Normunds Blasãns felt he could only achieve his vision by specifying Philips Vari-Lite's high-output VL3015LT Spots, VL3500 and VL3000 Washes.

Local rental house and production company NA Stage & Light supplied 20 VL3015LT Spot luminaires, 16 VL3000 Washes, and 24 VL3500 Wash fixtures for the massive 25th Latvian Song and Dance Festival, which drew an audience of more than 40,000. The event celebrates Latvian music, dance, art, and cul

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