Estonia - Swedish lighting designer Palle Palmé returned to the Big House at the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu, Estonia - one of the country's most important producing and receiving houses - to light their current production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Evita which plays until May and is directed by Georg Malvius.

Last year, Palmé was the first person to take full advantage of the new in-house Robe lighting rigs that were installed across all three of Vanemuine's venues, when he lit a very successful production of Grease, also in the Big House.

This

UK - With less than three weeks to go until the ISCE (Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers) ISCEx2014 Exhibition and Networking Dinner in Birmingham, interest is running high.

According to the Institute's Secretariat Manager, Ros Wigmore, members have sensed the "enormous networking value of the occasion as well as the opportunity to both see and exhibit next-generation communications systems in the era of EN54 compliance."

"We have had an amazing response to our networking dinner bookings," Ros confirms. "It seems that everyone prefers to meet up

Shipping Bulletin - Sting's musical about shipbuilding in the North East of England has found a home on Broadway. The Last Ship, which is inspired by the singer's own childhood, will open at the Neil Simon Theatre on 30 September. The cast will include New York stage star Michael Esper and Irish singer and actress Rachel Tucker. It will also star fellow North East star Jimmy Nail, who Sting has previously said "gave me the courage to carry on" with the project. "He said 'this is very important, you have to do this, this story needs to be told,'" the musician t

USA - The roots of the North American International Auto Show, which is held annually in Detroit, Michigan, go back to 1907 when it was strictly a regional venue for America's nascent auto manufacturers to parade their latest inventions. Flash forward over a century and the event has become one of the largest auto shows in the world, attracting press and enthusiasts from around the globe to the North American auto-making capital, and bringing an approximate $500m annual boost to the local economy.

As attendance numbers continue to grow, Cobo Centre, which hosts the event, recently ren

Brazil - When Brazilian Latin Grammy Award-winner Ivete Sangalo recently celebrated her 20th anniversary in the business, she did so by recording a DVD called IS20. This took place at the large Arena Fonte Nova stadium in Brazil's first capital of Salvador, which with its capacity of 52,048 will also be hosting some of the FIFA World Cup matches later this year.

Spectrun Design e Iluminacao was in charge of the design concept and execution, and to fulfil the task of illuminating the grand stadium, they selected a large-scale package of SGM lighting equipment, including 200 X-5

UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd recently began production of their new Mini-Map miniature LED screen. The Mini-Map is just 155mm square and has 36 tricolour pixels, controlled via DMX512. Manufactured at MilTec's HQ in Kent, England, each tile has been designed to be deployed quickly and efficiently with Powercon and XLR5 inputs & outputs. A central M10 mounting point provides a wide range of rigging options when combined with Miltec's custom mounting bracket.

The first batch was purchased by Light Fantastic Production Services Ltd, based in London. Rob Myer, managing director of Light Fantastic

USA - Robert Juliat Tibo 533 75w LED Profile lighting fixtures have been installed in a new newsroom at KTMD-TV by project lighting designer/director Bruce Aleksander. KTMD-TV is the Telemundo owned-and-operated station serving Houston.

Aleksander did a complete digital solid-state lighting installation for a new studio layout he designed that's dedicated to news programming. "Everything was predicated on energy-efficient lighting from the start," he explains. "Since it was new, we were able to build out the studio without the traditional heavy support for cooling down

Germany - ETC is offering lighting designers, operators and students the chance to win a Nomad controller at this year's ProLight+Sound show, 12-15 March in Frankfurt.

The Nomad dongle gives you access to the powerful features of ETC's lighting control consoles on your computer, so you can take it with you anywhere. You can program and play back your show at the computer, or use it as a backup to any of ETC's lighting desks.

To enter, simply go to the ETC website at www.etcconnect.com/Prolight2014 and register; entrants can choose one of four one-minute music tracks. The site charge

Vietnam - Alliances Integrated Systems has completed the design and installation of an Audica Professional audio system for the first McDonald's restaurant in Vietnam.

"Our team proposed a solution providing the coverage, zoning and functionality the restaurant required, but the decision was only made after we gave a demonstration to show the system's capability and audio quality," explained Vu Viet Tung, business development manager of Alliances Integrated Systems. "Not only were we able to exceed expectations, but also meet the required budget."

The system is c

USA - Over 80,000 fans became animated pixels at the Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show featuring Bruno Mars. Five outputs from four Hippo HD Genlock machines controlled the wireless audience LED 'display', plus 220 LED Ayrton MagicPanel 602s on the stage. PixMob technology made the audience participation possible, alternatively managed by the lighting desk and Hippotizer control.

"The biggest challenge of the show was handling 80 universes of DMX," says programmer Jason Rudolph. "But everything went according to plan. We chose the Hippotizer HDs with Genlock because of th

Russia - The new 5 star Radisson Blu Resort & Congress Centre in Sochi relies on Bosch when it comes to security. The luxury resort, which celebrated its grand opening in time for the biggest event ever held in Sochi, is equipped with Bosch fire alarm systems, public address and evacuation technology and a comprehensive video surveillance system, all being integrated and centrally managed via the Bosch Building Integration System (BIS).

Being located close to the Black Sea coast, the Radisson Blu Resort & Congress Centre features more than 500 guest rooms, three restaurants, a health

USA - Lime, the newest addition to the widely renowned Luxeon colour portfolio of LEDs from Philips Lumileds, enables lighting designers to take the next step in delivering the highest quality, tunable white light in bulbs and fixtures.

Luxeon Rebel ES Lime is the proprietary LED technology in the revolutionary Philips hue bulb, where it combines with Luxeon Rebel Red-Orange and Rebel Royal Blue emitters to deliver over 16m colour options -- all controlled from an iOS device. Philips hue can use colour tunable Light Recipes to help set mood and energy level in the home, office, retail

UK - VUE Audiotechnik's i-Class i-2x4.5 loudspeakers have been installed as sound-reinforcement for the world premiere of video artist Isaac Julien's seven-screen installation Playtime.

Installed by ArtAV, this ambitious new body of work at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London employs a special mix of sound and vision to create and sustain atmosphere in keeping with the work.

ArtAV have been working full-time with Isaac Julien for the past six years, creating sympathetic AV environments worldwide to house Julien's video pieces. They are only too aware of the precise nature of AV tech

UK - Twelve years after their last concert tour, popular Scottish alt rockers Del Amitri reunited and hit the road for the first time in 12 years with lighting, sound and expertise supplied by Liverpool based rental specialist Adlib.

Adlib were "extremely proud" to be working with the band again for the hugely successful tour which played three weeks around the UK and Ireland, including an acclaimed sell out show at the new 8000 capacity Hydro Arena in their hometown of Glasgow.

Adlib's FOH engineer Dave Kay also mixed the last gigs they did back in 2002, and in the meanti

South Africa - The late afternoon sun casts a magical amber glow across the surrounding hills, the air is filled with pulsing rhythms; you can taste the fecund African soil on the breeze. At the end of a dusty farm track somewhere in northern South Africa a large group of people are ululating rhythmically to the beat.

"Most of the crowd are in their twenties," said Evert De Munnik. "And about all of them are metal heads." Not what you were expecting? No, but then Oppikoppi is not your run of the mill festival.

Oppikoppi, staged a few miles outside Northam close b

UK - With less than three weeks to go until the ISCE (Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers) ISCEx2014 Exhibition and Networking Dinner in Birmingham, interest is running at a near unprecedented high.

According to the Institute's secretariat manager, Ros Wigmore, members have sensed the enormous networking value of the occasion as well as the opportunity to both see and exhibit next-generation communications systems in the era of EN54 compliance.

"We have had an amazing response to our networking dinner bookings," Ros confirms. "It seems that everyone prefer

Australia - ARX Systems has confirmed the appointment of Guangzhou and Hong Kong based ST Audio Technology Audio as its new distributor for China & Hong Kong.

ARX managing director Colin Park said, "ST Audio Technology are a well known and long established Company in the Chinese Professional Audio Industry.

"Here at ARX we're looking forward to working with the ST Audio team, they're very enthusiastic about the possibilities for the growing ARX product range amongst their extensive client network throughout China."

(Jim Evans)

South Africa - Two of the longest standing players in the South African technical services production industry came together this week to sign a landmark deal within the local event industry.

Gearhouse's 10-strong Group of Companies is widely recognised as the country's largest equipment rental supplier and services live events across a wide range of disciplines whilst Prosound is predominantly known for their system integration and design (permanent and temporary) along with their sales, distribution and services role in the pro-audio, lighting, AV and associated structures arenas. T

USA - On Thursday, 20 February, 2014, Focusrite will showcase its acclaimed RedNet range of products at the Vintage King Audio Nashville MixRoom (which employs the Carl Tatz Design MixRoom concept), a recent recipient of a TEC Award for outstanding creative achievement in the Studio Design Project category.

Demonstrating RedNet's exceptional sounding audiophile design, and taking advantage of Vintage King Nashville's extensive installation network, attendees will be able to experience firsthand how RedNet can enhance their production workflow at this special event. Highly regarded by

USA - Pin Point Lighting of Aston, Pennsylvania, has taken delivery of the first High End System's HedgeHog 4 lighting console distributed by Elation Lighting. Pin Point Lighting's owner, John Duncan Jr., said that the HedgeHog 4 was a logical purchase for his company and that the console fills the need to take care of small to medium size events his company sometimes handles.

Pin Point Lighting currently owns several larger format lighting consoles, which are used on large scale productions. John liked the fact that he wouldn't have to send out the larger format consoles for producti

UK - Organisers of the Event Production Show, Mash Media has hailed the 2014 Show a resounding success as exhibitor re-bookings stood at more than 40% whilst attendee footfall surpassed the record levels of last year.

Queues began forming early ahead of the show's opening on 11 February, as event organisers, promoters, brand managers and marketing agencies sought to discover the latest trends and innovations for live events as well as attend seminars, workshops and the renowned Access Sessions to hear from leading industry experts.

Figures released at the end of day one confirmed a

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd has been appointed the exclusive UK distributor for the Luminex range of high-performance networking solutions designed for the entertainment industry. With immediate effect, Luminex will be available from AC-ET, who will provide support to their large customer base of entertainment technology dealers and end users.

With all sectors of both the entertainment and AV industries increasingly reliant on networking solutions, the Luminex GigaCore range is designed to offer the security of backup cabling for critical connections in a simple,

South Africa - For two weeks in January/February 2014 Simon Harris, user experience manager for media server manufacturer Green Hippo, travelled to South Africa to run seven days' worth of Hippo School training sessions in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town in association with South African distributor, Electrosonic.

The Hippo School course is designed to teach everything required to programme Hippotizer media servers for a show. Covering topics such as MediaManager, DMX control, PixelMapping, VideoMapping and Timeline Programming amongst many others, the attendees were given the chan

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