UK - Battersea Power Station Development Company on behalf of its shareholders, SP Setia, Sime Darby and Employees Provident Fund hosted a concert by Sir Elton John to thank everyone who is helping to make the development of the iconic Power Station a reality.

The event featured a lighting design by Patrick Woodroffe, with Robe moving lights on the rig and equipment supplied by west London based Colour Sound Experiment.

Fifteen LEDWash 300s were joined by six LEDWash 600s and 12 x LEDWash 1200s, eight Pointes and eight MMX Spots, all from Robe's Robin series.

A glittering array of

UK - PLASA Focus is set to debut in two new European locations in 2014 - Brussels in November and Glasgow in December.

PLASA Events will lay down roots in two iconic European cities later this year. PLASA Focus events in Brussels and Glasgow represent a new era for the regional show format, which launched in Leeds, UK, in 2009. Having already expanded in to various North American cities, PLASA Focus: Brussels and PLASA Focus: Glasgow will answer market demand for more European events.

PLASA Focus: Brussels takes place at The Square Meeting Centre on 3-4 November. The show, which wil

USA - Elevation Church, based in Matthews, North Carolina, added Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 LED-based moving lights to the extensive roster of AV equipment it used for a series of Easter worship experiences this year.

Main Light Industries, Inc. in Wilmington, Delaware supplied Elevation Church with 35 B-EYEs for the Easter worship experiences, five for its primary broadcast location and 30 shared among nine other satellite locations.

"We place great importance on excellence in production," says Andy Bentley, lighting designer for Elevation Church and one of the technical

UK / France - Celebrating its 50th Anniversary year in the professional AV industry, leading UK distributor, CIE-Group, will mark the occasion in September with its biggest charity challenge ever, as they enter three teams to take on a 550 mile cycle challenge across France: in just three days.

The teams - made up of CIE-Group directors and members of the AV sales and technical support staff - will cycle from St Malo in the North of France to Bordeaux in the South, covering more than 550 miles in the saddle.

This will be the seventh year that CIE-Group staff has taken on a charity c

UK - Blumano Ltd is an engineering-based company headquartered in the UK and working internationally which has been launched to provide a whole range of specialist services, expertise and consultancy which is related to lifting and load-bearing equipment for stages and other areas of entertainment industry production.

The company is headed by two industry professionals - Cristiano Giavedoni and Amedeo Guizzi. They bring many years of experience and a vast knowledge of the professional entertainment industry to the equation as well as their respective individual areas, plus imagination

UK - Biodiesel specialist, Midas, will provide power to the Hopkins Homes International Polo at Trinity Park, Ipswich this month, the Suffolk Agricultural Association has confirmed.

Paula Slater, Trinity Park's polo events manager, comments, "We were impressed with the Midas touch, its purist approach to sustainability and its flexibility. The company's comprehensive service gives us a quality solution to our energy needs and total peace of mind, which is crucial when delivering first class events."

Midas director, David Noble, said, "We're really excited to be managi

The Netherlands - Thousands of schoolchildren are expected to visit a new 'ICER' innovation centre in the Dutch town of Ulft, which features a state-of-the-art educational hub transformed into different moods through vibrant colour-changes provided by Chroma-Q Inspire premium performance LED house lights.

ICER, which stands for Innovation, Creation, Education and Recreation, was founded by the local government, several schools, artists and local businesses to provide an innovation centre for young people and other visitors interested in the technical industry. Housed in an old factory

UK - The Technical Theatre Awards, which celebrates the outstanding achievements of people working behind the scenes, has announced the nominees for this year's event as voting officially opens.

63 individuals and venues are nominated across 18 awards covering all disciplines of technical theatre, ranging from achievements in Stage Management to Scenic Artistry, Wardrobe to Make-up & Wigs.

TTA creator Ian Taylor announced the opening of voting for the awards at the ABTT Theatre Show on Wednesday 11 June, taking to the Philips Entertainment stand at 13:15 to celebrate with gathered g

Belgium - Show designer Ignace D'Haese from leading Belgian creative show and design practice Arf & Yes 'imagineered a fabulous production design' incorporating lighting, video and scenography for the 2014 live finals of the Voice van Vlaanderen (The Voice of Flanders), staged in the Kuipke (Velodrome) in Gent.

The lighting rig included 100 Robe moving lights - amongst others - and the much anticipated final was broadcast live on Vlaamse Televisie Maatschappij (VTM) the main commercial channel in the Flemish region of Belgium, where five talented young artists battled it out to win th

Brazil - Originally built for the World Cup in 1950, Brazil's iconic Maracana stadium will host many of the major matches in the FIFA World Cup 2014, including the final on 13 July, with audio managed by the stadium's GLD digital mixer from Allen & Heath.

Located in Rio de Janeiro, Maracana was closed for a three-year major renovation, reopening last year with a GLD-80 mixer at the heart of an EV sound system. Fitted with a Dante network card, the mixer controls audio distribution around the entire stadium through fibre optic cables.

"The main reason we chose GLD was because of

USA - A RoomMatch system from Bose Professional Systems was recently installed to solve the PA needs of Church of the Apostles, a mega-church in the Buckhead district of Atlanta. The installation was performed by Nashville-based firm CTS Audio, based on specifications arrived at in collaboration between CTS, church leadership and Bose personnel.

Interestingly, the church's media and communications director, Kevin Knox, was initially lukewarm on the idea of a Bose system in the sanctuary. He notes, "I just didn't associate the Bose brand with professional products." His mind

UK - With beginning of June, Laserworld launched their new website with a new, modern design and a new shopping system. Their shop solution was improved to better fit the requirements of B2B commerce: New product data feeds were made available to distributors, which make it easy to integrate Laserworld products into online shops, customer management systems and accounting software via XML feed.

In addition to that, new categories were implemented, providing bundle and set suggestions - for retailer, that want to get an initial product setup for their shop, and for commercial customers

China - Located in the southern Guangdong province and bordering Macau, Zhuhai is a premier tourist hotspot in China. Recently, it is also the host to the Changlong International Circus Festival, of which the committee selected the Martin M6 Console to control and calibrate the lighting systems on and around the stage.

Local Martin distributor Guangzhou Dan-Pro Stage Equipment Co., Ltd recommended the console from a world-renowned brand not only to match the popularity of the venue, but also to provide a compelling experience to such a joyous event.

The Martin M6 console offers the

South Africa - Award-winning set designer Michael Gill recently worked alongside lighting designers Joshua Cutts and Francois van der Merwe on South African TV studio Red Pepper's ambitious upgrade project, specifying the LED technology of Philips Selecon Studio Panels, SPX Zoomspot and PLcyc1 luminaires for three new prime time game shows.

Red Pepper's CEO Cecil Barry and facilities manager Marius Maritz joined forces with Gill, Cutts and van der Merwe to come up with a revolutionised set design and optimised LED lighting rig, including 14 x Philips Selecon Studio Panels, six Philips

Puerto Rico - Calle 13 is one of Latin America's most successful bands, having won 19 Latin Grammy Awards and two US Grammy Awards. Frequently controversial and with an eclectic musical style, Calle 13 has a devoted following and its current tour, which travels to South, Central and North America, as well as Europe and Asia, is filling stadiums, arenas and theatres everywhere it goes. Two DiGiCo SD8-24s are along for the ride.

Front of House engineer Luis Irizzary first worked with the band back in 2007 and 2008, and having returned to the Calle 13 fold in 2012, he has been working wi

USA - Coldplay recently held an intimate secret show to mark the release of their album Ghost Stories to the delight of the 800 lucky fans in attendance at Sony Studios Los Angeles. The spectacular event, recorded for a TV special and album bonus DVD, saw the band play a very special set, including a recital of the new album in its entirety for the first time.

Expertly directed by Ben Miles of Mixed Emotions London and engineered by Phil Haynes with Phil Johnston as Lead Projectionist both working for XL Video, the show featured 32 unique outputs from only five live Avolites Me

USA - The story of how a group of residents from Savannah, Georgia, joined together to save the city's historic Lucas Theatre from demolition has entered American theatrical folklore. Not content with just saving it, however, the building continues to be updated for 21st century audiences. The most recent improvement has been an Alcons Audio system, which has delivered superb sound without impacting on the venue's aesthetics.

Originally opened in 1921, dwindling audiences saw the Lucas Theatre close in 1976. Various attempts to convert it to different uses came to nothing and a decade

South Africa - Pretoria-based Benjamin Pro Audio has been named as the new distributor for Audient's compact product range, concentrating on the USB interface, iD22 and the 8-channel mic pre and ADC, ASP880.

CEO Jacob van der Westhuizen is definitely a fan of the British-made boxes. "The Audient units are amazing. The iD22 is an extremely affordable, stable and fantastic sounding unit, as is the ASP880," he says. "Audient makes high end converters and preamps (which equals a high end sound) available to our clients that always thought it was out of their league! Truly a

Spain - NEC Display Solutions and Coca-Cola have partnered in Europe to promote the development of digital signage installations in cinemas at CineEurope 2014, being held in Barcelona, Spain from 16-19 June, 2014.

NEC is working with Coca-Cola to create "CineEurope's most interactive and visually appealing show lounge". It will demonstrate the exciting future of the cinema-going experience to the industry. Coca-Cola chose to work with NEC based on its vast range of cinema solutions optimising every space in the cinema, from outdoor billboards to the foyer and concession stan

Canada - HHB Communications Canada has announced its appointment as the full line product distributor for Merging Technologies in Canada. This appointment is effective 1 July, 2014. HHB Canada has established an excellent reputation for systems integration and sales as well as technical support and after sales service. The company is a significant supplier to the music, broadcast, post production and production markets in Canada.

Commenting on the appointment, Chris Hollebone, Merging's distribution sales manager stated, "HHB presents an excellent mix of direct sales and systems

UK / USA - The Association of Sound Designers (ASD) has issued an official response to last week's announcement that the Tony Awards was to drop the two Sound Design Awards from its future programme.

The ASD says: "We were disappointed to hear of the decision by the Tony Award Administration Committee to remove the categories of Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical from their roster last week.

"In 2008, Howard Sherman spoke on behalf of the American Theatre Wing and Broadway League to introduce the inclusion of these new categories, saying 'We wan

UK - Over 1000 visitors and industry experts attended the 2014 Rose Bruford College Graduate Exhibition and New Writing Season at the prestigious Bargehouse on London's South Bank from the 5-8 June.

The exhibition included work by over 100 upcoming graduates from the Sidcup based college's School of Design Management and Theatre Arts (DMTA), including; Costume Production, Creative Lighting Control, Lighting Design, Performance Sound, Scenic Arts, Theatre Design and Stage Management.

In addition to the Graduate Exhibition, students from the Acting and Actor Musicianship programmes co

South Africa - South African equipment rental and technical support house Kilowatt AV recently invested in the Avolites Ai Media Server EX series to power the country's first-ever choreographed 3D video-mapping experience.

The event, for global car manufacturer Nissan, integrated live dance with 3D virtual mapping technology to create a show that demonstrated the blurring of lines between human and virtual arts.

"Our scenic team designed a 24m wide 3D stage set that required the Ai Media Server to power three 14K HD Christie Projectors, which covered the area," explains Di

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