UK - With just five months to go until the doors open on the 2015 Event Production Show, organiser, Mash Media has confirmed stand sales are ahead of target.

Many well-known businesses will return to the 2015 Show, including Morris Leslie, Saville AV, Sunbaba, Total Displays and Winner Events, alongside some first-time exhibitors showcasing services such as staging, security, traffic management and structures, representing the diversity of the industry. Some of the new exhibitors in these areas include Staging Services, Sol Security, A Star and Contemporary Event Structures.

"T

Italy - In spite of the overall critical economic period, a courageous organizer (Rome's DNA Concerti) decided to launch a brand-new Festival in a small picturesque town on the Abruzzo Adriatic coast in Italy, with a line-up up to the standards of Europe's established summer events.

As well as swimming, aperitifs on the beach at sunset, delicious local cuisine, and screenings of films and music-themed documentaries, music fans at the Siren Festival (24-27 July) were also able to attend countless DJ sets and concerts by numerous Italian bands and headliners of the calibre of The Drones

UK - A tip top team of Avolites Tiger Touch II consoles were specified by lighting designer Matt Mawdsley for the inaugural Invictus Games held mainly at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London this month.

The Invictus Games is the brainchild of Prince Harry, and took place from 10-14 September. More than 400 competitors from 13 countries participated in the multi-sport event. All of those taking part had fought alongside the UK in recent military campaigns, and had been wounded.

Two Tiger Touch II desks - known for combining maximum power with compact size - were supplied to the

USA - Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne has taken to the road this autumn with his Supernova tour, which runs until mid November, climaxing with three dates at New York's Beacon Theatre. Front of House engineer Jon Lemon and monitor engineer Ed Ehrbar are taking advantage of the stellar power of DiGiCo SD10s throughout.

Jon has long been an advocate of DiGiCo consoles. In fact, he was one of the very first to use a D5 Live when the company launched in 2002. His faith in its products has never waned and both he and DiGiCo have benefitted from their long-sta

Germany - The M'era Luna Festival takes place annually in Hildesheim, Germany at Flugplatz Hildesheim-Drispenstedt - a former British Army airbase. Featuring two stages, and historically specialising in goth, metal and industrial music, it also presents DJ sets on Friday and Saturday evening.

Lighting designer, Stephan Aue, and operator, Rico Münzer, were working with Swedish electronic dance band, Covenant - and making heavy use of SGM's new LED catalogue.

"The great thing about Covenant is that they are always looking for something extreme - and that provides a very good opp

UK - Martin Audio's award-winning MLA (Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array) PA system enjoyed its busiest weekend of the year, with two huge simultaneous London events either side of the capital.

While rental / production company Capital Sound were fielding no fewer than 170 enclosures at the perennial Proms in the Park (Hyde Park), over in the east at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the Prince Harry inspired Jaguar Land Rover Invictus Games Closing Concert also featured MLA.

The five hour extravaganza combined a celebration of medallion presentations to the wounded, injured and sick

UK - One London tradition that shows no sign of abating is the Last Night of the Proms celebrations in Hyde Park, hosted by Sir Terry Wogan. The open-air concert features a host of musical stars, including the perennial BBC Concert Orchestra - and this year Rufus Wainwright and Earth, Wind & Fire joined the bill.

London-based rental company Capital Sound once again provided the audio infrastructure for the event, deploying their expanding network of Optocore X6R-FX interfaces to provide a fully redundant loop; this encompassed the ten delay positions as well as the VIP platform and co

UK - ETC's recently introduced Nomad Puck - a tiny self contained computer which takes the place of either an Eos family or Cobalt family lighting desk - has been making a name for itself at the Edinburgh Festival.

The Pleasance, a Fringe venue with 23 different performance spaces, originally used a SmartFade - ETC's smallest console - in one of their spaces. But when Calder Sibbald at ETC's Edinburgh-based dealer Black Light offered them a Nomad Puck for use instead, they were keen to give it a try, especially given the extra power it would bring.

Over at the Forth Children's Theat

UK - Known for ground-breaking touring productions, the National Theatre of Scotland continues to amaze audiences across Scotland and the UK. The company's latest season features not only new productions, but new lighting technology to help each story shine. A fleet of new moving lights and control equipment from entertainment lighting specialist White Light will light up productions including The Tin Forest and The James Plays for 2014 and beyond.

Heading into the summer, Paul Claydon - head of lighting at the National Theatre Scotland - began looking for additions to t

UK - Robe, Clay Paky and Shure have been announced as the headline sponsors for PLASA London 2014. The show, which returns to ExCeL London for a second consecutive year starts on Sunday 5 October and is expecting visitor numbers of over 13,000. There they will see 250 exhibiting brands and 100 hours of educational seminar content along with numerous press launches, parties, networking events and gala dinners.

Robe Lighting is Platinum Sponsor for the third year running and will mark the occasion by occupying a huge, 1,000 square metre space on the show floor. Robe World - PLASA

Croatia - Started in 2008 by a collective, with a view to showcasing their sound systems, Croatia's Outlook Festival radically upgraded its production in 2011, and brought in RG Jones Sound Engineering and their premium Martin Audio systems to provide potent main stage reinforcement.

They introduced the Harbour Arena, boasting idyllic views across the water to the bay of Pula on the Istrian coast, and doubled the capacity, as drum and bass, dubstep and reggae acts / DJs performed against the background of other makeshift stages, created within this abandoned 160-year-old Fort at Punta

UK - The Theatres Trust announces the full programme of events on its TheatreStage at PLASA London from 5 - 8 October at ExCel London. A total of 21 presentations will be held on the TheatreStage - running over all four days of the PLASA London show.

TheatreStage provides a focus on the show floor for visitors and the theatre industry to network and learn about projects, initiatives, campaigns and organisations connected to the theatre sector.

New initiatives launched from TheatreStage this year include The Backstage Heritage Collection, and the ALD / Lightmongers' Award for Lightin

USA - Twelve of Robe's new BMFL Spot luminaires - launched worldwide on 2 September - were utilized by lighting designer Preston Hoffman of Pulse Lighting for a stunning installation that illuminated Boston City Hall, transforming it into a bold and vibrant backdrop for the 2014 Boston Calling Music Festival.

The Festival's two main stages were built in the City Hall Plaza in front of the City Hall building at 90 degrees to one another.

Hoffman, well known for his work as a rock 'n' roll lighting designer, was commissioned by festival organisers Crash Line Productions to make the bu

UK - Manchester-based creative multimedia agency Tadah! mixed with the stars recently after being commissioned to make the official promotional film for the switching on of the Blackpool Illuminations for VisitBlackpool.

Launched in May of this year, Tadah! has already won a clutch of work on behalf of a wide range of national clients, including a number of well known 'blue chip' brands. The project in Blackpool was delivered together with Bark Media, a video and audio production company based in Manchester.

Over 18,000 people attended the iconic switching-on of the resort's illumin

Namibia - The Ohlthaver & List Group of companies - with 13 subsidiaries including Namibia Breweries (home of Windhoek Lager), Namibia Dairies and Pick & Pay Namibia - was voted 'Best Company to Work for' three consecutive years in Namibia and twice in the whole of Southern Africa.

This remarkable achievement is largely attributed to O&L's active employee engagement programme which culminates annually in a gala dinner where employees who excel at living the company's values are rewarded. dB Audio Namibia supported Sindana Communications' vision of a township inspired theme for the 201

The Netherlands - One of the longest-established cinema chains in the Netherlands, JT Cinemas has spent the last few years investing in new sites and upgrading its existing venues to offer Dutch audiences the best possible experience. Working closely with leading cinema solutions provider dcinex, JT has chosen Alcons Audio systems for the cutting edge Dolby Atmos installation at its Kerkrade site.

JT distinguishes itself from its competitors by having the highest quality cinema technology in its venues. When Dolby approached dcinex to see if any of the company's clients were intereste

France - It's not often that an institution over 13 centuries old receives a lighting upgrade but such is the case with the Abbey of Saint Wandrille in Normandy, France, a Benedictine monastery founded in the year 648 that has installed Elation TVL 3000 II dynamic white light LED luminaires in the Abbey's church.

An important part of the Abbey, which has produced 30 saints over the centuries, is an old 13th century barn that was carefully transported to the grounds by monks nearly 50 years ago to serve as the monastery's church. The 48m long by 16m wide structure is 14m high and built

UK - Lighting designer Jon Clark has specified Showline's SL BAR 640 luminaires on account of their "impressive" range of colours and clean aesthetic for Benedict Andrew's production of A Streetcar Named Desire at The Young Vic, starring Gillian Anderson.

The 1947 Tennessee Williams classic is currently being staged in the round. Clark's lighting design consists of deliberate, uniform systems, which are used to continually re-inform the performance space and the entire room.

"The SL BAR 640 luminaires are rigged in two parallel lines on an exposed grid above th

Australia - Sound Workshop in Canberra, Australia has chosen the new self-powered MJF-210 stage monitor from Meyer Sound. Built for the demanding needs of today's live productions, the MJF-210 is the lightest stage monitor in the Meyer Sound product line.

"The problem has been finding something that delivers the same audio performance, reliability, acceptance and ease of use that all our other Meyer products provide. As soon as we heard the new MJF-210, we knew that our search was over and that it was time to invest. From what I've heard from other Meyer-related sources around we

Sweden - This September LumenRadio adds ACME to their growing CRMXchip family. ACME, one of the largest enterprises known worldwide for its specialization in the field of lighting, will now include CRMXchip as a standard feature for their existing and future professional product line.

LumenRadio has been working very closely with ACME during the last couple of months to include the CRMXchip in some of ACME's current bestselling products, such as XP-1000SZ/WZ, XP-16R Spot and Beam, as well as CM-600Z.

"We are very pleased to be in an OEM partnership with LumenRadio. ACME always

UK - PLASA Rigging Conference 2014's line-up has been completed with the announcement of Pushing the Limit - a session that will tackle the misunderstandings surrounding factors of safety in the industry. It is the final piece of the jigsaw for a conference that promises to deliver a lively day of expert insight on Monday 6 October.

Pushing the Limit will be presented by Abigail Mathews, who co-founded Momentum Engineering in 2005. Abigail has been involved a wide range of projects from small, bespoke architectural jobs to multi-million pound mixed use development scheme

UK - As the deadline for entries approaches, nominations for the PLASA Awards for Innovation are rolling in. Examples of all the nominated products will be exhibited at the PLASA Show's Innovation Gallery at the centre of the PLASA show (ExCeL London, 5-8 October), forming a focal point for visitors to the exhibition keen to view the latest technologies.

The products will be judged against one another on the strength of their innovation alone. All nominees will have the opportunity to make a 5-minute presentation, during the show, to a team of independent expert judges, who will have

UK - The Delta Sound Group (formed of Delta Sound UK, Delta Sound Dubai, Delta Sound Qatar and Sound By Design) has announced the launch of its recently rebranded and re-designed company website.

The new website illustrates the considerable range of projects and events delivered by the Delta Sound Group, and reflects the company's global reach as one of the leading audio and event communications suppliers throughout the Middle East as well as the UK and Europe.

"We wanted the website to be a visual representation of the size, scale and breadth of the services we supply," c

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