UK - Following a successful curatorial role at PLASA Focus: Leeds, Soulsound has delivered a series of sessions as part of PLASA 2014's Professional Development Programme. The seminars, which were spread over three days, welcomed experts from the audio industry, who shared knowledge and inspired conversation.

Soulsound presented and coordinated a total of seven sessions, kicking off with Funktion-One founders, Tony Andrews and John Newsham, who were joined by sound consultant, Jim Cousins. The trio, who have an illustrious history in audio, discussed Point Source. Line Array. What

Italy - With effect from 13 October 2014, Osram has successfully completed the acquisition of leading show lighting manufacturer Clay Paky. All necessary approvals from the respective authorities have been granted regarding the acquisition. With this move, Osram will further expand its position in entertainment lighting. "The successful closing of this transaction is a further step towards strengthening Osram's specialty lighting segment in a highly attractive market", said Wolfgang Dehen, CEO of Osram. Pio Nahum, who has been appointed CEO of the Clay Paky business also with

UK - Dick Tee, managing director of EnTEEtainment Ltd, has tendered his resignation as Pyramid and Other stage production & area manager. After 18 years at the helm of Glastonbury Festival production, the veteran award winning production manager cites 'irreconcilable issues' and he and his staff will cease their association with the festival with immediate effect.

Says a statement from EnTEEtainment: "In the past two years since Festival Republic ended its involvement with the festival there have been a series of management restructures and operational changes at Glastonbury, whi

UK - When London's Royal Court Theatre sought to upgrade their existing lighting stock they turned to entertainment lighting specialist White Light for solutions that would suit the venue's needs. Concerned with reducing lighting energy use and keen to take advantage of the versatility of new technology, Jack Williams, head of lighting at Royal Court Theatre, went searching for a complete lighting solution that would combine new sources - such as LED - with the theatre's existing tungsten fixtures.

"We've been looking into LED fixtures for some time," said Williams. "Fo

USA - Every EDM festival owes a debt of gratitude to Nocturnal Wonderland. Long before EDM fests became the hottest thing on the entertainment scene, Nocturnal Wonderland blazed the way as the pioneering event in this red hot live entertainment genre.

Produced by Insomniac, this outdoor celebration of music and creativity is now in its 19th year, but it's definitely not resting on its laurels. Case in point is the 2014 event's Sunken Garden stage, which was energized by an eye-popping wall of light designed by LD Steve Lieberman, using 136 Nexus 4x4 panels from Chauvet Professional.

Japan - Following 12 successful years with its Meyer Sound MSL-4 loudspeakers, the Takarazuka Grand Theatre in Japan returned to Meyer Sound when it came time to upgrade. With an emphasis on exceptional audio quality and system reliability, the 2,550-seat venue chose a design based on M'elodie and MICA line array loudspeakers.

"In my opinion, the best equipment should be robust and reliable," says Masaru Kirie of Takarazuka Stage Co., Ltd. "The new system's performance lives up to the prestigious Meyer Sound brand, and the sound quality is excellent in all respects.&quo

USA - Just a short drive from the Mexican border and southeast of the city of McAllen, Valley International Christian Centre (VICC) recently opened a new, almost 70,000sq.ft sanctuary. This state-of-the-art church is the largest house of worship in the Rio Grande Valley and, in 2013, was recognized as one of the fastest growing churches in America by Outreach Magazine.

Music plays a vital role in VICC's worship services and, to ensure a high level of speech intelligibility and excellent music reproduction characteristics, church officials recently gave the green light to the deploymen

South Korea - The Incheon Asian Games in Korea is the largest sporting event in Asia - set on an Olympic scale, with around 10,000 athletes from 45 countries representing 36 sports.

For the 17th edition, both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies were held in the 62,000-capacity purpose built Incheon Asiad Main Stadium, with K-Pop stars and Gangnam Style singer Psy headlining the star-studded opening show.

With 'Diversity' as the theme, the large rental company Canlite drew on huge quantities of PR Lighting fixtures, deploying nearly 200 heads to perform specific tasks - comfortably th

Slovakia - When planning the refurbishment of the popular Slovakian club Ponorka Music Pub, it was essential that the owners found an unusual effect to help restore the venue's reputation. SGM's distributor City Light Slovakia presented a quality solution encompassing both light and sound, from concept to installation.

With a decorative, high luminosity LD-5 ceiling, City Light Slovakia achieved a perfect matrix effect, producing a colourful centrepiece surface for the club and amazing dynamics for its dancefloor. Some 1260 of these units, each containing four RGB LEDs and measuring 8

UK - PSCo, the trade-only AV distributor and rental specialist has confirmed that it has officially partnered with Green Hippo in the UK.

PSCo will be a key distributor for Green Hippo's AViary video tools, a partnership which joins together two companies at the forefront of their respective fields; large format, video wall and LED display solutions, and real-time video playback tools. For systems integration and live event customers, the combined expertise opens a new era in display solutions.

"Green Hippo is the pioneer in real-time video playback and AViary video tools are t

UK - SEDA, the South Eastern Discotheque Association, marked its 40th anniversary at the weekend with a gala dinner at The Britannia, Chatham. So far as is known, SEDA is the oldest DJ organisation in the world. During its four decades it has worked to educate and improve the industry and the public, and has worked with national and local government bodies and trade and industry associations, organising seminars, exhibitions and technical events.

SEDA's Honorary President, Theo Loyla, told LSiOnline: "SEDA was involved with the formation of the British Association of Discotheque

UAE - Dubai-based technical service specialist, the Eclipse Group, operates a programme of continuous investment to keep its inventory of lighting, sound and video solutions at the cutting edge.Recently they made their first investment in SGM's new LED technology with the purchase of 40 P-5 low profile, high output LED Washlights from territorial distributors TechnoPro, having earlier fielded 120 of the fixtures at the inauguration of a major lighting festival in Dubai.This was all the proof that eclipse founder and CEO, Mark Brown needed, although he and his technical team also underto

USA - CITC says its AquaMax is the first hazer to use completely certified organic fluid, taking the industry to a new level of environmental and health awareness. The haze has absolutely no smell and produces the first and only water-based haze with a two hour hang time, the company says.

"We at Fort Worth Opera, love the AquaMax hazer!" declared Adam Schwartz, director of production. "Our opera singers are particularly sensitive to particulates in the air, and comments about haze and fog are common occurrences, but with the AquaMax, we haven't heard a single complaint

USA - Symetrix has announced that Sisme has taken on exclusive distribution responsibilities for the prominent DSP brand throughout Italy.

Beginning operations with a focus on the MI market, Sisme has evolved to place its greatest emphasis on the pro audio and integration sectors. Today its distribution portfolio includes brands such as Audio-Technica, Aviom, Clear-Com, HK Audio, L-Acoustics and Powersoft - while its overall offer was strengthened considerably in 2003 by the opening of a new state-of-the-art facility situated on the central eastern coast of Italy.

"With this fa

UK - On 26 July this year around 2600 Scouts, Guides, leaders and staff arrived at West Moorland Show Ground near Milnethorpe in Cumbria for the Red Rose 2014 International Scout Event. Organised and delivered by volunteers, the event involved a large number of staff all working together to ensure the event was a success.

ProLight Concepts Ltd's product sourcing manager Chris Beesley took two weeks out from his busy schedule to manage the two stages and oversee the on-site installation of 100V background music systems and multimedia information displays.

First port of call for the

Safety Matters - The Soho Theatre is facing a substantial fine after pleading guilty to two charges under health and safety legislation for an accident that left a stage manager paralysed for life. The incident occurred on 9 June 2012, when Rachael Presdee fell more than three metres through an open and unmarked 'Juliet' door (a second-storey opening on a set) while adjusting stage lights for a performance by the Headlong Theatre Company that evening.

Westminster City Council launched prosecution proceedings and last Wednesday, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard that Presdee had suf

Singapore - Mark Rothko, one of the most influential post-war American artists, was famous for using colours and forms to interpret his artistic philosophy. He paid particular attention to the lighting where his paintings were exhibited. That's why Singapore's Blank Space Theatre focused on the lighting design on Red, an award winning docudrama by John Logan which covers Rothko's work in the late 1950s.

ETC LED luminaires, controlled by an ETC Ion console, helped lighting designer James Tan achieve that lighting goal during a production at Singapore's Esplanade Theatre Studio.<

UK - In 2014, UK audio visual and electronics distributor CIE-Group is celebrating 50 years in business. This significant milestone is also an opportunity to look forward to new business goals and aspirations that will provide the impetus for future CIE-Group developments.

CIE-Group was established back in 1964 as Canadian Instruments and Electronics, a UK subsidiary of Toronto-based Radio Components. At this time the company specialised in the distribution of electronic testing equipment, components and connectors.

Based in the East Midlands from where it still operates today, the

UK - leading supplier of Hybrid Power Generators (HPGs) for the events sector, Firefly reports that its Cygnus HPG has saved over 1m litres of diesel since its launch in April 2013.

With increasing requirements from event organisers to power events with a more sustainable, environmentally friendly approach, Firefly creates the appropriate renewable energy solution for any event, whilst significantly reducing fuel costs.

As an experienced and trusted supplier of affordable sustainable power, Firefly has been powering festivals and live events since 2007. Firefly provide turnkey low e

France / UK - Following a new distribution partnership for the UK freshly signed with Ambersphere Solutions, Ayrton's return to the PLASA Show for the first time since 2011 was "a complete triumph", the company says.

Ayrton launched two new products at the show, with the NandoBeam S9 and MagicRing-R1 receiving their world premieres, and showed off the newly released Radical Series for the first time in the UK in a spectacular light show.

"The British visitors were delighted with the new Ayrton products, and discovered many new fixtures which had never been seen in the

UK - Following a review of their playback systems, and a need to create higher capacity MADI streams, the National Theatre on London's South Bank has purchased six Optocore DD4MR-FX converters from dealers, HD Pro Audio.

These have been deployed as MADI interfaces for the venue's DiGiCo SD7T and SD10T consoles, following the introduction of the full DiGiCo integration of Optocore devices.

Commissioned by project engineer Tim Middleton, and senior sound technician Alex Caplen, the Optocore devices are distributed in pairs between the three theatres that make up the complex - the newl

UK - When SA Sound Services were asked by the Grace Church in Milton Keynes to design and supply the sound system for their weekly evangelical worship, the Roland M-200i console and Roland S-1608 Digital Snake proved to be the digital solution.

The brief for SA Sound Services owner Steve Ashley was to come up with a compact and portable system that was easy to use and quick to setup. The reason for this specification was that Grace Church - who are without their own premises at the moment - are using a local school hall for their services. Therefore the AV - including a console, louds

UK - During the golden era of touring, the University of London Union (or ULU as it was then popularly known) was a favoured circuit venue for emerging bands.

With the disbandment of ULU this year (now rebranded as the 'Student Central') the ents committee, under student activities & ents manager Allan Adams, decided to bring its live space (known as 'The Venue') into the 21st century with a complete refurbishment. This included a new end to end Harman Professional sound reinforcement infrastructure designed by Ed Manwaring of EM Communications.

Manwaring has been servicing the Venu

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