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South Africa - South African audiences were captivated as War Horse, brought to the country by Pieter Toerien and the National Theatre, played at The Teatro, Montecasino in Johannesburg recently. The show then moved to Cape Town at Artscape Opera House from 5 December 2014. Technical support in both venues was provided by Gearhouse Splitbeam.

A truly iconic show based on a book written by Michael Morpurgo, War Horse was only designed to run for a couple of weeks . . . then they did it again and again and again and it's currently in its seventh successful year on the West End in London. The journey has seen the horses redesigned - the life-sized puppets were created and built in Cape Town by Handspring Puppet Company - and the early days saw performers receiving hours of physio every day. As the show was very physical on performers, more actors were brought in to ta

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UK - In December 2013 Stage Technologies' sister company Delstar Engineering was commissioned to provide a huge scenic structure for the set of ANNE, a new play about the life of Anne Frank. Produced by Imagine Nation, with set design by Bernhard Hammer and directed by Theu Boermans, the play is performed at the new 'Theater Amsterdam', a purpose-built venue in the Westerlijke Houthavens district of Amsterdam.

The play covers the two years that Anne Frank and her family hide in an attic in Amsterdam, as well as some events prior to their secret life and following their discovery and deportation by the Nazis. The intimate and powerful production not only utilises Anne Frank's own words from her diary but also plays out against a life-size backdrop of the Frank family's flat.

The audience views a series of projection screens that part to form a proscenium at various times

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Denmark - Danish brand Change Lingerie recently held an outstanding fashion show for the presentation of The Intimate Britney Spears, the collection created and designed in conjunction with the American pop star. Nordic Rentals, a leading Danish rental and event management supplier, opted for Analog Way's Ascender 48 to ensure a flawless and visually stunning show.

At the Forum in Copenhagen, Change Lingerie introduced the Intimate Britney Spears line in the presence of the artist, as well as 5,000 attendees. Nordic Rentals was selected to create an astonishing fashion show.

As a background to the catwalk and stage where lingerie models and dancers performed, an ultra-wide curved screen of 44m x 5.5m was utilised. A total of six Panasonic DZ-21 video-projectors were blended to provide the panoramic curved image. The entire show was built in a Watchout 5 system, with eye catchi

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USA - One way to keep the Halloween spooks away is to keep the lights on and that's what they did at Hard Day of the Dead Fest in Pomona, California, using an Elation lighting rig of Platinum Beam 5R's, LED moving heads, Par lights, and Elation LED video displays. Held on 1-2 November at the Fairplex, Elation dealers Stage Tech, Felix Lighting and Vision's Lighting delivered a large Elation package for Southern California's ultimate Halloween DJ and dance event.

The festival's Hard Main Stage incorporated a Mayan Pyramid design that was conceived by designer Charley Guest of Stage Tech of Santa Fe Springs, California, their fifth year doing the event. The scaffold structure was 210' wide and 70' tall and was accentuated by using two Elation video products throughout the structure's facia. The Hard Stage setup featured Elation EPV 375 HO LED panels that were specified, says Charl

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USA - Birmingham, Alabama's Iron City is a new 1,300-capacity music venue that plays host to acts both local and national. It occupies two former automotive warehouses downtown that the owners gutted and renovated to hit the perfect middle between steely grit and modern elegance. As general manager Mike Creager put it, "At Iron City, we aim to do everything a cut above. From production to hospitality, we always shoot for a high standard."

That philosophy extends to sound reinforcement as well. Creager worked with Tim Ogletree at MediaMerge (Chelsea, Alabama) to design a zero-compromise system that would be appropriate for Iron City's wide footprint. Rather than a line array, Creager and Ogletree designed a point-source system using Danley Sound Labs' patented Synergy Horn loudspeakers and Tapped Horn subwoofers.

Although sometimes sceptical of the system's relatively

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UK - With just 24 hours notice, London based large format projection specialists, The Projection Studio (TPS) delivered a full projection design to enable a giant image of the BandAid30 music video to be projected onto the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

It was the first time a full motion video has been projected onto this landmark building.

The song is helping to raise funds and awareness in BandAid30's ongoing fight against Ebola.

TPS's Creative Director Ross Ashton received the call on Friday afternoon from Des Shaw at event production company Ten Alps, who had received final clearance from Bob Geldof, on all the permissions to make the high-profile event happen on the Sunday evening in front of the world's press.

Says Ross Ashton, "We were called at 13.30 on Friday, and by 13.00 on Saturday we had started the install. Naturally I was thrilled to be involved.

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China - PR Lighting fixtures had a major presence at the recent 22nd APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Welcome Banquet, which was held at the Water Cube in Beijing.

This event, whose theme this year was 'Shaping the Future through Asia-Pacific Partnership', was very much a showcase for Chinese entertainment and stage lighting brands, providing a great opportunity for the Chinese event technology industry to show its new image and underline how far it has come. And the attendees, represented by the leaders from 21 member countries, were certainly impressed.

The lighting was divided into three distinct sections, and as the leading entertainment lighting company in China, PR Lighting was chosen for its advanced and reliable products.

The first part of the journey was 'The Welcome Pathway' - the road between the Bird's Nest Stadium and Water Cube - which was designed by c

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Ireland - Dublin-based Sound Productions recently designed, supplied and commissioned a new JBL beam steering public address system for St. Agnes Catholic Church in the Parish of Crumlin.

Having installed the previous PA system around a decade ago, the new sound solution was specified as part of a complete church renovation project.

According to Sound Productions' senior project manager, Peadar Carley, the aim of the new system was to maintain and improve intelligibility using a more architecturally discreet solution.

"The renovation included the installation of new hard wood flooring which was previously carpeted - and with no absorbing surfaces, this meant that the RT would increase to 3-5 seconds. Therefore we needed a speaker system that would provide precise beam steering," he said.

He turned to a pair of JBL Intellivox-DS280s, distributed in the UK and Eire

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USA - Weather conditions have always been the overall challenge and concern for outdoor event providers.

Aside from its impact on visitor attendance, adverse weather conditions impose huge additional costs on lighting equipment deployment - or rather it did. SGM's LED G-Spot moving head, is not only IP65 rated, making it weather resistant, but also includes an active dehumidification device. This reduces the risk of internal condensation while allowing lighting designers to unleash their creativity to the full - in whatever weather is thrown at them during an outdoor event

In recent months, three major amusement parks in the USA have all installed the G-Spot for their main attractions: Cedar Point in Ohio, Kings Island in Ohio and Carowinds in North Carolina.

Behind these installations is Andrew Strain from Blue Haze Entertainment, whose passion is the entertainment business

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UK - Sound Technology, distributor of Soundcraft in the UK and Eire, has announced further dates for its popular Soundcraft Vi Series training course.

The dates are as follows: Wednesday 21 January 2015, Tuesday 17 February 2015, Wednesday 18 March 2015, Wednesday 22 April 2015 and Wednesday 20 May 2015.

The course is held at Soundcraft's Potters Bar, Hertfordshire head office and factory, with an opportunity to visit the factory floor to see the Vi manufacturing process. The exception is the January 2015 session which is hosted by Adlib in Liverpool.

Presented by experienced Vi Series engineer and Adlib director Dave Kay, the training is relevant to the Vi6, Vi4, Vi3000 and Vi1, and also covers the new Soundcraft Realtime Rack plug-in engine.

The course is free and open to engineers, venues, hire, installation and production companies.

For more information and to regist

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UK - Avolites Ai S8 media servers completed an elegant makeover of the London Coliseum, draping the stage in video content for the British Fashion Awards, held to celebrate the contributions of British designers, creatives and models over the past year.

The glitzy event, attended by some of the biggest names in British fashion, was set against a backdrop including a main projection surface of eight Panasonic projectors blended to create a 6598x830 screen.

Ben Miles used two active Ai S8 servers, with another two used as reserve and programming systems. Another 1920x1080 HD feed to the camera PPU fed the IMAG screens content, such as fashion shoot clips, awards and winners graphics, mostly created by StrangeBeast.

Of the two active servers, one had the UI and three outputs and the other, the UI and two outputs, all outputting 1920x1080 at 50Hz, beautifully synced together.

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South Africa - With a background in electronic engineering and having followed the development of LED lighting for many years, Julian Cohen, owner of Johannesburg based rental company Avstage, had been waiting for LED technology to catch up with discharge lamps.

Three decades ago he designed and manufactured large display panels using discrete LEDs and now at last the opportunity came along to purchase new lighting including 12 Robin 300 LEDs, an Avolites Tiger Touch 2 and a haze machine.

In the greater rental market, Avstage caters for corporate events. This environment is unlike rock concerts where lighting is a major element of the production. "Most of our clients are non-technical and when catering for gala dinners or conferences, lighting is more about creating ambience and is only an element of the entire event. It's not about which light is being used and its techn

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Japan - It was a challenge for the technical crew of Fuji Television Network (Fuji TV) and Fuji Media Technology (FMT) to find the right fixture to light a set built in the globe shaped observation studio located on the 24th floor of their building. But in the end, they realised that ETC's Selador Desire D60 Daylight luminaires were the right fit.

"Our task was to light this set built in a space that was once a coffee shop, with minimal power," says Hitoshi Hoshino, the executive manager of FMT. "The space also had only 2.4m to the ceiling, so it was impossible to use incandescent lights, not only because of the power restrictions, but also the heat."

The set was built for the live morning breakfast show Mezamashi TV (Alarm Clock TV); behind the cast are windows with a view of Tokyo that creates a backlight that changes with the time and weather. The bigges

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USA - When one of US television's most visible sports anchors launched his new sportstalk TV/radio show in early October, lighting designer Victor Fable turned to a lighting package of studio-optimized Elation lighting equipment including DW Series and TVL Series professional white light LED fixtures to light the set.

Rich Eison, well known by US football fans as host of NFL GameDay Morning on the NFL Network and a mainstay on ESPN's SportsCenter from 1996 to 2003, hosts The Rich Eison Show broadcast live Monday-Friday from DirecTV's El Segundo, California Studios on the Audience Network, as well as Fox Sports Radio.

In the summer of 2014, while the space was being refurbished into a television studio for the three-hour show, Victor had time to contemplate his design and the lighting fixtures he would need. "I wanted a variety of professional white light and other

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UK - The new Jaguar XE was spectacularly launched in the UK amidst a fully produced musical theatre-style show - staged in a 3000-seat proscenium theatre within London's Earls Court. The 90 minute performance involved 17 different Jaguars through the ages. A Morris Minor, a cast of west end performers, a 30-piece orchestra positioned upstage on a moving riser and musical performances from the likes of Emeli Sandé, Eliza Doolittle and the Kaiser Chiefs were woven in to the narrative fabric of the show.

Freelance sound designer, Sebastian Frost worked closely with Imagination's head of sound, John Del Nero, to create natural theatre sound on the vast 53m x 30m stage, utilising a TiMax SoundHub audio showcontrol delay-matrix, supplied by London-based production hire company, Orbital Sound, not only to contain the sound but also to ensure the 3000-strong audience in the raise

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UK - Behind the Scenes UK, the newly launched charity that aims to provide financial support to entertainment technology professionals when they are ill or injured, is calling on companies and individuals to send their annual Christmas cards via Card Aid this year.

Card Aid has been helping charities increase their funds from the sale of their Christmas cards for over 30 years and John Simpson, Chair of Behind the Scenes UK, believes proceeds from the sale of Christmas Cards via the Card Aid Website will really make a difference to Behind the Scenes which only launched in the UK in October. "Sending Christmas cards is a long held tradition and Card Aid allows us to keep the spirit of Christmas alive - as cards can be purchased online, either in the form of a pack of cards or as e-cards which can be sent on a pay per click basis. Whilst we are happy to accept donations in li

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UK - Sussex-based audio technology company, Flare Audio, has been awarded the Innovation Award at the 2014 Adur and Worthing Business Awards, recognising the company for its outstanding 'passion and vision'.

This is the second award for Flare, which is continuing to develop products attracting the attention of top figures in the music industry. Judges at the awards commented, "Lancing's Flare Audio is an innovative audio technology company run by a small and passionate team of people with big visions, and speakers that deliver an even bigger sound."

The host of the awards, Fred Dineage, explained, "The company began as an audio hire business in 2007. Passionate about sound quality and not content with the clarity and tourability of existing market leading products, Flare founder Davies Roberts decided to create his own loudspeaker designs. Designs that would del

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Beatle Drive - The Beatles musical Let It Be will return to the West End next year, to run at the Garrick Theatre. It will replace The Scottsboro Boys at the Garrick, where it also played earlier this year. The show will run there from 28 February to 27 September. The production will then embark on its second national tour in October 2015, which will visit more than 30 cities. The show's producer, Jamie Hendry, said, "Now in its third year, Let It Be continues to draw crowds and delight audiences around the world. Its return to the West End for its fourth season is only testament to the huge popularity of the Beatles."

Lotto Money - A former Sunderland fire station will be transformed into a performing arts hub after being granted £2.4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The conversion of the building, which has been derelict for 22 years

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Germany - d&b audiotechnik is boosting its cooperation with Neumann&Müller (N&M) Event Technology with a five-year agreement. N&M bring to life high quality events with state-of-the-art equipment. The agreement between the companies involves the supply of loudspeakers from d&b's newest range the Y-Series.

"We are proud of this further expansion of our long-standing business relationship with N&M. The new Y-Series complements the d&b equipment already used by the company", says Jürgen Wilhelm, DACH regional sales manager at d&b audiotechnik.

Over the next five years d&b will supply loudspeakers to N&M including the Y-Series line array modules and the corresponding cardioid subwoofer Y-SUB (suitable for flown arrays). The scope of supply also includes d&b's newest amplifier the D80.

"The refinement of the sound properties in the case of the Y-Series point sour

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UK - Leading pro-audio provider The Warehouse Sound Services has reported a boost in sales following this year's inaugural PLASA Focus in at the SECC. The company showcased a range of products from d&b audiotechnik, Shure, Yamaha and EM Acoustics. The event provided the Scotland headquartered organisation an opportunity to exhibit on home turf with the experience surpassing all the company's expectations.

PLASA Focus Glasgow delivered two days of constant activity, high quality visitors and high interest in The Warehouse's new products.

Janet Murray, sales manager of The Warehouse commented, "Exhibiting at PLASA Focus has been productive for The Warehouse. This has been a great event for the company based on the responses to product presentations and the volume of new and existing customers who came specifically to see our product range. Importantly we were able to greet

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USA - SGM was not only able to introduce a number of new products at this year's LDI Show in Las Vegas but attracted equal interest by announcing the restructuring of their sales and service operations in the Americas. This was highlighted by the opening last month of SGM Inc in Orlando, FL.

Thus, they were able to present not only a new portfolio of ETL-certified, IP65 LED products but also the new Technical Support Team and established sales force. At the same time, well known Spanish lighting designer Ben Díaz, has been appointed SGM's new area manager for South America, and he will also be handling product training.

As a result, the SGM booth proved to be one of the hottest destinations at this premier expo. The show floor was permanently busy and they reported great interest in both the now-established G-Spot and new G-Profile (with framing shutters), billed as the world

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South Africa - Cape Audio College, The Institute of Sound Technology, recently acquired the JBL VRX900 Series Constant Curvature Line Array that will be used as a portable sound system when training student sound engineers as part of their Live Sound Module.

Cape Audio College's Head, Rae de Jager says, "We were looking for a scalable sound system that could deliver power and offer flexibility and the VRX does just that, whether as a single point system or expanding it to a larger format. It is also budget friendly, which was an extra plus point."

Their JBL VRX System comprises a total of six JBL VRX932LA-1 line array loudspeaker, two VRX-AF rigging frames, six VRX918S 18" subwoofers as well as four PRX715M 15" loudspeakers that will be used for stage monitoring. Amplification is through four Crown IT 9000HD running V5 tunings.

"We are excited that t

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UK - White Light has helped to transform London's Old Sorting Office venue for a temporary exhibition which focuses on ideas and perceptions of environmental conservation. Titled Here Today... after the phrase "here today, gone tomorrow", the exhibit brings together works from more than 50 international artists including Andy Warhol, Gavin Turk, Peter Blake and Douglas Gordon to recognise the 50th Anniversary of The IUCN Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species.

The venue, once the largest sorting office for the Royal Mail in London, now serves as an events space hosting private events, fashion shows, and exhibitions. For Here Today... the space was completely transformed with additional walls, scenic pieces, and lighting. Made up of eight distinct chapters, the exhibit's path takes visitors on a multi-media journey which includes paintings, sculptur

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South Africa - The Market Theatre in Johannesburg was forced to purchase a new grandMA2 Ultra Light desk after the theatre was flooded recently.

The unfortunate event was sparked when an intruder broke into the theatre, breaking a drencher pipe in the process. This resulted in the release of 80 000 litres of water into the auditorium, damaging the MA2 Ultra Light in the process.

A replacement console was purchased from Dave Whitehouse of DWR. Nomvulu Malpo, head of lighting at the Market, and her team received training on the desk's latest software and features, presented by Gareth Chambers.

(Jim Evans)

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