USA - Things are looking up for the lighting rig at the legendary Firestone Live!, the largest nightclub in Orlando. As part of a remodelling project, the club's stage was lowered three feet to make room to hang additional lighting fixtures. At the same time, a new trussing rig was installed over the dance floor, creating four extra feet of space for overhead lighting.

A design team from Complete Production Resources and Impulse Creative Group (both of Orlando) utilized this expanded area to inject a new level of dynamism and energy into the storied club with a beefed-up lighting rig that features an array of fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Located in the 86-year-old Firestone Tire and Auto Building, Firestone Live! cut its teeth as a nightspot and concert venue during the early EDM boom of the 1990s. Rolling Stone and Billboard ran flattering pieces on Fires

USA - Fifty-three contestants walked the walk on stage at Boardwalk Hall for the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City in September. Two dozen Clay Paky Sharpy Wash fixtures were on hand from Atomic Lighting in Lititz, Pennsylvania for the gala telecast on ABC Television. Allen Branton was the lighting designer for the pageant with Felix Peralta and Kevin Lawson the lighting directors and Laura Frank the screens producer and media programmer.

"It was our eighth year doing the pageant," says Peralta. "It's always a challenge to recreate the excitement of the show; we're looking to enhance and improve the previous year's telecast. With three days devoted to pageant preliminaries, which are not broadcast, we got an opportunity to build the show on site. Friday and Saturday were camera rehearsal days then Sunday was the live show."

Kevin Lawson was respo

France - Rising Star is the latest reality TV singing competition to take France by storm. Currently aired live every Thursday night on M6, France's most profitable private national TV channel, the show is derived from an Israeli concept where it was a massive success. In contrast to other TV singing competitions which feature a panel of celebrity judges, Rising Star features a panel of celebrity experts who offer opinions and commentary, but candidates rely almost exclusively on viewer votes in real time via a free smartphone app to determine whether or not they achieve the next stage.

From a technical point of view, the show breaks new ground. The same is true backstage where Euro Media, the European leader in the provision of broadcast services who are responsible for bringing Rising Star to French TV screens, decided to call on Paris-based company Yasta

World - It was all about glitz and glam in Robbie Williams' Swings Both Ways Tour, which started in May and ended in September. The stage design was theatrical in every possible way. The lighting design, by Mark Cunniffe, proved the perfect accompaniment to an inspired stage design and features a substantial rig by Martin Professional, which was also the first major outing for lighting supplier Neg Earth's new stock of MAC Quantum Wash.

Martin Professional spoke to lighting designer Mark Cunniffe, Neg Earth MD Dave Ridgway and project manager Caroline Beverley to hear about the lighting design process and their experiences working with MAC Quantum for this major production.

Cunniffe worked closely with set designer, Ric Lipson from Stufish. Based on Lipson's initial stage design concept, Cunniffe designed the lighting. He also provided suggestions for additional stage e

Germany - Production Resource Group Germany (PRG) lent its expertise to the "25 Years after the Fall of the Wall" ceremony in Berlin on 9 November. The global event services provider was commissioned by mediapool Event Services GmbH to handle the lighting for the central event of the festivities at the Brandenburg Gate. Tens of thousands of guests populated the square in front of the Gate, the symbol of the division of Germany, to witness a stage show featuring emotional speeches by the likes of Federal President Joachim Gauck and performances by top German musicians.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors had come to Berlin on 9 November to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with luminaries from politics, business and society. Champions of reunification including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former Polish trade union leader Lech Wal

Germany - With headquarters in Kassel and branches in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt, Ambion GmbH is one of Germany's leading technical event providers. The company has been using Coda Audio systems for several years and recently made another major investment in its products, via German distributor Audiovation GmbH.

The previous experience that Ambion's Jesko Purmann and Michael 'Miwe' Wengerter had with Coda systems meant they were already convinced of the sound and manufacturing quality, rigging flexibility and simple operation of even the largest Coda systems. So when the company introduced its new Linus amplification and control platform at this year's ProLight+Sound, Ambion approached Audiovation about making a further major investment in Coda technology, to utilize the benefits of the new Linus platform.

"Ambion wanted to significantly expand its inventory of Coda lo

USA - When playwright Sarah Ruhl's latest play, The Oldest Boy, made its debut at Lincoln Centre Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, sound designer Darron L West once again turned to Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, to supply a custom audio equipment package for the much-anticipated production.

Designing the sound system for The Oldest Boy posed its own set of challenges; the first of which was the design of the stage itself. "The stage is a really beautiful, wooden formal circle in the middle of the theatre, and in designing the sound I wanted to be able to create layers from the centre out," says West. "We placed an enormous amount of speakers in the theatre to accomplish this, which gave us the added ability of being able to move the majority of the sounds around the room with ease. It was a

Ukraine - 1+1 Media Group is one of the largest media conglomerates in Ukraine. It is comprised of eight Ukrainian TV channels and also includes a fully-fledged production company. 1+1 Media recently installed an ANDIAMO.XT AES/MADI converter and two powerful M.1k2 MADI routing systems from DirectOut as the audio core in their new eight-floor TV Centre, plus a number of ANDIAMO.XT AES/MADI converters in two of their OB vans which have been converted to full HD facilities.

"This is the first time we have worked with DirectOut, and they couldn't have been more helpful," affirmed Aleksey Marko, head of procurement for 1+1 Media. "It's rather a long story and of course our political situation has not helped matters, but the short version is, that having purchased an Evertz video router for the new TV centre, we needed a solution to be able to combine all of our audio

South Africa - Midstream Ridge Primary, situated in Midstream Estate, between Centurion and Midrand, opened its doors on January 2014. Amongst a frenzy of excited children and enthusiastic teachers, the smell of fresh paint and cement still lingering in the air, the official inaugural ceremony took place in the newly kitted out school hall on 8 August.

Consultant Pieter-Jan Kapp - better known as Kappie - from PJK, created a technically sound and user-friendly venue that would do credit to any school in the country. For the lighting in the school hall he specified Philips Strand dimming, Philips Selecon Acclaim and Rama fixtures, a Philips Strand 250ML console, six Robe 250 AT Spots and a few faithful Longman LED Pars. DWR Distribution supplied this equipment, as well as a stage curtain track manufactured by Rob Young.

Kappie has had the opportunity of working on numerous inst

USA - MGM Resorts International and Live Nation teamed up this fall to produce the inaugural Route 91 Harvest country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip over October's first weekend. Staged on a huge lot across the famed boulevard from MGM's Luxor, the three-day event featured some of the biggest names in country music, including nightly headliners Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean, plus more than two dozen other classic artists and fast-rising newcomers.

Route 91 Harvest was a big show, but true to Las Vegas' larger-than-life philosophy, it was only one of four huge music fests held there within a single month's time. The iHeart Radio festival (21 September) saw pop stars Iggy Azalea, Neon Trees, 5 Seconds of Summer and Fences take the stage; on 27 September the first iteration of the Boulevard Brew Fest brought rockers Kings of Leon, Young the Giant and Kongos

USA - Marquee Nightclub is consistently one of the highest grossing nightclubs in Las Vegas and one of the hottest and most luxurious nightclubs around. Located in the heart of the Strip, Marquee underwent a major LED lighting system upgrade recently with LD Steve Lieberman, owner of SJ Lighting, using over 1,100 new Elation Pixel Bar 40 LED strip lights to create a 360-degree immersive experience.

SJ Lighting received praise as theatrical lighting design consultants for the original design at Marquee when the club debuted in 2010 and were called on again to give the club a fresh makeover. "Any venue in an A market needs to update technologies to stay competitive because they play such a strong supporting role in creating the atmosphere," Steve Lieberman states. "At Marquee, we wanted to create a new design that would carry them through the next several years, som

UK - Katy B embarked on a major UK tour that saw lighting designer Tom Campbell make dramatic use of Philips Showline SL Nitro 510C LED strobes to blend her signature dubstep/garage sound with his nightclub-evoking lighting theme.

Campbell, who was touring a floor package and augmenting his design with venue house rigs, was looking for fixtures that could bring more than one strong look to his design: "I wanted a really clubby vibe with lots of opportunity for strong, colorful high-contrast moments," explains Campbell. "I'm using the SL NITRO 510C strobes as block colour strobing and super-bright backlight wash effects. Both looks deliver a really striking feel."

The SL Nitro 510C strobes, supplied by lighting hire operation Siyan Ltd, feature six zones of control offering Campbell a much appreciated element of flexibility.

"They're incredibly bright

USA - With this week's opening of the Dr. Phillips Centre for the Performing Arts, Orlando is now the home to a world-class performing arts centre that will attract patrons from across the region, serve as a home for community arts groups, provide a nexus for arts education, and contribute even further to the city's reputation as a tourist mecca.

The 330,000sq.ft building was a collaboration between Theatre Projects, Barton Myers (design architect), HKS Architects (executive architect) and Baker Barrios (associate architect). It was a project nearly three decades in the making.

Theatre Projects first began planning an arts centre for Orlando in 1985 when city officials hired them to determine whether the city could support such a facility. At the time, it was decided that the city could not accommodate the performing arts centre, but a re-evaluation 10 years later found the ci

UK - With new exhibitors and new speakers being announced every week, there will be plenty for visitors to see at the Glasgow SECC for the inaugural PLASA Focus Glasgow event, which takes place on 2-3 December 2014.

New exhibitors announced this week include Adlib Audio and HDPro Audio, Orbital Sound and FBT Audio UK, who will join the all-star list of exhibitors already at the show - including Robe, Ambersphere, White Light, Avolites, Chauvet, AED, Sennheiser, Bosch, NL Productions, JHS ProAudio, Warehouse Sound, LMC Audio, Polar Audio, Black Light, Trusslite, Total Solutions Group, UK Rigging, TMB and many more.

PLASA's Professional Development Programme will deliver two days of presentations, technical demonstrations and panel discussions, all designed to help visitors build their industry knowledge and improve their skill set. This year's programme focusses on the hot topi

World - Monitor engineer Travis Walat recently completed the European and North American legs of the Joss Stone Total World tour with an Allen & Heath iLive T-112 Surface and a 48 input / 24 output iDR-48 MixRack.

The ultimate aim of the tour is for the 26 year old soul singer-songwriter to play a show in every country on the planet, so with performances widely spread across the globe the audio crew was travelling light. To ensure that the band's monitors were consistent wherever in the world they were, Walat looked for a mixing solution that offered full functionality in a compact footprint, finally settling on the iLive system after trying it out in rehearsals.

Twenty-one shows and 18 countries later, Walat enthused: "The iLive is an excellent sounding desk. Several band members commented on how nice things sounded, and it is also lightweight, compact and powerful, with

UK - The Shure Academy European Audio Network has announced the fourth Wireless Mastered workshop of 2014, to be held at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in Central London on 24 November. Presented by Tuomo Tolonen, Shure Distribution UK's Pro Audio Group manager and RF specialist, the session will take place in the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre at RADA between 9.30am and 3pm, with a break for light refreshments.

As with the previous highly successful Wireless Mastered sessions, this masterclass is aimed at all event production staff, and anyone that regularly uses wireless technology. The session covers all aspects of RF technology and wireless microphone operation, including discussions of the changing availability of RF spectrum use for live events.

Shure wireless technology will be used as a practical reference, including PSM900/PSM1000 in-ear monitoring, UHF-R, ULX-D a

USA - California State University Bakersfield recently purchased a Harman Soundcraft Si Performer 3 to support its growing music and theatre programs. The console is used for live mixing during shows in the 485-seat Doré Theatre, which include jazz and other music productions, theatrical productions, musicals, and opera. The board was purchased through Full Compass Systems.

To accommodate the 14 to 20 wireless microphones for the Music and Theatre Department productions, performing arts technician Frank Robinson chose the Soundcraft Si Performer 3 with 32 channels for sufficient capacity and room for future expansion. The sound booth that houses the console also allows for a simplified wiring network, and will permit elimination of much of the internal house wiring at a later date.

"We chose Soundcraft because we wanted a brand-new system within our budget that wor

USA - Part of North Point Ministries, Inc, Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia, is a 15-year-old establishment with a 3000-seat auditorium which hosts four services every Sunday.

The church is in the process of growing its technical equipment to enrich the quality of its in-services. Part of this expansion involves the increased use of media and lighting to add to the dynamic format of the services.

Video forms a main element of the set designs: video imagery is projected onto set pieces or run through plasma screens on stage and used as a backdrop to performances. This is enhanced by the generous use of LED lighting. The set is changed every four months to keep things fresh and new for the church attenders.

Images of the pastor, who alternates between Buckhead Church and North Point Community Church, two of the six NPMi campuses in the greater Atlanta area, are also project

USA - Modern sports venues have to do it all - host major sports contests one night and top-selling music artists the next. That's an economic imperative at a time when teams and promoters are competing for the consumer entertainment spend. The venue with great sound that can do it all wins, and that's why Toyota Centre, the arena home of the NBA Houston Rockets, comes out on top.

In October, the arena, which opened in September 2003 and seats 18,000 for basketball and over 19,000 for concerts, installed a new L-Acoustics K2 sound system - the first K2 system permanently installed in a major professional sports arena.

The cap to a two-year AV makeover that included new HD video scoreboards, the sound system, designed in Soundvision by project consultant Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams and AV systems integrator LD Systems with support from the L-Acoustics US applications

UK - The last two weekends of October saw London's Westfield shopping centres stage Music Cube, a showcase of new and established musical talent. As Westfield's preferred audio partner, Sennheiser UK played a key role in both events.

Music Cube is a giant soundproof glass box, in which a range of artists performed over the weekend of 24-26 October at the Westfield London shopping centre, and 31 October - 2 November at Westfield Stratford City.

Kicking off at midday, performances by between three and six up-and-coming artists were followed by a set from a Kiss FM DJ and then two headline slots by more recognised performers.

Each session was witnessed by an audience of up to 300, all using Sennheiser's Urbanite headphones to enjoy the music.

Sennheiser UK provided equipment including evolution 2000 series wireless microphones for the artists, plus 300 sets of Urbanite headph

UK - Lighting and visuals designer Dan Robinson has just finished his third tour with UK singer and musician John Newman, which ramped up production values with the help of XL Video who supplied an LED screen / mini-cam and control package plus crew.

Newman and his management team have always believed in investing in great looking live shows, which has enabled Dan to creatively evolve the look and feel of the performances since he started working with the artist last year at a show at Settle Village Hall - Newman's home town.

On the first two tours, the focus was on imaginative lighting, however this time around video was introduced to work in parallel with this.

Dan has made film shorts and music videos for fun in the past, so his passion for moving images and effects coupled with John Newman's own interest in his visuality onstage ... produced a dynamic basis for the tour.

UK - HHB Communications has supplied the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) with a 16-fader Avid S6 M10 control surface.

UWE is the first UK educational facility that HHB has supplied with Avid's new modular S6 control surface. The S6 was specified with two banks of eight faders, and complementary Process and Knob modules. Used in conjunction with Pro Tools HD software, S6 provides UWE's students with powerful hands-on control of all DAW functions.

UWE senior lecturer Martyn Harries has been a long-term customer of HHB since his days as an audio post production engineer for the BBC. Martyn explains that the S6 will equip students in UWE's new Broadcast Audio and Music Technology course with knowledge of the equipment used in the UK's leading studios. "The S6 will give our students an edge by exposing them to an incredibly powerful console. We place a strong

USA - Manhattan's Pier 94 has seen a lot of history pass through its 135,000sq.ft of space since it opened in 1935 as an ocean liner terminal, but it's doubtful that this venerable structure, which was later remodelled as an exhibition centre, has ever witnessed anything quite like the Pier of Fear. Now in its third year, the two-day festival served up a spectacular Halloween treat for New York's EDM fans with a stellar line-up of DJs, a colourful array of costumes that were definitely not picked up at Wal-Mart, and a brain tingling lightshow anchored by Next NXT-1 and Legend 330SR Spot fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

KM Productions of Hicksville, NY set up the lighting rig for the Halloween festival, which is put on by RPM Presents (New York). "This is a major event on the EDM calendar," said Kevin Mignone, president of KM Productions. "It's very DJ centric w

UK - For the past several months the Tower of London, part of the Historic Royal Palaces, and its ambitious sculptural commission: Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red have been a central symbol of the UK's WWI Centenary observations.

The display, which grew in size over time, marked each commonwealth casualty of WWI - 888,246 in total - with a hand-made red ceramic poppy "planted" by volunteers around the venue's exterior. Entertainment and event production supplier White Light has been closely involved in the event, providing lighting, sound, and video support services for the opening ceremony on 5 August and closing ceremony on 11 November (Remembrance Day) as well as providing lighting for the entire poppy display throughout its three-month installation.

White Light managing director Bryan Raven commented on event's significance saying, "The Tower Poppies have

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