World - Shure Incorporated is celebrating its 90th year as an industry leader in professional audio. From its humble beginnings as a one-man company selling radio parts kits, Shure now offers a diverse portfolio of wired and wireless microphones, listening products, personal monitoring systems, phonograph cartridges, and conferencing and discussion systems.

Shure products have been used by such luminaries as Martin Luther King, Jr., Elvis Presley, and every United States President since Lyndon B. Johnson.

There have been many milestones in the Company's 90 year history:

The introd

UK - Last month White Light had its first opportunity to light the way for Fast Forward, a fundraising gala evening at the National Theatre. Featuring an auction for once-in-a-lifetime experiences and excerpts from forthcoming productions, the event raised proceeds for NT Future - a transformative project providing new facilities for audiences, artists and young people.

Fast Forward took place on March 4, 2015 and attracted a glittering guest list including: Simon Callow, Olivia Colman, Frances de la Tour, Anne-Marie Duff, Sir David Hare, Ian Hislop, Patricia Hodge, Tom Hollander, Jer

Japan - After an extensive renovation that took five years to complete, the historic Himeji Castle's grand reopening ceremony was an event not to be missed.

The renovation of what is considered Japan's most spectacular castle, which is frequently known as Hakuro-jo (White Egret Castle) or Shirasagi-jo (White Heron Castle) because of its brilliant white exterior, began in October 2009. It involved returning the walls to 'the white egret' whilst repairing the kawara tiled roof, and the recreation of the symbolic Shachihoko (Japanese mythological animal) decorating its ridge.

The openi

- Since India's first Hard Rock Café opened in Mumbai's busy upmarket Worli district about nine years ago, the venue has built up a great following, thanks to its role as a standard-bearer of the brand's successful combination of good food and good music.

More recently, a second Hard Rock Café opened in Andheri (with its 1.5m inhabitants, one of the most vibrant important Mumbai suburbs) and recent changes to the two venues' music policy have been followed by a decision to upgrade the older venue's sound systems, with an Outline rig (the newer HRC, centrally locate

UK - UK companies installing energy monitoring systems, such as the MeasureMyEnergy equipment offered by consultancy :entertaining sustainability, can now qualify for upfront financing from the Carbon Trust's Energy Efficiency Financing Scheme.

The scheme, which is run on behalf of the Carbon Trust by Siemens Finance, provides initial funding for the installation, with repayments made over a maximum of five years from the savings generated by working with the equipment.

The MeasureMyEnergy system - already installed at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio - utilises sensors on eac

USA - Creative Stage Lighting is bringing its High End Systems Hog 4 training programme to PLASA Focus Kansas City 2015. As part of PLASA Focus Kansas City, CSL will hold a Hog 4 training course before the show at Harvest Productions, 18-19 May.

The ETC Ion Console May 18th training at XS Lighting is now sold out.

The PLASA Focus: Kansas City show floor and two days of additional Professional Development Programme seminars will be held at the Kansas City Convention Center 20-21 May.

The Hog 4 two-day hands-on training session will be taught by CSL sales engineer Phil Heid. Student

UK - Since it opened its doors (and, indeed, retractable roof) in 1999, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium has hosted myriad high-profile sporting and music events. From special rally stages and speedway races to concerts featuring the likes of U2, The Police and The Rolling Stones, the venue has welcomed them all.

But it's rugby with which the Millennium Stadium is most closely associated - it is, after all, home to the Welsh rugby union team and recently saw two of the Six Nations 2015 matches played out on its turf.

For several years a PreSonus digital mixer has been at the heart of th

UK - Chroma-Q Color One 100 LED Pars made their debut at Worthing's Connaught Theatre beaming bright, primary colours for an all-star production of Aladdin.

Originally an early cinema called the Picturedrome, in 1935 the venue was turned into a theatre when the Worthing Repertory Company outgrew its own premises - bringing with it the name Connaught Theatre. Last year's pantomime, Aladdin, starred singer Jon Lee of multi-million selling band S Club 7, alongside Britain's Got Talent semi-finalists Kieran Sutcliffe and Sarah Jameson.

The Color One 100 LED Pars wer

UAE - Portuguese audio manufacturer brand NEXT-proaudio has announced the appointment of its new distributor for the United Arab Emirates. The distribution company is Echo Beats Electronics, and from now on they will handle the exclusive distribution of NEXT-proaudio products for that market.

Echo Beats Electronics is part of a regional group with more than 27 years of experience in professional audio, lighting and A/V Equipment and more than 10 years in the broadcast industry.

"We are very happy to start this distribution with Echo Beats. We found a very professional company t

UK - The Technical Department Ltd, a specialist electrical contractor providing generators, switchgear, transformers, cabling and lighting for events worldwide, are a proud Bronze Corporate Benefactor of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Kensington Gardens, London.

"The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2015 has been designed by SelgasCano, our team look forward to supporting them later this year," the company says.

Belgium - Global visualization leader Barco is proud to launch Barco Capital, its new portfolio of equipment financing options. Barco Capital opens up new ways for customers to finance their investment in cutting-edge Barco technology to boost their business while balancing the payment spike.

The Barco Capital portfolio is initially available for the Digital Cinema, Venues and Hospitality, and Retail and Advertising product portfolios, starting with customers based in Europe and the Americas.

"For both current and potential Barco customers, it's essential to keep abreast of the

UK - A special version of Robe's Robin LEDWash 800 PureWhite SW fixture was specified by lighting designer and broadcast lighting and visual media effects specialist, Manfred Ollie Olma, from Cologne, Germany based lighting and visual design practice, mo2 design, for the new state-of-the-art Al Jazeera broadcast studio in London.

The studio, located on the 16th floor of The Shard in London features 80 of these Robe moving lights.

mo2 design was commissioned by set design and constructor Studio Hamburg, Germany's leading production service centre for film and television, which instal

UK - Acorn Event Structures has been awarded the prestigious contract to provide the complete staging package for the UK's No.1 electronic music festival - Creamfields. Held on the August back holiday, Creamfields is now considered the premier electronic music festival in the UK and attracts an audience of 70,000 to its Daresbury Estate venue.

Acorn will supply two 60m wide outdoor stage roofs using their Space Roof product combined with steel truss video wings to support 730sq.m of LED screen. Each main stage will be supplied complete with a newly designed cowshed arrangement, front-

China - Beijing-based RV Sun Acoustics has been appointed distributor for Pan Acoustics, the advanced steerable audio specialist from Wolfenbüttel in Germany.

Alan Li, vice general manager of RV Sun Acoustics explained their choice of Pan Beam, "With many column speakers available in the market over the last 10+ years, many companies have engineered their own solutions as part of an existing range of products in an attempt to tap into the growing market.

"We have been looking at the various solutions available in the market and all had their strengths and weaknesses, heav

UK - Fulbridge Academy in Peterborough is a primary school that was recently judged as 'outstanding' by Ofsted. A culturally and socially diverse school with children from more than 25 countries, it is renowned for its creative approach to the curriculum.

In keeping with its pioneering, forward thinking ethos, Fulbridge has enhanced its internal surroundings with a thought-provoking series of themed areas that relate to specific topics being studied by its children. The school contacted integrators Playfords, with a view to adding a carefully manageable audio element to the project an

UK - From its award-winning venue, to its business only focus and change in opening hours, PLASA 2015 has its sights firmly set on providing a show that delivers on every level.

"This will be our third year at London's ExCeL," says Christopher Toulmin, director of Events Division at PLASA. "Relocating events is never an easy decision to make but the closure of Earls Court made it inevitable. Our move to ExCeL- the only venue in London that can fully support the technical requirements of our industry- has proved the right decision and has enabled us to pursue our excitin

UK - As one of Prolyte's distributors for the UK, AED Distribution UK are uniquely placed to provide a raft of solutions to Prolyte users by combining services from the AED Toolbox with the Prolyte trussing & staging offering.

First of those solutions is free product training and support. On 22 and 23 April a Prolyte Campus was held at the Distribution UK facility located in High Wycombe.

Over 20 professionals attended during the two days, taking away a variety of hands-on experience and real-life experiments.

The Campus is a Prolyte Group driven initiative to support its customer

USA - In order to remake itself as a premier destination for all manner of educational, cultural, and artistic activities, the new $422m home of the Whitney Museum includes more than 13,000sq.ft of designated event space including four outdoor terraces, a restaurant, café, public gathering space, educational centre, library reading room, and on the sixth floor, a flexible, multipurpose theatre which will give the Whitney the freedom to host live music, theatrical performances, lectures, movie screenings, social events, and more.

The 2,300sq.ft theatre is a collaboration between

Mexico - They may be on a smaller scale than the Olympic Games but the 22nd Central American and Caribbean Games packed just as much glitz and glamour into their opening ceremonies in Veracruz, Mexico. Lighting designer David Grill, of David Grill and Associates, Inc. (DGA) in Mahwah, New Jersey, used grandMA2 lighting consoles to illuminate the festivities.

The Central American and Caribbean Games are held every four years with athletes from the region competing in a variety of sports, some of which qualify them for the Pan American Games. The Games were staged in the newly refurbish

USA - Ariana Grande's 77-show Honeymoon Tour is the breakout artist's first tour to deploy a Meyer Sound Leo and Lyon linear sound reinforcement system. According to FOH engineer Toby Francis, the system has proven to be the perfect vehicle for delivering Grande's potent voice over the sound of screaming fans in sellout arenas.

"I can't say enough about the Leo system," says Francis, who has previously mixed Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Kanye West, and New Kids on the Block. "Ariana's vocals sound absolutely amazing through it. I've had some visiting engineers comment on how 'in-

USA - The Perelman theatre in Philadelphia's Kimmel Centre for the Performing arts is primarily a recital room but also serves as the venue's cinema.

David Conner is the centre's audio department head: "We have just completed a significant investment in the Perelman cinema system, this is now full 4k specification, a 32,000 lumen Barco projector, 40ft wide Stewart Filmscreen, and a bespoke 7:1 audio system using d&b audiotechnik V-Series and E-Series, designed and implemented by Pete Cosmos at systems integrator, Acme Professional.

Seating 650 and with two shallow balconies abo

Italy - Creative technology expert Realtime Environment Systems Ltd (RES) has completed an 18-month project, working in collaboration with media agency Innovision and content creators Immersive, to design, install and pixel map 1000s of LEDs for two of four giant metal LED sculptures created for Expo Milano 2015.

Situated in the heart of the Expo, in the Piazza Italia sponsored by Siemens, the four 10m-high shimmering tree-like sculptures anchor the four corners of the central square.

Conceived by Polish-American artist and architect Daniel Libeskind, each structure's dynamic form s

Denmark - After much speculation in the pro audio industry, Uli Behringer's Music Group has announced its acquisition of TC Group, one of the largest groupss of companies in the pro audio industry. The deal has been signed and it is expected to close within days.

Headquartered in Denmark, and with offices worldwide, TC Group owns well-known brands Tannoy, Lab.gruppen, Lake, TC Electronic, TC Helicon and TC Applied Technologies.

Music Group adds Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake to its professional install and touring sound offerings, alongside Midas, Klark Teknik and Turbosound, while TC

Latest Issue. . .