UK - High Kirk Presbyterian Church in Ballymena, Co. Antrim, Ireland, recently installed Allen & Heath GLD digital mixers as part of a major refurbishment project.

The Church purchased two GLD-112 desks - one for live sound and one for recording - plus, an AR2412 and two AR84 IO expanders. The two desks were fitted with M-Dante network cards, providing simple to use multitrack recording capabilities.

The Church needed to satisfy a variety of operators with the choice of console. Some only use the desk one or two times a month, whilst others are professional sound engineers.

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USA - Six years after installing a Meyer Sound system in its Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College in Oakland, Calif. has again turned to Meyer Sound to add a UPQ-1P loudspeaker system. The new addition works seamlessly with the hall's existing Meyer Sound equipment to support an array of experimental and electronic music performances and recording sessions for the college's Center for Contemporary Music (CCM).

"Meyer Sound speakers are refined and silky in the high end, and I don't know of any better sounding speaker for this room than UPQ-1Ps," states Les Stuck, technica

USA - Rock band R5 is out on their Sometime Last Night tour using an Elation Professional rig of Cuepix Panels, Rayzor Q7 LED moving heads and Platinum Beam Extremes. Made up of four siblings and a best friend, R5 hit the road in Florida in early July and are making their way across the country on a seven-week summer leg in support of their new Sometime Last Night release.

Lighting and video vendor for the tour is Toucan Productions of Oklahoma City, their second tour with the band after supplying a smaller tour last year. "On this tour, the band chose to forego LED

USA - Like many churches with the inspiration and space to make it happen, Hendersonville First United Methodist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee recently added to its Sunday morning lineup a contemporary service in the building's gymnasium. As excitement and attendance grew, First United called on veteran praise band guitarist and sound system design guru Scott Oliver, owner of Centerline Audio Visual, to replace the temporary sound reinforcement system it had been using with a permanent system.

After a comprehensive loudspeaker shootout, Oliver and the church's decision makers ho

Italy - Fedez's tour follows the success of his album Pop-Hoolista, which was a permanent fixture in the top 20 for more than 24 weeks, earning him a double platinum award. His tour of arenas and clubs included challenging venues, like the Mediolanum Forum just outside Milan and the PalaLottomatica in Rome.

Lighting designer Francesco De Cave reports, "Fedez impressed me with his way with words. He knows just what he wants. I conceived the tour and the ideas for the set design with Mario Zappa, from F&P Group, in response to Fedez's own ideas. Fedez wrote the show himself.

UK - Over the past year, White Light has continued to expand both its services and expertise across a variety of entertainment fields. Whilst remaining the leading theatrical lighting supplier, the complete production solution specialist has recently supported touring concerts for artists such as 50 Cent and Frankie Valli, historic occasions such as the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary, as well as festivals such as the Winslow Hall Opera and Glastonbury. One of the most significant developments has been its expansion into audio and video. As a result, White Light now requires a team of fre

USA - Spurred by growing student populations and a general shift toward high-tech teaching support systems, Becker High School in Becker, Minnesota and United South Central K-12 in Wells, Minnesota undertook new construction projects that were only recently completed. Becker added a swimming pool and a 900-seat auditorium, and USC erected a whole new school that includes a 600-seat auditorium, a primary gymnasium, an auxiliary gymnasium, and a commons area. David Peterson of Peterson AV designed the sound systems for both projects, and VSI, a Mankato-based integration firm, performed th

Jamaica - Lake Tahoe is 2,964 miles from Jamaica. That may seem like a long way, but it's a mere hop, skip and a jump compared to Hawaii, which lies over 5,200 from the Caribbean island. Still, in a testament to the universality of music, the Nevada resort hosted a wildly popular Reggae Festival headlined by Iration, a Billboard chart-topping group that hails not from the island of Jamaica, but from other islands in Hawaii.

Keying the lightshow for the group's Lake Tahoe performance, which took place at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, was a collection of pixel-mapped Chauvet DJ COLORb

UK - i-Pix's new db1 video / beam light-source made its UK dance event debut at the 2015 Manchester International Festival (MIF)'s 10x10 Day & Night, a special two night collaboration between MIF and The Warehouse Project (WHP) to celebrate 10 years of both events in the city of Manchester.

Manchester based lighting specialist dbn was providing lighting and visuals. When the organisers confirmed they wanted something inventive and different, the db1s were proposed by dbn and i-Pix' Chris Ewington ... and they found the additional production budget needed for the 23 fixtures to grace t

India - With the latest figures indicating that India has now surpassed China as the world's fastest-growing large economy, the country's diverse industrial and business communities have never been more dynamic. India's professional AV installation sector is no exception, and now its proponents are set to have even greater access to high-quality DSP technology thanks to a new country-wide distribution agreement between Symetrix and Awan.

A highly respected systems integrator as well as long-serving AV distributor, Awan represents numerous high-end brands including Sennheiser, Televic,

USA - The Manor Complex is located about 32 miles north of South Beach, but the crowds that jam pack this spacious 20,000sq.ft venue don't feel a compelling need to journey south on I-95. Why should they? There isn't much that can't be found at this very well-appointed superlative nightclub that features a jolt of eye-popping new energy, courtesy of Rogue and ÉPIX Series fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Owners Paul Hugo and Brett Tannenbaum added the Chauvet fixtures to the already powerful lightshow in the bi-level nightclub, because they believe it's important to keep thei

UK - Blackout's sewing department manufactured a bespoke drape for Take That's 2015 tour, used as the projection surface for a magical shadow puppetry scene, April 2015 - October 2015.

Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald are making their way across Europe on a 51 date tour; their first as a three-piece band. Renowned for their impressive production - think Progress Tour's OM Robot - the 2015 tour is no different, with a myriad of standout moments to make the crowd go 'wow'.

One of these is the moment when the 'under-the-sea' scene is revealed to the audience, complete with psyc

UK - Paolo Nutini recently played a concert at Millennium Square in Leeds, UK, right in the city centre, for which the production (flown) lighting rig of Robe BMFLs, Pointes and LEDWash 600s was supplied by locally based Zig Zag Lighting for event promoter Futuresound Events.

Paolo's lighting designer Jason Hyne brought his touring specials package in 'underneath' this, and combined the two lighting rigs to create another stunning and dramatic show that thrilled the 7000 enthusiastic fans at the sold out show.

Zig Zag works regularly with the promoter and is familiar with the 14m sq

Namibia - The National Theatre of Namibia has taken delivery of an ETC Ion control desk, thanks to ETC's South African dealer Prosound.

Prosound's general manager Ian Blair says:, "We recently did an extensive upgrade for the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, and on one of our follow up visits, we called in at the National Theatre of Namibia, where we met technical and IT manager Jack Francis Jnr and head of lighting Asser Kauazunda.

"Asser and Jack advised that their current old theatre console had reached the end of its life - but, with the upcoming Independence Theatre

UK - Staff from Martin Audio subjected themselves to a real endurance test recently when they took up the Grand Union 50K Challenge, organized by Action Challenge. That's 31 miles in old money!

Encouraged by team captain Sophie McCurdy, strongly supported by Simon Bull, the team - which also included David Morbey, Maureen Hayes, Nigel Meddemmen, Debbie Moore, Andy Baldwin, Lydia Blackwood and Russell Lee - set out at 9am from Watford's Cassiobury Park and finished at 10.30pm. The total walking time was nine and a half hours (plus rest stops) and the route took them along the Grand Uni

UK - Rap superstar 50 Cent and his group G-Unit returned to London on 17 July for a one-off gig at the O2 Arena. Produced by Musicalize, they approached White Light to act as lighting supplier.

White Light's project manager Josh Yard comments,"This concert ticked every box for us. Not only were we working at a prolific venue but also supporting one of the most notable names in the music industry today." During the concert, White Light worked closely with lighting designer Fraser Elisha who was tasked with constructing the lighting set-up for the evening. He comments, "F

USA - Dallas-based rental and production company Gemini Light, Sound & Video recently added 480 Elation EPT6IP LED video panels to its inventory and immediately took the 6.7mm pixel pitch panels out on a major summer tour and high profile event with more to come.

"We had been searching for quite a while for a good touring LED panel and visited the InfoComm show in 2014 with the goal of finding one we could use in 2015 and beyond," stated John Stem of GeminiLSV, whose criteria for the panel included high resolution, IP65 rating and sturdy touring frame. They were also looking

South Africa -The Hollard Insurance Group, South Africa's largest privately owned insurance group, has invested in low consumption Anolis LED lighting to enhance the exterior signage at the Hollard Campus, a landmark property situated in Parktown, Johannesburg.

HKLM were the brand agency of the upgrade and commissioned DWR Distribution to install eight Anolis ArcPad 48 RGBW integral fixtures to illuminate four Hollard signs. This was Grant Joubert's first lighting assignment as the new architectural sales consultant at DWR.

The project consisted of two separate buildings, each with

Italy - At the beginning of the summer, Rome's San Giovanni (St John Lateran) Square hosted a reported crowd of a million people of all ages from all over Italy, gathered in support of the family, in favour of children's rights to have a mother and a father, and making an apolitical and non-denominational protest against the introduction of "gender ideology" in schools.

The company with the task of ensuring that such a large crowd managed to follow every word of the speakers alternating on stage was Cipiesse (Centro di Programmazione Spettacoli) Srl, founded in 1979 and head

UK - UK - Jands Vista v2 has been specified to provide control for all lighting aspects of Lego Friends to the Rescue, an all-new live show spectacular which recently opened at the Legoland Windsor Resort.

Lego Friends to the Rescue is set in the resort's new land, Heartlake City, which recreates the fun and colourful world of the popular Lego Friends toy range.

During the show, guests join Heartlake City's five female characters on an action packed adventure which is full of music, dance and special effects. Dominating the effects is the harbour's lighthouse, which is

Weather Report - The final day of Lollapalooza music festival ended early after a second severe storm threatened Chicago. Florence & the Machine finished their set with Dog Days before running off stage on the final day. Earlier tens of thousands of festival-goers had to leave the city's Grant Park as lightning threatened the area. Fans were told to evacuate and go to one of three underground parking garages designated as emergency evacuation shelters.

Windy City - Edinburgh Fringe's first dedicated circus venue has been forced to delay the opening of its larger auditori

UK - With a major roster of artists on its books - and one of its long-term charges Ed Sheeran recently undertaking a stadium tour, UK-based rental company Major Tom Ltd was eager to keep its digital audio systems constantly evolving.

"We had been looking at investing in an Optocore system for a while, admits Major Tom's Andy Banks. "We have been massive DiGiCo users since they started out, and as such have always used the Optocore products within the DiGiCo set up."

But recently they purchased their own independent system, comprising multiple X6R and V3R converters w

Czech Republic - Robe helped launch Yaron Abulafia's new book The Art of Light on Stage: Lighting in Contemporary Theatre at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial. Robe is sponsoring this work by the artist and award winning lighting designer.

The launch - attended by over 300 guests - took place at the Hybernia Theatre in central Prague. The book is the first history and analysis of theatre lighting design that brings the story bang up to date, with Yaron exploring the poetics of light and charting the evolution of lighting design against the background of contemporary performance.

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