UK - With the Rugby World Cup now well in train it's opportune to reflect on an event at the O2 Arena, when, as a curtain raiser to the England campaign, sponsors O2 presented Wear the Rose. For 20,000 dedicated England supporters this was an evening to engage with the team, but with a twist. A slickly presented hundred-minute question and answer (Q&A) session between team members and compere Vernon Kay was interspersed with video clip highlights from the various players. This was then followed with a 75 minute finale from Take That.

"This started with an approach from O2 for Take That to appear," explains production manager Chris Vaughan. "Once the band had agreed it was a just a short step for their creative manager Kim Gavin to come on board and provide a framework for the whole evening. This was to be a great send off for the team."

For the key v

USA - Scandinavian FOH engineer Mads Staerke, who has mixed Denmark's hip-hop artist L.O.C. for seven years, will be a guest speaker on the Meyer Sound Mixing Workshop webinar series. Staerke will be joining programme host and veteran mixer Buford Jones.

In the webinar, Staerke will discuss the danger of excessive audio compression, his experimentation with large-scale concert system configurations, and his approach to mixing with linear systems like Meyer Sound LEO. An open Q&A will be available for attendees' questions.

The Mixing Workshop schedule: Wednesday, September 30 7AM PDT/2PM UTC; 9AM PDT/4PM UTC. To attend these sessions, sign up for free here. http://www.meyersound.com/events/seminars/webinars.php

In addition to L.O.C., Staerke has mixed jazz (Caroline Henderson), electronic dance music (KATO), rock (Kashmir), pop (Kim Larsen), and more. When not on the road he

UK - Warehouse Sound Services helped this month's BBC Proms in the Park at Glasgow achieve a sensational sound experience after designing, installing and engineering the sound for event and the diverse range of acts involved.

BBC Proms in the Park returned to Glasgow Green this month. The live event took place as part of the BBC's wider Last Night of the Proms celebrations. The event featured X Factor winner Alexandra Burke, Young Traditional Musician of the Year Claire Hastings and world-renowned saxophonist Amy Dickson

The Scottish Symphony Orchestra, under Stephen Bell, performed a versatile show, with music ranging from Bernstein's overture Candide and Sibelius' Karelia Suite to a specially adapted Poldark Suite by composer Anne Dudley from her music for the popular television series, and a host of imaginatively crafted accompaniments to main acts that also included the lo

Europe - Hawthorn, one of London Stock Exchange's '1000 Companies to Inspire Britain 2015', has continued its reach into Europe with two significant events for September 2015.

The creative production company was commissioned by event management experts Taylor Bennett to design and produce all things technical for business events in Cologne and Barcelona.

Hawthorn delivered Taylor Bennett's creative exhibition stands for Adobe and Channel Advisor at dmexco, 16 - 17 September. The Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference 2015 is recognised as the premier global digital marketing event, drawing over 31,000 visitors to Koelnmesse, Cologne.

Last week, Hawthorn's technical team moved south to Barcelona to help realise Taylor Bennett's content rich party for Herbalife. Taking place at Poble Espanyol, over 3,000 guests were treated to a lively festival style reward and recognition

Italy - More than 100 Raptor moving heads from D.T.S. installed by rental company AMG International, highlighted the finals of Miss Italia 2015, hosted by Simona Ventura and broadcast live on La7 television on 20 September.

The beauty contest that crowned Alice Sabatini - chosen from 33 final candidates - was held for the second time at the Pala Arrex of Jesolo, a large modern multi-functional centre dedicated to concerts, congresses, fairs and sporting events.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - It has been confirmed that Showlight 2017 will take place on 20-23 May 2017 in the Renaissance city of Florence, Italy.

The colloquium, organised by lighting professionals, for lighting professionals, is now in its tenth incarnation, its peripatetic nature having taken it to London, Hollywood, Amsterdam, York, Ghent, Edinburgh, Munich, Glasgow, and most recently, Cesky Krumlov in 2013.

Showlight is a bringing together of lighting professionals from all areas of expertise and levels of experience, from wizened professionals to fresh-faced students! The emphasis is on sharing knowledge and enjoying the inspiration and variety our industry offers in a networking event without parallel.

An eclectic programme of speakers will inform and entertain delegates in a series of 20-minute sessions, interspersed by a micro-tradeshow, and accompanied by a social programme which inc

UK - What can just £5 do? It can win you an Amazon Gift Card for £100, £250 or even £500 - but more importantly it can help a colleague in need who has fallen on hard times because they, or an immediate family member, is seriously ill or injured.

Stop by the Behind the Scenes UK stand (C10) at the PLASA Show 5-7 October to do your part to bring help and hope to your colleagues in need. Raffle tickets are just £5 each and will be available throughout the show. The drawing will be held on Tuesday afternoon, 7 October but you do not need to be present to win.

The raffle is to help raise funds for the new UK charity Behind the Scenes which provides grants to entertainment technology professionals that may be used for basic living costs, some medical related expenses, transportation, retraining, or funerals. One grant recipient said, "I just want

UK - Immersive experience studio, Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), has created a virtual reality (VR) work set in Grizedale Forest, the Lake District forest famous for its sculptures.

The project, called In the Eyes of the Animal, takes users on a fascinating journey that allows them to fly above the forest canopy, come face-to-face with hi-definition critters and embody various animals as they traverse the Grizedale landscape.

Through the use of virtual reality, aerial 360° drone filming, LiDAR and CT scanning, Marshmallow Laser Feast creates an experience allowing Abandon Normal Devices Festival (AND Festival) visitors to see the forest through the eyes of its creatures.

Artistically interpreting the sensory world of the animals, Marshmallow Laser Feast has built a real time system that dynamically visualizes precise LiDAR scans of the forest and CT scans of the a

UK - Liverpool based Adlib is full of festival spirit following a highly successful summer of shows and events covering a rich and diverse cross section of concerts and music performances - from Latitude to Leeds/Reading - with lighting, sound, their infectious enthusiasm and characteristic humour.

Creamfields is always a special event for Adlib. The company has been involved with various Cream live activities since the superclub exploded onto the dance scene in the early 90s and has continued to be a major influence right at the epicentre of rave culture.

This year Adlib supplied sound and lighting to three arenas, CF03 the 15,000 capacity Cream Mega Arena; CF05 The Curve Arena - complete with wrap-round production design and CF12 Hospitality, with production overseen by Ian Greenway production manager from LarMac LIVE.

Cornbury 2015 was staged in the attractive leafy envir

South Africa - Cape Town based CS Audio, a busy full technical - sound, lighting, video and structures - solutions and rental operation started in 1995 by Donald Clark, became the third company in South Africa to invest in Robe BMFLs, with the purchase of 12 x BMFL Blades together with 24 of the new DL4S LED Profiles.

These are added to around 150 other Robe moving lights in current rental stock, confirming that Donald is a big of a fan of the brand!

CS's eclectic work schedule covers a broad spectrum of shows and events - corporate and industrials, parties, concerts, music festivals and theatre productions - so adaptability is always a key to choosing lighting products.

The BMFL Blades and DL4Ss were delivered after the 2015 Mediatech expo in Johannesburg by Robe's South African distributor, DWR.

Both types of new fixtures went straight out on a tour with Australian origi

Italy - Audiosales in Italy has reached the end of a busy summer, supporting customers through a succession of festivals and high profile events involving premier Martin Audio PA systems; these have ranged from the flagship MLA system to conventional line arrays.

The first ever Today's Festival welcomed more than 23,000 people across five different locations over three days in Turin's Barriera di Milano - incorporating major concerts, dance events and creative workshops. Some 50 national and international artists performed including American headliners Interpol and TV on the Radio.

In the main stage sPAZIO211, Davide Scalzo, the owner of Microfase, provided a Martin Audio system comprising 12 x W8LC Compact line array per side, with 18 WSX subs, and W8C/W8S as side-fills.

Over in Tuscany, the first edition of Beat 2015 saw a total attendance of over 70,000 people arrive at t

USA - Making the transition from the portable to the permanent is nothing new at Saddleback church. One of the most widely known and highly respected houses of worship in the world, Saddleback started out as a portable church, holding its first service on Easter Sunday, 1980 in the apartment of its founders Rick and Kay Warren. Saddleback, which now has 10 campuses in California and four overseas, did not even acquire its first permanent home until 1993, when it opened the doors of its Lake Forest, CA church.

This June, history repeated itself for Saddleback, when it made the transition from portable church to permanent campus in Anaheim by opening a 40,000-square-foot facility with ten classrooms and a 1,000-person worship area across from Angels Stadium. When it came to lighting the new campus, which is located in a retrofitted building, Saddleback technical director Greg Bake

Mexico - 15 September is one of the most important dates in the Mexican calendar; this year, it marked the 205th Independence Day for the country, with celebrations in the Zócalo public square in Mexico City. Multiple Nexo line array systems were deployed around a special four-sided concert stage, with the full sound reinforcement specification running to 436 Nexo cabinets in total.

Zócalo is one of the largest public plazas in the world. With live music, mass singing and fireworks, the event is attended by 40,000 spectators.

The demanding job of providing sound reinforcement for the event was shared between five audio rental companies with a strong tradition of cooperation. Sound designer Sergio Zenteno coordinated the pooling of equipment inventories from Tecnoson Espectaculos, ROA, Star, Backline and Concepto 3, to create a system that used 12x Nexo line arrays around the

UK - Star Events returns to Showman's Show on the back of a phenomenal season in 2015, which saw it providing infrastructure and ingenuity on grass, on tarmac and on water.

The Star stand, at the corner of Avenues B and G, will be focussed on the company's seating and fencing & barriers portfolio, the latter a component part of events from Cyclo-cross to Latitude Festival.

In the spirit of a taste test, at Showman's, visitors will have the opportunity to directly compare the industry's traditional, uncomfortable folding chairs with Star Events' tip-up, flat floor system, which comes complete with air insulated seats and backs.

This summer, the Star system was used across events including Greenwich Music Time, Nocturne Live at Blenheim Palace and Neil Diamond at Blackpool FC. In all cases the promoters reported superb audience feedback.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Unusual Rigging is proud to announce that it is now meeting over 50% of its annual on-site power consumption with renewable energy via a solar PV system.

The 100KW solar PV system is installed on the roof of Unusual's new 1,056 sq m warehouse, which opened in June this year, and was energized on September 3.

Tom Harper, resource and sustainability manager at Unusual Rigging, explained: "This really is the icing on the cake in our drive to become a green business. Over the past few years, we have been implementing the key concepts of a circular economy - ensuring that all materials streams are efficiently managed and recycled, as well as striving to run entirely on the basis of renewable energy, mitigating negative effects on human life or our ecosystem. This implementation of the solar panels is our most recent step and will significantly reduce our annual C02 footpr

UK - Bend it like Beckham the Musical, which opened to rave reviews this summer, is a striking tale of female footballer Jess, based on the 2002 film of the same name. The musical takes the audience on her journey as she struggles with a big decision - live up to her family expectations of university and marriage or chase her dreams and follow in the footsteps of her hero David Beckham.

When production manager Gary Beestone realised the show would throw a number of interesting challenges at him, he asked Unusual Rigging to provide the entire rigging at London's Phoenix Theatre.

"I've worked with Unusual Rigging on a number of projects in both theatre and events and have always had a great working relationship with them. The show required complete rigging solutions for the overhead flying in the Phoenix and also for the set build, and with a variety of challenging flying p

UK - As part of a busy summer, Illuminate Design has recently completed a number of technical upgrades at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley.

Working with the Hawth's technical manager (Quentin Whitaker), Illuminate Design's technical sales manager Ken Berreen and operations director Andrew Wales designed & installed new sound, lighting and rigging solutions for the venue.

Both the studio and the main theatre benefited from new sound equipment. In the Studio Illuminate Design supplied, Yamaha QL1 mixing console with a digital Yamaha RIO3224D I/O rack, RCF C5212-94 2way speaker system, RCF S 8015 II Subwoofer 15" 1000W - Reflex RCF IPS 2700 Class H power amplifiers and RCF IPS 3700 Class H power amplifiers.

The main theatre system was designed in conjunction with Al Brown from Martin Audio. The new system included Martin Audio W8VDQ speakers, MA 3.0 amplifiers, MA 2.0 Amplifiers

UK - Long-time advocate of Martin Audio's signature sound, venue installation specialist Middlesex Sound & Light (MSL) has wasted no time in introducing the manufacturer's new CDD range to the leisure hospitality industry.

The company has completed several high profile projects including its first installation for the burgeoning Burger & Lobster bar/restaurant brand. For their sixth venue opening in Bath the operators took over the Grade II*-listed Octagon Chapel - originally built in 1767 but recently restored within the courtyards of the city's new Milsom Place retail and restaurant development.

The new CDD - the successor to Martin Audio's popular AQ architectural range -combines distinctive curved enclosures with Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology to deliver high performance, projecting more output to the rear of the audience to distribute sound evenly front-to-bac

UK - PLASA 2015 opens its doors to the public in under a week, but already the lights are on and burning brightly as the industry's leading brands turn their attention towards this year's event. Robe will once again carry the headline sponsor torch, taking their place alongside more than 70 lighting brands and lighting distributors at London's ExCeL exhibition centre between 4- 6 October.

"The visual spectacle of the PLASA Show in full swing is quite a sight," says Christopher Toulmin, director of PLASA Events. "Just the scale of the light show created by our exhibitors is always something special to see. This year we're looking forward to an even bigger display with many new exciting products for visitors to explore."

As lighting brands and distributors come together at this year's show, many of the larger stand areas feature products from groups of market

USA - Country singer David Nail turned to Nashville-based Cour Design for help in creating the lighting for his I'm a Fire tour, a fully MIDI-triggered lighting rig that uses Elation Professional Cuepix Panel LED matrix blinders as the main lighting element.

Gordon Droitcour, co-founder and designer at Cour Design, knew the singer would be opening for artists in large arenas but also needed a rig that would fit into clubs when David headlined his own show. The rig needed to have the same impact in each venue plus fit in a single trailer.

Looking for a vendor who could supply the gear while providing excellent customer support, Droitcour called on Elite Multimedia, also of Nashville. "We've worked with Elite Multimedia on all our projects because their customer service is excellent," Droitcour says. "They are very good at helping us come up with the best s

USA - Every year ETC invites students with an interest in lighting design and stage technology from around the world to apply for the company's annual LDI Sponsorship as a part of its commitment to nurturing young people looking to launch professional careers in the industry.

Sponsorship recipients - five from North America and two international students - are awarded an all-expense-paid trip to the 2015 LDI tradeshow in Las Vegas, 23-25 October, in addition to receiving exclusive ETC swag, backstage access to ETC's show stand and newest products, and will get to attend a special networking reception with the industry's leading professionals. Each student is also paired with a lighting designer mentor who will offer them guidance and support for one full year in order to help them get their fledgling careers of the ground.

ETC has announced the recipients of the 2015 LDI Stude

UK - The annual West End Heroes show takes place this Sunday at the Dominion Theatre in London. The event unites the country's top military musicians with the biggest stars of the West End in a showcase of show-stopping numbers, choreography and unlikely song mash-ups. The event is held to raise money for the Help for Heroes charity and White Light is once again donating the lighting equipment for this important fundraiser.

Help for Heroes is a charity that provides better facilities for British servicemen and women who have been wounded or injured in the line of duty. The donations it receives are used for individual support, rehabilitation centres and its recovery programmes. David Pearson, general manager of the Dominion Theatre, states, "This is a truly unique event as it brings together the very best in West End entertainment in order to support a great cause. E

Germany - The Frappant, an underground art gallery and artists residence in Hamburg Altona, Germany was the site of a widely acclaimed avant-garde exhibition Der liebe Gott (The Dear God). Among the pieces attracting the most attention during the 10-day event was light artist Boris Frentzel-Beyme's haunting and transcendental work Deus luminogaster which draws on the output of carefully placed Freedom Pars from Chauvet DJ to make its powerful impression.

Although the central object of Frentzel-Beyme's work - an embossed plastic sheet manufactured in East Germany during the days of the GDR - is interesting in and of itself, it's the vibrant colours and punchy light of the Freedom Par RGBAW+UV LED fixtures that endow this piece with a captivating holographic and illusory quality.

Frentzel-Beyme's light art consortium, Lumidium, is no stranger to using light to brin

USA - Bandit Lites has again made a large strategic investment into a wide variety of additional, high demand lighting equipment. This investment was created by a high demand on a repeating basis for all of the products involved. Bandit chair Michael T. Strickland stated, "It seemed that no matter how many of these items we purchased monthly, there was always a demand the next month for even more. To meet the demand we have simply ordered a large quantity of each fixture with the knowledge the demand will be there."

Products in the purchase include Robe 1200 LEDWash, Robe BMFL, GLP X4, GLP X4s, GLP X4 Bar 10, Clay Paky B-Eye K20, Aryton Magicdot-R, Aryton Cosmopix-R, Chauvet Rogue R2 Beam, Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrid, Elation Cuepix Panel, Phillips Showline Nitro, Tyler GT Truss, Tyler GT Corners and other Tyler parts. With the massive increase of fixtures, it was only na

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