UK - Bristol-based lighting and visuals specialist Fineline Lighting is supplying LED screens and supports for the Rugby World Cup fan zone in picturesque Northernhay Gardens in Exeter city centre.

The venue - which also includes food stalls - is being facilitated by Exeter City Council. It enables rugby fans without a ticket to Sandy Park or other games to enjoy the buzz plus all the thrills and spills of the 2015 Rugby World Cup match days as they unfold on the big screen in this convenient location in an official Rugby World Cup host city.

There are two video screens, the main one comprising 63 panels of Lighthouse R7 screen totalling around 50sq.m, which is flown on a truss installed towards the back of a Serious Stages 16 metre Supernova stage. There's capacity in front of this for up to 5000 sports fans.

Fineline's crew also installed two general purpose lighting truss

Italy - On 1-2 October Yamaha Commercial Audio hosted its first symposium, in Milan. Titled High Quality Sound in Architectural Applications, the symposium attracted over 70 systems integrators, theatre consultants and IT/AV consultants from 15 European countries. It combined keynote presentations from leading audio industry figures with visits to three high profile Milan installations which rely on Yamaha Commercial Audio products.

Hosted in the Milano Congressi Exhibition Centre (MiCo), the keynotes covered a range of important topics relevant to installed sound design.

Following the keynotes, the delegates were taken on a tour of MiCo, Europe's largest congress centre whose entire audio signal infrastructure was upgraded in 2014 with a Yamaha-based networked solution. This features 28 QL1, one CL5 and one M7CL digital mixing consoles, 28 Rio1608-D and two Rio3224-D i

USA - A new pair of Meyer Sound CAL column array loudspeakers has improved intelligibility for speech, video playback, and music in the public boardroom of LA Metro, the regional transit agency serving Los Angeles County. The CAL system is a keystone element in a complete AV retrofit of the 300-seat facility designed and installed by the Los Angeles office of AVI-SPL.

"I was immediately impressed with the sound quality of CAL," says Arlen Sanders, project manager for LA Metro. "No matter where you are sitting in the audience, the sound is always present, at just the right level. It goes beyond just excellent intelligibility-you get the feeling the person is right there in front of you, even when speaking from across the room."

The prior system was prone to comb-filtering effects that impaired intelligibility and generated feedback when the system was pushed

UK - Triple E has supplied a 12" ModTruss Rigging Structure to Cumbria-based Work at Height specialist Lyon Equipment for use as a platform for its Work at Height and rescue training.

The Lyon team first discovered ModTruss - the 'universal building system' likened to full size Meccano - at the ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace in June, where it was named 'Engineering Product of the Year'. Lyon Equipment's Ben Alderson used Triple E's Fly Tower, constructed from ModTruss, to carry out rescue demonstrations using Petzl and Lyon Work at Height and rescue equipment.

"When we first set up our systems, we were instantly impressed with how easy ModTruss was to climb on - the design of the product allows the user to climb it in a similar manner to a ladder," says Alderson. "The size of the smaller holes, certainly on the 12" section, means the user can at

USA - Lighting designer C. Andrew Dunning of Landru Design specified the award-winning Jands Vista system to provide simple yet powerful control for Worship services at The Fellowship Ministries' Two Rivers Campus in Nashville, Tennessee.

In addition to being the owner of Landru Design - which offers lighting design and consulting services for Houses of Worship, corporate events, conferences, and festivals - Andrew is the LD and part of the production team for the main 400-seat Worship Centre space at the Two Rivers Campus. Beyond programming and running services, he also maintains the lighting system and supports the team of production volunteers.

Andrew worked closely with Josh Holowicki of lighting sales and production company, E2i Design - who also passionately support a number of Houses of Worship and education centers in the region - to supply the Jands Vista system.

&

UK - Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and rigging for the most recent Rudimental UK tour renewing their long term working relationship with designer Jonny Gaskell, culminating in a show at Alexandra Palace.

The tour started back in March and Jonny's visual concept - in its full incarnation - gradually revealed more elements as the set unfolded, an effervescent and cheeky mash-up of colour, movement, bouncing beams and lively visuals delivered with the band's characteristic carnivalesque and slightly edgy vibe - matching the infectious beat of their music.

The launch of the We The Generation album which shot to the UK number one slot in early October generated yet more excitement as eager fans flocked to catch the band's epic live performances.

The stage set was designed to be scaled to fit into various different spaces, however, only the largest venues - incl

Germany - Vive la France was the motto of this year's Wassershow at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg. The four largest water events in Europe were dedicated to Louis XIV, the French King famous for the water shows he held at Versailles. They took the spectators on a virtual journey through La Grande Nation.

The combination of fire, water, video, lights, lasers and music involved almost all the expanses of water found in the car city's park. The lighting designer Andreas 'Mini' Mertens used grandMA2 consoles once again. A total of four grandMA2 light consoles, three grandMA2 full-size consoles and 1 grandMA2 fader wing were used to control the lights, pyrotechnics and fountain effects.

The moving lights included 50 Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330s and 20 Clay Paky Mythos units. "I asked specifically for these moving heads and LED lights for the Wassershow especially since I wan

The Netherlands - The new Stage Entertainment Holland production of The Bodyguard has recently opened at the Beatrix Theatre in Utrecht, The Netherlands, to rave reviews, sold out houses and nightly standing ovations. The colourful, richly textured and highly entertaining performance has plenty of theatrical magic and intricate and spectacular lighting by Luc Peumans of creative practice, Painting with Light.

Luc, well known across Benelux for his innovative lighting and visual designs for theatre, live music shows and television, has worked for the producers on several other projects including Dream Girls, however this is the first time he collaborated with director Carline Brouwer.

The ambitious video set was designed by Carla Janssen Hofelt who commissioned Ad de Haan to produce the content, and together with technical director Ed Wielstra chose the material t

UK - BGLX Production Services started life as Blue Giant Lighting just half a dozen years ago. Since then the company, under the guidance of director Francis White-Robinson, has grown and expanded enormously. Now a fully fledged production house, BGLX services the complete needs of an eclectic mix of clientele, supplying lights, sound, AV and crew for corporate events, touring acts and one-off shows.

"I was pretty much bought up on MA consoles; my very first professional job was at Cromer Pier Pavilion Theatre with a grandMA1 light which I believe is still in use," opens White-Robinson. "When I went to university, I purchased a 2-port node and that quickly became the standard control along with OnPC. Since then, I have used a grandMA2 on numerous occasions but the company has never been in the position to purchase one. Then I heard about the dot2."

White-Ro

Argentina - The country's biggest reggae festival is La Fiesta Mas Popular del Reggae, this year using Nexo STM modular line array systems for an impressive list of international performers, including Kenyatta Hill and local stars Nonpalidece.

With six studio albums to their name, festival headliners Nonpalidece have been Argentina's leading reggae band for nearly twenty years and regular performers at music festivals all over the country. Also on the bill was Ponto de Equilibio from Brasil, the Daara J.Family Sound System from Senegal, and C4, also from Argentina. All acts were using Nexo's 45°N12 line monitors on stage.

Rental company Valiente Produciones, with support from Los Angeles Musica, designed a substantial STM rig for the venue, the Platense Stadium in Buenos Aires, which has capacity for 32,000 people.

Argentina is now one of the primary markets in south Ame

UK - Cult US punk rock band Offspring recently played two major UK dates in Manchester and London whilst warming up for a festival run, with all their characteristic onstage rambunctiousness, further energised by a lightshow created by long term LD Lawrence Upton who is based in Chicago. The gigs were also part of on the ongoing Coming For You world tour ahead of the band's ninth studio album, which is expected in 2016.

Lawrence utilised Robe BMFL Spots for the first time, 16 of which were provided by Leeds based Zig Zag Lighting, together with another 52 Robe moving lights - 20 x Pointes, 22 x LEDWash 600s and 10 x 600E Spots. Zig Zag, was one of the first rental companies to invest in the fixtures.

Lawrence's show - he has worked with the band for some years - is full of big, bold, loud, hard-edged rock-out looks, for which BMFLs are absolutely bang-on to match the ba

Mexico - A crown jewel of Mexico City's club scene is Hyde. Decorated with LED panels and colour changing Swarovski candelabrums, the club makes a powerful visual impression. Recently that impression was ramped up even further by the installation of a new lighting system featuring 32 Rogue fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Rodrigo Molina of Light Moxion created the new system, using a lighting design fashioned by Michael Meacham of iDesign Productions (Miami) to bring more movement and energy to the popular club, which regularly showcases big name DJs from Las Vegas, New York and Europe. Molina and Meacham's plan called for 16 Rogue RH1 Hybrid and 16 Rogue R2 Beam fixtures to be installed over the dance floor and performance area.

The new lighting design is built around two concentric circular structures in the middle of the ceiling, which were positioned around a huge cande

Spain - Chosen for festivals throughout Europe over the summer, the Roland M-5000 and M-5000C Live Digital Console combination once again proved to be a hit with the engineers at the recent Barcelona Acció Musical (BAM) Festival.

Taking care of FOH and monitors for the La Mercé headline stage at BAM, the M-5000 and M-5000C together with Roland Digital Snakes provided a flexible and intuitive solution with their O.H.R.C.A architecture rapidly adapting to all the changing requirements and offering appropriate workflows for each situation.

The BAM Festival, now in its twentieth year, comprises of more than 40 bands playing different venues across Barcelona over five days and coincides with La Mercé, the city's patron saint festival. BAM is renowned for bringing together technology and tradition, music and the performing arts and 2015 saw Marc Campillo, the founder

USA - The new season of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew (ABDC) premiered on 29 July with lighting designer Victor Fable turning to a lighting rig from Elation Professional to light the recently revived dance reality show competition. Victor served as lighting designer for the first five seasons of the show, which had a seven season run that ended in 2012, so when the dance competition was resurrected this year for season eight, they knew exactly where to find an experienced television LD who also knew what the show was all about.

Season eight, titled America's Best Dance Crew All-Stars: Road to the VMAs pitted six all-star dance crews against each other - including five previous champions - with the stage at Warner Brothers Studio 19 in Los Angeles the site of weekly dance offs for the $100,000 grand prize.

"They didn't have a huge budget and I had little ti

USA - Pulse Stage Lighting of Union, NJ recently provided a range of Avolites consoles for The Rock Carnival at Oak Ridge Park in nearby Clark, lighting acts like Godsmack, Slash, Stone Temple Pilots, Anthrax, Sevendust and dozens of other hard rock bands on three stages over two days.

To best accommodate the festival's lighting needs, every stage was equipped with an Avolites desk: a Pearl Expert with Touch Wing on Stage A, Avo's flagship Sapphire Touch on Stage B, and a Tiger Touch on a third smaller stage featuring mostly rock tribute acts.

When Pulse Stage Lighting president Scott de Villers first took his company out of his basement and into a pickup truck in the early '90s, he worked with Avolites products. Today, Pulse has grown into a regional powerhouse supporting acts like Alicia Keys, Neil Diamond, Smashmouth, Salt-N-Pepa, Coolio and Adam Lambert, as well as events

UK Central Hall Westminster is Central London's largest conference centre. As Production Service Partner, White Light oversees all of the technical production support inside the venue and, over the next few months, will be installing the very latest lighting, AV and rigging technology. As part of this long-term upgrade, WL recently added a brand new motorised rigging system to the Great Hall, which will enhance any event that takes place inside this iconic space.

Prior to the installation, the rigging system inside the Great Hall had to be set up every time a different event took place. Jason Larcombe, WL's project manager, comments, "The motor rigging system consists of several LTM LoadGuard motors which are extremely adaptable to events of all sizes. Previously, if we wanted to rig equipment from the ceiling, this had to be manually carried and installed; quite an arduous

USA - It is one of New York's chicest event venues. Commanding incredible views of the city's harbour from Brooklyn's trendy Red Hook neighbourhood, Liberty Warehouse has been the scene of parties for big name celebrities from every field. Jay Z and Beyoncé danced the night away at this Civil War-era waterfront warehouse to celebrate the release of Hov's Magna Carta Holy Grail. When Hillary Clinton declared her candidacy for the presidency, her first stop in Brooklyn was at a Liberty Warehouse fundraiser.

When New York A-listers tie the knot, they often choose to hold their weddings and ceremonies at this prestigious facility. This was the case recently when a prominent event planner got married. She called on Jeffrey Kwan of Canal Sound and Light to light the ceremony. Kwan delivered an elegant lighting package with mood-setting uplighting and stylish pin spotting

UAE - A team of Avolites S4 servers, Expert Pro console with Wing and TitanNet Processors were deployed to control more than 350 fixtures and 150sq.m of LED screens for an extraordinary party to open WHITE Club Dubai's new season.

Procom Middle East, the Dubai-based professional audio, lighting and video equipment supplier and Avolites official distributor delivered the venue at the request of Addmind, the venue's owner and manager.

They teamed up with club lighting designer Dave Parry of Most Technical, lighting programmers Ross Chapple and Tony Chidiac, and Immersive's John Munro and Martin Harvey to create the awesome event.

"The club's opening party set a new frontier in entertainment technology, giving a 'reality-altering' experience with impressive lighting shows, effects and a cutting edge video mapping show on a 3D video wall," says Procom's Rami Harfouch.<

Canada - October is a big month for Montreal-based crowd activation pioneers, PixMob. After illuminating crowds at a massive event for every day of the month they're finishing the month with their own North American tour.

Four NBA teams chose PixMob to light up their season openers, taking place over three days. From 28-30 October the Sacramento Kings, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indianapolis Pacers will transform their audiences into a human canvas made of light.

After illuminating the NBA All-Star weekend earlier this year, PixMob has become the go-to company in the sports world, known for transforming an arena of 20,000 people into a crowd united by technology.

NBA season openers aside, next week will be a busy one for PixMob. Its creative and production teams will be in the following places simultaneously: Dubaï for Sensation, an electronic

South Africa - This year's Rocking the Daisies - which coincided with the festival's tenth birthday - was the biggest and best year yet. It was the fifth time that Kilowatt AV saw involvement in the festival, this year being commissioned to conceptualise, design and fully execute four of the eight stages (where they incorporated Avolites Ai technology and Robe fixtures) as well as multiple activation areas.

Rocking the Daisies was held at the start of October at the Cloof Wine Estate in Darling, under an hour's drive from Cape Town, and included a line up of international and local musical acts, camping, relaxing and good food. In fact the owners never suspected that what started off, as a small festival on their tranquil grounds, would turn into one of the most popular annual music occasions on the South African calendar.

"We were commissioned by Seed Experiences to prov

Sweden - Hyrljudet is a fast-growing technical production and rental company based in Goteborg, founded in 2005 by Kristoffer Jansson.

Literally translated, the name means 'Sound Rental', but Hyrljudet supplies complete production packages - incorporating design, sound, lighting and video - to a variety of concert tours, music events and corporate clients, with a special interest in the creative and atmospheric engineering of clubs and parties through exciting and challenging visual elements.

The most recent equipment investment has been in 24 of Robe's Pointe multi-purpose fixtures, which have gone to work over the summer in the two largest of the three separate summer club venues that Hyrljudet is servicing with equipment and crew.

"The Pointe is a good lightweight, medium-sized fixture with great cross-rental potential," comments Kristoffer, "Looking at the

USA - Japanese Broadcaster NHK has fielded a new OB truck in the US market fitted with Lawo technology and designed specifically to capture major US sports events and deliver a high-quality audio experience to its viewers back home.

The new mobile unit is the first RAVENNA-based truck in the US, utilizing Lawo's newest dual-fader mc²56XT mixing console. The console provides a 64 fader surface in an audio booth with only 84 inches of linear space. It accommodates 288 DSP paths with 8,192 x 8,192 audio routing capability and three DALLIS I/O stageboxes in a redundant configuration.

The RAVENNA technology fully supports AES67 and offers a proven solution for critical broadcasting operations. In addition, the truck is capable of up to 22.2 surround sound as a potential audio delivery format for the network. In a long-standing cooperative effort between NHK and Lawo, the two compa

UK - Pro audio provider The Warehouse Sound Services is teaming up with Audio-Technica, the UK distributor for Allen & Heath to showcase their digital mixing system, dLive.

A free demonstration will take place at Warehouse Sound's Glasgow Branch on 11 November. The Warehouse is the only Scottish supplier of the Allen & Heath dLive desks so the event will provide members of the live audio an opportunity to see the system in action.

The showcase will be hosted by Audio-Technica's Ben Hammond (FOH Engineer for Ugly Kid Joe, You Me At Six, Devin Townsend Project, Skid Row, While She Sleeps, We Are The Ocean). Hammond will spearhead dLive training and demonstration for The Warehouse Sound's UK customers and engineers providing industry professionals with in-depth training, demonstration and support.

Hammond comments, "The new dLive mixing system is an exciting new developmen

UK - The opening ceremony of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, conceived and executed by Take That's creative director Kim Gavin firmly focussed the attention of the world's TV cameras on the contest in uncompromising terms.

"I'm really pleased with what we did at Twickenham Stadium," said production manager Steve Nolan of Chromatic Productions Ltd, who were contracted to manage the event. "We put 14 truck-loads of gear on the field without damaging the turf. When the opening ceremony was over it took just nine minutes and 26 seconds to clear the ground so the teams could enter for the warm-up. That's all down to planning, and Tom Brown from Britannia Row Productions Ltd (Britrow) who provided all the audio infra-structure in the stadium and to broadcast, was highly instrumental in realising that plan."

"The pitch system was relatively straight forward,"

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