USA - Robe Lighting rocked Las Vegas this weekend - presenting its largest booth at any LDI expo to date, complete with its first major new product launch at an LDI show with the BMFL Wash and BMFL Wash XF luminaires.

Robe upped the stakes at the popular U.S. entertainment technology exhibition to reflect the surge in growth of its business in the United States, Canada and Latin America.

The eye-catching stand was busy from the moment the show opened, where visitors could enjoy an action packed program including comprehensive demonstrations of all Robe's technology new to the U.S. market.

This included the powerful and refined DL7S Profile, an LED fixture built for theatres and TV studios; the Square, a 5x5 zoomable LED matrix for video projection, pixel animation, beam effects plus a highly effective wash and cyc light with continuous pan/tilt rotation movement; the ColorSt

UK - Russell Howard is about to start filming his 10th series of the hit show Russell Howard's Good News. At first it was made at Riverside Studios but when they closed the show moved to Shepperton. For this 2015 series it is based at The London Studios on the South Bank.

Filmed for BBC Two by Avalon Television, the topical comedy show looks at his unique perspective of some of the big stories dominating the news that week. Good News includes sketches and guest appearances as well as stand up from Russell.

Lighting director Martin Kempton has updated the rig and it now includes a mix of MAC Auras and Martin Stagebar 54s with a few MAC 700s and VL1000s, all supplied by RML. He explained that the Auras are the perfect wash light for this show. "Behind Russell are three giant projected images relating to the topic he is discussing. The stage floor is lit with a

USA - Lighting designer Benoit Richard, of Millennium Lighting Design, Inc, chose his first use of Ayrton MagicDot-R fixtures for the video shoot of NBC's spectacular NFL Sunday Night Football Open, employing 60 units in his design.

The Sunday Night Football opening sequence is the official introduction to America's prime time Sunday night programme and features Carrie Underwood for the third year running. Filmed in June on Stage 23 at Warner Brothers, Burbank, the Open was first broadcast nationwide on 13 September 2015, with weekly updates tailored to feature each Sunday's rival teams.

This year marked a style change - described as Nashville meets Hollywood - with the creation of a large virtual video backdrop and a new arrangement of the famous theme tune, Waiting All Day for Sunday Night, which Underwood performs in front of a live audience, amid real and projected

Italy - Over eighty solid-state FHD Media Players and 10 Wings Engine media servers were deployed in over seven pavilions at Milan Expo 2015.

Leading Technologies SRL, working with several main contractors supplied AV Stumpfl Wings Engine Install and FHD Media Players as core multimedia technology throughout Palazzo Italia, Italy and Iran Pavilions at the Milan EXPO 2015.

Marco Porro, managing director at Leading Technologies srl reports, "All AV Stumpfl products are easy to install and have powerful management and show control capabilities, which makes them the most reliable and functional multimedia technology out there."

"With the talent of Leading Technologies srl and their integration partners, our multimedia and control technology can be found in what we believe are the most eye catching, emotive uses of technology for story telling that the world has ev

Republic of Congo - Brazzaville had the honour of celebrating the 11th edition of the African Games in September 2015, marking not only the 50th anniversary of the Games (held every four years) but also the return to Brazzaville, which hosted the very first edition back in 1965.

Organized by the African Union (AU), this multi-sports event drew in participants from 54 nations with a programme of 22 separate sports disciplines plus two additional disability sports.

GL events Audiovisual, a subsidiary to GL events Group, was tasked with the exceptional closing ceremony of the Games. From design to production, the teams focus was fully on guaranteeing top-quality service within sound, lighting and video. To achieve the best possible light installation, they selected 18 G-Spot LED moving heads from SGM with an IP-rating of 65.

French lighting designer, Vincent Mongourdin, worked

UK - The new Zero 88 FLX lighting console by Eaton made a massive difference to the power and control that lighting designer Guy Thatcher had at his fingertips on the main stage at the 2015 Tilfest event - a popular annual real ale and music festival staged in a marquee in the grounds of the White Horse pub in Tilbrook, Cambridgshire.

Technical production - including all lighting and sound - for Tilfest 2015 was provided by Phantom Power headed by Clive Nicholes, a Cambridgeshire based rental and production company supplying festivals, live events, dance and theatre shows.

The FLX console is a new purchase by Phantom Power that was supplied via Impact Products in Northampton.

Guy first saw the FLX in action at a Zero 88 product information day - Phantom Power already owned a Zero 88 Solution console, which everyone liked, but when Guy received the FLX demo, it really stood o

Italy - Next to Normal has been one of the most successful musicals on Broadway in recent years. The production has now arrived in Italy thanks to the far-sighted planning and production of the STM (musical theatre school) in conjunction with the Compagnia della Rancia (Rancia musical theatre company).

The musical made its debut as a preview on 7 March 2015 at the Teatro Coccia in Novara with a cast of professionals from the Compagnia della Rancia directed by Marco Iacomelli. The scenery was designed by Gabriele Moreschi, costumes by Carla Ricotti, choreographies by Gillian Bruce, and lighting by Valerio Tiberi.

Next to Normal started in 1998 in the United States as a workshop lasting just 10 minutes. Ten years later, it was a short step from the first Off-Broadway performance to its final seal of approval on Broadway itself. The musical made its début at

UK - PLASA (the Professional Lighting and Sound Association) has outlined its current position in the wake of various recent changes, and asked for Members' feedback on its next steps as it moves forward into a new phase of its existence.

Speaking at a meeting for PLASA Members held during the PLASA Show, John Simpson, PLASA Governing Body chairman and chairman of the White Light Group of companies, said, "Without doubt our major issue this year has been that of diminishing profit, which has led to a critical cash-flow problem for the organisation.

"We have taken action in implementing cost-cutting measures across many parts of PLASA, including reduction in staff, putting the Eastbourne office up for sale and a substantial restructure of the organisation. We have overcome the immediate cash flow problems for 2015, but will be limited in services we can provide during

Sweden - After years of working with other products, Fremlab decided the time was right to invest in a bigger system, both as replacement for some older equipment but also to open new business opportunities and enable them to offer a higher level of quality to their customers.

After taking time to consider all available options Fremlab came back to KV2 with Carl Fredrik Malmgren, Fremlab's CEO, explaining, "One of the main reasons for choosing the VHD System, besides the obvious superior sound quality, was both the reliability of all the other KV2 products that we have been using for almost 10 years now, as well as the extremely easy set up and plug and play capability that VHD offers. All this, accompanied by the flexibility that a point source solution offers for both indoor and outdoor events, related perfectly to the needs of our rental and event business."

Addin

USA - UK-based theatre, event and installed audio specialists Out Board will exhibit their TiMax SoundHub and TiMax Tracker audio showcontrol and performer tracking systems 30 October - 1 November at the 139th AES Convention in New York's Jacob Javitts Centre.

TiMax's return to the AES (Stand 665), with longstanding US Distributor 1602 Group LLC, marks a landmark period for the product's core theatre market on Broadway, with five major shows employing TiMax audio showcontrol and localisation in the last two years, and so far collecting 10 prestigious Tony Awards between them.

Disney's Aladdin is moving into its third year at the New Amsterdam with sound design by Ken Travis, using four TiMax SoundHub-S64/AES units and a TiMax Tracker system supplied by Masque and which has gone worldwide with Tokyo, Hamburg and London productions already running or scheduled.

Sound de

The Netherlands - The 23rd Openlucht (Open Air) Film Festival in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands presented seven nights of blockbuster movies with 3.1 cinema sound provided by a Meyer Sound Leopard linear sound reinforcement system. Recently acquired by Aukes Theatertechniek of Amsterdam, the Leopard system delivered power and clarity for nightly audiences of 1,500 in a secluded forest meadow outside the city.

"I immediately heard the difference in sound quality from last year," says Jelle Bleijenberg of CineMec, the cinema operator that provided the feature films for the festival. "With Leopard, the sound was far more direct, and with a good stereo image throughout the audience."

Mark Oppedijk of Aukes agrees that Leopard was a huge improvement for the festival. "This is one of our largest audio projects on a continuing basis, and Leopard performed far bet

Italy - Seventeen years after his death, the music of Lucio Battisti - one of Italy's best-loved singer/songwriters - is in greater demand than ever. It is kept alive on stage by Gianmarco Carroccia, singing, interpreting and paying tribute to his legacy.

In late August Carroccia's current Emozioni (Emotion) tour played a major outdoor show in the city of Fondi, where a comprehensive Yamaha and Nexo system was appreciated by 6000 passionate Battisti fans.

Carroccia bears an uncanny resemblance to Battisti and, alongside him, the three-hour music and speech recital in Fondi's Piazza De Gasperi featured 18 musicians and Giulio Rapetti, aka Mogol, Battisti's friend and songwriting partner from 1966 to 1981. Technical production was by Sperlonga-based Remix Sound, under the watchful eye of company boss Riccardo De Simone.

The Front of House mix was taken care of by Michele De Si

Congo Republic - Clear-Com intercom systems were at the heart of operations for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 11th African Games, which took place in Brazzaville, in the Republic of the Congo, on 4-19 September, 2015.

The ceremonies were held in the new Kintele stadium which seats 6000 people and celebrated the richness and diversity of African culture with bright costumes, music and fireworks.

Y and Co, the France-based rental company that specialises in audio solutions for events and broadcasts, supplied and installed an Eclipse HX Median digital matrix platform running version 8.5 software, and embedded with three MVX-A16-HX 16-port audio and data frame card, an IVC-32-HX IP interface frame card, and six CCI-22 two-wire partyline interfaces. V-Series V12LD and V24LD panels and the Agent-IC mobile app were provided to the production team for communication.

The

USA - Church on the Move (COTM) has grown substantially since being founded in 1987. The main Tulsa campus now occupies around 300 acres and is home to several venues including the 2500-capacity Main Auditorium, a 1500 capacity space in the Oneighty building (youth ministry), and an outdoor amphitheatre. The church even has its own private school (Lincoln Christian Elementary and High Schools) with associated football stadium and gymnasiums, plus a satellite 'COTM South' campus in Glenpool.

COTM is well known for its high-energy events, with music playing a leading role in worship for the thousands of people that attend. Every service is a powerful, professional live production with technical and performance values that equal the best in commercial tour-sound and theatre. To compliment this approach, the church has recently purchased two SSL L500s and a Live Remote Expander for

Germany - GLP has announced a record month for sales in its native Germany as an increasing number of event production and rental staging companies invest and reinvest in the evolving LED family of X4 fixtures.

The 66th edition of IAA Cars, the world's largest motor show, saw one of the biggest collections of GLP impression LED moving heads ever assembled under one roof.

Taking place over 225,000sq.m of stand space at the Messe Frankfurt, leading manufacturers and their creative teams chose GLP impressions from right across the X4 range to deliver mission critical solutions.

Leading the charge was Volkswagen, where the team from lighting design and technical conception company, rgb gmbh specified a massive 430 of GLP's new X4 L heads and 300 X4 Bar 20, (part of an overall complement of more than 2,000 fixtures) with the inventory provided by PRG Germany, who had been nominat

UK - As part of a continual expansion of their Shure Academy programme, Shure Distribution UK is introducing a new wired microphone training seminar in Waltham Abbey on 19 November. Registration is available at http://www.shure-academy.co.uk/events/wired-mastered

Aptly titled Wired Mastered, the new event will follow soundly in the footsteps of their thriving Wireless Mastered seminar, which continues to tour across the UK and Europe.

Wired Mastered is tailored specifically to provide engineers and production professionals with the knowledge and confidence to make comprehensive decisions when choosing and operating wired microphone technology.

Attendees will learn from Shure's microphone experts, covering crucial topics, such as the history behind modern microphones, the fundamental science behind the technology, and how to apply best-practice across a w

USA - This past weekend, Production Resource Group, L.L.C. (PRG) took home two big wins on Saturday night while exhibiting at LDI 2015 in Las Vegas, NV.

Following an enthusiastic response and non-stop crowds in the PRG booth all Friday and Saturday, the LDI team was awarded the LDI Best Debuting Product - Staging and Rigging for the new PRG GroundControl Followspot System. Presented at the LDI Awards event on the show floor and accepted by PRG product manager for Luminaires Chris Conti, who thanked PRG's Technology Development team, based in Dallas. He also thanked the industry colleagues who contributed feedback during development, especially Lighting Designer Bob Barnhart and the Full Flood team for their inspiration towards developing this revolutionary product.

The PRG GroundControl Followspot System allows the spot operator to be in a remote location up to 2,000' away whi

Germany - To celebrate Germany's national Day of Unity, the city of Berlin staged a three-day festival in front of the Brandenburg Gate, with live music playing on Nexo systems over 1.5 kilometers down the Fan Meile avenue, where nearly 1m million visitors enjoyed the party.

Berlin-based audio company auvisign GmbH & Co., a regular partner of event organiser Wohlthat Entertainment GmbH, chose Nexo's STM modular line array technology for the mainstage PA and extensive delay systems, supplementing them with plentiful numbers of cabinets from other ranges of NEXO such as GEO, Alpha and PS Series. Controlled by Yamaha CL5 mixers, the systems were set up over Dante and Ethersound networks.

Although auvisign has used STM in several different configurations at Brandenburg Gate/Fan Meile events, this was the first time that the M46 large-format cabinets have been deployed as the main

USA - At the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards held at Microsoft Theater in Downtown Los Angeles last month, amplifier manufacturer Powersoft delivered reliable and intelligible audio to over 7,000 people in attendance, including the television industry's most talented and elite professionals.

The event, which was broadcast live by Fox on Sunday to a viewership of 11.9m viewers across the U.S., recognised achievements for the 2014 - 2015 television season.

Hosted by Brooklyn Nine-Nine star and comedian Adam Samberg, the event's big winner was HBO, which racked up 43 Emmys: more than any other network. HBO's Game of Thrones received 12 awards, including Best Drama Series, setting a new record for the most Emmy Awards received by any show in a single year.

For the duration of the event, including the 67th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards held the week prior, p

UK - HD Pro Audio has been appointed as a UK distributor for SoundTools, the unique range of tools for professional audio engineers developed by Rat Sound.

SoundTools was started in 1996 by engineer Dave Rat, when faced with the need for a solution for troubleshooting bad mic lines during the heat of setting up a concert. His development resulted in the original XLR Sniffer / Sender and over the years SoundTools has expanded its range to provide a collection of products designed for the audio professional.

Andy Huffer, director of sales for HD Pro Audio, commented, "Having used SoundTools when working in the field, we know first-hand about the level of quality and attention to detail in the product, as well as the innovation that goes into them. HD Pro Audio is honoured to now be in a position to bring these great devices to a wider audience and open up the UK market for

USA - Following a wildly successful year including a packed festival season, massive world tours and premier installations, Bandit Lites once again took home Lighting Company of the Year at the 15th Annual Parnelli Awards.

Dizzy Gosnell accepted the award, which was held at the Rio Resort and Casino October 24 during LDI, and was hosted by Kevin Lyman, founder of Vans Warped Tour. This is the fifth win and fifteenth nomination for Bandit, which has been nominated every year since the award's commencement. It is the twenty third Lighting Company of the Year award Bandit has won globally.

Bandit chair, Michael T. Strickland credits the win to Bandit's hardworking staff and valuable clients. "It is always humbling to be honoured in such a way by your peers," he said. "All at Bandit appreciate the recognition and support. We could not do it without the great support

Denmark - ETC's Danish dealer Bico has replaced 40 ageing and energy-inefficient halogen fixtures which light the stage tower of the Royal Danish Playhouse - with just 17 ETC Selador Desire D60XTI Lustr+ LED fixtures.

Bico's lighting designer Hans Henrik Schmidt says, "Originally, the tower was lit by some 40kW of lighting; the management were keen to reduce power consumption, so cut that by half, but were then, of course, disappointed with the output quality.

"After talking to us about how they could obtain the same high quality of lighting, but with lower power usage, we offered them 17 of the outdoor ETC Desire fixtures, which use a combined total of little more than two kilowatts."

Using an ETCnomad system, Schmidt was able to create a look that could be stored directly in the Desire fixtures. At night, all that the end users need to do is turn on the powe

Brazil - D.A.S. Audio has announced the creation of its newest subsidiary in Brazil as part of its ongoing commitment to providing first-class service worldwide. D.A.S. do Brasil incorporates a full sales and technical team that has had ties to the D.A.S. brand for nearly 20 years through Decomac, D.A.S. Audio's former distributor in Brazil.

This team ensures the continuity of the service D.A.S. has offered to the extensive number of its customers and users in Brazil through Decomac, and with the help of direct support from D.A.S. headquarters in Valencia aims to further improve after-sales care, training and technical support for the new products the D.A.S. plans to launch on the Brazilian market soon.

D.A.S. do Brasil will open its doors at the same location used by Decomac at Rua Dos Andradas in the Santa Efigenia neighbourhood of São Paulo, headed by a management team clo

UK - 'Projection mapping' has become an industry buzz word in the last couple of years and the Blackpool illuminations - among the world's most historic festivals of light is home to the first permanent projection mapped show in the UK, scheduled to run for the full two months / 66 day 'Illuminations' period each year from now on.

LightPool is a collaboration between London-based Ross Ashton and The Projection Studio who storyboarded and created the content, and Edinburgh based War Productions whose Alistair Young produced the technical design and supplied the hardware and control.

The two companies have worked together on previous projects, and Alistair suggested that he and Ross join forces to pool their extensive knowledge and experience of projection mapping monuments to answer a tender put out by Blackpool Council.

Their proposals were selected from some stiff competiti

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