France/UK - L-Acoustics has announced the appointment of Dan Orton to the post of application engineer for the UK and Ireland.

Orton reports to Florent Bernard, head of application - touring and Cédric Montrezor, head of application - installation for L-Acoustics. "Dan is certainly a welcome addition to our team," notes Montrezor. "Given his proven track record as a talented development engineer in the sound reinforcement industry, I know that Dan will offer excellent support to our UK and Irish network of Integrators and Rental Companies."

Based in the UK

UK - Le Mark's Steven Marshall has been titled an 'outstanding employee' by the professional judges of the Archant Herts & Cambs Business Awards. Steve is known to many as the project manager and lead designer for Le Mark Groups Dirty Rigger gloves and accessories division. The Judges commented: "It's not often you come into contact with a young man who has such passion for business excellence and creativity".

Stuart Gibbons, Le Mark Groups MD commented: "It's been a personal pleasure for me to have mentored Steve and see him develop into such a consummate professional

USA - ETC has announced the students who have been selected to attend the LDI 2013 tradeshow as part of ETC's LDI Student Sponsorship programme.

Now in its 14th year, the programme awards exceptional lighting design and stage technology students an all expenses paid trip to the LDI tradeshow in Las Vegas, 22-24 November, to get a behind the scenes look at new technology and to network with industry professionals. The sponsorship recipients are also matched with industry luminaries, who offer individual support, advice and encouragement to the students as they launch their careers. The

USA - Harman Professional has announced the appointment of Jonas Stenvinkel as head, Martin Professional Asia Pacific with permanent base in Singapore. Stenvinkel, who previously served as sales director of EMEA North, will lead Martin Professional's sales and service staff in the Singapore and Asia region. He will report directly to Thomas Marcher, director of sales at the Harman Professional Regional sales office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

"Jonas has demonstrated a strong commitment to comprehensive customer service and support over his 10 year career with Martin Professional. J

USA - Meyer Sound has appointed Pablo Espinosa to chief loudspeaker designer, adding to his current role as vice president of rResearch and development. Espinosa will oversee the company's loudspeaker development strategy, from hardware and user experience design to engineering, as well as long-term conceptual planning for the full loudspeaker lineup.

"Pablo has contributed tremendously to our company's growth in recent years," says Helen Meyer, executive vice president at Meyer Sound. "He has been central to so many of our successful products, and helped build a solid

UK - Audio visual company Saville Audio Visual has announced the appointment of Rob Morrison as head of sales (south) for the Conference & Live Events division.

Morrison has been successfully involved in the creative live events and communications industry for over 12 years during which time he has been involved in some major events including a position as the corporate hospitality manager where he led the hospitality sales for the FIFA World Cup in 2006.

Based primarily with the team in Guildford, he will build on the foundations he has established from working alongside Saville fo

Switzerland - IP audio and control specialist Barix has promoted Frank Frederiksen to COO following a successful 15 months as vice president of product marketing and strategy. His promotion, effective immediately, represents part of the strategic process at Barix to build a strong management team that will lead the company to new growth. He reports directly to Barix CEO Ronni Guggenheim.

Since coming to Barix, Frederiksen has focused on enhancing the user experience for customers through streamlined solutions that simplify ease of use and installation. He oversaw the development and r

UK - Green Hippo has added new personnel adds to its team whilst familiar faces move up, in the very Green, Unit 307.

Simon Harris, a familiar face in the AV industry has been with Green Hippo for over six years, first joining as part of the sales team in a company of six, he quickly took on the role of head of training.

This December Harris takes on his new role as user experience manager bringing in new responsibilities. Harris is now the 'point of call', managing the interaction between users and the products and with his vast technical knowledge bridging the gap between end-user

USA - LSi has learned of the death of Walter Eugene Clair, one of the founders of the pioneering audio rental company Clair Brothers Audio. Gene Clair died yesterday, 3 December, 2013, aged 73. Clair Brothers has published the following obituary on its website:

"Gene Clair was born on 6 May 1940 to Roy B. Clair and Ellen Mae (Ulrich) Clair, in the Lititz [Pennsylvania] area and lived there all his life. He graduated from Warwick High School in 1958 and was awarded as one of the top athletes of his class. He went on to get a two-year degree in Engineering from the Penn State York

USA - Elation Professional reports that industry professional John Dunn has joined the company as rental and production market manager for the US market.

Dunn brings to Elation a wealth of knowledge and broad industry experience, says the company. His roots in the industry stretch back 12 years, beginning at a small production house in Irvine, California, before moving to the manufacturer side eight years ago where he has amassed an abundance of key relationships.

Eric Loader, director of sales at Elation Professional, commented on the hiring. "Elation products have been increa

UK - HHB Communications Ltd. has further strengthened its technical services department with the appointment of Mike Rigby to the role of technical sales support engineer.

Rigby was previously the technical manager at Technical Earth, where he managed the sales, installation and upgrades of recording facilities and venues and specialised in Avid Pro Tools systems. He also studied audio technology and acoustics at the University of Salford.

HHB group sales director Steve Angel comments, "HHB has been providing industry-leading service to the world's top broadcasters, recording s

Norway - Harman Professional has announced the appointment of Joachim Bogetvedt as sales manager, Nordic, Martin Professional. Based in Kristiansand, Norway, Bogetvedt will lead sales and initiatives for Martin Professional across Northern Europe, reporting directly to Steen Matthiesen, Vice President EMEA sales, Martin Professional.

Commenting on the appointment Matthiesen states, "Martin has strong traction in the EMEA market and Joachim has played a significant role understanding, meeting and exceeding the complex requirements of our customers. Joachim's experience and commitm

UK - The Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers (ISCE) has appointed Anthony Smith as its new president. It was announced at a recent AGM that the new president would be taking up the position vacated by Terry Baldwin, who is stepping down from the office he has held for the last four years.

Anthony was the founder of AVX Systems before going on to develop one of the first digital networking voice alarm systems(VxLAN) - which later became SigNET - and in 1999 developed the first generation SigTEL fire telephone system. He set up Current Thinking Ltd in 2001, developing new in

USA - Industry veteran Anne Johnston has joined Pete's Big TVs as an account rep. Based in the New York/Tri-State area, Johnston will serve the company's video equipment rental clients in the concert touring, TV and special/corporate events market.

Johnston has worked in these same markets most recently as VP of marketing at Production Resource Group (PRG). Her role since 2007 was over the "big picture," which encompassed lighting, video, audio, LEDs, rigging and automation. Previous roles at PRG were VP Systems Installation and prior to that, VP and Sales Manager.

Johnsto

Germany - Daktronicshas announced the appointments of Reece A. Kurtenbach as Chief Executive Officer and president of Daktronics, and Peter Egart as vice president of Daktronics international regions in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Egart will be at ISE 2014 to talk to visitors and partners and give insight of the company's vision.

Based in Wiesbaden, Germany, Egart is in charge of all sales and service operations for international customers EMEA and Latin America. He is responsible for strategic development of new business, management of Daktronics subsidiary offices

UK - Jarrod Bischoff returns to the Gallowglass Group as head of training - responsible for the group's stand-alone events industry training company. Having joined events crewing firm Gallowglass in 2004 as senior crew chief, Bischoff moved to a client liaison role between 2009 and 2012, before leaving the company to hone his business development skills with coffee company, CaféPod.

"I've been willingly seduced back to the events industry - and my year's sabbatical has shown me just how far the bar has been raised in expectations of gold-standard event delivery," he s

The Netherlands - Integrated Systems Events reports that Dr Dirk Schlesinger, the global lead for manufacturing industries of Cisco Consulting Services, will present the Opening Keynote Address of ISE 2014.

Titled Kick-Starting the Market for Building Automation, Schlesinger's speech will give attendees an exclusive insight into how a new cross-industry initiative set up by Cisco, ABB, Bosch and LG will transform the world of 'smart' building technology by offering a common standard for data exchange across multiple appliances and disciplines.

"In October 2013, Cisco, AB

UK - POLARaudio has recently engaged new staff to reinforce its team in the light of its continued success in adding new brands to its portfolio.

Three new faces have joined the internal sales team - Nigel Brake, Alison Knight and Allison Geal, whilst Jo Griffin has joined the accounts department (purchase ledger). On the logistics side, Juan Recouso has joined to bolster the warehouse operation.

POLARaudio MD John Midgley welcomes the new arrivals with enthusiasm, "2013 saw us take on a number of new and exciting brands, the addition of which, we believe, will continue the onw

UK - Theatre consultant, manager, producer and founding member of the ABTT Ian Albery, has been awarded a Fellowship of the Association. Individuals are appointed Fellow if they "have rendered signal service to the technical aspects of the art of the theatre".

In recognising his outstanding contribution to theatre - including work as both production and technical managers and service as vice-chairman of the ABTT, as well as an executive member of the Society of West End Theatre - Nimax Theatre chief executive, Nica Burns, praised the former chief executive of Sadler's Wells

The Netherlands - Marc Kocks has taken up the position of director at Sales-All in Bemmel, the Netherlands. Kocks, who previously spent over 20 years with the Ampco Flashlight group's sales companies, where he was managing director of TM Audio and Lightco, will be responsible driving Sales-All forward, as well as business development for Sales-All and Fairlight.

His initial goals are to open new markets, expand Sales-All's presence in the Benelux region, its product portfolio, set up an international network for second-hand sales and establish a European working network for private la

Austria - Elation Professional EU has announced the hiring of Karl Lager as the company's new sales representative for Austria. Karl, who starts in the new position this month, is tasked with using his extensive industry knowledge and customer network to build a strong Elation dealership structure in Austria.

Karl comes to Elation from industry trading company Licht-Lager, which he founded along with two partners in 2003. Born into a theatrical family that worked in Vienna's Burgtheater, the Austrian National Theatre, where he gathered a wealth of technical and sales knowledge, his ye

UK - LSiOnline has learned of the death of Gavin Aldridge, an experienced AV systems designer and installer, and owner of Kent-based Fulford Sound & Communications Services. Gavin, who was 36, was killed at Bethersden Business Centre near Ashford at the start of December, when the 4x4 vehicle he was working beneath fell on top of him. He was declared dead at the scene.

Fulford Sound & Communications Services specialises in the provision of professional services to the industry for custom audio visual systems for museums, theme parks, visitor centres and retail applications. Gavin boug

USA - ARRI CSC, the largest full service equipment rental group in the United States, has announced that Chris MacKarell has been promoted to digital workflow manager. He will continue to oversee ARRI CSC's digital workflow and on set activities for New Jersey and Florida facilities while at the same time contributing to ARRI Rental Group product development and Technical Marketing.

MacKarell's extensive experience in digital media spans 15 years in the post sector. Starting out as manager Mmedia illusion support for Avid Technology Inc. he then worked for NBC Peacock Productions. In

UK - Stage One, the company who realised Thomas Heatherwick's spectacular cauldron for the London 2012 Olympics, has appointed Adam Wildi to its senior management team.

Adam joins the creative construction and manufacturing company as Senior Project Director and will take specific responsibility for demountable structures and architecture.

Already a familiar face at Stage One, Adam's relationship with the company goes back as far as the late 1980s and, significantly, included the Hong Kong Handover Ceremony. He has collaborated with them on a host of projects including the 2004 Athe

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