South Africa - As South Africa mourned the loss of former President Nelson Mandela, Event Hire supplied a ground support, screen, sound and lighting for some of the many memorial service broadcasts held across the country.

Event Hire Network set up three stations in Mthatha as well stations at the Lusikisiki College of Education, Matatiele and Port St Johns. Rain over large parts of the country made these points less populated than anticipated, but a seed has to die to create life, and one can only believe that the showers would promise renewal and growth.

Right through December, Event Hire Network never lost their drive, and their Avolites Tiger Touch and Robin 300 LEDWash and Robin 600LEDWash fixtures worked as hard as the rest of the team, under the helm of Victor Pienaar.

Germany - ETC is getting ready for this year's ProLight+Sound trade show in Frankfurt.

Following the hugely successful launch of the Cobalt 20 desk at the PLASA trade show, ETC is expanding the range with the Cobalt 10 desk, which will be available for stand visitors to play with. The desk brings the power of Cobalt 20 to a compact, road-ready footprint, with ten motorised faders.

There is also an opportunity before the show to win a Cobalt Nomad dongle, which lets you experience Cobalt from your own PC. You can program your own show from a range of four different one-minute music tracks, and then have it reviewed by a panel of judges. Visit www.etcconnect.com/Prolight2014 for more information and to enter the contest. All entrants will receive free entry to ProLight+Sound.

ETC's stand will include a large cyclorama rigged with the Source Four LED CYC adapter, which can be a

UK - This year, the Audio-Technica at BVE features a Wild West film set theme and will allow visitors to try a wide variety of the company's shotgun microphones to pick up sound sources located around the set, as if on a film shoot.

Among the products on display will be the BP4071 and BP4071L shotgun, BP4027 stereo shotgun and AT897 short shotgun microphones, the new M50x monitoring headphones and Allen & Heath's Qu Series compact digital mixing desks.

Tom Harrold, Audio-Technica assistant marketing manager pro-audio said, "Following up our wildlife-themed stand from BVE2013 hasn't been easy, but we're very excited about the new 'Western' booth. Again, it will allow visitors to get a useful, hands-on experience of a selection of broadcast and production microphones and headphones and be able to hear how different models respond in terms of tone, sound rejection and so on.

Germany - Ayrton delights in the creation of products to broaden the lighting designers' palette of fixtures and expand the possibilities of Light in Action. In its continued dedication to the development of powerful and exciting new tools, Ayrton will be releasing three new products for ProLight+Sound.

The second of these products is WildBeam R which will be presented at the show on the Ayrton stand, Hall 9.0, Booth E70.

WildBeam R is a spectacular new addition to the Ayrton line. It couples seven individually controlled 15W RGBW LED emitters with brand new, 67mm collimators - a world-première combination - to create an astonishingly powerful, compact luminaire with a sharp 4.5° beam.

Using less than 130W, including pan and tilt motors, WildBeam's optical output produces a 2,500 lumen shaft of light and hits a record-breaking 90% efficiency.

WildBeam R's light engine

Germany - Exhibiting for the first time at ProLight+Sound, LightGeist brings fresh ideas to the show with the introduction of its own brand of cable-free, 'cloud lighting'. The company will present the Badger, the LightStick and the Splodger for the first time in mainland Europe.

LightGeist Badger, LightStick and Splodger are semi-flexible RGB LED products encapsulated into light sticks, worn as badges or housed in freestanding units. These can be deployed en masse to form a 'living' video wall to engage audiences in a totally immersive experience. Units can be programmed to create Mexican waves at sporting events, flash to the beat during music concerts, create brand visualisation and channel video content.

"Perhaps the most exciting and fastest developing technology is that of 'cloud lighting'," explains LightGeist CEO, Liza Sutherland. "Music and sporting eve

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