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Gearhouse wins at EXSA Awards

Brad Alder (EXSA) with Robyn DAlessandro, Melita Adams and Peter Thomas (Gearhouse SA)

Details: 14 March 2016

South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa was recipient, for the fourth consecutive year, of the Best AV Supplier Award at the EXSA (Exhibition and Event Association of Southern Africa) Awards held at The Forum, Bryanston on 26 November.

"Exhibition work is a very exciting market for us because our service appeals on both the exhibitor and the organiser levels and we have solutions for pretty much every size and type of display" says Gearhouse South Africa's marketing manager, Robyn D'Alessandro.

"We have seen the exhibition market taking an increasingly strong position in the marketing mix of late. There is a growing trend for buyers to seek to engage with sellers in a face-to-face scenario and exhibitors are using a variety of technology combinations to engage the s

Sennheiser's LSP 500 PRO loudspeaker is an innovative wireless product that dramatically reduces installation times

Sennheiser UK takes the high road to PLASA Glasgow

Details: 14 March 2016

UK The first week of December sees Sennheiser UK head to Scotland for the inagural PLASA Focus Glasgow, which is being held at the SECC, Glasgow. Stand C04 will see the company showing products from its distributed brands including the K-array Kamoflague wall, DAS Artec series loudpeakers, Apart Audiocontrol12.8 and its own LSP 500 wireless loudspeaker.

K-array Kamoflage was developed by Sennheiser UK in response to the need for an 'invisible' loudspeaker system. This solution enables K-array loudspeakers to blend into any background or mounting surface, making them an attractive proposition for audio system designers tasked with installing loudspeakers into sensitive locations.

Available in both powered and passive configurations, the Artec series from DAS spans ten models, five of which are self-powered: the Artec 506A, 526A, 508A, 510A, and S15A subwoofer.

Featuring Class

The new Chroma-Q Color One 100 LED Par will be featured

AC-ET sets extensive showcase for PLASA Focus Glasgow

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will be showcasing the latest product highlights from their extensive brand portfolio at the inaugural PLASA Focus Glasgow tradeshow - stand D19, the SECC, 2-3 December.

Recently launched to great acclaim at the PLASA London international tradeshow, and selected as a Finalist in the PLASA Members Choice Awards, the new Chroma-Q Color One 100 LED Par will be showcased. Featuring an innovative fully homogenised beam which virtually eliminates the colour separation and shadows synonymous with LED lighting, the Color One 100 delivers above Par performance from ONE source.

Other Chroma-Q highlights include the award-winning Chroma-Q Inspire and Inspire Mini LED house lights range - powerful multi-purpose creative lighting tools that can transform the look and feel of performance spaces and commercial, retail or leisure environments.

Bob Gordon of ACT Lighting accepts the Parnelli Award for B-EYE

Clay Paky wins the jackpot in Las Vegas

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - "Clay Paky's success this year at the LDI show was resounding from every point of view". Pio Nahum, Clay Paky CEO, did not mince his words to describe their accomplishments at the lighting show in Las Vegas.

After the PLASA Award for Innovation at PLASA in London, the Clay Paky Mythos has received an Honourable Mention at the LDI Award for Best Debuting Product of the Year "for providing a high-quality, feature-rich fixture with great optics".

Nahum stresses that "the secret of the Mythos lies in its ability to do what the most powerful effect lights do in half the space and with half the power". But the Mythos is even more than this: it is today the only light capable of perfectly combining a spot and beam light thanks to a special optical unit created and patented by Clay Paky.

The SuperSharpy and the Stormy also met with great success:

Hans Zimmer plays Hammersmith (photo: Scott Davies)

Hans Zimmer cooks up a Storm at Hammersmith

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The back catalogue of composer Hans Zimmer reads a little like a review of some the best films of the last 20 years. Academy Award winner for The Lion King in 1994; Grammy Awards for The Crimson Tide and The Dark Knight through to the WAFCA Award for 12 Years a Slave in 2013, the list is quite remarkable. So the opportunity to see the man in action with a live orchestra at a venue like the Hammersmith Apollo is one not to be missed.

Lighting such a special event fell into the safe hands of designer Marc Brickman and it was PRG who were contracted to supply the rig. Part of the spec included units for a strobe effect light; PRG opted to supply the brand new Clay Paky Stormys to fulfil the request as PRG's Rich Rowley explains, "We purchased the units from Ambersphere Solutions and the Hans Zimmer show was their first outing. PRG is always sen

Pop Princess on parade (photo © Ken McKay)

Sennheiser on top for Kylie's Kiss Me Once dates

Details: 14 March 2016

Europe - Kylie Minogue has been touring Europe this autumn before heading back to her native Australia, and Sennheiser microphones and in-ear monitor systems have played a vital role in Eighth Day Sound's audio production. The tour's microphone package features Sennheiser SKM 5200 series mics with MD 5235 capsules and EM 3732-II receivers, with monitoring via Sennheiser SR2050 IEM transmitters and EK2000 IEM belt packs.

"The SKM 5200/MD 5235 combination really suits this show, as Kylie spends a lot of time out in front of the PA system on the B stage," says Kevin Pruce, Kylie's front-of-house engineer. "Other combinations gave me less headroom, while the size and weight of the microphone are also very important."

Pruce adds: "We have a great relationship with Sennheiser, in particular Mark Saunders. He is always available for advice and the backup is s

tarm Showlaser supplied the 31 laser systems

Tarm lasers star in Rocking UK spectacular

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - Every summer since 2007, Wolfsburg, Germany's Autostadt has put on a series of laser and light shows featuring effects staged on the areas of water in the sprawling park's grounds. Following up on the huge success of last year's show, which ran under the Made in Germany banner, this year the United Kingdom was up for treatment. The series of weekly changing shows, entitled Rocking UK which were the world's largest water shows of their kind, ran from 8 August through 7 September and took attendees on an audiovisual tour of Great Britain.

The series' choreography portrayed the history, culture, and lifestyles of the British Isles. The first week's show, which opened on 8 August, focused on the UK's Stars & Legends. Magic & Mystery was the topic 17 August through 23, while Culture & Tradition occupied the foreground 24 August through 30.

The new LightCube 851 show laser light projectors are submergeable up to 3m depth

HB-Laser launches waterproof series

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - Events become more and more spectacular, and thus the demand for durable laser systems increases. HB-Laser has launched a new IP68 waterproof laser line. These new LightCube 851 show laser light projectors are submergeable up to 3m depth. They are fully graphics capable and equipped with the latest diode laser technology with a pure diode setup. The Apollo ScannerMax scanners (with Pangolin ScannerMax scanners and Apollo driver) run at ca. 45kpps (kilo packets per second) @ 8° and make the LightCube 851 suitable for professional laser show applications.

Multi-media shows with water fountains and water effects as well as normal outdoor laser show installations require water proof equipment - the HB-Laser LightCube 851 is the right choice for these applications. It is available in two different power levels: 3.2W RGB (LC-851 RGB 3) and 5.5W RGB (LC-851 RGB 5.5).

Three Soundcraft Vi Series consoles were in action at London's IndigoO2 for Chic featuring Nile Rodgers (photo © Tex Ranger/LiveFi, 2014)

Soundcraft Vi trio supports Nile Rodgers

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - A trio of Soundcraft Vi consoles created a special workflow recently when one of the legends of the 'Disco' era, Nile Rodgers, performed with his nine piece band in a special one-off concert at London's IndigO2, performing under the name 'Chic featuring Nile Rodgers'.

Production manager/FOH sound engineer John Ryan and monitor engineer Marco Dellatorre, who have worked together with the artist for 10 years, were pleased to be onboard the house's two installed Vi6 digital consoles, while Eduardo Puhl, a house engineer at another premier London venue where Vi's are installed (Koko in Camden Town) brought his Vi1 (and Vi Compact stage rack) to handle the broadcast and recording feed. The show was streamed live via Living Indie, enabling thousands of fans to watch it online.

All three sound engineers bring considerable digital mixing experience and favoured the idea of using

Fineline helps illuminate Tesco for Christmas

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Bristol-based lighting rental company Fineline collaborated closely with creative design agency Immersive to launch Christmas early at the Tesco's Metro store in Wigan, which saw a quirky and spectacular visual extravaganza played out in its car park, culminating in the reveal . . . of the Tesco's Christmas green hat crowning the 'O' in the signage.

The Fineline team, project managed by Rob Sangwell and co-ordinated onsite by crew chief Ruben Pinkney, used over 1.4km of rope lighting to wire up 80 Tesco shopping trolleys, lamp-posts, bollards and other street furniture plus around 60 individual LED festive decorations - Christmas trees, puddings, Santas etc - so these could be integrated into the show.

The backdrop was a striking 80m wide by 7m high LED video screen for which Immersive produced custom content and animations, which together with the lighting effects, was a

grandMA2 travels the US with Fleetwood Mac

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - For Fleetwood Mac's current On With the Show tour a grandMA2 full-size console has been specified by lighting designer/production designer Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie.

The band launched the 40-city North American tour 30 September and, after playing to packed houses, added at least 28 more dates in a second leg, which will begin in January 2015. On With the Show marks the first full-member tour for Fleetwood Mac since 1997.

"Designing for Fleetwood Mac is always a challenge since you're dealing with five different personalities," said Guthrie. He began by giving them "the biggest, cleanest, most open stage set up I could, so every single seat in the house gets a clear view of the stage. I made sure to remove clutter so everyone can see the band members."

Guthrie opted for a grandMA2 full-size console to run all the lights, media servers - even

An array of well-known Clay Paky fixtures made up the majority of the stage lighting (photo: M&M Production Management)

Capture Argo previsualises Junior Eurovision

Details: 14 March 2016

Malta - Capture Argo was the previsualisation tool of choice at the recent 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Malta. Over 400 fixtures and a massive backdrop of LED surrounded the stage, bringing light and life to the young performers. Lighting designer Nick Malbon used Capture Argo to previsualise the setup with stunning results.

Capture is a native Windows and Mac OS X application that lets you work with lighting, video, moving scenery, lasers and water jets. Capture supports a wide range of ethernet DMX protocols like Art-Net and sACN but also connects directly to High End and MA Lighting consoles as well as consoles that support CITP from brands such as ADB, Avolites, ChamSys and Strand Lighting. Capture also plays back local video files, streams video directly from CITP/MSEX compatible and Green Hippo media servers, receives laser projector content from LaserAnimation S

Nellie Bell recording at Buckinghamshire New University

Sennheiser backs Bucks student film production

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Students at Buckinghamshire New University have filmed a series of videos for emerging singer, songwriter and producer, Nellie Bell, with the University's partner, Sennheiser UK. The students filmed three acoustic tracks for the singer, who is sponsored by Sennheiser UK, at its recording studios at the University's Campus in Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe.

The project was developed to help support emerging artists and give students at the University valuable industry experience, and was one of many planned to help develop employable professionals with the skills demanded for planning, managing, shooting and editing professional films. It involved audio and music production and film and television production students. Third-year audio and music production students Alexander Hamilton, Mark Hanlon, Luke Maffre, Josh Reid, and Alex Robins were also invited to help mix the t

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