To provide a comprehensive system for distributing of the audio signals and establishing a comms infrastructure at this year’s Tony Awards the production companies Firehouse Productions and Audio Intercom Services provided a versatile solution. The system comprised RockNet digital audio network including Studer Vista 5 console integration, Artist digital matrix intercom and Performer digital partyline from Riedel Communications, one of the leading manufacturers of real-time networks for video, audio and communications.

Acting on behalf of NDR the production company Brainpool TV GmbH commissioned lunatX to supply all the special effects for the entire Eurovision Song contest 2011. The order incorporated the normal rehearsals, dress rehearsal, both semi-finals as well as the jury-final and final. The effects specialists installed a total of 20 tonnes of equipment, for which twelve technicians needed two weeks and a further two weeks for rehearsals. lunatX had less than two months for preparations for Germany’s event highlight of the year.

IBC, the leading global tradeshow for professionals engaged in the content creation, management and delivery of broadcasting media and entertainment has announced that Joanna Shields, vice president & managing director EMEA, Facebook, is to present the convention keynote address at IBC 2011.

The final of the 56th Eurovision Song Contest, which was broadcast live from the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf on the 14th May, succeeded in living up to very high expectations; that's one point upon which everyone involved is agreed. The NDR, the City of Düsseldorf and DüsseldorfCongress, which operates the Esprit Arena, all drew extremely positive conclusions from the event: "The challenge of turning a football stadium into a gigantic television studio with an audience numbering tens of thousands was met, and the level of interest within Germany was overwhelming – as the outstanding figures make abundantly clear," reports NDR Director-General Lutz Marmor. Thirty-five thousand people attended the final live in the Esprit Arena, while a further 13.83 million viewers within Germany and 120 million worldwide followed the Eurovision Song Contest on TV.

grandMA2 was a welcome addition to the latest US tour of Hillsong United, the pre-eminent Christian band drawn from the Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia, which has grown from a worship team supporting youth meetings at the church to a defined touring band that travels worldwide.

Ideas del Sur Producciones, a premiere video production company with its studio based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has purchased a new Grass Valley™ high-definition (HD) video production switcher and slow-motion replay system to produce a variety of live and pre-taped programs, including the country’s highest rated program “Bailando por un Sueño" ("Dancing for a Dream").

On Broadway’s biggest night, New York City’s Beacon Theatre lit up with celebrities and eager fans while hosting the top theatrical performers and acts of the year at the 65th Annual Tony Awards. Firehouse Productions of Red Hook, New York provided the live sound reinforcement and audio broadcast systems for the event, deploying HARMAN’s Studer Vista Series audio mixing consoles at the front of house position and in the monitor truck, and JBL Professional VERTEC® line arrays for the Theatre’s live PA system.

Clay Paky delivered the majority of winning looks with over 300 automated luminaires at the 56th Eurovision Song Contest held in Düsseldorf, Germany on May 10, 12 and 14, 2011. The legendary production continues to grow every year and 2011 was no exception, with the show breaking several of its own currently held records.

It remains the musical highlight and the main event on television of the year: the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2011 live from Düsseldorf. The ESC broke all conventions of a classical indoor event: 36,000 spectators, 3,500 delegation members and journalists as well as 120 million spectators in front of the televisions – worldwide.

Continuing to apply its advanced design and innovative feature set to creating solutions for broadcast audio, HARMAN’s Studer Vista 8 Digital Live Production Console now in use for "The Martha Stewart Show" on the Hallmark Network provides Jorge Silva, the program's Head Audio Engineer, with the tools that he needs to keep the show's sound at the cutting edge.

Artes is one of the leading Event Production companies in the Middle East. Artes has been established in Dubai for over a decade, with one of the largest inventories in this region and a well qualified team. Artes believe’s in delivering your vision...

Soho audio facility Hackenbacker has been helping Peter Dickson, one of the UK's most famous voices, to capture his trademark voice-over style while he is ‘on the road’.

Jünger Audio’s T*AP Television Audio Processor played a key part in helping German public broadcaster NDR deliver stunning audio from the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.

New to the West End, Shrek The Musical brings the hugely loved characters of Donkey, Princess Fiona, the evil Lord Farquaad and Shrek himself to life, in a spectacular new London production based on the story and characters from the Oscar-winning DreamWorks films. An all-singing, all-dancing, fairy story brought to the stage, Shrek The Musical reveals to the audience, whatever their age, an irresistible melting pot of a magic, mystical world where dragons meet talking gingerbread men amidst the land of three little pigs and the big bad wolf.

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), in association with the I Create Music Expo, recently held its 28th Annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel and Spa in Los Angeles. The event honored the songwriters and publishers behind some of today’s most popular music and was attended by some of music’s biggest artists, composers and industry luminaries.