For over a decade, the city of Vienna in Austria has played host to a free Music Film Festival. And there are few places one could think of that could be better to take in the late night delights of open-air screenings of opera, operetta, dance and concert films than the square in front of Vienna's famous Rathaus, or City Hall.

Running from 12th July to 14th September, the festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world. As long as the weather is clement, which is mostly the case during the summer months in Vienna, this atmospheric area is bustling with visitors from the morning to late at night. This truly is music for everyone and, with Vienna-based ACS Akustik installing a temporary induction loop system, those with hearing impairment can gain just as much enjoyment from the entertainment as the rest of the late night revellers.

Behind the scenes, there is a complex technical structure to the event. Giving the appearance of a giant flat screen TV, a 120m2 projection screen sits between two large line arrays hidden behind scrims, a sophisticated double HD-beam 30,000 lumen projector delivering a sharp, bright image. As well as having to cope with the wide angle of the audience (approximately 140°), the PA also has to take into account reflections from the Burgtheatre opposite the Rathaus that cause up to a two second delay, so the line array is augmented with a number of delay cabinets to cope with this.

Kano, the MOBO-winning and Brit-nominated MC, is making sure he's been heard loud and clear by using a Sennheiser SKM 935 for his live dates throughout the summer, promoting his forthcoming album, 140 Grime Street.

Fabrice Quirin has been his monitor engineer since last summer and it was his persuading that led to Kano picking up the Sennheiser mic.

"I'd used the SKM 935 on a few occasions when I was working for Britannia Row Productions," explains Quirin. "I always had great results with them, especially in monitors!"

Quirin's hunch was proved correct once the microphone was in Kano's hand.

The new Oslo Opera House, a spectacular architectural achievement which has won global attention and admiration, was opened on 12 April 2008 by King Harald of Norway. With guests that include Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel, and the Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle, the opening season will be hosted across its three auditoria until June 2009.

Housing the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, the 1350-seat Main Stage measures 16m wide x 18m deep (extending to 42m when the iron is raised) and is mirrored by the Rehearsal Stage. Stage 2 is a slightly more modest 12m x 12m with shortest throw distances ranging from 15m, to 40m in the Main Stage.

To cope with these distances and to give a quality of light deserving of such a high tech, high profile venue, London based designers, Theatre Projects Consultants, specified Robert Juliat profiles and followspots to form the major part of the lighting rig for all three auditoria.

A total of 277 Robert Juliat 1.2KW 600SX zoom profiles and 81 Robert Juliat 2K 700SX² zoom profiles, with various lens tubes, were employed front of house, overhead and on side booms, while follow spot positions were filled by four 2500W HMI RJ Cyranos, four short throw 1200W HMI RJ Lucys and two of the Award Winning 1200W HMI RJ Super Korrigans.

The marketing whizzkids at the UK's leading mobile telecom company O2 and the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) have come up with a unique summer promotion - the O2 Scrum on the Beach, which is touring the UK's popular seaside resorts. This being the British summer, Dimension Audio has chosen sturdy Electro-Voice line arrays to cope with the unpredictable weather conditions!

O2 and the RFU's Play On campaign have combined forces to create a season of free beach festivals, attended by several England international rugby players, where visitors can play beach rugby and listen to live music. At all its 5 locations, including the Urban Beaches planned for London and Birmingham, the set-up will involve a 200-metre stretch of beach accommodating up to ten beach rugby courts, and a main stage for live appearances by the sport's stars and a live concert performance from a steel band.

On July 20 the biggest LED video screen ever used at a major motor racing event - and one of the largest systems ever supplied by G LEC - gave race-goers at Hockenheim Ring the best view in the world. In cooperation with Hockenheim Ring GmbH, host of Formula 1 Santander Grand Prix, the massive 300sq m screen provided spectators in the long Innen Tribüne - the long stand inside the track, where spectators were up to 400m from the screen - with a television view of the race, something that would have been impossible with a standard high resolution screen.

Using 299 Phantom30 frames, the 23 m wide x 13 m deep screen is thought to be the largest LED screen ever used at such a major motor racing event. Built specifically for the three day event, the screen needed to be easy to construct and de-rig, but also needed to present extremely low wind resistance. Indeed the pre-race days saw strong winds and torrential rain, but the G LEC screen, even brighter than the high resolution screens used at the pit stops, continued to perform brilliantly.