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Proel S.p.A. has announced an agreement reached between the company’s Sound Reinforcement Division and Laboratorio Musica Vanis Dondi, developers of the L.i.S.A. Linear Source Array system. The agreement between Proel S.p.A and Laboratorio Musica will bring about the development of a completely new line of pro audio products, developed jointly between Proel and Laboratorio Musica, and based on the technical success of the L.i.S.A system - the first high power line array system to be made in Italy.

Recent projects for the L.i.S.A. system include a tour of Italy with Franco Battiato and the recent MTV Independent Day in Imola.

(Lee Baldock)

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A limited number of ISCE (Institute of Sound & Communication Engineers) members is being invited to DNH's beautiful lake-side factory at Kragaro on Wednesday, 26 June. With an early start from Stansted, the full day will include tours of production, test, demonstration and design facilities, possibly resulting in a unique ISCE-branded loudspeaker unit. For further details of the visit, please contact Michael Leaver at the e-mail address below.

Booking details are availabale from the Secretariat on +44 (0)151 639 5211, or from Michael Leaver at the e-mail address below.

(Lee Baldock)

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Yamaha's Commercial Audio Division has announced the shipment of its first DM2000 digital mixing console to 2nd Sense Broadcast Ltd, based at Millennium Studios, Elstree. The console, bearing the serial number 0001, is the world's first professional installation and 2nd Sense managing director Andy Hewitt took the opportunity to host two open days for current and potential new clients to coincide with the DM2000's arrival. The open days also provided an opportunity for other engineers and members of the Institute of Broadcast Sound to see and hear the console at work in the newly completed video edit and production suite.

Hewitt, a former BBC sound engineer, was one of a number of sound engineers approached by Yamaha's R&D department two years ago to help specify the next generation of Yamaha digital audio mixing consoles. The result of those consultations, which took place simultaneou

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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

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ShowCAD Artist show control systems have recently been installed in Luminar Leisure’s Chicago Rock Cafes in Basildon, Ilford, Redditch, Swansea, Tamworth, Trowbridge and Wrexham. The installations were carried out back-to-back by Lynx Lighting of Yeovil over a very busy two-week period.

ShowCAD is already installed in many Luminar venues including the Liquid chains and, like ShowCAD, Artist implements MIDI, MIDI Show Control, SMPTE, digital and analogue input/output protocols. Additionally, Artist software can control 5000+ DMX channels and, operating on a Windows platform, the software also utilises standard PC protocols and functions.

In the Chicago Rock venues, the systems are programmed to run on Artist’s Real Time Clock and therefore will run all day, every day completely automatically, with the scenes and cues programmed to change to suit the hour of the day or nigh

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The newly formed Stage Electrics Wales has reported a strong start to the year, especially in the live TV sector. St David’s Day 2002 saw the Welsh branch supplying lighting, rigging and mains distribution for the Welsh television broadcast of S4C’s annual talent competition - 'Can-i-Gymru' or 'A Song for Wales'.

Cardiff-based Apollo Television brought in lighting designer Martyn Rourke and designer Phil Williams to transform the Afan Lido leisure centre in Port Talbot into a TV studio for the two-hour live broadcast. Over 18 Lodestar motors were used to fly the entire rig in the venue that had a restricted weight loading. Stage Electrics’ project manager for the event Tim Routledge commented: "In conjunction with structural engineers and with the knowledge of our rigger, Gary Smith, we were able to monitor the deflections in the roof beams once the load was appl

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XL Video - specialists in touring and live event video production - supplied a full digital touring package to the successful Pop Idol tour - one of the fasting selling tours in the history of UK popular performance!

Video director and XL crew chief was Ruary MacPhie and the medium of video played an important role in the show’s look, a creative collusion between Peter Barnes’ lighting and set design and Kim Gavin’s overall artistic direction. XL supplied four Sony D35 cameras for live camera playback - two in the pit on a track-and-dolly system, one at FOH and the fourth, hand-held onstage. Realtime show action captured by these was primarily beamed onto two soft screens either side of stage. The main onstage screen consisted of 40sq.m of Unitek 25mm pixel pitch LED, located upstage centre, supplied direct to the production by GL UK. It split to form an entrance/exit

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West End theatre members of BECTU have voted to accept a pay rise worth 11.3% on average.

In a ballot of BECTU members throughout London’s commercial theatreland, 71% voted in favour of the offer. Members are now set for a further pay rise in October 2002, worth 4%, or inflation plus 1%, whichever is greater. The two-stage offer put to members was tabled by employers, the Society of West End Theatres, in response to an earlier ballot in which 96% of union members in the sector had voted in favour of industrial action. "This is a significant first step in the union’s campaign to end low pay among theatre workers," BECTU organizer Mark David-Gray told us. Originally, the employers had tabled a pay rise of only 1.6%, prompting a determined campaign by BECTU to fight low pay in the West End. Since then its membership in theatreland has increased by more than 30%.

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When the City of Manchester Stadium heralds the start of the XVII Commonwealth Games on July 25, public information will be broadcast to the maximum 38,000-capacity seating via a sophisticated new sound system.Built by contractor Laing, Arup’s design of the £77m stadium is based on an eight-mast and cable structure, ensuring that all seats have uninterrupted views of the pitch. Every part of the stadium structure is used to support the 600-ton undulating roof which covers every seat.

Its acoustics have been cleverly tuned to enhance the crowd noise by using the underside of the roof. Arup Acoustics has provided this design service, as well as the building acoustics and overall sound system design, in addition to an environmental noise impact assessment on residences in close proximity to the site.

Blackburn-based Romers successfully tendered for the entire Public Address/Voice

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Proel has announced the appointment of a new sales representative to handle the Home Counties. Ian Vile joins the company having returned to the UK from South Africa, bringing with him a wealth of experience in pro audio and professional PA equipment which, the company says, will be put to good use in their expanding range of PA and related equipment, together with the FBT, B&C and Alto ranges.

In his early career, Vile played with the popular South African band, Cinema, subsequently making two albums with the group. In 1986, he began supplying Johannesburg retailers with custom-manufactured speaker enclosures and, under the brand name Vidal, became one of South Africa’s leading designers of PA systems. Later, he branched-out into PA hire and installation work.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Specialist AV company, Blitz Communications has secured two theatrical firsts for the new Queen musical We Will Rock You, opening in London's West End on 14 May. The show marks the first time that Blitz's new HRS high-resolution videographics system will be used which will be linked to the biggest video screen ever installed in a theatre.

The HRS system will allow graphics, pre-recorded video sequences, live action shots and scenic backdrops for the show to be displayed on a giant LED screen measuring 10.2m x 4.8m. Blitz brokered the deal for production company Lighthouse to obtain the LED screen, which cost £1million and was shipped over from Hong Kong. It is made of LVP1010C Quarter Bin LED panels and divides into eight separate smaller screens. Four of these operate at floor level on individually powered, steerable trucks. Another four are flown using an automated motionsyst

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Vertigo Rigging has installed the Broadway hit musical version of The Full Monty into the Prince of Wales Theatre for its West End run. Vertigo are past masters in the art of rigging large West End musicals. Others having included Beauty & The Beast, The Lion King, Notre Dame de Paris, Mamma Mia and many more.

Vertigo’s Full Monty team was led by the unflappable Ken Mehmed. The team worked closely with master carpenter Micky Murray and production managers Stuart Crosbie and Simon Marlow for producers Sacha Brookes. Vertigo used 40 Lodestar motors to rig the flown elements of the set, designed by John Arnone. These were dead hung in the theatre’s roof once positioned correctly in a very precise operation. A substantial proportion of the stage scenery is flown, so the PoW grid is very tightly packed with flats and set pieces, and the rigging had to be spot on. One of the more

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Color Kinetics Incorporated, specialists in LED illumination technologies, and Targetti, a leading Italian designer and manufacturer of architectural lighting fixtures and systems, have announced an OEM partnership. Through this partnership, Targetti will incorporate Color Kinetics’ patented Chromacore LED technology into a new line of custom fixtures. The two companies also plan to co-develop new Chromacore-based ‘designer’ lighting fixtures.

The new product line, which is planned for launch in the second half of this year, will enable Color Kinetics’ full spectrum colour and lighting effects to be incorporated into any décor through an array of Targetti’s fixtures. Besides aesthetic benefits, LEDs offer a host of practical advantages over conventional light sources that make them an extremely energy efficient, long-lasting, low maintenance and versatile

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Delta Sound Inc has increased its rental stock of L'Acoustics product, to become one of the largest sources in the UK of the popular line array system. An L'Acoustics partner for nearly three years, Delta Sound now have more than 100 L'Acoustics cabinets available for hire, including the arena-sized V-DOSC line array and subs, the compact dV-DOSC system and the 115FM floor monitor.

This latest acquisition of stock occurred when L'Acoustics closed its own UK rental operation at the beginning of the year, offering the current UK partnerships first choice to buy their surplus systems. Delta Sound, a leading sound service provider for the corporate events market, leapt at the chance to expand their V-DOSC stock further, not only to support their own needs, but that of other rental companies too.

One such association is with SSE Hire Ltd, the Birmingham-based hire company, who recently ut

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Now in its 10th year, Big Day Out is an Australian touring festival that visits Auckland, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth every January. It is unique in its design, scale and complexity and attracts many headline acts - the 2002 event featured The Prodigy, Garbage, New Order and Basement Jaxx.

This year, security was tightened following the tragic death of 16-year-old Jessica Michalik last year: organizers West & Lees made changes to audience safety provisions and introduced volunteer safety teams, increased audience lighting and erected a new, alcohol-free, D barricade area (from Mojo Barriers) in front of the main stages. The audience was given free water bottles and sun-block, and crowd surfing was banned. "We also carefully considered the time certain bands take to the stage," explained Matt Dougherty, one of three production managers on the tour. &q

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Dream Theater is an interesting mixture of ‘prog’ rock, metal and mayhem; they have a cult following and are enjoying great success with their latest album ‘Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence’. We’ve not yet figured out quite why it is six degrees, but there must be a reason.

Led by drummer and impresario Mike Portnoy, DT have just completed the European leg of their current world tour, before heading to Mexico and North America. It’s a high energy show, and this is mirrored by lighting designer Benoit Richard. The lighting for the whole tour is supplied by Bandit Lites, handled for the European section by their UK office.

The front, back and two staggered middle trusses, are scattered with a mix of fixtures - from Martin MACs to High End Cyberlights and ETC Source Fours with scrollers. There’s also a copious contingent of floor-based fixtures.

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The Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead, Surrey, was opened by Dame Sybil Thorndike in 1969. Designed by Roderick Ham, the theatre was built and funded with enthusiastic support from local theatre groups, and went on to become an ambitious and high profile producing theatre. Its manager and founder, Hazel Vincent Wallace, was able to woo well-known actors and directors from London to create some remarkable productions.

At its height, the Thorndike Theatre’s club had 12,000 members; it was described as ‘a jewel of a theatre’. But despite the fact that houses were largely full, the economics of regional theatre meant that there was a dependence on subsidy and local grants. Inevitably there was never enough, and it was eventually closed down in 1997. Only the building’s Grade 2 listing saved it from demolition.

But late last year, following six months of refurbishme

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The opening ceremony of the 2002 Dubai Shopping Festival was one of the most spectacular and technically complex shows ever staged in the Middle East.

Dubai-based ProTec handled all the technical elements, and the whole project - literally from the ground up - was managed and co-ordinated by the company’s Stephen Lakin, who collaborated closely with Damien McGurn, Hares Shehab, Rick Wade and Jason Strange.

Lakin’s involvement with the event began in the summer of 2001, following an approach he made to the Government where he presented his ideas to Sheikh Mohammed. In October he was awarded the contract, without it going out to tender. Then began a race against time to make the show happen for 1 March. No venue capable of staging a show of this stature existed in Dubai, so Lakin’s first job was to find a site and build from the ground up.

McGurn hired local contrac

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L’Acoustics has announced the appointment of SISME Co as its new distributor for Italy. Established in 1967, Sisme is based in Osimo Scalo, near Ancona, on the East Coast of Italy, and is also the sole Italian distributor for brands such as Shure, Phonic, LA Audio, Crest Audio, and for many other brands.

Due to the wide variety of products that they have distributed, for more than 30 years now, SISME Co. have become specialists in managing permanent installation projects, alongside their more regular sales activities. Claudio Bugari, SISME’s president, says: "We can efficiently support all the technical demands of our customers; with two general support engineers, and a full-time technician we provide a fast and efficient in-house repairing service."

Outside the company, SISME has a sales force of 11 independent representatives covering the whole Italian territo

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The Cadac R-Type lightweight touring console has been enjoying a high UK profile, featuring on the recent Ian Brown tour - handled by UK sound hire company GPA Hire. Former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown is currently touring Ireland after four weeks and 19 venues in the UK during February and March. The 62-input, 16-out, 8 VCA R-Type was in the hands of Gary Young (pictured) on the Southampton leg of the tour, with a Cadac 72-input M-Type monitor board on stage.

The Cadac name has an unrivalled reputation for audio performance, reliability and engineering excellence. The company's comprehensive line-up of consoles highlights its specialist focus on sound reinforcement and location recording - the R-Type touring console and the M-Type monitor board are complemented by the J-Type and F-Type live production consoles. In additon, the 5.1 C-Type location recording console offers the pure pa

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John Hornby Skewes & Co Ltd, the exclusive UK and Eire HK Audio distributor, has commissioned leading visual systems company, MAD Manufacturing, to install a state-of-the-art lighting rig in the HK Audio pro audio demo theatre at JHS’ Garforth premises. The whole HK Audio ‘active family’ features in the JHS demo room, including the new Lucas 1000 1kW self-powered system, plus Lucas, Elias, Actor and Projector active systems, alongside T-Series, M-Series and Linear Pro systems. Additionally, a 12-box HK Audio R-Series rig is available for demonstration and rental - this includes the PR 324 power rack with HK’s Digital Field Controller system.

(Ruth Rossington)

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ETC has recently passed a major milestone having sold more than one million Source Fours. It now plans to share the celebration with some very lucky customers. Sometime between June 1 and August 1 2002, ETC will ship four winning Source Four luminaires, representing the millionth-unit made, to their UL/cUL, CE and 100V markets. Four lucky end-users will receive a prize-winning Source Four in their orders.

If you are one of those winners, you will find a rare etched gold-wrapped Source Four inside your box, along with a special Certificate of Authenticity signed by ETC’s entire Source Four luminaire assembly crew. Just return the luminaire to ETC and you will receive the real grand prize - a collection of ETC’s Source Fours including a 5° Source Four, a 10° Source Four, a classic Source Four with lens tubes for every angle, a Source Four PAR EA and PAR MCM, a Source Four P

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