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Wybron has revealed the latest development for its Autopilot II: automated camera control. The company's popular control system, created to turn regular moving lights into automated followspots, now also allows a camera to follow moving objects or people automatically.

First demonstrated at PLASA 2001, where visitors to Wybron's stand could see themselves captured on a camera controlled by the Autopilot II, the system should prove invaluable to smaller television or film production companies, where staff are at a minimum. Easily operated, a transmitter carried by a presenter or actor sends out signals to receivers, which are connected to the Autopilot II controller. Mounted onto a moveable platform controlled by the Autopilot II software, a camera will then follow the person carrying the

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Seoul's Sangam Stadium will be the site of the 2002 World Cup Opening Ceremony on May 31. To provide the best possible sound reinforcement, with the added demand of portability and fast removal, Korean rental sound companies Daishin Sound and Kukae Sound have teamed up to provide a total of 64 VerTec line array speaker systems. The JBL VT4889s are mounted on 16 portable sound system carts, which can be wheeled into position around the field perimeter, then quickly removed as required.

In addition to JBL VerTec loudspeaker systems, a wide variety of audio products from Harman Professional brands are in use. "This event is a real logistical challenge, and the VerTec speakers specified by audio director Michael Abbott are a highly effective choice," commented Cheol Yoon of Daiyoung Corporation, distributor of AKG, BSS, Crown, JBL and Soundcraft products in Korea. "Their lig

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Europe's most popular boy band, Westlife, is out on the road again, touring Europe and the UK with a show that leaves the girls speechless and everyone else breathing easy, despite the use of heavy fog. That's because Westlife production manager Steve Levitt and co-lighting designer and lighting director Barry Halpin, have chosen to incorporate a low lying fog effect from Jem's newest heavy fogger, the Glaciator. The two Jem Glaciators used for the Westlife tour were supplied by Bandit Lites.

The elaborate show is set in the round, with a stage set-up that features a pentagon-shaped staircase centered around a mid-riser. The challenge during one song was to have heavy fog cascade down the staircase from the top of the set on all five sides. The solution was to place two Jem Glaciators in the somewhat cramped staging area beneath the set, each Glaciator fitted with a ducting adaptor to

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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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Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) will have the opportunity to counterbalance London’s current West End bias for live events during June this year when it deploys an ESS Superstructure building into Finsbury Square within the City’s Square Mile (financial district) at the end of May. The client in this case, Bloomberg, the US-owned financial information and broadcast business is once again taking advantage of it’s proximity to the grass covered square to mount an event, this time in conjunction with the World Cup.

An audience consisting of Bloomberg employees and clients will be able to view the matches from inside an ESS building, which has been designed to Bloomberg’s specifications and includes clear wall panels. The site will also play host to other forms corporate hospitality during the tenure of the World Cup.

ESS will spend four days installing the environmen

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Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd has set an event industry precedent by gaining LANTAC approval for its SS11-09 (Mk2) mobile StarStage. LANTAC is the Local Authorities National Type Approvals Consortium, a scheme which over 90% of the 550 Local Authorities in the UK belong to. In essence, certification under the scheme means that Star Hire no longer has to have the complex engineering calculations checked by local authorities at every show. This saves the clients, licensing authorities and themselves significant time and work in the tight schedules of the live events industry. Local Authorities and clients can be sure that the stage is safe, merely by possession of the signing-off certificate. This guarantees that the stage has been erected in accordance with the LANTAC approval.

To gain the certificate the stage and its documentation were examined in detail by one local authority, whic

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Leisure Industry Week (LIW: 8-10 October 2002, NEC, Birmingham) - a key event for all aspects of the out-of-home leisure industry has a new format for 2002 with five dedicated shows and a wealth of ideas and products to make leisure businesses more efficient, attractive and profitable.

Body & Soul: As the largest health and fitness event in Europe, Body & Soul at LIW encompasses all the equipment, technologies, trends and services in the health and fitness market.

FamilyLand: this event is dedicated to family leisure activities. Along with new demonstration plots showing rides in action, visitors will also discover children's play equipment, inflatables, theme park rides, and ideas for animation, costumes, theming and special effects.

Food for Leisure: This covers everything from vending and beverage machines to convenience foods and dedicated leisure catering facilities. In additi

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Since its first seven-minute show performed at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, Riverdance has gone on to be one of the most successful international dance shows ever. In 1997, the show was split into two touring companies, with the Liffey covering Europe and Asia (currently in the UK until the end of June), and the Lagan touring North America and Australia. Since the disastrous fire in Madrid nearly a year ago that destroyed almost the entire Liffey production, the show is now back on the road and sounding even better than before.

Thanks to efforts from Shuttlesound and the Riverdance crew, the show was rebuilt from scratch in just two weeks, but since then some key changes have been made to the system. Riverdance sound supervisor Barry McLeod explains: "I don't want to say that the fire did us a favour - that might be stretching the point somewhat, but it certainly made us r

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High End Systems has announced the addition of two key new positions to its executive management team based in Austin, Texas. David Parks joins High End in the role of senior vice-president, product development. With his diverse background in engineering, operations and finance, Parks will focus on maturing the organization's development processes, delivery and design for manufacturing. He will partner closely with Rick Thompson, vice-president of operations, in building cross-functional project management teams.

With Parks in place, HES R&D's vice-president of engineering, Mike Wood, takes on the new role of chief technology officer, focusing on the strategic planning, advanced engineering and selection of all new products and technology platforms. Wood will work closely with High End's Product Development Committee, which drives the direction and product selection of the development

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As part of its long-term strategy to address the industry’s concerns over training, PLASA has appointed a full-time training and development manager. Nicky Greet, who joined the PLASA Head Office staff at the start of May, will be tasked with collating current training information, identifying and addressing areas in which specifically-tailored training schemes are required and helping to implement them in conjunction with relevant bodies.

PLASA’s managing director Matthew Griffiths commented: "Concerns about the lack of suitable and relevant training in the entertainment technology industry have been voiced for some time, and PLASA originally scheduled this appointment into its long-term strategy as part of its first five-year plan in 2000. During 2001, we conducted an extensive programme of research into the issue with the aid of our members, which enabled us to move

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MC2 Audio has appointed Group One Ltd in New York as its US distributor. Group One was formed in 1992 by Jack Kelly and Chris Fichera and in 1994 they merged the company with Celco Inc to create the company now known as Group One Ltd.

Group One is an importer and distributor for a number of professional audio and lighting manufacturers and operates primarily through a network of independent sales representatives with a client base of nearly 1,000 different dealer and contractor accounts. The company is based in Farmingdale, New York, and included in their 13,000sq.ft facility is a 1,500sq.ft demo room where customers are invited to audition the array of lighting and sound products.

The MC2 Audio brand joins well-known names such as Celestion, XTA Electronics, Milab Microphones and Cadac in Group One's portfolio of audio products. MC2 Audio products were launched in the US by Group On

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Winner of the 2001 LDI Award for Product of the Year Scenic Effects, and 2001 Eddy Award Lighting Product of the Year, Rosco’s ImagePro is now being launched across Europe. Already hugely successful in America, the ImagePro offers an easy, inexpensive solution for projecting photographic quality images, from the iris slot of an ETC Source Four, Altman Shakespeare, Strand SL or Selecon Pacific lighting fixture.

Projections have already proven to add individuality and effectiveness to an exhibition stand, theatrical production, conference, product launch or film/television production. Anywhere that a temporary projection may be needed is where the flexibility of ImagePro will be indispensable. The image is created on a plastic iPro slide with full colour high quality images printed on high temperature plastic. Rosco has hundreds of images available for immediate use, catalogued on

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Imagine the challenge of producing an event where your six star performers each weigh seven tons and are four metres high, three metres wide and up to 10 metres long. This was the task facing One Box Productions when launching ERF’s new range of trucks at Telford International Centre on 24 April.

The launch, to ERF’s dealer network and key customers, was particularly important because it is the first time ERF trucks have incorporated cabs developed by their parent company MAN. For One Box managing director David Langdon and his team, the challenge was to develop a show concept that would communicate the company’s heritage, the driver benefits of the new range and allow a large-scale product reveal. The solution was a dramatic AV presentation projected onto a 40ft high, 130-degree arc of drapes. This was delivered using Blitz Vision’s Suite P system and an array

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FX Music Control, the equipment sales arm of the FX Group, has appointed James ‘Woody’ Woodburn as its London sales manager. Woody joins the company from Serious Audio where he was sales manager for two years until the company’s closure at the beginning of 2002. He is now based at the FX Group’s headquarters in East Acton and is responsible for handling all recording and post production sales enquiries in London and the South East.

FX Music Control’s managing director, Emma Brown, told us: "Woody is highly regarded within the pro audio industry, particularly for his expertise with Pro Tools, which is an increasingly important part of our business. In recent months we have witnessed a large increase in orders throughout the country and we wanted to ensure that all customers received the same high level of service regardless of where they are. By appoin

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Proel (International) has been appointed sole UK distributor for the highly regarded QUBE PA range. Following the takeover of international responsibility for distribution by FBT Electronica, QUBE (a joint venture of the USA’s Renkus-Heinz and Italy’s FBT) now has a network of distributors with the UK passing to Proel (International), in London.

The QUBE range comprises professional-level systems from small packages to full touring rigs and has won many press accolades and users from across the board, including bands, clubs, hire companies and installers. Proel’s Managing Director, Paolo Burocchi, told us: "We’re very excited to have added QUBE to our growing range of pro audio equipment. It’s a good product with a great reputation and we intend to work very hard developing it in the UK market."

(Ruth Rossington)

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Roy Lamb has been Bryan Adams’ production manager for the past three years, ever since Val Dauksts finally decided to wave the road goodbye.

Lamb, himself a contemporary of Dauksts, is rumoured to stick at the job for the love of rock ‘n’ roll and the huge variety of golf courses this career affords him. Which just leaves Adams himself - why does he keep doing it? "This tour has been running pretty much continuously since ‘98, two weeks on, two weeks off," said LD Mac Mosier. "He just loves touring. He said it to the crowd at the last show - I don’t have an album out, I’m not promoting anything, I just enjoy being here."

Beyond my own personal like for the artists’ song writing and his live performance, this proved heartening news. As with Travis, which I’d seen the week before, I polled the audience; for a middle a

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Christie projectors have been used by Lucasfilm Ltd for the production, post-production and (commencing May 16) the exhibition of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones - the first all-digital major motion picture.

In 1999, Christie signed a three-year agreement to supply Lucasfilm with the latest projection equipment to meet its production needs. Christie projectors were first used by Lucasfilm in the post-production of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and were used even more extensively for Attack of the Clones. With the decision to shoot Episode II digitally, Christie projectors played an important role in the production of the movie as Lucasfilm took a Christie projector on location to Australia to review daily footage. In the final post-production phase conducted at Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucas Digital Ltd, the filmmakers used a Christie Digital Cinema

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When the Leader Group, Taiwan’s top media post-production company, completed its five-year planning and construction project to develop a Hollywood-style studio facility, it insisted on state-of-the-art technology to achieve optimum filming quality - including the lighting.

The new Leader Asia Pacific Creativity Center (LAPCC) - now the largest facility in Taiwan - has thus been equipped largely with ARRI lighting. The studio is situated on nine storeys of office block, of which three floors have been removed to allow construction of three large stages - the first phase of a project which will see two further studios constructed over the next few years. Leader placed the ARRI order - worth in the region of £750,000 - through Cheng Seng Trading Co Ltd, ARRI’s Taiwanese distributor. The company was granted a special licence which offered reduced import tariffs for ARRI's ran

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David Mitchell, the founder and former owner of SIS in Northampton, died recently from cancer of the liver. He was in his mid-fifties and had been out of our industry since the early 90s.

Mitchell started SIS in the 70s as a manufacturer of NAB ‘jingle’ machines, but moved into disco lighting manufacture in the early 1980s, as well as wholesaleing for other manufacturers. Ian Brown, now of Coe-tech, was SIS’s sales director in this period, but moved on when SIS’s success enabled it to move to larger freehold premises. Unfortunately, higher overheads and bad debts led to the failure of the company only a few years later. David was well-known and respected. He was likeable, with a mischievous sense of humour. Many of his friends in the industry will regret, as I do, that his relative obscurity in recent years meant that they could not easily keep in touch with hi

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Navigator Systems Ltd have come up with a solution which will ensure that companies who own ‘demo’ stock achieve the best possible return on their investment. Following several months of discussions with sales representatives, Navigator discovered that for some keeping track of the ‘demo’ stock had turned into a logistical nightmare. Items such as mixing desks, projectors, plasma screens and lighting consoles had either been forgotten or simply gone missing.

By adding several new features to its rental management software system RentalDesk, Navigator Systems have now made it possible to search quickly and easily for the ‘First Available Date’ for the ‘demo’ item required. Thus, if a company requests a mixing desk for a five-day period in June, the sales rep can check whether it’s available for that period and if it isn't, give the

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As part of the second phase of key changes in the strategic direction of the iLight group, Peter Brooks, co-founder and managing director of Zero 88 Lighting, is to pursue other consultancy interests and charity work. He will, however, remain as a director and shareholder in the group. "I have very much enjoyed building Zero 88 over the years and seeing it become part of a group with a multi-million pound turnover and over 100 employees," comments Peter. "Undoubtedly, merging the company with iLight Limited made good commercial and strategic sense."

It was just 18 months ago that Peter oversaw the successful merger of Zero 88 and iLight after recognising the synergy between the two companies. From jointly founding Zero 88 in 1972, Brooks initially set up a satellite manufacturing operation in Wales before moving the whole company there in 1992. He has been a pivotal

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Dramatic changes are taking place in the middle of Birmingham. Much of the city centre appears to be under construction, and - as increasingly seems to be the case in such projects - the civic redevelopment has been led by the artistic facilities at its heart: the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre has recently completed a development project that lasted almost two years.

Following a £24 million National Lottery Award through the Arts Council of England and further support from the European Regional development Fund, Birmingham City Council, donations from businesses and individuals and funds raised through appeal, the project has seen practically every part of the building reworked. The foyers were demolished and re-built providing greatly improved access, including lift and disabled access, together with a restaurant and other catering facilities - all wrapped within a design that feel

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