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Electrosonic Systems Inc only started its operation in Orlando, Florida, in1999 but has already outgrown its current facility. In an area surrounded by theme parks and large military contractors, the company has found a unique position in the market, and in 2002 has been awarded some major new contracts.

These projects include several Universal Studios installations, Del Monte’s corporate boardrooms, the Network Operations Center for the FBI, and many command and control centres on board US Navy ships. The expanded workload for Electrosonic Orlando required an increase in manpower, and a move to new premises. The 9,000sq.ft facility is about double the size of the original space and will allow for more local fabrication and engineering of projects. In addition, nine new staff membe

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XL Video supplied five large LED screens to the Rockingham 500 Fed Ex Champ Cart racing event, held at the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby Northants. It’s the second time this American CART racing phenomenon has been run in the UK, and is part of the new CART European tour. XL supplied a 25sq.m truck-based screen and a 40sq.m ground-stacked Saco LED screen, located to cover all the grandstands on Turn 1. At Turn 4, the grandstands were covered by a 49sq.m Unitek MS17 screen. The picture was completed with two 20sq.m ground-stacked 15 mm Saco screens covering the main grandstand, sited on top of the garages over the pit lane.

The XL Video team also undertook some high-speed work themselves - all screens were installed quickly and efficiently the Thursday before the qualifying rounds took place on the Friday, ready for the event proper on the Saturday.

(Ruth Rossington)

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CP Sound continues its incredibly busy year with its latest club sound and lighting installation at Harry's Bar in Weymouth. The busy nightspot in the South Coast resort has undergone a complete refurbishment and its new look is a colourful, contemporary psychedelic interior with a powerful and impressive sound system.

The independent Harry's Bar is owned by local entrepreneur Nino Ronzitti, who comes from Sicily. He initially contacted Steve Howe from Howie Design to come up with an eye-catching interior design for the club. CP Sound and Howie Design have collaborated on many memorable projects in the last few years, and Howie put CP's name forward for the audio and lighting designs, supply and installation.

Harry's Bar has two floors - a feeder bar downstairs and the main club up above, with a total capacity of 350. It's a well-proportioned environment which demanded fully flexibl

featured content

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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Russia's biggest new stadium has opened with an Apogee sound system. The new 30,000-seat Locomotiv Stadium in Moscow, the home of Russia's major league Locomotiv soccer team and Russia's national team, is the first stadium of its size in Russia designed and built to include a state-of-the-art sound system. The new stadium features 16 Apogee ALA-9 Line Array loudspeakers and is the first open arena system in Russia in which audio signals are routed and distributed entirely within a CobraNet network.

"Locomotiv Stadium combines distinct and unusual architectural ideas with high-tech safety, communication, and other systems - including the finest sound in Russia," said Andrei Kremenchugsky of MediaMatrix Center, the installation department of Dom Zvuka Ltd of Moscow. "It will be Moscow's leading venue for large live concerts in the future."

MediaMatrix Center, one o

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Jem has added to its extensive line of smoke machines with the launch of the compact Magnum 550 and the powerful Magnum 950. Housing a 600W ECO-Mass Vaporizing System for economical and even distribution of haze, with fast heat-up time and extended operation, the Magnum 550 is supplied with remote control and fitted with the same high quality overheat protection as models from Jem’s professional range.

The Magnum 950, the big brother to the Magnum 550, houses a more powerful 1500W system. Supplied with remote control, 2.5 litre fluid container and again the same overheat protection as other models in the range, the 950 will give many years of maintenance-free operation.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd worked closely with the BBC’s live events production team to create the new format for the 2002 series of One Big Sunday shows, seen by live audiences over 300,000 strong and broadcast live on Radio 1.

Radio 1 has been at the fore of the live broadcast events since their pioneering days with the Radio 1 Roadshow. However, ‘Smiley Miley’ and co wouldn’t have recognized the gargantuan stage and state-of-the-art production seen at this year’s series of One Big Sundays. This year Radio 1 promoted four live events, developing a new format, larger-scale production, to ensure the enormous crowds the events attract could enjoy their top pop stars.

Star Hire supplied two systems to match the different production requirements of the events. "There were two distinct production requirements across the four shows due to the artist

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Pro Audio Light Middle East (PALME) is the first dedicated professional sound and lighting showcase to be launched in the Middle East. It will run at the Dubai World Trade Centre from February 16-18 2003.

PLASA Members interested in expanding their international business, would be well advised to look to the Middle East. The area has recently seen a huge surge in entertainment, tourism and leisure facilities. Major new venues are planned and there’s a huge catalogue of investment in entertainment projects resulting from a need to satisfy one of the youngest populations in the world.

Following discussions with organizers IIR, PLASA has been offered special rates exclusive to its members. Any member booking a stand at PALME will receive a 35% discount for the first nine square metres and 20% off anything above this. The show joins a strong IIR portfolio of professional exhibition

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L-Acoustics has remained faithful to the principle of coaxial technology that it pioneered in the late eighties with the introduction of the MTD product line, and has recently released the XT line, featuring the latest generation in coaxial components. Compared with traditional horn and woofer combinations, L-Acoustics systems are ideal for distributed sound reinforcement, and demonstrate the benefits of coaxial technology, such as single point source radiation and excellent phase response; total wavefront coherency at any frequency; axi-symmetrical directivity and dispersion characteristics free of polar lobbing.

The end result is natural, studio monitor level sound quality, ideal for proximity use and perfectly matching semi-reverberant environments. Multi-purpose in their format, MTDs and XTs are all-in-one products that can be used as a compact FOH system (with or without subwoofe

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When Festival time comes around in Edinburgh, everyone wants a bit more of everything and Glasgow-based Scottish Opera not only puts on its own production at the Festival, but also rents out equipment to other companies.

Over the past few years, the company has hired out staging to the Festival to anti-rake the King's Theatre and this year was to be no exception. But then it was asked to supply a visiting company, Canadian Opera, with stock staging units for the production of Oedipus Rex at the Playhouse Theatre. And Scottish Opera itself needed staging for its own large-scale production of Siegfried . "Next year," explained production manager Steve Green, "Scottish Opera will need around 70 units for our own performances at the festival and I anticipate that we'll continue to supply the festival with staging for the Kings' Theatre. With this in mind I deci

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The second wave of the PLASA Industry Research ‘Market Trends 2001’ has now been completed and a detailed overview of the findings has been mailed to all those members who agreed to take part in the survey.There are four product reports, giving detailed findings on Professional Lighting, Pro-Audio, Staging and AV, all of which can be purchased by contacting Helen Willis at the PLASA office on +44 (0)1323 410335 ore-mailing research@plasa.org. The reports are priced at £125.00 (+ VAT) and as a special offer you can purchase all four reports for £350 (+ VAT).

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The stage director and visual designer Robert Wilson, and poet and musician Tom Waits teamed up with the Betty Nansen Teatret in Copenhagen to create a performance which has drawn praise during its current European tour.

The production - the classic Woyzeck, by Georg Büchner - is based on the story of a young soldier and his reaction to a warped society, culminating in the murder of his girlfriend. In the hands of Wilson and Waits, the play is given a strikingly modern look. Lighting designer A J Weissbard draws inspiration from traditional methods of creating environment and atmosphere, using specialised lighting effects to give the set a feeling of simplicity, whilst at the same time empowering the unfolding tragedy.

This first all-Danish performance of the 164-year-old tragedy was given at the Betty Nansen Teatret on November 19, 2000, and the production has now embarked o

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Super Vision International Inc, a world leader in the manufacture of fibre optic and LED lighting, announced today that it was awarded a jury verdict in the amount of $41,200,000 against the following individuals and companies: Samson Mong Wu, Jack Caruso, David Winkler, Susan Sumida Wu, Debbie Wu, Thomas Wu, Ruby Lee, James Lee, Optic-Tech International Corporation, Shanghai Qiaolong Optic-Tech International Company, Ltd (PRC), Shanghai Qiaolong Optic-Tech Industrial Co Ltd. (PRC), Marsam Trading Corporation, Marsam Trading Corporation (HK) Ltd, Cosmic Corporation Ltd (HK) and Travis Pochintesta.

The jury found the defendants liable on all counts including fraud, civil theft, violations of Florida's RICO act, civil conspiracy, misappropriations of Super Vision's technology and destruction of evidence. Among the witnesses testifying in the case was a Special Agent with the FBI who test

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Attempts at e-mail fraud are on the increase if the latest batch of unsolicited e-mails are anything to go by. New strands of approach have appeared - alongside the now routine appeals from West Africa offering access to salted away gold reserves, are a new breed of European lottery front men claiming that a ticket in your name has just won $1.5m US dollars.

Given the almost daily nature of these approaches, a PLASA Member has passed on to us advice issued by the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS): "Make contact with your local constabulary fraud squad or commercial crime unit. Each constabulary has a dedicated officer to whom you should forward such communications. Do not under any circumstance reply to the fraudsters responsible for sending out these communications.

"If you have entered into communication with the fraudsters and thereafter sent money or met wi

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Amália The Musical has been taking the Portuguese theatre scene by storm over recent months, becoming the most successful Portuguese production ever - with audiences exceeding 1.5 million to date. Directed by Filipe La Féria, the musical charts the life and career of the Portuguese fado singer, Amália Rodrigues. Tragically, she died just before the première of the show about her colourful past opened in Funchal, Madeira, in December 1999, moving to the Politeama Theatre in Lisbon in July 2000. The show went out on tour in early 2002, complete with a new Cadac F-Type Live Production Console, and is currently set to move to other European cities in 2003 and ultimately Brazil as well.

The sound system was designed by Carlos Esteves, technical director of CHS Sound and Light Hire. Amália The Musical is a complex and challenging show to mix, with 54 actors on stage and 38

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Automated lighting veteran Marcel Fairbairn has launched a new company called Gear-Source. Based in Penbroke Pines, Florida, the new operation will supply clients with professional lighting and control products from a range of manufacturers, including Martin Professional, High End, Coemar, Vari-Lite and ETC. The company will concentrate on offering used, discontinued or demonstration items, and Fairbairn intends to develop the product range in the future by adding audio, video and backline gear to the portfolio. Fairbairn is a familiar face in the industry having worked with Tracoman, High End Systems and Martin Professional.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Lightfactor Sales has supplied technical design and installation company Chris Gunton & Associates Limited (CGA) with lighting equipment for the just-opened new Portsmouth University Students Centre.

This £6.5 million project is the first University new-build of the 21st century, the result of a plan initiated in 1997. It holds up to 2,500 people, and comes complete with several spaces including a 1,200 capacity nightclub - Lux, a Chill-out Bar - CO2, a multi-national venue, a Sports Bar - Water Hole, Coffee shop and other social areas. CGA won a competitive tender, offered by interior designers GMP, for the lighting, sound and AV installation for three areas of the building and the reception. They worked closely with Jason Dunlop, chief executive of UPSU and his team to realise the project.

Once the contract was secured, Chris Gunton turned to Lightfactor to supply the lighting kit

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Apogee Sound International has named Keith Vanderkley as director of North American sales, Eastern Region. Vanderkley assumes responsibility for Apogee's sales efforts east of the Mississippi in the United States, as well as in Ontario and the eastern provinces of Canada.

A former technical coordinator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Vanderkley brings 30 years experience in live sound and recording to Apogee Sound. In 1996 he launched the audio equipment rep firm Vanderkley & Associates, which later merged with Core Products Inc of Canada, where he began his relationship as a rep for Apogee Sound.

Tim Thornton, director of North American sales, will concentrate on the sales territories in the western half of North America. "Keith's knowledge of products made him a great rep," Thornton comments, "and he'll make an even better national sales director."

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The Stanton Group has announced the purchase of the assets and brand name of Cerwin-Vega Inc. Confirming the company’s successful bid, Stanton president and CEO Gerard Cohen stated: "We are very excited about this opportunity to grow and expand our business portfolio. We feel that the strength and heritage of the Cerwin-Vega brand name will be a strong complement to our existing businesses and create synergies in the future. We also clearly recognize the value of the existing customer base and are committed to maintaining strong business partners going forward. Stanton will stand strong behind the Cerwin-Vega product and brand name."

Recognizing the difficulties Cerwin-Vega had faced this past year - requiring them to solicit protection from creditors - the Stanton Group had become instinctively attracted to owning one of the greatest names in the speaker industry over

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Just under 500sq.m of Barco’s daylight display systems are currently at work at the annual Paris Motor Show in France. After a successful presence at the Geneva International Motor Show in March, where Barco had over 300sq.m of its LED displays used, it now has the largest overall surface of daylight displays by any one supplier at this year’s Paris Motor Show. No less than 21 stands, of some of the world’s leading car manufacturers, will feature Barco daylight display products.

The Barco daylight displays and spectacular multi screen presentations using Barco SLM G8/R8 and ELM R18 found on the Citroen, Lexus and VW booths, will be represented at the show through some of Barco’s European rental partners including ETF (Belgium), CT (UK), Gahrens & Battermann (Germany), VPS (France), Sono (Spain) and ICT (Germany). The vast majority of the 486sq.m to be seen at th

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In mid-August, Zurich hosted the 10th Streetparade, Europe’s largest techno music event, which was attended by 600,000 people from across the world. The event’s central features were the Lovemobiles, huge trucks equipped with high-power sound systems, and animations, to ‘bombard’ the crowd with techno sounds.

This year’s event featured a total of 29, of which three (24m long and 3.5m high) were 'armed' with systems by Italian manufacturer Outline: 4 Modulo Road High, 4 Modulo Road Bass, 8 Doppia, 4 Bomber, 8 Stackbass, 8 Victor Live, 4 Victor Disco, 4 Topsub, 8 Minisub, 16 Digita, 8 Omnia, 2 Tripla, 6 Flyone and 2 Stage 15 - all powered by digital T series power amps and processed by Genius 6 DSP. A Pro 408 and a Pro 405 console were used by the DJs.

Adrian Fuchs, owner of Skylight Veranstaltungstechnik, the Swiss rental firm working on the project in co

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Automated lighting manufacturer High End Systems is offering Level 1 (beginner) training on the new Wholehog III control system in the coming months, with the company’s Vickie Claiborne as the guest instructor. Hog III classes at High End's Austin, Texas, headquarters are set for 5-6 November and repeated on 7-8 November. For registration, contact Vickie Claiborne at vickie_claiborne@highend.com.

High End's New York office is the scene for further Hog III training sessions running on November 19 and 20. For registration, contact Laurie Bachorek at laurie_bachorek@highend.com.

High End's Los Angeles office opens for Hog III classes on 3-4 December. For registration, contact Mike Hanson at the e-mail address below.

For costs and other details, please contact the listed names or visit the website.

(Ruth Rossington)

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