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The first week of December saw ETC using the newly finished demo room at its Acton offices for a full week of hands-on, technical product training for new and existing Authorised Service Centres (ASCs). Companies can only become Authorised Service Centres once they have received full training in relevant products. The week's course gives ETC a further six ASCs across Europe and the Middle East.

The three new Middle Eastern ASCs are Oasis in the UAE, Niletec of Egypt and Al Diwan of Kuwait. The newly appointed European companies are Helsinki Lighting, Finland, Stockholm Lighting in Sweden and Decima of Italy.

The training covered ETC's Sensor and Unison dimming, Express and Expression consoles, Emphasis and ETCNet2, ETC's Ethernet system, plus Irideon fixtures and associated software an

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Sennheiser UK inaugurated its guidePORT partnership scheme (through which it will exclusively make available the supply and installation of its new guidePORT intelligent, wireless personal tour guide system), by appointing Orbital as the first guidePORT partner at the recent MUREX National Museum Resources Exhibition, at the NEC in Birmingham.

Sennheiser and Orbital demonstrated the configurable system that incorporates multi-channel digital RF transmission and real-time audio streaming technologies. Commenting on the move, Orbital managing director Chris Headlam, stated: "Orbital has been looking for a unique product to enable it to offer a market-leading service provision for the cultural, heritage and exhibitions industry. guidePORT represents the future of interactive tour guides."

The guidePORT system employs digital sound transmission techniques and cellular-based com

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Following November elections, the Association has welcomed three new members to its executive committee. With effect from January 1st, Andrew Bishop of Carlsbro Electronics, Steve Cole of Navica and Matthew Tonks ofStage Technologies will join PLASA’s executive body.

The new places were made available by the departures of Paul de Ville of Lightfactor Sales, Nikki Scott of Stage Technologies and Tracey Patterson of Artistic Licence, all of whom decided not to stand for re-election. PLASA Chairman Mick Hannaford acknowledged the valuable contributions that all had made, and thanked them for their efforts.

The three new members are all experienced industry players. Andrew Bishop of Carlsbro worked with both Fisons and Barclays Bank, before moving into the fireworks and toys business, gaining a broad experience of import and export. In 2001, he purchased Carlsbro Electronics, a man

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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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The Klark Teknik Group has announced the appointment of John Oakley to the position of managing director with immediate effect.

According to Mathias von Heydekampf, president of the Telex Pro Audio Group worldwide, Oakley brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience to the Klark Teknik and Midas brands. "He joins the group from a long and varied career within Harman, and comes from a strong technical, as well as managerial, background, and thus is ideally placed to take up the reins at Klark Teknik. We are delighted to welcome him to the team."

John Oakley is also looking forward to his new role. "This is a very exciting time to be joining the Klark Teknik Group," he stated. "Midas has very strong product lines in the Venice, Legend, Heritage and XL4 consoles and continues to go from strength to strength. At the same time Klark Teknik is in the mids

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The MTV Staying Alive concert, in Association with YouthAids, and staged at Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium in late November, proved a major success with over 20.000 people witnessing the event live and millions more watching an edited version on television channels the world over.

Three of the world’s most successful music stars headlined the event, which was held to create awareness of HIV/Aids, as well as encourage tolerance of those affected by the disease. Alicia Keys, Usher and P. Diddy were joined by homegrown stars Mandoza, Zola, 101, Danny K, Bianca Le Grange and DJ Ready D.

Gearhouse South Africa was contracted to provide lighting, sound, structures, audio-visual, rigging and power. The SABC (South African Broadcast Corporation) filmed the show on behalf of MTV, for its MTV Presents Levi’s Jeans Staying Alive Concert In Association With YouthAids 90-minute

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Architectural and feature lighting specialists i-vision continue their proliferation of Irish projects, with an installation at the 700 capacity Ennis pub and bar in Balbriggan, County Dublin.

Owner Gary Brown, together with Pete Williams of AVL, gave i-vision’s Geoff Jones the brief to design and realise an exterior lighting scheme. The stone constructed building posed several challenges - with dark grey stone proving a less than ideal lighting canvas!

Jones has lit the front façade with seven Superlight CDM 150 up/downlighters. Each fixture is fitted with a blue dichroic for the downlight and a magenta dichroic for the uplight. This method was employed to break up the architectural lines of the frontage, producing a dynamic blue wash over the lower half, and an eye-catching magenta sweep across the first floor. MA250 blue asymmetric floods were used to complete the picture

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Keith Owen is to leave the Production Services Association (PSA) in the New Year. He will step down from his role as trade association manager in order to launch a design company which will supply 'practicals' and special projects to the entertainment, TV and film industries. It’s a return to a role he undertook for 20 years before joining the PSA. There will be continuity for the PSA in the shape of Julian Walden, an experienced events person, who will now work closely with the PSA Council.

(Ruth Rossington)

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For the first time in the UK retail industry, an LVP1010 (10mm pixel pitch) LED screen has been installed in HMV’s Oxford Street store, to act as both an entertainment and advertising medium.

The screen, measuring 3.84m x 2.4m, is part of a complete audio visual installation undertaken by London-based Interactive View and forms the backdrop to a 6 x 5m stage area constructed by Rode Island. The area is designed to host an array of live events, including DJs, solo artists and bands and was heralded by a week of live events, including appearances by Grand Master Flash, Craig David, Blue and The Libertines promoted on Capital Radio throughout.

Interactive View managing director, Lee Edwards, commented: "This is the largest audio-visual installation in a retail outlet in the UK to date, and is part of HMV’s nationwide refurbishment. We’ve designed and managed this

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For the second year running, White Light is supporting the Crisis Open Christmas by supplying lighting equipment to the entertainment events which take place in the East London shelter which the charity Crisis runs during the Christmas period.

Crisis has been running their Open Christmas since 1972, with five shelters staffed by volunteers open from 23 - 30 December offering not only accommodation, warmth and food but much more, including medical services and resettlement advice. Last year, lighting designer Jenny Kagan volunteered, responding to the Crisis form's request for information about 'specialist skills' with the quip "lighting and stage management, though I don't suppose you have much call for either." A few days later she found herself organizing the backstage side of the Open Christmas' Entertainments!

"Entertainment has always been part of the Crisis Open

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The newly launched DiGiCo D5 Live digital mixing system recently embarked on its first US tour, a two-month North American odyssey with Beck, in support of the band’s acclaimed new album, Sea Change, which reached number 8 in the Billboard Hot 200.

The tour’s audio was provided by Showco of Dallas, with Jon Lemon at the front of house controls and John Shearman on monitors. A Showco Prism PA system, with a Clair Brothers IO wireless loudspeaker controller and Amcron amplification, delivered the wattage to audiences of up to 5,000. Jon also used a hard disk recording system, linked directly to the D5 Live, to record the show and perform pre-soundcheck system set-up. Showco’s Jim Ragus was FOH system technician, with Justin Hoffman as monitor tech.

Beck - supported by The Flaming Lips on the tour - comprises a five-piece band, plus Beck himself, with drums, keyboard/g

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In association with the launch of Stardraw.net, the first web-based CAD system, Stardraw has announced the introduction of bronze, silver and gold partner programmes. These offer different ways for anyone who is interested in, or whose customers may be interested in, online design and documentation systems to earn from or implement Stardraw.net applications.

The first tier is the bronze package, also known as the Affiliate programme. The programme, which is free to join and open to everyone, allows Affiliates to earn a 5% commission from all online purchases at www.stardraw.com that result from a click-through from their site. The silver package is the Stardraw.net Partner programme. Like the Affiliate programme, this is also free to implement, the difference being that rather than offering a simple link back to Stardraw.com, the Partner programme allows you to run the Stardraw.net app

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Leading Milan production facility, Cinevideostudio, has purchased 20 Coemar iWash and iSpot 575s, to be located in two of its five studios. Run by Paolo Baraldi, the studio conducts 90% of its work for MTV Italy, who share the complex in Milan - although they also enjoy close co-operation with RAI, the state-owned broadcaster.

Cinevideostudio was established in Mantua, near Verona, back in 1983, and moved to Milan in 1997 where the collaboration with MTV Italy began. Today it employs around 80 people, and boasts a complete post-production suite - with editing and transfer facilities dedicated to Quantel and Avid - as well as transmission studios among its facilities.

Cinevideostudio’s E studio, featuring the lighting of Coemar, was used recently for a concert with international artists Robbie Williams, Alanis Morissette, REM and Oasis, for the Italian MTV Live, which is shot i

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Reading-based rental company Skan PA Hire has provided a sound system for the recent Supergrass tour of the UK. The tour played venues including Newcastle University, Glasgow Barrowlands, Cardiff University and the Academy in Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol respectively, terminating with three nights at London's Shepherds Bush Empire.

Skan sub-hired an EAW KF850 system from Villa Audio to fulfil the requirements of the band's front of house engineer Mike Hornby, which it combined with its own amplifiers and control system. The front of house system included a Midas Heritage 2000 console and EAW KF853 mid-high and KF852 low boxes with SB1000 subs powered by Lab Gruppen amplifiers, together with a Midas XL3 monitor console and Turbosound TFM-450 biamped 2-way wedges. Skan also supplied manpower in the shape of full-time employees Matt Vickers and Ant Carr.

This combination of equipm

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Northampton-based event and display lighting specialists Mushroom Event Services Limited has launched a new website, which includes the first downloadable PDF format of both their sales and hire catalogues. The new site has been designed to make selection of products and services both quick and easy, with the sales and hire catalogues downloadable in PDF format at the click of a mouse.

Mushroom spokesman Paul Butler explains: "For many years we've produced a paper-based hire and sales catalogue and although this has been extremely successful for us, we wanted to move our service forward and make sure that we are instantly accessible for our clients and potential clients. The new site has been designed in such a way that every product and service is instantly available to view for anyone with internet access."

Mushroom offer an extensive range of lighting sales and rental se

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Canegreen Commercial Presentations Ltd continued a busy 2002 winter season, making sure the sound matched the quality of the winners at the Woman of the Year Awards, held at the Hyde Park Hotel Inter-Continental in London.

The awards, sponsored by O2, celebrated women’s achievements in music and related industries, with Sharon Osbourne walking away with the coveted ‘Woman of the Year Award’. Women from all areas of the music industry picked up awards in categories including lifetime achievement and special achievement of the year given by guest award presenters, from Dr Fox of Capital Radio fame, to Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Will Young.

Canegreen Commercial was presented with the challenge of achieving audio coverage to all of the 450 guests in the Grand Ballroom at the Inter-Continental, from a central stage. They achieved this by flying eight Meyer UPA-1P S

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Filipino install and live sound company, Stage Craft International, has been utilizing eight Chameleon 3700 DP/2 amplifiers at a variety of events in Manila, with venues spanning small nightclubs to major raves featuring top DJs. The first Chameleon benefactor was Decades, one of Manila’s most popular nightclubs, where a single 3700 DP/2 has been installed to power a Turbosound rig at the 300-capacity venue. "Because it plays rock to rave music, Decades was looking for a more heavy sound, so the 3700 DP/2 is currently driving the subs only. There has been a significant increase in dB level and a marked improvement in low end grunt," says Stage Craft’s Frankie Zabala.

The Gatecrasher, God’s Kitchen, Ministry of Sound and Cream raves - all staged in the 3,000 capacity NBC Tent at Fort Bonifaco - also benefited from Chameleon’s renowned power handling cap

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MC2 Audio has recently notched up its first sale of amplifiers to Malta. Light Sound Vision, a member of the ITC Group, contacted MC2 Audio via their website in early spring 2002 and a follow-up meeting was arranged for the PLASA Show. "We were very pleased to have the opportunity to meet Mario Camilleri, managing director of Light Sound Vision at PLASA in September," commented Ian McCarthy. "Their initial order for amplifiers from both the MC range and T Series followed in October and we now look forward to future collaboration with Light Sound Vision."

(Ruth Rossington)

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Fifteen months in the job, and already the Fairfield Hall’s new technical coordinator Ian Locke is beginning to make his presence felt; not least in the realms of safety. "Before I took the appointment I could already see this was a very, very busy venue; sometimes three performances a day, so I knew safe working practices would be paramount."

Consequently there has been, in his own words "huge changes", not least the recent installation of a new rigging grid above the famous Fairfield stage. "The existing grid was well past its sell-by date, so in September of 2001 I visited PLASA to see what was available. At the time I didn’t even know Total Fabrications’ T2 system existed (hardly surprising as it was barely a year since launch) so when I stopped by their stand I was more than impressed with the system."

Being a prudent shopper, Lock

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Biamp Systems is expanding its European Division with the addition of Romano Cunsolo, who will perform the duties of regional manager for select countries in the division. Graeme Harrison, vice-president of international sales for Biamp, explained the move: "Ian Hodgkinson, our current European regional manager, has done a great job in increasing our presence in these markets during the last four years, and our forecast of our future growth in Europe necessitates the addition of a second regional manager. We feel that Romano has excellent sales and technical expertise and has the added ability of speaking five languages, which always aids in business communications. We are very pleased that Romano elected to join our organization."

Romano Cunsolo most recently was with EVI Audio where he held a variety of posts and was the European Sales Manager for Electro-Voice and Dynacord

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The Event Show 2003 (28-30 January, National Hall, Olympia) will see leading event professionals come together to provide a unique forum of workshops, advice clinics and seminars. Over 250 companies will be on hand to help, as well as leading professional organisations such as TESA, NOEA, BECA, and PSA.

The main programme involves a series of high profile speakers. On 28th January, Brian Blake, MBE presents a talk on ‘The do’s and don’ts of getting a licence.’ Blake has been responsible for the technical aspects of public entertainment licensing within Westminster for 27 years, and has covered a wide range of events, including outdoor concerts in Hyde Park, and the Queen’s Jubilee, where he was responsible for public safety and contingency planning.

On the 29th January, the focus is ‘Spotlight on Local Authorities.’ Sponsored by NOEA, the s

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The latest addition to TMB’s LA sales department is Barbara Barnum, who has previously worked as a service technician at High End Systems and Gemini Stage Lighting, a pyrotechnician at Pyrotex and a lighting designer/CAD operator at Intelecon. TMB tell us Barnum is into snorkeling, dirt biking, kayaking, hiking, climbing, rollerblading, rock collecting and Sponge Bob Square Pants, and is the owner of a 130 horsepower Aprilia Tuono-R motorcycle.

It was just this balance of technical experience, intelligence and bravado that TMB was looking for: lured by TMB’s culture of ‘Fun is Profitable’, Barbara made the move from Dallas to Los Angeles. She has quickly become TMB LA’s resident expert on moving lights, controllers, CAD and image manipulation systems such as Catalyst and RADLite.

Tommy Stephenson, TMB’s sales manager, comments: "The consensus

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