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Star Rigging joined a star line-up in December 2002, rigging the set and production for the Top of the Pops Awards, as they celebrated a successful year for the pop world. In a year that brought us Pop Idol and Fame Academy and more pop tours and radio roadshows than ever before, the Top of the Pops Awards gave its own accolades to the most successful acts of 2002. The show attracted the year’s hottest property, from Miss Dynamite, winner of the best R&B act, to Kylie and the Manic Street Preachers. Star Rigging was once again contracted to supply the rigging for the entire set, lighting, sound and screens for the awards, held in the Manchester Evening News Arena.

Phil Broad was head rigger for the show and worked with the organizers from the concept of the stage set to the practic

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Emmy-award winning developer Rick Hutton has assembled a highly experienced team to launch a new company - InLight Gobos - which will be based in Dallas, Texas. The team has a combined 37 years invested in producing gobos for the entertainment production industry and will offer high quality glass gobos, both catalogue and custom artwork, in black and white/greyscale or full colour.

The technology to produce the gobos is licensed from Beacon AB in Sweden, which utilizes a photolithographic process on ultra-thin zero expansion glass. This glass is the thinnest stack available, producing a full colour image that is only 1.5mm thick, allowing the optical system to focus on all four layers simultaneously.

Backing the technology will be a highly experienced team. President Rick Hutton has spent more than 20 years in the entertainment lighting and laser industries: he has authored severa

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Hz International has launched a new amplifier - the Nexus 1.5 - offering 750W a side into 4 ohms. It features total short circuit protection with continuous clip limiting and two speed fans, so that when the going gets tough, the amp gets cooler. The weight has been drastically reduced from 16kilos to 8.5kilos thanks to the amplifier’s innovative new power supply. It also has massive headroom thanks to its extremely high damping factor (almost twice that of the existing DPX1500). The latter will still be available alongside the Nexus 1.5, but with the up-rated protection system creating a more cost-effective option for installations.

(Ruth Rossington)

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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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L-Acoustics has announced the addition of two new members to its global V-Dosc Network. Live Sound Agency is the first Eastern European V-Dosc Partner to join the Network. The Moscow-based company was founded in 1990 by Yuri Sokolov and now employs more than 50 people to take care of all national and international concerts, festivals and tours, corporate and governmental events, working with local partners to offer a high standard of service, ranging from sound and lighting systems, to stages, decorations and communication.

In only 12 years, the Russian service provider has become the largest sound company in Russia and on the territory of the former Soviet Union, and has already worked with artists as varied as Placido Domingo, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joe Cocker, Al Di Meola, Sting, Liza Minelli and Montserrat Caballe and many others.

Meanwhile, Gearhouse LLC in Dubai has acquired a

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Screenco provided three large displays to enhance performances by a diverse array of stars at this month’s Royal Variety Performance, London. Icons and celebrities from the worlds of music, film, television and theatre gathered for the prestigious annual Royal Variety Performance in the presence of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

The who’s who of the showbiz world included Anastacia, the cast of Bombay Dreams, Enrique Iglesias, Gareth Gates, Kylie Minogue, Liberty X, Ronan Keating, Shania Twain, Will Young and many others. Working for BBC Resources, Screenco supplied a giant 15mm display - measuring 4.8m x 5.04m and positioned upstage centre - rigged on a solid truss and flanked by a pair of Barco i8 displays, measuring 2.24m square. Screenco controlled the content on screen, including the graphic content - created by Artbeat and processed by Blitz. This provided on

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Raleigh, North Carolina, has a new top of the line events centre and nightspot ‘Oasis’. Previously a run down Steakhouse, it has been transformed into a corporate events center during the day and a top of the line Nightclub in the evening. Local movie theater owner and head of Ambassador Entertainment, Bill Peebles, who takes a direct and hands on approach to the facilities, specified a state of the art lighting & sound system for the main room of his new venture.

A grandMA ultra-light runs the lighting at Oasis and is controlling 10 Martin Wizards & 8 Martin Mini Mac Spots along with an assortment of dimmers and practicals. Bill programmed the bulk of the nightclub himself, over a 3 day period, under the supervision of A.C.T Lighting's Mike Falconer. Bill chose the grandMA after an extensive period of research, looking at a number of larger nightclubs and their control sys

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The feel and flavours of the Ottoman Empire were the influences behind one of London's hottest new restaurants, the 130-seater Chintamani which recently opened in Jermyn Street. With sumptuous interiors and an eclectic menu, Chintamani also boasts a sophisticated JBL/Crown sound system, complete with DJ booth supplied and installed by The Sound Division Group.

According to Sound Division managing director, David Graham, the brief was quite clear. "They wanted the best restaurant sound system in London, and were prepared to commit the budget to do it," said David. "We were recommended to the client on the strength of testimonials from DJs who have played at MoMo’s where we installed a state-of-the-art Meyer sound system last year."

The system comprises a pair of JBL Control 29s which act as DJ monitors, and a further 12 JBL Control 25s which are distributed a

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dbx has introduced the DriveRack 260 and a series of DriveRack controllers. The DriveRack 260, which continues the legacy of DriveRack series, is designed to provide state-of-the-art signal processing, while utilizing a simple and intuitive user interface. This goal has been achieved, say dbx, by offering two independent channels of processing power with a linkable 28-band graphic equalizer, industry-standard dbx stereo compressor module, feedback eliminator and the 120A Subharmonic Synthesizer on the input, with a six-channel output system that includes parametric EQs, PeakStopPlus limiters (to provide protection against speaker blowouts) and alignment delay. These features, combined with the Wizard setup system and complete DriveWare GUI control, represent a methodical design that is guaranteed to deliver optimal, all-inclusive processing in a completely scalable system.

The Zone Con

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Creative Technology (CT) produced some unusual television effects for the BBC Children In Need fund-raising marathon hosted by Terry Wogan and Gaby Roslin recently. The company was contracted by BBC Resources to build on the Totaliser screen reinforcement they provided last year, as well as adding a spectacularly ‘retro’ LED dancefloor. The dancefloor dominated the stage and was in use for much of the evening. CT’s project manager Paul Holden said: "Last year we provided a flown screen over the Totaliser using Barco i6 high-brightness panels. This year we used 80 of the superior Barco i8 panels, in a 16 x 5 configuration."

The display - measuring 7.16m wide by 2.24m - was run in 16:5 format, receiving 16:9 aspect ratio feeds, to create a letterbox effect. The content mostly comprised of Totaliser-specific graphics. But the more challenging aspect of the set

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GLP of Karlsbad has introduced a new and particularly quiet Washlight for stage and show applications: the YPOC Color 250. This very bright luminaire is equipped with a 250W MSD/HSD lamp with an indicative lamp life of 2,000 hours at a colour temperature of 7,800°K. The DMX512-controlled unit comes with a variety of pre-programmed pulse and random strobe effects.

A parabolic mirror optic ensures that the GLP Washlight’s beam is homogeneous. The Fresnel lens (150mm in diameter) can be adjusted manually at the head of the luminaire, allowing you to vary the beam angle between 8 - 22 degrees. The YPOC Color comes with a CMY colour mixing unit in combination with nine dichroic colours (plus white) and two colour correction filters (5,600°K + 3,300°K) on an additional colour wheel. Further features include a rainbow effect, a frost filter and a beam shaping effect, continuously adj

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"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." So is the wisdom of "The Little Prince," teaching the adults what is essential in the beloved childhood fable by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. His tale comes to life this holiday season at The State Theatre in Austin, Texas. And products from locally-based lighting manufacturer High End Systems ensure that what is essential is made visible to the eye.

Well-known Broadway lighting designer Richard Winkler (Evita & Fame - The Musical Tour) is using High End Systems' Catalyst system for the first time. He's also specified a High End rig with eight Studio Spot 575 and four Studio Color 575 automated luminaires, controlled by a Flying Pig Systems Hog 500 console.

"Catalyst is a new tool that will help revolutionize the industry - it will take us to the next l

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Professional service provider Ernst & Young greeted its newest graduate recruits with a day-long team-building event at East London's Three Mills Island Studios in November. Some 450 Ernst & Young employees, including 300 graduate trainees and their mentors, attended the day, which was spent in team-building exercises and preparing contributions to an evening of song, mime and acting.

Providing lighting for the evening's entertainment was Fourth Phase London, to the specification of lighting designer Paul Cook. "Improvisation was very much the order of the day for the trainees," said Cook, "so lighting their performances was challenging - we never knew quite what to expect!" The rig that Fourth Phase supplied included dimming, control and luminaires plus effects such as a smoke machine, a cracked oil machine and star cloths for maximum flexibility. "We had to b

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Rental Pro, the leading Czech rental company, provided a Nexo GEO Tangent Array system, supplied by MusicData, the Czech Nexo distributor, for a concert by the popular band Czechomor together with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Czechomor is a very popular band, the winner of three Czech 'Grammy' Awards. The concert took place in Obecni dum (The Municipal House), which is a very prestigious and historical music-hall in Prague, built in the first decade of the 20th century. The musical evening, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the multinational building company Skanska, was attended by nearly 1200 people.

The GEO system consisted of two arrays - six S-805s, one S-830 and two CD12s subwoofers per side. Nexo NX241s were used for processing as well as Camco Vortex-6 amps. Both the monitoring and FOH engineers were impressed by the GEO system. Even though there were many condens

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Germany-based laser specialist LOBO has reinforced its position as the unchallenged leader at this year's International Laser Display Association (ILDA) Awards Ceremony in Walt Disney World. The yearly ILDA Awards are awarded among competing companies within the umbrella organization of the laser show industry. This year, once again, LOBO received most of the prizes. Although the company only joined the ILDA eight years ago, it has already been awarded a record-breaking 57 ILDA Awards.

Art director Alexander Hennig says: "In most companies laser shows are produced by just one or two persons. In the LOBO Studios the workflow and the logistics of a show are more like a movie production, from musicians, illustrators, digitizers and 3D-animators to beam show programmers .... It took, for example, 18 persons over a period of more than two months, to implement the graphics show ‘7

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The SBC Centre at San Antonio, Texas, the new home of the San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball team, has at its technological heart a unique, tightly integrated, $6.5 million video package of live action screens, banner displays and a scoreboard system designed and co-ordinated by Lighthouse, in conjunction with a team of specialist partners. The project marks Lighthouse’s largest indoor installation contract to date, and features the company’s new M4 screen technology, unveiled in four new screen products at this year’s NAB and Infocomm shows.

The scoreboard module is four-sided and arranged on five levels, housing a total of 12 screens. At the top is a ring of eight Lighthouse LVP2056 (20mm pixel pitch/5,600 nits) screens, formatted in an unusual 2:1 ratio rather than the usual 4:3 or 16:9, for advertising and scoring. Next down is a custom-built LED digit scoreboard ri

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UK - Marquee Audio have assisted in the upgrade of Dust Bar Café, one of the original 'Urban chic' venues serving London's trendy Clerkenwell Road. The independent bar had been running as a ground-floor DJ bar on a 2am licence for the past five years - but recently decided to expand the operation onto the first floor.

According to project director, Atan Burrows, the sound system upgrade coincided with a new interior design (by owner and co- director, Raymond Brown) and the launch of a new restaurant and cocktail list. "Dust has developed a reputation on the back of breaking out new DJ talent, and so with the addition of a second floor, good sound reinforcement became a top priority," he said. He had been referred to Marquee by another satisfied client from a Shoreditch bar/restaurant, but the decision to use Marquee was only made after a competitive tender. &quo

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UK - The glamorous Ballroom at London's Hilton Hotel in Park Lane was the venue for the Irish Youth Foundation's annual ball on November 30. Supporters of the charity, including some high-profile figures such as Mick McCarthy, ex-Republic of Ireland football team manager, and a number of ex-Irish international rugby players attended the evening and in addition to the ball, were treated to an auction, jugglers, Irish dancing and the Coldstream Guards.

A Fourth Phase team of Mark Dennington, Steve Russell, Gareth Wharrier and Pete Barber was commissioned by production agency, Vivace, to manage the lighting for the event. Mary O'Hagan of Vivace, said: "The Fourth Phase team did a great job! It was a very labour intensive project, but the service that they provided was second to none and the lighting really helped to create an extra special atmosphere for what is one of the org

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Cambodia - A Midas Heritage 3000 and a Legend 3000 were the consoles of choice for the recent concert given by Jose Carreras in Cambodia. The temple at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, one of the Forgotten Wonders of the world and a World Heritage site, served as a spectacular backdrop for Carreras as he performed at a Charity Gala concert in aid of Cambodian orphans and land mine victims, wildlife protection and the Cambodian Red Cross. The Cambodian Prime Minister was among the dignitaries present at the event, for which the 1000 dinner guests had paid up to $1500 for the privilege of attending.

Engineer Charlie Jones had originally specified a Midas XL4 from audio suppliers Showtec of Singapore but, in the event of it being unavailable, was happy to go with the combination of a Heritage 3000 with a Legend 3000 as an additional FOH console for orchestral sub-mixing. "I'm very fami

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USA - The Radio City Christmas Spectacular returned to Radio City Music Hall, New York, for more than 200 performances this holiday season. The 2002 show features a cast of more than 140 people, including a 35-piece orchestra. This year, sound designer Dan Gerhard chose JBL's VerTec line array speakers powered by Crown amplifiers for the schedule of up to six shows per day.

Gerhard specified the VerTec/Crown system after successfully using a system at another event. "VerTec provides excellent full-range sound for music from the orchestra as well as pristine clarity for spoken word, which is crucial for this show," said Gerhard. "The requirement at Radio City is for a sound system to cover from top to bottom, which is about a 90º vertical throw when the speakers are flown above the set as they are for this show, which VerTec is very capable of handling. "Also

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UK - Bob Geldof recently completed his second UK tour of 2002, with a three-week stint playing theatre and sports hall venues around the country with a new Opus PA system, using XTA processing, from the West Country's Fearless Audio. Fans were entertained with a mixture of hits from Bob's Boomtown Rats days, along with tracks from his new album and a 'special request' section where the audience were invited to ask for their old favourites to get another airing. The band line-up included Pete Briquette (the original Boomtown Rats bass player) on bass, Nile Power on drums, Alan Dunn on keys and accordion, Johnny Turnbull from the Blockheads on guitar and Vince Lovepump on violin.

Sean Busby-Little was once again FOH engineer with Duncan Wild on monitors, and the Fearless crew comprised Martin Shaw as FOH babysitter and James Clarke who was system technician and monitor babysitter.

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UK - Lighting designer Durham Marenghi has been invited to undertake the lighting design of We Will Rock You, the hit West End musical at the Dominion Theatre produced by Queen and written by Ben Elton. Marenghi will be building on the original design by renowned LD Willie Williams and the lighting will be updated during early 2003. He is also currently working with Mark Fisher on a new design for We Will Rock You in Australia, and subsequent productions worldwide.

Meanwhile, Marenghi has also been employed by the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai as live show director for a multimedia event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the hotel. Working with lighting, lasers, waterscreens, live performance, fireworks, video and large format projection the show aspires to "a scale and magnitude not seen in India before" and takes place on 17 January.

(Lee Baldock)

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