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USA - Grammy Award-winning recording engineer Geoff Emerick and audio equipment manufacturer Shure Inc have been named recipients of the 2003 Technical Grammy Award, in an announcement by the Recording Academy. The Technical Grammy Award is presented to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. Formal acknowledgment of the Technical Grammys will be made on 22 February at an event prior to the 45th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony.

"The creative fearlessness of Geoff Emerick and the immeasurable contribution that Shure Incorporated has made to the world of audio are the achievements of true visionaries," said Producer & Engineers Wing director Leslie Lewis. "Emerick's groundbreaking and skillfu

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UK - The Blue Room is a brand new web discussion forum, set up by two keen, dedicated industry professionals, where advice may be sought and offered by anybody working in, entering or just plain interested in any aspect of life behind the scenes in the Entertainments Industry. All are welcome to visit and browse, and register as members should they wish to take part in discussions and debates about industry issues.

Forums have been created for all major industry disciplines, as well as for students, health & safety and useful outside sources of information, all alongside a place to just chat with other like-minded people. There is also a private messaging facility, where members may communicate with each other personally. Up-to-date security measures, together with sensitive, responsive moderation of the forums, help to maintain a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in which people

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UK - Badly Drawn Boy gained recognition with 'The Hour of the Bewilderbeast' and for creating the entire film soundtrack for About a Boy." Recently, the group has been touring to support their newest CD, 'Have You Fed the Fish?' For the 2002/early 2003 run in small theatres and clubs, the band recreated their album graphics onto a backdrop. Several circular screens provide space for High End Systems' Catalyst system projection.

Badly Drawn Boy's LD David Farmer wanted to use two Catalyst systems, but decided on just one for a variety of reasons. Because the group is relatively new, and because shows were in a small 2,000-3,000 venue capacity, Farmer needed to keep costs down. To save where he could, he specified and programmed the Catalyst system himself, and persuaded a few of his colleagues into generating special video and still footage.

Says Farmer: "To ma

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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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USA - In late January, Brad Schiller departed High End Systems to pursue a freelance career as a lighting designer and programmer. With 15 years' experience in the lighting industry, and having spent six-and-a-half years with High End Systems, Schiller felt it was time to pursue further career objectives. He says: "I have enjoyed my years with High End and look forward to continued relationships with the company. However, I now plan to concentrate solely on my lighting design and programming goals."

Schiller's lighting design credits include of a wide variety of productions and installations including AT&T, The Smashing Pumpkins, and the Capitol of Puerto Rico. In addition, his programming skills have been utilized by many designers worldwide including for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the 1996 Academy Awards and numerous concerts, telev

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UK - Orange, in association with Esquire and Harpers and Queen, launched the Orange Business Awards 2002 in celebration of the best of Britain's entrepreneurial talent. This year, staging automation specialist Stage Technologies has announced that they have not only been nominated but also short-listed for the 'Excellence in Exporting' category with their managing director, Mark Ager, also in the frame for the Businessman of the Year award.

The formal judging day took place in early January when an expert panel of leading figures from industry and business met to decide the winners of each category. However, the results are to be kept under tight wraps until the award ceremony due to take place early next week at Le Meridian Hotel in Russell Square, London.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Despite the nasty weather, the unexpected closure of the Victoria line and the fact that it was a Monday morning, PLASA had a strong turn-out for its Australian seminar at the DTI Conference Centre in London on January 20th. The event was organized jointly by PLASA and Trade Partners UK (the government organization designed to help British businesses succeed in overseas markets).

Richard Harper, Trade Promotion Manager at the British Consulate-General in Sydney, offered practical insights into approaching the Australian market, highlighting the fact that despite common ground - language, culture and legal systems - there were still significant differences between the UK and Australian markets. He advised those considering the market to first commission a market report through Trade Partners UK.

Nigel Benson, publisher of Australasian Leisure Management, concentrated on th

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UK - PLASA presented a cheque for £150.00 to Harry Crowder for successfully completing the BTEC General Theatre Technician Award, which is delivered through the AETTI and Loughborough College. Crowther, stage manager at Bedworth Civic Hall, was attracted to the course because it gave him the opportunity to gain a recognized qualification, whilst continuing in employment.

The General Theatre Technician course is run over three days and costs £350.00. Harry has gone on to attend the BTEC Stage, Lighting, Rigging and Operation Award which the AETTI have recently launched. Peter Coleman from Stage Electrics and Jason Larcombe from White Light are tutoring on the new course. For more information about course dates and times contact Chris Garner on 01509 618377 or e-mail chris.garner@lou.ac.ukThe money comes from the sum raised by the Product Excellence Awards at the PLASA

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Europe - Rainer Weggen has been appointed European sales manager for DHA's products and services.Weggen has been DHA's International regional sales manager for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Eastern Bloc countries for more than two years, and now takes over the rest of Europe from Nigel Sadler, who will concentrate on Scene Change, DHA's new digital content company.

"Since joining, Rainer has been phenomenally successful in expanding our presence in Germany and the other countries he covered," says DHA's joint managing director, Diane Grant. "We are delighted that he will now be working across all of the European countries, representing our full range of products from gobos and moving effects to Digital Light Curtains."

"I'm looking forward to meeting all of Nigel's customers, and to introducing DHA's great products to many more people throughou

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Denmark - Martin Architectural recently held a two-day seminar in northern Denmark for representatives from some of its most active architectural markets - a mix of subsidiaries, affiliates and distributors from the Middle East, Germany, France, Italy, Scandinavia, the US, and other areas.

Scandinavian lighting company Louis Poulsen also sent a representative after the announcement last week of a cooperative agreement in which the company will sell Martin's architectural line of products in the Scandinavian market. All told, the Martin Architectural team, headed by International sales director Gorm Teichert, hosted some 30 guests. Held on 23-24 January in the distinctive natural environment of northern Denmark, the informal seminar had as its backdrop the unique quality of light in Skagen that has been the inspiration of artists for centuries.

The main purpose of the seminar w

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USA - The City of Meridian has renamed a portion of Mississippi Highway 493 in honour of Hartley Peavey, founder and CEO of Peavey Electronics, in a ceremony at Peavey International Headquarters on 31 January. Officials from the City of Meridian and Lauderdale County joined the Peavey family and employees in celebrating the accomplishments of Hartley and his company during their first 38 years of business. The new Hartley Peavey Drive runs in front of Peavey International Headquarters, stretching from nearby North Hills St. to Meridian's northern city limits.

Hartley Peavey commented: "This is truly an honour, but while it is my name on the sign, all of this certainly was not just my doing - I am merely the catalyst. Together, we're expanding our horizons and changing our products and methods. We're doing the only thing we know: innovating."

Mayor John Robert Smith p

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UK - A Cerwin-Vega Intense! rig has been installed into landmark Birmingham nightclub, The Dome. First Leisure's former award-winning 3,000-capacity club is now under the private ownership of Dome Leisure Ltd, and when contracts and design manager Tim Matthews approached local retailer/installers, Matthews Electronics, they recommended the Cerwin rig - distributed in the UK by Lamba plc - as part of a complete sound and lighting solution.

The company re-used the serviceable equipment (redeploying some of the existing speakers as fills) and specified a powerful amplifier rack to drive the 21k Intense T250/T36 rig, which drives the main dancefloor system. The system is based around a QSC PL9.0 - to drive the four ground-stacked Cerwin Vega T36s and four S218 subs - and Powersoft DIGAM 7000 and DIGAM 5000 amps to run the T250 mid/highs (these are flown, using Matthews' own bespoke

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UK - Automation specialists Andy Cave of Entertainment Innovations and Dave Weatherhead of Gravity Control have joined forces to establish Kinesys, a new company providing motion control and automation systems.

Kinesys is dedicated to providing fully featured, high quality products to cater for all motion control requirements. The standard, modular product range includes control equipment for motors, hydraulics, pneumatics and steppers, as well as a full range of power distribution equipment, emergency stop modules and high speed networking products. All this is controlled by a similarly in-depth range of controllers from the top-of-the-range PC-based Vector control system to the single-axis Pulse controller. All equipment is designed to integrate simply and seamlessly to provide a quick to assemble, quick to program, flexible and reliable control solution.

Kinesys products ar

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Sweden - Tomcat UK recently hosted a Hoist School at Woodlite Sweden A.B. in Karlstad, Sweden. The one-day event consisted of motor instruction led by Jim Marshall of Tomcat UK which included the stripping and reassembly of a one ton CM Lodestar chain hoist to demonstrate trouble-shooting techniques. The hoist school was requested by Woodlite to improve their employees' ability to work with Columbus McKinnon motors. A number of Hoist and Rigging workshops are planned for other countries in Europe, and Tomcat UK will conduct workshops on request.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Lighting director Darryl Noad uses over 200 Martin luminaires on the UK reality TV show Fame Academy, in which 12 students entered a training academy for 10 weeks to learn how to sing and dance. Noad comments: "The brief the producers gave me was for the show to look more like an 'event' that we were filming and less like a TV show," Darryl stated. Working with producer Lisa Chapman and director Tony Gregory, both of whom he has worked with before on several projects, Noad chose a variety of Martin gear to produce the desired look, including MAC 2000 Performances, MAC 2000 Profiles, MAC 600 NTEs, Exterior 200s and RoboColor Pro 400s. AFM Lighting of London supplied all lighting fixtures.

"The studio set was designed by Peter Bingemann, who is a joy to work with," says Noad. "He built walkways and staircases backstage and raised the whole stage 2.5 m

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Canada - Further to the announcement late last year, the acquisition of Toronto-based Spectrum Manufacturing Inc by A.C. Lighting has now been successfully completed. David George, president, and Jean-François Canuel, vice-president R&D, will continue to oversee the operation at Spectrum.

The purchase prompted immediate expansion into new prestigious 18,000 square feet facilities, where Spectrum will be better positioned to develop and introduce new and innovative entertainment technology products to market.

Over the past few years, Spectrum has diversified its OEM product range which currently comprises: a wide range of colour changers, gobo rotators, moving mirror devices, power supplies and distribution equipment, DMX splitters and switches, cable assemblies and gel-strings. Many new products for the professional lighting industry are in the final stages of development, an

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UK - Bernie Davis, one of Britain's premier television lighting directors, will present this year's Trotter Patterson Lecture in London on 18 February. Davis' prolific output has included the lighting of The Royal Variety Show, The Last Night of the Proms, the 2002 Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace and religious broadcasts including Songs of Praise, the Royal Wedding at Windsor and the traditional Festival of Carols at Kings' College Cambridge. His outside broadcast expertise has stemmed from his early background in vision mixing and the contrast balance of his lighting is apparent in every production. He has a keen interest in theatre and the enhancement techniques needed when television enters a live performance designed hitherto for a live audience.

This prestigious lecture promises to be a highlight of the lighting calender and not to be missed by anyone with an interest

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Belgium - Christian Léonard and Jean-François D'Haussy, respectively general manager and financial administration manager of ADB-TTV France, strongly backed by a group of private and institutional investors, have reached an agreement with Siemens for the acquisition of all the assets of ADB-TTV technologies SA, Belgium, including the two subsidiaries in France and Germany. Leonard and D'Haussy become CEO and CFO respectively of the new group.

As part of the deal, the parties have agreed on transferring the production of all dimmers to the ultra-modern Siemens facility in Huizingen, near Brussels. The transfer has already started and should be completed during February. Manufacture of control systems and TV studio suspensions will be relocated to the ADB-TTV factory in St Quentin, France, where all theatre and TV luminaires are produced. This facility is currently being e

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UK - The double-award-winning DiGiCo D5 Live digital mixing system has been expanded with the launch of the new D5 56E 'Extended' version featuring a built-in digital effects engine and a 96-channel control surface.

It comes with a 56 mic-input stage end 'DigiRack' with 56 channels of A/D converters, 8 line outputs 100m metres of fibre optic cable and a 40 input / 40 output 'local' (desk end) DigiRack.

The 56E 'Extended' system provides up to six digital effects per channel simultaneously, including a range of exceptionally high quality reverbs, flanging, phasing, double tracking, vocoder and delays. Effects channels 5 and 6 provide digital dynamics, equalisation and compression for up to 7.1 surround sound outputs. As with the DSP engine in the D5 Live itself, the effects processor has the processing capacity to support use of every available effect at once, across all channe

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South Africa - The recent Miss South Africa contest, held at the Sun City Superbowl on 8 December, provided a unique opportunity for Gearhouse South Africa to utilize a first-ever five split cube wall set-up. In total, a massive 80 cubes were used, split into five 4 x 4 cube walls. "This offered the show's director the unique ability to either display five separate images or one large landscape image," explains John McDermott. "Images to the cube walls were cut out of the outside broadcast van, by director Gavin Wratten who did an excellent job of utilizing the five split cube walls to their maximum."

Gearhouse SA was contracted by Sun International in association with M-Net and Blue Moon Productions, with Deana Hislop of Blue Moon Productions taking the role of production manager and providing the key liaison point for Gearhouse SA. The cube walls formed an

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UK - Following the success of its 'frogsupport.com' website and to mark the introduction of the new Illusion 500 desk, Zero 88 has launched a dedicated Illusion forum. In a similar manner to the Frog website, the new Illusion site will enable Illusion customers and distributors to keep up to date with software releases, request new features and keep in touch with other users. Visitors will also be able to report bugs and contribute to the development of new software.

"The Frog Support website has proved to be an immensely powerful tool in terms of the development of the Frog range software and we are hoping the new Illusion forum will be equally beneficial," says Tim Burt, Zero 88's brand manager." At the end of last year we relaunched the Illusion, upping its specification to 500 channels and adding in the hardware for moving light control. We are now in the proc

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UK - Adam Hall Ltd, the UK manufacturer of flightcase and cabinet hardware components, cables and stands has announced its appointment as the new UK distributor for US manufacturer SKB's range of high quality moulded cases for instruments and 19" racks. This news has already been welcomed by many current UK dealers of SKB products, say Adam Hall. Sales manager Rob Fricker commented: "This is an excellent new line for Adam Hall. Our aim is to improve the service and delivery to all SKB dealers, making the product range more accessible to the end user."

Other distribution lines for Adam Hall include Amphenol Audio Connectors, Palmer Audiotools and Racklight.

(Lee Baldock)

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