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France / USA - French lighting manufacturer Robert Juliat has launched a US operation - a move designed to increase the company's profile and market share within the highly competitive US market.

Robert Juliat USA will operate out of premises in Wallingford, Connecticut, putting it in close proximity to the New York and, thus the Broadway, markets. At its disposal will be a 1900sq.ft facility, including offices, warehousing and a small showroom.

Fred Lindauer, formerly director of operations with SSP International - the company which previously handled distribution of the French brand - will run the operation, developing and reinforcing the existing dealer network for Juliat products.

Initially, the new company will act as a sales and service operation, and will carry the full

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UK - Birmingham radio station BRMB was recently fined £15,000 after a commercial stunt went way off the rails. As part of its 'Coolest Seats in Town' competition, the station challenged contestants to sit on blocks of dry ice (geddit?) - carbon dioxide frozen at temperatures of -78C - all for the chance to win tickets and backstage passes to the city's music festival.

Unaware of the risk of connecting flesh with dry ice, some unfortunates in Birmingham willingly signed up for the competition, resulting in four of the hapless souls losing skin, fat and muscle and being treated in hospital for severe frostbite. BRMB admitted breaching health and safety laws during a recent hearing at Birmingham Magistrates' Court.

The dry ice stunt is not the first time BRMB has been in the headlines because of its controversial competition stance. Four years ago, the station created a 'bl

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UK - Zero 88 Lighting, as part of its ongoing commitment to education and small theatrical establishments, has developed the Zero 88 Financial Award Scheme.

The FAS is a grant scheme redeemable against Zero 88 products, and is available to schools and amateur dramatics groups. Twice a year, the company will be offering Awards, enabling UK organizations to claim 50% of the cost of their new lighting control equipment. The Award has been divided into three areas - Infant/Primary/ Junior schools; amateur dramatics organizations; Secondary schools and colleges.

"Schools and amateur organizations are always looking for grant schemes to apply for, as government and school funding for performing arts is often inadequate," comments Zero's Scheme creator, Grant Bales-Smith. "There are existing grant providers, but very few specific to our industry. We hope our scheme wil

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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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UK - Capital Radio's Capital Christmas Live event returned to Earls Court at the close of last year. All of the artists perform a live 20-minute set, rather than relying on playback, which requires some pretty nifty footwork from the production team.

John Probyn headed up the ClearChannel Entertainments team, working alongside Emma Hodgetts, who managed the event on behalf of Capital Radio. The two assembled a team of trusted suppliers with production manager Mark Ward and Kahren Williams at its vanguard.

Mark Ward explained: "There was a major transformation to this year's show, because for the first time it was televised on Christmas Eve. This brought changes to several aspects of the production, and meant that lighting became a major priority. We also added a second satellite stage to allow the presenters to be filmed whilst the stage was being set for the next act, re

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Israel - A new museum revealing the history of stage lighting has been opened in Hod Hasharon, Israel. 'The Museum of Stage Lighting - The Power of Light' is the brainchild of lighting designer Dan Redler, who readers may know for his book 'Stage Lighting' and its accompanying CD-ROM. He also happens to be the President of Compulite - the company behind a range of innovative lighting control systems - and, appropriately enough, the museum occupies part of Compulite's stunning new facility in the Neve Ne'eman area of the city.

The museum charts the development of technology and how its progress dramatically influenced the development of theatre, particularly during the last century. Visitors are taken on a tour which begins in the Renaissance and ends in contemporary times, presenting the different methods used to light the stage. The museum contains authentic artefacts from the

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UK - Reading-based rental company Skan PA Hire has reported the recent theft of two Avalon VT-737SP units. The serial numbers of the units are 22755 and 22756, Skan #07 and #08. If you have any information about the whereabouts of these products, or are offered them for sale, please contact Chris Fitch at Skan PA Hire, Tel: +44 (0)118 975 5088, or at the e-mail address below:

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Arbiter Pro Audio, the exclusive distributor of JBL, dbx and Powersoft in the UK, hosted a successful two-day seminar at Birmingham Hippodrome theatre, allowing people to get hands-on with the latest products from the three companies.

Audio hardware for the event (and lighting) was supplied by top UK rental company Adlib Audio from Liverpool, a major JBL Vertec, Powersoft and dbx user. Over 85 people - representing all areas of the pro audio rental, installation and sales markets, and also including Arbiter dealers and agents - attended on both days, jumping at the chance to experience the latest sound technology in situ. Presenters included David Scheirman and Andrew Rutkin from JBL Professional in Northridge, California, and Geoff Lissaman from dbx Pro in Salt Lake City. Max Lindsay-Johnson, David Budge, David Karlsen and Dan Eades formed the Arbiter side of the presentat

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Denmark - David Jackson has joined MTi Audio of Denmark as sales manager. The new position is in line with key changes at MTi, who, over the coming year, will introduce new pro audio products to the world market. Jackson has spent the last three years successfully reorganizing worldwide distribution channels for Celestion. MTi Audio will exhibit at ProLight+Sound - Hall 9.1 G39.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Cadac has just supplied a 52-input R-Type Lightweight Touring Console to theatrical sound design specialist Autograph Sound Recording for the brand new UK tour of Cats, which opened on 15 February at the Theatre Royal Plymouth. This is the first R-Type to be purchased by Autograph, complementing its extensive stock of Cadac J-Types, E-Types and A-Types deployed on high profile productions around Europe.

Sound design for the UK national tour of Cats is by Terry Jardine and Simon Baker, with Greg Pink as production sound engineer. The tour is scheduled to run for the next few years visiting Manchester, Wolverhampton, Sunderland, Edinburgh and Belfast. Jardine, Autograph's managing director, commented on the choice of the R-Type for this project: "We are pleased to add the R-Type to our expansive Cadac inventory, we needed a desk with a smaller footprint, bu

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UK - With effect from 1 March, one of the UK's largest independent hire companies, Hawthorn Theatrical, is re-naming and re-organizing its business to better meet the needs of its customers. Hawthorn, as it will now be known, is creating three divisions to offer specialist support and service to clients. The divisions will be Hire & Sales, Production Solutions and Permanent Installations.

General manager Simon Wood comments: "The difficulty has been that our services and hire stock have expanded so massively and we have struggled to keep all our customers up-to-date with the changes. The new structure, with direct access phone numbers and named team members, whose contact details will be posted on the website, should ensure that customers get the support and advice they need from the right person for them." The new website will be updated monthly with news and photogra

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UK - A pioneering music festival along Chelsea's Kings Road to coincide with London Fashion Week saw Soundcraft Spirit E6s mixing live performance in five boutiques along the strip. The man responsible for the initiative was Kashmir Klub founder Tony Moore. Under the banner 'City Showcase', Tony literally provided a shop window for a series of acoustic singer/songwriters who have performed at his Marylebone venue, by expertly converting window display areas into ad hoc stages.

With space at a premium, the E6 provided the perfect solution - in terms of both aesthetic and operability. The Kashmir Klub has a long relationship with Soundcraft products and Moore is delighted with the company's continuing involvement via their new showpiece Spirit products: "This event produced two logistical challenges. We needed to be able to specify the right, high quality equipment to fulfil

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UK - We learned yesterday that lighting designer Mark Ridler has been badly injured in a road accident, suffering a T11 spinal injury. At present, Mark is in the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Middlesex.. A member of the ALD, Mark is an experienced lighting designer - in the early nineties, he was the resident LD for both Phoenix Dance and Nottingham Playhouse, and his recent design credits include Cosi Fan Tutti for the ENO, The Misanthrope and Major Barbara for director Peter Hall and several environmental projects, including the Waterfront Restaurant in Bristol.

The impact of Mark's injuries suggest that he will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. A fund has been set up to help Mark and his family. If anyone would like to contribute, contact Clare Scherer on +44 01243 537052 or send any donations to Clare at 72 St Paul's Road, Chichester

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UK - As it has done for over 30 years, leading lighting rental group White Light has once again responded to demand by adding some of the latest lighting equipment to its comprehensive rental stock - the StudioDue CityColor exterior colour-changing floodlight, and the Pulsar ChromaBank LED colour-mixing batten.

The CityColor is a 2.5kW exterior floodlight rated to IP54 for outdoor use. Able to operate in standalone mode or under DMX control, it offers remote control of intensity plus three-colour mixing. Bright, rugged, versatile and reliable, the units are supplied flightcased ready to be rolled into position, plugged in and focused (units are supplied with barndoors fitted). The CityColors have already proved popular for a wide range of projects, including shows at the Royal Albert Hall, at York Minster, on corporate work, at weddings and even lighting an inflatable tank at a

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China - China's biggest entertainment technology exhibition will be staged in Beijing for the 13th time from 16-19 May 2003, is expected to be 30% larger than the 2002 event, which itself featured more than 25,000sq.m of exhibit space and attracted 448 exhibiting companies and 55,408 trade visitors.

To date, CALM Expo has opened inroads for many international manufacturers and local companies to network and build businesses in the rising Chinese market. With the accession of China into WTO, the positive cultural directions revealed in the recent 16th Chinese Communist Party Congress and the prevailing reforms in China's performing arts and entertainment scene, such upbeat market forces inevitably increase the awareness of cultural developments across China and sound out immense business opportunities for the industry.

Recognizing the importance of industry advancements across

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UK - When the UK's first permanent lighting exhibition opens in April at the Gaiety Theatre on the Isle of Man, ETC's Source Four will be officially recognized as one of the most groundbreaking luminaires of our time, standing alongside equipment from the early days of electrical theatre lighting. The project aims to allow the public to discover the behind-the-scenes elements of a working theatre, offering interactive tours with a well versed theatre guide explaining how each piece of equipment works.

Theatre production manager Seamus Shea said: "We aimed to get a lantern from each decade of the twentieth century. While there are lots of manufacturers of modern theatre lighting, there's sadly been very little in the way of evolutionary changes. We asked ETC to donate the Source Four because it's the one device that's revolutionized the way theatres work."

The Gaiety

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USA - American DJ has introduced the Auto Spot 150, a six-channel intelligent DMX moving head fixture, designed and priced for smaller and mid-size clubs. The Auto Spot 150 is equipped with a 150W discharge lamp and has a pan movement of 540° (full movement in 2.8 seconds) and a tilt movement 270° (full movement in 1.6 seconds). Its micro-stepping motors provide fast, precise pan and tilt, along with ultra-smooth colour and gobo transitions.

Featuring independent wheels for colours and gobos, it comes equipped with seven variable-speed rotating gobos plus a spot - all replaceable. There are nine dichroic colours plus white, and the option for split colours. The Auto Spot 150 also includes a variable strobe with a dimmer and shutter for super-fast strobing.

Designed for ease and flexibility of operation, the fixture comes equipped with its own built-in programs and can

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UK - Rigging specialists Summit Steel constructed and flew a huge grid built from over a kilometre of trussing in London's ExCeL Centre for the spectacular launch of the Toyota Avensis, for show producers PCI:Live. The grid - which spanned three of the ExCeL's halls - used a combination of Thomas 52cm and 30.5cm Supertruss and Superlite trussing, and was suspended with 125 Lodestar hoists; a further 15 Lodestar's were used for sound points. The area covered by the grid included a large exhibition area to the rear of the stage housing 44 cars - which was revealed at the end of the show.

The launch was also the first outing for Summit's new rack-mounted 6-way hoist controllers. Constructed by Ibex to Summit's specification, they are fully compliant with all safety standards including Category 4 E-stop. The project was managed for Summit by Chris Walker, who worked with a team of 1

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UK - Some years ago a major bank took over the former Billingsgate Fish market in the City of London with a view to making it a trading floor. Never used, part of the refurbishment included a mezzanine walkway that divided the inside of the building in two to make an interesting venue. This was recently put to good use when production company Outer Sanctum called in Stage One Creative Services to build the set for the launch of Siemen's new Xelibri range of fashion mobile phones.

Designer Bruce French used the central mezzanine walkway to advantage by designing identical stage sets on either side. Stage one's challenge was to turn the concept into reality. The back wall of each set comprised a three-level steel structure, each level having a series of cubicles. The bottom level was used as a series of entrances for dancers and other support artists, the second level cubicles had

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UK - BPI and multi-platinum award winning producer, Martin Rushent, recently opened the new recording and production facilities at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College's Faculty of Leisure and Tourism in High Wycombe. The purpose-built facilities - which include a Digidesign Pro Tools HD system and Genelec 5. 1 monitoring in studio 1, along with a Mackie HDR24/96 in studio 2 (both linked to two live performance spaces) - have been designed and built to support the new BA (Hons) in Music Industry Management and Studio Production. Students will have the unique opportunity to develop their music recording and production skills at the same time as working towards a solid music management qualification at degree level. In opening the new facility, Rushent commented: "These are amongst the best facilities for music production in the country, and the students who complete th

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UK - Bradford-based Pro Audio Systems recently supplied HMS Ark Royal with an extensive package of PA equipment. The package included two HK Elias systems from John Hornby Skewes, a range of microphones from both beyerdynamic and Audio Technica, Samson Expedition EX20s and an American DJ DCD pro450 CD, sourced from Sound Technology, a pair of Smart Wireless Twin 15 systems, with handheld and bodypack transmitters, Tascam cassettes and minidisks and a Spirit FX8 mixer and E8 input channel. Also included in the package was a Yamaha MX20/6 mixer, a Fostex VF160 multitracker, six flight cases, three multicores and assorted stands, cables and accessories.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - The controversial Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing Bill suffered a number of setbacks in the House of Lords on Tuesday during a Report Stage debate. Among the amendments upheld by the combined ranks of Liberal Democrat and Conservative Lords are the exclusion of most forms of unamplified music, and music which is incidental to other activities. Despite this defeats, the government will still ask MPs to overturn the Lords' amendment when the Bill is returned to the House of Commons, and pro live music campaigners have highlighted the need to lobby MPs to support the Lords' amendments.

Another amendment was the exclusion of Educational Establishments from the terms of the Bill; it had been feared that schools would have to apply for licences in order to stage nativity plays. The Lords voted by 169 to 107 in favour of the amendment, despite warnings that this could leave Un

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