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UK - Salisbury-based Stagecraft recently completed an interactive lighting and sound environment for a hydrotherapy pool - specially designed to help children with a variety of complex learning difficulties. Tony Gazzard is head teacher at Shepherd’s Down School in Winchester, where a recent reorganization of the town’s special needs facilities has resulted in a major programme of building and refurbishment - including the addition of the new pool.

Gazzard explains: "Hydrotherapy is simply very warm water where the children can come and relax. With hot water like this, they can start to stretch out their legs and arms and increase their range of movement after they’ve been sitting still for so long.

"Putting the lights in and the sound brings a whole

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Germany - German manufacturer KME's CA 6 active sound system features two top elements (CSA 400 D) and four subwoofers (CBA 600 D), providing a total output of 3kW RMS - transparent and powerful through the entire frequency range, say KME. The top elements have a continuous sound level of 129dB and the subwoofers a powerful 142dB. Weight is kept low by the use of innovative digital amplifiers and neodymium speakers. The rear dual transport cover provides protection for the amplifier module - and the entire 3kW system can be transported in an estate car.

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UK - Formed in December 1994 by directors Tony Oates, Paul Ward and Gary Ashton, Fuzion is one of the UK’s most successful independent pro audio distributors. Sales director Paul Ward has strong views about what has kept the company successful, and a clear message to the industry about staying ahead in challenging economic environment.

"Of course we can attribute a certain amount of our success to having a core of strong brands," says Ward, "many of whom have been with us since the beginning, and on the whole, excellent relationships with our suppliers. However, it’s far from the whole story. As businesses we are all under pressure at the moment, and it’s at times like these where it’s even more important to remain professional. I believe we need to look at business models outside our own industry and apply them here . . . so often in our i

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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 - The Leicester Haymarket theatre is to close from August until the middle of next year, to give it space and time to address its financial difficulties. The decision to close the theatre, which reportedly has debts approaching half a million pounds, was taken at an emergency board meeting on May 19. The next day a notice was posted on the venue’s website outlining the details of the temporary closure, and the theatre’s intention to see the current programme through until the end of July.

Several factors have worked against the theatre. Its funding was cut by Leicester City Council earlier this year and it also lost money when shows were cancelled whilst it negotiated new pay rates with its staff - members of BECTU.

With the closure will come significant job losses, leaving a reduced core of staff to work on the development of new projects, and to plan for the o

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Germany - Bon Jovi kicked off the European stadium leg of their Bounce World Tour in Eurfurt Germany on 25 May with a new stage design. The satellite dishes from the first US leg have been retired, and the stage now features a moving high-resolution video screen, along with three bands of fixed low-resolution video across the complete width of the stage. The new stadium stage design was created by Doug 'Spike' Brant. The video screen was provided by Nocturne Video, and the specialized video screen support system was designed and manufactured by Brilliant Stages and Tomcat UK.

Brilliant Stages designed the vertical tracking system to support the six sections of moving high-resolution video screen. Four towers and a header truss pick up the screen sections, which are arranged three wide by two high. The towers transfer a portion of the weight of the video screen down to the stage

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Germany - The Major One is Lightpower's new single-channel dimmer, dedicated to be used directly with the luminaire. It provides an ideal solution when using single units positioned remotely or over long distances with decentralized dimming and control systems. This makes the dimmer mainly suitable for exhibitions and fairs. With its address, limit, switch and level function the operation of the Major One is straightforward: the light intensity can be adjusted on the dimmer itself without an external control, and in case of a circuit break, all data will remain available.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - ETC's Source Four Zoom has become more affordable than ever before as a result of economies of scale in manufacturing which ETC is passing on to the end user.

The Source Four Zoom with its one-handed zoom adjustment, provides a bright, efficient, even field and cool beam, making it the ideal luminaire for today's most discerning lighting professionals. It's available in two field angle ranges - 15° to 30° and 25° to 50°, providing a beam size perfect for all applications. Rated up to 750W, the Source Four Zoom has all the benefits of the ellipsoidal Source Four with the added zoom function. Current photometric tests show that the Zoom still has remarkably higher lumen output than its competitors.

ETC Europe's product manager Erik Larsen said: "The Source Four Zoom is one of the best zooms on the market and the quantities we're making and shipping is testimony to

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Belgium - When Belgium’s Minister of Culture announced that 2003 was to be the year of Jacques Brel (one of the country’s great modern singer/songwriters in the French language), plans immediately got underway to ensure that events staged to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Belgian singer’s death would attract the attention of the world.

One of the key features is an exhibition charting Brel’s life. Stan Colders of Nexus Creative People was commissioned to design the exhibition, his ideas relying heavily on theatrical techniques - lighting, video and set dressing - mixed with artefacts from Brel’s childhood. The ‘set’ incorporates the house where Brel grew up, taking the visitor on a journey from Brussels to Paris, to a recreation of his Parisian room where he wrote many of his songs. Visitors can also re-live Brel’s last co

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UK - BBC training and development announced on 17 June 2003 that the 87,000 freelancers working in the audio-visual industries can now access free training via its website. This landmark development is the first step in the BBC’s plans to create a learning portal for the industry. The e-learning launch is part of BBC training and development’s ongoing commitment to help raise standards within the industry, and is a direct response to the AVITG Report 2001. The Report noted that the audio-visual industry is highly freelance dependent, (latest census figures from Skillset suggest they account for almost 44% of the industry’s workforce) yet few freelancers can afford the time or money to train.

The unpredictable nature of their work lies at the root of this problem. It means that most freelancers are unable to make long-term training commitments and pay for formal

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UK - Arbiter Pro Audio, UK distributor for JBL, has supplied sound installer Audiotek with a JBL system specified by sound designer Santi Arribas, for Rouge - a mix of clubbing, live music and parties. Arribas’ sound design needed to be dynamic yet comfortable for Rouge’s comparatively small areas, so he chose JBL elements for all five music rooms.

In addition to each room having its own character, Arribas wanted to produce a high-clarity, uniform venue-wide sound, so there was no overall dramatic divergence in volume or texturing as people moved around the building. The system also needed to deal equally well with different styles, DJs and mixing philosophies. The basement, ground floor and first floor rooms all feature identical systems speaker-wise, comprising four JBL SP212-9 (with 90° dispersion) and an SP 128 sub - all from JBL’s Sound Power series.

Th

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UK - Old Trafford’s ‘Theatre of Dreams’ saw as much action off the pitch as on during last month’s UEFA Champions League Final between Juventus and AC Milan. Outside the stands, the stadium was turned into a giant hospitality village as the major sponsor partners; Sony Computer Entertainment, MasterCard and Amstel laid on lavish entertainment inside, while fourth sponsor, Ford, turned their nearby showroom into a huge party zone.

CT Screenco was contracted by production company Denham Technical Services to provide a complete relay distribution, not only in the giant tented area but also within some of the permanent function rooms. Their inventory - mostly supplied by CT-NEC - enabled corporate hospitality guests to have a permanent visual reference to the live action, looped highlights and statistical information.

Sony Computer Entertainment placed the

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UK - Aura Sound Design recently belied its name to create the video as well as the audio content for the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC's) new stage version of Midnight's Children. Chosen as the ‘Booker of Bookers’ - the best novel to win the Booker Prize in its first 25 years, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children follows India as it gains independence from Britain through the eyes of a child born at the same moment as the new state. The novel is epic in its scope; for the stage version director Tim Supple and designer Melly Still opted to use video both to provide background footage of the period the novel is set in, and as a means of presenting some of the show's more abstract moments.

The challenges presented to the Aura team, led by LDI Sound Designer of the Year 2002 John A Leonard, were both artistic and technical. They had to gather the archive materi

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UK - Fulcrum, the Bristol-based lighting and theming specialists have won a prestigious contract for Xscape, the new entertainment destination at Castleford, Leeds. This comes after Fulcrum was commissioned to oversee a number of themed installations at the Xscape Milton Keynes. The new contract includes the control, sound, audio visual and themed scenic elements. Xscape’s chief executive, P Y Gerbeau said: "We are delighted to work with Fulcrum again, and see their contribution to this massive project as an important part of the Xscape experience."

Xscape Castleford is due to open in early October of this year and is over 450,000sq.ft of an innovative mix of entertainment, leisure and retail. The total project cost just short of 70 million pounds. Within one state-of-the-art building, high adrenaline sports and leisure are successfully combined with retail outle

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UK - Following numerous requests from customers, Galaxy Audio has produced an install version of its top-selling Hot Spot vocal monitor, the Chameleon PMCB. Incorporating the basic concept of the Hot Spot, the main difference of the install version is the replacement of 1/4in jacks with push-pin equivalents, cloth-covered grille and an optional wall- or stand-mounted yoke bracket.

Ideal for for permanent installation in live music venues, studios, conference rooms and houses of worship, the PMCB is fitted with a pair of 5in speakers, pumps out 200W, has a frequency response of 150Hz-15kHz and weighs only 8lb. Thanks to dimensions of just 7" x 11" x 5.25", they’re also relatively inconspicuous. Available in 70V or 100V versions and a choice of white or black (or grey primer for customized spraying). The Chameleon PMCB is available in the UK from Smart Sound D

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USA - To better service the theatrical market nation-wide, Multi-Lite USA - a subsidiary of Europe’s largest distributor of SSTV lamps - has appointed new staff to its Burbank, California office. Chad Jakeway, who joins the company as general manager, comes from the lamp manufacturing industry, while Anthony Vivolo, who takes the role of account executive, comes with extensive theatrical production and installation experience. Meanwhile, the company’s former general manager, Harald Wehnert, has been promoted to director of operations, USA.

Multi-Lite USA has also announced a planned Open House at its Burbank office on 10 July, between 5:30 - 9:00pm. The company is based at 160 So. Victory Blvd, Burbank, CA 91502. Anyone wishing to attend should RSVP to the e-mail address below by 4 July.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Over the past three years, PLASA has been conducting ongoing research into the key trends within the industry, the most recent results of which are currently being compiled. The research has been a valuable indicator for PLASA members, who have used the trends outlined in the research to redefine their businesses. It has also allowed PLASA to forge stronger links with official bodies such as the DTI and Trade Partners UK.

PLASA is looking at the possibility of running a half-day seminar on the research findings: led by Trevor Wilkinson of Business Diagnostics, the session will demonstrate to members how they can gain commercial benefit from the research. PLASA envisages that the event will be a half-day session, starting at 11.00am and concluding at 2.00pm, followed by lunch, and is currently looking at venues in London. The event would be open to all PLASA members.

If yo

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Germany - Deutsche Post's new Post Tower in Bonn is the latest creation of widely respected architect Helmut Jahn (of Chicago-based Murphy/Jahn Inc). Ranked the seventh tallest building in Germany (and the highest outside Frankfurt), the 163m high, 48-story skyscraper is elliptical in shape and consists of twin towers connected on every floor by a glass bridge across an interior open space. Scheduled to be used as office space, the Post Tower was constructed for Deutsche Post, Germany's privatized national mail service, the lead tenant for the building. Avi-Sys Kommunikationstechnik GmbH won the audio contract for the project.

Avi-Sys selected QSC's highly-regarded CX Series amplifiers for their reliability and sonic output quality, along with the company's CM16a amplifier network monitors and QSControl, QSC's Ethernet-based network audio system - to power and control the Kling

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UK - Legendary dance event, Southport Weekender, used Allen & Heath mixers on all the arenas at the 32nd event, which took place from 9-11 May at Pontins Holiday Centre, Southport, Merseyside. Divided into four genres, The Powerhouse (house and garage), The Funkbase (R 'n B and hip hop), The Connosieurs' Corner (soul) and The Bacardi Bar (jazz and drum & bass), the event included headline performances from 'Little Louie' Vega, Ronnie Herel, Richard Searling and Gilles Peterson.

Allen & Heath’s Xone:62 mixers were installed in three arenas but a Xone:V6 was the preferred choice for the flagship stage, The Powerhouse. EAW provided speaker systems for the event and European technical sales manager, Sean Martin, commented: “Southport Weekender runs twice a year and attract over 5,000 people from across Europe. DJs apart, the top performance for me had to be Allen & Heath

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UK - Carlsbro Electronics has appointed Jason Woodcock as marketing and business development manager. Woodcock was previously employed by the Hard Rock Café, as sales and marketing manager, during which time he was responsible for the implementation of Midlands Finest band competition, which gained the support of DEP International (UB40’s management company) and has just completed its second year of placing the Midlands’ unsigned talent in the spotlight.

Woodcock spent several years in Ibiza and Greece sampling the highs and lows of life as a club 18-30 rep, during which time he became the regional manager and was involved in the launch of the Sundance festival and the Beaver Espana campaign. Woodcock commented: "In the past three years I have watched with interest the re-structuring and development of Carlsbro. The company has moved forward at an alarming rate

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UK - Particularly focused on theatre lighting designers and those working in the field, Light Relief gives help in the form of financial or practical support. Examples of people Light Relief has been able to help include an LD who lost the use of both his legs, another LD who, following recovery from cancer, needed help to catch up with the latest technology and the young son of a lighting technician, whose death left the family without financial support.

Back in September 2001, Light Relief selected a board of trustees, which include some of the profession’s best-known names. Headed by Honorary President Richard Pilbrow, LDs David Hersey, Andrew Bridge, Rick Fisher and Patrick Woodroffe, along with Matthew Griffiths - managing director of PLASA, John Simpson - chairman and CEO of White Light, Lesley Harmer - public relations consultant, and Tony Gottelier - senior partner

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UK - CT Screenco has supplied Lighthouse Technologies’ latest LPV1650 16mm LED display to Endemol UK, for the 10-week run of Big Brother at Elstree Film Studios. Designed in a 3 x 3 concave configuration, the display measures 3.06m wide x 2.28m high, and marks a breakthrough in that it is the first time a big LED screen has been incorporated into the show. It has been installed for the duration of the show in George Lucas Stage 1, specifically at the request of director, Tony Gregory, who started working with the show last year and is now directing the fourth series of the reality TV programme.

Gregory explained that he wanted to move the style of presentation forward: “In the past we had used old-fashioned video cube technology but I felt there needed to be a more imposing presence in the sound stage area, particularly for the eviction day on Friday. The LED display

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