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UK - The PLASA exhibition has traditionally been the launching pad for the latest in innovative lighting products from Martin Professional and this year's show will be no exception. Martin heads to Earl's Court with an array of new products including three new MAC luminaires, new club effects, and the first light in Martin's new Mania series of DJ products. Also on hand will be Version 1.0 of the new Maxxyz controller and other new control products.

New luminaires include the MAC 550, fully loaded with features to redefine standards for a mid-range, 400W moving head. The 550 features; multiple graphical options including a gobo animation system, two eight-slot colour wheels, motorized 14-30° zoom and a multitude of other features all wrapped within the award-winning design of the

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UK - Receiving its world premiere at the Royal Opera House on 7 December, the opera of Sophie's Choice presented the opportunity for Triple E to design a new type of system for a travelling projection screen.

Composer Nicholas Maw was first inspired by seeing the movie and intended the opera to have a cinematic effect - fluidity accompanied by a certain realism. When Maw told designer Rob Howell that he had written one note to ring out with every mention of the Holocaust, the Olivier Award-winning designer decided there should also be one element in his treatment of Auschwitz that should be present in every scene, so that by the time the storyline arrives at the infamous camp, the audience sees it at its most complete, though it was there the whole time. He chose an angle - 16°: "I was looking at photos of Brooklyn taken in the '40s and photographs of Auschwitz a

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Uk - Le Mark Group is using new state-of-the-art CO2 Laser Technology linked with a new double-layered, cross-linked polyacrylic film to create a new, hard-wearing road case label which comes with a lifetime guarantee. Manufactured in Germany by the company's industry technology partner BDF Tesa, the new concept road case label is designed to last the life of the case itself.

The labels are highly durable and engineered for high wear applications. The new process uses a Penn Fabrication dish as a platform for a new laser-etched system. Clients can choose from highly durable natural colour process or colour laminate combinations. Tesa polyacrylic film is temperature stable up to 270°C and complete barcode receptive.

Le Mark can be found at PLASA on stand N49.

(Lee Baldock)

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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/Netherlands - Het Muziektheater is one of the most prestigious theatres in the Netherlands and has an international reputation. The theatre offers residencies to the Netherlands Opera and the Dutch National Ballet and is home to the Holland Symphonic. The venue is both a producing and receiving house.

The Muziektheater has four stages, each one 16.2m by 13.5m in size: one principal stage on which the performance takes place, and three assembly stages, where the scenery can be set up or stored, with approximately 60 percent of the scenery pieces hanging in the fly tower.

Het Muziektheater has 102 fly-bars, each 24m long. Renovation of the venue began in 1997 when a mechanically operated flying system was installed. At that time the type of fly-bar used had several disadvantages, for example they were very heavy, they tended to flex laterally, and diagonal bracing could cause

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UK - Rola-Trac laid 15,200sq.m of ground protection - the largest single system the company has ever laid in the UK - for Massive Attack's 'home town' concert in Bristol's Queen's Square. To mark the 100th date of their current world tour, Massive Attack returned to their home city of Bristol on Bank Holiday Monday, to play to a sell out crowd of 19,000 people in Queen's Square.

Promoters Metropolis Music brought in Nine Yards to manage the production located in one of Bristol's best-known landmarks. The site was obviously not designed for hosting concerts, so the production team liased with Bristol City Council and had to be especially considerate of their environment. Hence it was decided to cover the whole area with Rola-Trac to achieve effective protection.

Guy Wightham, Rola-Trac's project manager, had to plan and execute installation of the system. Site visits two weeks

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UK - Bosch Security Systems has announced the availability of Intellivox PA loudspeakers, which incorporate Digital Directivity Control (DDC), which allows the loudspeaker's sound output to be 'shaped' under PC software control to match the requirements of any venue. This makes them ideal for both general public address and emergency voice evacuation systems in venues such as large halls and exhibition centres, public buildings and entertainment venues, railway stations, airports, churches and cathedrals. The extensive integrated remote monitoring also makes Intellivox loudspeakers extremely reliable and suitable for use in emergency evacuation or voice alarm systems to IEC 60849 and BS5839 part 8 standards.

Each individual loudspeaker in the line-array has its own Class-D amplifier and can be driven independently under the control of a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), resulting

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UK - CP Sound has completed a new sound and LED lighting installation at the Terraces Bar & Grill in Brighton for Glendola Leisure. The circular building, on the site of the old Seaworld, was originally erected four years ago as part of the Aquarium Terraces project.

Essex-based Pembroke Design was appointed to create the interiors. As a totally separate element to the sound design of the project, CP's Colin Pattenden decided to show their new side-lit, etched substrate LED panel to the designers, who sought an eye-catching form of bar illumination and were suitably impressed to order 10 to go at the rear of the bars.

The CP Sound LED panels are all etched with an attractive montage of pebbles. Four sit behind the upstairs bar and six at the rear of the downstairs bar. They are made from a special 10mm thick white, clear glass with polished edges to allow the passage of light

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UK - Adlib Audio supplied sound systems for all five stages at Liverpool's famous Mathew Street Festival, now the UK's largest free annual outdoor music festival and celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. 300,000 people crowded into Liverpool city centre for the August Bank Holiday Monday.

The festival also merged with the conclusion of the week-long International Beatles Convention, which saw presentations, talks, seminars and markets dedicated to every possible aspect of Liverpool's best known export. Adlib were also responsible for servicing all the sound needs of the Adelphi Hotel, the Royal Court Theatre and the Barcelona Club where hundreds of the Best of Beatles bands from all over the world performed. Adlib employed over 40 crew, working around-the-clock in shifts at the various sites used by the two events.

Run by Liverpool City Council's Cultural Events Departm

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UK - A.C. Lighting has announced its exclusive worldwide distribution deal for the new TourSpot and TourWash moving light range. Delivering a specification which until now has only been available in top-of-the-range moving light models, the products set a new standard in affordable, high quality intelligent lighting.

Both the 575W discharge spot and wash models are supplied with quick-release fixing clamps, plugs, lamps and safety bond. On the performance front, both models have been put through rigorous on the road testing. Features common to both ranges include 540°/320° pan and tilt with feedback, strobe and dimmer. The TourWash 575 also includes a CMY colour-mixing system with an additional eight-way colour wheel; remote zoom control (16° - 28°) and a directional lens for beam shaping. Notable features of the TourSpot 575 include a rotating wheel with seven gobos, a remo

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UK - PLASA is emphasizing the importance of training development via the PLASA Professional Development Programme (PDP).The format for this year's education programme at the PLASA Show has changed to offer a wider choice with sessions ranging from technical workshops for technicians through to business seminars for freelancers and company start-ups.

The industry seminars have been expanded to cover a wide range of topics on current debates including 'Theatrical Fog - Knowing when Enough is Enough' and 'White Lighting versus Colour in Architectural Application'. Conversely the masterclasses will provide a forum for industry experts to share their knowledge. Speakers will include Brough Skingley from English Heritage on 'Lighting Up The Past - the Conflict Between Historical Accuracy and Modern Technology' and Bruce Jackson of Lake Technology on 'Sydney Olympics' Audio Design.'

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UK - Ray Balcombe has joined the ever-expanding Stagetec team as education consultant. He comes onboard just in time for PLASA and just ahead of the Slough-based lighting and audio sales and installation specialists' major move to Bracknell.

Balcombe was previously working at Redbridge Drama Centre in East London. As a specialist in theatre and educational markets, his role at Stagetec will encompass education, theatre and drama sectors, focusing on development and cross-fertilisation within these vertical markets. He has an excellent track record, having trained at LAMDA and worked on tour and in the West End with major theatrical productions including Billy, A Chorus Line, A Little Night Music, Hair and Godspell.

Balcombe has also worked around the world as a theatre lighting designer and as an LD and technical director for major corporat

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UK - This year's PLASA show at Earls Court will see the introduction of a number of new and improved products from Strand Lighting - including additions to the company's dimmer range, a new tool for lighting designers and updates to its operating software.

The LD24 is a new version of the company's popular LD90 family of dimmers: its new design is aimed at cost-conscious facilities that need basic DMX control combined with a high quality digital dimmer. Strand's new SLD Sinewave dimmer will also be presented for the first time and on stand will be a working demonstration unit with a range of loads that will allow users to see the features of the new dimmer first-hand. These include true sinewave output for quiet lamps and accurate control; SST dimmer modules which can dim a wide range of loads including incandescent, inductive and capacitive devices from a fraction of a watt to

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UK - Gemini 12X48, the first of a new range of products from Multiform Lighting since its merger with Light Engineering, is scheduled for release on the Light Engineering Multiform stand at PLASA.

This budget-priced desk features 12-channel 2-preset mode, 24 channel wide mode and 48 memories, including 20 chases. Easy to programme and edit cues, the desk is aimed primarily at the small theatre and educational markets, but its compact size and aesthetic design should make it an attractive choice for any small DMX-controlled installation.

Light Engineering Multiform is on stand F10.

(Ruth Rossington)

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USA - Crown International recently announced that it has received ISO 9001:2000 certification of its Quality Management System. Crown president Blake Augsburger commented: "Our Quality Management System was designed to keep us on track as we develop and market products and services that are of the highest quality, and that exceed our customer's expectations. We have made it a priority to put this system in place, and to manage our business with a focus on quality."

Crown originally achieved certification to the ISO 9002:1994 standard in 1999. This new version of the ISO quality standard places a greater emphasis on top management involvement in the Quality System, as well as a focus on continual improvement. The company's Quality Management System will be re-examined every six months to ensure on-going compliance with the standard.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - A.C. Lighting has announced a new staff appointment at the company's headquarters in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Philip Norfolk joins as product manager for the rapidly expanding portfolio of products for which A.C. Lighting holds exclusive UK or worldwide distribution. In this new role, Norfolk will be dividing his time between the road and the company's headquarters in High Wycombe.

Norfolk has spent his entire working life in the entertainment lighting industry and joins the company from Martin Professional, where he held the role of UK stage studio and events segment manager. Prior to this, Norfolk worked in Chicago for Tech Lighting as sales training manager and specification sales manager, having also spent 13 years at the Lighting Technology Group where he moved from equipment sales up to the role of key account manager.

Phill Capstick, sales director at A.C. Li

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Germany - Eurogress Aachen, a purpose-built conference, theatre, exhibition and concert centre in the German town of Aachen, has recently replaced many of the luminaires in two of its theatres using stage lighting from New Zealand-based performance lighting manufacturer, Selecon.

The venue has up to 22 conference rooms, theatres and exhibition areas, the largest capable of accommodating 1,700 people, the smallest a mere 10, with a variety of different sized rooms to fit most requirements. Through its dealer Lucifer GmbH, Hagen-based Selecon partner RST Distribution GmbH supplied 34 Selecon Pacific 12-28°s, 20 Pacific 23-50°s, 30 Arena High Performance fresnel GY16s and 20 Arena PC GY16s.

"This was a significant order by a major player in the multi-purpose conference and corporate hire sector," said Christian Pies of RST Distribution. "I've no doubt that this i

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UK - Lightfactor Sales launches its distributorship of EKS' revolutionary XP10 audio pad at PLASA 2003. The XP10 is one of the first real 'plug and play' system for playing digital audio streams - making it a reality for DJs to carry all their playing equipment - including music - around in the average sized briefcase.

When connected to a PC, the XP10 provides direct control over file playback and has the ability to 'scratch' the digital audio stream via its 4.5" touch-sensitive vinyl emulation wheel. Just like vinyl and the very latest CD players, tracks can be stopped with the fingers and the wheel can be used for cueing.

The XP10's device controller is near-pocket sized and weights under 400g, but boasts features found in larger, heavier DJ equipment. Audio quality is 'hi-fi' in texture, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 105 dB or more, say EKS.

XP10 connects to a PC

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UK - Martin Professional comes to this year's PLASA exhibition with the Magnum and Jem brand smoke machines encompassing everything from compact DJ foggers to heavy fog generators. Magnum is a range of high quality, high value fog effect generators for today's DJ and late night venue operator while Jem is a professional range of high quality haze, smoke and heavy fog machines designed for the stage, studio and event markets. Both ranges offer users the latest in high quality fog generation.

Martin Magnum 550 is a portable yet powerful smoke machine providing the DJ with a light-enhancing atmosphere. It houses a 600W ECO-Mass Vaporizing System for economical and even distribution of haze. It has a fast heat-up time and extended operation and comes supplied with remote control and a high quality overheat protection.

The Magnum 2000 delivers high smoke output, advanced microproc

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USA - Robe America has appointed Michael Carattini as Eastern US sales manager. A well-known and highly regarded industry figure, Carattini has held key sales and marketing positions with lighting companies in both Italy and North America.

In his new position, Carattini will be responsible for working with Robe America dealers east of the Mississippi, as well as in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Canada. Formed in late 2002, Robe America is the exclusive North American distributor of Robe lighting products. The 'new' company is backed by the extensive experience its founders have acquired over the years in lighting design, development, service and marketing.

"I'm very impressed with Robe America management in the US and the Czech Republic," said Carattini. "They have an in-depth understanding of the lighting industry, and I believe in what they're doin

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Switzerland - The 37th Montreux Jazz Festival closed its doors at the end of July with a suitably rousing ZZ Top concert in the Stravinski Hall, the main auditorium in the Congress Centre perched on the Lake Geneva waterfront. It was the culmination of 17 days of music and performance that featured acts from across the musical spectrum performing on a variety of stages, both inside and out.

The Festival drew some top names with 2003 headliners including Radiohead, Yes, Bonnie Raitt, Jethro Tull, Cypress Hill, Morcheeba, Craig David, Herbert Gronemeyer, Stereophonics, George Benson and The Pretenders - plus just about every musical genre you might care to mention.

The production elements of this ambitious schedule were managed by technical co-ordinator Andre Vouilloz, while audio aspects were in the hands of Patrick Vogelsang, MD of Meyer's Swiss distributor Niveau2 and the fes

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UK - Chris Hunt has been promoted to managing director for High End Systems (HES) Europe and Flying Pig Systems (FPS), both housed in the same London, UK office. Hunt was formerly director of operations for both entities. In this role, Hunt will maintain responsibility for all operations, inventory, accounting and finance, reporting directly to HES chief financial officer Peter Duff.

Says Duff: "Chris has organized our international operations and managed a major systems conversion in the UK office during the past year. It is natural that this opportunity would present itself to elevate Chris to another level, providing much input and direction to the operational functions of our European headquarters."

Hunt joins the existing European management team of FPS Founder Nick 'Beaky' Archdale, who manages the development side of the organization; and John Wiseman, Executi

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