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UK - Germany-based Smoke Factory has always been known for innovation and user-friendly features with its fog products: from output control via 0-10V or via DMX, the use of standard DMX-cables as control cables, or the flightcase design for reliable touring, most international exhibitions have witnessed a new feature from the creative minds in Hannover, Germany.

One of the most revolutionary concepts Smoke Factory presented a decade ago at the PLASA Show in London was Scotty - the first truly battery-operated fog machine. Since then, Scotty has been sold all over the world and has been used in all kinds of environments, from theme parks to photographic shoots and from special events through to school theatres.

Now, the new Scotty II - to be shown for the first time at PLASA 2003

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UK - Mach is launching a passive version of its M-Flex series of professional, moulded loudspeakers, at PLASA this year. The company is also launching an active version of the M-Flex Sub. This gives the company a complete line of high-powered performance speakers. Features include excellent voice clarity, DSP control with digital limiters for optimal protection, on board mixing facilities, two Line input plus microphone, ultra simple plug and play for fast setup, punchy low end, uniformed, wide dispersion and active linking for wide coverage. The cabinets are compact and lightweight in design with intelligent bracketing for easy cluster arrangements.The new SP12 stage monitor is a unique, low profile monitor. Already finding its way into stage applications this summer, the SP12 is also ideal for TV and theatre environments. Featuring high SPL and power handling, it provides high g

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UK / USA - Barbizon Europe has been appointed as a distributor for Matthews Studio Equipment Inc of Burbank, California, USA. With offices and warehouse located just north of London, Barbizon Europe will provide an immediate resource for a wide range of Matthews' products. This complements Barbizon's already extensive range of fixtures and expendables for the entertainment lighting industry.

For over 33 years, Matthews Studio Equipment has served the international motion picture, television, photography and theatrical production industries with specialized hardware and lighting modification devices: the company supplied production equipment to over 53 countries in 2002. Matthews' grip equipment has won two Academy Awards for Technical Achievement and a 2001 NAB Superior Technology Award.

(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 - Television lighting director Mike Le Fevre is facing the interesting challenge of lighting two worlds - virtual reality and actual reality - in a new BBC3-commissioned television series, FightBox.

The programme, a collaboration between website specialist Bomb and television production company Ricochet Digital, mixes virtual (VR) and actual reality (AR) characters and locations in an entertaining mix of gladiatorial contest and digital imagination.

Although the television series part of the project is being developed at BBC Television Centre Studio 1 in Wood Lane, West London, the concept spans three multi-media elements. The first is a website that selects contestants for the show. Aspirants can construct their own virtual warrior and undertake tests to accrue points, which qualify the top scorers to 'play' on the show.

Secondly, there is the TV show itself, where w

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Australia - Compulite's new lighting control system, Vector, has debuted on one of Australia's leading live television events, the Logies.

A prototype of the Vector was seen at LDI in Las Vegas last October by Megan McGahan from the Australian television network GTV Channel 9. No stranger to Compulite, or to large-scale productions, McGahan spoke to network LD Rohan Thornton on her return and to Australian distributor Coemar De Sisti Australia (CDA), about the availability of a Vector for use on The Logies.

Compulite was initially cautious, as further testing of the system was still needed, but the company realized that there would be considerable benefits for the console's development cycle in being part of such an event. Following the decision to send a console and technical person 'down under', a duplicate system was set up at Compulite's head office in Israel, so that any

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USA - Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Starlight Express first opened at the Apollo Victoria, London, in 1984, enjoying nearly 18 years of success there. Now it has a new incarnation as an American touring production, with dates scheduled until the end of the year.

Designed by John Napier for Troika Entertainment, it features an updated score and instead of the race track that was an integral part of the original show, it now has stunning stereoscopic 3D race sequences projected using a custom-built rig, from London-based 3D specialist, Inition.

Stuart Cupit, James Gant, Chris Sutton and Andy Millns formed Inition in 2001. The team has a passion for 3D graphics, creating a range of virtual reality (a.k.a. VizSim) graphics products and services, including the recently-launched Duality range of stereoscopic projection rigs. Although 3D projection has featured in themed entertainment instal

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Gibraltar - With nearly a million visitors a year, St Michael's Cave continues to be one of the most popular visitor attractions in Gibraltar.

It is situated 300 metres above sea level, in the Rock of Gibraltar, and has caught the imagination of visitors to the area since Roman times. The Cave was often reputed to be bottomless, or part of a link to Africa, 15 miles away. With a lighting and sound system in need of updating, the Government of Gibraltar issued a very broad invitation to tender, seeking ideas for the refurbishment of the lighting and sound systems - with a short 'day' show for visitors walking through the caves and an 'evening' show for special occasions. Since the Tourist Board of Gibraltar, which manages the caves and the project, wanted a single supplier and a 'turnkey' solution, audio-visual company Electrosonic was called upon to put together a team of specia

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UK - 2003 marks the 100th anniversary for West London's Shepherd's Bush Empire - one of the Capital's oldest and most established venues. L&SI reflects on a century of change . . .

Designed and built by Frank Matcham, the venue still retains the original grandeur of its early years. Situated on Shepherd's Bush Green, it opened on 17 August 1903 with its first performers - The Fred Karno Troupe - and continued to provide first-class entertainment with stars of the Music Hall and weekly variety performance and revues, until the 1950s. George Robey 'The Prime Minister of Mirth', Charles Penrose (of 'Laughing Policeman' fame) and George Formby all graced the Empire's stage.

It was sold to the BBC in 1953 and converted into a television theatre with classic shows such as Crackerjack, The Old Grey Whistle Test, That's Life, Hancock and Wogan all transmitted from the venue. (The cloc

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UK - Ocean Frontier is a new visitor experience located in the remote and beautiful environs of Fort William in the West Highlands of Scotland. Berkshire-based CGA undertook the lighting, sound and AV installation, working closely with Lightfactor Sales who supplied the LDR lighting fixtures, LightProcessor control, Denon amplifiers and playback machines, and over 70 Apogee Near speakers - the UK's first theme park installation of these enclosures. To this, CGA added Hantarex video monitors, NEC projectors, a DVD player, custom multimedia PCs and a Peavey MediaMatrix system.

The attraction's centrepiece is a 5m deep themed Atlantic reef, contained in a massive seawater tank, and complete with a 10m-long wreck of the 'Kaye Louise' which also provides habitats for indigenous creatures such as conger eels and lobsters.

Areas inside the venue include the Ocean Theatre, a presentat

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Projects division has completed the supply and installation of gallery lighting for the Natural History Museum's new T.rex: The Killer Question exhibition. The exhibition bases its killer question on new scientific evidence that suggests the T.rex may not have been capable of killing for food at all, but that it relied on prey already killed and devoured by other predatory dinosaurs. Visitors are given the chance to compare the red-faced scavenger T.rex with the more familiar, roaring and predatory dinosaur to make their own decision about how they lived.

A.C. was awarded the contract after supplying a cost-effective solution requiring minimal upgrading of the existing gallery fixtures to accomplish all theatrical lighting aspects of the brief. Throughout the build project manager Ray Dolby worked closely with the exhibition's designer, Trista Quenzer, to en

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UK - Proel will field an impressive line-up of new products at this year's PLASA. Brand new for this year is the latest development of Proel's touring system speaker range - the Edge Series. Firmly aimed at the top end of the professional market, the Edge series contains some key products, epitomized by the mighty EDGE121SP 21" subwoofer. A single direct radiation bass-reflex design, this model uses a 21" speaker with a 4" voicecoil with ISV (Interleaved Sandwich Voice Coil Technology) for maximum heat dispersal and reliability, also assisted by the double-ventilated die-cast aluminium basket design. Capable of handling 800W AES continuous (1600W peak), the 121SP has a sensitivity of 98dB and a frequency response from 25Hz. Also making its debut is another subwoofer, the Edge series 218SP (1600W continuous AES) which features twin 18" speakers fitted with 4&quo

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UK - A large moving light rig was supplied by Norwich-based Viking Stage Lighting for an epic production of Jesus Christ Superstar, staged in Cornwall by Redruth Amateur Operatic Society Trust (RAOST).

The 10-night sold-out production ('amateur' in name only) was staged in a 1,200 capacity big top located in Boscawen Park, Truro, and featured five trucks of staging and equipment, a cast of over 100, a 12-piece semi-pro orchestra with considerable sponsorship and a budget of £120,000.

The event's technical infrastructure - including lighting, sound, staging power and distribution -was all supplied by Viking, who have worked with the Operatic Society on many previous occasions, twice on productions in the same big top.

Lighting designer Ian Leonard utilized over 40 Robe fixtures, including eight Pro Wash and eight Pro Spot 250s, with 12 each of the Robe Pro Wash and Pro Spot

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UK - Numerous companies in the industry are offering training, but perhaps one of the biggest run-rates goes to Martin UK, which, over the past 12 months, has run over 70 courses - more than a course a week. In that time, the company has trained over 350 people to service, repair, maintain and operate its equipment.

These courses have taken place in a variety of locations, including Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin, as well as at the company's base in Maidstone. The current training programme offers a range of 10 courses, principally covering service and operational skills.

Chris West, Martin UK's head of training, is employed on a full-time basis to organize and run these training courses. When he's not doing that, he's developing new courses to cover the wider variety of educational needs of the company's customers. Over the next year, Ma

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Europe - Arbiter Pro Audio has supplied Liverpool-based Adlib Audio with a large quantity of JBL VerTec line array elements for David Bowie's upcoming 'A Reality' tour. The tour kicks off in Copenhagen in October for a three-month, 14-country European stint.

Adlib won the contract after working with Bowie's FOH engineer Pete Keppler on the Eels this summer. Keppler specified a VerTec system for the tour after using it for the first time at last year's inaugural 'Move' festival in Manchester, which was headlined by Bowie.

Adlib was the first UK hire company to invest in JBL's renowned line array system back in 2001 soon after its launch. Since then, it's been in constant use on a myriad of tours and events around the world. The latest deal, co-ordinated by Arbiter's Karl Bates, sees Adlib supplying 32 VT4889 full-size enclosures, 32 VT4880 subs, 32 4888 medium-sized VerTecs an

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Germany - For nine years now, in a factory not far from Leipzig, a company has been developing and producing stage chain hoists and chain hoist controllers that have come to represent the excellence of German manufacturing in theatres and entertainment complexes all over the world.

The ChainMaster story began with a request for help from the theatrical world. The need was for an electric chain hoist conforming to the VBG-70 standard which was in force at the time. (VBG is an accident prevention and insurance organization, and VBG-70 was drawn up to improve standards of safety in venues). At the time, there was no equivalent electric chain hoist system on the market, so ChainMaster's managing director, Frank Hartung, who founded the business along with his wife, Susanne, recalls: "That was all the incentive our team needed to develop the requisite system."

In the spri

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UK - On June 28, Robbie Williams started one of this summer's most anticipated European tours. After skimming round Europe, as part of an 18-date, 10-country tour, he rounded it all off with three headline dates at Knebworth in the UK.

Most of the press surrounding the event focused on the awful travel experiences of many of the thousands of fans who travelled to Knebworth - 375,000 in total across the three shows - ourselves included. And let's face it travel chaos made for good headlines, as did the sheer number of people who were packed into Knebworth Park: this was not an event for anyone with a fear of crowds - 120,000 plus each night - although a large proportion of these stood no chance of actually seeing the star of the show directly.

However, it was the show itself that made the delays, travel headaches, expensive 'pints' of beer and enormous viewing distances worth i

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UK - In recent years, Orbital has become an increasingly familiar name to readers of L&SI. During that time the company has carved itself a healthy slice of the West End theatre sound rental market (credits include Chicago, Bombay Dreams and the new Rod Stewart Musical Tonight's The Night), championed the introduction of digital mixing technology to that market, committed resources to training and education initiatives and, most recently, introduced a contract maintenance operation which is already doing rather well.

But that's not all. If you work in broadcasting, you might know of Orbital as a specialist provider of broadcast communications systems and expertise. If you're involved with museums, heritage and cultural sites, you may know of the company as a proponent of Sennheiser's guidePORT personal tour guide system: during September Orbital will complete a major guidePORT p

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UK - Here, as promised last month, we round-up some of the main highlights of our industry's contribution to this year's Glastonbury Festival.

- Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage has traditionally been equipped with Turbosound Flashlight systems, but this year, in a major departure for the organizers, SSE Hire provided one of the world's largest Nexo GEO T Tangent Array systems. Nearly 100 GEO T4805 cabinets were used, configured with two far-field arrays of 24 cabinets each (25m offstage each side) and two near-field arrays of 11 cabs flown from SSE's Teepee structures, each about 7m offstage. There was also a centre array of six T4805s for centre image/near-field, and two field delays (eight cabinets each) 130m down-range from the system. Camco Vortex amplifiers powered the whole system. SSE's Chris Beale says they used 12 CD-18 subs per side, plus nine S2 subs under the near-field

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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 - Intrigued by the growing discontent in the industry that guerilla projection is causing, L&SI talked to players on both sides of the fence about the pros and cons.

Pod Bluman, well known for his role in several guerilla projects, doesn't regard guerilla projection as an issue, and he's not alone:

"We rarely get more than half a dozen or so onlookers, so there are never any huge crowds leading to problems. Most of the projections are of a corporate advertising nature anyway, so it's very rare to do anything that is truly controversial." It seems that the Police are fairly indifferent to it as well; despite a major security threat closing Parliament Square and Whitehall, Bluman and his team sat on an empty Westminster Bridge merrily projecting onto the Houses of Parliament without any intervention. "I have been searched under the prevention of terrorism act,

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France - As many will be aware, the French summer festival season was hit hard by industrial action. A series of strikes and walk-outs by freelance technicians and performers caused the cancellation of the arts festivals in Avignon and Aix-en-Provence, and the popular Francofolies song festival in La Rochelle, along with long-established dance events in Marseilles and Montpelier.

Activists also halted shooting of the new Jack Nicholson movie in Paris, where riot police also removed demonstrators trying to stop the Rolling Stones concert at the Stade de France.

The catalyst behind the strikes is the French government's decision to change the workings of the unemployment fund for theatre, dance, film and music professionals, which currently takes into account their time-off between shows. The fund is 825 million Euros in deficit and the government is now insisting that benefits

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