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UK - E//T//C UK's Ross Ashton and Nathalie Vin from The Glow Project in Brighton have combined creative, technical and logistical forces to work together on a massive community arts project in Brighton this November.

The Glow Project 2003 will be sponsored - in terms of equipment - by the large-format projection specialists. The two-part event will consist of projections onto a major public building in Brighton on the first night, followed the next evening by a community arts event taking place in Adelaide Crescent and Palmeira Square, in a similar vein to the Glow Project's inaugural concept last year.

The first Glow Project was the public projection of a collection of images chosen by residents in Kensington Place - dubbed "the artiest street in Brighton". The image

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USA - American Audio, a division of the American DJ Group of companies, has expanded its management team with the addition of three new executives. Alfred Gonzales has been appointed as national audio sales manager, Joey Corral becomes the new audio technical director and Danny Cabrerra joins as consumer and artist relations manager.

"We're very pleased to make this announcement," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. "Alfred, Joey and Danny bring a great deal of talent and experience to their positions. Working with the rest of our team, they'll help ensure that American Audio's excellent products are backed up by great service, marketing and customer support."

As it has done since it was founded more than six years ago, American Audio will continue to sell its products only through authorized dealers, and never direct t

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UK - Artists playing live at Sound Control's new flagship venue - situated in the basement of the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street - will be able to monitor their sound through Nexo floor wedges. At the same time, a Nexo PA system will broadcast top concert performances to audiences congregated at the rear of what is expected to be Europe's first all-encompassing music megastore.

The famous Live Stage in the Oxford Street Virgin Megastore has played host to some of the biggest acts around over the years. In the new exclusive partnership, this will now form a key feature of the Sound Control London experience, with some huge bands planned for gigs each week. If the clarity of sound is anything like that produced for Dido's showcase appearance at the store on 29 September, then they have a treat in store.

Sound Control has a long relationship with Nexo's UK distributor

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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 - Artistic Licence has recently completed a major new architectural installation in the City of London, involving the installation of 550 colour change fixtures in a new public plaza in Finsbury Avenue Square. The project, which is probably the largest of its type in the world, presented numerous technical hurdles and required some ingenious application of technology. The entire system was custom designed, manufactured and installed by Artistic Licence.

The biggest challenge was also the most obvious: each fixture needs a method of setting the DMX512 start address, and with fixtures embedded in the ground, there was nowhere to put an access panel for the conventional DIP switches. Even if there had been room, putting an access panel on a waterproof fixture designed to last for a decade is perhaps asking for trouble. Artistic's solution was to implement the latest development

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UK - Following the decision of brand-holder Andrew Hunt to take the sales and marketing of Matrix amplifiers into his new manufacturing company, Clive Kinton has left the firm he jointly founded with Hunt in 1995. Tony O'Neill also left the company earlier this year for family reasons.

"We have over the last eight years, steadily built the Matrix brand to be a major player in the amplifier field but production has always been a challenge. Andrew feels he has solved the problems with his latest factory and wants to optimize the profit in what is a very competitive market," said Kinton at the launch of his new sound company - Meteor Electronics.

Meteor Electronics is a specialist sound distribution company and is working closely with several manufacturers on new and developing products. A lightweight, class D amplifier range including speaker modules will be available

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UK - Alternative Video Solutions Inc (AVS) provided Marshall Field's charity event Glamorama with an impressive moving Lighthouse LED screen display. The well-known department store Marshall Field's, together with US magazine, recently staged its annual fashion show in both Minneapolis and Chicago. The event was hosted by Tracey Ullman, with performances by Bond and Uncle Kracker, along with fall clothing lines from top designers.

The set for the show consisted of four Lighthouse LVP1010D 10mm pixel pitch, 1000 Nits brightness, indoor LED screens, rigged to a complex I-beam tracking system with motors and Variolift trolleys. This allowed them to be moved separately, and live during the show, into different configurations - up, down, and side to side.

"Lighthouse LED technology truly fits into the Alternative Video Solution way of thinking," said AVS president Ron Th

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Europe/USA - Lighting designer Andi Watson pulled out all the stops for Radiohead's Hail to the Thief tour. The look was achieved in part with the use a 'wall' of 72 James Thomas Engineering Pixeline LED battens. Watson started the European leg of the tour earlier this year with 48 of the fixtures and was so pleased with their look and performance that he specified another 24 for the North American leg of the tour. The design contains 48 x 4ft Thomas Pixeline 1044, high brightness LED battens, installed end-to-end in 24 x 8ft strip vertical towers and spaced at 3ft intervals across the back of the stage.

The LED battens are controlled by a new and soon-to-be-released Beta version of the Catalyst software, which now includes control of LED lighting fixtures amongst a host of other new features. The LED fixtures are used for around a third of Radiohead's set to achieve a variety

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UK - Rola-Trac installed the ground protection required around the motor circuit at this year's Goodwood Revival festival, to ensure the site was not damaged by the vehicles and crowds. The Goodwood Revival runs for three days in September each year, celebrating the racing venue's active years of 1948-66, by re-enacting the races that once occurred there. This year 94,000 racing fans visited the event.

Each year owners of vehicles from the pre-1966 period descend on Goodwood to display their treasures for the first two days, when visitors can take a good look at the cars. For the owners there is also the business of winning, after two days of qualifying and warming up, the third and final day of the event offered some surprisingly competitive races around the circuit.

This year event was blessed with fine weather, which meant the ground remained very dry and the Rola-Trac gro

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UK - McKenzie Group recently announced that Steve Forster has been promoted to MKG group operations director. Forster spent three years as general manager of Carling Academy Brixton, before two years as group operations manager, during which he successfully oversaw the opening of Academy venues in Bristol and Glasgow. Forster has been instrumental in the recent growth of McKenzie Group with September launches of two more sites - Carling Academy Liverpool and Carling Academy Islington (London). His appointment as group operations director will ensure the consistency of operations across the Group and maximize the commercial potential and growth for each venue.

Commenting on the appointment, managing director John Northcote said: "Steve has shown both the talent and application necessary to ensure that McKenzie Group's venue stock has a consistent reputation for all that's be

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UK - Artists playing live at Sound Control's new flagship venue - situated in the basement of the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street - will have their sound mixed by a fully-featured Soundcraft MH4 multi-function desk. The first use of the new venue was for the launch of Dido's new album Life For Rent at the end of September. Soundcraft UK sales manager (North), James Baker, has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Scottish-based music chain and was quick off the mark when he learned about the ambitious plan to develop the Megastore's famous live stage and incorporate it as a key feature of the Sound Control London experience.

Sensing that some huge bands were lined up to play weekly gigs he immediately proposed installing Sound Control's flagship store with a flagship-mixing console. "I looked closely at the type of desks other bands had been bringing in - so

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Ushio has introduced upgraded versions of its popular HPL+ halogen lamp, designed in close cooperation with ETC for their Source Four. In the new HPL+ ceramic, again developed in close cooperation with ETC, the common metallic heatsink is replaced by a ceramic one, preventing leak-currents from the current-leading pins to the heatsink in surroundings with increased humidity. The HPL+ ceramic is recognizable by its white coloured heat sink.

The lamps are available in power ratings ranging from 375W, through the popular 575W to 750W. All worldwide common voltage ratings are available. Standard-life and long-life versions satisfy the need for either high brightness or extended life.

Following this announcement, Ushio has also added the HPL 750W long-life version to its popular HPL+ halogen range. The lamp with a rated life of 1500 hrs comes in either 230V or 240V (item description: HPL2

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USA - A theatrical show celebrating 100 years of aviation, recently produced by the US Air Force, enlisted the aid of a High End Systems Catalyst and a Wholehog II lighting console to help the show take flight. Born of a Dream ran from 19-21 September at the National Theatre, Washington, D.C. Its cast was exclusively enlisted Air Force personnel.

Production was supplied by IEP/MPG from Jessup, Maryland. Programmer Jonathan Goldstein was in charge of the Wholehog II and Catalyst system. Though he'd had training on the Wholehog II, he was surprised that even without training on the Catalyst, he still found it straightforward to use. "I am already very familiar with the (Apple) Mac platform so operating the software was just as simple as using a moving light," Goldstein explains. "Setting it up was as easy as punching a DMX address, and the orbital head makes

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UK - Style In The City have opened their latest Babushka Bar - on the prime location site of the former Buddha Lounge in Manchester's Printworks. The £500,000 vodka bar development places a high priority on music, therefore installer Tarsin Ltd has once again fitted a Nexo sound system as the core of a technology package masterminded by Peter Dyer.

Dyer's company has enjoyed a long association with Style in the City - and in addition to Babushka, has included other Style brands, such as Bed and Nylon in its work portfolio. The company adopted a Nexo/Crown model as their preferred sound system when they were building the Bed Bar in Smithfield nearly two years ago, they have raised the stakes at Babushka, Manchester - having been asked to upspec the Nexo/Crown system.

"It was obvious they were serious about their sound," remembers Dyer, "and with a growing emphas

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USA - SIA Software, a Loud Technologies brand, has announced its nomination for a Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) award for SmaartLive 5 software. Presented annually by the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio, the TEC Awards honour individuals, companies and technical sound innovations behind recordings, films, TV shows and live performances. The 19th Annual TEC Awards ceremony takes place on Saturday, 11 October, 2003 in New York City.

SmaartLive is an industry-standard for dual-channel FFT-based audio measurement software for real-time sound system measurement, optimization, and control. The software combines powerful audio frequency measurement, analysis and data logging capability with a highly intuitive, user-friendly interface and the ability to remotely control an extensive list of leading equalizers and DSP processors.

The latest release, Version 5.3, now in

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Italy - Notti di Luce (Night Lights), the brainchild of the Bergamo Chamber of Commerce and staged in collaboration with lighting manufacturer Clay Paky and other Bergamo-based corporations in the entertainment and communication field, has become an eagerly awaited annual event. The project aims to encourage community use of the town and its facilities, and the enhancement of its squares, monuments and ancient architecture.

Light plays a central role across all three evenings of the event and the lighting system was supplied exclusively by Clay Paky. The light project was the creation of Renato Neri from Xenon with technical and artistic support by Andrea Mantovani. Xenon was also responsible for organizing and outfitting the stage.

The lighting system included 10 Stage Profile Plus SVs for front lighting, the general lighting and projection of shapes onto the Court House; 20

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UK - Peak 4 is a new version of the leading stereo waveform editing application for Macintosh, is now out. More than an upgrade, Peak 4 offers many new features such as audio unit plug-ins, an innovative sample-based reverb technology called ImpulseVerb, multi-processor support, redbook CD burning from within the Peak application, new DSP tools and a mastering-quality compressor/limiter called Sqweez.

Peak 4's graphic user interface has been streamlined, also, designed to appeal to Macintosh enthusiasts it has a new brushed metal look,. Now a Mac OS X-only application, Peak 4 users can take full advantage of the services within the OS. For users still on OS 9, BIAS includes an optional Peak 3.5 OS 9 installer on the CD. Christine Berkley, VP marketing for BIAS said: "We've received a huge response to Peak 4 since its unveiling, users are excited by the new look and addition

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UK - The Dave Martin Memorial Sailing Trophy or DAMMSTY held its 12th annual sailing weekend on its usual date in the calendar, the last weekend in September, when seven boats from the audio industry sailed from Sunsail, Port Solent to Cowes, Isle of Wight, stayed overnight and sailed back on Sunday.

Saturday evening went well with 60 diners exclusively occupying the 'Red Duster Restaurant' in Cowes High Street, where the generosity of all participating raised over £400 in the raffle and around another £2,000 will go to the profoundly deaf pre-school children at the Elizabeth Foundation School in Portsmouth, bringing the total donated to over £50,000.

This hugely worthwhile industry fund raising weekend has for the past 12 years succeeded in providing a great opportunity for novice, experienced and highly efficient sailors alike who together race in Solent waters in modern

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UK - MJK Productions staged a spectacular production for the Mastercard MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) Awards 2003 at London's Royal Albert Hall on 25 September. The awards were dominated by 50 Cent, who picked up the honours for Best Hip Hop Act, Best Album and Best Single, while Justin Timberlake won Best R&B Act and Big Brovaz scored Best Newcomer.

Featuring many of the production team from the Mastercard BRIT awards, the MOBOs was directed for television by Julia Knowles and produced by Sharon Ali. MJK, for the eighth year since the event's début, were in charge of the live production and a team that included Britannia Row (audience sound), 021 (broadcast sound), VLPS (lighting), XL Video (video), Outback (rigging), Steel Monkey (set) and Eat Your Hearts Out (catering).

The show featured MJK's trademark five-minute changeovers between live performances, a substantial lighti

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South Africa - Big Brother Africa (BBA), the continent's first pan-African reality TV show, was a smashing success. Arguably the continent's most watched program throughout the summer, BBA was the first Big Brother of it's kind, incorporating 12 strangers from 12 different African cultures.

South African lighting and technical production company M.J. Lighting was awarded the contract by Effect 28 Creative Solutions to provide lighting and structure for the Big Brother Africa final, held outside the M-Net studios in Randburg, South Africa on the 6 September 2003. Francois van der Merwe, M.J.'s in-house lighting designer, utilized a host of automated luminaires on the show including eight MAC 2000 Profiles and 20 of M.J.'s newest fixtures, the Martin MAC 250 Entour, supplied through Martin's South African distributor, Electrosonic SA. One of two new versions of Martin's groundbrea

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UK - Leading rental company Capital Sound Hire has increased its already substantial stock of Martin Audio touring enclosures, by making its first investment in the British manufacturer's W8LC Compact Line Array.

The London PA specialists have purchased 26 W8LCs - principally for use as main PA in smaller venues, and for auxiliary side hangs and delays in the big arenas, where the larger Martin Audio W8L Line Array will typically perform principal PA duties. At the same time Capital took the opportunity to bolster its W8L stock, adding another four of the original Line Array enclosures. This will allow them to rig 14 boxes per side on the upcoming Stereophonics' British tour, where they will also be running eight of the new W8LS subs each side (using the new Compact Line Array Compact as side hangs). To drive the new W8LC system, Capital commissioned a new dedicated amplifier r

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UK - Sony Pictures Digital Networks (SPDN) new version of its Sound Forge software, the company's award-winning professional digital audio editor, has now been released. An industry standard for over a decade, this is the first new professional software release from SPDN since it purchased all of Sonic Foundry's desktop production software assets in July.

The new software includes many powerful features such as automated time-based recording, audio threshold record triggering, VU meters for recording and playback, enhanced spectrum analysis tools, directX plug-in effects automation, white, pink, and brown noise generators, media explorer previewing, project file creation and support for 24fps native DV video files.

Sound Forge software is one of the industry-standards for audio editing, recording, effects processing and media encoding on the PC platform. It is used worldwide f

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