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USA - After completing the recording of his new album in Paris in April, one of music's biggest names, Sting, and various band members relocated to Los Angeles where they filmed a performance DVD of the new material. Recorded at the historic Mayan Theatre in downtown LA from 13-15 May, lighting programmer Rob Smith called on the new Martin Maxxyz lighting console for the show.

For the Sting shoot, Maxxyz was used to operate a Stan Crocker-designed lighting rig that included both automated and conventional fixtures. In addition to an Emmy nominated lighting design for another Sting video shot in Tuscany, Stan has completed lighting designs for a myriad of other live music television projects including recent television specials for Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, Tony Bennett and DVDs

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UK - Star Rigging helped create the setting for the 2003 Disney Channel Kids' Awards at the Royal Albert Hall this September. The show featured live performances including the award winners Dannii Minogue (best female), Gareth Gates (best male) and Big Bruvvaz (best band).

Star Rigging, part of the newly-formed Star Events Group, was hired to create a structure for the show to centre around and provide an impressive setting for both the live and television audience, working alongside other contractors and the production team. Star Rigging's Phil Broad and Production North's Steve Levitt worked closely to realize Disney's ideas, developing a flying bungee stunt, which involved three aerial dancers from Cirque Bijou appearing from above the set and descending into a blaze of pyrotechnics.

Star Rigging brought all elements together, producing the detailed rigging plot required by

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Asia - KV2 Audio has appointed Singapore based, Sindo Exports as distributor for Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Sindo's Koh Yock Kee said of the appointment: "We are very pleased to be appointed the exclusive distributor in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. We are positive that we will be able to promote this product and help it to grow with our company."

Koh Yock Kee is a well know figure in the audio industry around the Asia Pacific area, having previously worked with Electronics and Engineering (E&E) representing products such as Altec Lancing, Electro-Voice and Harman products.

KV2's Brian Stan added: "As we expand worldwide distribution of our products into the Asia Pacific region it's imperative that we create relationships with companies that have the energy and enthusiasm necessary to actively promote our products in their territory. Sindo Exports h

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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 - BBC Radio Resources has commissioned the upgrading of its SCV5 and SCV6 (Stereo Control Vehicle) Radio OB trucks with PMC MB2S-Active monitors. The MB2s were recently installed in SCV5 and are about to be installed in SCV6; the vehicles are primarily used for live broadcasting for BBC Radio1 and Radio 2 OBs, as well as for other BBC Radio networks.

Both SCV5 and SCV6 were built as 24-track recording/broadcasting vehicles in the mid 1980s and have been consistently upgraded since that time. The MB2S-Active is self-powered with PMC/Bryston electronics and low distortion active cross-overs. Among the newly refurbished SCV5 truck's most recent notable outings was at Glastonbury 2003, Europe's biggest contemporary performing arts festival, where it was used for a live to air broadcast from 'The Other Stage'. Senior engineer (audio) Colin Pearson comments: "The speakers prov

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UK - The Palace Theatre in Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, has been fitted out with a new Electro-Voice sound reinforcement system by Brighton-based installation company, MBI. The 100-year old theatre has a capacity of 600 seats, arranged over stalls, two circles and four boxes. David Howe of Shuttlesound, working with MBI and the theatre's owners, designed and commissioned the system, which uses Electro-Voice RX loudspeakers, driven by EV's new Precision Series remote amplifiers. "The theatre has quite reasonable acoustics," says Howe, "but we were subject to a few constraints as to where we could place speaker cabinets. We were asked not to position them above the proscenium arch, so we've wall-mounted six EV RX112 full-range cabinets, three speakers either side of the stage."

With a pair of RX218 subs built in under the stage, there are two RX112s for the stalls

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USA - Hempfield United Methodist Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA have installed a new sound system, controlled by Allen & Heath's iDR digital signal processing system and a GL2200 analogue mixing console, in its former sanctuary. The combination allows the multi-purpose room to switch quickly between a variety of worship services and other activities.

Dave Marks of Hempfield UMC's Youth Technical Ministry explains: "We needed a system that could be turned on and operated without technical assistance and that would meet the rigorous needs of our youth program, we contacted Dale Shirk of Shirk Audio, who had helped us with previous projects. Dale presented us with a design using an Allen & Heath iDR DSP for the aerobics and simple meeting events and an Allen & Heath GL2200-24 for the youth programs."

The audio system must handle a variety of events during the co

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USA - At the AES Convention in New York, Mackie, a Loud Technologies Inc brand, has introduced to the industry its next generation digital production console. The Mackie dXb is a 96k/192k capable, 72 x 72 I/O matrix (36 x 36 at 192k) digital production console with dual integrated touch screens, internal DSP, powerful automation and control surface functionality, as well as FireWire I/O option cards for streaming audio to/from a desktop or laptop computer.

Development of the dXb was a collaborative effort between Mackie and Sanewave Inc, a Washington-based engineering and design company specializing in digital audio technology. Ken Berger, senior vice-president of marketing and product development at Loud Technologies, commented: "Sanewave was the perfect partner for the dXb because their group includes members of the original development team behind Mackie's award-winning

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UK - Milos Structural Systems has recently introduced new accessories to their CellClamps range with Slim Swivel Couplers to suit 48mm-51mm tubes. The components are based on the popular 30mm wide low-profile aluminium extrusion used on the CELL207/208 Slim Half Couplers. These clamps are ideal for use with truss systems as the narrow profile provides greater fixing positions than traditional profiles. All Milos Cell Clamps are finished to the highest specification and fully certified by RWTÜV for the assurance of quality, safety and reliability.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Surrey-based Point Source Productions is continuing to promote up and coming lighting designers by supporting the Brit School for Performing Arts and Technology with its Autumn production, Pro Fusion which is being staged by Year 13 music students. The production is a fusion of all types of original music from ballads to rock, the diverse requirements of which have provided the designers with a challenge.

Point Source Productions, in conjunction with Martin Professional, has supplied the moving light rig which includes Martin's new MAC 550 moving head luminaire, launched last month at the PLASA Show. The lighting team, headed by Dan Saunders (moving light and set designer), had just five days to rig/plot the moving lights and AV, set and sound - all this around a hectic rehearsal schedule and every day college life. This is standing them in good stead for the reality

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USA - Martin Professional has announced two new appointments at its West Coast office in Simi Valley, California. Joining Martin Architectural as Western regional sales manager for the US market is Mike Case. Case's lighting background includes four years at Lithonia Lighting as Western regional manager for lighting controls and 13 years with Premier Lighting as vice-president of sales. He joins Martin Architectural from Pro Sound & Stage Lighting where he was also involved in sales.

Case told us: "I am happy to be a part of one of the industry's up and coming architectural lighting divisions and look forward to the challenges ahead. As a previous Martin dealer, I have first hand knowledge of Martin's product line and have been impressed with the rapid developments in the architectural range."

Martin's West Coast branch manager, Frank Montero, commented: "Bring

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Ireland - Sound Communications, Ireland's distributor for Midas and Klark Teknik, has recently supplied a complete PA system to Ireland's largest AV rental company, Corporate AV Services (CAVS) for a brand new television show that goes out live from the Helix Centre in Dublin every Friday night. Two Midas Legend 3000 consoles and a significant amount of Klark Teknik processing equipment including eight classic DN360 graphic EQs, eight DN500 Plus dual compressor limiters, four DN514 Plus quad gates, and four DN1248 Plus active mic splitters form the heart of the package.

The Dunphy Show, hosted by Eamon Dunphy, is Ireland's brand new talk show styled very much in the David Letterman mould. The show goes out every Friday at 9pm from Helix's second theatre, which has essentially been converted into a TV studio for the duration of the show's 30-week run. According to Sound Communica

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Germany - Guitar legend Carlos Santana and his band are currently on a world tour which is turning into a global triumph for the Grammy Award winner. The German leg of the tour is proving no exception - selling out major venues like Munich's Olympiahalle several times over.

Providing the sound system for the tour is British rental company Major Tom Ltd / Sound Image, who have made the Electro-Voice X-Line and XLC PA system the centrepiece of their production. Major Tom's Chris Marsh, explains why: "We were all agreed that the EV X-Line has the most brilliant sound of any comparable system. It offers impressive clarity at the top and remarkable warmth at the bottom." As side-hangs, FOH man Rob Mailman and his team are using Electro-Voice's new, compact XLC system with eight cabinets per side. The system is being driven with Electro-Voice P-3000 amps.

For Major Tom Ltd

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UK - PLASA exhibitors are being targeted by a premium rate phone line scam. Faxes have been sent to exhibitors overnight, including to the PLASA head office in Eastbourne, requesting that product and cost information be faxed back to the sender. The return number is an 090 - premium rate - fax number, which will cost the caller £1.50 per minute. The letter comes from 'Total Information Service UK - or 'TIS UK'.

In the short-term do not send any information through as T.I.S. UK is not a legitimate buyer, although the company is not doing anything illegal. In the long-term, you can register with the Fax Preference Service (FPS), which can help ensure that your fax number is not available to companies who want to fax you with promotional material that you do not want to receive. Companies using fax marketing are legally obliged to ensure that they do not fax numbers that have reg

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UK - Robe UK has supplied its Wash 250 and MSZoom 250 XT moving lights, via Caterham-based Total Europhia, to the Sundial Theatre, located on the campus of Cirencester College, Gloucestershire. As well as being an active producing house for student productions of all types - including six major events a year - the theatre is also a receiving house for visiting commercial shows, tours and concerts, and is also available for private hire for parties and corporate events.

The theatre also serves as a hands-on training ground for students on the BTEC National Diploma in Technical Theatre and for the College's various A-level courses, which also encompass drama and technical production. All students touching any aspect of theatre production work in their courses train in the Sundial. They also have the opportunity to be part of the creative and technical teams running the various in

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Italy - Clay Paky provided sponsorship for the fourth annual Live Festival Show 2003, which kicked off in Castelfranco Veneto, and was followed by a tour taking in a further 12 locations around the Triveneto area, home to radio stations Radio Bella & Monella and Radio Birikina. On 13 September in Bassano del Grappa, the special guests were popular Italian band Pooh, who provided the grand finale of the 2003 Festival Show, with their only live performance this year.

Other shows featured artists such as Spagna, Scialpi, Yu Yu, Los Locos, Moony, La Finn, Andrea Mingardi, Roberto Angelini, Paolo Meneguzzi, Velvet - and even cycling champion Gilberto Simoni, winner of the 2003 Italian Tour (Giro d'Italia). Over 200,000 people were estimated to have attended over the 13 dates of the Festival Show 2003.

Lighting designer and owner of Xenon service, Renato Neri, in collaboration with

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USA - The Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in South Florida has installed a 48-input Allen & Heath ML5000 27-buss live sound VCA console in its 600-seat main-stage auditorium as part of an audio system upgrade. The Miracle Theatre, a private/public partnership with the City of Coral Gables, is a performing arts facility that also includes the 300-seat Balcony Theatre and 100-seat Black Box Theatre.

Head audio engineer Alexander Herrin, who has been at the theatre for a year and a half, explains: "This summer we decided to upgrade our sound system. We were replacing a three or four-year-old console that had just fallen to pieces. They asked me what I thought we should get. I'd worked with the GL4000 in the past and told them that I really like Allen & Heath. Phil Mester from StageTech, who installed the system, brought us a console to try out, a 32-channel ML5000.&qu

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Germany - One of Autograph Sound's longest-running success stories is its ongoing work on worldwide productions of Les Misérables. Most recently, the show opened in Berlin, with sound design by Nick Lidster who was part of the original sound department when the show opened at the Palace Theatre, London in 1985. This is Lidster's first design of Les Misérables and it gives him the chance to view it with a fresh but experienced approach. His updated design now includes four Martin W8LC (Martin's new Compact Line Array) and two WSX subs, supporting the main Meyer M1D PA.

Some of the changes are due to the particular demands of the Theatre des Westens in Berlin. Lidster comments: "The Theatre des Westens is a grand, four-tier European style opera house with a large, flat stalls area and three very shallow circle areas starting around 15m back from the stage, a c

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UK - Rigging specialist Summit Steel supplied massive quantities of trussing and metalwork infrastructure for the Marks & Spencer Christmas Conference 2003 at ExCel in London's Docklands. The event was produced by Pci:Live and launched the 2003 in-store Christmas collections and sales strategies to 750 M&S store managers.

The rigging element of the production was co-ordinated by Summit's Jon Bray. Using over 1,100m of various Supertruss types and 120 chain hoists, Summit created two large presentation areas in different auditoriums, occupying 9,000sq.m within ExCel. Auditorium One incorporated raked seating for 750 and featured keynote speakers, a quintet of musicians, fashion shows with dance numbers, interviews and audience participation. Auditorium Two was a star-clothed dining room, which accommodated the black tie gala dinner and entertainment.

Summit's team of 10 riggers

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UK - At the eighth Grove Fuel Cell Symposium, which took place at ExCeL in London's Docklands at the end of September, the UK Fuel Cell Vision was launched by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The Vision highlighted the benefits to the UK in taking a leading role in fuel cell development and deployment, and described a pathway for fuel cells in the UK over the coming years. To help get the message across to delegates, symposium organisers Elsevier - one of the world's leading scientific information providers - contracted MCL London to provide a technological dynamic in the main conference room. MCL came up with a design that was sympathetic to the event, the centrepiece of which was a 20ft screen - surrounded by various branded panels - with rear-projected Powerpoint displays from a powerful Christie Roadie X10 DLP projector.

Nick Whitehead's lighting design was domin

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Europe / Australia - The maiden voyage in the late summer of Crystal Cruises' latest example of floating luxury, Crystal Serenity, featured TiMax Audio Imaging as the centrepiece of its state-of-the-art cabaret theatre venue, the Galaxy Room. Specified by Alistair Meacham of marine audio-visual contractor MAVCO, the TiMax ImageMaker16 system was installed by the company alongside a Sony digital console, Tascam multitrack playback media and comprehensive automated showcontrol infrastructure.

The brief for the venue's LCR and multi-channel surround sound system was to immerse the audience with pre-recorded vocal, music and effects beds in Gershwin-style cabaret shows which would vary from day to day, with spectacular lighting and sound effects synchronized to song and dance troupes onstage. SMPTE timecode linked the Tascam to the console, TiMax and multi-format showcontrol system

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Germany - Brown Box AV, UK wholesalers of AV and lighting solutions, is celebrating its first German installation of Audeon, its wireless personal entertainment system, at the Station One club in Bochum. The managing director of Station One, Winfried Horstenkamp, commented: "I was delighted with the speed at which our Audeon cardio entertainment system was installed at Station One. I had expected some disruption and inconvenience to members but, due to the wireless nature of Audeon, the installation was completely pain free. My members are delighted with this innovative new product and we look forward to many years of enjoyable use."

Audeon is currently one of the only quality, wireless, cardio entertainment product available on the European market specifically designed for the leisure industry that can transmit between eight and sixteen audio channels and provide exce

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