Details
USA - Catalyst Version 3 Media Server and the DL1 digital lighting fixture are products that combine the functions of automated lighting with digital effects. The new Catalyst Version 3 Media Server and Version 3 software is a substantial upgrade for an existing Catalyst Media Server system. It has been re-written to take advantage of the Apple MAC OS-X.3 Panther and the developments in Open-GL based video cards. The most obvious enhancement is the twin outputs - allowing two, completely independent Catalyst video feeds from one Media Server.

The software has the capability to cross fade between all four layers using the intensity channel. The preview feature allows complete, independent preview of content on a local monitor before sending it to the output device. Video Montage us

Details
Portugal - Portuguese Chameleon distributor Audinova recently introduced the new Atlas digital amplifier range at the Musicália fair in Lisbon held in October this year. Audinova showed Atlas for the first time on mainland Europe, along with a good selection of other Chameleon products including DP/2, DX and the Studio range of amplifiers. Atlas was shown as a pre-production model and was sent out especially for the exhibition, Atlas versions AT-700 2 x 350 watts and AT-1400 2 x 700 watts in to 4 Ohms are expected to begin shipping at the end of the year.

Nunes de Sousa general manager of Audinova commented: "It is amazing, Chameleon is a small company yet has developed technology to produce such a quality digital amplifier. Chameleon analogue amplifiers are well proven and the digital Atlas range has created great interest during the show. The rental companies really appr

Details
UK - In January 2004, well-known industry PR, Max Kay, celebrated twenty years of public relations, working exclusively in the MI, professional audio and DJ sectors. Over the space of two decades, his clients have included the likes of Gibson, Yamaha, C.F. Martin, Gemini, Digitech, Soundcraft, Parker, Fane, Steinberger, Celestion, B.C. Rich, Premier, Chevin, Guild, Rocktron, Hartke, Seymour Duncan, MTD, Trace Elliot, Rolls, Modulus Graphite, Rivera, Snarling Dogs, VHT, Barcus-Berry, Spector, Fishman and Samson, to name a few. Today, he continues to represent the PR interests of EMG, BBE and G&L, not only in the US, but in the UK, Europe and Pacific Rim too.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

featured content

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

Details
UK/Europe - MA Lighting's top-of-the-range grandMA lighting console has recently been specified for several high profile shows in the international theatre, concert and corporate event entertainment lighting sectors. White Light has supplied grandMA consoles to two high-profile shows in the UK and Holland. In London, major autumn musical production Thoroughly Modern Millie has recently received its transfer from Broadway and is the first west end show to specify the console. In Holland, the grandMA provides lighting controls for the new 10th international production of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, which opens later this month. UK concert lighting hire company Neg Earth are supplying grandMA's for the current Simple Minds European tour and Beyonce Knowles' UK tour. Stage Electrics has also supplied a grandMA for the recent Pantene Pro-V Style Awards held at the Royal

Details
UK - Stanton presented the Third Allies Allstar Beatdown world finals at London club Fabric, which was rammed to capacity as Tigerstyles defeated I:Emerge in the final, after two closely contested opening rounds. Such was the standard that the contest provided a real challenge for the panel of top judges, headed by the Scratch Perverts. Deliberating with them were DJ Craze, Beatdown promoter Tony Vegas and mixologists, Benny and Go.

At the end of the contest, The Allies' Infamous presented the prize of £2,000, the Beatdown Stanton SA5 mixer and a bunch of accessories. The Allstar Beatdown has turned into one of the most respected and prestigious of all DJ battles, drawing audiences of all ages and cultures.

As a team, The Allies have dominated every DJ battle in the world and the Stanton SA-5 2-channel battle mixer, utilizing custom Penny & Giles line faders and crossfaders,

Details
UK - Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals continue to circle the globe in support of Harper's latest studio release, Diamonds on the Inside. The California-born folk-soul star is on the road for a year long tour of largely sold-out shows with a compact package of audio equipment based around a pair of InnovaSON Grand Live digital sound consoles.

On a world tour that kicked-off in Australia and New Zealand in March, and has taken in multiple legs through Asia, North America and Europe, the cost of transporting equipment could have been astronomical with conventional analogue desks. "It is definitely cheaper to ship the smaller, lighter InnovaSON consoles," acknowledges monitor technician and crew chief, Chris "Grandpa" Rymarz. "Since freight is paid in weight it is just plain cheaper. For Ben Harper, it means the difference between being able to t

Details
UK - Originally built over an eight-year period then opened in May of 1899, Brighton Pier is arguably one of Britain's most beloved waterfront attractions. Its 1800ft span hosts a pavilion, numerous eating and drinking establishments, a 1500-seat concert hall and further attractions. Rich in history, the pier enjoyed its original heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, slowly falling into disrepair after the Second World War, a victim of both mankind and the elements. The sea's erosion has taken its toll, as have the annual winter rains.

In 1984, the pier was purchased by The Noble Organization, which has invested over £30 million in its restoration. Recently, in March 2003 an arson attack gutted most of the pavilion, followed by a smaller fire in May, which caused minor damage to the concert hall and the Ghost Train ride, which housed the audio amplification system. Brighton-based aud

Details
UK - Creative Technology has marked the relocation to its new 54,000sq.ft facility in Crawley by announcing a 'single brand' service operation, in which the staging services of MCL London, currently operating from within CT's premises, will now be amalgamated and operate under the CT London brand. At the same time the company has committed to a heavy investment in new inventory and technology. The strategic decision to operate as a single entity, addressing the broad span of market sectors covered by the two companies, was confirmed this month by managing director Mark Elliott.

"Being able to centralize all our resources into a single building has enabled us to further develop full service capability to provide a wide range of resources. This includes video, lighting, audio, and staging equipment, together with our ever-increasing range of indoor and outdoor LED screens.&qu

Details
UK - Behringer, designer and manufacturer of professional audio products for musicians and sound engineers, recently announced the Behringer Eurorack UB802 was awarded "Best Seller" and "Best Value for Money" at the MIA Annual Conference and Awards in October this year.

Mr. Torsten Notzke, PR manager of Behringer said: "We are honored and delighted to receive these two awards from the UK Music Industries Association and thank the UK retailers for their dedication and trust in our products. The UB Series of mixing consoles bears the initials of our company founder and was designed by Mr. Behringer himself. He incorporated customer feedback whilst guiding the development of the UB Series from the ground up, personally designing every crucial component, from the entire circuit diagram and PCB development to the mechanical concepts. The huge sales success re

Details
UK - FX Music Control, the sales division of the FX Group, has launched a dedicated Apple support phone line, TalktoaTech.com. The company has also been appointed a direct Apple dealer and has been recognized by the corporation as an Apple Solution Expert.

FX Music Control's managing director Emma Brown said: "We decided to set up the phone line as we were getting inundated with technical enquiries, not only from our customers but also from people who were experiencing problems and had discovered that the store which supplied their system couldn't or wouldn't help."

Now both FX Music Control customers, clients whose 12-month warranty has expired and third parties can call the company if they are experiencing problems relating to Apple Music software, hardware or system issues. The support line will also handle enquiries relating to other music software including Log

Details
UK - Manchester DJ Mark One is using Stanton equipment exclusively to lay down scratch tracks for Scottish band, Texas, on their promotional TV and tour dates. Mark's conversion to Stanton's new generation technology came via a chance meeting with his old pal, Lamba's northern area sales manager, Denis Phoenix, at the recent PLASA Show in London.

Mark One said: "I had known Denis from when he worked in retail in Manchester - but hadn't seen him for ages. I knew Stanton's reputation for cartridges - but had no idea how good their mixers and turntables were until he invited me onto the Lamba stand." It takes a lot to turn a DJ from the familiarity of his chosen instruments but by the time Mark had finished his demo he had committed to a pair of Stanton's new flagship STR8-150 turntables, fitted with 680HP cartridges, an SA-12 mixer and Stanton Pro 2000S headphones. These

Details
USA - RCF, a Loud Technologies brand, recently launched its first RCF-branded website for the English-speaking market. The English-language section of the new RCF website follows the Italian-language section launched earlier this month. The new RCF web site is the next step in the recently announced intentions - in September at the PLASA trade show in London - to re-introduce RCF as Loud Technologies' worldwide commercial and industrial audio brand. During this transition, which is expected to complete by the second quarter of 2004, current Mackie Industrial products will undergo a re-branding phase into RCF.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Details
France - The SIEL 2004 exhibition (1-4 February 2004 at Paris Expo - Porte de Versailles) will highlight line array systems among its wide range of exhibits. During SIEL, a conference will assess the advantages of medium-range line array distribution compared to traditional sound systems. Acoustical engineer Alain Pouillon Guibert will lead the conference, while a number of leading line array system manufacturers integrating the most specialized technologies will be present at the exhibition, including L-Acoustics, Nexo, Adamson, EVI Audio and d&b audiotechnik.

SIEL will also take a look at safety responsibilities in the nightlife industry. The French government is currently reinforcing safety measures intended to make people in France more aware of safety, particularly when it comes to getting behind the wheel of a car. In view of the number of road accidents caused by drunk dr

Details
UK - The University of Manchester's new £6 million School of Music and Drama celebrated the opening of its purpose-built concert hall, drama studio and recording studio on 21 October 2004. The Chancellor - broadcaster Anna Ford - presided over a ceremony in which writer and comedian Ben Elton, music scholar and critic Michael Kennedy and internationally renowned soprano Amanda Roocroft received honorary degrees.

The building includes the new Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, the John Thaw Studio Theatre, the Lenagan Library, audio/visual facilities, improved performance, workshop and practice spaces, as well as new electro-acoustic music studios run jointly with the Royal Northern College of Music.

Stage Electrics designed and installed the new facilities' sound and lighting systems, created specifically for use by students, with Hills Electrical plc, main contractor - Totty Const

Details
Germany - The new Dynacord LX 2200 amplifier in the Switch Mode Precision series combines outstanding audio performance with maximum reliability and operating security. And it's light into the bargain!

Weighing 8.15kg, the amplifier, which is two rack units in height, is rated at 2 x 1100W. The secret of its compactness lies in the combination of a switching power supply with Class H technology; Dynacord's developers have succeeded in combining the headroom advantages of a transformer power amplifier with the considerable savings in weight you get with a 'chopper' power supply.

LX Series power amplifiers are robust and will take the bangs and bumps that are part and parcel of life 'on tour' without compromising their reliability. With the full panoply of protections against overheating, overloading, short circuit, HF, DC etc, they also resistant to the bugbears that can jeopar

Details
UK - The MTV Europe Awards ceremony staged in Edinburgh was one of the more complex events handled this year by London sound company Britannia Row, involving the design of an ElectroVoice XLC compact line-array system which worked on two performing stages, set asymmetrically in the round, inside a circus tent.

Featuring live performances by Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Pink, The White Stripes, the Black Eyed Peas, Sean Paul, Dido, The Darkness and Missy Elliott, the show was watched by an estimated one billion people in 28 countries. Britannia Row was responsible for the event audio, under the direction of their sound designer Derrick Zieba, with the main system consisting of ElectroVoice XLC.

Zieba commented afterwards: "The circus tent was an incredibly difficult space, but I was delighted with the ability of the XLC system to be a line array and deliver 120 degree cov

Details
Taiwan - Digital Projection International (DPI), an Emmy Award-winning manufacturer of high-performance projection systems recently announced the world's first commercial installation of its new DC2K digital cinema projector - the cS25 - at the Ambassador Theatre in Taipei, Taiwan.

The installation follows a number of previous installations in Japan by Digital Projection International. However this is the first deployment in Taiwan of Digital Cinema, in the shape of the newly designed DC2K unit. The cS25 is the first commercial projector to utilize the new higher resolution Texas Instruments DC2K DMD, delivering over two million pixels.

The film Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World, by Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe, will be premiered on 28 November, as the first digital feature ever to be shown in Taiwan. The Press Day at the theatre was scheduled for 21

Details
UK - XL Video UK recently supplied projection hardware for Eddie Izzard's 'Sexie' DVD shoot, filmed over three nights of performances at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne. The 'Sexie' DVD is part of the ongoing world tour, which kicked off in Australasia in July before storming the US. He tours UK arenas in December.

Izzard, who spent a memorable chunk of his schooldays at two different establishments in Eastbourne, wanted to return to his roots for the DVD recording. XL supplied a 26.5ft wide by 15ft high projection screen - 16:9 ratio - that was fed by a flown pair of doubled Barco R18 projectors. Projections were effectively 'the set', with the space dressed with camouflage netting, so video and lighting were essential for creating mood.

XL's project manager Malcolm Mellows was approached by the show's producer Mick Perrin of Perrin Productions, having been recommended by

Details
USA - Elation Professional has cranked up the wattage on its Power Spot 250 with the new Power Spot 575, a more powerful 575W version of this intelligent moving head fixture. Like the 250, the Power Spot 575 is a versatile DMX-programmable two-in-one effect that combines a moving head spot with a 4.9mW red laser. The fixture is compact and portable no bigger in size than the 250W fixture making it ideally suited for the rental market.

John Lopez, sales manager for Elation Professional said: "The Power Spot 575 is the only moving head fixture of its kind to offer 575W output in the size of a 250W unit and will open all kinds of profit opportunities for rental houses."

The Power Spot 575 comes with a total of 16 gobos (seven rotating and nine static) on two wheels. Included are four lithos and 12 metal gobos at 26.9mm diameter with a 23mm viewing area. All gobos are ea

Details
UK - James Thomas Engineering's Pixel development team, working in association with RADlite developers IRAD, has created PixelDrive for Mac, a Macintosh-based version of their new control concept for driving DMX fixtures. This has been shown for the first time at LDI 2003, alongside the existing PC-based version. IRAD. Manufacturers of RADlite, the digital media server engine on which PixelDrive is based, are also planning to release a Macintosh version early in the new year.

Simon Carter of IRAD comments: "We want to be as diverse and flexible as possible with both RADlite and PixelDrive, and recognize there's a need for both Macintosh and Windows platforms in the market. The US in particular will appreciate the Mac version. We're also intending to expand the range further next year with the development of a value-engineered, streamlined version of RADlite on both platform

Details
USA - American DJ has introduced the AccuSpot 250, an intelligent eight-channel moving head effect with a bright 250W discharge lamp which is sized and priced for small and mid-size clubs. Equipped with powerful stepper motors, the AccuSpot 250 is built for quick, accurate micro-stepping, with 360° of pan and up to 265° of tilt movement, and has eight DMX channels, nine colours plus open white. The unit features seven variable speed rotating gobos plus spot and including one dichroic glass gobo. Gobo and colour wheels are independent, allowing for a large range of pattern-colour combinations. The unit also features a Gobo Shake effect, and will strobe in every colour.

The AccuSpot 250 was designed to give small and mid-size clubs the chance to take their visual entertainment to the next level, according to Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ group of companies: &q

Page 1598 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .