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UK - Hawthorn Theatrical hosted over 100 event professionals at its Leicester head office for an indoor pyrotechnics workshop this April. The workshops, presented in conjunction with Hawthorns' supplier Le Maitre Pyrotechnics and Special Effects, were a continuation of Hawthorns' policy of helping its clients get the most out of their services and ensuring health and safety issues are covered properly.

Le Maitre's Steven Ramos showcased the creative possibilities of a range of indoor pyrotechnics, explaining the applications and correct usage of each effect. Ramos dispelled several preconceptions about letting pyrotechnics off indoors. His interactive talk included getting the delegates holding a lit flair - which goes against the advice we have been given since our childhoods - b

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UK - Summit Steel has purchased a large rigging automation and movement system by Kinesys from Brilliant Stages. It consists of 30 model LL Lodestars, operating with Elevation 1+ vari-speed hoist controllers and Kinesys' Vector Motion Control software. The purchase is part of Summit's ongoing commitment to the specialist area of movement and motion control, say the company.

Each Elevation 1+ Variable Speed hoist controller allows the variable speed running and full positional control of an electric chain hoist via an RS485-based protocol. The unit itself also incorporates a full variable-speed manual control plus remote handset control for basic running. Units can be daisy-chained together for easy set-up of multi-point lifts.

Summit is using Kinesys' Vector Motion Control software as the primary show control. Vector is a fully-featured motion control sequencing system that c

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Audio division has supplied the Hackney Empire with a Soundcraft MH4 live mixing console as part of the venue's £17m restoration. The venue began life as a theatre in 1901 and has undergone a number of transformations - including TV studio and bingo hall - before returning to its original theatre roots in 1986. The venue closed in 2001 to begin its multi-million pound renovation and refurbishment programme designed to re-establish the Empire as a showcase theatre for the 21st century.

Among the many improvements made to the theatre is an enlarged orchestra pit, enabling large-scale opera, ballet and musicals to visit the Empire for the first time in its history. When the Empire's owners wanted to bring the theatre's technical aspects up to date they called on A.C.'s Audio division to supply a state of the art live sound-mixing console. The brief was to prov

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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 - Divine Comedy brought in Canegreen to manage the sound when the band took a 17-piece orchestra on its recent tour. Divine Comedy frontman Neil Hanlon has never been staid when pushing artistic boundaries and his latest album and tour continued his penchant for trying something different. The addition of the 17-piece orchestra to Hanlon's arrangements inspired the choice of theatres for the current tour.

To fulfil the varied acoustic challenges of the different venues and get efficient sound coverage to the whole audience, Canegreen selected its Meyer Milo line array speaker system for the tour, for two main reasons. Firstly, the orchestral/acoustic nature of the band would benefit the system's frequency range and ability to recreate the sound with minimal colouration and distortion, and secondly, the dispersion characteristics of the cabinets meant it was a very adaptable s

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International - Rod Stewart hit the road this spring to commence a world tour in support of his double platinum release, The Great American Songbook: Volume II. The tour, which began in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will continue through US and Canadian arenas through the end of August before moving overseas.

The show is presented in two parts, opening to a basic rock and roll set, with Rod and band performing high-energy songs from years past, then transforming for the second half to represent a vintage music hall, complete with heavy gold drapes and back-up orchestra. Here the audience is treated to several highlights off The Great American Songbook: Vol. II.

To enhance the spectacular performance, international staging solutions provider Creative Technology is supplying large screen, high-resolution projection technology, including Watchout, Dataton's multi-display production

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USA / UK - High End Systems has released the latest version of software for the Flying Pig Systems Wholehog III lighting console. Version 1.3.6 adds initial direct interaction for remote focus with Cast Lighting's WYSIWYG Perform R8 visualization software via Ethernet, as well as improving the functionality of many existing features and enhancing the overall performance and reliability of the system. Version 1.3.6 is now available for download at www.flyingpig.com.

This is the second software release by the recently re-organized Hog development team, following just two months after the release of v1.3.5. Since the departure of several developers in January, High End Systems has been quick to build a new development team. While several of the original developers still occupy the London office, most of the new team is based in the

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UK - Paul Brooks has taken over as general manager at Synelec UK - replacing the departing Steve Murphy. A subsidiary of French company Synelec Telecom Multimedia SA, leaders in the large-scale display/integrated solutions industry, Synelec UK say they will benefit both from Brooks' experience of the marketplace, and his knowledge of the company's systems.

As sales manager of his previous company, CCC Network Solutions, Brooks was responsible for selling and delivering most of the company's command and control room solutions - and high among their third party supply was Synelec's videowall displays. Prior to that, Brooks worked for Barco, helping them to set up their UK control room displays division and becoming one of their lead salesman in Europe. "After CCC I had been looking to get back into the control room environment when I heard that Steve Murphy was leaving Synele

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UK - Star Rigging provided the rigging requirements for Westlife's Turnaround tour, to ensure the group could incorporate their latest stunt to get them close to their fans. The production focal point of the show was an aluminium catwalk lowered from the ceiling, on which the band performed four numbers over the heads of the audience. Star Rigging ensured the catwalk was rigged and lowered safely at each of the shows. The complete catwalk was 120ft long and incorporated an aluminium mesh walkway with a circular stage at the end, with Perspex flooring allowing the crowds to see the band throughout their performance. During the show, the giant catwalk was lowered out of the arena roofs to a 3m height above the heads of a delighted audience.

Star Rigging's Phil Broad designed the rigging plots and programmed the company's Ibex motion control system, ever mindful of the safety of th

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UK - The Beautiful Night concert on 1 May marked the climax of the BBC's Music Live festival, with two D5 Live digital mixing consoles forming part of Britannia Row's system for the event. The Music Live Festival was an 11-day event, which took place throughout Northern Ireland from 23 April to 3 May. Presented by Patrick Kielty, Beautiful Night was an 18,000 capacity free concert in Belfast city centre. It was also broadcast on TV, radio and online throughout the UK, bringing the music of Ronan Keating, Gabrielle, Jamie Cullum, Zucchero and Brian Kennedy, as well as Alanis Morissette, Bob Geldof, The Divine Comedy, Katie Melua, Kila and Moya Brennan, alongside unique footage from Ash and Westlife, recorded from a special performance on the Laganside floating stage on 28 April as part of the BBC Music Live Festival.

Brit Row's Bryan Grant said: "Knowing that it was a multi

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Germany - The next Showlight may still be a year away, but 15 companies have already signed up to participate at the 2005 event in Munich. With ETC, transtechnik Lichtsysteme, Avolites, MA Lighting and VLPS Lighting Services just some of the well-known industry names getting involved, Showlight 2005 promises to be one of the best yet.

As an event which allows lighting designers, manufacturers and suppliers to meet and discuss ideas, the previous Showlight was described by one lighting designer as "the best industry event I've ever attended". Taking place every four years, each time at a different location, Showlight is organized by lighting professionals for lighting professionals. In 2001, with more than 42 exhibitors, over 300 delegates from the world of entertainment lighting passed through Showlight's doors.

They were treated to an impressive array of speakers, i

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UK - Of interest to organizers of club nights and party events, Essex Sound & Light (ESL) has announced that its Neo One Impulse text-to-screen system has won Best in Class award for Customer Relations Management at the Global Messaging Congress, held at London Olympia. ESL is the UK distributor for the system.

Neo One enables clubbers to instantly interact with each other, or the DJ. The system enables a text or picture message to be sent from the clubber's phone to large plasma or projection screens around the venue, which everyone can read. A dedicated control centre monitors every text, to ensure they comply with the club's moderation policy. Once cleared by the system, the message appears on screen within 15 seconds.

Neo One can also be used for internal promotions, such as forthcoming club nights or special drink prices. In addition to this, say ESL, the system can be us

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UK - Liverpool-based Adlib Audio has undergone a management restructuring exercise designed to optimise the administrative efficiency of the Adlib group. Adlib Audio Hires had acquired Adlib Audio Sales in a move establishing a new company - Adlib Audio Ltd.

The former directors of hires - Andy Dockerty, Dave Kay and Mark Roberts - will now be working alongside the two previous directors of sales - Ken Dockerty and Dave Fletcher. All other elements of the company, names and faces remain the same. This new streamlined Adlib Ltd format will continue to trade across its three main areas of operation - rental, design/manufacture and sales.

The move was also partially stimulated by the massive recent increase in activity for Adlib's sales and installation divisions, allowing more resources and personnel to be at the disposal of those departments.Andy Dockerty says: "With major

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USA - The Cloud, an enormous architectural canopy and media platform, stands as a dynamic beacon at Fashion Show Mall, the largest shopping destination on the Las Vegas Strip. The Cloud is an elliptical steel superstructure, an architectural canopy, larger than a football field that hovers 20 stories above the entrance to Fashion Show on the Las Vegas Strip.

The structure is designed to provide shade over a 72,000sq.ft outdoor plaza, and also to serve as a media platform to showcase fashion. At night, The Cloud's skin, an aluminium frame covered with sheet metal, becomes a projection screen. Martin luminaires are used to paint the surface in various colour shades while 6,000W PIGI projectors provide advertising content onto The Cloud. Four large LED screens totaling 30 x 160ft sit below the structure.

Martin's Las Vegas office head Tim Brennan worked with Adam Steyh of lighti

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Hungary - Raymax has introduced its new MovingLED fixture, which incorporates LED technology in a remote-controlled moving head unit. The company says the light output of the fixture is comparable to that of a 575W arc lamp-based washlight - using just a fifth of the energy.

Imre Pesti, general director of Budapest-based Raymax said: "We required a lighting solution that offered a lower power requirement than traditional lighting sources so that we could eliminate forced cooling and noise. Lumileds' Luxeon LEDs combine the brightness of conventional lighting with the small footprint, long life and other advantages of LEDs. The Luxeon last the fixture's lifetime so there is no requirement for specialist disassembly or cleaning [and] there are no openings on the body of the fixture.

Each fixture utilizes 90 Luxeon LEDs in blue, green, amber and red to create a fast and fl

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USA / UK - BBE Sound Inc has appointed LAX Professional Products to handle all sales and distribution of its product line in the UK. These include the BBE Sonic Maximizer, stereo and mono crossovers, dual compressor, tube and non-tube bass preamps, plus active and passive direct boxes. LAX managing director, Robin Rebbeck has in turn already appointed a number of key dealers for the device, which adds improved clarity, definition and punch to both live and recorded sounds - including the renowned John Henry. "I believe," says Rebbeck, "there's an untapped demand for this product, not only in MI, but also in the professional audio and DJ markets too. Right now we are generating serious interest in the BBE Sonic Maximizer in England, with Ireland my next port of call."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Steljes Hire, trade distributor of audio-visual and electronic presentation equipment, has added two video conferencing products to its portfolio - the Polyspan View Station 512K and the The Polyspan View Station 512K MP.

The Polyspan View Station 512K system has an automated camera, power microphone, and can be connected to any size screen through a projector, TV or plasma screen. Although more suitable for one-to-one usage, it's a compact unit capable of supporting larger events. The ability to feed any number of external cameras through the vision mixer enables the far end to receive the best picture display. The data transfer capability also supports the sharing of data files between conference parties.

The Polyspan View Station 512K MP system is designed for larger conferences. The video-conference displayed image can be projected on to virtually any size screen, and

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USA - The North American Entertainment Services & Technology Association (ESTA) has announced that two draft American National Standards - relating to Counterweight Rigging and Photometric Standards - are available to the public for review and comment from now through to 17:00 US Eastern Time on 3 August 2004.

BSR E1.4, Entertainment Technology-Manual Counterweight Rigging Systems, describes the design and construction of manually powered counterweight rigging systems. The primary purpose of the standard is to enhance the safety of these system, which are used widely in theatres throughout the world to support and move scenery and lighting equipment. The draft standard does not cover motorized systems, systems for flying performers, or systems used for moving materials during building construction.

BSR E1.25, Recommended Basic Conditions for Measuring the Photometri

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France - Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout has collaborated with set and lighting designer, Alain Lenchampt, to help realize the set for French superstar Henri Salvador's recent tour which celebrated 70 years of the jazz/cabaret crooner's illustrious career and covered all of France's main cities, starting with performances at the Palais de Congres in Paris, attended by over 3,800 fans per night.

Blackout France's project manager, Damien Slaney, headed up the team and was responsible for designing and supplying a massive 27m x 9m drop cyclorama, which played a central role in the set design. Fabricated out of ecru-filled cloth at Blackout's UK headquarters in South London, it divided the set between a jazz combo downstage centre and a 40-piece orchestra behind.

Offering a huge semi-circular blank canvas, the cyc was used by Lenchampt, to create a stunning barrage of light

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UK - Dynamax Technologies announced today the exclusive UK launch of what it claims is "the digital sign industry's most intelligent scheduling and broadcast software yet" - PointOfView-NG. The system, which will be officially unveiled at the In-Store Marketing Exhibition at Earls Court (15 - 17 June 2004), is a new method of delivering dynamic advertising content to display screens at remote locations, say the company.

New features of the software include full audit capabilities and management functions enabling operators to control where and when messages are displayed, at the touch of a button. The software is designed to alert network operators if the displays are not being utilized to their full capacity, maximizing the ROI with digital screen networks. Dynamax's development director, Howard Smith, comments: "To make best use of digital screen technology you

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Germany - Having been used for opera and rock and roll, HK Audio's Cohedra (Coherent Dynamic Response Array) system has been used at its first techno music place at the German Mayday festival. Starting early in the evening on 30 April in the Westfalenhallen, Dortmunder, the sold-out event attracted 23,000 hard-core techno fans.

Mayday consisted of three separate dance zones in the Westfalenhallen, a multi-purpose indoor events centre. The largest was held in the 13,000-capacity indoor cycle racetrack, while two smaller areas accommodated around 5,000 people each. The Cohedra system was rigged in Area 3, which hosted a plethora of German DJs as well as Detroit techno legend Jeff Mills and Norwegian musician/production team Röyksopp. HK Audio's Jorg Knieschewski, who spent more than two years conducting the acoustic engineering for Cohedra, configured the system into four identic

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UK - Theatre sound specialist Orbital and the National Theatre's sound department have combined forces to deliver the fourth five-day course for stage management and technical theatre students keen to pursue sound as a career. Theatre sound is advancing at a rapid rate, driven by technological developments and the growing expectations of directors, producers and audiences. Both Orbital and The National say they are concerned that there is a skills shortfall - that young people entering the industry have little experience of the latest technology and techniques.

Building on the success of its previous years, over 20 students attended the complementary course from 10 drama schools nationwide. Benefiting from the opportunity to gain an extra level of technical skill and artistic understanding, their "skills-set" is expanded to enable the level of competence necessary in c

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