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UK - Reflecting the continuing success of the company, Martin Audio has further strengthened its engineering team, with the appointment of Nick Pocock as senior acoustic engineer. Holding a Master's degree in Sound and Vibration Studies, Pocock is well-qualified for the task and relishes the opportunity to work in an area as challenging as his previous position - designing top-end in-car audio at Goodmans Loudspeakers Ltd.

While in Havant, he worked on audio design for the Queen's Bentley as well as the Bentley GT Continental, Skoda Octavia, Audi TT, Volkswagen Beetle Convertible - and many more. "It will be good to apply some of the experience I have gained through the very precise science of the automotive industry," he said. "I can see a great synergy between wha

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Denmark - Capped by a vaulting glass mosaic dome, the new conference room at Danske Bank's headquarters in Copenhagen is one of Europe's more graceful presentation venues. Designed for a maximum 150 capacity, it is a classicist's vision of light and space. But roll down the projection screen, dim the lights, cue the show, and technology begins to impose its presence in a subtle fashion that belies its potency. "The bank approached us with a good brief, very specific in terms of application, but quite open when it came to equipment," explained Jesper Rosgaard of Informationsteknik, the company charged with defining and providing a complete AV system for the conference room.

"Danske Bank had several clearly-defined needs: they wanted a facility that could accommodate events of widely varying scale and complexion, so a dominant demand was for flexibility of equipment

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UK - The Theatre Royal Haymarket re-opened last night following its unexpected enforced closure when part of the plasterwork in the ceiling fell into the auditorium during Saturday evening's performance of When Harry Met Sally.

Approximately 750 people were evacuated from the building and 13 members of the audience were treated for cuts, bruises and shock on site before being taken to University College and St Thomas' Hospitals. One woman is apparently still in hospital having suffered facial injuries - all the others have been discharged. Emergency services had been called around 10pm and fire crews spent over an hour at the sight checking that the ceiling was secure.

In 1994 1.3 million pounds was invested in a major refurbishment of the Theatre Royal, which included an overhaul and reinforcement of the stage roof trusses, originally installed in 1821, and art restor

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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 - Chubb, a leading provider of security and fire protection services, has recently collaborated with PA/VA specialist Millbank to provide multi-purpose integrated systems into Swansea's new Maritime Museum, Swansea FC's White Rock (Morfa) Stadium, Newport's impressive new Theatre and Arts Centre and the new Welsh Assembly Building in Cardiff.

As four of the most exciting new multi-million pound new build projects ever seen in Wales, Millbank's CEO Neil Voce and Chubb's customer accounts manager, Scott Philips, worked closely to ensure that each system achieves their exacting specifications.

Scott Phillips explained: "Millbank's support has been invaluable and played a vital role in winning these prestigious contracts. It's terrific to work with a forward-thinking company whose product range and technical know-how enables us to provide such versatile and cutting-edge sy

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UK - Manchester-based installation company Kelco UK Ltd has become the first official UK dealer for EM Acoustics loudspeakers, and has consolidated this with an installation of EM Acoustics' products in new Nottingham nightclub, Stealth.

Although the main club system comprises Funktion One's Dance Stacks and Resolution systems, Kelco owner David Kelland saw EM Acoustics products as the ideal solution for DJ monitoring and infills at the venue. Consequently, each DJ area contains a pair of EMS-121 (12" x 1") full-range enclosures, innovatively mounted on poles built into the DJ console and wired through the pole-mount for security. The club's stylish VIP area contains four EMS-81 (8" x 1") full-range enclosures, discreetly mounted around the neon-lit two-level ceiling, using the enclosure's own internal M10 rigging points.

Of the products, Kelland says: &quo

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UK - Leading UK lighting rental house Siyan was the first is the UK to showcase the new Italian manufactured SGM Giotto Spot 400 CMY moving light fixtures. They were in action on the Princes Trust Urban Music Festival held at Earls Court. It was the first such event in the UK and the star-studded line up included Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jamelia, The Streets, Roots Manuva, Alicia Keys, Dizzee Rascal, Lemar and many more.

The deal to make the Italian brand's new fixtures available to Siyan came via a deal with SGM's UK distributor Lightfactor, as Siyan's Bryan Leitch was keen to put the lights through their paces. The sold out event took over the whole of the Earls Court complex, Leitch designed an overall rig to illuminate both for the live event and for the TV, incorporating a large main stage in Earls Court 1, the Battle stage in the same room - 'behind' the FOH position, and extensive

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UK - London's Natural History Museum is using Allen & Heath's iDR DSP system to manage audio distribution for the its Darwin Centre, a new development hosting daily live events, as well as housing precious collections, new laboratories, and access behind the scenes for visitors.

The Darwin Centre live events bring resident experts and specialists from around the world to talk about their work or explore significant specimens from the Museum's collections. The free events, which are also webcast on the Museum's website, are informal and lively with audience participation encouraged. However, the Museum found that the audio system was unable to cope with the demands resulting from live situations and selected Allen & Heath's iDR DSP system to replace it.

"The original audio equipment, designed before the Darwin Centre opened in 2002, was unable to separate microphones indi

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Europe - A Flying Pig Systems Wholehog III is now touring Europe in Tosca Amore Disperato, a modern remake of Puccini's opera, Tosca. Composed and directed by Lucio Dalla, the show is a new creation that mixes elements of a musical with a movie, but live and onstage and runs through to September in Europe.

LD Marco Macrini and lighting director Pasquale 'Paco' Toscano have specified 36 High End Systems X.Spots. Toscano commented: "X.Spot is a very good spot, powerful and silent. They're also using High End Systems 12 Cyberlight Litho automated luminaires. Lighting is supplied by A-Team Service.

This show marks Toscano's first time with a Wholehog III, in fact he has only used its predecessor - a Wholehog II - a couple of times to carry out simple functions. He continues: "I am not a Hog user, so when the A-Team Service asked me if I would like to use a

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UK - Mike Lethby, co-founder and director of Gasoline Media alongside Sarah James, has formed a new entertainment technology-focused PR, copywriting and marketing consultancy, MLM (Mike Lethby Media), while Sarah James will remain at Gasoline Media in the role of managing director.

MLM, which opened its doors on May 1, will work within the entertainment technology, production services and events sectors, and will also provide clients with photography, design and technical authoring facilities. Startup clients include Renkus-Heinz, the Ampco/Flashlight Group and Richmond Studios. A new office address will be announced soon. Gasoline Media will continue to represent DiGiCo, Lighthouse, MC2/Quested and XTA, among others, from its Leatherhead, Surrey offices.

Lethby comments: "After three-and-a-half successful and exciting years together, Sarah and I have different ideas on h

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USA - Doug Fleenor Design, specialist manufacturer of DMX512 distribution and interface equipment for the entertainment industry, has announced its three latest product additions. Firstly, the Preset 10 snapshot console, available in two enclosures, records DMX512 scenes from any DMX source and plays them back at the press of a button. The Architectural version mounts in a single-gang switch box and is powered by a Class 2 'doorbell' transformer. The Portable version is fully enclosed with DMX in and thru connectors and has a universal power supply. Both versions store up to 10 scenes, each of which can have its own fade time from 0 to 999 seconds. As a backup device or as a stand alone console the Preset 10 has many uses.

The second new addition, the Pork Chopper, is an economical method of increasing the total number of control channels of a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog II con

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UK - UK - Continuing what will be a busy season for new musicals in London is Beautiful and Damned, set in the 1920s and telling the tragic story of Zelda Sayre and F. Scott Fitzgerald. White Light and The Moving Light Company supplied lighting and Autograph Sound Recording supplied a complete audio and communications system.

LD Nick Richings design included both conventional and automated lighting. The automated rig from The Moving Light Company includes 10 Martin Mac500s, 10 Martin Mac2000 Profile and eight Vari-Lite VL2000 Wash units. The conventional rig features over 100 ETC Source Four profile spots with 10°, 19°, 25°, 36° and 50° lenses, the 10° units using 750W lamps; 40 Par 64s, 12 Selecon Pacific 90°, 20 Strand Prelude fresnels, 10 Thomas four-cell battens and eight Thomas two-circuit MR16 battens. Control is from a Wholehog II console with two 48-

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UK - Already operating successful venues in Rugby and Dunstable, Ricky Pipe's RP Enterprises has converted the Loughborough Conservative Club into a new all-day music-oriented café bar to be known as Alcazar. The new venue will have cost Ricky Pipe between £500,000-£600,000 to develop. Once again he has turned to John Southee's JPS Sound & Light to design and supply the audio and visual infrastructure.

JPS has specified 22 wall-mounted, co-axial design, Wharfedale Pro Twin 12s as the main sound reinforcement system, evenly distributed throughout the 500-capacity venue. Two of the bass reflex enclosures have been deployed as reference monitors in the DJ booth (where the new Denon DN-S3000 tabletop CD player and Allen & Heath Xone:62 mixer provide the source material), and a further Twin 12 greets guests as they arrive at the front door.

The sub frequencies are handled by fou

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Czech Republic - 24 Robe ColorSpot 1200 AT fixtures are at the core of an innovative new installation at the 11,000 capacity CEZ Arena in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The project was part of a major technical upgrade that has been in progress at CEZ Arena for the last nine months, designed to bring the 20-year-old venue into the 21st century. Robe's Czech distributor, KVS, supplied the fixtures to installer InterSono SG.

CEZ Arena - owned by the City of Ostrava - is used frequently for high profile ice hockey events - one of the most popular spectator sports in the Czech Republic. The new technical infrastructure has now put Ostrava centre stage in the world of ice hockey, and the first major sporting event to make use of the new lighting rig was the recent International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships. InterSono won the contract after the project was put out to competitiv

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USA - US manufacturer Entertainment Technology, part of the Genlyte Thomas Group, has appointed Alan Keen as product marketing manager for the company's IGBT-based dimming products. With 13 years of entertainment lighting experience as a designer, consultant, project manager and technician, Keen has experience in every size, shape and style of lighting system, say the company.

In his role as product marketing manager, Keen will be responsible for managing new product development projects as well as spearheading the launch of new IGBT dimming products to the market. He will also be responsible for the creation of sales and marketing materials and will assist with product training.

Prior to joining Entertainment Technology, Keen spent three years as Northeast Region field project coordinator for ETC. He also spent 10 years as lighting designer for academic and professional theat

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Turkey - Sennheiser supplied the microphone and monitoring systems, plus its technical knowledge and support, for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. Held in Istanbul's Abdi Ipecki stadium, the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 broke all previous records with 100 million viewers expected to watch the TV coverage of the event, now in its 49th year.

Now that the number of participating nations has increased by around 50%, the Turkish television company TRT held a semi-final round ahead of the actual show on May 15. Sennheiser technology promised perfect sound for both events - even under the difficult radio transmission conditions at the venue.

Wednesday 12 May was the first opportunity for 22 competing nations to show just what they have to offer in the field of popular music, and TRT broadcast the semi-final round live on TV. The 10 best songs then proceeded to the final on the follo

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UK - DHA Lighting has been called upon to offer its gobo services to the new musical, Beautiful and Damned. The show, now running at the Lyric Theatre in London, is set in the glittering 1920s and tells the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayne. To create the sparkle the show required, lighting designer Nick Richings has included moving spotlights from Martin Professional, including MAC 500s and MAC 2000s, in his rig. Into these lights he has fitted a huge array of gobos from DHA. "We created both custom black-and-white and colour gobos," Richings explains, "to match the back projection used in the show. Designer Christopher Woods supplied us with the original artwork, which we adapted to make work in gobo form."

DHA Lighting can meet practically any gobo needs, whether a production requires a single metal gobo from its library of over 1,100 de

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UK - Bristol-based South West Audio recently completed the 'Evolve' conference for Virgin Mobile using a D.A.S. line array. The conference was held at an IMAX Theatre in Bristol, as the client wanted to use one of Europe's biggest screens and also because the high quality of the IMAX sound.

At the initial technical rehearsal, using the standard Imax Sound system, the client informed South West Audio that they wanted the sound louder, to the point of being almost uncomfortable, but without hotspots and without flying, and with a set-up time of only two hours. Mike Taylor, production manager for South West Audio, explained their solution: "With a clear brief from the client, and with limited time, we decided to put in the active D.A.S. line array system. The system was set-up easily by only two people within the time allowed and, as soon as we powered up, it was clear that th

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USA - Biamp Systems has introduced its new MXA Series of mixer/amplifiers. "Our new MXA Series is designed to meet the most demanding needs of installers, and integrators," said Ralph Lockhart, president of Biamp Systems. "As a replacement for the CMA Series, it provides our customers a more streamlined design and smoother running system than they've ever had before."

One of the current trends in commercial installations is the requirement for more power. The MXA Series mixer/amplifiers deliver on that promise having been built on the bedrock of the CMA Series, but offering improvement with four more powerful models: 35W, 75W, 150W, or 300W power amplification, each in a 2 RU space. Each model in the series provides a six-input mic/line mixer with an integral power amplifier, including an output transformer for delivering rated power into direct or distribute

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Belgium - Martin Professional reports a busy season for its lighting equipment in the Belgian market, with Belgian rental house and production company D-Rent (supplied by Martin's long-time Belgian distributor, EVDV) employing the company's fixtures on a wide range of events, including son et lumieres, corporate events and concerts.

D-Rent recently employed its stable of MACs on a son et lumiere, Magisch Antwerpen, a sound and light spectacular held every spring in the port city of Antwerp. Some 18,000 people crowded the city hall square to see the show, which featured 28 MAC 2000 Profiles, 18 MAC 600s, 72 MAC 250s and other intelligent lights in a visual extravaganza that included effects and colour-washing across the city hall and square.

For a mid-winter fest held in a large Belgian open-air museum, event promoter Croissant Bleu produced a circus show called Station

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Germany - Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH has released a new update to its Nuendo and Cubase digital audio workstations. The 2.2 versions of Nuendo, Cubase SX and Cubase SL will offer new remote control features, with Cubase SX and Nuendo also receiving three new VST plug-ins. The update for all three programs is now available as a free internet download to existing owners.

The added functionality includes improved support for hardware controllers. New in Cubase SL, Cubase SX and Nuendo 2.2 is support for the Mackie Control Universal Extender units, in addition to the current support for the main Mackie Control unit. Multiple Extender units can be added to a Mackie Control to offer direct access to channels in Cubase SX, Cubase SL and Nuendo. The Generic Remote area of all three applications has also seen an overhaul, with control for a full set of functions now implemented in

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UK - Beyoncé's recent USA tour included the innovative idea of 'aroma-ising' audience areas by use of 'Aromatech' systems from the UK's Effects Company. Specified by Justin Collie of Los Angeles / New York based design team Artfag, the idea was to fill the arena along the 'parade route' with a noticeable essence to indicate the artist's arrival.

The Effects Company's Martin Blake explains: "Artfag designed the system with multiple machines hanging from the trussing, with Ducting Adaptors attached to direct the airflow downwards, coupled with numerous machines at floor-level. The complete system was DMX-controlled from the main desk via Aromatech DMX Modules." Blake added: "The Effects Company originally supplied a selection of essences and the final essence chosen by Beyoncé was 'Musk' - as it was not specifically male or female."

(Lee Baldock)

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