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UK / International - Out Board has recently seen significant growth in international demand for its chain hoist controllers and accessories, with the support of several new international distributors for the range.

In Spain, Carlos Martinez-Itturalde of Pro-Lighting SL has sold CM4 units to Trui Espectaculos, a leading production company in Palma de Mallorca, and also into a new rigging installation for the principle theatre in Valencia. A CM6 six-channel controller went to Madrid-based Quasar, owners of the largest mobile roof system in the country. In Sweden, long-term CM users Spectra+, whose credits include the Latvian Eurovision, have added 10 CM4 four-channel controllers to their inventory, supplied by Per Olof Lungmark of Intersonic.Dutch CM hoist distributors Louis Reyners

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UK - Bakersfield Entertainment's latest - and arguably most expansive - Mood concept in Liverpool's city centre, is dominated throughout the three-storey operation by moving beam effects from Coemar UK. The Preston-based company have spent in the region of £6 million developing a three-storey Victorian warehouse (off the regenerated Concert Square). In addition to Coemar ProSpot 150s, 250s, and Cyc 250 colour washes, Ian Kirby's company has supplied the first moving mirror fixtures under their new distribution arrangement with Geni, to system integrators TMC of Bradford.

Included in this were eight Geni Sharmas, housing HSD 200 lamps, and six Shiva 600s (with MSR 575 lamp source). The Sharma colour-changer produces nine sharp and bright dichroic colours plus white, 0 to 100% mechanical linear luminous output and smooth movement to produce a twin/split colour effect. The fully-f

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UK / USA - RK Sound Engineering, the St Albans-based sound design and installation company, has been appointed UK distributor for the Gold Line range of audio and acoustic test and measurement equipment. Aimed principally at sound engineers, especially those involved with commissioning public address and voice alarm systems, or testing installed or touring sound reinforcement systems, the products are manufactured at Gold Line's US factory in West Redding, Connecticut. The product line-up ranges from essential tool-kit problem-solvers such as impedance meters, to the world's only dedicated, portable, STI-accredited speech intelligibility meter - vital for the compliance testing of voice alarm and evacuation systems.

The extensive portfolio also includes the DSP30 Portable Real-Time Analyser - an expandable, multi-function digital measurement device, plus general-purpose Audio T

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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 - The Product Excellence Awards at the PLASA Show have been a popular feature of the event for many years, highlighting the significance of the show as a focus for new developments for the industry. To reinforce this role, the awards are undergoing an important change for the 2004 event (12-15 September), with the focus being much more on genuine innovation. To reflect this, the feature area will also be redesigned.

This year, the awards will be repositioned as the PLASA Awards for Innovation. The previous assessment criteria, which segmented the nominations into sectors, has been removed so that products will no longer be judged within category lines, but on the grounds of their innovation alone. The judges will be looking for products which advance the industry, demonstrate a new style of thinking, represent a key step forward in safety terms, or improve technical practices

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USA - Techni-Lux, the Florida-based distributor and manufacturer of pro lighting equipment, has added Ted May to its technical sales staff, specializing in motion picture and television studio lighting. May is a 30-year veteran in lighting and production, having worked on segments for MTV, CNN, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and Entertainment Tonight from Phoenix and Los Angeles locations.

May, who arrived in Orlando at the beginning of the 'Hollywood East' movement in 1989, says: "I have always liked to keep abreast of new lighting technologies in order to pass this knowledge along to my customers." May has also taught lighting for motion picture and television courses for over 11 years and feels that education is a very important sales tool: "Techni-Lux has always been on the leading edge of innovative technologies and I am excited to help introduce the Dexe

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Italy - World-famous artists and sculptors meet on the sandy shore of Piazza Marconi in Jesolo each year for the Sandcastle Festival. Sand sculpture is a fascinating spectacle, which always draws a crowd. This year, the Municipality of Jesolo decided to add another dimension to the event, and make use of professional lighting projectors that would give the sculptures even more prominence. The first performance with these products was for the Sand Cribs, in December 2003, when the works of seven sculptors were lit by the same number of Clay Paky CP Colors, fitted with a CMY three-colour system. Another four CP Colors were used for stage-set lighting of the environment.

The lighting technology design was created by Pietro Tondello of Altair, who explained how he arrived at its definition: "The Sandcastle Festival is an event that identifies the City of Jesolo, helping to make

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USA - The Athens 2004 Olympic Torch Relay continued its 46,800-mile journey recently in Manhattan, as 140 people chosen by New York City and corporate sponsors will transport the flame across its five boroughs. Lighting designer Bob Dickinson called upon VLPS Lighting Services to provide a full lighting package, including VL3000 Spot Luminaires, VL5 Wash Luminaires, VL1000 Arc ERS, MAC 2OOO Wash and ETC Source Four Pars, for the special events to be held at Times Square and the United Nations.

For the first time ever, the Olympic Torch Relay will travel around the world as it makes its way to the Athens Olympic Stadium on 13 August to commence the 2004 Olympic Games.

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - The Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA) has announced that Production Resource Group (PRG) - one of the world's leading suppliers of entertainment technology equipment and solutions - has accepted a seat on ESTA's Certification Council. PRG provides lighting, projection, audio, video, scenery and labour services for theatrical productions, trade shows, corporate events, sporting events, special events, television and film productions, themed attractions and environments, concert tours and automotive industry events.

The ESTA Certification Council is the governing body, which is managing the development and implementation of the Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP), a new industry-wide program, which will grant credentials in specific disciplines to entertainment technicians.

Jere Harris, chairman and CEO, will serve as PRG's princi

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Denmark - TC Electronic is shipping Dynamic EQ, the new mixing and mastering plug-in exclusive to the PowerCore platform. This new EQ tool offers up to four definable bands, which can work in static or dynamic mode, or in a combination of both. Also, each of the bands can be configured as a parametric EQ or a high/low shelving filter.

This virtual processor eliminates the shortcomings of static EQ by combining dynamic processing and EQ. Sidechain bands, which are independent of the processing bands, enable the high frequency content of a mix to control the low-end and vice versa. All processing is in 48-bit double precision, and may even be used in a phase linear mode, for much more transparent results. Dynamic EQ represents a new generation of mastering tools for PowerCore.

PowerCore is the open platform DSP engine for professional signal processing for Mac and PC. Its proce

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Portugal - Avolites Diamond 4 consoles were in action at the recent massive Rock In Rio festival in Lisbon - the first time the world-famous music extravaganza has been staged outside South America. Two Diamond 4 consoles were made available by Avolites' Portuguese distributor, BackLight, for the occasion. One was used by LDs choosing the Avo option on the main stage, and the other was installed in the on site WYSIWYG suite, set up to allow incoming bands LDs and programmers the time and a calm environment in which to pre-programme their shows.

This showed once again that Avolites new generation of power consoles - the D4 range - is the best hands-on option for festivals and large multi-user events. The 'Rock City' site for the event, was built in the 220,000sq.m Bela Vista Park area of central Lisbon. This previously derelict wasteland has now been turned into a beautiful perma

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UK - Theatre sound specialist Orbital announced a hugely successful ABTT Show across both its hire and installation divisions. Following their recent appointment as a Premiere Yamaha Commercial Audio dealer, the company debuted the new Yamaha PM5D on its stand. The PM5D was subsequently awarded Best New Sound Product at the annual ABTT awards. Orbital believes that this award reinforces that the PM5D is set to follow in its big brother's (the PM1D) footsteps and dramatically augment the potential of theatre sound, be it for sale or for hire projects.

Combining the features of Yamaha's DM2000 and the PM1D, the PM5D is similarly designed and engineered. As a mid-priced digital console, complete with a true third generation operating system, it fits into Yamaha's range as a robust workhorse for all but the largest of sound reinforcement projects.

Orbital's sales and installations

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UK - Sennheiser endorsees, Super Furry Animals, continue to tour with the company's evolution microphones and in-ear monitoring. Promoting their new Phantom Power album, the Furries completed a full US tour in February and March, followed by 11 dates across the UK during April, taking in Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales and ending with the London Hammersmith Apollo. This summer will also see them playing at the Reading and Leeds festivals.

The band's monitor engineer, Craig Donaldson, comments: "I would say that establishing the relationship with Sennheiser is one of the best moves I ever made. The IEM systems are fantastic and the back-up from Mark Saunders at Sennheiser is even better."

Donaldson says of the microphones: "The e604 and e609 are familiar to any engineer and continue to do a great job for us. The real bonus for me is the e845 vocal mic

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UK - Only 18 months after its management buy-out, Hall Stage picked up the Rigging and Engineering Product of the Year Award from the Association of British Theatre Technicians tradeshow, for the second year running.

Following on from the Widget of the Year success of the 'HoldOn' clip, launched in 2003, the company unveiled the DGS Counterweight Drive system, designed in conjunction with the company's German partner, ASM Steuerungstechnik.

The DGS is the first genuine drive hoist that means an end to counterweight loading, with all of its inherent Health and Safety, cost and time implications, say Hall Stage. Fitting directly onto an existing counterweight frame, the DGS uses twin steel bands with a combined safety factor of 20:1 to raise and lower the weight cradle at speeds of up to 1.5m/second - in virtual silence.

Hall Stage are also offering full financial support pack

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UK - Rental and production company Skan PA Hire is once again supplying a complete audio system to The Other Stage at this years Glastonbury festival. 15 years on from the company's debut, Skan is as excited as ever to be involved in arguably the world's most famous annual outdoor musical event.

A major change to the equipment list this year sees the arrival of Skan's L'Acoustics V-Dosc system. According to Skan's Chris Fitch, the decision over which speaker system to use is not a reflection on either L'Acoustics or the Turbosound system used in previous years but came down to availability. He commented: "We have achieved some stunning results with the Turbosound in previous years and are confident in our ability to get the best out of the L'Acoustics." The reinforcement will be used in conjunction with two Midas Heritage 2000 mixing consoles and monitoring via a pair

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UK - A wireless PA system by German manufacturer Fohhn is available in the UK from Oswestry-based Systems Workshop Distribution. The battery-powered EasyPort FP1Pro and FP1CD systems provide 40W of continuous power for up to 20 hours. The package (about the size of four standard office box-files) incorporates a three-channel mixer, optional CD player and a slot for any brand of half-rack radio mic receiver.

According to SWD, the two-way speaker design offers a maximum volume of 114dB SPL, wide dispersion and a clear, natural sound ideal for both voice and music applications. The FP1pro/CD is suitable for any application requiring compact and portable solution for sound reinforcement, quick preparation and easy, safe, wireless operation.

The FP1pro/CD, together with its larger sibling the FP2 and the new X-Perience range of self-powered PA systems are now shipping around UK and

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UK - Ashley Lewis has joined the ever-growing James Thomas Engineering Pixel range team as new business development manager. He will be responsible for developing the television, studio, film and touring and entertainment markets for the high profile Pixel brand.

Ashley has nearly 20 years' experience and a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience in the professional lighting industry, and his enthusiasm and energy is well known and loved by many. He has previously worked with leading brands such as Martin Professional and Coemar.

Pixel Range's Chris Ewington comments: "Getting the right people onboard is central to our philosophy and Ashley's tremendous zeal and passion for the job makes him ideal for our team. Lewis comments: "The Pixel product is a market leader in many fields, and I'm looking forward to taking it to new and more diverse heights."

(Lee B

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USA - Production Resource Group (PRG) provided a record number of lighting solutions to exhibitors at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Exhibition (E3) which took place in Los Angeles in May. "We saw a strong increase in the number of support requests from both exhibit houses and independent lighting designers," said company president Michael Tomkin. "We believe this is the result of greater awareness within the tradeshow community of the extensive equipment, ideas, and expertise offered by PRG."

PRG provided lighting solutions for a total of 13 exhibits at the show, compared with just four exhibits at the 2003 event. "We expect our presence at the 2005 show to be even greater as a result of new technologies we've recently introduced," said Carl Davidson, vice-president of corporate business development for PRG. The company's new technologies inclu

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UK - RF specialist and manufacturer Trantec has recently supplied its award winning S6000 miniature radio mic system to OB specialist Roll 2 Record (RTR). Deployed on location for Endemol UK Production's fifth series of Big Brother, it enabled the live broadcast of one of Channel 4's most successful and highest rating series in its 20-year history.

RTR's experienced team, headed by MD Pete Webber, has worked with Endemol's production team since its first series, supplying all the technical television facilities for the show's live broadcast across nine platforms. Using Trantec's S6000 for the first time, it proved invaluable as an intuitive wideband system, says Webber. Webber collaborated with the Trantec team to specify the 16-channel S6000 system, which was used in conjunction with numerous channels of Trantec IEM's and other radio systems.

The S6000's miniature transmitter

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South Africa - Four Roadies from South Africa will spend two weeks engaged in on-the-job training in Norway this July. The famous Quart Festival, in Norway, will host the four SARA (South African Roadies Association) technicians as part of a technical exchange program (now in it's fourth year) between SARA and the Quart Festival.

SARA raised the necessary sponsorship from MMINO, a South Africa-Norwegian education and music program, to enable young South Africans to spend the 29 June to 13 July 2004 period in Norway. There they will spend an intense 15 days gaining technical training from some of the best in the world, learning the latest methods and techniques in sound, staging, power, lighting and related live music/entertainment industries.

Every year the Board and organizers of the Quart Festival choose one deserving socially responsible role player on a global basis, and d

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UK - A.C. Lighting has been appointed as a dealer for Vari*Lite products in the UK. The US manufacturer has been at the forefront of automated moving lights since developing the technology in the early 80s, and produces an innovative line-up of intelligent spot and wash models.

Under the agreement, Vari*Lite will benefit from A.C. Lighting's position as a leading 'one-stop-shop' for entertainment technology products and services. The deal sees A.C. act as reseller for Vari*Lite's full range of luminaires, including Series 1000 Arc ERS and Tungsten ERS models, Series 2000 spot and wash models and Series 3000 Q models.

Philip Norfolk, regional sales manager for Vari*Lite European distributor VLPS, commented: "VLPS are delighted to have A.C. Lighting as an approved dealer for the Vari*Lite range of moving lights. Their unique client base and excellent service levels make the

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UK / World - East Anglia-based sound rental specialist, AudioLease, has just completed three major arena dates with Sean Paul, supported by Big Brovaz. For each of the concerts, at G-Mex Manchester, Wembley Arena and the NEC Birmingham, AudioLease used its Lab.gruppen-powered Adamson Y-Axis Y10 line array system.

The three UK dates form part of an international tour for the infectious young hip-hop-flavoured dancehall reggae star, Sean Paul. Over a three-month period, from May to July, he will have taken the tour from the Middle East to the US and 11 European countries, ending in Montreux on 10 July.

The Adamson Y-10 system, supplied by Sennheiser UK, is a full-range, medium-format three-way line array featuring a single patented Adamson mid/high drive module. The system uses XTA DP226 and DP224 digital loudspeaker processors and is powered by Lab.gruppen 6400 amplification.

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