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Germany - When the innovative set designer Florian Wieder was looking to create a futuristic image for the German Channel SAT1's version of celebrity impersonation show, Star Duell, he turned to G-LEC Europe to provide an out-of-the-ordinary LED solution.

G-LEC's sales director Christoph Müssener explained: "Florian approached us with a rather unusual request. He was looking for a way to make the LED screens flexible in order to curve and bend them over several levels of the stage. While doing this it was also vital that the LED solution guaranteed transparency too."

G-LEC realized that the way to create a system which would work to Wieder's designs was to devise a frameless installation, so provided 1080 ClassicTubes, all mounted individually, to create a series of c

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France - Quiksilver Bowlriders 2004 (now ratified as a world cup skateboarding event) was again held on Prado Beach in Marseilles 16-20 June. CT Screenco was commissioned to provide its 32sq.m, 25mm large-screen LED presentation trailer (and vision mixing facilities) by the lifestyle/sports and surfwear brand to enable the 10,000 people who gathered full access to the action.

Situated in front of the ocean, the park has been custom-built to provide Europe with one of its most beautiful skateboarding venues. Now in its fifth year, the event again attracted the international hardcore skateboard elite including Omar Hassan, Alex Chalmers, Rune Glifberg, Tony Trujillo and Chet Childress (Californian Hassan once again picking up the €9,000 top prize).

Supporting the full-on PA, the Screenco display mixed feeds supplied by Brotherhood, who were filming the event. As business develo

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USA - American DJ has introduced the new Reflex 300. An updated version of its popular Reflex dual moonflower effect, the Reflex 300 uses two high-powered 150W lamps to create significantly brighter, more vibrant colours as it bounces, bends and reflects an array of beams from its twin scanning mirrors, say American DJ.

A modern, high-tech case joins together the two moonflowers of the Reflex 300. Two rotating mirrors - one on each side of the unit - reflect light beams from the 150W lamps and project 'twin' multi-dichroic colour patterns over a wide area. The beams themselves rotate to the beat of the music, resulting in even wilder pulsating movement. Another major improvement in the Reflex 300, say the company, is that it has no duty cycle and can run continuously all night. A high-velocity fan whisks heat away from the unit, so there's never any need to shut down to cool.

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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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USA - Production and lighting designer Nathan Wilson is making full use of one of the first NEV8 systems on tour with Blink-182. Diagonal Research's NEV8 System allows Wilson, an account manager for the ArtFag design partnership, to control true video hardware using lighting control technology, without the need for a computer-based media server. "It's the best way to control the video that we've found," said Wilson. "We can speed clips up, slow them down, take it to negative and a host of other effects. Best of all, we have direct access to the drives."

Without any rehearsal time before the first show in Mexico, pre-visualization of both lighting and video was essential to the success of the initial shows. In order to achieve this, Diagonal Research's own WYSIWYG studio in Newbury Park, California, was utilized. This allowed for the pre-visualization of lig

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UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light and its specialist automated lighting division The Moving Light Company has been selected as lighting suppliers to the first of London's big new autumn musicals: Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman In White.Based on the novel by Wilkie Collins, The Woman In White is being directed by Trevor Nunn, the man behind Cats, Les Misérables, Starlight Express, MyFair Lady, Anything Goes and, until recently, artistic director of the Royal National Theatre. The show's designs, which will make heavy use of video projection, are by William Dudley, while the show's lighting designer is Paul Pyant.

Facing the challenge of matching lighting to the projected scenery while not obscuring the projections, Pyant has opted for a core rig of automated lanterns - but using predominantly tungsten-based units. His rig includes City Theatr

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New Zealand - Allen & Heath's New Zealand distributor, Jansen Professional Audio & Lighting, has provided the PA system for The New Zealand Schools Tour (NZST), an annual showcase for emerging bands to inspire and motivate high school students to enter the music industry.

Now in its third year, the nationwide tour is championed by pop punk outfit, Goodnight Nurse, who will visit 95 secondary schools over a period of 19 weeks. The band performs a lunchtime concert at each school, followed by a two-hour music clinic, providing students with an opportunity to meet the band and learn about the music industry and live performance. Jansen selected Allen & Heath's portable PA28 stereo live mixer for the tour, which features an internal FX unit and an optimized four-band parametric output EQ. The mixer is complimented by Proel TFL series speakers with fold back from Phonic powered speak

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Hong Kong - Lighthouse Technologies has emerged as the LED display provider of choice, with more installations than any other supplier at Formula One racetracks around the world.

Lighthouse screens have been relaying action to the crowds at Formula One from the first race of the season in Australia, where Clipsal Vision supplied a complete Lighthouse package for the Melbourne Grand Prix. The LVP2056 screen's 20mm pixel pitch makes it ideal for the viewing distances of a trackside position and its 5600 Nits of brightness means that it can cope with the high levels of ambient light of the Grand Prix venues. The 2004 Grand Prix of Bahrain was the first ever round of the FIA Formula One World Championship to be held in the Middle East and marked the official culmination of a multi-million dollar project started back in September 2002, when the Kingdom of Bahrain signed a long-term

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USA - Color Kinetics Incorporated (CKI), the US manufacturer of solid-state lighting systems, today introduced iColor MR g2 - an intelligent, colour-changing lamp that applies the latest high-power LEDs to generate saturated bursts of colour from most standard MR16 fixtures and sockets. A higher intensity evolution of Color Kinetics' iColor MR, the compact lamp facilitates both new and retrofit installations - bringing the benefits of solid-state light sources to existing installations.

iColor MR g2 is well suited for wide-ranging applications that call for highly efficient light sources that can generate saturated colour and customizable effects, including architectural, display and retail environments where MR16 fixtures and track lighting are commonly used. With its higher output and wider beam distribution, iColor MR g2 extends the design possibilities of its predecessor fro

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Portugal - With all eyes focused on Lisbon this summer, CT Screenco has been in the thick of the action. The company supplied two 50sq.m JTS35 JumboTron CRT displays for a large carnival, before taking up residency in a nearby park to relay the action from Euro 2004. Staged over three days in Parque do Tejo (situated within the Nations Park), the 10th SuperBock SuperRock event (promoted by Música no Coraçao) featured an all-star cast, including Fatboy Slim, Lenny Kravitz, Massive Attack, the Pixies, N.E.R.D., Muse, Linkin Park and Korn.

The thousands who participated in the carnival-like atmosphere were given a clear view - thanks to the strategic placement of two of the giant screens with which CT Screenco first established the industry-standard for outdoor big-screen reference.

Meanwhile, across the north-west of the city, the Municipality of Lisbon were making plans to ha

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Europe / North America - One of the most acclaimed acts in independent music, the Pixies, have reunited for the first time in over a decade. The recently-begun world tour sees the band playing both festivals and their own headline shows in Europe before hitting North America this autumn. Lighting design is by Paul Normandale, an industry veteran whose past lighting credits include The White Stripes, Depeche Mode, Lou Reed, Björk, Tracy Chapman, Morrissey, PJ Harvey, Tears For Fears and others.

UK-based Lite Alternative supplied Martin Professional MAC 600 washlights, MAC 500 profile spots, Atomic strobes and other lighting for the show, with control from an Avolites Sapphire 2000. Normandale, who states that he received no brief from the band for the show, relied on his past Pixies experience (he was involved with the band some 12 years ago) and suspects they knew he had an id

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UK - Following extensive evaluation, SSE Hire in Birmingham, UK, has purchased a pair of Lake Contour speaker management processors for system zone control, along with the new Lake SMAART Controller plug-in to provide full SMAARTLive integration on the Contour's wireless LAN PC tablet. SSE's Chris Beale commented: "We have been impressed by the control versatility and sonic quality of the Contour product and, coupled with Lake's intuitive SMAART integration, we felt it would be a step forward in overall control for our touring and festival systems."

The first outing for the Contours is with the current Metallica tour, engineered by Mick Hughes: Chris Beale also deployed Contours for front-of-house system EQ and delay management on the Pyramid Stage at this year's Glastonbury Festival.

Other tours featuring Lake Contours recently include Westlife and Radiohead, both o

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USA - Lighthouse Technologies has announced the availability of Supervisor LH, a state-of-the-art display optimizer specifically designed to convert a wide range of input formats into resizable content to fit any shape of LED video display.

The first product of its kind to be offered in the LED display market, the Supervisor LH accepts both digital and analogue formats, including standard and high-definition television and computer graphics, to create digital content for LED display screens and panels. Ideal for rental, staging and fixed installations, the Supervisor LH features an intuitive user interface, illuminated display and front panel, easy access to connectors, convenient carrying handles and rear connector protection and a lightweight aluminum chassis.

"As the content platforms and technology evolves, Lighthouse has taken steps to offer a solution that would si

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Canary Islands - At the end of May, 2004, Aplicaciones Acusticas Musicals S.L., the exclusive HK Audio distributor for the Canary Islands, held a successful demonstration of the Coherent Dynamic Response Array (Cohedra) from HK Audio. Over 70 sound engineers, owners and managers of sound reinforcement rental firms took part in the one-day presentation, which included lectures about line arrays in general and Cohedra in particular, as well as a live demonstration with two different bands.

AAM general manager Javier Ramirez Vega commented: "The Cohedra presentation further solidified the professional image of HK Audio here in the Canary Islands. The T-Series and R-Series from HK Audio's Concert Sound range are practically a standard here; especially since they have been installed in the 32,000-seat Estadio de Gran Canaria. The large number of people who came to the presentat

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UK - Wharfedale loudspeakers have been used throughout a new vodka bar, which has opened on one of Portsmouth's main drinking circuits. Peter Young, who built up the successful Hong Kong Charlies restaurant chain, came out of retirement in order to open HKC Vodka Bar on the site of the former Madisons Restaurant. Young wanted a multi-room sound system to match his multi-flavoured vodkas, and Ben Cleary at local suppliers, Portsmouth Sound & Light, remembers: "The inquiry for an integrated system came out of the blue."

The venue is divided into four essential sound zones - the main bar, middle lounge, back lounge and pool bar - and Young wanted to be able to route CD, DVD and satellite sources - with an auxiliary input allowing a Karaoke DJ to plumb into the system. Four Wharfedale 3190s are mounted on Powerdrive brackets in the main bar, the 350W speakers are purpose-d

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UK - CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association), the trade association representing the fast-growing home automation industry, has announced that Michael Eden is to be its new education facilitator. This new appointment further underlines CEDIA's on-going commitment to delivering the training and educational structure required by the industry it says.

Michael Eden has most recently served as a head teacher at a large secondary school in Surrey. In this role, he was responsible for developing training programmes, as well as teacher induction and assessments. He has also worked with several government departments on training and education related issues.

"Michael brings to this role considerable experience in many areas of education, which will be a great asset to CEDIA in the UK," said Stephen Gough, chairman of CEDIA. "In his previous roles he h

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UK - Adlib Audio was out in force again at Glastonbury 2004. Fielding 19 engineers and audio technicians, they serviced seven stages - the Cabaret Tent, The Circus Big Top, Outside Theatre, Outside Circus, the Theatre Tent, the Albatross Stage plus a mobile system.

The 3,000 capacity Cabaret Tent was the largest Adlib audio system, featuring Nexo Alpha speakers and a Soundcraft Series 4 console at FOH and SM20 onstage, complete with ADLIB monitors. Marc Peers, Tim Dalton and Paul Roberts looked after this. James Coates, Chris Smethurst and Dave McKenzie using an Adlib FD system with Allen & Heath control at both ends of the multicore coordinated the Circus Tent sounds. The Outdoor Theatre was overseen by the multi-skilled Hassane, Paul Dakin and Graham Smith, who ran another Adlib FD system with Allen & Heath control.

On the outdoor stage were Richie Nicholson and Carl Billing

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UK - London-based PA specialists Capital Sound Hire supplied an entirely XTA driven PA system for 50 Cent's first outdoor UK performance this year, at Rockingham's Days of Thunder events. Each thrilling race day has 170mph-plus racing and The Smash Hits Rockingham Stage, which plays host to a variety of top pop acts.

On 6 June, Europe's hottest rap DJ Tim Westwood played a half-hour set, followed by a ground-shaking performance by 50 Cent. To cope with the heavy amount of sub bass the rapper puts out, Capital employed a 16 per side Meyer Milo line array system with 12 of Meyer's new 700HPS sub-bass - its first use on an outdoor show in the UK. This would normally be more than enough, but on this occasion they added another 12 Martin W8L subs because, as Capital's Paul Timmins explains: "50 Cent's type of music is very sub-bass heavy, so we needed to have a huge amoun

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UK - London welcomed the Olympic flame with one of the biggest free concerts in its history outside Buckingham Palace. As five-times Olympic gold medallist Steve Redgrave carried the torch up the Mall in front of an estimated 70,000 people Rod Stewart rounded off a six-hour concert to mark the event on 26 June, performing with former Faces (now Stones) guitarist Ronnie Wood and the cast of the West End musical, Tonight's the Night.

Spectators lining the Mall were able to see the show at close quarters via a series of six delay rigs, supplied by CT Screenco, with a further three designed into Mark Fisher's massive stage set. Commissioned by production manager Robbie Williams, of RWP Ltd, the big screen specialists supplied three Barco DLite 7 stage displays, in 16:9 aspect ratio. The large upstage centre screen, measuring 9.8m x 5.4m, provided the centre-piece at the back

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UK - CT Screenco's new high-resolution Masted Mobile (which rotates the trailer-based 44 sq. metre 15mm LED screen through 360°) is being put to good effect as performances from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden are relayed to key public locations. Historically, London-based screenings have generally taken place in The Piazza, Covent Garden. But commissioned to broadcast three events this year, CT recently carried the performance of Onegin - Pushkin's passionate tale of unrequited love - to 4,000 or so gathered in Trafalgar Square.

Carrying its own production onboard, the Masted Mobile came through its London initiation with flying colours, its onboard production facilities enabling CT to take the incoming digital feed from the Royal Opera House, interspersed with locally inserted graphics, VT playback and live camera work. Boasting the largest rotating mast screens

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UK - Engineers, producers and pro audio suppliers joined together at Kore Studios in West London for the much-anticipated listening comparisons of the Audient ASP008 8-channel mic variable impedance mic pre and the public unveiling of the soon-to-be-released Sumo high definition analogue summing amplifier.

Kore's owner and chief engineer, George Apsion was at hand to ensure that all of the mic pres had a fair hearing. Units from Millenia, Avalon, Focusrite and Amek, all kindly donated by FX Rentals for the day, were compared directly with the Audient ASP008. Audio professionals were then invited to pass comment on the sound quality of each, with source material provided by an excellent female vocal and acoustic guitar duo.

Luke Baldry, sales and marketing director for Audient, comments: "The most interesting aspect of this test was that there was little evidence of the di

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Germany - Besides boasting a great and growing tradition, the Jazz an der Donau (JADD) festival, now in its 18th year, is one of the eight biggest jazz festivals in the world. With a world-class line-up again this year, it's a status JADD is in no danger of losing.

In securing the services of blues legend B.B.King for the opening night, the organizers have pulled off a real coup. Rarely seen these days in Europe, the heavyweight blues hero with his trademark semi-acoustic, 'Lucille', joins an illustrious list of jazz and blues legends that have graced the JADD festival over the years. King's presence will further enhance the cachet of the festival, to which not only the exuberant atmosphere but also the superb staging and sound equipment contribute in large measure.

For EVI Audio, who again this year will be providing the sound reinforcement equipment, the Jazz on the D

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