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UK - Film London is the recently-created strategic agency for the film and media sector in London, whose specific aim is to promote London as a venue for film-makers. At its launch event at Gibson Hall, London EC2, which attracted some 500 guests from across the industry and government, a number of measures were unveiled including a partnership to make London more film-friendly, a new low-budget digital feature film fund, and extra funds for the London Film Festival. Production for the event was managed by Premier PR - who selected Sound Division to design, supply and operate the AV, audio and lighting systems in addition to sets and staging.London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, was a keynote speaker at the launch, and other guests included such luminaries as Sir Bob Hoskins, David Suche

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USA - Agilent Technologies Inc and Lumileds Lighting have announced an agreement to collaborate on a new series of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The companies say the mid-power range devices will target the automotive, mobile phone and lighting markets, and complement the high-power Luxeon devices offered by Lumileds and the lower-power devices from Agilent. Under the agreement, Lumileds will provide high-brightness LED chips and technology, while Agilent will contribute design, development and system integration expertise, including its patented manufacturing techniques.

"This agreement is a win for Agilent, for Lumileds and for our customers," said Young Sohn, president of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group. "Agilent will have access to new applications and customers for our LED line, Lumileds will be the exclusive provider of LED chips for the new series of

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The Netherlands - 'The greatest living room in Europe' was the brief for how the set should look for Rene Froger's recent Amsterdam show (including chandeliers, TV screens and carpet on the floor). Production company Sightline and lighting designer HenkJan van Beek came up with a massive ground support system to hang all video, lighting, sound, and scenic equipment, using 12 long trusses above the ego-ramps and the audience to complete the huge set.

Given the time frames for this event and the limited time allocated for cueing in the venue, WYSIWYG was chosen to allow for accurate pre-cueing offsite before the event. As a result of the challenges of working in the round, there were eight dimmer cities. Tenfeet used the ELC dmxLAN software to transport the 18 DMX lines over the ELC network. The ELC nodes performed perfectly, say the company, despite the size of the installation,

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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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Ireland - The versatility of BSS Audio's proprietary digital Soundweb engine has been put to imaginative use in the unconventional setting of an offshore pilgrimage centre in the north of Ireland. Situated in Co. Donegal, Lough Derg has for centuries been referred to by pilgrims, who visit the island retreat for solitude, fasting and praying, as 'Saint Patrick's Purgatory'.

But to acoustician Martin Grainger, of Omagh-based Grainger Communication, the only thing on his mind was working within the eight-second reverberation time which dogged the sound in the large St. Patrick's Basilica. Grainger has been servicing the requirements of Lough Derg for around 20 years, but knowing that only a complete audio refurbishment would provide the necessary solution, he wanted to ensure that the first phase would provide a leap forward for the officiating clergy. And so he set off armed wit

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Germany - KV2 Audio loudspeakers were used on the prestigious Jazz Stage at the recent Hafenfest music festival in Muenster, Germany. KV2's distributor in Germany, Aaudio of Emsdetten, was commissioned by a local rental company to provide the sound throughout the three-day event. Experienced sound engineer George Tuerk (who also works as sound engineer for H-Blockxs) was brought in to run FOH.

Manfred Thalmann, KV2 Audio product manager, commented: "This event was a great opportunity for us to use the KV2 system under real live conditions, with a wide range of different music styles. It enabled us to present outstanding audio qualities to a specialist public. The very high sound quality was consistent when the system was being used at different volume levels which proved really convincing and reinforced KV2 Audio's claims of extremely low distortion and increased dynamic r

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UK - XL Video UK has expanded the corporate side of its live video operations with the addition of two new account managers - Phil Goddard and Greg Rice. The appointments reflect the growth and new confidence in this sector, say the company.

Phil Goddard brings 29 years of experience in the AV business to the company. He has recently worked with some of the leading rental companies in the market, and before then was an event manager for major corporate financial institution Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), handling all their events worldwide. Greg Rice, meanwhile, joins XL Video having worked for Blitz Vision and Stagestruck, technically project managing many of their corporate events. Immediately before, joining XL Video, he was freelancing. He's already familiar with many of the XL management team and crew, and is enthusiastic about joining the company.

(Lee B

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UK - Phil Mercer has joined XL Video's project management team, where he'll be concentrating his energies on the application of video in live music and theatre, and on the rapidly continuing creative fusion of lighting and video media and technologies. Having spent the previous four years working for leading moving light manufacturer High End Systems, Mercer first became involved in video via their award-winning Catalyst product. XL Video was one of the first UK rental operations to invest in Catalyst digital media servers and their DL1 moving projection heads.

Mercer's experience in overseeing large Catalyst shows includes working on the last three Eurovision Song Contests and Peter Gabriel's recent tour. "It's hugely exciting to be working with the UK's leading live video company," he says. "I'm looking forward to working with a growing number of lighting desig

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UK - Pearce Hire showcased a new range of lighting equipment at this year's Forestry Commission's 'Forest Tours' across the UK. The Forestry Commission's annual summer tour of unique forest locations began in 2001 and has grown year on year, adding new sites and more dates. This year, artists include Paul Weller, Status Quo, the Sugababes and Jools Holland: on completion at the end of July, the tour will cover five weekends at six different Forestry sites. Despite the unfortunate cancellations by Bryan Ferry due to a throat infection, the tour has been thus far successful, playing to sell-out crowds.

For the fourth consecutive year, Pearce Hire has supplied power and lighting to the run of shows, this year investing in £85,000 worth of new lighting equipment and flightcases for the tour. The new equipment strengthened Pearce Hire's inventory and allowed the team to provide the

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UK - The King Arthur Film Premier took place at the Empire in Leicester Sq, with Utopium lighting up the façade of the cinema and the event. Afterwards the cast partied 'old style' at the Guildhall - done out in full Medieval regalia, including imitation forest and banquet hall lit with 48 x S/4 profiles, 36 x Fresnels, 60 x Birdies, 60 x Par64 Floor cans and a large High End Systems rig of Studio Spots, Studio Colours and Studio PC Beams run from a collection of Whole Hog II's.

Two days earlier Spiderman 2 was premiered across the Square at The Odeon with McFly performing on the balcony of the cinema. The after show party, at Billingsgate Old Market, hosted seven areas - the Spider Web Dance Floor and the City Scape being the largest. The curved trussing from two Orbit stages were used to provide 'spiders legs' coming down from the roof - lined with Pixeline. On both these eve

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UK - Blitz, one of the UK's leading providers of audio-visual equipment and services, recently worked with event management company Olive 360° to supply BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) with cutting-edge presentation technology for its annual Research Conference. Blitz provided Barco's ViewScape system for the event, which was held in the Shaw Theatre at the Novotel Euston.

Howard Jenkins from Blitz commented: "The format of the conference consisted of both plenary sessions and a series of morning and afternoon workshops, complete with PowerPoint presentations. We used ViewScape technology with a twin screen system to maximize stage space, allowing members of the audience to observe the presentations with ease. We also installed two Barco SLM R8 projectors, and to ensure continuity and minimize downtime, two further R8 projectors were used

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UK - Jay Walpole has returned to Leisuretec Distribution Ltd, strengthening the sales development team. Walpole left Leisuretec in January 2003 to travel the world, he journeyed across America before landing in Australia. After spending a number of months in Melbourne and Sydney, he realised that the beach life was not for him and he returned to the UK joining the Professional Audio division at Arbiter.

Following Arbiter's decision to close this division of their business, Walpole then moved to a customer services role at Music Marketing Services in Chelsea. The decision to return to Leisuretec Distribution was made after Walpole contacted Suzannah Griffin; business development manager at Leisuretec, where it appeared a position within the sales development team was about to be available.

Jay Walpole commented "I am looking forward to establishing myself in this new rol

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UK - Pure Distribution, a division of Stirling Audio, who became the UK distributor for Audix microphones earlier this year, has been busy selling and promoting the brand up and down the country. A number of VX-10 vocal condenser microphones have now been supplied to Katie Melua, one of Britain's hottest contemporary jazz artists. The VX-10 is a true condenser microphone with a frequency range of 40-20kHz.

Melua's sound engineer Matt Manasse requested Audix for her tour, after previously using its range of percussion microphones. After being sent a selection of vocal mics, Manasse determined that the VX-10 was perfectly suited to Katie's vocal style, and is able to handle everything from a whisper to a scream. Katie Melua rose to fame after she graduated from the Brit School for Performing Arts and teamed up with composer and producer Mike Batt. He visited the Brit School looki

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USA - Lighting designer Graeme Nicol specified nearly 50 Vari*Lite automated luminaires for the lighting rig on Sarah McLachlan's current North American tour, but plans to use movement with caution: "Just because they're moving lights, doesn't mean they have to move," Nicol says. Sticking with that basic fundamental principle, Nicol made use of the smooth pan and tilt, the soft colour-fade capability and the fixtures' CYM colour-mixing system, rather than the fast strobe functions, the quick-snap colour changing or the fast movement. "There's a bit of movement, but it's not unnecessary movement," Nicol explains. "If there's no point in making the fixture move, I don't do it."

The automated lighting rig consists of 23 VL3000 Spot luminaires, 12 VL1000TS ellipsoidal reflector spotlight units and 14 VL5 fixtures. All of the Vari*Lites were provided by

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UK / USA - New band The Delays is endorsing AKG microphones in a deal set up by UK distributor Harman Pro. The UK indie band is appearing at major festivals throughout the summer and are currently in the US on a showcase tour promoting their acclaimed debut album 'Faded Seaside Glamour'.

The AKG deal was put together by Andy Duffield, and currently includes three sets of AKG C5900 condenser vocal mics. It began with Harman supplying one microphone for lead singer Greg Gilbert, which led to a request for additional C5900s for the backing vocals of Aaron Gilbert (keyboards) and Colin Fox (bass). Harman is also looking into supplying C414s for the kit.

The high SPL C5900 was chosen for its sonic quality and ruggedness. An 'Acoustic selection' switch enables the user to fine tweak for their specific acoustic needs, and the C 5900 provides high quality sound characteristics with a

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UK - Glastonbury's Pyramid stage may seem an unlikely setting for an hour-long excerpt of The Valkyrie from Wagner's Ring, but the performance, conducted by English National Opera's music director Paul Daniel, not only received rave reviews but also held the full attention of a completely rapt festival audience. SSE Hire's new DiGiCo D5 FMX digital mixing system was chosen by ENO for this landmark recital.

"When this project was brought to Philip Ashley [sound manager at ENO] we were asked if it was possible to achieve," says Chris Coxhead - project sound designer for ENO. "We had one fairly major problem to solve and that was that we would only have 10 minutes to sound check the singers and orchestra, which is a very limited amount of time, specially for something that size and that exposed. But Philip and I thought about it and decided that as long as we kept i

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CZ - The latest addition to Robe Show Lighting's moving head range is now in full production.

Features of the new ColorWash 1200E AT include a CMY colour mixing system, variable CTO, two colour wheels and a combined dimmer/shutter. The 1200E AT zoom has a range of 10 - 87° depending on the lens type used. The electronic ballast enables features like flicker-free operation, extended lamp life and power-saving mode.

The ColorWash 1200E AT is suitable for a wide range of applications including theatre, tv and live production, together with all types of installations, from multi-purpose venues to large clubs. Low noise output also makes it suitable for studio use.

(Barry Howse)

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UK - Harlequin has announced that its ever-popular Harlequin Reversible - a vinyl flooring for dance and stage applications that can be reversed to offer an alternate colour - is now available in a wider range of colours. As well as the established range of black/white, pale grey/dark grey and black/grey, the company is now adding red/blue, hazelnut/beige, tan/fog (a grey in between the existing medium and dark greys) and, finally, green/yellow. Widths and weights remain the same.

There are now seven combinations to choose from, each quick to roll out and lay flat to provide a slip-resistant dance surface. Ideally suited to touring companies, Harlequin Reversible is lightweight, easy to handle and hard-wearing for a long service life. Also available are colour matching adhesive tapes for the whole range.

Harlequin has also announced the release of the Summer 2004 issue of its

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UK - Le Mark has announced its expansion into new premises. As from Monday 26 July, both sales and administration will be located in 3,000sq.ft of modern air-conditioned offices, once again located in St Ives, near Cambridge. Le Mark's existing buildings will remain, and are currently being converted in to warehousing and conversion facilities. The company has adopted an open plan format for the re-designed building, bring together both its existing Arts & Entertainment team and the new Industrial Innovation division, which will see additional staff join the company from August, under the control of Linda Gibbons - sales director for the Group.

The last 12 months have seen consistent growth in specialist self-adhesive applications, say the company, particularly where ultra-high bond tapes are needed to work in high temperatures and extreme conditions. "The support from our

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UK - Following the release of the Quick Start DVD, DiGiCo has now released the full version of its D5 Live user manual giving users individual tuition wherever and whenever required. The D5 Live is an intuitive, simple-to-use console and engineers have found that they can go out and use after minimal tuition, according to DiGiCo. However, the company says there are a multitude of features within the D5 that may not be so immediately obvious.

The D5 Live User Manual DVD gives users their very own DiGiCo workshop, always at hand in a format that is less bulky than a traditional printed manual. The information is divided into seven logically defined sections that are fully navigable, allowing instant access to any chapter. There is also an offline version of the DiGiCo website, so if the DVD is played on a PC or Mac, information about other products is available, or access to a pd

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Greece - It wasn't an outcome many had predicted at the start of the tournament, but on the evening of the 4 July, 2004, when the referee, Dr Merk, blew the final whistle putting the issue beyond doubt, football fans all over Europe had to adjust to a new reality: Greece were the new European champions and worthy champions at that!

The focus of national rejoicing was the venerable Panathinaikos Stadium - a place of historic importance, for it was there in 1896 that the first Olympic Games of the new era were held. To ensure that the music and the speeches could still be heard clearly, the Greek Football Association hired sound and touring company Audiocontrol to provide sound reinforcement, by no means an easy task, firstly because the team lead by Renos Papapaschos had very little time to set the entire system up, and secondly because the stadium with its reverberant marble sur

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Canada - Sightsound Consulting, an audio/video systems design firm in Hamilton, Ontario, was able to provide the Empire Theatre with the capability to preset both music or movie performances with the optimum sound system, using the Symetrix SymNet Audio Matrix. The Empire, a classic 700-seat venue built in 1938, re-opened in 2003 after an extensive 18-month renovation, intending to host premium concerts and to show surround-sound cinema presentations. Arthur Skdura, principal of Sightsound, says the venue needed a single system that was optimized for both music and film sound applications, without interfering with the Theatre's restored interior. As a solution the Symetrix MH-3 SymNet system.

SymNet's flexible programming ability allowed Skdura to create master programs for each specific application, with customized sub-program pages allowing the SymNet to adapt to any type of e

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