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The Netherlands - Lumileds Lighting has announced that 10 European charter members have joined its Luxeon Lighting Network, which was launched in April at the Light+Building exhibition. Charter members include James Thomas Engineering, LightProjects, LumiDrives, Philips Luminaires, Nios, Space Cannon, Solar GB, Bocom, Altekno and BREE. The Network offers the lighting industry's first LED luminaire guidelines that provide a high level of confidence for predictable performance when specifying Luxeon LED lighting systems.

"Lighting designers and architects are frequently reluctant to specify unproven lighting technologies," said lighting designer Kevan Shaw. "Identification of luminaire manufacturers that adhere to a common set of technical design criteria and who wil

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UK - Beacon has introduced its Digigobos series 5-9. Featuring looped clips the Digitalgobo files may be incorporated into a derivative work such as a live performance, film, video, broadcast, multimedia, advertisement, internet, presentation, or print project. Hire operations can rent them to their end users as part of a RADlite or Catalyst system.

Series 5 and up are also stand-alone DVD's with all clips looped, plus a looped clip that contains all files on the disc, which can be run from a normal domestic DVD player.

For HighEnd Catalyst, RADlite systems or Martin Maxedia as well for mediabackgrounds or videoeffects there is a DVD Rom with clips in PAL format 720x576 PhotoJPEG codec as basic files.

Four different formats are available on the discs: PhotoJPEG (mov) -MotionJPEG A (mov) -Cinepak (avi) & MPG1 352x288 and feature 20 royalty free looped clips. Resellers in UK a

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UK - When White Light's production manager Jon Coventry decided to arrange some rigging training for his production team, he wondered whether the training would also be helpful to others. To that end, he contacted Stuart Graham, technical manager at the New Wimbledon Theatre, the closest venue to White Light's South London base.

After discussing options, Coventry and Graham agreed on a three-day rigging course offered by Chris Higgs at Total Fabrications. This course is often conducted at a client's site, and Coventry and Graham felt a theatre environment would better suit their needs, while Higgs had previously hosted training there for the ENO. Fortunately, the New Wimbledon Theatre was dark for its summer break and so it provided the perfect venue.

The New Wimbledon Theatre is part of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) - one of the country's foremost theatre producers. It i

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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 - International - Autograph Sound Recording, which recently celebrated 30 years of sound design and rental supply, has in addition to their usual dominance in the West End, been in high demand outside the UK, across Europe and as far a field as Asia. The company is currently supplying or is about to supply large-scale theatre productions in Athens, Berlin, Utrecht, Stuttgart, Madrid, Moscow and Tokyo.

Having just designed the new Miss Saigon UK tour, Nick Lidster one of Autograph's designers, is now in Tokyo working on another new production of this popular musical, which opens in mid August at the Imperial Theatre. Supplying the equipment for this Japanese version of Miss Saigon demonstrates how successfully Autograph has expanded their global market.

Another hit show to make use of not only Autograph's sound design but also rental expertise is Mamma Mia!

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UK - Charter, one of the UK's largest broadcast television equipment rental companies, has recently supplied its OB facilities at both Euro 2004 for ITV Sports in Lisbon, and Formula 1 circuits for German broadcaster RTL in Hockenheim. For each event Charter provided equipment including master control and switching centres, production hubs and edit suites.

Steve Jones from Charter says: "We spent over £2 million last year investing in new technologies and in 2004 we plan to invest a further £3m. This substantial investment ensures that our customers, including RTL and ITV Sport, have access to the latest equipment. The bespoke outside broadcast production facilities that we offer can be flown to any part of the world and rigged on-site in order to meet ambitious timescales. With the broadcast and production industry still facing a tough economic climate, we try to ensure

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USA - Wharfedale loudspeakers are featuring in Andreas Buechele's successful sound design for the touring theatre show, Alma Mahler. First performed in 1996 at the Vienna Festival Week (and made into a film in 1999), the cult film - about the wife of the celebrated composer, known for her many high-profile relationships - moved to Venice/Italy in 2002 and to Lisbon/Portugal in 2003.

After three months in Portugal, the production now arrives in Los Angeles, and will perform at the famous Los Angeles Theatre between 30 September and 5 December. ATEC Audio Technology, Wharfedale's Austrian distributors, originally equipped the show with 14 x EVP12P (powered 200W trapezoidal enclosures, with 12" woofer and 44mm compression driver) which worked so well that Andreas Buechele decided to take them around the world with him.

However, the sound designer's first task on takin

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Tunisia - Since Marantz' workhorse PMD320 was installed in 'Dar Zamen', a visitor attraction in the Tunisian cultural tourist complex of Dar Cherait, back in 1997, the 20 rack-mount CDs have provided continuous playback over a full duty cycle - without a single aberration.

Situated in the southern resort of Tozeur, the park, which is open seven days a week, recalls 3,000 years of Tunisian history. "To this day, the PMD320s continue to function impeccably over an eight-hour cycle, operating until midnight on a daily basis," says M N Chelli, from Backstage Technology - a company created with the visitor attraction's owner Chérait Jallel back in 2002 to take care of all the Chérait Group's technical requirements.

But times have moved forward and the professional playback device has now evolved into the PMD325. In addition to playing conventional CDs it will handle CD

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UK - Cadac is celebrating 20 years of dedicated design for live sound applications this summer, with its extended product portfolio including the all-new M16 Remote Mic Amp, and the production D16 Digital Input Mix Matrix, alongside the S-Type Compact Live Production Console.

The M16 remote mic amp is a direct response to market demand for a high quality remote microphone amplifier for seamless interoperation with all marques of analogue and digital console. Designed to address live, broadcast and recording market requirements, the M16 integrates directly with Cadac's new D16 Digital Input Matrix, and up to 16 M16 units can be controlled within a single system. A remote control option is available, via the Cadac RM16 Remote Control Unit, or via Cadac's SAM software. The M16 demonstrates high headroom throughout the whole system, as well as an extended response frequency, say Ca

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UK - Avolites will feature production models of all its lighting control products at PLASA 2004. The newest Avo products - the eDMX, the ART 2000s stand-alone dimmer and the D4 Desktop were seen in prototype at PLASA 2003.

The Avolites eDMX system transfers DMX data across a Wi-Fi radio link - completely removing the need for DMX data cables. eDMX units are easily addressed and user configured, either as transmitters or receivers, allowing the fast set up of 'Point-to-Point', 'Point-to-Multipoint' or 'Multipoint to Multipoint' DMX Data Transmission Systems. Each transmit/receive pair of eDMX units relays data for one DMX universe at full speed, with ranges of up to 1km.

The deployment of eDMX is totally user definable - one per light, one per pipe or truss, or one just one to overcome the front of house data leap. A big advantage to rental and production companies is that any

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UK - Shure Distribution UK, exclusive distributor of Shure, QSC Audio, Phonic and Sound Devices, will be exhibiting the latest audio technology from each of the said manufacturers at the forthcoming PLASA Show. Shure will present its new SLX Wireless Systems, ideally suited to installed sound applications and working bands, delivering superior audio quality in an easy-to-use and quickly configurable package. Offering Shure's patented Audio Reference Companding technology, along with an innovative set-up featuring automatic synchronization, SLX supports up to 12 compatible systems per frequency band (country dependent).

From Phonic will be the new MU range of compact mixers, ideal for a variety of applications with a great combination of features and with competitive pricing, say Shure Distribution. Also on show will be Phonic's new RoadGear range - a fully integrated mobile soun

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UK - Tryka L.E.D. will be exhibiting its popular L.E.D. luminaires and controllers at this year's PLASA, with some new additions to the range. Debuting at the show are the Module 144 Flood - a powerful colour-changing floodlight with 144 LEDs - and a 110V version of the Modulation Driver, designed to facilitate control of Tryka's fixtures in countries with 110V voltage, such as USA, Canada and Japan. Also new is a hand-held controller, which allows users to remotely colour change and control Tryka units.

Not shown at PLASA before are the LinkLED Optic - adding the benefit of a choice of optic lenses to this flexible lighting system, the Module 1 Flush and Module 1 Dome. The latter two IP-rated luminaires contain a single high-brightness LED in respectively a flush and dome enclosure.

Tryka L.E.D. can be found on stand N77.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Stage Two Ltd, the Watford-based sound and lighting company, has recently completed a project to supply and install a new paging system at the large Watford Sorting Office for the Royal Mail. The Watford Sorting Office covers a large area and following the re-structuring of the postal delivery pattern is subject to significant variations in the ambient noise level within the sorting hall itself when the letter-sorting equipment becomes active.

The project called for some 150 speakers in a combination of ceiling and wall units, together with outside projectors for the loading bay. It was also important to create a zoned approach and Stage Two opted for the Cloud Electronics range of products for the amplification and signal processing equipment, augmented by an ambient noise computer from Symetrix and a telephone interface from Baldwin Boxall. Speakers were selected from Pen

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USA - Lighting/projection programmer Rodd McLaughlin, Emmy-nominated lighting/projection designer Patrick Dierson, and programmer Kim Grethen have launched Idyll Hands Imagery, which will offer digital content design and creation, media server programming, and pre-visualization services to the concert, corporate, theatre, film, and television industries. Among the services offered by the company is the optimization of digital content for media server playback.

"Our combined understanding of lighting and control, projection and media products, and the needs of designers makes this a unique partnership," says McLaughlin. "Patrick, Kim, and I have worked on projects together for many years, and given our combined technical knowledge and involvement in the industry, it was a natural evolution to come together in this effort. We offer a host of experience, not only in

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UK - Canegreen managed the sound at the 40th Cambridge Folk Festival, where an eclectic line-up mixed the traditional folk of Ralph McTel with contemporary sounds of Beth Orton and classic reggae in the form of the legendary Jimmy Cliff. The audience and artists alike commented on the sound quality produced by Canegreen, says production manager Ken Rankin: "A high percentage of our audience are musicians and the quality of the sound really affects their enjoyment of the weekend. Since Canegreen has provided our PA, there has been a huge improvement and I have had loads of compliments about the sound."

Cambridge Folk Festival has never been easy to work on, but Canegreen, now on its third consecutive year, has always risen to the challenge, creating a system unique to this event. The festival is situated in the middle of a residential area, so sound levels have to be c

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UK - CT Screenco again worked with show producers, Endemol UK on the latest series of the Big Brother reality show at Elstree Film Studios. This is the fourth time the video specialists have provided big screen reinforcement for the series. Having supplied a 16mm LED display to Endemol UK for last year's 10-week run they adopted a different format for this year's innovative production, supplying a 14sq.m Barco DLite 10 LED display at the back of the Orbit stage to augment presenter, Davina McCall's Friday night eviction slot.

As the announcement is made by Davina, from her interview den, to the crowds assembled outside the purpose-built house on the Elstree lot, the action is relayed to guests backstage on four 42" plasma screens; these, too, were supplied by CT Screenco. Series director, Tony Gregory, said that he had deliberately set out to develop an arena feel, w

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Canada - Strand Lighting has won the contract to supply the lighting system for the new Toronto Opera House. The 2000-capacity Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts will be the new home for the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada. The design team for the project includes Jack Diamond and Gary McCluskie, Diamond and Schmitt Architects, Shaili Patel and Lana MacInnes of electrical engineers Mulvey & Banani International, and Josh Dachs and Richard Hoyes of the theatrical consultancy Fisher Dachs & Associates. The acoustical consultants for the project are Sound Space Design of London in association with Aercoustics Ltd.

Strand Lighting has worked closely with both the Opera Company and the Ballet for over 30 years, most recently at their current home at the Hummingbird Center in Toronto with opera technical director Julian Sleath and resident master elec

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UK - The Glastonbury Extravaganza is a three-day event that was started in 1996 by Michael Eavis, founder of the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Dance, with the aim of giving something back to the local community for any inconvenience caused by the larger event.

Entec was responsible for supplying the lighting production for this year's Extravaganza, which was set once again in the picturesque grounds of Glastonbury Abbey and included the varied line-up of Van Morrison, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Jools Holland. This was the first time that Entec has supplied the event, working with legendary production manager Dick Tee.

To co-ordinate the lighting needs of Van Morrison and Jools Holland, both regular Entec users, as well as the classical event with the RPO, Entec enlisted the help of Fraser Elisha. He and his Entec team-mates utilized the structural elements of the

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USA - It's been a busy season for Total Structures, with the fabrication of a range of aluminium outdoor load-bearing roof structures. Systems have been supplied to a number of clients including Brown United, Stages Northwest, Hughies, Rhino and E-Staging and will be used in a variety of locations from Mexico to Oregon, California to Ohio. Clients continue to be attracted by the modular nature of the Total Structures' roof system that can be readily configured to a variety of sizes, say the company. The roofs are based on a 10ft x 10ft grid to facilitate the suspension of loads above the stage: multiple covers and engineering reports have been supplied with some of these roofs so that they can be configured in a variety of ways using common structural components.

Braced goalpost and rectangular sound wings are also provided with some of these roof systems. The roofs can be used

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UK - Switchcraft, the manufacturer of interconnection products for audio and broadcast professionals, has launched a space-saving patchbay fitted with audio and video jacks. Using a standard 19" 1U patch panel, the new patchbay is suitable for analogue and digital installations and contains 48 TT/bantam jacks and 16 pairs of mid-size video jacks that have a bandwidth of 3GHz. Designed for long life, the audio and video jacks are both rated to 30,000 mate/unmate cycles. Audio and video patch cords are readily available and can be supplied in eight different colours and 10 lengths, from 30cm up to 300cm.

(Lee Baldock)

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Germany - After the successful prelude of the Stralsund Festival of the Zar und Zimmermann opera last year, this summer season opened with the premiere of Mozart's Magic Flute on the open-air stage of Stralsund. Once again, the cargo ship Ursula B is serving as a floating stage between 20 July and 28 August, during which time it will provide room for 1,600 visitors, five times per week.

Every year since 1995 sound engineers of the Theatre Vorpommern have been faced with the challenge of staging open-air performances during the summer season with a symphony orchestra and choir performance in front of an audience of up to 2,000. The sound system varied each year, according to the specific requirements of each performace, and it was decided that a more permanent solution had to be found for the next few years. After intensive research, the final decision fell on K.M.E

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USA - With less performance time - and usually less stage and overhead rig access - it's always challenging for an opening band to make itself stand out. But for country music rising stars Rascal Flatts (currently promoting its latest release, Melt, while opening up for Kenny Chesney) set designer Mike Swinford employed the Versa TILE system from Element Labs.

Although the band has a standard risers-and-stairs setup on stage, the risers are covered with about 20sq.m of Versa TILE, supplied by Large Screen Video (with offices in San Francisco and Miami). "When designing the show, we entertained the idea of bringing LED video onto the stage and we decided that we wanted some sort of self-illuminating video," Swinford says. "We went with the Versa TILE system because it was much more cost-effective [than regular LED], it was lighter weight, it required less power and

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