USA - See Factor, one of New York's leading lighting production companies, has added 26 new Robe Show Lighting ColorSpots 1200 ATs to its inventory - bringing its current total of these fixtures to 48. See Factor first used the ColorSpot 1200 AT fixtures was on the Deep Purple 'Bananas' tour in late 2003, when they were road-tested by LD Louis Ball. "The Robes performed superbly and totally reliably on that tour," says See Factor's operations manager, Elliot Krowe.

When the 2004 tour came up, Ball specified Robe ColorSpot 1200s, and See Factor's president and founder, Bob See, decided to purchase 22 units for the Deep Purple tour and for future production work. Once again, the fixtures reportedly worked perfectly on the Deep Purple tour, "And that's exactly what I

USA - An InnovaSON Sy40-8 digital mixing console is at the heart of a new mobile unit built by wireless communications specialists Total RF specifically to perform QC, test, and switching functions upstream from the broadcast production facilities. The company specializes in televised sporting events, which rely heavily on wireless microphone sources.

Total RF had planned to purchase an analogue console for the RF6, the full-size, 53ft tractor-trailer built for NBC's golf coverage, before company owner Steve Gansky came across the InnovaSON desk online, and found it matched his requirements for superior sound quality, ultra-low noise floor, and switching and routing capabilities.

"My thought was that this could potentially be a way to get a new, reasonably-priced piece of equipment that would perform the functions that we needed," he says. "Unlike the normal p

USA - Billed as "An evocative tale of romance and the epic battle between good and evil", Jekyll & Hyde has enjoyed a record-breaking Broadway run and is now touring the British Isles. Paul Nicholas takes the lead and MC2 E Series amplification plays a major part in Stage Electrics' authentic recreation of Broadway's glitzy sound.

Sound designer Glen Beckley outlines the ethos of the system: "We're using a horn loaded PA system comprising EAW KF300e which, in my opinion, still haven't really been surpassed, Funktion One AX88s in the centre cluster and then some EAW SB330 subs. I also have 18 Pro-Ac delays, which I use as and when necessary. The show has actually been around as a musical for about 15 years, so it quite popular among musical theatregoers, but over here their reference point is generally from the Broadway CD. So, when they come to see it in a

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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

UK - The latest in what seems a never-ending stream of new products from Soundcraft this year is the GB4 console, which carries the GB30 Mic pre-amps and EQ, designed by Graham Blyth for the company's 30th anniversary last year. The new desks offer the familiar Soundcraft engineering and design standards, say the company. Careful attention has been given to the mechanical construction, to ensure reliability under strenuous conditions, with all input modules being constructed with individual, vertically-mounted PCBs, fitted to the steel chassis front panel with individually-nutted potentiometers. The GB Series also shares the stylish looks of the MH4, MH3 and LX7ii consoles.

Available in frame sizes from 12 to 40 channels, the GB4 is designed for installations such as churches and performance venues, or for small touring sound systems. The dual-mode topology implemented successf

Hing Kong - Hong Kong-based Shalom AV Technology, the local agent for Dutch pro audio manufacturer Sound Projects, has delivered and installed the audio system for the Kam Kong Christian Church, located in the northern part of Hong Kong. The building, which used to be a cinema, houses about 1200 people. Rossini Lo, project designer at Shalom AV, was responsible for the audio system design.

Besides providing high-quality speech reproduction the audio system reinforces the worship band - a dynamic group that performs both mellow and upbeat music, while the whole church congregation sings along. The worship band includes standard drum set, bass guitar, guitars, keyboards and around eight vocalists. The church's main criteria were clear speech (even under loud worship music) with high intelligibility and low noise. Minimal deviations in SPL throughout the audience guarantee even in

USA - Meyer Sound products and personnel were central to a new episode of MythBusters, the popular weekly television show appearing on the Discovery Channel. The quirky series, produced by Australia's Beyond Productions, combines hard science and wacky humour as its two hosts, seasoned special effects wizards and all-around gadgetry freaks Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, debunk or, occasionally, confirm various urban legends. Topics investigated by MythBusters have ranged from getting stuck on a flushing airplane toilet to removing bloodstains with Coca-Cola.

During the show's premiere season, MythBusters called on Meyer Sound staff scientist Dr. Roger Schwenke to confront the legend that a duck's quack doesn't echo. To debunk this myth, live duck quacks were recorded and analyzed in a meadow at a duck farm, in Meyer Sound's anechoic chamber, and in a large, empty warehouse. The

UK - Liverpool Culture Company events team scooped a silver award at the Event Industry Oscars for the 'City of Light' display, which was held to celebrate Liverpool's Capital of Culture win.

The team received the award in the 'Best National Live/Public Event'' category at the annual National Events Awards, held in London's Grosvenor Hotel, at the weekend. The 'City of Light' event was held at Sefton Park over three days in September 2003 and attracted more than 60,000 people.

The team, which have also organized some of the biggest firework displays in Europe, created a stunning visual display which took a light hearted look at the history of Liverpool using state of the art technology. The event was pipped for gold by a mobile phone firm's campaign that illuminated ten of London's most recognisable buildings. But the Culture Company scored a major moral victory as it was the

USA - An impossible-to-miss media event, the launch of - the longest, widest and tallest passenger ship ever built - caused an international stir. Pathway Connectivity keeps the data flowing in the four of the most technically sophisticated facilities aboard the largest passenger ship ever built - Cunard's $800 million historic luxury liner, Queen Mary 2. The four areas are the Main Lounge, the Queen's Room, the disco and Illuminations, the first floating planetarium ever constructed.

The Main Lounge sports 45 Pathport DMX units, running eight universes driven by an MA Lighting GrandMA console in a full tracking backup configuration, using a GrandMA Relay unit. The control system outputs Pathport protocol directly, using DMX only at the output stage. The award-winning Pathport DMX management system is more than a tool to route DMX over Ethernet, say the company: with up to 64

UK - Hundreds of showgoers entered ETC's Daily Draw contest at PLASA 2004, hoping to win one of the company's brand new SmartFade compact lighting control consoles. ETC drew one winner from each day of the show and has now announced the names of the lucky individuals.

Sunday's draw saw Krisjanis Berzins, a freelance lighting designer from Dublin, as the first winner of the console, which is worth over £800. Krisjanis, who is currently designing a touring system for the Mexican guitar duo, Rodrigo y Gabriella, said that SmartFade will be perfect for controlling the dramatic and dynamic video images he plans to use.

Hugo Van De Graaf, the second winner, was riding the London Eye when ETC's Miranda Hunt called him with the good news. Hugo, the managing director of Movingheadquarters, Holland, said: "I am delighted to have won the SmartFade console and plan to use it at our

Denmark - Martin ShowDesigner (MSD), Martin Professional's lighting and set design software package, now comes in two versions. An all inclusive MSD Gold version contains new features such as Live Video inputs and Fast Net-Render, while a streamlined Silver version is customized for those who do not need the full package of options yet still want to take advantage of the latest in lighting design software.

MSD is Martin's unique and user-friendly lighting and set design software package, useful in developing realistic 3-D lighting simulations. Brilliant as a high quality production or sales presentation tool, MSD allows you to create realistic set and lighting design renderings using reflection, transparency, lighting, shadow and smoke.

Working closely with an array of lighting professionals from both the architectural and entertainment industry, feedback revealed a market n

UK - Lighting designer Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions used 60 James Thomas Pixelline 1044 battens to produce mind-boggling video effects on his visual design for the BBC Radio One's "One Big Weekend" event. The Pixellines were sourced and supplied via Bandit Lites UK, along with a large Martin moving light rig.

In keeping with his very individual 'randomonium' style of lighting and visual design, Jevons wanted to use them experimentally instead of conventionally, and so went for the video angle. He also utilized a RADlite digital media server to run the versatile PixelDrive software to create and run video clips and effects specifically for the Pixellines.

It's the fourth time running that Jevons has produced stunning visual designs for the biannual Radio One event - and the first time he's used Pixelline on the high profile event. Right from the outset, he'

China - As Shanghai geared up to host the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix on 26 September, central to the celebrations was a massive-scale laser and special effects spectacular on the Huangpu river, created and produced by a British company, Arcstream AV.

To promote Formula 1 and Shanghai City, the city government commissioned London-based Arcstream AV, leaders in the field of creative audio visual technology, to design and produce a multi-media display to light up the night sky, quite literally for miles, from a 40m floating barge which travels to various locations on the Huangpu river, adjacent to the famous Bund.

The show utilizes a giant waterscreen, a staggering 50m wide by 25m high, onto which video output is projected, and includes intelligent moving lights, full colour laser projection, smoke effects and a 10,000W audio system. The show lasted for 15 minutes, and features

UK - BSS Audio has introduced its new programmable DSP/Matrix system, with the launch of the Soundweb London range. Building on the success of the original Soundweb system it is easy to install, easy to design, easy to control and easy to integrate.

London provides more flexible and enhanced I/O configuration, dual-redundant CobraNetTM audio networking with greater network capacity and matrix sizes, more efficient DSP using Analog Devices SHARC processors that provide double the DSP of the Soundweb 9088ii processor, a new core system design package written completely from the ground up, plus integration of control, monitoring and error reporting of the Crown Audio CTs series of amplifiers using TCP/IQ PIP cards.

Control of the system is via an Ethernet topology, which can be integrated across an existing LAN (system design dependent). Ethernet integration has been made as sim

UK - Jonathan McMullan who works in Stage Electrics' London branch has been awarded the 'Michael Northern Award' for Best Student Lighting Design from the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD).

The award was in recognition of Jonathan's lighting design for a production of Monday after the Miracle, a play based on the life of Helen Keller. McMullan worked on this production whilst studying Stage Management and Technical Theatre at the Guild Hall School of Music and Drama. The lighting design for the show was entered into the award after an ALD member saw the performance and suggested it be considered. McMullan, with the help of his tutor Steve Huttly, submitted plans and details which were considered by five judges.

McMullan joined Stage Electrics in May 2004 as a warehouse technician and is now working as a customer services representative - his ultimate aim is to be

UK - Long time Arcs owners, Stage Audio Services based in Stourbridge, West Midlands has just purchased a complete monitor system consisting of 12 L-Acoustics 115XT HiQ and two SB118 subs along with XTA DP224 and GQ600 control and Lab Gruppen FP3400 and FP2400 amplifiers.

Kevin Mobberley, MD of SAS commented: "We were looking for a new high end monitor system to compliment our L-Acoustics Arcs inventory and the HiQ was the only logical choice. Not only is it a great wedge monitor but it's also multi purpose so we can use it for corporate or small to medium sized shows as a stand alone cabinet. Being able to fly the boxes with the quick release multi angle bracket or put them on poles gives us the ultimate versatility from what is a very cost effective product."

Paul Nicholson sales manager of L-Acoustics UK adds: "The HiQ represents a re-working of our FM wedge

UK - EAW honoured Dublin-based installation specialists, AVL, at the recent PLASA show for the huge amount of work AVL has completed in the Irish nightclub market with EAW products, in particular with Avalon, EAW's high-power, club-specific loudspeaker range. Over the last 12 months, AVL has installed significant EAW and EAW Avalon systems into four of the largest clubs in Ireland, with the trend looking set to continue, not just in Ireland but also in the mainland UK. Indeed, AVL's first UK installation, Club Supreme in Vauxhall, opened just a matter of weeks ago to great acclaim.

Club Fabric in Tralee opened at the end of June, hailed as one of the most technologically advanced clubs in Ireland it is located in the centre of Tralee. Club Fabric contains two clubs, each separately styled and themed. With five bars, it is also one of Irelands biggest clubs, costing owners Seamus

UK - Bandit Lites UK joined the beautiful people and supplied two contrasting venues with lighting equipment and services for Spring 2005 London Fashion Week. The first was for S2 Events and staged at the high profile British Fashion Council's marquee, Duke of York's Barracks in London's Kings Road.

The second was in Selfridges' Car Park for the Fashion Fringe shows. Fashion Fringe is a new concept, launched to offer the best of UK's young fashion designers a chance to showcase their talent and imagination.

The main tent at the Duke of York's Barracks seated approximately 500 people and saw 24 of the finest and most prominent collections of next season revealed, including Jasper Conran. Simon Tutchener was the lighting designer, in his eighth year and 16th season of lighting LFW events. Production manager was Tom Brunsdon for S2 Events, who has been involved in LFW for the las

Germany/China - At the first Telex Academy in China, the host Eric Lim (vice president, EVI Audio Asia) together with Mathias von Heydekampf (president, Pro Audio Worldwide), Martin Traut (marketing director, EVI Audio) and Christian Glück (product manager, Electro-Voice) were pleased to welcome over 350 participants. The new systems from EVI Audio met with the most vivid interest. In the four years since its introduction, Telex Academies has proved to be a highly successful marketing idea. As a result, more and more Telex Academies - in virtually every corner of the globe - are needed to satisfy the constantly growing demand for seminar places. For Mathias von Heydekampf, managing director of EVI Audio and president Pro Audio Worldwide, the special links the company is able to forge with its customers through the Academies represent 'a central component of its success, as people

UK - Kramer Electronics Ltd., a worldwide supplier of audio, video and computer graphics signal distribution, switching and processing equipment for the broadcast, production, security, education, home theatre and ProAV presentation markets, recently announced the introduction of the TP-100 and TP-200 VGA/XGA twisted pair transmitter and receiver. These units employ completely new circuitry, whilst complementing its existing twisted pair products.

Together, the Kramer TP-100 and TP-200 twisted pair transmitter and receiver provide an extendable and branching solution for sending computer video signals over a long distance. The TP-100 transmitter has a looping XGA input, ID bit control and two CAT5 outputs allowing it to send the original signal to two different locations simultaneously. It offers cable equalization and signal amplification for both outputs and can send the origi

UK - Vision Systems, a leading global provider of early warning fire, public alarm and security systems, recently announced an expanded presence through the addition of two new certified wholesalers in the United Kingdom.

Vision Systems continues its momentum in the competitive Fire market and has appointed Ventec systems, based in Leeds and Fire Suppression, based in Bristol to offer VESDA products, service, commissioning and maintenance. Both companies are strategically located and have been trained and accredited by Vision Systems Europe Ltd.

Throughout the UK, Vision Systems continues to expand its nationwide presence with handpicked VESDA wholesalers to support the fire trade. This essential investment in its channel partner relationships and the powerful functionality and versatility of VESDA very early smoke aspirating detection solutions continues to drive the success

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