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UK/Ireland - Acclaimed sound engineer Moray McMillin has been appointed pro audio sales manager South/National Concert Sound Specialist for John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd - the exclusive UK and Eire distributor for HK Audio. From Nov 1st, a, dealing with the continuing acceleration of interest in HK Audio pro audio systems, concentrating on the mainly southern section of the UK.

McMillin is a hugely experienced sound engineer with over 30 years of top flight experience under his belt. He has toured the world many times over with major rock acts such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Dio, Whitesnake, Souxsie and The Banshees and Suzanne Vega. "The last nine years have been spent touring worldwide with Deep Purple," explains Moray. "That was a wonderful experience as inno

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UK/USA - PLASA - the Professional Lighting and Sound Association - has announced a joint initiative with CMP Princeton, the organizers of the annual Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention, to launch a new pavilion at the event in 2005, focusing directly on lighting, audio, AV and staging technologies.

The new PLASA@Sea Pavilion will form a key element of this annual cruise-related trade show and conference which is the largest gathering of cruise line owners, operators and suppliers in the world. More than 9,000 people from 116 countries, including over 1,000 senior cruise line executives attended Seatrade 2004.

Whilst the Conference will offer a four-day programme of targeted seminars and meetings, the exhibition will showcase the latest innovations in marine technology, with PLASA@Sea providing a connection to recent developments in entertainment and leisure-based technology. A

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UK - Creative Technology has collaborated with set designer Markus Blee to create a spectacular 'virtual' LED backdrop at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith for the final of the MTV Shakedown with Wade Robson, in which lighting and visuals are projected into a 'virtual' LED environment by two double-head Catalyst systems.

Markus Blee presented Adrian Offord and Stuart Young of CT and TV lighting director Gurdip Mahal, with two projected models of the design. Some 138sq.m of 25mm LED display was to be arranged in random shapes, the multi-faced media display enveloping the performers, set off by two 9sq.m Barco iLite 8 panels - one upstage centre of the dancefloor and the other offstage left. The content, provided by moving light operator Ross Williams, would be fired to the four colour-coded 25mm zones via the Catalysts, while the higher resolution Barco screens would take a mixture o

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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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Norway - The term 'multi-talented' takes on a new dimension in the case of Jo Nesbø, a remarkable Norwegian artist whose career moves to date include stockbroker, professional footballer, novelist, pop artist and - most recently - writer and composer of a musical.

Born in 1960, Jo Nesbø's latest work, 90-Meters Bakken, an allegorical piece about the tribulations of moving to and growing up in the small town of Molde, Norway, has sold out in its initial theatre run, and is about to tour the country with a substantial live sound and lighting production.

Norway enjoys one of the world's highest standards of living - and consequently one of the world's highest concentrations of professional entertainment technology. This has helped provide Nesbø with an enviable touring production for his new work, with a Renkus-Heinz PN102LA self-powered line array PA, Martin Audio monitors, TC Elect

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UK - London's Brixton Academy was the location for Canegreen's recent free training day. As a leading supplier of professional sound reinforcement in the UK, Canegreen said they realized the value of investing in a training day set to equip freelancers with the necessary skills required to match the company's demands.

Richard Martin and Pete Hughes with MD Yan Stile developed the idea. Experienced members of Canegreen's staff taught the next generation of staff and freelancers the skills required to work safely and efficiently at events. Focusing on line-array rigging, attendees gained an understanding of the processes involved in setting up events, from opening the back of the lorry and loading in, to rigging line-array speaker systems, de-rigging and loading out. Some attendees used the day as a refresher course, whilst others used it to advance their basic skills. The day allowed pe

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UK - Ensuring uninterrupted, safe and reliable power to the stages and numerous hospitality areas of a festival the size of V is no mean feat. Power is essential to everything that happens on a festival site from stage lighting, sound and AV to the toilets flushing, showers running and car parks and campsites lighting up at night. From the first day of the fit up to the last hour of the out and of course throughout the event itself, the one thing that cannot go off is the power.

The responsibility for site power for V at the Chelmsford site this year fell to Power Logistics. And with 65,000 people coming to see over 50 acts playing on four stages in Hylands Park - plus the DJ and sponsored dance tents, catering vans and stalls, backstage hospitality areas, campsites and car parks, toilets and showers - power distribution can be a logistical nightmare.

The production team found itself

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UK - Bandit Lites UK is supplying lighting production for the UK and European leg of the Moody Blues' 2004 world tour. Bandit Lites Inc also services the band's lengthy annual American tours. Other territories on the current itinerary include Australia and New Zealand in early 2005.

Lighting designer Mick Thornton has worked with the band for the last five years, each tour turning the stage into a completely different and eye-catching visual environment for the performance. Keeping to a basic front and back truss format for his primary building blocks, this year Thornton added three overhead triangular trusses which move, and four vertical upstage towers.

The stage set - as devised by Thornton - is all in white, including the cyc, which has a four-channel star cloth behind it and the stage floor, which is covered by a white carpet. Parts of the set also have white scrim stretc

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UK - The Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's south bank has been closed for much of this summer whilst undergoing a substantial refurbishment programme. The stage area in particular required a major overhaul and has undergone significant modernisation. ELP were brought in to strip out the old rigging structures and install a brand new, high spec rig.

"We were well placed to take the job on" explains ELP project manager Toby Dare "as we already provide all the rigging services for the Royal Festival Hall next door. We proposed and designed a new grid system for the QEH which would be flexible enough to accommodate the diverse range of productions the Hall now caters for. These now vary from orchestral performances, through to theatre, circus and modern dance."

Over a six-week period, (from the end of July to early September 2004) the ELP crew stripped out all

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USA - To coincide with the US launch of its new digital mixing console, the D1, DiGiCo will be giving away two DiGiCo D1 USB MP3 watches in a free prize draw at LDI. The draw will take place half an hour before close of show on Friday and Saturday on DiGiCo Booth #2728 and all entrants must have taken a demonstration of the new D1 console during the show.

"We're very excited about both the launch of the D1," says DiGiCo marketing director, David Webster. "And we're celebrating this with a prize that fits the occasion. Our original USB watches have proved to be incredibly popular, having all the convenience of DiGiCo's D5 pocket sized USB key, which can store all the desk settings for an entire show, with the added convenience of a watch. Now we're giving away all that plus an integral MP3 player. It doesn't get much better!"

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Warrington Borough Council has built a new 24-hour security monitoring control room facility to improve its continued commitment to combat crime. A command wall system incorporating JVC's high resolution D-ILA DLA-SX21 projector and rear projection CinePro screens was specified by Industry Consultant Faber Maunsell.

Jason Todhunter, associate director at Faber Maunsell designed and planned the new facility, and has undertaken all technical project supervision. "Warrington Borough Council required a cutting edge control room facility. Previously CCTV monitoring was undertaken from an outdated control room within Warrington's police headquarters. The new development incorporates Warrington Borough Council's security monitoring as well as care call and emergency planning services," commented Todhunter.

Images displayed on the JVC command wall system are fed from ex

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Italy - Although Italian EMI recording artist Vasco Rossi is over 50, he's definitely still the country's rock "enfant terrible" and his huge popularity with young fans was once again confirmed by the crowds at his recent Clear Channel-produced tour to promote his latest album "Buoni e Cattivi" (the Good and the Bad). In fact, the tour kicked off with a sold-out gig at Rome's Olimpico soccer stadium and ran to packed stadia, before finishing with a free show in Catanzaro, to a reported audience of 400,000.

Vasco's fans expect maximum visual impact from his shows and this was no exception: Grandi Schermi (Large Screens), a business unit of Euphon Communication, was responsible for the supply, installation and technical assistance for The three Lighthouse Technologies LED screens used on the impressive set designed by Giò Forma, and Rome's Limelite supplied a

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UK - Kramer Electronics has announced that the new VP-1608 RGBHV and balanced stereo audio matrix switcher is in stock and ready for delivery. The VP-1608 is a 16-input, 8-output matrix switcher with audio gain control on each input and output. Its features make it an ideal choice for the routing of RGBHV and balanced stereo audio signals, say Kramer. A high bandwidth switcher with 400MHz of bandwidth, it can also be used to switch other signal formats, such as YUV, s-Video and composite video signals, say Kramer.

The VP-1608 includes audio-breakaway switching, so that audio can be switched independently from video. It has15 preset memory locations for quick access to common configurations, and also has a 'Take' button, which allows the user to place multiple switching operations in a queue, and then trigger them from one button. It also has a "delayed switching" mode

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UK - The London School of Economics, one of the hotbeds of student radicalism in the 1960's, has recently revamped its three student entertainment spaces and QSC's AcousticDesign sound systems are prominently featured throughout the new venues.

Following a similar project at nearby Kings College, London's Clarity in Sound, Light and Vision has performed a major redesign on two of the three spaces: The Three Tuns, a 400-capacity traditional bar, and the 300-capacity Underground live music venue. Combined with a third venue, the Quad, the LSE can now provide entertainment for up to 1300 and route the signals from the live venues to patrons at the bar.

Clarity director Stuart Graham opted for a complete QSC-based system to meet the multi-purpose live and background music needs of the Three Tuns. Featuring a pair of AcousticDesign AD-S82 full-range enclosures, augmented by six AD-

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USA - SAND Network Systems will host ETC, Martin, Pathway Connectivity, and Wireless Solutions at this years LDI Connectivity Pavilion. On display is a wide variety of networking technology with emphasis on emerging standards and protocols including ACN, RDM, and W-DMX.

New hardware and software will give visitors a preview of the future of networked show and lighting control. Hands-on demonstrations will highlight the new and exciting possibilities these technologies offer specifiers, designers, and users. Important features like manufacturer interoperability and gateways to legacy equipment will be explained in detail. Staff from several manufacturers will be present to discuss the technologies and answer questions. The Connectivity Pavilion is located in Booth #3607 and get a glimpse of the future!

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - The Marquee Club is back up and running this autumn in a new venue, with Aztec, Audient's flagship live desk forming part of the new PA system, hand-picked and installed by Terminal Studios. Back again in its spiritual home in Soho, the Marquee Club is only a short walk from its famous Wardour Street location. With a capacity of 1000, the new venue at Number 1 Leicester Square needed professional help with the sound system.

Terminal Studios were chosen due to their wide experience of installing PA systems. Terminal's managing director Charlie Barrett says: "We knew that the sound system would be crucial to the success of the club. We wanted tried and tested equipment that engineers and bands would be familiar with. Turbosound Floodlight was the obvious choice of speaker as Terminal already had large stocks available. The Audient Aztec, however, was not originally on t

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UK - The PLASA award-winning InMotion 3D / CyberHoist motion control system is set for a strong UK presence following an announcement today that Vertigo Rigging, the rigging and height access specialists, has become the UK Service Point for the InMotion 3D motion control system by XLNT Advanced Technologies. The system won a PLASA Award for Innovation at the PLASA Show last month in conjunction with the CyberHoist intelligent motor by Verlinde and the DataMotion and PowerMotion system components from XLNT.

Vertigo director Rebecca Loughran said: "Designers in all environments are embracing the vast possibilities this technology can deliver. For Technical Managers the time saving advantages, reliability and unbeatable VGB-C1 safety standard, are making this the 'must have' motion control system for the professional entertainment industry."

The UK Service Point will pr

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USA - LDI 2004 will not be business as usual as far as Chauvet is concerned, the company promises. The manufacturer will cast its newest luminaires as supermodels on a fashion show runway, under the theme 'Welcome to the Future'.

"This is sort of a coming out party," said product development manager Barry Abrams, adding that hitherto-unseen technology will be on display, reflecting its largest-ever product range.

The new autumn collection includes four moving-yoke lights: the Legend 250RT Spot, Legend 250WT Wash, Legend250 Zoom and the 18-channel Legend 575 Zoom.

Also on show will be the Trackscan 250 DSR- ILS scanner. Housed in a silvery casing, it's accompanied by an entourage of models including the Trackscan 250 DBR-ILS, curvy Colortrack 250DCR-ILS, and the powerful ILS Control Center, all endowed with technology conceived to ease and widen programming options

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USA - ETC and Cast Software jointly announced changes to their worldwide distribution relationship today. From January 1, 2005, Cast Software will take over worldwide marketing and distribution of WYSIWYG, while ETC, in partnership with Cast, will continue the development and marketing of its own Emphasis control system. Cast will also supply ETC with WYSIWYG Perform Console Edition for distribution with several of its control products including the Avab, transtechnik Lichtsysteme and Emphasis product lines.

In a joint statement, the two companies said the decision to amend the distribution agreement was based on a number of factors. Since forming the original partnership with ETC four years ago, Cast and WYSIWYG have enjoyed strong growth, while ETC has expanded and grown its product portfolio. Now, "ETC and Cast have mutually agreed it is the right time for Cast to take o

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Denmark - Martin heads to LDI in Las Vegas with an array of new products including a new digital media server and a flexible wing extension for the popular Maxxyz lighting console. New Mania series lights - new flower effects, a new promotional projector and the first scanner in the Mania series - expand this range for DJs and clubs. A new powerful, portable smoke machine will also be on display, along with a number of other lighting tools and updates - and what the company calls "a few special surprises".

The new Maxedia Digital Media Composer is designed to provide a new level of digital lighting creativity. Maxedia, which includes integrated DMX control, provides full control of both lighting and video elements and promises various advantages over other digital media servers including a maximum of 20 layers simultaneously, 3D effects with unique real-time manipulati

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USA - Wybron, Inc. has announced its appointment as Lighting Innovation's exclusive North American distributor for the new Super Beam 1200.

Lighting Innovation has successfully distributed Wybron products in Austria for several years, resulting in a strong relationship between the two companies. Lighting Innovation's founder, Hermann Sorger, known worldwide as the main engineer behind the successful Pani projectors, said he is was very happy with the new direction the alliance is taking: "I am very excited about working together with Wybron. The Super Beam is a perfect product for the North American market, and Wybron is our perfect partner."

The newly-launched Super Beam 1200 has been heralded as 'the next generation super bright beam light'. The Super Beam 1200 uses a new Philips 80V 1200W lamp, which together with sophisticated double reflector optics, gives an un

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France - PLASA Award-winner Sunlite is introducing its new Color Manager software at the LDI show on Booth 1341. This new tool allows designers to work with RGB or CMY fixtures with the ease of use of a drawing software package, with familiar tools such as pen, colour picker, paint bucket and copy/paste - and also features powerful wizards including images and video loading, text scrolling and more. The tool is compatible with LED device matrices as well as conventional fixtures. Color Manager will be included with Sunlite 2004 and Easy Stand Alone software from November onwards.

The Easy Stand Alone, a winner of the PLASA 2004 Awards for Innovation, will be on show in its new IP version. The Stand Alone USB-DMX interface has been a great success since it was released and the new Stand Alone Ethernet DMX 512 interface (IP version) makes it possible to work either locally or via

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