Details
UK - VMI High Definition and Broadcast Facility is celebrating the launch of its new Soho based HD facility on November 15. Making headlines at IBC, the company recently invested in JVC Professional Europe's HD2K for clients wishing to view rushes and final edits of footage shot in HD. Featuring three of JVC's high definition (HD) Direct Drive Image Light Amplifier (D-ILA) devices and an advanced digital video processor, guests at the official launch will be able to see the DLA-HD2K first hand.

A 2000:1 contrast ratio allows for deep rich cinema-quality blacks with smooth gradations and low noise. Colour temperature is factory-set to D65 assuring accurate colour reproduction and natural colours.

Also featured at the VMI launch event will be JVC's 42" and 50" HD colour

Details
UK - The Institute of Sound and Communication Engineers (ISCE)'s Institute Day on October 22 in Watford had as its centrepiece the 2004 Warren-Barnett Memorial Lecture by immediate past president Doug Edworthy.

The lecture gave an attentive audience an insight into the unique Audio Frequency Induction Loop (AFIL) survey conducted by his company, D G Edworthy (www.dgea.co.uk), for London Underground. The survey, based on research carried out at a number of London Underground stations, was designed to assess the practical implications and costs of full compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act by providing induction loops throughout the underground network.

This year's ISCE AGM was treated to the sight of the recently discovered chain of office now proudly worn by President Michael Leaver. Ray Gatehouse joined the Institute's Council; Romers Electronics of Blackburn beca

Details
USA - American DJ has announced the launch of its Dura Truss System, which it says is an extremely durable new gig rig for DJs, bands and mobile entertainers, supporting up to 300lb of lighting fixtures.

Consisting of two 5-foot sections of triangular trussing and two crank stands, the company says the Dura Truss System is easy to set up and take down, while the steel truss tubing is small, keeping the system lightweight and transportable at just 85lb unloaded. Quick Release pins allow for fast assembly without the use of clamps, so the system can be up and running in a snap.

The system is designed to be safe and secure and all lighting fixtures can be bolted directly to the truss via the available mounting holes. The crank stands are designed not to tip over if someone accidentally bumps into the rig. Suggested retail price is $439.95.

(Mike Lethby)

featured content

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

Details
USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the launch of its IO-5 and IO-8 low impedance Indoor/Outdoor loudspeakers systems, together with IO-5T and IO-8T 70/100V versions with built-in transformers.

The IO-5 is a 2-way compact system, ideal for installations where space is at a premium, and features a 5" polypropylene long-excursion mid/bass driver with a Mylar diaphragm horn HF unit in a trapezoidal, high impact, moulded enclosure. Power handling is 60W programme and dispersion is 90 degrees horizontal by 50 degrees vertical. The IO-5T version has a built-in 20W low-loss transformer, designed for high quality audio performance and with installer adjustable tappings on the base of the enclosure. All 'T' versions also have an 8O position in addition to the 70/100V settings.

For installations with more space the IO-8 provides higher sound pressure levels and

Details
UK - Bosch Security Systems has unveiled its new Plena feedback suppressor amplifier for public address systems. The amplifier boosts sound levels without introducing annoying feedback and is, says Bosch, ideal for PA systems in auditoriums, conference halls, churches and other places of worship, congress venues and so on - especially where the loudspeaker and microphone(s) are located in the same room resulting in unwanted feedback and howling. The amplifier provides up to 12 dB of additional audio gain without introducing feedback.

Plena uses powerful floating-point DSP, together with a patented echo cancellation and de-reverberation algorithm, to actively filter out feedback from system loudspeakers to the microphone, while allowing the original signal to pass through. The process is continuous and automatic, with the filter constantly adapting to detect and remove the reverb

Details
UK - The People's Web, a revolutionary new low-cost service enabling UK companies and individuals to buy and sell products and services through personalized internet accounts, has been launched today to the music sector.

People's Web Accounts are, says The People's Web, "the first significant internet invention since the dotcom boom and allow companies of all sizes to post details of their goods or services and upload their entire inventory to the site". Both small and large companies can also drive traffic to their own websites, call centres, or bricks and mortar locations, from £25 a year. It claims The People's Web is now the music sector's lowest-cost distribution channel.

In the run up to the launch, The People's Web enjoyed a successful trial period, with retailers such as Volkswagen and Crabtree & Evelyn becoming members and selling their inventory.

The new

Details
UK - Sennheiser UK picked up the Live Microphone Award in the MIA's contemporary awards section for its evolution ew100 G2 Series wireless microphones, in a ceremony on October 6 at Sound in Leicester Square, London.

Sennheiser UK's Director of Marketing, John Steven, commented: "evolution G2 was a major step forward for Sennheiser and the products have received critical acclaim from the many musicians and engineers already using the product. This prestigious industry award is gratefully accepted as it further confirms the product's status as a market leader".

(Mike Lethby)

Details
UK - Adlib Audio is supplying the Scissor Sisters with audio production for the current UK leg of their ongoing world tour. Mixing FOH is ADLIB's Dave Kay, and on monitors is another regular Adlibber, Ben Booker.

ADLIB has upgraded its BSS 366 processors to the new NTM filtering for the tour, and is using the new Sennheiser G2 550 series mics, G2 300 series IEMs and a recently purchased Yamaha PM5D console - one of two - that the Liverpool based company has on the road this autumn and which is also used to mix the support act.

The Scissor Sisters' high-energy performance is a collage of numerous musical styles, tastes and ideas, oozing with flamboyance, high kitsch fashion antics and an enormous sense of fun. The band has stormed the music industry spectacularly throughout 2004, gaining both popular and critical acclaim and much respect with their first album.

Kay and Booker

Details
France - Pope John Paul II makes an annual pilgrimage to the city of Lourdes in France where, in 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to the maid Bernadette Soubirou. His visit always draws a huge crowd; this year, more than 300,000 people attended the ceremonies which took place over the course of a week, culminating in a keynote speech by His Holiness, choral and orchestral concerts, and the long-awaited mass.

Even On, the French PA company chosen to provide the sound reinforcement system, supplied a large number of Nexo GEO S tangent array speakers, siting them along the Pope's route as well as on the central stage. A total of 8 PA towers were set up, carrying a total of 74 GEO S805 and 8 GEO S830 speakers, powered by sixteen Camco Vortex 6 power amplifiers, each delivering 2 x 2,100 watts per channel. The system was managed by Nexo NX241 controllers and mixed on a Soundcraft MH4 4

Details
USA - Mackie is using this year's AES Convention in San Francisco to introduce five new products for both recording and live sound applications.

The list includes the Mackie Onyx 400F 10-channel, 192kHz-capable FireWire audio interface featuring Mackie's new flagship Onyx microphone preamps and on-board DSP matrix mixing. The HM54 Headphone Amplifier and HMX56 Tabletop Matrix Mixer/Amplifier allow personalised headphone mixing, allowing the engineer to focus on other responsibilities. The Mackie Control C4 is a sophisticated plug-in and virtual instrument controller that provides four banks of eight V-Pots each, and four full-size displays that provide instant access to as many as 32 software parameters-virtually eliminating the need to constantly "bank switch" a standard control surface display in order to access parameter-rich software modules. It also acts as a &quo

Details
USA - EAW is using this year's AES Convention to show its new Element Series of all-weather loudspeakers, as well as the JFXi Series that incorporate a new advanced magnet structure geometry, the Orbital Magnet Array. Both will be on display at the AES Convention on booth #230.

The Element Series is designed to high audio performance with the most robust environmental protection, to IEC 60529 and MilSpec 810 ratings. A key factor, according to EAW, is a new acoustically inert yet waterproof enclosure material: high-impact polypropylene with 40-percent calcium carbonate. Shaped into enclosures with few or no parallel surfaces, this new material is designed to make the Element Series sonically indistinguishable from EAW's world-famous laminated Baltic birch enclosures. The LM60 includes a soft-dome tweeter on a Waveguide Plate(tm) and a 6.5-inch woofer, while the LM80 pairs a Wave

Details
USA - Super Vision International Inc, the Florida-based manufacturer of fibre optic and LED lighting, has announced that it has acquired the LED technology prior art portfolio of inventor Jerry Laidman of Henderson, Nevada. The Laidman technology includes Laidman's pioneering design and production processes in 1978 related to his Saturn I - IV LED lighting systems capable of generating multiple variable coloured lighting effects using pulse width modulation to control intensity. These systems were the first known to be designed, manufactured and sold commercially incorporating multiple LEDs to generate colour-changing light in lighting fixtures worldwide.

Laidman was founder and president of The Sound Chamber, one of the premier nightclub and discotech lighting designers and manufacturers in the 1970s and 80s. The Sound Chamber sold and rented the Saturn LED lighting fixtures t

Details
UK - The management team of PLASA Show organizer Clarion Events, led by managing director Simon Kimble, has announced the completion of a £45m management buy out from parent company Earls Court & Olympia Group, backed by HG Capital. The deal marks the culmination of a five-year turnaround of the former P&O Events by Earls Court & Olympia Group, which has seen the events company evolve into one of the UK's top three exhibition organizing companies, with a portfolio that has grown from 18 to 33 events.

Managing director Simon Kimble set out a four-stage strategy for Clarion's development in the years ahead. The aims are to "continue to invest in and grow the current show portfolio; consider potential strategic acquisitions in the UK; actively seek venue partners in Europe with associated acquisitions of organizing companies, and extend involvement in the field of 'eventerta

Details
USA - In the 100th anniversary of the immortal James M. Barrie tale, Peter Pan, Tony Award nominee and two-time Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby is taking this timeless musical masterpiece on a national "farewell performance" tour, which opened on September 24, 2004 at The La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in La Mirada, California. Crown I-Tech Series amplifiers were chosen by Sound Advice LLC, who was awarded the sound system contract for the tour. Julie Ferrin of Sound Advice has worked with McCoy Rigby Entertainment for more than 10 years and served as sound engineer for a segment of the tremendously successful 1997 tour of Peter Pan that earned an extended run on Broadway and wrapped up with an Emmy Award-winning A&E Television Special.

The I-Tech amplifiers power a 16-element JBL Professional Vertec VT 4888 system, with eight I-T4000s on the highs and mi

Details
Spain - One of the summer's most awaited events in the Murcia region is the pyrotechnical and musical show held on the bay in Aguilas, Murcia. Bringing together, fire, light and music, it is one of Europe's largest events of this kind and 40,000 people occupied over 3km of beachfront to witness the spectacular event. Professional sound company Arnae Sonido S.L provided the sound reinforcement, with more than 100kW of D.A.S. equipment supplied by Telemag de Lorca S.L.

Arnae Sonido installed a centre channel system comprising of powered Compact 2 Systems. A total of 24 Compact 2 mid/high units and 24 Compact 18 subwoofer units were ground stacked in a large semi-circle on the beach. The left and right channels were flown from cranes at a height of 14m from the ground. A total of 24 ST-112 mid-high units and 24 ST-218 horn-loaded subwoofers were used to cover the extreme right and

Details
UK / Belgium - ASC, one of Belgium's leading pro audio distributors, has taken on the distribution of MC2 amplifiers, after looking for a top-end amplifier brand to complement its existing portfolio. "We chose MC2 because it has an excellent reputation. We know designer Terry Clarke's reputation very well, and after putting them to the test and meeting with Ian McCarthy, who is very nice to work with, we decided that this was the route we wanted to take," said the company's Patrick Moiny. He added: "We have already made two important sales: one with the classic MC Series to Stage Team, a rental company that has a big Turbosound Flash/Floodlight system; and a second sale to a very important theatre in Brussels, L'Orangerie du Centre Culturel de la Communaute Francaise de Belgique: Le Botanique, with the new E45s. We're particularly pleased with the new E Series' qual

Details
Italy - The 2004 edition of Festivalbar once again saw the participation of international artistes and the highly spectacular staging of a travelling show that had dates in Milan, Catania and Lignano Sabbiadoro, as well as the traditional finale hosted by the Arena of Verona on 18 September. Zucchero was the overall winner - the album 'Zu & Company', characterized by duets with various artistes, was the most sold CD this summer. Other artistes alternated on stage at the Arena of Verona, including R.E.M., Bryan Adams, Francesco Renga, Piero Pelù, Mango, Mark Knopfler and Eamon.

Renato Neri's Xenon provided the stage set and the light and sound systems for the 19th year running. This year, Neri used Clay Paky projectors, including Stage Zoom 1200, Stage Color 1200, Stage Scan, Super Scan Zoom and CP Color MH fixtures. The set featured numerous LED screens, which featured abstract

Details
UK - Dave Morrisey, lighting designer and technician at Manchester's three highly active Academy venues, came up with a better solution than air conditioning at the 500 capacity Manchester Academy 3 (formerly known as the "Hop & Grape") when the venue decided to do something about its "sweat box" reputation. They initially considered upgrading the air conditioning, and faced a bill of about £50,000 - but Morrissey thought of another way.

Onstage, a large proportion of the heat was generated by the 24 Par 64 cans lighting the small area. This gave Morrissey a flash of lateral inspiration. He'd originally seen James Thomas's PixelPARs in action at PLASA 2002 - when they were launched. Morrissey approached JTE, and worked out a deal for replacing the conventional Pars with PixelPAR 90s. Including the wiring, it cost a little over half of what the air-con costs

Details
USA / Canada - In news announced at the AES exhibition in San Francisco, Erikson Audio, the exclusive Canadian distributor of AuviTran and NetCIRA network audio products, has supplied 20 NetCIRA MS-8 AES/EBU coders/encoders and 16 AuviTran AVY-ES16 Yamaha compatible EtherSound cards to Solotech of Montreal.

Solotech, a major rental and tour-sound company, has prepared two touring rigs using the supplied equipment. Each rig consists of two Yamaha PM5D mixing consoles with four AVY-16ES cards, giving 64 channels of digital I/O over Cat 5 100TX Ethernet cabling/Network, plus eight NetCIRA MS-8 AES/EBU inputs, and two NetCIRA MS-8 AES/EBU outputs. In addition, eight Yamaha AD8HR Mic/Line pre-amp units are used for collecting the analogue sources and feeding them into the EtherSound network via the MS-8 AES/EBU encoders. All 64 channels of encoded audio then travel, via just 1 Cat

Details
USA - Entertainment lighting manufacturer High End Systems debuted the DL2 - the third generation in its digital lighting line - at the ETS-LDI 2004 Trade Show in Las Vegas last week (22-24 October). According to HES, the DL2 unites the worlds of automated lighting and digital video to create 'virtual scenery' but with additional advanced features. DL2 is a "smart" automated lighting system featuring an integrated digital media server, say the company. In one single package is housed a light engine, media server and content - and it hangs and acts like an automated light.

DL2 also reduces space and installation time, with no need for RGB cabling, and servers are no longer necessary at the front-of-house position. DL2 resembles an intelligent moving luminaire and controls just as easily, with plug-and-play operation using standard DMX cabling and protocols.

Its many

Details
USA - City Theatrical and Color Kinetics Inc have jointly announced the release of a new touring-style power/data supply, PDS-750 TR, for Color Kinetics' ColorBlast, ColorBurst, and iColor Cove intelligent solid-state lighting fixtures. The compact, rugged device allows easy connection and disconnection of up to 12 ColorBlast 12 fixtures, 24 ColorBlast 6 fixtures, 24 ColorBurst 6 fixtures, 48 ColorBurst 4 fixtures, and 96 iColor Cove fixtures by means of industry-standard 4 pin XLR connectors.

CTI's president Gary Fails said: "We just listened to our customers who asked us to build this device. Many lighting shops had devised homemade ways to get partially to where we have gotten, but our license agreement with Color Kinetics gives us the ability to use their patented technology in new and innovative ways."

"We're pleased to expand our relationship with City

Page 1710 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .