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UK - Simon Curtis of D&M Pro Europe has left the company to join Sennheiser UK as director of sales. Curtis started in the industry selling audio/video components and accessories for Bandridge before joining Hayden Labs in 1990 to successfully grow sales and distribution of Denon Hi-Fi. For a short period this also included Sennheiser, prior to the change of distribution to Sennheiser UK.

Paul Whiting, MD of Sennheiser commented: "Simon's experience of integrating different markets and operations is a strength we want to bring to our diverse operation. We are looking forward to working with him and welcome the additional experience he brings to Sennheiser UK."

In 1995, Curtis set up the Denon Pro Leisure Division as sales and marketing manager, in response to Denon's

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UK - Bandit Lites is supplying equipment and a crew of five for R.E.M.'s European and UK tour, which kicked off in Lisbon last weekend, continuing the company's long working relationship with the band. Lighting designer Susanne Sasic, one of the most innovative and original contemporary LDs, started working with R.E.M. four years ago. As with all Sasic's shows, the core of the design features several one-off 'specials', created to give the show a series of unique visual elements.

Her imaginative starting point for this tour was 82 panels of 6ft x 2 ft polycarbonate 'Polygal' greenhouse/conservatory glazing material, manufactured by Pentaglass. This is double-walled and has a honeycomb cell structure which both reflects and refracts the light. The panels are lit from front, rear and the floor, creating an upstage wall of textured lighting. The panels are extremely lightweight an

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UK - New Year's Eve 2004 saw the British Airways London Eye become the focal point for a spectacular light and fireworks display for 150,000 Londoners on Westminster Bridge and the Embankment - plus a nationwide television audience.

Although tempered by news of the Asian Tsunami - a two-minute silence was held before the display and certain elements of the projection and light show were removed - the overall reaction from audience and press was that London had got this New Year's Eve event absolutely right. Jack Morton Worldwide (JMW) designed and produced the entertainment and managed the logistics for the event. JMW project director Jeremy Garbett and his team worked for months in advance to co-ordinate and accommodate the various council and public safety concerns.

Fireworks were obviously the major element of the show and French designer Christophe Berthonneau and his team

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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

Details
UK - The presence of Sting at any opening gala is indicative of a significant event, if not a worthy cause. This gala was different; while Sting wasn't overshadowed, he was at pains to keep his presence muted for there was a bigger star on offer. The accolades heaped upon Newcastle College's School of Music and Performing Arts - the Performance Academy - are many: Britain's education inspectors, Ofsted, have repeatedly awarded it Grade 1 status. That alone is perhaps good enough reason for £21m to be spent on a new purpose-built home for the Academy in the college grounds on Rye Hill.

While the new building is not unattractive, you have to conclude that most of the cash has been spent on the interior. What resonates most strongly as you enter the atrium foyer is how little like an education establishment it feels, and how much it reflects the style of a typical modern performan

Details
UK - Deep Purple recently completed the UK leg of their world tour with support from guitar legend Peter Frampton and UK metal band, Thunder. ML Executives supplied audio equipment for the UK tour, while PRG supplied the lighting.

Engineering for Deep Purple was Doug Hall, long-time FOH engineer for Iron Maiden: "I first used this system on Iron Maiden's Brave New World tour about four years ago. I'd tried out different options, but the KF760 gave me everything I needed in terms of pressure, headroom and sonic quality. Being horn-loaded, it's more sensitive than competitive systems, and the slightly narrower dispersion means you can fly the boxes closer to each other without interference. Above all, I love the potency and clarity of the sound from such a small box. It has all the throw you need and I've never run out of headroom or felt I was overdriving the system. With De

Details
Japan - Cats, one of the most successful musicals to be staged in Japan, has returned with the Shiki theatre company to Tokyo after an eight-year absence. Shiki's Masakazu Kanamori explains: "This is an open-ended production; we are looking for it to run for approximately three years. Current ticket sales run up to November 2005."

The 1,900 capacity theatre, known as the Cats Theatre, was purpose-built, with construction beginning in July 2004. Interestingly, the central stage area is circular and not only the stage, but the first four rows of seating (360 seats) rotate as the performance commences.

Sound design for the production, managed by Masakazu Kanamori, took a year to complete and incorporates a large L-Acoustics sound reinforcement system. Kanamori explained: "We had successfully used the L-Acoustics ARCS speakers on the Cats tour of Japan and really l

Details
The Netherlands - Avesco company JVR supplied one of the largest LED screens ever fielded for three 28,000 capacity Christmas shows at the Arnhem Gelredome by Dutch superstar Frans Bauer.

The video screen formed the 'set': similar in proportions to the system used on U2's legendary Popmart tour, this consisted of 500sq.m of Barco's D7 outdoor product assembled into arguably the largest and highest resolution display ever built in Europe and even worldwide, discounting fixed installs, say JVR.

Sales director Jeroen Jongenelen commented. "The Barco D7 is the only system that offered the resolution required and was available in sufficient quantities to enable us to pull of a project of this scale."

Even so, the screen modules were sourced from numerous different suppliers, and the two weeks leading up to the show saw a steady stream of sea and air shipments from aroun

Details
UK - Tower Productions' Oxford office received a late call to provide temporary power, heating and lighting to a series of marquees (from Field & Lawn) built within the Millennium Dome to house London's homeless over Christmas. With a site meeting on Wednesday in the week before Christmas, the job confirmed on the Thursday and the load-in starting on the Friday, this was something of a challenge at a very busy time of year, say the company.

As no fuel was allowed within the Dome, heating was provided by 36 18kW electric heaters (each requiring a 32A three-phase supply) from Tower's own stock and supplemented by others hired from Aggreko. Generation was by two 500kVA sets with 3900-gallon tanks, which powered four 400A three-phase distros from which approximately 3500m of mains cable of varying sizes supplied heating, lighting, site power and show power. Approximately 140 house

Details
UK - A curious amalgam, MPH '04 is The Motor Show with Top Gear attitude; but then with presenters Tiff Needell, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond it would be (sharp intake of breath, adopt voice of God) 'like a B52 parking in your driveway'.

This was just the second year of the show at Earls Court, and already it's growing; PMI and Simon Aldridge appear to have brought a new and burgeoning marriage of live and static presentation into the exhibition world, a marriage that will surely have others looking frantically for an eligible partner.

Steve Sinclair has been part of the presentation team for the past two events and describes the differences between this and conventional car expo: "Some content elements appear familiar, there's a gallery of 90 or so vehicles, sponsored by HR Owens, but these aren't ordinary cars; we're talking testosterone motoring Ferraris and Mas

Details
Japan - Cats, one of the most successful musicals to be staged in Japan, has returned with the Shiki theatre company to Tokyo after an eight-year absence. Shiki's Masakazu Kanamori explains: "This is an open-ended production; we are looking for it to run for approximately three years. Current ticket sales run up to November 2005."

The 1,900 capacity theatre, known as the Cats Theatre, was purpose-built, with construction beginning in July 2004. Interestingly, the central stage area is circular and not only the stage, but the first four rows of seating (360 seats) rotate as the performance commences.

Sound design for the production, managed by Masakazu Kanamori, took a year to complete and incorporates a large L-Acoustics sound reinforcement system. Kanamori explained: "We had successfully used theL-Acoustics ARCS speakers on the Cats tour of Japan and really lik

Details
UK - Deep Purple recently completed the UK leg of their world tour with support from guitar legend Peter Frampton and UK metal band, Thunder. ML Executives supplied audio equipment for the UK tour, while PRG supplied the lighting.

Engineering for Deep Purple was Doug Hall, long-time FOH engineer for Iron Maiden: "I first used this system on Iron Maiden's Brave New World tour about four years ago. I'd tried out different options, but the KF760 gave me everything I needed in terms of pressure, headroom and sonic quality. Being horn-loaded, it's more sensitive than competitive systems, and the slightly narrower dispersion means you can fly the boxes closer to each other without interference. Above all, I love the potency and clarity of the sound from such a small box. It has all the throw you need and I've never run out of headroom or felt I was overdriving the system. With De

Details
UK - Formula Sound launched its new FF-6000 mixer, which was designed in collaboration with leading UK loudspeaker manufacturer Funktion One, and the DJs who will be using it.

The six-channel FF-6000 includes features specifically requested by the DJs. These include: the option to switch between linear and rotary faders using an easily changeable extra fader panel, an easy-to-use cross-fader mounted beneath the channel strips for more precise control, larger control knobs on the most frequently used functions, and improved access to external effects so that users can use the very latest new effects units.

"The DJs and end users who helped us have had a major influence on the design of the FF-6000," says Formula Sound's Tony Cockell. "With the help of Funktion One we've been able to channel their thoughts and ideas and use them to produce the mixer which the DJs

Details
USA - Many readers in the UK will have seen a traditional Christmas show this year: a local church or school's Nativity perhaps, or a traditional pantomime: if you did, compare that production with this: a Christmas tale, told Texas-style . . .

Produced by Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, The Dallas Christmas Festival redefines Christmas Spectacular: with 13 performances over two weeks in December, more than 70,000 people attend this three-hour pageant each year. The 7,000-seat worship centre is transformed into a theatre, complete with lavish proscenium; a 15,000sq.ft, 150ft wide stage, multiple flying, travelling and automated drops and over 1,000 lighting fixtures. The show includes a live 70-piece orchestra, a cast of 500 and a 100-strong crew, plus seven angels (probably real ones) that fly 70ft over the crowd, pyro, horse-drawn sleighs, chariots, live animals, S

Details
UK - New Year's Eve 2004 saw the British Airways London Eye become the focal point for a spectacular light and fireworks display for 150,000 Londoners on Westminster Bridge and the Embankment - plus a nationwide television audience.

Although tempered by news of the Asian Tsunami - a two-minute silence was held before the display and certain elements of the projection and light show were removed - the overall reaction from audience and press was that London had got this New Year's Eve event absolutely right. Jack Morton Worldwide (JMW) designed and produced the entertainment and managed the logistics for the event. JMW project director Jeremy Garbett and his team worked for months in advance to co-ordinate and accommodate the various council and public safety concerns.

Fireworks were obviously the major element of the show and French designer Christophe Berthonneau and his team from

Details
UK - Midway through fitting out a series of five nationwide Chicago Rock Cafés for Luminar Leisure in readiness for the busy Christmas season, it was the call from London that Lynx Lighting project manager Joules Newell was most interested in.

For 'London' is the name of the new super-flexible BSS Soundweb device, with improved DSP and CobraNet compatibility; having seen it previewed at PLASA back in September, Newell couldn't wait to get hold of the first delivery off the production line.

As soon as he had received confirmation that the BLU-80 was on its way, it immediately formed a key part of the new multimedia solution he had devised for Chicago Rock Café in Fareham. The advantages became immediately apparent. "In fact with so many Chicago Rocks to fit out before Christmas I wish I'd had it before," he lamented. "Not only does it sound great but it brings

Details
UK - "The festival has really changed focus in the last three years with the arrival of the new artistic director Susanna Eastburn," said Tim Garbutt of TG Events. "Different composers - in essence, the festival now concentrates on music composers; before, it was more on musical theatre."

Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (HCMF) is "the ninth largest festival of its type in the world," says Garbutt, "and it attracts people from all over the world." As you might imagine, this is neither the most popular nor accessible form of music, but it does attract musicians and composers of the highest calibre.

From a presentation point of view, this is challenging stuff, and while lighting demands tend to the minimal, audio is a complex matter, to say the least. TG Events looks after all aspects of production for the festival, contracting loc

Details
UK - A curious amalgam, MPH '04 is The Motor Show with Top Gear attitude; but then with presenters Tiff Needell, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond it would be (sharp intake of breath, adopt voice of God) 'like a B52 parking in your driveway'.

This was just the second year of the show at Earls Court, and already it's growing; PMI and Simon Aldridge appear to have brought a new and burgeoning marriage of live and static presentation into the exhibition world, a marriage that will surely have others looking frantically for an eligible partner.

Steve Sinclair has been part of the presentation team for the past two events and describes the differences between this and conventional car expo: "Some content elements appear familiar, there's a gallery of 90 or so vehicles, sponsored by HR Owens, but these aren't ordinary cars; we're talking testosterone motoring Ferraris and Mas

Details
UK - "The festival has really changed focus in the last three years with the arrival of the new artistic director Susanna Eastburn," said Tim Garbutt of TG Events. "Different composers - in essence, the festival now concentrates on music composers; before, it was more on musical theatre."Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (HCMF) is "the ninth largest festival of its type in the world," says Garbutt, "and it attracts people from all over the world." As you might imagine, this is neither the most popular nor accessible form of music, but it does attract musicians and composers of the highest calibre.

From a presentation point of view, this is challenging stuff, and while lighting demands tend to the minimal, audio is a complex matter, to say the least. TG Events looks after all aspects of production for the festival, contracting local

Details
UK - The Brighton Centre is not the ideal venue to see a solo artist's performance! Despite this and the fact that Gabs' voice was showing obvious signs of strain towards the end of the gig (it was the final date on a long tour) she was enthusiastically received and her performance was confident and polished.

However, Gabrielle's vocal range is very dynamic, as FOH engineer Chris 'Privet' Hedge explained while he talked me through the system design for the PA: "New for me are the two units of KT Helix - the 9340 digital EQ and 9344 digital slave EQ. The 9340 is on Gabs' vocal - her style sometimes means her voice can be soft and difficult to get out: once I knew what I was dealing with I put a few things in line. This includes a DBX162s compressor putting a really soft squeeze on her voice, and a feedback buster - the Sabine FBX 1200. I then use the Helix to tidy up beyond

Details
UK - The Brighton Centre is not the ideal venue to see a solo artist's performance! Despite this and the fact that Gabs' voice was showing obvious signs of strain towards the end of the gig (it was the final date on a long tour) she was enthusiastically received and her performance was confident and polished.

However, Gabrielle's vocal range is very dynamic, as FOH engineer Chris 'Privet' Hedge explained while he talked me through the system design for the PA: "New for me are the two units of KT Helix - the 9340 digital EQ and 9344 digital slave EQ. The 9340 is on Gabs' vocal - her style sometimes means her voice can be soft and difficult to get out: once I knew what I was dealing with I put a few things in line. This includes a DBX162s compressor putting a really soft squeeze on her voice, and a feedback buster - the Sabine FBX 1200. I then use the Helix to tidy up beyond

Details
Belgium - Barco has announced the acquisition of System Technologies, based in Torhout, Belgium. Started by Frederic Opsomer in 1995, System Technologies specializes in innovative designs for special projects in the rental and staging markets. The company counts designs for special projects such as the Olympics 2004 opening and closing ceremonies as well as the design of specialized elements in the upcoming worldwide U2 tour, amongst its most recent projects. The company has annual sales of approximately 5m euros and the total cost for the transaction is less than half of sales, say Barco.

The transaction will see one of Barco's fastest growing divisions, Barco Media & Entertainment, incorporate System Technologies' expertise into its own total solution offering toward the important rental and staging and fixed installation markets. The transaction underpins Barco's belief that

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