UK - Soundcraft has reintroduced the Urei name on a range of DJ mixers designed for both the traditional House market and the Turntablist performance sector. Originally created in the 1970's with the 1620, the UREI range was a rotary-based mixer for the House sector, making its reputation initially on the New York scene, at the heart of the control centre that was Larry Levan's DJ booth at The Paradise Garage.

First to be re-launched is an updated version, the limited edition Urei 1620LE. Tempting though it was to totally re-engineer it, Soundcraft has kept the original circuits and components while engineering it for enhanced reliability. Slight modifications to the circuit layout have been made to minimize noise. With all the sonic qualities retained, users will experience the a

Denmark - Harlequin has supplied flooring to the new Opera House in Copenhagen, equipping a large ballet studio of 362sq.m, a smaller studio of 190sq.m and a shared opera/ballet studio of 166sq.m. All are furnished with Harlequin Studio flooring in grey. The first ballet performance on the new stage scheduled for April 2005 will be a Neumeier production of The Little Mermaid. Danish shipping magnate Mærsk McKinney Møller personally handed over the new Opera House, his gift to the Danish state, on October 1, 2004.

The Opera House, used by Det Kongelige Teater (the Royal Theatre), will host large-scale opera and ballet productions. The main auditorium seats approximately 1,500 people and also benefits from a 200-seat studio theatre and a full-sized orchestral rehearsal room. The Danish Royal Orchestra's rehearsal room is located five floors below the auditorium, 14m belo

USA - After nearly a decade of dedication, DJ Josh One has successfully broken into the big-time DJ scene with a distinctive style called 'Soul Hop'. His club hit 'Contemplation' has brought his trademark sound to international audiences, and quickly hitting number one on the German club charts. Josh One has been working hard in his studio on an upcoming album, using a pair of new Tapco S*5 active studio monitors. "These speakers are perfect for a compact set-up like mine," he says. "I recently moved from my old studio, so all I have right now is my Mac G5 laptop and the S*5s. They completely fill up my space with sound. They are such a solid monitor and so easy to move around, that I've been using them non-stop since I got my hands on them five months ago."

Currently in production on his next album due out late 2005, Josh One has been working exclusively wi

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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 - FX Cimple Solutions, the service and repair arm of the FX Group, has been appointed the official warranty and non-warranty service centre for Akai by the Japanese manufacturer's new UK distributor, Numark Alesis Europe. Under the terms of the new agreement, FX Cimple Solutions will also operate as the Akai spare parts and logistics warehouse.

"Cimple Solutions is delighted to confirm this new appointment," says director Cliff Whitehead. "We can now get on with the task of servicing the equipment which has been building up while Akai's new UK sales and distribution company was confirmed."

Although the appointment of FX Cimple Solutions by Numark Alesis Europe is new, the company has been servicing Akai equipment for over a decade. Since Akai stopped being represented by Arbiter a few months ago, all warranty work had been suspended, and Whitehead is ple

UK - RW Salt Communications has announced the passing away of John Smither, its regional sales manager for the Midlands and South of England. Smither, who had been with the company for five years, had been ill since May 2004 and passed away peacefully on 11 January.

A greatly respected figure in the industry, as well as being a key member of the RWS team since 1999 John Smither had previously represented Eagle, TOA and Millbank throughout the UK and during this time built up a close relationship with all of his clients based on his technical experience, his vast product and industry knowledge and his honesty and integrity. He will be greatly missed by his family, his friends and his colleagues past and present, say the company.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - Scotty Moore - guitar player and manager for Elvis Presley performed with some of the World's most prestigious musicians at the Abbey Road studios, including Bill Wyman, Dave Gilmour and Eric Clapton. Utopium Lighting lit the televised show using 14 x X-Spot Extremes, 12 x Studio PC Beam, 6 x Lycian Follow Spots, 84 x Par 64, 140m of truss and 28 x hoists.

At the Deutsche Bank Christmas Event on the South Bank with Bjorn Again performing was lit by Lestyn Thomas. Utopium utilized 24 of its brand new Chroma Spheres, which are part of the company's continued investment in LED lighting.

Tommy Hillfiger launch its new clothing range at the Bentley Garage in Berkley Square. Lit by Chris Bushell and Utopium for Outer Sanctum, part of the brief was not to mark the £145k cars in the two hours the technicians had to get in and fit up!

Other TV work included a Christmas special

USA - Theatrical Lighting Systems one of the largest entertainment lighting and service providers in the United States, announced a new, exclusive financing arrangement with Austin, Texas-based FX Financial. The arrangement will provide monthly payment financing for a wide variety of TLS customers, from theatres and arenas to churches and production companies. Both companies will jointly market the new program.

The leading provider of equipment financing for the entertainment and house-of-worship industries, FX Financial recently became a part of the Commercial and Industrial division of USXL, an independent leasing company based in Parsippany, New Jersey. With world-class financial backing, USXL originates leasing transactions through its select network of dealers and vendors in all 50 states.

"Through our new relationship with FX Financial and USXL, we can now leverage

UK - LSI Sales & Distribution has announced the formation of a UK national distributor network for its ADB range of controls, dimming and luminaires. "This is a major step forward for both LSI and ADB in the UK," says LSI's UK sales manager Andy Trevett. "We now have a consolidated network of distributors throughout the UK, from Scotland to the West Country, all of whom are industry professionals and who will operate as a team to promote and support our products. It will give fresh impetus to our current sales strategy as well as providing local technical support for our customers. This is just the beginning," added Trevett, "To date our distributor network comprises nine companies with further agreements to be concluded over the coming months, including companies based in Ireland."

Those Industry professionals which are part of the LSI-ADB Distrib

The Netherlands - Sidekick is a universal executor board for lighting control from ELC Lighting, featuring 10 executor faders and 30 executor switches, all freely assignable to a requested function, show or scene. Users can also capture and store scenes directly from the DMX input. Sidekick links to any PC-based DMX software or any console thanks to its numerous ports, including DMX-in, DMX-out, USB, PS-2, MIDI and RS-232.

Sidekick is an ideal faderboard for PC-based light controllers like Sunlite, DaslighT, DMXCreator, grandMA on PC, Cybercontrol, VisualDMX, Hog PC - and any lighting desk such as a Leprecon LX or the grandma, say ELC.

ELC Lighting, based in Gemert in the Netherlands and headed up by Joost van Eenbergen, has been manufacturing DMX tools for six years, and has enjoyed worldwide success with products such as the well-known dmxLAN system.

(Lee Baldock)

UK / USA - Software provider Stardraw.com announced its most significant US expansion to date, with the establishment of a West Coast office in partnership with US distribution specialists, North American Pro Audio (NAPA). The move follows an extraordinary year for Stardraw, which has necessitated the provision of additional resources to serve and develop the US market. The partnership with NAPA, operating as Stardraw.com USA, will look after all Stardraw's customers within the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, and manage resellers and reps in the territory with effect from 1 January 2005.

In addition to handling all sales and front-line technical support, Stardraw.com USA will offer a comprehensive schedule of user training seminars across the US for 2005. Furthermore, support through Stardraw's toll-free number has now been expanded to operate between the hours of 9am Eastern to 6pm

Italy - Allen & Heath's iDR DSP system has been installed in a new top fashion retail outlet opened by Spinazzè, in Noventa di Piave in the north-east of Italy. The owners requested a modern, cutting-edge system that would also be easy to manage by store staff. Salgareda-based Elettrostudio, was entrusted with the management of the audio installation, selecting Allen & Heath's iDR system and accompanying PL Series of remote controllers through the manufacturer's Italian distributor, Grisby Music srl.

There are six zones in the venue where the audio must be distributed - men's, women's, and children's departments, the admin offices, the dressing rooms, and the concourse outside the shop. Elettrostudio programmed the iDR system using the iDR System Manager and PL Designer software.

During opening hours, a music source is selected from CD, radio, or MP3 (via a PC). The iDR is pr

Germany - Camco, the manufacturer of amplifiers for sound reinforcement and installed sound, is to add EtherSound connectivity to its entire product range. The optional EtherSound modules will be showcased as early as April 2005 at the ProLight+Sound trade show in Frankfurt. This short time to market is possible thanks to a close collaboration with AuviTran, an Authorized EtherSound Implementor, who will provide hardware modules and development services to Camco. EtherSound is an industry standard technology for audio networking developed, patented, and licensed by Digigram, which enables real-time audio networks using standard Ethernet cabling and components.

Reiner Sassmann, Camco managing director, is enthusiastic about using EtherSound technology: "Without a doubt, EtherSound is technologically the leading standard for audio over Ethernet in the pro audio industry. It

UK - Scene Change, digital media specialist and distributor of the Hippotizer range welcomes Bob Kronman to its staff. A familiar name in the worlds of both large-format projection and video projection, Kronman has just completed work on the London transfer of the musical Mary Poppins, working with PIGI large format projectors and Scene Change's Hippotizer digital media server and BeaMover moving video projector products, as well as with the digital content created for the production by Scene Change. Kronman has also worked on a wide range of other productions, including We Will Rock You, and for suppliers across the AV and projection fields, most notably E/T/C UK and Production Arts.

Kronman will be working with Scene Change's Nigel Sadler, providing sales, training and technical support for the company's entire production range, and on projects where Scene Change

UK - On 31 March 2004, the identification colours of electrical cables changed in order to harmonize with Europe and other countries. The Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA), in association with Lighting&Sound International magazine, has now produced a guidance document and aide memoir card (included with the January issue of the magazine) on how to work safely during the two year transition from the old wiring colours to the new.

The document has been produced with a view to being established as a Best Practice Guide for the industry and has been created by a team of industry representatives. Please click here to view the document.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

The Netherlands - The second edition of Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), which takes place at the The RAI in Amsterdam from 26-28 January, will offer a full programme of educational seminars and workgroups, hosted by exhibiting companies. The manufacturers' forums are complementary to visitors and exhibitors and designed to illustrate advanced digital systems' solutions across expanding vertical market sectors such as Education, LeisureBuild and Retail, say the organizers.

Cleverdis is sponsoring 12 dedicated forums designed to highlight systems integration across a variety of applications. Staged in the VIP room on Thursday 27 January and Friday 28 January, the sessions focus on digital solutions for the restaurant trade and education sectors, and will be presented by Raphael Pinot, head of market publication for Cleverdis. Another 10 sessions will illustrate the vertical marke

USA - Loud Technologies Inc, the developer and marketer of the Mackie, EAW, EAW Commercial and Tapco pro audio brands, has announced a cross-licensing agreement with Egosys Inc (ESI). Under the terms of the agreement, ESI will license Mackie Tracktion digital audio workstation software, as well as Mackie-branded plug-in products from Loud.

As part of this agreement, ESI will immediately begin bundling Mackie-branded software products with their PCI and FireWire audio and MIDI devices. This bundle will include Mackie Tracktion, the easy-to-use digital recording and MIDI production software; as well as Final Mix, the stereo mastering plug-in originally developed for the award-winning Digital 8·Bus console.

"Combining ESI's value-oriented audio hardware with Tracktion's ease-of-use and functionality creates great packages for users wanting to get the most from their digit

UK - Brummie legend Jasper Carrott gave Birmingham his very own Christmas present packed full of entertainment when he staged his 'Christmas Cracker' at the NEC Birmingham on 19 December. The line-up was a closely guarded secret and none of the capacity 12,500 crowd who packed in to the NEC Arena knew who would be performing until the artists came on stage. Among some of the Country's top stars who appeared for charity were X Factor stars G4, comedian Bill Bailey, King of the Jungle - Joe Pasquale, Liz McLarnon from Atomic Kitten and music legends Robert Plant, Lulu and Robin Gibb from the Bee Gees. Proceeds for the event go to a number of local children's charities.

PSP provided six live cameras, four Barco 12,000 Lumen projectors and two large screens, which enabled the capacity audience to get closer to the performance. PSP also provided backstage monitoring equipment and li

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) has announced the following technical theatre training courses, scheduled for spring 2005 and to be held at the Plaza Theatre, Stockport.

On Friday 18 February: Knots & Splicing - The course covers the handling of different ropes and tying knots proficiently and safely knots that are useful in a theatre situation. Attendees will learn to differentiate between various natural fibre ropes, splice rope ends and use tools for splicing, etc. Knots including bowline, clove hitch, reef knot, wagon hitch, rolling hitch and sheet bend.

On Friday 4 March: Counterweight Flying - The course objectives are to teach the safe handling of counterweight sets and will cover terminology, parts of a counterweight set, loading and unloading, operating, first line maintenance, single and double purchase systems, putting knots

UK - Baldwin Boxall has launched a unique disabled refuge system, the Vigil CommuniCare range. The new-look Disabled Refuge remote unit, CommuniCare Advance, is launched to coincide with the new Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) which took effect in October 2004. The new remote unit takes the development of the popular Vigil CommuniCare disabled refuge system to the next level with new and exciting features. These features include Braille and luminescent raised text on the front panel for the visually impaired. For the hearing impaired, the unit has a built in induction loop, reflecting Baldwin Boxall's commitment to the emergency communication market. The unit is initialized by the Fire Detection System to prevent any misuse of the system.

A further development for the CommuniCare Advance range is planned for the near future, say the company. The unit will include capabiliti

UK / USA - Software providers Stardraw.com has announced that support for Global Caché's GC-100 series of network adaptors has been incorporated into their new application, Stardraw Control. Global Caché, based in Southern Oregon, is dedicated to producing low-cost, state-of-the-art products to enable technology in the home environment. The award-winning GC-100 Network Adaptor provides the means for PC-based control, automation and management software to access, control and deliver services in a networked home to diverse and previously unconnected devices and appliances.

Stardraw Control is exactly that - a software-based application designed expressly to control systems that contain diverse products. It generates standalone, customized control programs that can manage and monitor any type of addressable equipment from any manufacturer using any protocol over any communicatio

France - Described as 'a European institution like no other - at the crossroads of choreographic culture, creativity, diffusion and teaching' - the Centre National de la Danse turned to Harlequin to furnish the all important dance floors. The company then provided 1,648sq.m of Harlequin Cascade flooring.

12 years in planning and development since the original idea was first mooted in 1992, the Centre National de la Danse (CND) is a new French state establishment devoted entirely to dance. Housed in a former municipal administrative building, the architects in charge of its refurbishment, Antoinette Robain and Claire Guieyesse, were briefed to renovate the structure and to adapt the space to meet the needs of the CND. Arranged around the dominating presence a concrete central staircase, are 11 dance studios, a specialized media archive, an exhibition hall, a dance cinematography

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