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UK - Energy giant BP has operated on a 13-hectare site at Sunbury for the past 80 years, but at the start of the new millennium plans were put in place to re-develop this into a brand new Business Park. The Park integrates BP's business, commercial and technology activities and is the base for some 3,000 staff.

Part of this integration involved relocating some of the resources from offices in central London and recognized the need for a series of 11 meeting rooms to be equipped with multimedia and videoconferencing support. Located in Building B - where some of the company's Gas, Power and Renewables businesses are located - each would be differently configured but with a standard template and control. Given the number of staff on site the rooms could expect little down time.

Al

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UK - Astronaut features as part of this year's BITE season at the Barbican Pit and is the third Theatre O production to have been co-commissioned by BITE.

Theatre O's distinctive style pushes boundaries using, dance and comedy, mime and gesture, live and recorded music and sound. Their performances are minutely choreographed chaos, with even the most frenetic movement synchronized in perfect precision. The result is an exquisitely layered experience that combines the power of storytelling with the drama of theatre.

Based on a short story by Andrea Vales, Astronaut's eclectic soundtrack was co-jointly created by sound designer Gareth Fry and artistic director, Joseph Alford. The creative use of sound plays a major role in the world of Astronaut. By simultaneously using sound in both naturalistic and abstract ways, it allows the story to jump-cut through tim

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UK - Jim Griffiths is the director of the acoustics division of Capita Symonds, which has worked on noise issues at hundreds of events and venues for many years. L&SI spoke to him about the issues concerning event licensing . . .

"Over the years, PA systems have become higher quality and increasingly powerful - and therefore potentially louder. Whilst that may be what the dancers want in their club, or the rock fans want from their favourite band, local residents will probably have a contrary view, and a balance needs to be struck. Local councils are caught in the middle of these parties and have to appease the rights of residents, whilst hopefully allowing the leisure and events industry to earn a living . . . We find ourselves very busy working with promoters, venues, event organizers and councils to find acceptable solutions.

"The environmental impact from any ven

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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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The Netherlands - The new Formula Sound FF-6000 DJ mixer previewed at last year's PLASA show put into use at the prestigious Jimmy Woo club in Amsterdam recently. Formula Sound designed the FF-6000 mixer in conjunction with leading UK loudspeaker manufacturer Funktion-One and a panel of European DJs, and the Amsterdam event represented the mixer's official European launch.

The event, which was hosted by leading Dutch audio promotions company PB Audio, drew a huge crowd to the exclusive nightspot to see the new FF-6000 mixer put through its paces. Heading the list of artists who entertained the crowd on the night were DJ Roog (a.k.a. Hardsoul), and, underlining the versatility of the FF-6000 mixer, Hybrid Sessions, an act that mixes DJ skills with drum machines and a live sax player.

"We feel strongly that the Formula Sound FF-6000 is absolutely the best-sounding mixer the

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UK - Engineer Dave Wooster recently purchased a selection of DPA microphones, including a DPA 3521 complete stereo kit including two 4021 compact cardioid microphones, two DPA IMK4061 kits featuring a DPA 4061 miniature omnidirectional mic with instrument mounting accessories, and a DPA 4088 compact cardioid headband mic. Wooster is using the new mics in both his Kool World studio, and on the road. He is currently touring with Latin jazz ensemble Matt Bianco, bringing together their original lineup of Mark Reilly (vocals), Basia Trzetrzelewska (vocals) and Danny White (keyboards) for the first time in 20 years. The 4061 miniatures are being used for close miking the cymbals, attached to the stands with DPA's magnetic mounts.

"The 4061's dynamic response and ability to handle the vast dynamic range that the band's drummer can generate never ceases to amaze," he says. &q

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New Zealand - Anyone who plugs in a plug and switches a switch in a theatre, opera house or performance space should be mindful of the energy being consumed and of the bill that arrives every month. Balancing venue profitability with the need for lighting and effects that audiences and performers have come to expect can be a problem.

With such considerations in mind, Selecon's Pacific 80V Power System is the result of over three years' R&D aimed at developing better solutions for the entertainment lighting industry. Combining a quality light output (the 80V 1200W lamp delivers as much light on to the stage as a traditional 2.0/2.5kW luminaire, say Selecon) with significant energy savings (as much as 40-50%), the fixture offers an important new tool for designers and venues, say the company. For example, a front-of-house lighting bridge equipped with 40 2.5kW profiles will consum

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The Netherlands - Luxeon I light output performance has been dramatically increased for all InGaN colours (white, blue, cyan, green and royal blue). Typical performance of Luxeon I white emitters improved from 31 lumens to 45 lumens. Other colours have similar increases, all without increasing the package or chip size. No other comparable high power LED offers more light than Luxeon I say the company. Increased performance can be attributed to Lumileds continued technology leadership in epitaxial, packaging and five years experience manufacturing high power LEDs, it continues.

"We continue to advance and develop solid-state lighting technology that address the needs of a wide variety of markets," said Jason Posselt, Lumileds director of product marketing. "Our Luxeon I LEDs are broadly used in applications ranging from LCD television and monitors to architectural,

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UK - How important are the leaders of a company to its financial performance? According to industry analysts Plimsoll Publishing Ltd, we are about to find out, as one in six UK sound equipment company directors will be aged over 60 by the end of 2005. Plimsoll's latest study is an analysis of the UK's top 238 sound equipment companies and the 495 company directors that are responsible for them. David Pattison, senior analyst at Plimsoll, comments, "The reason for most concern is that of the 249 directors that have been in office for over eight years, 26% will be aged 60 or more by the end of 2005. Is the industry facing an experience 'timebomb' as these veterans near retirement age?"

The full 443 paged analysis of the UK sound equipment industry includes an examination of the age and time in office of directors at the top 238 companies. It assesses how their decisions

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USA - When Mercedes Benz wanted to create an impact for the world première of its Mercedes Benz M-class at the 17th North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, it enlisted the help of media concept planning agency, TLD Planungsgruppe GmbH. TLD, which has a long established relationship with DaimlerChrysler AG, Mercedes Benz and Manufaktur Maybach brands, was given an open brief for the project. Aside from launching the M-class, TLD was also responsible for showcasing all the other Mercedes Benz vehicles on the stand, plus three cars on the Manufaktur Maybach stand.

A total of 20 vehicles had to be put in to perspective in only 2000sq.m. "Presenting so many different models on the stand provided a challenge as we had to define the separate identity of each model," said chief lighting designer Richard Profe. To maintain this distinction, a huge architectu

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Worldwide - Bandit Lites is supplying full lighting production to Mark Knopfler's Shangri La world tour, once again working with lighting designer Simon Tutchener. Bandit UK has invested in a new MA Lighting grandMA lighting console - their first - especially for the tour, complete with an MA Light for backup, as this was Tutchener's console of choice. Tutchener re-visited his theatrical roots for part of the design's inspiration. He decided at the outset that the moving lights would be used sparingly, only visibly moving at a few specific, punctuating points in the set.

"Mark's extremely specific about what he likes and dislikes," says Tutchener. "Any distractions to him and his music are a definite no-no!", so that ruled out a whole raft of lighting staples including gobo projections onto the backdrop, rotating gobos, etc. Needless to say, when light

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Lee Baldock visits XTA on the eve of the European launch of its latest product, the DP428 audio management system.

UK - XTA is a UK manufacturer with as good a reputation for its signal processing and dynamics kit as any manufacturer out there. Formed by three ex-Klark Teknik R&D engineers in 1992, the company has grown from the humble origins of Andrew Grayland's back bedroom (although I'm sure it was a very nice room) to a multi-million pound venture, headquartered in the more businesslike environment of its current home in Stourport-on-Severn.

Now in its 13th year, the company has behind it a string of highly successful products - among them the industry-standard DP224 and DP226 loudspeaker processors, the SiDD intelligent dynamics package and the Series 2 dynamics. Its success has come partly from a market-led approach to product design; Grayland and co-founder John Austin

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UK - While the remaining members of Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor, were pleasantly surprised to find that 21 years after their last tour Clair Brothers Audio is still the biggest PA rental company in the world, some things had changed. The band's itinerary has them scheduled to play the arenas of Europe, followed by some stadium dates this summer and a tour of the US in the autumn, "but we started rehearsals in Roger's home studio, so space was a bit tight," said monitor man Steve May. He explains: "The band suggested I use a Yamaha PM1D, but at that time the pre-amps in the desk hadn't been upgraded, and besides it's nearly as big as an XL4. The logical choice was the new PM5D."

With a stated preference for the old Midas analogue warhorse, how's he finding the Yamaha? "Overall it's sounding great, the band think so too; it's a busy show with lots of

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Slovakia - Slovakian Superstar is the country's first series of the Pop Idol roll-out, and has captured the nation's popular imagination, with up to 1.8 million TV viewers (out of a population of approx. 5.5 million), a highly enthusiastic public, and 3,678 original applicants, whittled down to the 11 most talented finalists.

Superstar is broadcast live each Friday night from the National Tennis Centre arena in Slovakian capital, Bratislava, staged in front of 1,500 highly vocal fans. STV has put 2.6 million Euros into producing the series, making it the country's largest TV project to date, and very much a matter of National pride. The live show tickets are allocated as give-aways for various competitions and about half via the show's main sponsors, including Nestlé.

Naturally, production values are right at the top of the agenda, with STV seeking the best technical and crea

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UK - London's St. Paul's Cathedral is in the midst of a substantial audio upgrade which has seen a complete overhaul of its room and signal processing by long-term contractors, RG Jones Sound Engineering Ltd. System designer and project manager Jon Berry favoured BSS Soundweb architecture following discussions with Arup Acoustics' consultant Sam Wise. Arup had been asked to provide an independent assessment of the original system and identified that while RG Jones' bespoke speakers were still serviceable, the front end - including custom mixer, graphics and delay lines - needed a substantial overhaul to satisfy the broadening function of the Cathedral, and the audio requirements of congregation sizes up to 2,600 people.

As one of the cathedral's preferred suppliers, RG Jones was contracted to undertake the work by St. Paul's Dean and Chapter, acting on the advice of Martin Stanc

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UK - Surrey-based loudspeaker manufacturer EM Acoustics has named Chris Hinds as sales and marketing director. Known throughout the industry for his work with Turbosound and Beyerdynamic, Hinds' role is primarily looking after international relationships, as well as strengthening the already-developing brand within the UK. Hinds says: "The offer of working with an exciting, emerging brand was too good an opportunity to pass up. Drawing from my own experiences of loudspeaker design, EM Acoustics have some very talented designers, and it is this that initially drew my attention towards them."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - London's Sounds Expo will witness a number of UK product debuts and promotions on the Shure Distribution stand 525. Firstly Shure's E4c sounds isolating earphones will make their UK debut, having already made headlines, as they were one of this year's International CES Innovations 2005 Award honourees. They are the ideal accessory for music lovers who are serious about sound quality and detail, the E4c's are also the lightest in Shure's family of E Series earphones and mirror the iconic design of the iPod.

Furthermore Phonic's Helix Boards will also be unveiled and consist of two models; the Helix Board 12 is a 12 input compact mixer with 4 mic/line input channels, two paired stereo input channels and two stereo AUX returns. While the Helix Board 17 is a 17 input compact mixer with five mic/line input channels, three paired stereo input channels and three stereo AUX returns

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Australia - Melbourne is the home to a world-first roadway feature: a 300m interactive matrix of colour changing LEDs on the new Craigieburn Bypass road. Supplied by veteran lighting projects company, Lightmoves Pty Ltd, the LED matrix is incorporated into an acoustic barrier wall of screen-printed acrylic panels. Designed by landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean and engineers Webb Australia in collaboration with local artist Robert Owen, the LED Wall is the main lighting feature of Stage One of the project which opened to the public on 21 December 2004. Lightmoves successfully tendered for this unique project designing a system that would deliver a matrix display of colour-changing LED fittings that could be individually controlled and regulated by transducers in the road.

Installed by contractors Alstom Australia, the LED Wall is one of the most ambitious feature lighti

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Germany - From an artistic point of view, the use of video and image manipulation is becoming more and more a central element in a wide range of different productions; at the same time, "digital lighting" is also becoming increasingly widespread with the expanding number of inexpensive and significantly brighter LCD and DLP projectors available.

grandMA video has been designed to provide an optimal solution to meet these requirements. As a result, grandMA video is capable of controlling, by means of the grandMA consoles, any commercially available pc server hardware and the video projector plugged into this server.

In cooperation with Publitec, MA Lighting also offer an integrated system solution consisting of special 19" server hardware (publitec proVideor) and moving video lights (beaMovers), which are based on a modular design. The grandMA consoles are at the

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USA - Lumileds Lighting introduced new colour-matched white Luxeon Lamps that enable lighting manufacturers to quickly build LED-based luminaires with consistent white light. Advanced binning algorithms applied during manufacturing ensure colour uniformity within each fixture as well as from luminaire to luminaire.

"The lighting community looks for white-point consistency whether viewing the light source directly or the effect that's being created," said Keith Scott, market development manager. "Uniform white light is essential in luminaires, but achieving a consistent colour temperature with LEDs has been a major challenge because of the wide colour variations inherent in the LED manufacturing process, "Our Luxeon Lamps offer the first practical solution to the problem by supplying pre-matched, pre-mounted LEDs that not only provide the desired colour consis

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UK - Leeds is the second city centre site of the new bar and restaurant concept Babycream. The forces responsible for the world famous Cream and some of Liverpool's chicest nightspots are behind this venture. Cream has a strong tradition in clubbing, festivals (including the hugely popular Creamfields), and records.The latest Babycream is a two floor venue occupying a prime site in the heart of Leeds on the Headrow. Intimate booth seating downstairs combine with a bar and dance floor area providing a 600 capacity, whilst the upstairs restaurant seats another 80. Joint operators, The Lyceum Group (founder of Liverpool's renowned Blue Bar & Grill, Baby Blue and The Pan American Club), are keen to ensure that Babycream Leeds delivers on style and contemporary design, with an emphasis on quality eating, premium drinks and cutting edge music.

Music is a massively important part of th

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USA - On Wednesday, 13 April 2005, two draft rigging standards were posted on the ESTA website for public review. BSR E1.4, Entertainment Technology-Manual Counterweight Rigging Systems, and BSR E1.21, Entertainment Technology - Temporary Ground-Supported Overhead Structures Used to Cover the Stage Areas and Support Equipment in the Production of Outdoor Entertainment Events, will be available on the ESTA website until the end of the day, midnight GMT, on 28 June 2005. They can be accessed at http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php.

BSR E1.4, Entertainment Technology-Manual Counterweight Rigging Systems, describes the design and construction of manually powered counterweight rigging systems. The primary purpose of the standard is to enhance the safety of these system, which

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