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UK - Automation specialists Kinesys designed the motion control system for the revolutionary Barco "MiSphere" 'roll drop' low-res screens (also referred to as "Pixel panels"), a high impact visual special effect developed for U2's seminal "Vertigo" tour.

The screens are the most spectacular of several unique LED effects devised for the latest U2 tour by show director Willie Williams, with whom Kinesys has previously worked on the last U2 tour and the ongoing West End blockbuster, We Will Rock You.Conceived by Williams and designer Mark Fisher, the seven custom engineered trusses each carry 27 strings of 63 Barco MiSphere 'balls', totalling 1,701 balls per truss, weighing approximately 500 Kgs each.

Each truss, specially designed by Brilliant

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UK - The Spinal Research Top to Tail Dinner took guests into the world of James Bond and attracted the support of some leading celebrities in raising £80,000 at the Savoy this April.

Lorraine Kelly and Jim Rosenthal hosted 300 guests through a light hearted evening with a serious fund-raising purpose. A fast moving fashion show entertained guests with models including ex bond girls Maryam D'Abo and Caroline Bliss, joined by D'Arcy Bussel, Jilly Johnson and sporting icons David James, Richard Dunwoody, David Ginola and (hotly tipped as the next James Bond) actor Colin Salmon.

Sound engineer Richard Ryan skilfully mixed James Bond tracks to create a dynamic feature of the evening, he commented: "The fashion show was quite complicated due to the number of different tracks behind the catwalk parade. I introduced the stings behind each of the couples whilst keeping the backgr

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Italy - Now in its 55th year, the Festival di Sanremo is Italy's own, and longer running, version of Eurovision. As usual, it took place in the Teatro Ariston di Sanremo from 1-5 March. It is always a visually spectacular affair and this year was no exception.

This year saw a whole new format to the show, which was broadcast across Italy on national TV station RAI. Hosts were Paolo Bonolis, director of the show, and popular TV personality, Antonella Clerici. Guest Stars included Mike Tyson, Vasco Rossi, Gwen Stefani, Michael Buble, Wil Smith and Argentinian singer Lola Ponce. The competition resembled Pop Idol, with two members of each group voted out and the remaining artists merged into one group, this continued until the winner was decided.

AV rental company Eurovideo developed a new concept in set design by placing Lighthouse LED modules in the risers of stairs at the rear

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

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UK - Hawthorn was appointed as technical production contractors for the 2005 RSVP party at Olympia, supplying lighting, sound, AV, rigging and drapes.

With a low ceiling height and no provision for rigging Hawthorn decided to make a bold feature of the truss and created a ground support structure with lots of long spokes covering both the stage and the rest of the room. As UK dealers, Hawthorn used Prolyte's X30V truss due to its lightweight but superior strength, allowing large spans of truss with the minimum number of truss legs.

With only a 3m clearance, Hawthorn specified Mac 250's and Mac 300's - due to their small size, uplit with Thomas PIXELline battens. Working in conjunction with Mask Event Design and Production, Hawthorn sponsored the Event Talks area. Hawthorn draped the room in its white Expo Cloth, a fabric it imports for its light reflective abilities. These dra

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UK - Adlib Audio has completed a stylish sound installation, blending art, science, acoustics and aesthetics at Panacea in John Dalton Street, Manchester.

Panacea is the brainchild of one of the City's smartest young local party people and entrepreneurs, Joe Akka. Superlative acoustics was seen as absolutely crucial to creating Panacea's essential atmosphere. Akka contacted Adlib Audio's Andy Dockerty via recommendations from Kennedy Street Enterprises, and asked him to design an appropriate system - keeping the speakers as invisible as possible.

Dockerty - renowned for his attention to detail and quality and Dave Fletcher, who produced all the cabinet work, designed, specified and built a tailor-made system for Panacea. This involved embedding four speakers into each of Panacea's structural pillars with a minimal extrusion to ensure the preservation and integrity of the inter

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USA - Newly released Djtube from Chauvet offers RGB colours and the extended life of LEDs, but without the stiff price tag usually associated with them at about a fifth of most LED tubes available today, say the company. It houses 90 red, green and blue light emitting diodes inside a durable milky white UV-coated plastic tube and is simple to install and operate, not requiring controller. Each tube performs automated rainbow patterns in seven colours induced by RGB mixing: red, green, yellow, blue, purple, cyan, white. DJtube lends itself to a wide range of DJ, club and architectural lighting applications.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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Czech Republic - Every year, the Akademie populární hudby (Czech Academy of Popular Music) stages the Andel Awards - the Czech equivalent of the Grammys - which are presented at a glittering ceremony. The event is a major highlight of the musical year in the Czech Republic, staged at Ostrava's CEZ Arena and broadcast live on Czech TV and Czech radio. In 2005, with 14 bands appearing live on stage, the event's promoter called on the extensive experience of Rental Pro for a PA system which featured, for the first time in the Czech Republic, the use of digital mixing consoles.

Apart from the broadcast audience of many millions, the crowd in the Arena numbered around 8,000. For Rental Pro, the choice of the PA system was clear: Nexo Geo T (10 T4805s and three T2815 per side), with Nexo Geo S cabinets (nine S805 and an S830 per side) for the sides of the arena. Powered by Camco Vor

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UK - The Compulite Vector control system was recently used in St Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle for the service of blessing led by the Archbishop of Canterbury for The Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles.

Lighting director Bernie Davis used his own Vector Green control system to control a discreet rig of conventional lighting, supplied by ELP, as the aim was for an unobtrusive installation and a natural look. Console operator Roy Adcock was using a Compulite desk for the first time, but reported no problems getting the hang of the Vector's versatile graphic user interface.

Davis comments: "While the effects engine and sixteen DMX universes were not used to their full potential on this occasion, the easy to read touch screen controlled groups made programming extremely quick and easy. The lighting control position was from the world's smallest Portakabin - only 12'

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Australia - Established in 1881, The Three Weeds Hotel in Rozelle (or The Rose, Shamrock and Thistle to give it its official name) has undergone an exciting transformation. The hotel was purchased by Todd Salter of Investment and Development Corporation in 2002. He closed the large rear entertainment section while contemplating the re-design. Besides the extensive building re-development, the AV component was also of paramount importance. Salter therefore turned to Sydney-based Avsound Productions to deliver a top quality result. "Once we knew exactly what Todd required we recommended a high quality JBL speaker system incorporating Crown amplification and BSS Soundweb for all DSP," said Justin Lakerink, Avsound's project manager.

Rod McKinnon and Jeff Shoesmith from Jands worked closely with Justin to map functionality throughout the various audio zones of the venue. D

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UK - When Production North approached LiteStructures to provide a Perspex sign and neon lettered sign suitable for touring, LiteStructures' Mark Jackson came up with the solution.

Briefed to create a signature stage piece for Westlife's recent No1s tour, it soon became apparent that neon lettering wouldn't be practical, because it's made of glass, but then Mark remembered seeing Neonflex at PLASA. Marketed by Batmink, Neonflex is a flexible PVC light tube which closely replicates real neon, but uses LEDs as a light source. Much more rugged and roadworthy than neon, it was the obvious choice. LiteStructures made up an individual Neonflex letter, which Production North and the band agreed was just what they wanted.

Although the original design, a 20x10ft Perspex signature, was intended to be invisible when not lit, it was then decided, by the band and Production North's S

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UK - Large format projection specialist E//T//C UK added Somerset House to the list of famous London landmarks to receive its unique creative stamp, when Ross Ashton was commissioned to design and create a projection show by Dunhill for presentation to the Russian Economic Forum. The event saw 12.5 minutes of large-scale projections filling the entire Courthold Institute end of Somerset House's famous courtyard as part of the show set to a sound track.

E//T//C was initially approached by Event Lighting from Bermondsey to undertake the project, which needed a great deal of artwork produced with just 10 days of lead time. The show was an enjoyed by 350 guests after dinner, located in a translucent-fronted marquee in the middle of the courtyard. The guest list included businessmen, film directors, actors, musicians, designers and writers both Russian and English. "We wanted to

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Canada - Due to popular demand and the fact that some customers did not receive notice of its previous promotion in time, Cast Software recently announced a four-week extension to the Upgrade to Unlimited Channels Promotion. Effective from 15April through to 15 May, 2005, upgrades from WYSIWYG Perform 500, Perform 1000, or Perform 2000 to WYSIWYG Perform with unlimited channels bundled with a 12-month subscription, will be offered at a 50% off discount.

"The response to our upgrade promotion was tremendous! Our customers have been asking us to entertain a further promotional period. It only makes sense for us to re-introduce this promotion ", says Gil Densham, president & CEO of Cast Software. "We've made the best lighting design package in the industry and are allowing our users to upgrade for the great price of only $639 US. Plus, these upgrades include a

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Singapore - In 1996, a group of five Christians gathered for its first bible study meeting. Under the mentorship of another established church in Singapore, this small group and its leaders soon increased in numbers and grew to become Heart of God Church (HOGC), a church registered with the Registry of Societies in Singapore in 1999. Very much a part of the charismatic church movement in Singapore, HOGC recently made a bold decision to move to the city, right into the very heart of the Singapore shopping belt. On 12 December 2004, Heart of God Church held its opening service and opened the doors to its training and facilities centre in the city, focusing on reaching the next generation in an urban environment.

Being in the heart of the city, the HOGC converted a whole floor of a prime commercial building into a beautiful new training and facilities centre for the church, allowin

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Europe - Arup's Rogier van der Heide has been accorded the most prestigious award for Lighting Design - the Radiance Award, given by the IALD (International Association of Lighting Designers). The award, bestowed by a panel of design peers, was given to van der Heide in recognition of his contribution to lighting design, highlighting one of his most recent projects, the Galleria West Shopping Centre in Seoul. The judges described the project as: "State-of-the-art technology and design . . . a striking effect . . . a vibrant and scenic experience at night".

Together with Ben van Berkel of UN Studio in Amsterdam, van der Heide and his team developed a lighting scheme for the building skin that changes, chameleon-like, at night, and during the day reflects the subtleties of natural light on the opalescent façade of dichroic glass discs. At night, the discs are individual

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UK - Marquee Audio has sold thirteen Midas Venice and Verona consoles in the first two months of the year, including a Venice 160 delivered to Jason Wood, rising musical star of one of London's increasingly popular entertainment venues, the Comedy Café.

According to Marquee's Spencer Brooks: "The reliable performance and audio quality of the Midas consoles keeps them in demand with our customers. Recently the volume of sales has been especially high for the compact consoles, first the Venice, and more recently the Verona."

Marquee has supplied Venice desks to Cloud One, Lost It, Blue Audio and AVE. Customers for the Verona model have included Entec, W.E. Audio, Thames Audio and Chaps PA.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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Denmark - Blackburn-based HSL Sales & Distribution - one of the HSL Productions group of companies - supplied all the pyro and special effects to Machine Shop for the opening event of HCA2005, the Hans Christian Andersen bicentennial celebrations. This massive show was staged at the Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, last weekend.

Pyro for the two-hour extravaganza titled Once Upon A Time, enjoyed in real time by 35,000 people and broadcast live on Danish TV and across Europe by the European Broadcasting Union, was designed by Paul Mann from Machine Shop. He collaborated on the task with whom HSL's Tom Owen: the two have enjoyed a long and fruitful working relationship. The overall Once Upon A Time show design team and production included some of the best names, suppliers and rental operations in the UK production industry. The special effects all had to be very big and v

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Italy - Gioia Molinari has been appointed head of marketing and communications for Italian audio manufacturer RCF SpA. Molinari graduated in marketing and languages at UWIC (University Wales Institute Cardiff) has previously worked in the banking sector. Initially she worked for two years in London for Deutsche Bank, before moving to Milan. She then returned to London where she was responsible for all the bank's Equities Marketing activities in Europe.

After six years in the banking sector Molinari decided to go back to Italy to pursue a different career in a more creative environment. She joined the RCF team on 1 March where she will be responsible for looking after all the public relations activities, as well as updating the website. Molinari commented on her appointment: "I'm looking forward to working in the audio industry and the new challenges that it offers. One of m

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UK - For three days in April the NEC in Birmingham was taken over for the Commercial Vehicle Show 2005, with exhibitors including Proton cars, who were showing the new Jumbuck range. Proton's stand was designed and installed by Embee Lighting and used 20 Pulsar ChromaCubes and 20 ChromaSpheres to decorate the back of two display vehicles.

A ground-supported truss was used to form the basis of the stand, before Lycra sails were stretched over the back wall and used as projection surfaces for the vehicle branding. Par 64s and ETC Source Fours were used to highlight the cars. Embee lighting's Mark Bailey used the cubes and spheres to attract people on to the stand. He explained: "The built-in effects were used to play random colour patterns and made a visual work of art for people to look at as they visited the show."

The feedback from Proton was extremely good, Bailey

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USA - Mike Wood Consulting LLC has announced the addition of a free subscription service to its web-based database of entertainment technology patents. This database has been running for over a year and is updated weekly with US Patents relating to entertainment technology, with a particular emphasis on lighting patents.

After signing up to the free information service on the newly re-designed website, users will be automatically e-mailed whenever new US patents are issued that are interesting or relevant to the entertainment technology community. Subscribers will receive an e-mail from the system at most once a week and can cancel their subscription at any time. The e-mail will contain brief descriptions of the newly issued patents and links to allow direct downloading of full pdf files.

The patent database is fully searchable and currently contains over 500 US patents includ

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Germany - Osram is expanding its modular SharXS lamp family with the HTI 1200 W/D7/75, which provides cold white light at a colour temperature of 7500K - meaning that the most powerful lamp in the family is now available in two colour temperatures.

Like all members of the SharXS family, the metal halide lamp is compact and double-ended. Its key features are a short arc and eXtreme Seal (XS) technology, which makes the lamps capable of withstanding thermal stress (up to 450°C). Its main areas of application, say Osram, include stage, film and television, and its improved heat handling offers benefits in terms of reduced cooling, smaller housing requirements and quieter operation in the luminaire, say Osram.

The company has also introduced a new version of the SharXS HTI 400 W/D3/75 - which now boasts 30% longer life, of up to 1000 hours.

(Lee Baldock)

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China - Avolites' Diamond 4 Elite and Vision consoles were used to run lighting for the MTV Asia Awards 2005, repositioned as 'MTV Asia Aid' a global benefit concert to raise money for victims of the tsunami.

Staged at the Impact Arena in Bangkok in front of a live audience of 10,000 people and a TV audience of several million, the lighting design/direction team from the UK was headed by DOP Eugene O'Connor who also operated the key lighting console. Main stage LD was Theo Cox and Mikey Howard looked after stages B and C plus the extensive audience lighting. All were working with The Show Company from Singapore, MTV Asia's principal technical production contractor, and headed by Joseph Gan. In addition to supplying all lighting, the company also provided two Catalyst digital media servers for the video clips, and both high resolution and 'break-up' LED screens for the event.

T

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