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UK - Soundcraft has added a further model, the MH2, to its range of VCA-grouped performance consoles. It is aimed at "touring companies and installations of all sizes".

Alongside its bigger brothers the MH3 and MH4, the MH2 is also capable of dual-mode (FOH/Monitor) applications, and features eight sub-groups, ten auxiliary busses, eight VCA groups and six mute groups, as well as an integral 11x4 matrix. It is available in frame sizes of 24, 32, 40 and 48 mono channels, all with four comprehensive, full function stereo inputs as standard.

As with the the other desks in the series, the MH2 can be switched to a front-of-house or monitor mode, whereby ten 60mm faders can be switched to control the auxiliary outputs instead of the groups for monitor use. In FOH mode, these

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Belgium - Sony Professional Solutions Europe has confirmed that it will be a Platinum Sponsor at ISE 2006 which will be held 1-3 February 2006 at the Brussels Expo. Following its successful debut at ISE 2005 in Amsterdam, Sony will demonstrate its "latest array of products that provide new ways to interact with multimedia information in the office and on the move".

"Sony is looking at the major shows to enhance its visibility in this emerging market and ISE is an emerging platform to achieve this." says Ian Collis, VP marketing for Sony Europe.

"We were pleased with the positive response, feedback and general enthusiasm generated by the 2005 show in Amsterdam and are delighted to see that ISE 2006 is already 40% bigger that the previous show. We see ISE as a pivotal event that has gained an important foothold on the Integrated AV systems market and we

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UK - Following the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, The Royal Opera House in London is the second theatre of international fame that has replaced all current fly bars, as part of the complete theatrical installation, for an installation based on the ProTrac system from Prolyte.Prolyte distributor White Light brought the two parties together after they were informed that the Royal Opera House was looking for a new fly bar installation.

A regular fly-bar does not have the required strength if the uniformly distributed load needs to be upgraded from 300kg to 500kg and the point load from 40kg to 150/200 kg. Therefore, the single round tube is often replaced with ladder beams, usually made from steel. ProTrac offers a better alternative than these steel ladder beams, being specially designed to meet the demands from a modern theatrical environment and the CE compliance for lifting equipm

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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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UK - Northamptonshire Magistrates Courts Committee has invested in 15 Shure ConferenceONE discussion systems for use in every one of the county's magistrate's courts.ConferenceONE with its innovative, fold-out telescoping Microflex microphone and integrated IntelliMix automatic mixing technology is virtually effortless to set-up and operate and delivers consistently natural, feedback-free audio and speech intelligibility automatically and is ideal for meetings and discussions for up to sixty participants, say Shure.

Each of the court discussions systems consisted of a single chairman unit with varying number of delegate units. The systems also included a Shure Microflex MX412 gooseneck mic at the witness stand and a boundary mic in the secure dock. In order to effectively manage each of the said mics, a Shure SCM410 automatic 4-channel mixer with Intellimix was utilized to incre

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UK - The new MAC 700 from Martin Professional will be on preview at this week's ABTT show. This fixture is ideally suited to the theatre market, say Martin, as its features include an Animation Wheel, CMY and the option to run in Quiet Mode. Also on show is the newly released MAC 250 Wash, as well as the new Woodroffe Gobo Collection for the MAC 2000 Profile. Martin says it will also be giving two lucky people the chance to win one of its Mania Aqua and Fire Animation Effects at the show.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Lifting, and rigging sales specialists Lift-Turn-Move launches its new Equipchaine electromechanical chain lifting device into the UK at ABTT 2005. The device has been specifically designed for theatrical applications. The Equipchaine is an electromechanical chain lifting device that has been specifically designed for theatrical applications. Each device consists of several modular elements connected together to suit the structural environment. Several chain drop positions are linked by the same drive mechanism that can be used to lift lighting bars, stage sets and curtains of various lengths.

Equipchaine is appreciated by theatre consultants and architects throughout Europe; it has been installed in a diverse range of over 130 theatres and multi purpose spaces. Existing applications range from single to 40-device projects. Using simplifies any structural problems, as it fi

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UK - Difuzion - the lighting division of Fuzion plc - have designed and supplied the lighting for a major new club on Blackpool's Promenade based around Futurelight fixtures. Graham Barron, who heads up Difuzion (which distributes Futurelight in the UK), renewed his acquaintance with Over Audio's Mike Boylan, who won the contract to provide the complete sound and lighting package for Peter Bowden's 2300-capacity Club Sanuk.

The building - formerly The Waterfront when it was operated by Luminar Leisure - has been completely refurbished at the hands of Bowden - one of the industry's most experienced professionals, and also a long-term acquaintance of Graham Barron. Bowden was previously operations director for Luminar before moving to the Far East as project director for Ministry of Sound, Bangkok, Taipei and then Singapore. He has divided his new venue into four distinct areas (i

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UK - James Thomas's Pixel team continues its collaboration with ground-breaking light-sound-video based atmospheric engineers, United Visual Artists, supplying equipment for UVA's recent performance at London's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) - part of the ICA's onedotzero season of electronic arts. UVA staged their own newly developed music and visual show at the ICA to a packed audience. The show was created in collaboration with two major technical associates James Thomas Engineering/Pixel range and Creative Technology.

The ICA show is the latest in a long and inventive list of projects to fuse the imaginative talents and enthusiasm of the Pixel team and UVA. It follows work on Massive Attack's 2004 festival tour which featured a horizontal wall of Pixelline used as a giant low-res LED surface - driven by UVA's latest Dragonfly control software.

PixelLine 1044 and the n

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UK - Set within acres of rolling countryside and heritage-listed gardens, the luxurious new Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire (near Hook) has tasked its sound system contractor, Onyx Media, with providing a system to play back a wide programme of ambient, tranquility music through its many zones.

The content is key to setting the right mood to boost the wellbeing of guests in the retreat hotel, and Onyx Media director Richard Studerus turned to familiar audio brands. One of these was Denon - a mainstay over the past 10 years. In the latest Four Seasons - which Onyx fitted out over a three-year period - they have used Denon's DCM-280 five-disc CD-player exclusively.

With its digital output, the player offers excellent performance at an unbelievable price point - while still containing Denon's traditional build quality. It is ideal for delivering the new age music which is central to

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Belgium - Barco Media & Entertainment has appointed Richard Marples as international sales manager for the Asia Pacific region. Marples will head up the division's Asian sales team, which focuses on servicing Barco's existing Rental Partners in the region as well as further increasing its market-share in the lucrative Asian AV industry.

Marples' career has included 16 years with Phillips Lighting, where he most recently held the position of international account manager. In that role, he was responsible for the reorganization of all existing accounts, in-depth analysis of competitor products as well as the identification of new opportunities for growth. Marples has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience in the international AV industry.

Stephan Paridaen, president of Barco Media & Entertainment, stated: "We are very pleased with the addition of Richard to the Ba

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UK - Reading-based Skan PA Hire has acquired a third Midas XL4 console, which left directly for a two-month tour of European dates and festivals with US metal band Slayer.

Skan took the decision to buy a third XL4 following "overwhelming demand" for its existing boards, which are fully committed to the company's busy summer of events. This includes the Chemical Brothers tour, the Download festival, Keane's summer dates and a series of concerts for the National Trust.

"All three purchases have been driven by customer demand, as the XL4 is still the desk of choice for a lot of FOH and monitor engineers, who are adamant it is the best sounding board available," says Skan director Abby Llewellyn. "Despite the increasing acceptance of digital consoles a lot of our clients prefer the sound of an XL4."

The new console is being operated by Slayer's fron

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UK - Bandit Lites is supplying lighting production for System Of A Down's Mesmerise world tour which kicked off in Europe this month. System - among the loudest and most energetic exponents of the US nu-metal generation - is being LD'd by Joe Paradise. The account is being handled by Lester Cobrin from the Bandit UK office, who says, "One of the most anticipated tours has finally arrived. This is big, bold and mega bright... in fact, enough to make your eyes bleed!"

Paradise was initially approached after working with production manager Eddie Kercher on Incubus last year. He decided to create a 'Great wall of lights' effect for the show - which currently carries no video, so the main visual element, other than the band - is lighting. His primary objective is to match the intense, raw sonic impact of the band with lighting semantics.

Paradise also wanted to mak

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Germany - Klangschmiede, one of Germany's largest PA rental companies, has added a Cohedra Compact rig to its already extensive inventory of HK Audio products.

The rig comprises 32 CDR 108 C mid/high units and eight CDR 210 C Sub units and made its debut at a corporate birthday party, 60 Years WÜRTH, which took place over a week and featured performances from Jose Carreras plus an appearance by the President of Germany. It has since been used in the Cologne Arena for a traditional German folk music concert.

"The Cohedra Compact gives us a huge amount of flexibility since the system is perfectly suitable for small events due to its compact dimensions, but also offers good opportunities to scale up if sufficient cabinets are used," says Michael Frank, co-owner of Klangschmiede. "The sound characteristics and enormous power capability in relation to its size fully

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France -Swiss Acoustic design company Studio Equipment, run by industry veteran Terry Nelson, was recently contracted to provide the sound, staging and screen for the presentation of the new Sony 4K digital cinema projector. The launch was held at the Château de la Napoule during this year's Cannes Film Festival, and Nelson chose a Telex Communications setup based around a Midas Venice console, Klark Teknik Helix digital equalisers and Electro-Voice surround sound system for the event.

Studio Equipment, which was commissioned for the project by Anna Valley (UK), treated the room acoustically to give it the characteristics of a proper screening room before setting up an Electro-Voice Plasma surround speaker system. At the centre of this, Nelson used a Midas Venice 160 as his monitor controller plus a processing rack of three Klark Teknik Helix DN9340 equalisers run by V3.7 Elgar

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UK - Turbosound has announced the availability of two new powerful and compact DSP-based loudspeaker management systems. The Turbosound LMS-D26 and LMS-D24 digital systems both incorporate pre-set programmes for Turbosound's Aspect, QLight, HiLight, TFM and TCS series enclosures.

Designed for touring and fixed-install applications, the LMS series controllers combine the functions of multiple conventional crossover products in a compact 1U high, 19" rack unit. The LMS-D26 offers a 2-in/6-out format, while the LMS-D24 provides a 2-in/4-out configuration. Both systems offer quick set-up and adjustment via an easy-to-use menu structure accessed by front panel buttons and rotary encoders. They provide full control over crossover frequency, filter slope, gain and polarity, and have integral, fast-acting limiters.

The new controllers are also equipped with electronically balance

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UK - Robe Show Lighting has launched its latest moving light - the ColorWash 250 AT. This completes Robe's AT line of fixtures, which now offers moving heads in 1200W, 575W and 250W models, in both spot and wash versions.

The 250 AT is billed as "ideal for television, theatrical and architectural applications where quietness is vital. It's also suitable for clubs, discos, installations and scenic lighting of all types, where expedient sizing, reliability, and cool design top the agenda." It features a new optical system, making it 50% brighter than its predecessor, the Wash 250XT.

Says Robe, "The extremely silent cooling system and movement make ColorWash 250 AT an ideal choice for TV and theatre. Even with the strobing function activated, the fixture's operation is virtually inaudible.

As with all other Robe AT moving heads, ColorWash 250 AT features full 16-

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Audio division has sold a Mackie TT24 digital audio console to Nolan Sound, one of Ireland's top sound rental companies.

Nolan Sound's Alan Nolan and business partner Jim Fox had recently invested in a digital console from A.C. and decided digital was now the way to go since the latest generation combined built-in digital processing capabilities with the ability to transfer show data between like-for-like consoles, and were much easier to use live.

They opted for the Mackie TT24 desk because it was designed to be as user-friendly as possible for live sound engineers to operate - sharing its look and feel with the traditionally easier to use analogue console. At the same time it featured all the benefits of a digital console, including a built in effects library, which made set-up very quick and easy.

The Mackie TT24 is a 56 x 45, 24-bit, 96kHz capable di

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UK - Stage Electrics is promoting new products from Prolyte, Apollo, Teclumen plus its own brand Encore at this week's ABTT show.

In March 2005 Stage Electrics was appointed UK distributor for Prolyte trussing, Stage Dex Staging and Prolyft chain hoists. Both Prolyte H30 and X30 trusses are light to medium duty and offer strength flexibility and compactness.

"The relationship with Prolyte has been a natural development for Stage Electrics. We have made a large investment in inventory but the wide range of products they offer and the quality of their manufacturing meant that it was an easy choice to make." said Adam Blaxill, head of purchasing at Stage Electrics.

Ed Gamble Business development manager Ed Gamble adds, "Customers have been extremely receptive to the Prolyte range, both the durability and the design features of the products make them intuitive to

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UK - The coming months see Britannia Row Productions at its busiest, though resources are not quite in their usual deployment patterns, according to Britrow's Roly Oliver.

"We are providing an enormous amount of self contained control and monitor systems to our clients for the festival season; the list is huge, Foo Fighters, Robbie Williams, Will Young, Faithless, Jamiroquai, Oasis, Robert Plant, Marilyn Manson, and Simply Red."

He continues, "Our EV X-line systems are all out for the REM outdoor shows, the Wireless festival, Glastonbury, and now the Live8 event in Hyde Park. V-dosc is being used for a tour by The Kings of Leon, and for delays on several of the bigger festivals.

"With our paced acquisition of Yamaha and Digico digital desks over the past couple of years, and our extensive inventory of Midas and other analogue desks, we actually have enoug

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UK - Wigwam Hire were able to give a full run to their Martin Audio line array systems on the recent Girls Aloud theatre tour, the wide variation of venue capacities enabling the set-up to be easily reconfigurable between the Compact and Mini enclosures.

The W8LC had already proved its worth on sidehang duties with Westlife, and once again production duties were in the hands of Production North - owned by Steve Levitt and Iain Whitehead - with the latter taking production responsibility for this set of dates.

While 24 Martin W8LC Compact Line Arrays and 12 x WLX subs were provided as the core system, two dollies of six W8LM Mini Line Arrays gave the FOH team of Mark Littlewood (sound engineer) and Sid Rogerson (system tech) options of groundstacking or flying depending on available rigging points and weightload restrictions.

The largest show was at the 12,000-capacity Sheffi

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UK - Theatre Royal Newcastle has been awarded training partner status with Stage Electrics. The award, say Stage Electrics, is in recognition of the Theatre Royal hosting and promoting industry specific training days to entertainment workers from all over the country.

In February this year the Theatre Royal hosted two days of intensive training workshops on behalf of Stage Electrics, which included courses on electricity at work and pyrotechnics safety awareness. As Brian Cleary, business development manager for Stage Electrics explains, support from organisations like the Theatre Royal is key to raising awareness across the industry of important health and safety issues. "We think it is very important to raise the standards within our industry and recognise the skills people have achieved."

He continues: "We have a wide range of courses on offer and it's great

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