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UK - Stagecraft has raised £5,000 for The Mayor of Salisbury's Appeal in aid of The Trussell Trust. The Salisbury based live events, lighting and sound company organized two musical comedy shows, More Tea, Vicar? and Pass the Port, starring Sue Flannery and Michael Lunts, which were held in the function room at Salisbury's Guildhall. "We were absolutely delighted with the success of our events and thanks must go to all our supporters. The Trussell Trust is an invaluable resource to Salisbury and the surrounding area and we hope that with the help of the appeal its projects will continue to flourish," said managing director of Stagecraft, David Goodrich.

Money raised at the events will help raise awareness of The Trussell Trust Food Bank, a community-based

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Executive Audio is a new company set up by two very well-known figures in pro audio sales, Hans Freytag and Steve Smith, following discussions at PLASA last year. The company is targeting the UAE, and already has a tidy portfolio of leading audio brands (EAW & EAW Commercial, Lake Technology Corporation, TiMax and DiGiCo) to which they are hoping shortly to add a high-profile amplifier manufacturer. The emphasis, says Freytag, is on high-end, high-performance audio, with plenty of scope for residential and commercial markets. EAW Commercial was showing its latest ceiling monitor, the CIS-400.

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UK - Entec Lighting continues its successful run of theatre productions, supplying lighting equipment for the national tour of Kim Gavin's Love Shack. The show stars Faye Tozer and Jon Lee (ex S-Club 7), Noel Sullivan (ex Hear'Say) and a lively collection of hits from the 1980s. Entec won the contract by offering an excellent package, and was also highly recommended by lighting designer Simon Tutchener to producer Tristan Baker. The show was programmed by Nigel Catmur, and Jeremy Duncan was asked onboard to operate on tour, and to oversee the re-lights.

Love Shack visits all the major receiving houses in the country. The schedule is tight, with a Monday morning get-in to be ready for a show that evening, followed by a full week of shows and a get out after curtain down on the Saturday. Entec's Noreen O'Riordan says: "Theatre is a relatively new discipline to u

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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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Other companies who were exhibiting at PALME in a supporting role, with established business relationships in the region, included leading UK manufacturers such as Midas/Klark Teknik and Martin Audio; French manufacturer L-Acoustics already works in the region with V-Dosc partner Gearhouse (who provided a V-Dosc system for Pavarotti's Dubai show in April) and ARCS user, Prism. PALME saw the regional debut of the company's Kudo system, and of its SoundVision acoustical simulation software.

German manufacturer ic audio had teamed up with Millbank in a joint-branding exercise aimed at promoting and increasing the companies' presence in the Middle East's commercial sound installation market.

A.C. Lighting has been doing business in the region for years, and was at PALME in a supporting role for existing clients, but also to work on developing the projects side of their business in the Mi

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Italy - Outline's Butterfly compact line array took part in a show on an impressive scale - the first Red Bull Flugtag - Un giorno con le ali - a competition for hand-made flying machines powered by just the contestants' muscles and creativity. Presented by Andrea Pellizzari of the popular TV show Le Iene, the event was staged in Milan Linate's Idroscalo, an artificial lake 2.6km long and up to 400m wide, located in a huge natural park.

,I>Red Bull Flugtag, the brainchild of Red Bull's owner Dietrich Mateschitz, is famous in many parts of the world as well as in Italy. It's staged in the USA, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Hungary, Israel and Slovakia. 30 teams participated in the Italian event held on 12 June, launching themselves off a 40m long, 6m high ramp and landing in the water of the Idroscalo, all under the watchful eyes of a jury, which assessed their perfo

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UK - Studio Due architectural fixtures and Robe moving lights and control were specified and installed by Glasgow-based SSUK for a new permanent lighting scheme at the Falkirk Wheel. The Wheel - an iconic fusion of industrial art and engineering innovation - is the world's first and only rotating boat lift. It links two canals with water levels 115ft apart, a feat traditionally requiring 11 locks.

Designed by Scottish architects RMJM and completed in 2001, the Falkirk Wheel is the centrepiece of the £84.5m 'Millennium Link', the UK's largest canal restoration project, developed by British Waterways to reconnect the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal, re-establishing access from the east to west coast of Scotland.

SSUK was asked by British Waterways to come up with an eye-catching scheme to light the wheel. With the adjacent visitor centre also hired out for corporate fu

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Stardraw, believe it or not, had a great show. While David Snipp was one of those who took the opportunity to present a well-attended product-led seminar session (struggling to make himself heard above the hideous buzz of the PA system), Rob Robinson said that after a slow start, this turned out to be one of their best exhibitions ever: when you consider the response that Stardraw Control has had at PLASA, LDI, NSCA and ProLight&Sound, this is no faint praise. Latest additions to Stardraw Control include the New Product Wizard, which allows the user to add products not already included in the extensive library, and the ability to talk to any legacy script in any computer language. This opens up even more possibilities for this "disruptive technology" as Snipp likes to call it, "because it changes the way that people do business".

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UK - Vertigo Rigging has supplied the largest InMotion 3D / CyberHoist motion control system yet rigged in the UK, to provide special effects for the 50th anniversary production of the L'Oreal Color Trophy at London's Earls Court 2 arena on 16 May. The L'Oreal Colour Trophy, the most respected awards ceremony in the hair and fashion industry, tours the UK to find regional finalists before culminating in an exhilarating Grand Final in London. To mark its 50th anniversary, the production company that developed the event, Surrey-based CS Media staged a night to remember at Earls Court, with technical production management by MJK Productions.

The event included four hair shows (by hairdressers Charles Worthington, Antoinette Beenders, Trevor Sorbie and Toni & Guy), a three-course dinner, and an after-show party. The action took place on a main stage with an array of mobile and fixed

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UK - When Metal Hammer Magazine held its annual Golden Gods Awards at London's Astoria recently, it was imperative that the stage was lit and dressed in the spirit of thrash metal. With so many logostyles on display, production reinforcement specialists PSL devised a clever means of front projection, using three Digital Projection Lightning 10gv 3-chip DLP projectors, fitted with short-throw lens - in conjunction with High End Systems' Catalyst software. The screen destinations comprised two inner and two outer 25ft by 5ft Trevera long rectangular drapes as the main projection surfaces, flanking a conventional 14ft x 10.5ft front projection screen.

PSL's project manager Mark Solomons worked closely alongside lighting designer, 'Luton' (Pete Hosier) to embellish a stage format he had originally developed with the band Killing Joke. Catalyst V3.3 software was running from a G5 Mac

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Martin Professional Middle East's CEO, Nour Assafiri, said business was excellent for his company, which has been operating since 1991, and as Martin Pro Middle East since 2002. The full lines of Martin Pro and Martin Architectural, Jem smoke machines and Mach sound reinforcement products are complemented by other distributed brands: Advanced Fibre Optics from Spain, and Eurotruss from The Netherlands.

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USA - Color Kinetics Inc has announced the broad installation of its intelliWhite technology in a multiple store roll-out for Bostonian, the specialty men's footwear brand owned by Clarks Companies, NA. Bostonian and its sister brand Clarks operate a network of retail stores nationwide, at least 15 of which will apply iW Profile to light their display shelving.

This system was chosen as a low-maintenance and long-lasting alternative to Bostonian's existing fluorescent display lights, which required costly and frequent replacement. The retailer will design custom display fixtures that incorporate iW Profile to downlight each shelf. iW Profile also allows for different Kelvin temperatures to be set according to display location, for example, cooler shades of white for displays near store windows, and warmer shades towards the store's interior.

According to the US Department of E

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Adam Hall, now at their third PALME, were reporting an "excellent" show, with good responses to its LD Systems audio product line, particularly the wireless mic system, which had recently voted best mic in its price class by Play Music. The company was also picking up strong interest in its protective cases products.

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Representing Pulsar in the Middle East for some time now is the well-known face of John Lethbridge, exhibiting on the stand of NMK, the company's UAE distributor. Lethbridge reported a big gain in momentum in the regional market since Pulsar's first PALME show in 2003, with particularly good growth in Saudi. Pulsar has exclusive distribution in Kuwait, and recently sealed distribution in Qatar. Also on the NMK stand, it was good to catch up with Roy Millington of Cloud Electronics - one of the many pro audio brands represented by the distributor.

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Germany - Since 1943, when Walter Oehmichen and his wife Rose built a "puppet shrine" with their daughters and developed their first tiny puppet show for family and friends, the Augsburger Puppet Box has been the best-known marionette theatre in Germany. Germans young and old have an attachment to the puppets that is beyond nostalgia. Every year the theatre gives 440 performances, 98% of the time sold out, plus tours, guest appearances, and TV and film productions.

To keep up with this intense production rate, the Puppet Box must be able to depend on its technical systems, and Klaus Marschall, grandchild of the founder and now the owner of the theatre, is playing it safe with his lighting, choosing to install an ETC SmartFade 2496 as a DMX backup control console. The Augsburger puppeteers have long relied on their older Transtechnik T20 desk as their main console, with

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Europe / USA - A.C. Lighting supplied a Jands Vista lighting console to Lite Alternative to control the largely Martin Pro rig for Keane's 2005 European and US tour.

Following a successful 2004 UK tour and the critical and commercial success of the band's debut album, Hopes and Fears, Keane extended its tour with a series of European and US dates throughout 2005. With extra production budget available for US shows, which were taking place in venues up to twice the capacity of the European dates, LD Paul Normandale decided to step up the production values for the US leg.

Having read about the Jands Vista lighting console's Generic Fixture Model, Normandale was keen to see if it could provide a solution to the lengthy process of re-plotting shows for varying venue sizes. After a demo from Jands' European and North American distributor A.C. Lighting, Normandale was impressed by t

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UK - mm productions has a new owner. Martyn Hunt, who has been with the company for the past four years, and has run the company for the last two, has announced that he has purchased mm productions from the company's founder and owner John Hoskyns. Hunt, who has worked within the sound industry for 16 years, says he will continue to build on mm productions' reputation for quality sound design and hire.

Previous to him joining mm productions in November 2000, Hunt worked on many West End and touring productions; he has commissioned sound for Princess Cruises Los Angeles, worked for the BBC and Ulster Television, and spent time working in Germany and Palm Springs, California. His first full-time job in sound, however, was at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. And it was whilst at the Crucible that Martyn became addicted to live performance sound.

"It is my real passion for mu

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UK - With the coming summer season looking busier than ever, SDD Sound & Light has just taken delivery of another Midas Venice 320 and Midas 160 desk to cover the increased workload. This takes the company's stock of Venice desks to six, with a further two Venice 320 and another Verona 320/400 planned for the latter part of 2005.

The planned work programme for this year includes not only an increased number of dance and music events but a greater number of touring Shakespeare productions for the summer season. The Venice desks have proved a hit with the artists for their ability to tightly control vocals with warmth and clarity and are now being specified by the touring companies as standard.

"During the past few years it has become clear to us and our clients that the Midas desks have outperformed all of the other brands that we have used," said rental manager Howar

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UK / Ireland - Harman Pro UK staged its highly successful Roadshow Presentation in Dublin, Manchester and London - demonstrating the fabulous range of new Harman technology launched at NAMM and Frankfurt. The show featured presentations from JBL Professional, Crown, dbx Professional, AKG, Lexicon, Soundcraft, BSS and Studer - the core of the Harman Group. Highlighting the new technology and audio solutions available from all these brands for a variety of professional applications, including live concert touring, portable PA, mobile disco and studio sound, the Harman Pro Roadshow has toured the US, France and Germany.

JBL's new VRX Series line array concept attracted much attention. Featuring the performance of high end line arrays in a compact, affordable and flexible 12" two-way format, VRX provides outstanding coverage and output coherence. VRX shares components with JBL'

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UK - APR Audio showcased one of the biggest PA systems ever assembled in a dance tent, at the recent Homelands Festival in the south of England. Entirely comprising Electro-Voice and Klark Teknik/Midas products, the sound system in The Movement Tent was predominantly X-Line, as one would expect from APR, one of the UK's leading EV rental houses.

For a line-up that included some of the world's best drum 'n' bass DJs and MCs, APR provided a ground-stacked X-Line array system, "a massive wall of sound", according to APR's Pete Russell. Either side of a centre stage were eight Xvls 3-way line array cabinets, with 16 Xsubs. In the centre, four Xi1152 full-range cabinets provided fill, and for stage fill, another two Xb LF boxes and two Xn cabinets were used on each side. Completing the picture were XW15As for band monitoring.

APR Audio was repeating its success of 2004 in

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UK - When Ian Croxall bought his Soundcraft Series 1 in 1978, he never dreamed he'd still be using it 25 years later. The console, built into a flightcase (believed to be the first such road-ready design to be produced in volume), has given sterling service for a quarter of a century on numerous live events, being used for recording as well as PA work. Now Croxall has traded his Series 1S in for one of Soundcraft's new GB4 desks, but only because of the channel count.

"There's still nothing wrong with the 1S," reports Croxall. "In all that time it's only ever had two small technical problems, and one of those was a blown fuse! The only reason I'm upgrading is that it has simply run out of channels to handle the sort of work we're doing these days."

Ian donated his Series 1S, complete with the original user guide, to Soundcraft, who intend to put it into a c

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UK - The specialist entertainment industry recruitment company Taylor-Phillips has recently joined forces with the Cambridge Media Group (CMG), which comprises Entertainment Technology Press Ltd, Realnet Ltd (internet solution specialists) and another newly-acquired company, Liverpool Academic Press.

Taylor Phillips was established in 1999 after founder Julie Kirby spent a long period working in the lighting and sound industries; the success of the company is largely due to an understanding of the market and how this sector operates, says Kirby, who will continue with the company as the operation is expanded with a growing team base in Cambridge.

(Jane Cockburn)

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