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USA - Coldplay's video for its latest single, Speed of Sound features Versa TUBE units from Element Labs. In an unprecedented application, nearly the entire video shoot was done with LED lights from a total of 700 Versa TUBEs. Filmed on a massive sound stage, the video features a delicate, half-crescent back wall composed of 640 Versa TUBEs placed on approximately 6" centres. Since the TUBEs were used without diffusion sleeves and the surrounding structure is quite minimal, the lights appear to be suspended in mid-air.

Production designer Mike Keeling of Project X and director Mark Romanek put together this singular look."The idea here is having the band on this raw stage and everything is done in silhouette with lighting and key lighting," Keeling explains.

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UK - Following the recent news of Telectra's ABTT Award for its Ice*lighting LED effect, Telectra Ltd has announced a further success, having picked up the innovation prize at the Oxfordshire Business Awards 2005 with its award winning LED diffusion systems - Bead*light Technologies (patents pending).

Fierce competition was provided by the other finalists across diverse fields of advanced science, biosciences technology experts, Oxford Genome Sciences, and RM plc (Research Machines plc), the specialist educational information and communication technology company, adding to the illustrious nature of the award. The award was sponsored by Marks & Clerk, the patent and trade mark attorneys and The Oxford Times.

Sales and marketing director of Telectra, Alan Oliver, was jubilant with the result. "This crowned off a great week for all of us at Telectra. Two days earlier, we wer

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UK - Yorkshire-based Yorkshire Audio Ltd is the latest company to invest in Audient's acclaimed Aztec live performance console. Owner Bob Collinson had used Aztec on many occasions and thought it time to purchase one for a forthcoming tour, so this month he collected a new 48-channel Aztec Touring Edition. Collinson notes: "I had used Aztec on a number of gigs and loved it every time. When looking recently for a new large format console, I noted that Aztec had turned up of many riders last year and its evident success made it a very sensible option for my hire inventory."

UK sales manager, Nick Pemberton completed the sale. "As a person with Yorkshire blood in me, I understood what Bob wanted from his console: quality and flexibility, without it breaking the bank. Aztec fits the bill perfectly. As one of the finest sounding console available, Aztec's "no nons

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 - HSL Productions has supplied full lighting rigs for both performance areas at the ABC, Glasgow's newest live music venue. ABC, situated right downtown in a charismatic building on the City's famous Sauchiehall Street, is owned by Scottish promoters Regular Music and PCL, and the Workers Beer Company. It features a 1,250 capacity main room and a 350 capacity second room plus VIP bar, and plugs the gap for a medium sized, highly specified live venue in central Glasgow.

Venue general manager Malcolm (Malky) Blair, a well known figure on the Scottish and UK music and touring scenes says, "We wanted a really excellent production facility to encourage bands and performers to play without needing to bring in their own rigs". As it's a multi purpose venue as well as a live music space, ABC will feature several regular club nights, so versatile lighting was also top of the

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USA - Closely following the release of the MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker, Meyer Sound has announced the 600-HP compact high-power subwoofer. Bringing the power of the 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofer to a package ideal for rigging with MICA, the self-powered 600-HP is ideal for flown applications, say Meyer, using its optional QuickFly rigging, and for those situations where the extra low-frequency extension of the 700-HP is not required, or where space is a consideration.

In addition to being the ideal partner in a flown MICA array, the 600-HP's operating frequency range of 33Hz to 150Hz provides a complement to other Meyer Sound self-powered products such as the UPA-1P compact wide coverage or UPJ-1P compact VariO loudspeakers. The 600-HP's power and bandwidth handle high continuous operating levels and extreme transient information with minimal distort

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USA - The San Francisco Hilton Hotel and Towers has added an Allen & Heath MixWizard WZ3 16:2 mixing console to its special event audio production equipment, which already includes a 24 mono/8 stereo input Allen & Heath GL4000 and a 24-channel GL4. The hotel chose the MixWizard for its compact size, flexibility and ease of set-up. "We're getting quite a fleet of Allen & Heath desks now and I'm excited about using the new MixWizard," said ballroom engineer, John Fagan. "It's a real space-saver; we bought a case with it as well, so it goes in, tilts up, and off we go! That's what it's all about now, a quick set-up and a quick strike."

The San Francisco Hilton Hotel and Towers offers a wide selection of ballrooms and conference spaces to handle its busy events schedule, from the 30,000sq.ft Grand Ballroom - which seats 3,300 in a theatrical configuration - down

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UK - DiGiCo's dedicated theatre console, the D5T, formed a major part of LSI Projects' stand at the recent ABTT show in London. As a supplier and system integrator of sound, lighting, audio-visual and suspension equipment for a diverse range of markets, LSI Projects has recognized the need for a high-end digital mixing console for the theatre market, and believes that DiGiCo's D5T has provided an ideal solution for them. "LSI Projects is one of the number one installation companies in the UK, Middle and Far East for the theatre installation market," says DiGiCo's sales director James Gordon. "They have been specifying our products on a number of projects recently and we're extremely pleased to welcome them into the DiGiCo family."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Mojo Barriers UK supplied all of the stage crowd barriers to the 2005 Download Festival at Donington. 50,000 heavy rock fans descended on Donington to 'rock out' to over 60 bands featuring Black Sabbath, Velvet Revolver, Slayer, Slipknot, Feeder and Garbage.

Mojo Barriers UK director Jim Gaffney managed the project and liaised with Clear Channel's festival manager John Probyn and site manager Andy Pearson to agree an effective barrier design to create a safe environment for the exuberant fans. Jim explained: "There a lot of factors to consider when deciding on the best barrier configuration for the show. We have done lots of shows at Donington, as has John (Probyn) so it was great working with someone who had some great ideas whilst listening to our advice. The music/audience type and slope of the ground (left to right) were the two over-riding factors in deciding on t

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USA - Folk legend John Prine made his first live performance as a singer/songwriter in Illinois in 1946. Over the course of his career, he has released eight studio albums and penned such classics as Please Don't Bury Me, Fish And Whistle and Souvenirs. His music has also inspired other artists like Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt, Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash to release their own versions of Prine tunes.

Much to his fans' delight, Prine recently went back out on the road to support his new album Fair & Square, the first studio album of new material in over nine years. Joining him for the Fair & Square 2005 tour is veteran live sound mixer Dan Lance of Nomad Productions, who has offices in Dallas, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee. Lance, whose mixing career began in 1982 with Showco, has worked with a wide variety of professional performers including Barbara Mandr

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UK - Wisbech based 5 Star Cases Limited has a major investment into additional CNC machining facilities. 5 Star is one of Europe's leading case manufacturers and has seen steady growth since its formation over twenty-one years ago. The company has been using CNC in its production facilities for almost six years, since its first installation of a Thermwood model 40.This machine has been the heart of the company's CNC machining systems along with two aluminium extrusion-notching saws. Due to continued growth and healthy order book, a second Thermwood 40 has been ordered with the Indiana, USA based manufacturer and will be installed in mid August."This is a major investment for the company but will hopefully demonstrate our commitment to our customers and retain our position as a leading case manufacturer" explains Andy Hudson, 5 Star's production manager. "Due to rece

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UK - Front-of-house sound engineer Geoff Hooper is using a JBL VerTec VT 4889 line array system for Elvis Costello's current UK tour - a decision made as they stepped up a level in terms of production and venue size. Hopper has used VerTec for the three years he's been touring with Costello in the US, where the venues vary from 700 capacity clubs to 4000 capacity theatres and arenas. With several large concert halls on the itinerary for this UK leg of the tour, VerTec was the obvious option.

Costello knows exactly what he wants from a sound system, making the task of engineering simultaneously challenging and rewarding: "I interfere as little as possible with the distinctive Costello sound coming offstage," says Hopper. "I know I can get a great 'natural' sound out of the VerTec, and that's a primary reason it's my choice of system," he says.

Costello's flo

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USA - In May, TMB shipped the 100th ProPower Rack Panel Distribution (RPD) System. The system was sold to Ed & Ted's Excellent Lighting, Inc. in support of an intensive summer of concert and corporate events, commencing with the Eminem North American Tour.

TMB's ProPower RPD features a comprehensive range of cULus Listed panels. Included are virtually every type of connector, voltage range, or special purpose power distro device used in the live event and entertainment industries. Over 150 panels are available, with more being added regularly. Panels and their positioning in the rack are selected by the user and the RPD system is built exactly as specified. RPD rack systems are normally shipped within ten days, completely ready to use. In addition to Power Distribution panels, an entire family of panels has been engineered using the ETC SmartPack dimmer modules and ProPlex Data

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USA - Elation Professional has introduced the Vision Scan 575, a 575W DMX professional scanner designed for big concert halls, arenas, stage tours and major theatrical productions.

Equipped with a powerful 575W Philips lamp and a high-output luminous-parabolic dichroic reflector optical system, the Vision Scan 575 offers users three beam angle positions - 18°, 20° or 22° - with bright output at each setting. For example, at 18° the output is an impressive 12470 lux.

A moving mirror fixture, the Vision Scan 575 is capable of quick movement and beams can sweep across a wide area, with movement of 170° pan and 80° tilt. It's equipped with an iris, and a frost filter plus it features two independent gobo wheels. The first wheel takes three lithographic, one glass and three metal rotating/indexing gobos, and the second holds seven static metal gobos. Gobos can be overlaid to

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France/UK - Owned by Bruno Bertrand, Audiopole is a long time distributor of pro audio equipment for a number of leading manufacturers. The company recently found it had a gap in its product range that the MC2 brand could fill.

"When our previous amplifier brand stopped being made, we were on the lookout for a manufacturer offering innovative products to fit both fixed installation and touring applications," comments Bertrand. "These market segments need high powered, compact and reliable amplifiers that few manufacturers can offer today at a high quality level.

"After checking the new E series, we decided that MC2 products fit those needs exactly. Moreover, having been in touch with Ian McCarthy several times, we know the company has a profile that can offer innovation, flexibility and a friendly relationship. We are very happy to see that sales have start

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UK - Two new Visualizers from WolfVision incorporate features that make them ideal for meetings, presentations and conferences, say the company. The VZ-57plus Desktop and VZ-C30 Ceiling model are the first to use Progressive Scan in a 3CCD camera. In addition, WolfVision have increased the motion capture rate to 30fps - 50% faster than previous systems. WolfVision says that this means for the first time in Visualizers, 100% true colour with high resolution to produce unrivalled clear, sharp picture quality, allowing documents, plans and even 3D objects to be shown. Product prototypes, textile patterns, technical diagrams and architectural models can be seen clearly for detailed study and discussion.

The 3CCD Progressive Scan camera is the latest of WolfVision's own developments and uses a beam splitter that divides each pixel into the separate red, green and blue primary colours

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Germany - Audio specialist Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG concluded financial year 2004 with worldwide sales of EUR 261.7 million, which corresponds to an increase of 10.3 per cent on the previous year. Sennheiser say that in addition to the positive development of the economic climate, this success can be attributed to the company's consistently high investments in production technologies and research and development; other contributory factors were decisive improvements to its logistics processes and efficient marketing strategies.

The Sennheiser Group, which in the year under report consisted of the parent company plus four domestic and 13 foreign subsidiaries, and the joint venture Sennheiser Communications A/S, raised its sales by EUR 24.5 million in 2004 to a figure of EUR 261.7 million. Profits increased to EUR 13.2 million, which already takes into account a special

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UK - Electro-Voice's chic designer EViD loudspeakers are the ideal fit for the new refurbished interior of Birmingham's leading gay club, The Nightingale, where Matthews Electronics of Birmingham has just completed the installation of high-end sound and lighting systems throughout the venue.

The Nightingale is a unique managed business owned by its members, reinvesting its profits into the business. Now 35 years old and in its fourth location, the venue has recently undergone a £3/4 million redevelopment, evolving into a 'style bar and nightclub', open seven days a week.

Set over three floors, The Nightingale has capacity for 2,000. With live PA on the ground floor, and another large dance club on the second floor, the first floor in the middle features the new B5 Bar and Restaurant, together with a piano lounge and café bar with swanky leather sofas, chunky tables and big l

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Germany - The V-Motion variable motion controllers from Movecat (distributor: Think Abele of Nufringen) are designed for use with the German manufacturer's VMK hoists, in which combination intelligent and safe variable-speed hoist systems complying with BGV C1 can be created. These versatile controllers can be configured for use with a variety of VMK hoists - the V-Motion 15 for drives rated at up to 1.5 kW and the V-Motion 30 for those rated at up to 3kW.

A large, backlit LCD displays the operating state (including the run direction, run speed, position and other operating parameters) of all the connected hoists. The main and safety processor monitors all functions. All the contactors and safety circuits needed to protect against overload and slack chain are integrated along with work limit switches and emergency shutdown systems. In addition, the execution of, and internal ope

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UK - ETC has always had a busy, but not large, stand at ABTT and this year Mark White, manager for UK and Ireland, decided the company needed a bigger area to demonstrate its wares. This meant a move into what has traditionally been one of the show's quieter halls, but ETC's presence soon drew the crowds say the company.

The main attraction was ETC's Congo lighting control console - field project manager Jeremy Roberts was so busy doing demonstrations that he hardly had a break during the entire two days. Other products drawing attention were the Source Four Revolution, SmartBar, SmartFade and SmartPack Wallmount with SmartLink and wall stations. However, ETC also said that visitors to the stand were equally delighted with a very British glass of Pimm's No.1, mixed by ETC project manager Iain Quinn.

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - Interpol, New York's most talked-about rock band, has been touring in Europe with a JBL VerTec system, souped up with BSS Audio's FDS-366T Omnidrive Compact Plus's. The FDS-366T was used as the main crossover unit for the VerTec's low mid-hi cabinets and for the subwoofers that made up the system.

Playing mid-size venues with 1500-3000 capacity, the European dates of Interpol's tour were serviced by British PA company, SSE Hire. Tim Fraleigh, system technician on the tour, praised the sound quality of the BSS unit, especially the facility which allows the engineer to EQ the system beyond the crossover settings.

The FDS-366T's are equipped with the V1T tunings using WHISEWORKS-NTM filters, first pioneered with VerTec by SSE during last years Metallica tour.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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Spain - When Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid decided to renew their old sound system at the famous Bernabeu Stadium they turned to pro audio specialists Gaplasa/DBM Pro ES, who recommended a Denon/Marantz playback solution.

As one of the best football teams in the world Gaplasa's José Maria Penalba rationalized the club deserved nothing less than the best in sound quality too. "However, it was not only a question of offering them top quality equipment but also the best engineering team and service," he emphasized.

After listening carefully to the club's needs, the D&M Professional Spanish distributors were able to meet all system requirements from the company's catalogue. The background music is now delivered from a Marantz Professional CC 4300P 5-disc CD changer, designed for commercial use. Also installed is a Marantz Professional CDR510 Live Event CD Recorder.

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