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USA - Due to "overwhelming interest", the ETCP (Entertainment Technician Certified Program) Council has voted to extend the application deadline for the first ETCP rigging examinations (arena and theatre) to 1 September, 2005. Both exams will be held on Saturday, 12 November, in conjunction with the ETS-LDI tradeshow in Orlando, Florida.

Candidates who pass the examinations in November 2005 will be acknowledged as the only members of the 'Class of 2005' on the ETCP website and will be the first ETCP Certified Riggers in North America. The rigging certifications are designed for highly experienced riggers (rigging supervisors, high steel riggers, flypersons, etc). Qualified riggers can apply for either one or both exams, and individuals must meet eligibility requirements

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UK - Serious Stages have constructed performance platforms and roofs in some interesting and challenging places in their time - including the Sahara Desert, snow-capped Alpine mountains, on floating barges in Belfast Harbour (for BBC Live) and most recently, in the middle of a 5ft deep lake for Birmingham's World War 2 Commemoration Victory Fireworks event at Canon's Hill Park.

The event and entertainment were staged by Birmingham City Council, ending in spectacular style with a massive firework finale. They wanted the stage in this specific position so when fireworks went up at the rear of the structure, the effects would have an ethereal and magical quality as they shimmered in the dark, reflecting back on the lake's glassy surface, giving the audience a visual double-take.

The Serious crew was led by Leo Barcala, and liaised closely with the Council's project manager

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UK - PixelDrive - Radical Lighting and James Thomas's innovative software for controlling LED devices - made a creative leap forward at Godskitchen Global Gathering last weekend, where it was used for the first time to take control of the colour mix function of 100 moving lights in the Godskitchen arena. This, say James Thomas, is the next step in the increasingly converging worlds of lighting and video visuals.

The system - two PixelDrive computers - was installed and programmed by Simon Carter of Radical Lighting. One was running on a laptop and one on a desktop, with both triggered by the Avolites Diamond 4 lighting console operated by Matt Holden-Jones and Paddy Sollitt. One PixelDrive was used to run video sources into the moving lights and one to run them into the 34 James Thomas PixelLine fixtures - a mix of the 1044 and the new PixelLine 110 ec - used in the show.

Ligh

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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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Norway - Dutch loudspeaker system manufacturer Sound Projects reports that Norwegian hire company PA Produksjoner (PAP), with two Norwegian departments (Stavanger and Bergen) has invested in 24 of its Linex line array systems. Researching suitable systems, PAP invited six different brands to bring their line-array systems to the Kongeparken Amfi theatre in Stavanger for a final test. Jan Olav Sandsmark, managing director of PAP, says: "We rigged up five different systems in one whole day and tested the next day. We were not extremely happy with any of the systems, until the Sound Projects team came along and rigged the Linex system up in nine minutes and blew our mind! Not only the easy rigging, but the light weight made us decide for Sound Projects. The clear, good sound settled the matter. We didn't have a second doubt about which sound system was the best. Ever since we ha

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UAE - Following a successful event in April this year, IIR, organizer of the PALME exhibition in Dubai, reports another surge in growth for the show, with PALME 2006 now looking set to occupy three full halls of the Dubai International Exhibition Centre (DIEC) with many of the 2005 participants having already confirmed their attendance. Still with over eight months to go before the doors open, IIR reports that PALME 2006 is now 65% sold.

The main objective of PALME, say IIR, is to allow for manufacturers, suppliers and installers to meet face to face with buyers and specifiers from a wide range of industries who have a need for professional sound, light, music, audio-visual and systems integration equipment and solutions.

PALME 2006 is scheduled to take place in Dubai from 23-25 April 2006.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Hocken AV has recently installed audio-visual presentation equipment including the JVC DLA-SX21E video projector in the principal meeting room at St Bede's Conference Centre, the training facility of St Anthony's Hospital in North Cheam, Surrey, UK.

St Anthony's is an independent charitable hospital in the private sector and is a major provider of cardiac surgery. Its sister organization, St Raphael's Hospice, provides a free service to local residents. "When we are not using the centre for our own purposes, we rent it to outside users, which include local NHS organizations, councils and commercial and voluntary organisations. All of these users expect the equipment to be easy to operate and produce the best in image quality," says Philip Cook, head of marketing at St Anthony's Hospital. Cook adds, it is our intention in the future, to extend the use of the confer

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UK - The Saville Group, the UK's largest audio-visual and conference equipment supplier, recently took delivery of two KV2 Audio ES loudspeaker systems. Targeting the growing corporate presentation and larger events market, they found a need for a more upfront Audio solution that would provide high levels of playback and throw over medium to long distances, but with the quality demanded by increasingly discerning audiences.

The first test for the system was at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, where 1,000 enthusiastic members of the Going Places travel firm descended for their two-day management conference.Saville Gold's Gareth Lloyd says: "At this type of event the ambient noise levels are extremely high, and to find a system that can project with such intelligibility, all the way to the back of the room is rare. The ease of use, and plug-and-play nature of the KV2 system is

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USA - New York-based lighting rental and production company, Pegasus Productions, has made a major investment in the new Alpha range of automated fixtures from Clay Paky.Pegasus Productions purchased Clay Paky's Alpha Spot HPE and immediately put 12 of them to work. A New Jersey Fourth of July wedding reception held in a tent for over 1,000 people, was the site of the Alpha Spots' début for Pegasus. Lighting designer Faith Yildiz ran the event, using a Wholehog II for control of the lighting and video elements. "It was really a pleasure to work with the Alphas," remarks Yildiz. "We really didn't have any time to play with the fixtures prior to this gig, so we had some questions at the back of our minds as to how they would perform. But the Alphas are very bright and lit up whole tent nicely. I was very happy with how they performed."

As well as dealing with

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Australia - The Rock Eisteddfod Challenge has once again hit the roads of Australia with Paul Collison using his tried and tested formula of Martin MACs and Pulsar ChromaBanks. Control was from an MA Lighting GrandMA.

Paul came up with the idea of five curved snake like trusses hung under a mother truss along with a split front truss to allow the followspots a clear shot at the stage, all running off four data streams from the GrandMA with 3D visualization.

Along with 11 MAC 2000 Wash, four MAC 2000 Performance, 16 MAC 600 washlights and 16 Pulsar ChromaBanks, Paul used 15 MAC 2000 Profiles each housing the new Patrick Woodroffe Gobo Collection.

"I knew the gobos were on their way so I asked Vince Haddad from Show Technology to rush me through a set so we could use them for the Canberra show," said Paul. "The gobos are awesome! It's like using a completely dif

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USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has appointed Steve Goodwin as marketing services manager. Responsible for coordinating all aspects of marketing and promotion of Community products worldwide, Goodwin comes to the post with a wide range of experience in marketing, sales and customer service. He has worked at Community for six years, serving as an international account manager and customer service supervisor.

"Community has been a wonderful place to work," says Goodwin, "and I look forward to bringing my talents to this new position." A graduate of Lycoming College with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Goodwin also speaks Spanish.

Julia Lee, Community's director of marketing and sales, says: "Steve has been a tremendous asset in improving customer service levels, especially in the international markets. He will now bring his well-liked personal style

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UK - Activity Floors have been installed in the Scottish Youth Theatre's new home in Glasgow.

The floors - one with a maple surface and five with black Harlequin Cascade surfaces - are in the redevelopment and conversion of the Old Sheriff Court located at the heart of Glasgow's Merchant City.

The Scottish Youth Theatre is Scotland's national theatre company 'for and by' young people. The Old Sheriff Court has been designed to provide the Scottish Youth Theatre with a wide range of facilities including five large rehearsal spaces, a fully equipped studio theatre and dance studio.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Infinium Technologies has announced that Rodec has selected its digital, contact-free fader for its new Scratchbox DJ mixer. Infinium specializes in the development and distribution of digital contact-free controls which boast long life, high-level precision and fully adjustable 'feel' characteristics.

Marc Coupillie, sales director at Rodec, commented: "Working together with an experienced partner in digital technologies has allowed us to overcome the flaws and limitations most other scratch products are confronted with, hence offering us a progressive product which will hopefully set a new standard in the DJ/scratch scene for the years to come."

DJs are invited to try out the new faders for themselves at the Infinium Technologies stand at the PLASA show (11-14 September 2005) - stand FF6.

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - Lectrosonics introduced the IS400 Digital Hybrid Wireless Instrument System only a few months ago and it's already a hit with Steve Stevens. The renowned guitarist, who has been performing and writing with Billy Idol for all but a few of the last 23 years, is currently mid-tour promoting the singer's new album, Devil's Playground, the first album of new material from Idol and Stevens together in over 12 years.

Designed for use with both electric and acoustic instruments, the Lectrosonics IS400, consisting of the IM transmitter and R400A receiver, utilizes a proprietary digital algorithm to encode the audio signal into an analog format for transmission over an FM wireless carrier, which is then converted back into digital audio via DSP at the receiver. According to Stevens' guitar tech, Tim Kennedy, it was about time. "We've been waiting for years for something

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UK - For a record twelfth consecutive year, Holland's Ampco Pro Rent (APR) has supplied the complete audio production for the WOMAD Festival at the Rivermead in Reading, where nine stages present an eclectic blend of tunes, poetry, dance and arts workshops, all featuring performers from around the globe. APR's primary console brand of choice for WOMAD is Midas, with around 80% of the Reading event's 25 desks being Midas Heritage Series or XL3 consoles.

"We rarely have time for sound-checks and of course there are a lot of visiting engineers around all the stages who need to be able to jump on a desk and be ready to mix instantly," says APR production manager Dieter van Denzel. "Midas gives us the familiarity, the reliability and of course the essential audio quality."

All in all, APR oversaw the action at the main (Open Air) stage, the ever-popular Siam Ten

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UK - Building on the company's worldwide success in sound reinforcement since the introduction of V-Series in 2003, Tannoy is now offering a fully active version called VNET. By integrating its renowned Dual Concentric point source, constant directivity drive unit with digital signal processing (DSP), network control and class D amplifier technologies into these high definition sound reinforcement (HDSR) loudspeakers, Tannoy is providing a fully monitored active speaker system; a turn key solution for the most demanding sound reinforcement applications.

All VNET models are supplied with the active speaker system fully optimized, requiring onlyroom equalization to finalize the set up, say Tannoy. Room EQ is simplified via user accessible SHARC DSP-based processing that can be used in place of an upstream speaker management system. Using free network topology, which does not suffe

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The Netherlands - Recently commissioned and based in Amsterdam, the Pure Liner is a floating presentation venue capable of accommodating up to 650 guests for a daylong product launch. Equipped with state of the art lighting, sound and audio facilities, the boat is aimed at companies in Holland, Belgium and Germany who want to make product presentations in a novel environment and is fully equipped to sail to any of those countries.

Among the facilities is a d&b audiotechnik sound system that was chosen for its intelligible and clear speech reproduction, essential for corporate and company events. The system consists of d&b's compact E3 and E0 loudspeakers with Q subwoofers all colour co-ordinated to match the black and white theme of the surroundings.

In the main presentation area, a giant screen is surrounded by E3s to provide a T0 point for the sound with E0s front and back i

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UK - Arena Structures has supplied the temporary structures accommodating the media at this summers G8 Summit. Whilst the most Worlds powerful politicians tried to agree on future global policies in Perth's luxurious Gleneagles Hotel in July, the summits producers, Jack Morton Worldwide, created considerable additional amenities for the event.

Jack Morton Worldwide contracted Arena Structures to supply the temporary media facilities to house the 2,500 reporters covering the event within the secure 'ring of steel' protecting the G8 from protesters. The wide range of structures included Arena's proprietary TFS structure incorporating a mezzanine that bristled with screens and I.T. technology, whilst a separate two storey media restaurant and separate briefing rooms for each country, from where broadcasters communicated the conferences proceedings to TV companies worldwide.

Jack

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Europe - A pair of Christie's flagship 25K Roadie projectors have been integrated into the dynamic stage backdrop created by Siyan show director Bryan Leitch and lighting designer Nick Whitehouse for Coldplay's Twisted Logic World tour.

While this is Coldplay's second world tour with lighting company, Siyan, it is their first with the next-generation three-chip DLP Roadies. They were dry hired to the production by Robin Wealleans' company The Picture Works as part of a package that included sophisticated camera and control equipment.

According to the band's video director, Alan Yates, the Roadies were selected for their high brightness and high-resolution output. They continue to function superbly as an alternative video reference to the IMAG LED sidescreens. In the shows to date, the projectors have been positioned on a tower at FOH so set up and alignment was straightforward

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Italy - The RCF 4PRO 7001 is designed to perform in both concert sound applications as well as in professional sound systems situations, such as large clubs and theatres, say the company. 4PRO 7001 is an arrayable, medium throw system that integrates high power "full neodymium" RCF low distortion transducers. The new 15" inch neodymium, 4" voice coil mid-bass is the result of the latest developments of RCF experience in speaker design and manufacture, resulting in an accurate and a tight bass response.

RCF's 10" Precision Series sealed basket midrange is optimized to work with the 4PRO-7001 60x40 midrange horn. A massive neodymium magnet and a "Compression Driver level" assembly design has been dedicated to reach low distortion and dynamic properties for this transducer.

The compression driver uses a new 3" titanium dome in front of a lo

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India - Avolites' sales director Steve Warren and business development manager Koy Neminathan recently staged a two-day open workshop in Mumbai, India, alongside their distributor Jagmag Electric, run by the charismatic Atul Sonpal. The workshop featured advanced training on existing Avolites products, including the Pearl 2004 - the most popular and widely used professional lighting console in India. The Avolites sales team also took the opportunity of introducing the latest products to the Indian market - the Diamond 4 console range and the eDMX wireless data transmission system.

The workshop follows on from a similar, more basic training event staged four years ago by Avolites and Jagmag, also in Mumbai. "The take up was phenomenal," says Steve Warren - with over 110 people attending over the two days: "They all wanted to learn more. Many were Avo owners and use

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USA - Innovate Show Controls (ISC) has released its latest version of the BlueLite X1's downloadable software. Version 1.2 now supports up to 16 DMX universes (8,192 channels) and includes full compatibility with LewLight's Capture 3.0, one of the world's premier CAD and visualization programs for lighting designers. Existing BlueLite X1 users may add additional universes to their standard four universe (2,048 channel) systems in four-universe increments. As with the original X1, there are no restrictions on channel usage or fixture counts.

Version 1.2's support for Capture 3.0 is via LewLight's CITP protocol. This allows Capture to be run on the same Windows 2000/XP machine as the BlueLite X1, or on two separate machines connected via a LAN. In addition to basic DMX data exchange, version 1.2 supports more advanced CITP options. This allows features like Capture's auto focus of

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