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Australia - Australian manufacturer LSC Lighting has secured prime position at this year's PLASA show - right behind the popular Innovation Gallery at the front of the hall. Despite numerous attempts to gain information on LSC's new product releases at PLASA this year, a company spokesperson has repeatedly stone-walled by just offering the company's stand number - H11. What can be so secretive not to reveal any details prior to the show? LSC is in its 15th year as an exhibitor at PLASA, so why not just blurt out what's coming? Everyone else does . . .

LSC will unveil the big secret at the PLASA Show - on stand H11.

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Slovenia - When NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and 300 parliamentarians attended the NATO spring assembly, held this year in Llubljana, Slovenia, PA company MK Light Sound took the opportunity to debut its brand-new Nexo GEO S system at the elegant evening gala, staged for the delegates in Llubljana's VIBA film studios.

Production company Teater d.o.o. created a sophisticated evening of entertainment and hospitality for more than 1200 guests, featuring a live orchestra, classical soloists and circus performers. Recently appointed as Nexo's distributor in Slovenia, MK Light Sound is also one of the country's leading sound rental companies. Using Nexo's GEOSoft v2 software, Dean Karov designed a system using all MK's new GEO S inventory, except for the CD18 subs, for the NATO event.

Either side of the stage were arrays of 11 S805s plus a single S830 downfill cabine

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UK - Distribution for Schoeps microphones in the UK and Republic of Ireland is now being handled by ioCo Limited - a company formed by Neal McCormack, who has over 15 years experience of distributing Schoeps products. The intention of the new venture, says McCormack, is "to bring this prestigious microphone range, much beloved of the recording cognoscente, to a much broader user base, especially in education, theatre and live sound."

(Lee Baldock)

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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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Australia / USA - The International Communications Industries Association Inc (ICIA/InfoComm), the premier trade association for the audiovisual industry worldwide, is pleased to announce its participation at Entech 2006 (Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre February 13 - 15 2006).

ICIA/InfoComm will offer a one-day program consisting of four 90-minute seminars featuring AV design, display, signal management and presentation support for end users. The seminars are being presented by InfoComm Academy's instructors at Entech. A breakfast meeting of the newly created ICIA Australia and New Zealand Member Council will precede the seminars. In addition, ICIA will host a booth on the exhibition floor.

"ICIA is delighted to participate at Entech next year," said Terry Friesenborg, CTS, senior vice-president for international development of ICIA. "Demand has dramatical

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Germany - MA Lighting has released a new software version 5.60 for grandMA multimedia consoles and it is available now for free download from MA's website. At the same time, the company is offering another useful tool - grandMA video, a fully network integrated (MA-Net) and software based media server.

Many new and innovative features have been added to the new software, version 5.60. In conjunction with additional tools such as grandMA 3D, grandMA onPC and grandMA remote, the grandMA console becomes a much more powerful multimedia control tool that meets the sophisticated requirements of today, says MA.

The new grandMA video software can be controlled with advanced features including browsing, previewing bitmaps of video footage and pictures as well as arranging the content of the media server directly on the console via MA-Net. The 'Channel Value' organization within the 'Fi

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UK - Biamp has appointed Steve Metzger to the newly created position of business development manager for the entire company. He will report directly to president Ralph Lockheart and will be responsible for researching new technologies as well as growing new business for the company.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Denon DJ is launching two new DJ mixer models that will be previewed at PLASA 2005. The DN-X500 Matrix Mixer and DN-X900 Digital/Analogue Matrix Mixer are designed to provide "the best possible combination of audio quality and features for DJs in both the analogue and digital domains".

The DN-X500 is a professional 4U 19in rack-mountable analogue matrix mixer, with eight line and two phono inputs that can be freely assigned to any of four channels. Four smooth 60 mm VCA channel faders provide level control, and a responsive 45 mm VCA crossfader offers contour adjustment. Independent PFL channel meters help DJs to optimise and match levels for each source, ensuring a smooth transition between sources when crossfading.

Each channel has a 3-band equaliser with independent EQ kill switch (high-mid-low), and an independent EQ off switch also features. Any channel, in

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UK - Arena Structures provided a selection of temporary structures for the Chelmsford site of V Festival 2005, where Oasis, The Streets, KT Tunstall, Franz Ferdinand and Scissor Sisters all entertained huge crowds throughout the weekend. The structures, which ranged from 20m x 30m to 5m x 5m in size, were used all over the site, most notably for the NME signing tent, where a number of performers including Magic Numbers and Good Charlotte met and signed autographs for fans.

The backstage artist's bar was also housed in an Arena structure, which was busy throughout the weekend with artists and production crew alike watching the action on stage through plasmas which displayed a live feed from the main stage, and catching the action from the weekend's football matches. Commercial manager Rory O'Neil explained: "This event gave us the chance to show that Arena Structures is abou

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UK - Jem's industry standard AF-1 has served the entertainment industry well as a multi-purpose fan for years, serving in clubs, studios and theatres, and on countless tours and events. A more powerful version of the AF-1 Fan, the AF-2, has now hit the market. Employed in a variety of ways - projecting smoke over long distances, converting smoke to haze, producing wind effects, or keeping equipment like amp and dimmer racks cool, or performers themselves - the AF-2 is all about moving air, namely awesome output and power! In fact, it is nearly three times as powerful as the AF-1.

Besides increased power and airflow, the overall design has been enhanced to become even more state of the art. Like its predecessor, the AF-2 features DMX as standard (both 3- and 5-pin) and can also be remote controlled with features such as auto timer, speed/output control and 8x mode, which expands

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UK - Avesco plc's Creative Technology fulfilled the screen requirements for the recent stadium section of a tour by Oasis. The company positioned four Barco D-Lite 7 LED screens at the rear of the stage, controlled by a Kinesys tracking system with slow start/slow finish actuators that allowed them to move in the vertical plane, to fly in and out of the set during the show. Two further 8.1m x 5.4m D-Lite 7 screens, were positioned left and right on the stage wings to provide straightforward IMAG footage.

SDI feeds from a front of house PPU were routed into a central matrix, allowing any of the feeds to be switched into any of the screens at any time. This meant that if an input feed dropped out, there was the means to send a good feed to another screen without a break in video footage. The combination of stage and IMAG screens allowed video director Dick Carruthers and his compa

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UK - PRG Europe provided extensive lighting facilities for this year's Henley Festival, which takes place on the banks of the River Thames immediately following the famed Regatta. "It's been described as a cross between Glyndebourne and Glastonbury," said festival director Stewart Collins. "And each year the site looks better and better, because of the way it is lit after dark by PRG. This year, it looked fantastic. Dusk was at 10.15pm, at which point the entire site was illuminated - as opposed to floodlit - using cutting edge lighting to stunning effect."

PRG Europe has been working with the festival for the past five years, says project manager Peter Marshall, lighting the whole site, providing all the crew and organising the lighting for the main performance venues. The site lighting was designed and theatrically lit by lighting designer Theo Cox to creat

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UK - Hall Stage is launching several new products at PLASA. On display will be the award-winning DGS counterweight drive and a series of new hoists from ASM, including the Synchro and the Spider steel band units. The new ASM D8++ chain hoist offers a high specification at entry-level prices. D8++ means no secondary safety line required, say Hall Stage, so quicker and easier installation and no noisy brakes - so the unit can be used in show conditions.

Hall Stage will also have the laser-locating stage truck system from Visual Act on - or near - the stand. There is also the first new track system from Halls in a good few years - an attractive, lightweight, motorized aluminium system, called T300, which has been designed for presentation environments, such as conference rooms, small-scale theatres and preview cinemas, say the company.

Hall Stage can be found at the PLASA

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UK - The propellerplasma. rotating video display, which spins on its Z axis, just like a propeller, is available exclusively from Arcstream AV, which holds distribution rights for the UK & Ireland and the Middle East. A number of screens can be used simultaneously, with seamless sequencing from one screen to another, says Arcstream. The effect is intensified when several propellers are synchronized. A whole range of display configurations are possible if more than one propeller is employed. The type, direction and duration of the rotation can be set according to requirements. The display receives wireless video signal and power supply, which means permanent rotation in both directions is possible.

(Jim Evans)

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Italy - The Palco-3 Mobile promises "great efficiency and high colour rendering". The LED-based light source offers a number of key features: 100,000 hours life at full power, cold light and absolutely no maintenance; top colour efficiency: the red's intensity for example is the same as that of a 750W halogen lamp, but consumes less than 100W, and silent operation. The fixture is fan-free and has no cooling system.

Palco 3 Mobile is fitted with absolute encoders, so when reset doesn't require any repositioning procedure and goes immediately to the required position. If accidentally moved, it restores the position and when switched off, a special mechanism enables to block the motor in the current position. It has a considerable range of interchangeable optics designed to meet the most varied illumination requirements.

SGM can be found at the PLASA Show on stand G30.<

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UK - CAST's renowned WYSIWYG workshops have now been confirmed as part of the overall seminar and training programme at this year's PLASA Show (11-14 September, Earls Court 1, London). The workshops will offer an introduction to this industry-standard lighting visualisation software, which is used by lighting professionals the world over on productions ranging from major concerts to West End musicals, and from blockbuster movies to cutting-edge architectural installations.

Created by Cast Software, WYSIWYG has won many awards, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development. Lighting designers, programmers and operators can join Josh Koffman, WYSIWYG's product manager, for an overview of the system, before focusing on essentials such as basic CAD techniques, fixture selection and placement, rendering and plotting. Josh will also introduce attendees

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USA - The Rolling Stones' world tour kicked off in the US on Sunday, 21 August with a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 3 console specified for lighting control. The lighting team includes lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, lighting director Ethan Weber and programmer Dave Hill. Lighting contractor is PRG, which also supplied a Wholehog 3 backup. The veteran rockers' A Bigger Bang world tour spans the globe through 2006.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Rigging and steel wire specialists Slingco will be showcasing its new Vortek system and CABLEnet tensioned wire grids at PLASA 2005.

The company was established in the late 1970's to provide a range of innovative wire rope-based solutions to a diverse range of industries including mining, civil engineering, telecommunications, architecture, marine/offshore, defence & aerospace. Since, Slingco has grown into a major specialist in and supplier of wire rope and associated products, achieving ISO9002 quality assurance.

Launched earlier this year, Vortek is a complete theatrical rigging system designed and manufactured by Hoffend Inc. USA, for which Slingco is the exclusive UK representative. Work that used to take four-to-six weeks can now be completed in days utilising Vortek, says Slingco.The hub of every Vortek system is a brake, specifically designed for theatre applicati

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UK - KV2 Audio will show its VHD large-format active speaker system at PLASA. The VHD system is comprised of the VHD 2.0 Mid / High enclosure, the VHD 4.18 Quad 18" subwoofer system and the VHD 2.15 double 15" subwoofer system. The system is active driven by specially developed rack-mounted amplification and control units. The VHD 2000 powers and controls the VHD 2.0 as well as providing two separate signal control paths for subwoofer systems. The VHD 3200 is 3,200W 2-channel, subwoofer amplifier with two completely separate amplifier channels including power supplies.

VHD also features the first implementation of Direct Stream Digital (DSD) technology as part of the speaker control system's delay circuit. DSD provides a fundamental improvement in audio signal quality over CPM based digital systems by increasing sampling from 96kHz to 6,000kHz and eliminating CPM filte

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UK - Avolites will show a number of new products at PLASA 2005. First among them, the ART-DC dimmer is a fully environmentally friendly, portable, stand-alone, wireless or DMX battery powered dimming system specifically developed for low voltage lamps. Originated for the fabulous The Storr - Unfolding Landscape arts project in Scotland, the ART-DC dimmer is now part of the diverse Avolites ART dimming range.

The ART-DC runs off industrial or car batteries and dims lights up to 20A. It's currently available in 4-channel/32A modules, and it can be either a dimming or a relay/switching module. It's ideal for dimming car headlights and other HMI/HID automotive lightsources, say Avolites. A 'Battery Save' function kicks in to conserve energy if there's no control signal, and there's local control and a useful and easily readable LCD front panel display for status and diagnosti

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UK - Cheshire-based VME Ltd used a selection of Allen & Heath mixers for the sixth annual Wakestock festival, which took place this month in North Wales. With an increased capacity of 20,000 visitors and four arenas of top DJs and bands, Wakestock has become Europe's largest wakeboard music event. VME managed all of the festival's technical requirements, supplying Kling & Freitag speakers, Lab Gruppen amplifiers, Martin Professional Mac lighting fixtures, and a cross-section of Allen & Heath's live sound consoles and DJ mixers.

The Main Arena included live performances from the Ordinary Boys, the Undertones, Million Dead, the Bodyrockers and Thirteen Senses, whilst the Second Arena and Brouhaha Beach stages hosted DJ sets throughout the weekend from Tall Paul, Norman Jay, the Scratch Perverts, John '00' Fleming, and The Libertines's Carl Barat. Allen & Heath's compact multi-purp

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Germany - With a number of successful trade show appearances already under its belt this year, ChainMaster of Eilenburg is preparing for the PLASA Show in London - one of the world's largest trade fairs for stage equipment and that of the events and entertainment industry in general, and ChainMaster again looks set to make a notable contribution, as the Saxon firm continues to innovate and has a number of new products to show visitors to the London show.Among them are the new manual controllers of the Basic Series. Easy-to-operate, robust, and offering a high degree of operational security without quite the same level of sophistication as ChainMaster's established lines, the chain-hoist controllers of the Basic Series come in both two- and four-channel versions.

ChainMaster has also developed a new chain-hoist controller with load display to comply with the BGV-D8-Plus standard.

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