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Denmark - The popular Maxxyz console has received a boost in speed and functionality with the release of version 1.5. The company says that months of user-input and an extensive beta testing program have ensured the console's steady development and success in the market as the desk of choice for many lighting designers and programmers.

Elements of the software have been completely revised resulting in significant improvement in performance while components of the user interface have received a face-lift for more consistent operation. With version 1.5 the console supports an enhanced internal database structure and improved internal networking, which has eliminated any lag in fixture selection and improved the general operation of the console. Boot up speed has been enhanced as wel

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UK -Large format projection specialist E//T//C UK is supplying spectacular projections for the 2005 Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It's the first time this visual medium has successfully been incorporated into this world famous event. E//T//C UK's Ross Ashton states, "It was an honour to be asked to design for the Edinburgh tattoo. It's a world class event with a global reputation, and I hope that I have added a new element to the already existing excellent mix."

This year, the special theme of the Tattoo is the bicentennial commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar, and Jameson thought all the elements were in place to integrate projection into his show.

Ashton was asked to storyboard a 10 minute projection show narrative and design artwork to be beamed onto the Castle battlements and Gatehouse for the Battle of Trafalgar sequence. The 60 metre wide by 30 metre tall pict

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UK - Martin Professional PLC has appointed Emma Thorpe as marketing co-ordinator, based at the company's UK headquarters in Maidstone. Thorpe will be responsible for all UK marketing communications including exhibitions and trade shows, external and internal marketing communications, publicity material and market intelligence, as well as providing support for both the sales team and customers. Thorpe replaces Victoria Spurgin, who resigned her position in mid-August.

Martin UK managing director David Caulfield comments: "Emma brings with her a wealth of marketing knowledge and experience, including an excellent Marketing Diploma, with the accolade of being the World Wide Top Student in 2004 for Marketing Strategy, making her very capable of increasing the strength of Martin's products throughout the industry. We are delighted to have secured her appointment."

Thorpe

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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 - Leeds-based Zig Zag Lighting has unveiled a new business venture and website, www.lightingsales-direct.co.uk, which aims to provide quality lighting and associated products at competitive prices to the entertainment industry. The site is a full e-commerce facility that allows anyone from amateur theatre groups to professional DJs and club owners to source the latest lighting products.

Zig Zag managing director Neil Hunt says, "The idea is to provide a site that any user can go to and purchase professional quality lighting equipment. We source our products from well respected suppliers and pass on that quality and good service to the end-user."

Hadyn Thomas, the site's developer, adds, "There is a gap in the market for such a service and when I was approached by Zig Zag to create the site, I was confident that it would prove to be a successful venture."

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UK - Since its inauguration in 1990, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut has grown to become one of Glasgow's leading concert venues, renowned in Scotland as an exciting showcase for new and emerging bands. Owned and managed by Scotland's foremost music promoters DF Concerts, King Tut's has played host to bands including Radiohead, Blur, Travis, Pulp and The Verve before they reached the heights of music superstardom. It also hosted the first Scottish gigs for Beck, Crowded House and The Strokes, and created a piece of rock and roll history as the venue where Oasis were first spotted and signed in 1993.

To maintain its position, the venue has needed to keep its performance infrastructure at the cutting edge. As their head technician Jerry Radford puts it: "We're always upgrading equipment; it's an ongoing thing . . . like the Forth Road Bridge."

Recently they were forced to upgra

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UK - Bandit Lites supplied lighting production and crew for LD Jonny Gaskell's spectacular visual design at the Top Shop Fashion Show and Awards. The two-day event was staged at Syon House in West London, and each day saw 1500 of the popular retailer's design teams and store managers as guests.

The project was managed for Bandit by Lester Cobrin who has worked with Gaskell several times in the past. Gaskell and his partner Nick Gray of Renegade Lighting were asked onboard by event producers 9PR, who are regular clients.

Lester Cobrin comments, "Jonny is one of the most talented and enthusiastic LD's I've had the pleasure of working with. He has tremendous vision and the end product is always refreshing and innovative."

Gaskell had to light the show and catwalk area in a 150ft long marquee, featuring a central stage area with four runways coming off it at right angl

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France - The biggest fireworks display in Europe was held on the first Saturday in August, as it is every year, at the Fete du Lac in Annecy. Set against the stunning backdrop of the French Alps, it is a truly spectacular event that attracts tens of thousand of visitors every year.

This year's theme was Chansons d'Amour with a prelude courtesy of Les Choeurs de France (the choirs of France), an ensemble of 700 choristers whose music also accompanied the pyrotechnic display. Production was handled by Annecy Evenements who turned to Austrian pyrotechnician, Armin Lukasser for the second year running to create the fireworks spectacular. Also for the second year running, audio was handled by Starlight Evenementiel a full service production company from Alsace.

Starlight worked in conjunction with German rental company, Omega, and between them they fielded a powerful 130-box

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UK - Club operator Mark Sansom who made his name at London dance temple, Bagleys in King's Cross, came out of his self-enforced retirement to open the 350-capacity Vanilla Bar in Windsor. He has spent around £1m fitting out an empty building on the town's leisure strip, with a sunken fish tank in the entrance and separate Main Bar, Club Bar and luxurious LED-lit Lounge/Cocktail bar. "Although we are no longer DJ-led I still get a lot of top people wanting to play here because of past connections," says Mark. "I know the calibre of DJs we will get and what they will want to play on."

For the sound system, he passed up the rackmount twin CD option in favour of two of the individual Denon DN-S1000 tabletops, which also support MP3. Denon were able to design this as an affordable, entry-level product after first adapting the template of the award-winning DN-S500

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UK - With little more than two weeks to go until PLASA 2005 opens its doors, here are 10 reasons why you can't afford to miss out on this year's Show - taking place between Sunday 11 and Wednesday 14 September at Earls Court, London:

1. You'll see lots of new ideas - over 1,000 new products will be launched, and the best of these will be featured in the Innovation Gallery.
2. You'll see all the major international brands and manufacturers from around the globe.
3. You'll find more new companies exhibiting this year than ever before.
4. You'll hear about numerous new industry initiatives.
5. You'll find out what others are spending their money on and why.
6. You'll get to talk to lots of different people, many of them potential customers.
7. You'll take back knowledge to your workplace.
8. All the major industry trade associations will be there to offe

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UK - Lightfactor Sales has sold SGM Palco colour changing LED luminaires to Bristol-based lighting rental company, Fineline. Fineline's Darren Wring first trialled the Palcos on a corporate job at the NEC in Birmingham for Spandex, after which he was so impressed he decided to invest in the units. These went straight out again on another show for Spandex in Amsterdam.

The new Spandex exhibition stand's design and lighting design is by Wring and was built by James Thomas Engineering. It's an impressive 12 metres wide by 16 metres long, and the whole stand spins round in a circle, and is animated by both movement and changing colours.

Lightfactor's Peter Coles completed the deal with Fineline, "It's great to see companies like Fineline investing in LED technology, and we're really pleased that Darren chose the Palco as his first LED wash fixtures. It's generally been an exc

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UK - Shure Distribution UK will be showing products from Shure, QSC Audio, Phonic and Sound Devices at PLASA 2005. Shure will present the UHF-R Wireless Systems which features networked automatic set-up to minimize set-up time and effort, 75MHz bandwidth for reliable, trouble-free operation, integrated Wireless Workbench Software for advanced, real-time network control and Audio Reference Companding technology for exceptional audio quality.

Shure's new premium KSM9 vocal condenser wireless capsule will also make its official UK debut. Available exclusively with the UHF-R systems, the KSM9 capsule will be offered in champagne and black finishes by the end of the year. Shure UHF-R/KSM9 seminars will take place during the show from Monday to Tuesday at midday and 3pm.

From Phonic the show visitor will witness the latest and most powerful additions to the XP Series of amplifiers,

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USA - The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued to Meyer Sound a patent pertaining to the company's MAPP Online acoustical prediction software.

The patent describes a method of providing acoustical response predictions for a modelled loudspeaker system over a communications network. In the case of MAPP Online, an Internet-enabled client-server system lets modelling software running on a powerful server at Meyer Sound's headquarters provide the computational "back end" to GUI software running on the user's local computer. The patent is the 33rd US or foreign patent issued in Meyer Sound's name since the company's founding in 1979.

The MAPP Online system generates accurate predictions of the performance of Meyer Sound loudspeakers in a given configuration within a venue. The system is available free to qualified users, who need only download to their lap

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UK - DJs keen to see all the latest DJ technologies should head to this year's PLASA Show, which runs for four full-on days at Earls Court 1 in London, from 11-14 September. Both show floors will be packed with the hottest DJ gear - everything from the smartest decks to top-of-the-range mixers.

Denon, Numark, Pioneer, Stanton and Vestax will be just some of the big-name brands at the Show, and a key part of the 300-strong line up of exhibitors showcasing current trends in lighting, sound, AV and multimedia technologies.

DJ Sunday, sponsored by iDJ magazine, will get the show off to a flying start with numerous events, giveaways and on-stand demos by leading DJs. In the DJ Lounge (at the back of the hall), visitors can watch the winners of iDJ Magazine's monthly Raw Talent competition and there will also be an opportunity to take the first steps into music production with a Tal

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Australia - Australian manufacturer LSC Lighting Systems was contracted to design and supply a cabinet dimming system for the Australian Government's pavilion at World Expo 2005. Held in Aichi, Japan, World Expo commenced on 25 March and will wind up in late September. It provides a significant opportunity to promote Australia to the world and averages 20,000 people through the pavilion every day, with the grand total of visitors nearing the two million mark.

The Australian pavilion reflects the theme of the Expo - Nature's Wisdom - from an Australian perspective. Visitors to the Australian pavilion gain an understanding that through learning the lessons of the past and using modern-day technology, we are better able to provide for the sustainable future - environmentally, economically and socially. The pavilion showcases Australia's unique lifestyle - a lifestyle that ha

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USA - In October 2004, Jeep found a spectacular way to drive home the point that the 2005 Grand Cherokee literally could "go anywhere": they sent the vehicle up the outside of the 27-storey high-rise at 2 Penn Center in midtown Manhattan. On the ground, a half-million unflappable New Yorkers stopped to stare, while TV and webcams sent images to millions of viewers worldwide. The amazement was real, but the feat was an elaborate theatrical illusion, made possible by the meticulous planning, engineering and fabrication that PRG puts into every production.

In just three weeks, PRG designed, installed and tested the mechanism that would make the vehicle appear to climb the 414-foot structure under its own power. To reduce weight, they removed the engine and transmission from the Grand Cherokee, installed a motor that made the wheels turn, and fixed the assembly to a sled t

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USA - Loud Technologies, an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc, has announced two key appointments to its management team. Gary Reilly joins Loud as senior vice-president of product engineering, and Karen Macdonald joins as senior marketing manager.

Gary Reilly brings to Loud more than 25 years' experience in engineering and product development, working most recently as the senior director of product pevelopment at Qualcomm. Prior to Qualcomm, Reilly held key product development and engineering positions at Cubic, Spectrum Control, Advanced Technology Laboratories and Data I/O. As senior VP of product engineering for Loud Technologies, Reilly will have authority over product development and engineering resources for all Loud brands, including the recently-acquired St. Louis Music family of brands. Reilly will report directly to Loud's CEO Jamie Engen.

Karen Macdonald brings

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Sweden - On the evening of 18 August, Ericsson Racing Team's Volvo Ocean 70 was baptised by her godmother - HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, at a spectacular christening ceremony in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Swedish company Spectra Stage & Event Technologies used W-DMX BlackBox products to control four units of Syncrolite SX B/52 and six units of Studio Due City Color over the harbour of Gothenburg. The distance was about 200m open water between console and fixtures. W-DMX BlackBox with standard antenna was used and chief technical officer of Spectra, Abbe Westerlundh who used the products was very happy with the simplicity and power of the W-DMX equipment from Wireless Solution Sweden AB.

Spectra Stage & Event Technologies have invested in several W-DMX BlackBox Systems for the indoor and outdoor events and completed several events in the last month, including Doobidoo

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USA - Gerry Tschetter has been named QSC Audio's director of product management. Effective immediately, Tschetter will take charge of a new product management team dedicated to the task of product development and product marketing.

According to CEO Barry Andrews, "In its most basic sense, Gerry's role here will be to insure that we consistently deliver products that customers want and need. We will be realigning some of our staff members so that he will have a powerful and effective group supporting his efforts."

Tschetter's career has included eight years creating and launching a number of loudspeaker designs at JBL Professional. Prior to that, he logged 15 years with Yamaha in marketing, sales, and product engineering capacities.

"QSC can be as successful with loudspeakers and other product groups as it is with amplifiers," Tschetter asserts. "To t

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The Netherlands - At the PLASA Show, Prolyte will present its products that are especially suitable for the theatrical environment in 'a backstage setting', and will introduce the first prototype of the Prolyft PLT-500 drive.

The Prolyft PLT-500 is a modular flying system that can be built into any theatre, onto any existing fly-wall. Its key features include: precise and reliable positioning; strong, linear transfer, loading capacity up to 500kg; smooth and quiet operation; integrated load monitoring system and flexible, modular plug and play system.

Prolyte can be found on stand M59.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Glasgow is to host its first Festival of Light this November, bringing together celebrated lighting and visual artists and emerging talent to create a three-day spectacle placing light at the centre of urban culture. Radiance, Glasgow Festival of Light will be staged in the city's vibrant Merchant City from November 25 - 27.

Commissioned and funded by Glasgow City Council, and organised in partnership by nva and DF Concerts, the festival will "introduce light as an art form, creating an engaging and visually striking artistic experience at the festival site - whilst illuminating the beautiful, significant and often hidden architecture of the Merchant City".

The festival will coincide with Glasgow's hosting of the 2005 AGM of LUCI, the Lighting Urban Community International Association which promotes creative lighting strategies within urban contexts, of w

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UK - Le Maitre will be holding live pyrotechnic demos at PLASA 2005, in association with the PSA. The company will be holding demos on the Top Deck at Earl's Court. The demos are scheduled for 12pm, 2pm and 4pm every day of the show. Hosted by Le Maitre's head pyrotechnician, Mark Thomas, the demos will allow visitors to see pyrotechnics in action. Effects will include Prostage II Gerbs, Waterfalls, Mines, Flames and Robotics and there will be a chance to examine the latest firing systems.

If you want to know more about the demos or are interested in coming along whilst you are at the show, please contact Amelia Croucher at the e-mail address below.

(Lee Baldock)

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