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UK - Mark Leahy has joined worldwide entertainment lighting manufacturer High End Systems Inc as the regional sales manager for Northern Europe. Based out of the London office, Leahy's territory includes UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Leahy has been involved with the professional lighting and sound industry since 1989. He was most recently commercial sales manager for Barco Media & Entertainment in the UK, where for more than four years he was responsible for sales to the events market, including concert-touring rental companies.

"High End Systems is making strong pioneering moves and forging ahead with digital lighting. This is a good opportunity to partner my experience in the projection industry with digital developments in the lighting market," Leahy

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Denmark - TC Group has announced the complete acquisition of TC-Helicon, the leading manufacturer of vocal technology products. TC Group previously owned 50% of TC-Helicon, which is headquartered in Canada. By purchasing the remaining 50 % of the shares from IVL Technologies Ltd, TC Group now welcomes TC-Helicon as a full-fledged member of the group, which includes Tannoy, Lab.gruppen, TC Electronic, TC Applied Technologies, and TC-Helicon.

Kevin Alexander will continue to serve as CEO of TC-Helicon, which was founded in 2000 as a joint venture between IVL Technologies Ltd and TC Group A/S. The aim of TC-Helicon, which today enjoys a strong position in the MI and professional audio markets, is to provide dedicated tools and solutions for the human voice. With this year's release of the flagship vocal processor, VoicePro, TC-Helicon further establishes itself as the world-leading

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UK - The Lighting Design Awards represent the UK's most prestigious opportunity to achieve recognition for excellence and innovation in lighting design and technology. Rigorously judged by leading industry professionals, finalists and winners earn the plaudits of their peers, industry respect and publicity across a wide range of media, including national press and TV.

New this year, sponsored by PLASA and the PLASA Show, is the Entertainment Lighting category. Open to theatrical productions, concerts, music festivals, corporate events, exhibitions, temporary and one-off lighting installations, this new award will see lighting designers in the event sector recognised for excellence.

The event or events must have taken place in the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands between 10 December 2004 and 9 December 2005 (the deadline for entries). Judges will require full technical informati

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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Denmark - The new MAC 250 Wash is currently playing an important part in Danish amusement park Tivoli's celebration of Hans Christian Andersen's 200 year birthday. Titled A Tivoli Fairytale, the show pays tribute to Denmark's beloved writer through the daily presentation of an imaginative puppet show. The free show plays at Tivoli's Open Air Stage and includes living fairy tales, special effects, historical readings, newly composed music and song. Andersen was a frequent visitor to the amusement park and it was there that he found inspiration for the fairytale The Nightingale.

Cascades of light, music and special effects set the stage for a gigantic puppet show whose main character is the writer himself. Surrounded by iridescent puppets standing several meters tall, Andersen presents ten of his most popular fairytales including Thumbelina, The Emperor's New Clot

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Italy - The Regia 2048 version 2.15 Rev.1 boasts a number of new features. Hands-on simultaneous control of a maximum of 38 cue lists (static or changing scenes) is possible, where each list can contain an unlimited number of cues.

Via the touch screen, it is now possible to access the new Direct Access mode, which allows the operator to change the current scene instantly, should this be necessary for any unexpected reason. SMPTE enables the synchronization of a programmed show with an SMPTE source.

Regia is equipped with an effects generator that can create in a few seconds complex effects on any attribute of the fixtures being used. All playback registers can be controlled remotely via DMX, using any external desk.

SGM can be found on stand G30.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Blitz Charter Group has appointed Neil Gordon as group finance director. Blitz Charter Group was founded in 2004 when it acquired the businesses of Blitz Communications and Charter Broadcast. Neil Gordon's appointment completes the structure of the Board of Directors of the Group.

With over 25 years in financial management and control, Gordon gained his professional accountancy qualifications at Ernst & Young and has worked internationally with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Michael Breen, CEO of Blitz Charter Group, comments: "Neil's financial and corporate strategy skills will enhance the company's credibility with our shareholders and funders and increase business opportunities. We look forward to benefiting from his professional expertise."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Designer Paul Daly has opened Underbelly, a new nightclub designed for DJ's and live performance in Hoxton, London. The venue is located underground, downstairs from another Daly-designed venue, Zigfrid's. "It's an amazing venue," remarks Peter Kellet, owner of Viba*Optics, the company that designed and installed both clubs. "It's all a brand new build, but it's pretty compact, and there were a few challenges in integrating such a relatively complex system into the space."

The versatile sound system, purpose-built for the room, can support live performance in traditional stereo mode, or be reconfigured into a full-on surround system for DJ nights. QSC's RMX amplifiers, including three RMX 1850HDs, two RMX 2450s and a single RMX 1450 unit, drive all of the room's loudspeakers.

The amps are fed from a single BSS SoundWeb unit, with a 24-channel Soundcraf

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UK - SSE Hire's festival package, which provides a huge range of visiting sound engineers with the familiarity of use and reliability of Midas consoles, has starred in all the UK's major outdoor events this year, and the 10th V Festival in August was no exception.

SSE provided its standard festival package of two Midas Heritage 3000s at front of house and two XL3s on stage for the main V stages at both sites - Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex, and Weston Park in Staffordshire. Additionally, the Channel 4 (second) stage at both sites featured an XL4 at FOH and an XL3 on stage, again supplied by SSE.

"Our standard Midas festival package has been the mainstay of our festival work throughout the summer, from Homelands, Download, Glastonbury, T in the Park, Oxegen, Summer Sundae and Cropredy through to V2005 and the Carling Reading and Leeds festivals," says SSE's hire m

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UK - Scenechange and Green Hippo have merged to form Green Hippo Ltd. Until recently digital media specialists Scenechange had been working as the exclusive worldwide distributors of the Hippotizer media server.

James Heron, director of Green Hippo comments, "It became more and more apparent over the last year or so that the combination of Green Hippo and Scene Change as a force for furthering the Hippotizer has really been a meeting of like minded enthusiasts. For Hippotizer to continue going from strength to strength, the merging of the two companies was the only sensible option."

He continues: "We now have the team we always wanted under one roof and this puts us in a strong position to develop, evolve and support our media server range."

As part of the merger, the two companies have completed a move into larger premises. Nigel Sadler, formerly technic

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USA - Audio designers and engineers from the western US joined Meyer Sound at the 6,300-seat Shrine Auditorium, home to countless televised award shows over the years, for an introduction to and demonstration of Meyer Sound's new MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker.

MICA, a smaller, lighter version of the large-format MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker, is billed as being ideal for mid-sized venues not requiring the additional power and throw of MILO, or as an adjunct to a MILO main system.

The Shrine demonstration was held over two days and offered attendees the opportunity to hear MICA several ways: without EQ, with recorded music and with live music.

After being greeted by Meyer Sound's Western Regional Sales Manager Jim Sides, the event's host, a CD selection was played over what Meyer Sound's John Monitto called "MICA in the raw":

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UK - Following the success of Pro Display's LCD Projection Glass Technology, the company has developed a new LCD projection film which can be applied to any existing glass or Plexiglas.

"A revolutionary new product which will transform the world of visual display and advertising", according to the company, this film consists of a liquid crystal polymer which can change its visual appearance when an electrical current is activated. The edge of the film has an electrical contact strip which transforms the film from clear (transparent) to frosted (translucent) using a simple On/Off switch.

When the film is in its translucent or frosted state, images can be projected onto the glass creating a high definition digital display screen (up to UXGA resolution). Other applications for the LCD Film include privacy and security.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - PID has enjoyed a busy year including moving to bigger premises in west London and launching a new web-site along with supplying digital media products like Catalyst, Pixel MAD and Versa TUBE to various live entertainment sectors. The company's client base is also diversifying into architectural installations for both retail and commercial projects.

At PLASA 2005 PID will feature Element Labs' Versa TILE and Versa TUBE products from their ever-increasing range of LED-based video input display technology. These will be controlled from a Pixel MAD system which allows the playback of low-res video across LED or DMX fixtures.

The latest Catalyst software will be displayed, running on both Apple Powerbook and G5 platforms illustrating the many cost-effective options now available for this video-optimised digital media system.

PID will also highlight the latest D-Tek products

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UK - Stagecraft Theatre Services has completed its four-year project at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, part of a series of upgrades following a fire backstage at the Victorian venue in 1972.

A company specialising in theatre design, Stagecraft was responsible for the complete refurbishment of all lighting and sound systems, including internal and external lighting design. "We have been working with the New Theatre Royal for many years on a refurbishment programme, and it is great to see all our hard work finally come together," comments Martin Palmer, Stagecraft director.

A team of ten engineers from Stagecraft Theatre Services worked with the theatre Manager to relocate the infrastructure of all sound and lighting systems. The lighting and sound control room was moved to the gods of the Theatre to enable the restoration of the upper and lower circles to

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UK - For the fourth year running, Entec Lighting supplied CMP Entertainment with full lighting production, foyer area and VIP tent illuminations and crew for the month long Liverpool Summer Pops event. The hugely successful 2005 Pops season featured a dynamic assortment of home grown and international talents - including McFly, Anastasia, Meat Loaf, The Australian Pink Floyd, Paul Weller, Diana Ross and many, many more.

Once again staged in its 4,500 capacity 6-pole Big Top, this year the location was shifted to a site on the Dock Road as Liverpool's new stadium is under construction on the previous one. The lighting rig was designed by Dave Hill. He wasn't able to physically run the shows himself this year as he was fully committed with the Rolling Stones. Instead, Entec dispatched their cheerful team of Phil White and Leigh Yeomans, both of whom have also worked on the show be

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USA - Fresno, California-based Michael Garrison Associates (MGA), a design-build systems contracting firm that has served the church market for nearly 30 years, installed its first L-Acoustics system at the new 110,000-square-foot Calvary Church (formerly Calvary Temple) in Irving, Texas.

Under the direction of senior systems designer Brian Roggow, twin arrays, each comprised of ten L- Acoustics dV-Dosc cabinets plus three dV-SUBs, were flown above the left and right sides of the stage in the 1,500-seat main sanctuary. For low-frequency reinforcement, four SB218 subwoofers are positioned up in the room's centre cavity while two SB118s are located under the stage. Four additional coaxial MTD108a systems are further called upon to deliver front-fill, and all loudspeaker systems are powered by L- Acoustics' own LA Series amplifiers.

"Our initial system design for Calvary Tem

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UK - Le Mark, winners to date of five PLASA Show product awards, has now been appointed the UK's exclusive distributor for Austria's premier portable show, stage and dance floor company Tüchler GmbH and will be launching the range to the UK at the PLASA Show (11 -14 September, Earls Court, London).

Le Mark has worked closely with the family-owned business for many years. Product synergy between Le Mark's own StudioTak 'peel clean' TV flooring and the Austrian dance and show floor has seen steady growth in Central and Eastern Europe. Christoph Lach, managing director of Tüchler GmbH, joins the Le Mark team to offer full application advice throughout the show. Mark Gibbons will take on the challenge of product development manager following the PLASA show launch.

Le Mark will also exhibit its own range of high performance, self-adhesive single- and double-sided 'clean' fix and

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UK - Lighting filter supplied by Lee Filters has been used to help control the lighting levels at the recent New Dawn Women exhibition at the Watts Gallery, Compton near Guildford. The Exhibition explores the role of women in the Arts & Crafts movement around the dawn of the 20th century and curator Irene Cockcroft has traced a unique collection of work never before presented to the public.

A number of the precious artefacts in the exhibition have been lent by leading British museums, so strict lighting conditions needed to be applied to protect the pieces from any damage. One major concern was the elimination of the ultra-violet light levels from the fluorescent lamps used to light the display cabinets. Lee Filters Fluorescent Sleeves with UV inserts were used within the cabinets, which removed virtually all traces of ultra-violet light. This ensured that none of the exh

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France - While Lance Armstrong was making history on the world's stage for his seventh Tour de France win, another stage was being set up for his victory and retirement party. High End Systems digital lighting products and a Wholehog 3 console helped set the celebratory scene for the cyclist and the Discovery Channel cycling team at The Ritz Paris.

Capital Sports & Entertainment (CSE) hosted the post-awards party. The main party room in the hotel's indoor swimming area accommodated 700-plus guests by adding a custom dance floor over the pool. Four ballrooms upstairs were also used.

Rudiger Haeming of Arcus supplied technical support and 4 High End Systems DL1s, 4 Catalyst Pro media servers and a Wholehog 3 console. French event producers Adelie Evenements and STe Displays provided additional lighting, audio and video equipment plus local crew.

The party's visual elements cen

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USA - Digidesign has reported a number of international touring acts including Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Kelly Clarkson and many others are among the early adopters of the Digidesign Venue live sound environment.

After only six months of availability, Venue systems have been used all over the world by major tours such as Nine Inch Nails, Black Eyed Peas, The Cure, Placebo, John Hiatt, Donny Osmond, Joe Satriani, Alicia Keys, Sound Tribe Sector 9, the popular Japanese band Love Psychedelico, Umphrey's McGee, The Thrills, Nena, and many more. Venue systems have also been called into service by those bands and others at major festivals, such as Live8 in Paris, the Montreux Jazz Festival, The Gathering of the Vibes music festival (celebrating Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead), 10,000 Lakes Festival, and Lollapalooza.

"Sixteen days of the festi

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Germany - In December 2003, the Central Stadium in Leipzig, which had taken three years to build at a cost of 88.5 million euros, was opened - one of the 12 venues selected to host the world's most watched sporting event - football's World Cup. Its first game, Match 6 of the competition, will kick off at 15:00 on the 11 June 2006.

One of the most important, if not the most important, area covered by the FIFA regulations is stadium safety, in which the quality of the alarm and public address systems is of crucial importance. Like many of the top football stadiums in Europe, the Central Stadium is equipped with a sound system from EVI Audio; in this case, a Dynacord ProAnnounce, comprising DPM 4000 digital system controllers, DCS 420 monitor units and DPA 4140 power amplifiers, installed with support from Sigma TBL of Chemnitz.

The most striking visual aspect of the 45,000-seate

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India - V & P Sounds, Bangalore's leading pro audio equipment rental house, recently augmented its inventory with the purchase of a 48-mono-/four-stereo-channel Soundcraft MH3 desk (Touring Pack). This was supplied by Cinetekk, the distributor for the Harman Pro Group in India.

"We've chosen to standardize on the second largest configuration of the MH3 because it basically offers everything we need in a board of that size - VCAs, muting capabilities, user-friendliness, client acceptability, and an economical price tag," says Mr. Vishnu, founder and owner of V & P Sounds. "Also, the fact that these boards can do monitors and house sound equally well is a big plus inventory-wise.

"Everyone seems to really like the MH3, including a lot of engineers who have never previously mixed on it, because it's still a relatively new console. I'm not at all surprised by t

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