UK - Baldwin Boxall can now provide a PC touchscreen paging station to enable simple, intuitive control of a Voice Alarm system. By touching the relevant part of the screen, the operator has complete control of paging (emergency or routine) to all or selected zones. In addition to the emergency and routine messages that are already stored on the routing matrix, the operator can record and store a number of extra messages. These messages can then be chosen from a drop down list and broadcast to the selected zones.

Background music can also be controlled via the paging station which is designed to be very easy to use, with simple on-screen messages and menus that appear when a function is selected. The paging station user has clear indications on the screen to show which zone/areas

USA - Chauvet has released the Q-Series, a range of competitively priced yet advanced intelligent fixtures designed primarily for nightclubs of all sizes and elite DJs.

"The Q-Series™ strives to bring together cutting-edge features and the value, innovation and performance you have come to expect from Chauvet," said product development manager Barry Abrams.

Featuring a consistent design and library of gobos and colors, Q-Series allows users to mix and match units across the line and still maintain a consistent look using a variety of fixtures and effects.

The initial product launch encompasses four moving yoke spot fixtures, one moving yoke wash fixture and four scanners. All nine feature a dimmer/shutter/strobe channel, speed control of pan and tilt, bi-directional colour scroll, reset via DMX, quality built in programmes, and efficient fan cooling.

(Jim Ev

USA - Metric Halo has announced that ChannelStrip version 2.1 for TDM and RTAS has been released simultaneously with Digidesign's release of Pro Tools 7. The new version of ChannelStrip is a compatibilityupdate that now includes support for operation within Pro Tools 7 TDM, LE, and M Powered. Registered users can visit the Metric Halo website at www.mhlabs.com to download an updater package.

ChannelStrip version 2.0.3 f13 is not compatible withPro Tools 7, and users are advised to update to the new version before or at the same time as running the Pro Tools 7 update to avoid any interruption in the operationof ChannelStrip. The 2.1 f02 update is compatible with previous versions of Pro Tools (6.x), and can be safely installed by any OS X based customer.

(Jim Evans)

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

UK - Avolites and dAFTdATA have supplied Huddersfield-based KD Decoratives with a bespoke wireless solution based on the Avolites eDMX system, to control the Festive Lights installation at Manchester's Trafford Centre.

The million pound installation, which includes festive reindeers and lights, spans the entire 600 metre length of the Centre. The wireless control system allows individual control of over 200 DFX's LED fixtures.A series of 30 "drop poles" are suspended from the centre's glass roof void, each pole mounted with between 5 and 15 LED fixtures.

A dAFTdATA HILDA opencase card with external antenna is mounted at the top of each pole. This handles the network selection, monitoring and data processing wirelessly to over 200 LED controllers, so the complete LED system is thus controlled - wirelessly - from one central location.

Based on WiFi technology the cus

UK - David Hopkins, chairman of Audio Design Services Limited was made President of the local Chamber of Commerce in Stockport in November 2005.A former Macclesfield Borough and Cheshire County Councillor, Hopkins was chairman of the Local TEC before it was merged into the Chamber of Commerce.

Current Treasurer of PLASA and its previous chairman, Hopkins, recently took over from Michael Leaver as the president of the Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers. Hopkins believes that the opportunity for a closer liaison between PLASA and the ISCE is long overdue and he is committed to training and the creation of meaningful standards so that career patterns can be established for the future of the industry. "The advent of stricter health and safety regulations, as well as the implications of WEEE and ROHS legislation, makes such ambitions a necessity," he says.

(J

Australia - Melbourne's lighting fraternity flocked to the opening of Show Technology's Melbourne based office last week. Show Technology is Martin Professional's sole distributor in Australia. The new location, which follows a successful Perth office opening in early 2004, will strategically place Show Technology closer to one of Australia's most important growth markets.

Show Technology managing director, Emmanuel Ziino, comments, "The market is as dynamic as ever, and as the market leader we strive to meet its needs. After years of being solely based in Sydney, the opening of our new regional offices give us several benefits - a greater reach, a greater degree of flexibility and speed, and better market feedback for example. But most importantly it gives us an improved level of market contact and allows us to better serve our customers."

The new Melbourne office w

UK - Living Ventures takes its music seriously. Despite using a hard drive delivery system to distribute music through their 13-strong Living Room bar/restaurant estate, the company's head of music, Steve Walter knows that the art of achieving the optimum mix is too complex to be entrusted to remote customer profilers and preset track categorisations.

"The music content and environmental management are a vital part of our offer, which is why we invest heavily in our sound systems and installation expertise," he says.

For the new flagship Living Room W1 in London's fashionable Heddon Street, Green-I has installed multiples of Martin Audio's new horn-loaded AQ6 and AQ8 architectural enclosures - liveried in white and brown custom colours to match interior designer's Shideh Shaygun's imaginative concept. These maintain the moods over the defined time cycles into

UK - Wrap & Roll is a new sandwich shop with a difference in Cardiff city centre. Owner Dylan Reardon-Smith wanted it to stand out from the crowd in other ways apart from its reputation for serving quality food, and so he asked Chepstow-based architectural and feature lighting specialists I-Vision to design an eye-catching lighting scheme.

I-Vision's Dave Mackay undertook the task enthusiastically, "It was a great concept in a great location" he says. The venue also features the work of local and international artists, notably some specially commissioned pieces by Robert David, currently famous for his distinctive 'bar code' style.

The seated area has a wall and floor finished in polished concrete which was "just asking" to be lit explains Mackay. To add atmosphere in here, he has employed seven Lumos 3 LED down-lighters complete with 6 degree lenses, ensco

UK - History was made on an unseasonably warm and sunny day at the end of October when, for the first time ever in the UK, all the heads of the enlarged EU met together in Hampton Court's Great Hall. Having responded to an invitation to tender, Brähler ICS was selected by the UK Government to provide the 21 language channel simultaneous interpretation system. Brahler supplied their flagship CDS-VAN digital system which has a maximum capacity of 32 uncompressed digital audio channels and runs on industry standard Cat 5 computer cable.

For the first time at such a high level EU summit, the Interpreter booths were located outside the main meeting room. Discreet broadcast quality cameras were placed strategically in the Great Hall and the images relayed to an adjacent Interpreter Marquee. Brahler provided a total of 22 interpretation booths in the marquee fitted with 67 CDS-VAN dig

USA - Shown for the first time at this year's PLASA show, Harman Pro Group has launched HiQnet System Architect, a configuration and control software application for HiQnet audio systems.

System Architect is described as "an intuitive, highly configurable Windows-based 'front-end' to HiQnet, Harman Pro Group's powerful communication protocol for audio systems". It is designed to provide a unified platform for the system design and operation of all audio devices in a signal chain, across the full range of sound touring and installed sound applications.

System Architect eliminates the need for disparate operating systems, multiple control and configuration applications, and the need to programme individual signal processors, speaker controllers, wireless microphone systems and mixing consoles. The software provides control of HiQnet enabled products across the eight Ha

USA - Intelix, has developed and introduced www.AVoverCat5.com as "a single, definitive online resource for audio, video, VGA, and DVI distribution over structured cabling".

"We realise audio-visual distribution over Cat 5 cabling can be complicated," explains Intelix CEO Steve Cohan, "especially for those integrators who are unfamiliar with IT standards and all the structured cabling distribution options on the market. AVoverCat5.com was created to give integrators the answers they need quickly and easily."

AVoverCat5.com allows users to find solutions based on: application type, audio-visual equipment used, audio-visual connector type, audio and video signal format, and product. Additionally, dynamic technical areas provide "a myriad of information" ranging from terminating structured cables to digital video definitions.

(Jim Evans)

UK - This summer the Chemical Brothers toured the European Festival Circuit and for the second year running LM Productions supplied laser effects to enhance their performance. LM supplied three 5 watt DPSS green lasers which were all controlled via DMX through a lighting desk. One laser was fixed under the bands set and the remaining two lasers positioned either side of the stage all creating atmospheric beam effects co-ordinated with the music. The band will be performing at a host of UK venues this December before they take a year out in 2006 to record the next album.

Wild Fruit took its legendary club night to Preston Park in Brighton for the annual Pride celebrations. LM provided two DPSS green laser systems producing high impact beams effects became the focal point for 5,000 clubbers inside the Wild Fruit Big Top tent.

For the Top Shop & Dorothy Perkins Fashion Show, Lond

UK - Large format projection specialists E//T//C UK covered the 323 ft high Shell Centre on London's South Bank with giant projected poppies for Remembrance Day 2005.

E//T//C was working for media and production company The Bank, who produced the event for Shell UK. It's the fourth year running that E//T//C UK has illuminated this prime site with high impact projections for the event.

The 26 storey building - once the tallest in the UK - was covered by eight 6 kW PIGI projectors that were sited 100 metres away on the edge of Queen's Walkway (the corresponding riverside path), housed in a curtain-sider truck. Six of the projectors, complete with double scrollers running vertically, produced the poppies, three targeted at the top half of the tower and three at the bottom.

The stunning red on turquoise background images were overlaid to maximise brightness, and were scrolled to

UK - As initially announced at PLASA 2005, Formula Sound has launched a special anniversary model of what has proved to be one of the most popular and successful mixers that the company has ever made. The new PM-80R will be a limited edition modular mixer, produced to mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of the original PM-80. The updated mixer will combine the benefits of modern technology with all the elements that made the original version so popular, says the manufacturer.

Despite the original PM-80 being out of production for over ten years, Formula Sound has continued to receive a stream of requests from installers and end-users for this ever-popular mixer. Says a Formula Sound's Tony Cockell, "This has led to the creation of the PM-80R, an 8-channel mixer which features the same ease-of-use and classic styling as its successful predecessor, but with some subtle de

France - L-Acoustics has announced a new V-DOSC Partner for Moldavia - Radio Polidisc Ltd, founded in 1993 and based in Kishinev.

Initially, the company's main activity was exclusively based around studio recording, but it rapidly expanded into a radio station and in 2001, the company started to rent sound equipment.

The founder of the company is sound producer, Valerii Galupa, his business partner Andrei Vasilatii was a former contrabass player, and Eddy Van Nuffel from the Belgian company AED was able to offer a high level of assistance towards the emergence and development of their operation. Valerii Galupa states: "We have two completely different directions for our business, first, musical radio stations - we now have two. Secondly, rental support - sound, light, rigging and stage equipment. We supply with the equipment to rock festivals, live concerts, television sh

UK - Academy Music Group (AMG) has appointed Carl Bathgate as General Manager of Carling Academy Birmingham. He joins AMG from Liverpool University Student Union where he has been promoter and entertainments manager for the last six years. He replaces Richard Maides, who has been promoted internally to the position of Group Operations Manager.

With the recent expansion of AMG's venue estate across the country, the latest being the 2,000 capacity Carling Academy Newcastle, Maides will work with operations director, Steve Forster to continue AMG's consistency of operations across the Group and maximise commercial potential and growth for each venue.

Commenting on the appointment, Steve Forster says, "Richard has successfully managed Birmingham for the last three and a half years and has proved he has the commitment and application necessary to work at an operational level.

UK - In spite of a blustery series of drenching thunderstorms, nearly 45,000 music lovers descended on Hyde Park for the tenth anniversary of London's end-of-summer celebration, Proms in the Park. The steadfast audience warmed to performances by the BBC Concert Orchestra, along with tenor Andrea Bocelli, violinist Nicola Benedetti, pop vocal quartet G4, and special guests Simply Red. This year's event also marked the debut of a 96-cabinet, self-powered Meyer Sound system built around MILO and MICA high-power curvilinear arrays.

The audience spread out in casual picnic fashion, making the coverage area immense: 300 meters deep and nearly 250 meters wide. In addition, because of the eclectic combination of pop/rock and classical fare, the system must project delicate transients as well as handling a wide dynamic range. Beyond all that, everything is broadcast live on the B

USA - American DJ is offering a spread of new possibilities to the world of stage lighting by applying LED technology to par cans. The company's new DMX-compatible P36 LED and P64 LED Par Cans are equipped with light emitting diodes, allowing users to create virtually any colour via RGB colour mixing, says the manufacturer.

Unlike conventional par cans, which produce a limited number of colours using gel filters, the P36 LED and P64 LED's RGB colour mixing process combines red, green and blue LEDs to create any desired shade. The P64 LED is equipped with 151 LEDs (51 red, 49 green, 51 blue), and the P36 LED with 61 LEDs (21 red, 19 green, 21 blue).

With RGB mixing, the P36 LED and P64 LED give users complete control over the colour scheme of their lighting presentation, right from their DMX controller. "This is great for stage productions, concerts, churches, presentation

Europe - Bandit Lites UK supplied LD Bruce Spillman with full lighting production, rigging and crew for the European leg of Michael Bolton's Til The End of Forever tour.

Bandit Inc has serviced Bolton for the last three years, since he resumed active gigging in the US. However this is the first European tour for some time and also Spillman's first experience working with Bandit UK. The tour was project managed for Bandit by Lester Cobrin.

Spillman, based in Anaheim, California, had to create a big show with an expedient amount of lighting fixtures. There were a few set pieces extracted from previous tours and carried forward to this one, notably three fast fold projection screens, upstage of the risers, used for gobo projections and other lighting effects, and to give the stage a shape and a sense of form.

The rig consisted of 142 PARs spread across three 40ft pre-rig

USA - Altman Lighting was awarded the Lighting/Architecture Product of the Year award at the recent LDI in Orlando for its Smart Track lighting system.

Altman Architectural's Smart Track enables digital control signals to be brought to addressable architectural luminaires without the need for dimmer packs and bulky cable runs. Smart Track consists of a three-circuit track with DMX control built right in. This allows the user to control Altman's Smart IQseries luminaires without the need for cabling and remote dimmers.

"We are pleased and honoured that the LDI judges recognised our Smart Track system with the Product of the Year Award," says Robert Altman, CEO/president of Altman Lighting. "At the show, we met with many designers, consultants, and specifiers who were really intrigued with the Smart Track and discussed the many exciting applications that they have

UK - PRG Europe has supplied the lighting for what is believed to be the biggest moving light rig for a British television series, Stars in their Eyes on ITV, which is filming now for transmission next year. PRG Europe supplied some 90 VariLite luminaires and 80 PixelLine battens, along with mains distribution, cabling and distribution racks, all controlled by a Virtuoso VX desk and an EX1 media server.

"Stars in their Eyes has been going for about fourteen years," explained lighting director Neil Yates, "and we've used PRG Europe for about ten of those. We like the fact that we get a total package from PRG - they have a great deal of expertise, and all problems and changes are quickly sorted out. They're always very amenable with changes and redesigns."

The brief included the stipulation that the lighting rig should not be seen, difficult when you'r

Latest Issue. . .