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UK - "We've gone back to our roots," said Stage One's Simon Wood, when commenting on the work the company has just completed for the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield and their impressive brand new Christmas production, 'The Magic Tree'.

Stage One built several different sets for the show, which was specially written for the theatre. The complicated set designs had a massive visual impact and Stage One faced the challenge of capturing the designer's 'magic' whilst creating the sets: a recycling yard; the magic tree itself; a circus and a complete proscenium and floor. Simon Wood, added, "We enjoy getting involved in theatrical productions - especially a show like this as it really gets our team in the festive spirit."

The set for the recycling yard, where

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Spain - D.A.S, the Valencia-based loudspeaker manufacturer distributed in the UK by Sennheiser UK, has a busy show calendar during the next few months. The company will be represented on the road at a number of trade shows, on both the national and international scenes.

The latest D.A.S. products, such as the Aero-38A powered line array systems and SML-12A 'low-profile' powered monitors will be on display at international shows including NAMM (Anaheim, California, 19-22 January), SIEL (Paris, France, 12-15 February), Entech (Sydney, Australia, 13-15 February), SIB (Rimini, Italy, 11-14 March), NSCA (Las Vegas, USA, 16-18 March), and MusikMesse / ProLight & Sound (Frankfurt, Germany, 29 March - 1 April). On the national level, meanwhile, 15-17 February will see D.A.S. at AFIAL, Spain's pro lighting and sound association's official show, to be held at the Cristal Palace in Madrid'

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UK - 2005 was a great year for Athlete. Their track Wires was a huge international hit and one of the best-selling singles of the year. It was followed by an emotive appearance at Glastonbury plus further chart success with the singles Half Light, Tourist and 24 Hours not to mention their album Tourist going multi platinum. As the year comes to a close, the band has just finished on a high with a massive sell-out tour. For that show, front-of-house engineer Suneil Pusari has, not surprisingly, chosen the best in outboard gear to highlight the band's great and varied sound . . .

"I'm using Focusrite Liquid Channels as my stereo bus mix compression," he says. "Usually you have to decide what unit you like and hope that it will achieve what you need in terms of holding the mix and letting it breathe. This will always compromise certain tracks if

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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 - Amanda Chester has been appointed marketing communications manager at Harman Pro UK. Chester joins Harman from Digidesign, where she was UK marketing and PR executive. Prior to that she worked in the IT sector, including at business management software company, Hornbill Systems.

Chester will oversee the marketing and PR activity of the nine Harman Pro brands across seven vertical markets in the UK; JBL, Crown, BSS, AKG, Soundcraft, dbx, Lexicon, DOD, and HiQNet.

Commenting on the appointment, sales director Max Lindsay-Johnson, states: "Amanda brings with her a wealth of knowledge and ability, which will strengthen our current team."

(Chris Henry)

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USA - ESTA, the North American Entertainment Services and Technology Association, has anounced that BSR E1.17, Entertainment Technology - Multipurpose Network Control Protocol Suite, the draft standard commonly called 'ACN', is now available for public review until 14 February 2006.

The draft standard is a suite of protocols offering needed services in network management, device management, device description, and device control with reliable multi-cast transport on data networks that use the common Internet Protocols. There are 17 documents that describe various aspects of the suite of protocols, and they are all contained in the approximately three megabyte compressed file ACNDraft3.zip. The public review materials for this draft standard and all the draft ESTA standards currently available for public review are at

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USA - Elation Professional has upgraded its 250W DMX Waterfall 250 water simulation effect. The new Waterfall 250 PRO includes greater light output, a new case design, dimmer, remote focus and the ability to create multiple colour combinations - all of which make its ripple-like effects more vibrant and colourful, while giving operators better control, the company says.

A mood-setting effect aimed at nightclubs and dance floors as well as stage shows and theatrical productions, the Waterfall 250 PRO features a redesigned case with a sleek shape that allows for improved optics and up to 20% more overall light output. Elation has also added several thin multiple dichroic colour filters to one of its slots, allowing users to create cascading effects in multiple colour combinations. "With our previous Waterfall models, you could only have a single colour or split colours in the

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Germany - German pro audio manufacturer K.M.E. recently launched its new, flexible 'Pano' line array at the Gewandhaus Theatre in Zwickau. With Pano, K.M.E. says it has "developed a compact line array which meets highest requirements of professional reinforcement for mobile usage and in fixed installations".

Pano consists of the line array unit QL 906, the flyable and stackable subwoofer QLB 118 and two system rack combinations SR 4800 for passive channeling and SR 7100 for complete active channeling. The 2-way line source unit QL 906 is equipped with two 1" drivers coupled to a wave-former / horn combination and two 8" neodymium speakers combined with "outstanding AQF acoustic filters" say K.M.E.

The line array subwoofer QLB 118 offers a clear, transient response for a minimum distortion in the low frequency range. The sub reproduces a low limit

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USA - NSCA has announced a major expansion of its attendee marketing efforts to draw increased professional audiences to the NSCA Expo (16-18 March 2006). NSCA Expo traditionally attracts systems integration professionals, with over 11,000 attendees, representing systems contractors/integrators, manufacturers, architects, consultants, sales representatives, specifying engineers, and other allied professionals.

"The most important part of building a better business and a better industry is making sure that you have the right connections before your competitor does," said Chuck Wilson, NSCA executive director. "Whether that means the newest product, finding a better way to do business, or meeting a new colleague, attendees and exhibitors can really feel confident that they will be finding the right connections at Expo in March."

The organizers say NSCA Expo w

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UK - One of the latest innovations from Gary Crawford of CITC, the US-based manufacturer of special effects devices including snow, fog and water effects, has made the headlines in the US. The innovation may be used to control nuisance birds at farms and airports.

Crawford has modified a haze machine and come up with a grape concentrate-based solution that irritates birds without permanently harming them. When birds breathe in the substance, they cough and feel irritated, and keep away from the area. However, the solution does not affect other animals or people, says Crawford, who famously worked on effects for Steven Spielberg's E.T.

The Guardian Birdhaze machine emits a transparent, nearly invisible, haze that lingers in the air for up to four hours in an enclosed area. Outside, it spreads out over an area quickly, but remains effective. Tests in places where birds or

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High End Systems silenced those who thought they had seen the last true moving light come out of Austin, by launching the Studio Command. This moving head version of High End's Color Command colour changer fixture has an electronic ballast and uses 14 DMX512 channels.

Also being shown on the High End booth was a preview of version four of the media server benchmark - Catalyst. Although High End says that Catalyst has always been capable of running HD content, it has never been something that it has ever shouted particularly loudly about. We can expect that to change in the coming months as Catalyst V4 is rolled out. Also new for Catalyst was a preview and content management interface.

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UK - Four winners of ETC's new Source Four Enhanced Definition Lens Tube (EDLT) were presented with their prizes at ETC's Christmas Party in the crypt of St Martin in the Fields Church off London's Trafalgar Square earlier in December. The winners entered a competition on ETC's stand at PLASA 2005, and were drawn at random from the hundreds who entered.

Chris Hook, of StageRats Ltd, Ron Hill of Sutton Theatres and Becky Daley at Rose Bruford College were all presented with Source Four 19º luminaires with the new enhanced-definition lens tubes, by ETC's sales manager for UK and Ireland, Mark White. Nathaniel Keiller of Theatre Royal Windsor was unable to attend and his prize was shipped to him.

The party offered one of the first demonstrations of the EDLT, projecting ETC logos onto the wall behind the presentation stage. The standard Source Four was placed side by side with a

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USA - XL Touring Video provided equipment and support for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2006 show, to air on ABC-TV 31December 2005. Talent for the show included Hillary Duff, The Bangles, Chris Brown, Sean Paul, The Pussycast Dolls, Sugarland, 3 Doors Down and 311. XL provided two MiPix screens, Barco I-10 LED, two hi res soft LED and six plasma screens.

Lighting design was by Lee Rose of Design Partners, Bruce Ryan was Production Designer, and XL Project Manager was Matt Pearson. Pearson says: "Working with Lee and Bruce was a perfect end to 2005. They executed the perfect design that complimented the diversity of the show."

(Chris Henry)

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USA - Brevard County's Maxwell C. King Center for the Performing Arts reopened following major renovations totaling $1.3 m to improve the sight lines and concert sound system at the main theatre, and included the installation of four Lake Contour digital speaker processors and two Lake Mesa Quad EQ digital matrix processors. The six Lake Technology processors, which were supplied along with a wireless touch pad and access point, control multiple zones of loudspeakers at the 2,000-seat performing arts hall.

"Because of the wireless tablet, the Lake Contour system is great because it allows us to 'walk the room' and make adjustments in real time for any location in the house," said Tim Freese, technical director. "It is a perfect match to our JBL VerTec speaker system, which is a perfect match for our facility."

One Lake Mesa Quad EQ provides individual contr

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UK - Shure Distribution UK, the London-based professional audio equipment manufacturer and distributor, reports that Shure's new top-end UHF-R system, fitted with Beta 87A heads, has been sounding out the musical tones of showbiz hopefuls on The X Factor talent show, the winner of which was announced at the end of December to over 10 million viewers.

Since Shure launched its new professional UHF-R system at the PLASA Show in September 2005, its features have hit the right chords with leading sound professionals such as Gearhouse Broadcasting, the company rumoured to have supplied audio equipment to The X Factor TV show. Dennis Harburn, managing director of Shure UK states: "The use of our pro audio products at special live televised events is always a source of great pride for us. The new UHF-R wireless system and the Beta microphone series were designed with

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UK - PRG Europe has been busy working on the lighting for The Night of the Iguana at London's Lyric Theatre. Written by Tennessee Williams and produced by Bill Kenwright, the play follows a group of American tourists in the Mexican jungle.

"The main backbone of the rig," says Peter Marshall, project director at PRG Europe, "are VL5Bs and the new VL3000Q spots, chosen specifically because the lights had to be silent." In addition to this was an array of over 100 conventional fixtures including ETC Source Fours and Par 64s, all programmed from a Strand 520i desk by Stuart Cross.

"We used the VL5s with the colour changing system to achieve a range of light conditions, from bright sunshine, through sunset and moonlight," explains lighting director Mark Henderson. "We even used the strobe facility on a couple of VL3000s to recreate lightnin

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USA - The sheer physical size and scope of the modern athletic venue, combined with the demand to accommodate high-end, simultaneously distributed, on-demand audio and video needs of multiple user groups, can test the installation skills of the most seasoned AV systems integrators.

Delta Systems Integration was selected to implement a new AV system at Reser Stadium. Though Delta's integration expertise and experience working in the stadium market was essential to installing the facility's new sound system, one tool, a networked digital sound management system from Symetrix Audio, made the task far simpler.

The Dallas consulting firm, WJHW, specified the DSP-based SymNet networkable, modular audio mixing, routing and processing system in their initial design. As the entire AV concept for the stadium hinged on flexibility, pinpoint control and sound quality reliability, a tradit

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UK - Digital nightclub, located in Newcastle's Times Square, open its doors in July 2005. Heralded as an embodiment of a clubbing ideal, reactions to the venue have since been overwhelming. "Welcome to the Fabric of the north," proclaimed DJ Magazine, as scores of upbeat music connoisseurs paid homage to the venture. Owners Rob Cameron and Aaron Mellor, who have successfully raised the bar of clubbing in the north east of England. The club includes a state-of-the-art sound systems powered by Pioneer and Funktion One.

Hallmark features in the main room include a huge LED display that towers over the dancefloor from behind the DJ booth and screens for viewing visuals, whilst a series of well-placed mirrors and a wall of steel bars surround the area designed for dancing.

Aiming to offer DJs and clubbers the best sound possible, Digital was one of the first clubs in the

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USA - Held for the first time in New York City, Country Music's 'Biggest Night' Audio-Technica has supported the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards for 12 years. This year's Awards, held at New York's Madison Square Garden featured over 200 Audio-Technica hard-wired and wireless systems, including backline, vocal and instrument mics, and frontline wireless systems for leading country artists such as Kenny Chesney.

Hosted by the multi-platinum duo Brooks & Dunn, who took home top honours as Vocal Duo of the Year, the Annual CMA Awards presentation is recognized as Country Music's Biggest Night, and represents the pinnacle of achievement for anyone involved in country music. Audio-Technica microphones were featured for their accurate and reliable sound reproduction - characteristics that have dictated A-T's long-standing presence with country music artists and leading venues s

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UK - Britannia Row alongside Creative Technology, PRG Europe and Blackout Ltd held a Christmas Party at Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square on Tuesday, 13 December. Over 600 friends and clients of the four companies during the course of the evening were treated to a flamboyant Burlesque-themed venue. Hailed as 'The Christmas party of the year', the black tie event featured cabaret-style live-artists and musicians.

Bryan Grant at Britannia Row commented: "This was a relaxed and informal party for all four companies to thank our friends and clients for their ongoing help and support. I couldn't wish for a better way to end a really successful year."

(Lee Baldock)

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Qatar - Summit Steel, working for show producers The Bank, co-ordinated all production rigging for the massive opening ceremony of Aspire, the Academy for Sports Excellence in Doha.

Working with show technical director Adam Wildi, creative director Simon Garrett, and executive producer Moira Hunter-Ross, the Summit team of 12 riggers was led by Jon Bray and Chris Walker.

They arrived on site three weeks before the event, and began creating a rigging infrastructure in the enormous 290,000sq.m Aspire Dome. This houses a wide range of sports facilities including a 200m running track where the opening ceremony was staged.

The Aspire Dome was completely bare in terms of rigging facilities, apart from the structural roof trusses, which Summit took as their starting point. Over 1100m of trussing and 130 Lodestar hoists later, they had a flexible grid system to enable lighting, soun

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Australia - Hemisphere Conference Centre & Hotel, located on the Moorabbin Campus of Holmesglen TAFE, recently upgraded their audio-visual system courtesy of solutions company, Lightmoves.

With their business focussed on corporate conferences and retreats, Hemisphere demands first class performance from their audio-visual systems. Their existing system was not capable of meeting these standards, suffering from poor sound quality that was often muffled and uneven. In addition, many of their clients were now demanding access to a projector and screen, facilities not readily available in-house.

After their installation of an audio-visual system in the conference rooms of Holmesglen TAFE's Chadstone campus, Lightmoves were approached by Hemisphere to provide a solution that would enhance their overall audio-visual quality, but also fall within budget.

Lightmoves' Peter Gray, in

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