Details
UK - Creative Media Techniques (CMT), working for Cake Media, produced spectacular projections onto five of London's premier financial institutions for the launch of the new Motorola SLVR mobile phone handset.

CMT's project manager Richard Hawkins says, "Cake's Gary Wilson approached us saying that they wanted to achieve a transformation of the city skyline using projected images of the phone and the Motorola 'bat wings' logos."

The targeted buildings were: the Old Stock Exchange (two fascias), Tower 42 (aka The Nat West Tower), Deutsche Bank, Lloyds and the old Barclays HQ. Two locations were used for rigging the projectors - on top of the Royal Exchange, and the roof of a derelict building across the road, at 67 Lombard Street.

Fourteen 7 K Hardware For Xenon proje

Details
Belgium - AMX unveiled at ISE in Brussels three new products to its line of NetLinx integrated controllers. The next-generation NI-2100, NI-3100 and NI-4100 offer "many exciting new benefits for both dealers and end users, including significant reductions to programming time and an enhanced user experience".

The NI-2100, NI-3100 and NI-4100 offer the same form factor as their predecessors, the NI-2000, NI-3000 and NI-4000, while offering twice as much memory and three times more processing power. These increases mean that system programmers can have more resources available to tackle elaborate control system designs.

The controllers are Duet-compatible out of the box. Duet is a dual-interpreter firmware platform from AMX, combining the power of NetLinx with the capabilities of the Java 2 MicroEdition (J2ME) platform.

"I challenged our engineers and marketing s

Details
Australia - Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot AT fixtures took centre stage in LD Luke Criss's show for the Dream Centre Christian Church's Christmas Concert. This was staged at the 1100 capacity Dream Centre venue on Australia's Gold Coast, and was performed to a full house for four nights.

Over Sixty intelligent lights were utilised including Robe ColorWash 575ATs, ColorSpot 575ATs and Spot 250XTs, all run though a PC lighting controller.

The lighting gear used for the concert included some equipment permanently installed in the venue, which was augmented with additional kit supplied by south east Queensland-based rental and production company, Dominica. All the show's lighting and media server requirements were designed and operated by Luke Criss and programmed by John Buchanan, both from Dominica.

Most of the ColorWash and ColorSpot 575AT lights were rigged over-stage on seve

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

Details
Sweden - The Nobel Prize Banquet, which follows the Nobel Peace Prize Awards, took place as usual at Stockholm's City Hall. Among those in attendance were the King and Queen of Sweden, and other members of the Royal Family, a host of Nobel Laureates, politicians, dignitaries and VIPs, totalling approximately 1400 guests.

The lighting at this event is taken just as seriously as the prestigious guest list. Not only are there strict rules regarding rigging and visibility, the banquet is broadcast live on Swedish National television's SVT1.

Spectra Stage & Event Technologies in Stockholm supplied creative design and production management services, plus all lighting and AV equipment for visual requirements at the banquet. W-DMX transmitters and receivers were used to control the fixtures. Spectra utilised SGM's latest Giotto Synthesis 700 moving lights, Barco R18s for the projectio

Details
New Zealand - The Christmas storefront window displays for the Myer Melbourne store were created in stunning style for the twelfth consecutive season by Stage One Promotions. Creative director John Kerr used a spread of Selecon stock including: 30 x Selecon Acclaim 650W Fresnels, 30 x Selecon Acclaim 650W profiles 24 - 44, 14 x Selecon 1kW Compact 6 Fresnels with the main special effect fixtures being 12 x Selecon Pacific 90º 1kW luminaries fitted with DHA gobo rotators.

"When these arrived on the market, my prayers were answered," said Kerr. "Building on top of the basic work horse rig, are an arsenal of "specials" or better known as "my expensive toys", from flame lights, fibre optics, LED fixtures, moving mirrors, water effects, DHA wheels, gobo rotators, candle effects and so on."

All of this equipment (combined with other luminarie

Details
Germany - A&O Lighting Technology of Oyten has expanded its range of LED lighting equipment. In the Falcon Flood LED from alpha one GmbH, A&O is offering a compact lighting system that can be controlled via DMX and is available in different power categories. Through RGB colour mixing, the Falcon Flood LED is capable of many different colour nuances.

The new LED lighting system with its individually selectable emission angles is especially suitable for architectural lighting such as the illumination of facades but also for a wide variety of other outdoor applications. In architectural applications, LED technology offers the advantages of low running and maintenance costs due to the relatively low levels of power consumption and the long operating life of the lamps.

(Chris Henry)

Details
UK - ADLIB Audio and sister company ADLIB Lighting supplied sound and lighting production to the Manchester v Cancer show at the MEN Arena.

The star-studded line up included New Order, The Doves, Johnny Marr & The Healers, Elbow, 808 State, Nine Black Alps, Badly Drawn Boy, and the tightly packed evening also included DJ sets from the Utah Saints, Tin Tin and Mr Scruff plus other local talent and acoustic artists during the change-overs.

ADLIB fielded a total crew of 19 who worked in two shifts to separate the load in crew from the event crew. The get in started at six a.m. that morning, and the show commenced at 6.30 p.m. in the evening. With doors at six, this left 12 busy hours to rig, set up and sound check eight headlining live acts. "It was an extremely hectic one day festival scenario," says ADLIB crew chief Dave Kay (recent winner of the 2006 TPi Award

Details
UK - Skouspel, the most prestigious event on the South-African music calendar, features a mixture of music styles include pop, rock, gospel and traditional African music. When the annual televised Skouspel concert went from the usual venue Sun City Superbowl to the Northgate Coca-Cola Dome last October, Matrix of Johannesburg was called-in to facilitate the audio element of the event.

Trevor Peters of Matrix says: "The Coca Cola dome near Johannesburg enjoys a less than favorable reputation for its acoustic characteristics. The space itself is a nightmare in that it is exceptionally reverberant. Furthermore, the domed shape of the venue leads to summing and cancellations dependant of the sound level and listening position. We were very excited to be involved in this event, as it presented us with an opportunity to use the largest Alcons line-array system assem

Details
UK - Buro Happold's Specialist Consulting group has appointed two lighting consultants to its fast-growing LiT (Lighting Technology) team in Manchester. Nuala Morris has a BA (Hons) in Interior Architecture from Manchester Metropolitan University and an MA on Research in Light and Health, analysing the biological effect of light on human health.

Morris will be developing architectural lighting concepts, principle design sketches and visualisations for architectural lighting schemes on commercial and public sector projects, including art, leisure, educational and office buildings, both in the UK and abroad. Current projects include a concept lighting design based around a theatrical theme for a head-link bridge in Wales and a contemporary lighting scheme for a new church in Salford.

Barry Milnes has also been appointed to the LiT team as a 3D modeller / illustrator. Milnes has

Details
Spain - EML Productions Spain is currently touring the world with Spanish bands El Canto del Loco and Mago de Oz. Madrid natives El Canto del Loco's Zapatillas Tour 2006 will span 10 months and include over 100 shows. The first two shows held on 13 and 14 January in Salamanca and Barakaldo, attracted over 20,000 people. The local press hailed the band's "musical abilities and performance skills", as well as "the technical presentation, which was comparable to the tours of the biggest stars of the world".

FOH sound sngineer Fernando Dias and monitor engineer Enrique Kike were hearing their mix through 24 Adamson Y-18 cabinets, eight Y-10 cabinets and eight SpekTrix cabinets which are being used for the entire tour. The Mago de Oz kicked their second act of their "Gaia la Boca Tour" to gear in Galicia, Spain. They will grace a further 80 venues

Details
India - The 2005 ITA Awards - Indian Television Academy Awards, the country's most prestigious honors ceremony, were held at Bhavans Ground in Mumbai. The event featured a spectacular lighting design by India's best known show designer, Atul Sonpal, utilizing Robe Show Lighting moving lights.

It was attended by a host of top Bollywood and Indian TV celebrities, some of whom also performed, and the show was also broadcast live on TV for India's number one Channel, "Star Plus".

Sonpal has designed all the major awards ceremonies in India for the last four years, and was a natural choice to be the creative mastermind of this one. All lighting equipment was supplied by his rental company, Mumbai-based Jagmag Electric.

Sonpal's starting point for the lighting was the spectacular wide set designed by Mr. Kunal for Kosmos India consisting of a spherical central fea

Details
UK - Soap Star Superstar, broadcast live in January this year, was the latest incarnation of the popular X Factor style show from ITV. Set designer Peter Bingemann and lighting director Al Gurdon provided the dynamic backdrop for the programme and employed the expertise of PRG Europe to provide crew and the lighting rig. PRG Europe's production manager Mick Healey oversaw the supply of the lighting and rigging equipment whilst Loz Wilcox managed the G-LEC LED elements of the set.

Comprising G-LEC LED PhantomFrames, which hung juxtaposed and layered at varying angles and heights around the stage, Bingemann's set featured an exaggerated perspective to ensure the stage looked much bigger than it really was. PhantomFrames were installed beneath a clear Perspex stage and, when combined with the set elements, created a low resolution video solution.

Wilcox says: "

Details
The Netherlands - One of Holland's leading PA hire companies, Unit Sound, has recently purchased two new Allen & Heath multi-purpose GL Series consoles to add to their hire stock.

The Delft-based firm has been managing sound for top-line festivals and concerts in The Hague and Delft region for many years. Towards the end of 2005, the need arose for two new mixing consoles to upgrade and replace existing mixers, providing quality and versatility for a range of FOH and monitor duties. Unit Sound acquired a 10 aux, 8 group, 12x4 matrix GL2800 and a 6 aux, 4 group, 7x4 matrix GL2400, from Allen & Heath's Dutch distributor, TM Audio.

Unit Sound's managing director, Chris Snoep, says: "Extensive testing lead us to the new A&H GL Series, which clearly stood out from the competition. New preamps and EQ has resulted in excellent sound quality, and noise ratios have improved drasti

Details
Australia - Joe Cocker has just completed a world tour with a series of shows in Australia. Tim Bradsmith from Concert & Corporate in Perth has been on the road with Cocker as his long-time lighting designer. Bradsmith took the opportunity to use ten new Martin MAC 700 Profile in his rig, along with twenty-six MAC 600 washlights. Conventional lighting included 12 ETC 19°, 10 x 4-lites and 20 x ETC Source Four Parnels.

"I believe that this was one of the first time that a rock band had taken MAC 700's on tour," said Bradsmith. "When I was at Martin's Denmark factory earlier in the year they showed me a prototype of the MAC 700 and asked my opinion on it. I have to say that they have really put a lot of thought into the effects, it's like an advanced MAC 500 which is a popular unit in itself."

Bradsmith says that the MAC 700's have been trouble free on the r

Details
France - d&b audiotechnik will use the Siel show (12-15 February, Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles) to disclose its latest ground-breaking J-Series loudspeaker range, which, the company promises "definitely lines up to go the distance".

The high output J-Series is designed to reach into large-scale sound reinforcement applications and consists of the J8 and J12 full-range loudspeakers and the J-SUB cardioid subwoofer, which are acoustically matched and constructed to be mechanically compatible both in flown or ground-stacked arrays. Both the J8 and J12 loudspeakers produce a flat vertical wave front and a symmetrical horizontal constant directivity dispersion pattern of 80° for the J8 and 120° for the J12; this is maintained down to 250Hz, say d&b. The J8, J12 and J-SUB produce maximum sound pressure levels at one meter of 145dB, 143dB and 138dB respectively.

Also o

Details
Belgium - Ampco Belgium collected the Installation Europe Award for Technical Excellence in Entertainment on the opening day of the Integrated Systems Europe Show in Brussels on 1 February. The award recognises the company's pioneering system design at the Kursaal Theatre, Belgium in 2005, which features a radical implementation of the Multi-Channel Reverb (MCR) concept.

The Kursaal, a newly refurbished 2,201 seat multi-purpose auditorium in Ostend, was equipped with an MCR system that allows the reverberation time of the room to be varied, without the addition of electronic reverb, in nine discrete steps at the touch of a button. This allows it to provide an acoustically optimized playing and listening environment for every type of performance from orchestral and opera to TV shows and reinforced music.

The system has to perform four separate roles - sound reinforcement for co

Details
UK - ADC's first major installation at London Luton Airport involved the design, supply and installation of PA and paging for the new walkways and gates built in the summer of 2002. At that time a TOA SX-1000 paging matrix and various branded loudspeakers were used to provide paging for the new build and also paging facilities for the entire old terminal, replacing their existing control system. All of the old paging panels were upgraded to custom ADC designed and supplied units and new amplifiers were installed to drive both the new loudspeakers and also the older legacy system.

The New Terminal Building's (NTB) existing voice alarm systems front end control and amplifiers were upgraded by ADC to a TOA VX-2000 integrated voice evacuation control system. Fibre-optic LAN based paging and control systems have also been installed throughout the airport complex and WAN based technol

Details
UK - Tryka L.E.D. is introducing several new and upgraded LED luminaires, drivers and controllers at this year's arc show (13-14 February 2006, London). The company's upgraded MR16-size Module 3 and Module 6 will be unveiled at the exhibition, as well as the new AR111-size Module 12, marking the launch of the Tryka Easy-Link System. This exciting development denotes the simple and straightforward way in which units connect to each other, for extreme quick and trouble-free installation, say Tryka.

Both MR16 units feature interchangeable optics and their new tapered shape means they can now fit into an even wider array of housings, making them even more versatile than their predecessors. Following their successful launch in the latter part of 2005, the new Intelligent Drive Systems IDS-4 and IDS-12 will have their first arc showing. With the ability to run and control up to 144 LE

Details
Germany - A&O Lighting Technology has acquired the exclusive worldwide distribution rights to the new Sky Falcon Arc lighting fixtures from alpha one, which are available in two versions: 'white' and 'colour' in the power classes 575W, 1.2kW and 1.8kW.

These compact architectural luminaires are presented in a robust, weather-proof housing and are highly versatile, with a variety of different lenses being available to satisfy the requirements of different applications. The Sky Falcon White can also be optionally equipped with dichroic filters to provide coloured illumination of buildings, whilst the Sky Falcon Colour comes as standard with a colour changer. This fixture is also available with an electronic ballast.

(Chris Henry)

Details
Belgium - The third edition of Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) closed on Friday 3 February having broken the 10,000 visitor marker, the organisers of the event at the Brussels Expo have announced.

This year's show saw almost 11,000 attendees, an increase of nearly 50% over the 7,401 trade visitors last year. As well as "a huge influx" from Europe, visitors also came from other parts of the world, including the Middle East, Taiwan and USA.

The organisers say: "Representatives from across the wide spectrum of exhibitors expressed their satisfaction at the number of leads gained through end user sales and recruitment of new dealers and distributors. ISE 2006 was seen as the best platform by far for them to be able to showcase their wares and network with industry professionals.

Mike Blackman, managing director for Integrated Systems Europe comments: "We are

Details
UK - Javier Weyler, drummer with Stereophonics, has one of the most extraordinary stories to tell. One minute he was working as an assistant engineer at various studios across London, the next he was playing drums for Stereophonics in front of billions at Live 8 . . .

He met Kelly and Rich from the band while working at BJG-Sahara Sound. They quickly clicked and became friends and he ended up playing some percussion on their album You Gotta Go There To Come Back. Last year he then got an unexpected call from the band to work with them on their latest album, Language, Sex, Violence. Other? "I started playing along with them and we just clicked," he says - so well that he has now become a fully paid up member of the band. "It was when we were mixing that we had a chat about it and everything came together. It has been a very natural process."

An

Page 1878 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .