Details
Italy - Turin is set for the Winter Olympic Games, which open today. The Games have generated a great deal of work for Italian Prolyte distributor Decima and its client Ital Stage. On Gold Medal Plaza, a silver Dome has been taking shape, looking impressive even in its unfinished state.

Ital Stage, partly based on consultancy from Prolyte, has developed the main construction for the silver Dome. The stage structure is a mix of steel and aluminium. Prolyte S52SV truss is used for the middle grid, B100RV truss for the main grid, combined with S36R truss which will act as supporting structure for an inflatable on top of the stage.

The inflatable structure provides a flow of heated air to prevent snow accumulation on top of the roof structure: the circular roof has an overall height

Details
Belgium - Barco have announced that organizers of the Berlin International Film Festival have selected D-Cine Premiere DP100 and D-Cine premiere DP90 projectors for all digital screenings.

The festival is taking place from 9 to 19 February 2006. In total, four Barco digital projectors will be used for a full agenda of digital screenings in theatres throughout Berlin, on this year's "Berlinale". "We are delighted to be cooperating with Barco, as they really have a long-term commitment to high quality leadership in digital cinema," says Dieter Kosslick, festival director. "We have worked with them during the Berlinale of last year. Audiences were thrilled with the system's performance."

Based on DLP CinemaTM technology of Texas Instruments, Barco's digital cinema projectors answer the demanding needs of the cinema industry. Barco today counts over 5

Details
Sweden - Gothenburg-based sound rental company Musiklagret has purchased a sizeable Nexo GEO T tangent array system, packaged with NX242 processors and Camco Vortex 6 amplification, which has been successfully used on its inaugural production, a corporate entertainment event for Ericsson.

Benny Werner, owner of Musiklagret, first auditioned the GEO T system in Paris last year. "With this system, Nexo has thought of everything in its design. Because we have used Nexo happily for many years - Alpha, Alpha E and PS Series - we felt that GEO T would fit in well with our portfolio. And for us, it feels right to buy Nexo, which has great representation from Intersonic here in Sweden."

Musiklagret has taken delivery of a 12-box per side system, comprising 20 T4805 full-range cabinets, and four T2815 down-fill units, with 12 CD18 sub-bass. Using NX242 processors, the system

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
Italy / Germany - At Rimini's SIB (11-14 March) and Frankfurt's ProLight & Sound (29 March - 1 April), Italian manufacturer Outline will be presenting three new products which it says are "sure to attract considerable interest".

The first is the Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. - an ultra-compact relative of the COM.P.A.S.S. - the first-ever robotic loudspeaker enclosure and winner of the prestigious Award for Product Innovation at London's PLASA Show last autumn. Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. is a self-powered loudspeaker system for stand-alone use or, to combine with other elements to form a Vertical Line Array. Fitted with four 5" mid-woofers and two compression drivers with a 1.75" diaphragm coupled with two D.P.R.W.G. wave-guides, the Mini COM.P.A.S.S. enables users to adjust its directivity on the horizontal plane from 60° to 150° (even asymmetrically) with mechanical steps of

Details
USA / Europe - Erick 'Otto' Celeiro, FOH mixer for US singer/songwriter Gavin DeGraw, has been touring using the A-T Artist Elite 5000 Series wireless system on the young star's vocals, he says: "The Audio-Technica AEW-T5400 vocal mic sounds better than any wired vocal mic I have ever used before."

DeGraw, has been touring extensively in the US and Europe in support of his hugely acclaimed debut album Chariot. Celeiro elected to use the A-T AEW-T5400 and Artist Elite 5000 Series wireless system on the tour because of its great sound and utter reliability. "Simply crystal clear and full of energy," is how Celeiro describes the AEW-T5400's performance. "The sound always starts with a brilliant microphone, and the AEW-T5400 is definitely that."

Celeiro has a great signal chain into which the AEW-T5400 feeds. "I've been touring with a Soun

Details
UK - "We put a lot of time and energy into training and supporting sound engineers transitioning to digital mixing in the live environment," said Mark Payne, managing director of aptly named Yamaha dealers, Sound Foundation. So much so that the company has a permanent classroom facility set up at its Reading headquarters where converts to digital mixing can be trained to use Yamaha products, including the latest addition to the Yamaha stable, the M7CL which since its launch at PLASA 2005 has generated huge interest in the industry, says the company.

"The classroom has the facility to use material tracked from live gigs so that the engineers get real experience in using the desk," explained Payne. "We bought two M7CLs and we've put them to a variety of uses . . .It's a very impressive piece of equipment."

Sound Foundation used one desk to run a mas

Details
Argentina - Allen & Heath's Argentinian distributor, Masteraudio, has acquired new office premises as part of an expansion programme to provide more warehouse space and training facilities for its customers.

The new offices are located in Palacio Azcuenaga, formerly an historic educational institute, which boasted one of the best reputations in Latin America during its prime in the late 19th Century. The rooms which once comprised a chapel, laboratory, museum, library, dining hall, and an ornate theatre, are now used by Masteraudio as warehouse storage, training rooms, and an office suite.

Masteraudio will be offering training and education courses on technologies for the entertainment industry from 2007. The company's offices now span 3000sq.m over three floors, with 2000-capacity in the theatre, which is used as the main lecture hall.

(Chris Henry)

Details
France - French Synco Europe Network partner RégieTek, based in Paris, staged its first shows late last year with its newly-acquired Synco by Martin Audio W8LC line array, at the legendary Olympia and Le Zenith theatres in Paris

The first show was a 3,000-ticket concert for a Société Générale convention, by Blankass, La Grande Sophie and Dahlia, at Le Zenith de Paris, staged in collaboration with production company Remote. The system was configured with 20 W8LC cabinets and 18 Sub 18RR subwoofers, supplemented by four Renkus-Heinz Synco Touring System (RH-STS) MH cabinets and six RH-STS Lows.

The bands themselves had their first experience of the Synco Network's proprietary low profile CW152 stage monitors. This two-way coaxial (15" and 2") active wedge, exclusive to Synco Network members, provides true point source performance, wit

Details
Sweden - Dave Skaff, monitor mixer on U2's current Vertigo global tour, has chosen Lab.gruppen fP Series 2400Q amplifiers for power. He's been with the band since 1985 and has a long and distinguished pedigree including work with Alicia Keys and Shania Twain, among many others. Skaff was having trouble with the amplifiers originally supplied for the in-ear monitors and switched to Lab.gruppen after consulting trusted associates for advice. "The Lab.gruppen amplifiers came top of the list," says Skaff.

The Lab.gruppen 2400Qs became the amplifiers of choice and are being used to power ear monitor mixes for the drum, keyboard, and cue mixes. According to Skaff they have been working flawlessly. "They sound very open and true, with no colouration," he says. "The reason I switched was that the amps I was using did not have enough front-end headroom and

Details
UK - Tribute band, Killer Queen, is perhaps Britain's most successful Queen tribute act. The band has toured the world, and performed at some of the most prestigious venues, from Bangkok to The Royal Albert Hall. So when it comes to staging, their needs are precise. In 2005, front man Patrick Myers had some very specific requests for Maltbury.

Their staging needed to be incredibly lightweight and versatile because of the range of venues the band play, and the fast turnaround that these venues often have. Maltbury's Metrodeck Ultra system was ideal. Its aluminium frame and poplar top makes it the lightest and easiest deck to handle. Perfect for a band with a tour schedule as busy as Killer Queen's.

Another advantage is Metrodeck Ultra's high-tech appearance, which is ideal for use as a drum riser in the main show (see photo). Myers was pleased with the products that Maltbury pr

Details
France - Adamson's European Division DV2, is exhibiting Adamson products at this year's SIEL Expo taking place at Porte de Versailles, Paris (12-15 February). The company will exhibit the entire Adamson Y-Axis and Spektrix line arrays as well as Adamson's newest products, the M-15 and T-21 in Hall 5 booth J30.

In addition, DV2 technical director Didier Dal Fitto, technical and engineering support Pascal Guillaume and Adamson CEO and head engineer Brock Adamson, will be giving a presentation on the T-21 Sub and it's newly developed SD-21 Driver, which will include a comparative presentation on Adamson's Driver technology. The presentation takes place on 14 February at 6pm.

(Lee Baldock)

Details
USA - Meyer Sound has announced that the company's on-site, state-of-the-art, 57+-seat theatre has been named 'The Pearson Theatre' in memory of the late Don Pearson, sound reinforcement pioneer and co-founder of touring sound company Ultra Sound.

Pearson, who passed away unexpectedly on 9 January 2006, spent the last year and a half of his life at Meyer Sound as a staff technical seminar instructor after being a major Meyer Sound customer and collaborator with John and Helen Meyer since the company's founding in 1979. Pearson was renowned for his unflagging pursuit of quality in live sound and his fervor for educating the industry about the lessons learned from his years of experience and exploration.

The Pearson Theatre is a unique venue constructed for the multiple purposes of supporting Meyer Sound's high-level professional seminar program, providing a real-world laborator

Details
USA / France - In an effort to provide its systems integrators, consultants and customers in France with the most effective sales, service and support available, Biamp has appointed Audiopole as its exclusive distributor in France. According to Ian Hodgkinson, Western European Regional Sales Manager, Biamp Systems, the appointment of Audiopole reflects their solid performance record in the marketplace and their ability to consistently deliver high-quality customer service and support to the professional installed market.

"We feel very confident about selecting Audiopole as the exclusive distributor across France," Hodgkinson said. "The combination of an excellent sales and support team with their network of dealers covering all areas of the market convinced me that they would be a great partner. After meeting with Bruno Bertrand and his team, we were very impresse

Details
Belgium - The Ancienne Belgique, the legendary live music venue in the heart of Brussels, has become the first European rock and pop venue to add the motorised WARP/M from ADB Lighting.

The Ancienne Belgique's main hall and three smaller spaces have played host down the years to artists from Jacques Brel to Lou Reed and Herbie Hancock to U2. The popular venue had a major £13m rebuild and refit in 1997 to reinforce its reputation as one of the best loved venues on the midsize European tour circuit. Now its facilities are being upgraded once again and the motorised WARP/M automated zoom profile spotlight - winner of the 2005 Showtech Product Award - has been chosen as the centrepiece of its lighting rig.

The new lights are not the venue's first experience of ADB technology - ADB Eurodim digital dimmers are used throughout, and the existing lighting rig includes: an ADB Ten

Details
France - The audio industry now has a programme to ensure the proper functionality of 100 Mb or Gigabit Ethernet components when designing, installing or operating an EtherSound network. End users, consultants, contractors, system technicians, etc. will be able to look for the EtherSound Tested logo on manufacturers' packing, product literature and websites, or to visit the EtherSound website for a list of EtherSound Tested Ethernet components.

EtherSound is an Ethernet-compliant standard for distribution of PCM digital audio: EtherSound networks are implemented using third-party Ethernet components such as Category 5e or 6 cables, fibre optic cables, connectors, switches and media converters. The EtherSound Tested programme will verify the performance of these and other Ethernet components.

"We've established this programme at the request of two groups," explains Ji

Details
UK - To those unfamiliar with contemporary British pop culture, the magnitude of the touring version of hit TV comedy show Little Britain challenges credulity, having toured the country for more than a year, quickly selling out cavernous venues where even legendary rock bands sometimes fail to fill the seats. It's an over-the-top, runaway national phenomenon that punctuates rapid-fire verbal jousting with raucous sound effects and aggrandized incidental music.

The Little Britain tour also pushes the limits of sound reinforcement, as reverberant acoustics coupled with the audience's laughter often threaten to submerge the show's quirky banter. To ensure that no ticket holder misses a crucial syllable, the show relies on a system of Meyer Sound MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers as provided by a new UK sound hire company, Sonalyst. "MICA has been ab

Details
Thailand - The Ratchada Grand Theatre in Bangkok is one of the world's grandest stages. For its feature show, Siam Niramit, a theatrical spectacular of Thai art and cultural heritage, heavy fog was required for several scenes.

Held nightly in the luxurious 2,000 seat Ratchada Theatre, Siam Niramit stars 150 performers with over 100 stage crew and technicians on hand for support. It is in fact one of the largest stage productions in the world. With a stage area measuring 65m wide by 40m deep, the task of covering this immense space in fog posed a unique challenge.

Enter eight Jem Glaciator X-Stream Heavy Foggers. Incorporated into several of the elaborate scenes - Heaven, Mighty Capital Ayutthaya and Mystical Himapaan - the Glaciator has proven both efficient and easy to operate.

Supplied by Martin's Thailand representative, Mahajak of Bangkok, the Glaciator was chosen for it

Details
UK - UK mixer manufacturer Allen & Heath has created a new role within its sales department, appointing Austrian-based Norbert Perstinger as European sales manager. The move comes in response to Due to "record growth in European sales" say the company. Liaising with local distributors in each country, Perstinger will be responsible for the sales and distribution of Allen & Heath's products across Europe.

Perstinger has 13 years' experience as a sales manager in the pro audio industry, comprising six years within a distribution company, and seven years with manufacturers ALESIS, AKG and dB technologies.

"With his business and market experience, Norbert will be a valuable addition to our team, and it is a pleasure to welcome him on board. He is also a musician, and has a practical understanding of the needs of the performer. His input is certain to build on the se

Details
USA - Elation is launching its 2006 Training & Product Roadshow, a free-of-charge 2-day educational seminar that will be held in major cities across the country this spring. Presented by the company's newly appointed director of sales Eric Loader and theatrical sales specialist Ray Villasenor, the seminars will provide lighting dealers and users with hands-on experience and information on the latest product offerings, including intelligent lighting, lighting controllers and software, professional fog machines, LED lighting and more.

"Lighting technology is moving forward at a very fast pace," said Loader. "We want to ensure that our dealers have thorough knowledge of how to use and sell the newest high-tech products from Elation. As part of our strong commitment to supporting dealers, we are offering them the convenience of being able to attend product training se

Details
Brazil - Tiësto (for three consecutive years voted the World's Best DJ by DJ Magazine) had his recent show at the 7,000 capacity Marina Santa Aldeia venue in Sao Paolo lit with Robe moving lights. It was part of a Brasilian tour by the Dutch born artist. Absolute Lighting supplied the equipment to the show, for a design by Welder Rogers, which was programmed and operated by Absolute's Paulinho.

Absolute is one of Brazil's leading rental companies, based in Sao Paulo, and supplying lighting, crew and expertise to a whole range of different lighting genres including concerts and touring shows, live venues, television productions and architectural projects. With one of the largest moving light inventories in the area, they were asked to provide both the moving and generic light specification for the Tiësto show.

The layout was a massive dancefloor with a stage at one end. Roger

Details
UK - The PAI Group has designed and installed an eye-catching lighting scheme in the Roof top lounge at the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli. The hotel is privately run by Gryphon Leisure. Its new rooftop conservatory lounge gives the grand old Edwardian building a contrasting and contemporary twist.

Gryphon initially approached PAI to provide an audio solution for the new space. However, as soon as Paul Adams set eyes on the plans, he immediately saw the potential for lighting. He suggested this to the client, who was also convinced, and gave Adams the green light to create a scheme.

"The place was just crying out to be lit, " explains Adams, "It was a simple idea to basically edge light the glass panels of the roof, but one that I knew would have massive impact." Adams conceived the lighting design with Geoff Jones from i-Vision, utilising a total of twenty

Page 1881 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .