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MA Lighting's GrandMA products also dominated: grandMA video version 1.28 was released at the show with three new key features - admin, multi-screen preview and soft-edge blending. These new functions, in combination with previously released ones such as four live video inputs, the keystone effect, beam shape effects, and the FOH blind editing function directly from a grandMA console, make grandMA video a powerful tool. www.vari-lite.com www.pulsarlight.com www.lightpower.de

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Although RCF also had something to say in conferencing, sales director Fausto Incerti kicked off with a similar plug for its loudspeakers. "This year, with the introduction of the line array, we complete our offerings across all the different marketplaces," he said. "It's an important achievement because in such a short space of time we've completed the lines for fixed installation, for touring and theatre and for conferencing - as well as continuing our transducer developments. This is only the start of the third year of RCF's latest incarnation."

RCF's Forum 6000 is a fully digital congress control system, but will soon gain a bigger brother discussion system - "the most important in this product family," Incerti said. Prototypes were on display, as were new flying, rigging and installation solutions that single out the TT+ (Touring and Theatre) range, i

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Hot news on the High End stand was the Studio Command H, which was launching at Frankfurt. High End's Fons de Vreede demonstrated a new 1kW tungsten fixture which will be shipping in a couple of weeks, and hinted at more news to come before PLASA.
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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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G-LEC launched its walk-through LED system, the G-LEC Tube, which is similar to the company's transparent LED frame systems - but without the frame. Each individual transparent tube hangs free, for a kind of 'beaded curtain' effect, and the tubes can be constructed in different lengths, from 10cm up to 6m.

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USA - Ludacris, one of the top national hip-hop/rap acts, performed at the Erie Civic Center through a hybrid-active powered line array system using forty AL-10 mid/high enclosures and thirty-two LS-218 dual 18" subwoofers.

Raven Sound provided sound and light production, and set up went very smoothly, rolling in the AL-10s four to a wheelboard and rigging them directly. Some modification was needed after installation and, because of the EZAL hardware, it was a simple task to lower the speakers and re-focus the enclosures without taking the enclosures apart.

Phil Papotnik, Raven owner, noted the A-Line system performed flawlessly for the very demanding audio performance. "The LS-218 subs pumped out enough bass to vibrate the FOH position", says Papotnik. "The crowd loved it."

(Chris Henry)

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Turbosound had three major launches at the show. TSB118 and TA500 are wide-dispersion models in the Aspect range for installation. "That's because Aspect is only 25°," explained European sales manager Dominic Harter, "so on smaller shows it can be expensive to cover a room. Also we have lots of Floodlight installations that are 10 or 12 years old, and we weren't previously offering an upgrade path to those customers. Now we are."

The other news surrounded the TCS52 ceiling speaker. "Turbosound hasn't had a massive name in contracting," said Harter, "so we launched a range at PLASA in that direction - although we still make the Impact speakers. It's important to service the whole job in installation - if you get the cloakrooms and ceilings, you'll probably get the PA as well. So it's all about colour options, weatherproofing and covering every angl

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SIB 2006 appeared to be a strong performer by most accounts, attracting good visitor levels with a healthy international showing. And all this amid rumours of a move to Milan - which turned out to be a mooted rival show that seemed to drum up little support on the show floor. Lee Baldock & Chris Henry report

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Visual Productions' focus was on the Matrix Mania, a lighting tool for the control of LED matrixes, which has covered considerable ground since its launch at the show a year ago, and can now render full animations. The company's newest hardware device, the Frontier, was launched at the show and is a playback unit with the capacity for 16 pre-programmed sequences. A new VisualDMX software version is also available.

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News from ADB included their EuroDim dimming system, which now offers silent dimming of practically any load using new sine wave modules. The dimmer offers self-protection against short circuits, self-limitation of peak current, elimination of lamp filament noise and noise induced in audio equipment. The sine wave dimmer modules for the EuroDim ranges can be retrofitted into existing installations, and can coexist with conventional thyristor modules in the same cabinet.

ADB's WARP lighting fixture range was on display, with new improved features and discharge light sources. A low-noise colour changer with an adaptor plate that reduces spill light from the front of the fixture has been introduced. WARP/HMI is a new fixture range that uses HMI/MSR discharge lamps and flicker-free electronic ballasts; the fixtures are silent due to their fan-less design.

ADB's Phoenix and Mentor console

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L-Acoustics announced the availability of Version 1.3.0 of Soundvision, its three-dimensional sound design program. The latest software incorporates temporal mapping, speaker grouping and subwoofer visualization. Temporal mapping utility conveniently enables users to optimize the performance of their delay systems by displaying, in real-time, whether speakers are within or outside of a useful time delay. The new speaker grouping feature allows enclosures to be grouped by categories within the loudspeaker control panel. Models of L-Acoustics' subwoofers have been added to the program, allowing users to see the physical existence of low-frequency enclosures in a system design.

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UK - Serious Stages stepped in at short notice to build the decking and substructure required to support the Ice Space venue - the world's first ever five Star Arctic attraction - at London's Tower Bridge.

Serious - one of the UK's leading staging companies - has supplied over 2000sq.m of it's proprietary Red Deck extra heavy duty steel base system which is supporting over 200 tonnes of ice.

The deck is constructed from Universal I beams that span between RMD Shoring System and customised head standards. Infill beams fit between the primary I beams every 600mm to produce an incredibly strong base. The infill beams are capped with timber and then finished with 25mm birch plywood panels to form the deck's surface. Each 'bay' measures 2.4 x 2.4 metres.

Serious has also supplied 12 internal support arches for the structure as well as all the perimeter external steps, wheelchair

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Spotlight were exhibiting as at SIB, but new for Frankfurt was the Accurate BLITZ Stage, a powerful 5W moving-head laser, complete with gobos, animations and frost effects, which is also DMX controllable.

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USA - A trade exhibition is where everyone talks to each other. But NSCA is where everything talks to each other.The machines are taking over the conversation, and contractors are having to start listening in.Harman Pro and Loud Technologies once again dominated. Version 1.08 was launched of BSS Audio's HiQnet London Architect - not be confused with version 1.1 of HiQnet System Architect. It's for the SoundWeb London platform at the moment, but there is a plan to migrate over to System Architect so that absolutely all Harman product is available under it.

"It's a legacy thing," said Ian Gregory, product manager at BSS Audio. "The development cycle for SoundWeb London just predated HiQnet, at which point it was decided that a completely new software application would be written from the ground up. This would then be the central control softwar

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Amongst other products, LSC Lighting showed the DNAnet/R which is a DMX/ArtNet converter, as both an input or an output module. The unit includes a fully working RDM for bi-directional communication with RDM enabled devices. ArtNet View software enables full configuration and monitoring of any number of DNAnet/R units via ethernet networks. Also exhibited was the e24 v2, an evolution of LSC's e24 compact touring dimmer system.

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Esca-3000, distributed by Profi Trade in Germany is basically a steerable tallescope. "Mobility in every height, without a motor!" says the brochure. As we observed from the ground, a volunteer was tasked with the mission of driving himself around in the dark haze of the lighting hall, at height . . . check it out for yourself.

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Anolis, the architectural LED lighting manufacturer formed just over a year ago in a joint venture between Robe Show Lighting and Australian distributor ULA, was again exhibiting adjacent to Robe, and was one of the companies reporting a good level of interest from overseas buyers at SIB. General feedback from Anolis was that one year on from its inception, expectations are being exceeded and general manager John Saunders was positive about the future.

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Last month, the total number of visitors to the combined shows reached 100,000 for the first time, a 10% rise over last year, while exhibitors increased by 5%. And this over just four days, with a 16% rise in overseas visitors. No wonder there are long queues at the taxi ranks.

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USA - BSR E.19, Recommended Practice for the use of Class A Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) intended for personnel protection in the Entertainment Industry, is available for public review. The draft standard gives advice on where, when, and how to use GFCIs rated for 100A and less in the entertainment industry. These devices are used for personnel protection in entertainment applications encompassing places of assembly, the production of film, video and broadcast, theatrical productions, carnivals, circuses, fairs and similar events in North America. The official ANSI 45-day public review period starts on May 26, but the draft standard is available now at http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php. The public review runs through until the end of 10 July 2006.

Reviewer

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Ireland - An exhibit commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising opened recently in a newly renovated space at the National Museum of Ireland's Collins Barracks site in Dublin. Occupying a central position in The Easter Rising: Understanding 1916 is an original copy of the 1916 Proclamation Of Independence, one of the most important documents in modern Irish history.

The renovated space enables museum experts, who worked with exhibit designers Haley Sharpe Design Ltd of Leicester and lighting designers DJW of Beaulieu, to ensure acceptable levels of light and humidity in order to display such precious documents safely.

Lighting designer David Willrich, of DJW, said that one of the main considerations behind designing the lighting for The Easter Rising: Understanding 1916 was observing conservation light level requirements whilst providing sufficient l

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The new Pro Lounge opposite Hall 8 is actually a marquee, erected in one of the many inter-hall plazas that break up the Messe site into architectural respites. In it you can actually hear audio - including, at 4:00pm on the first day, the redoubtable Thomas Blug & Friends. "If you like the guitar playing of Jeff Beck and David Gilmour," said the poster, "it's a safe bet you'll like Thomas Blug."

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Belgian manufacturer Apex began with analogue EQs, 10 years ago, went digital in both signal processing and speaker management, but has now returned to high-end analogue with the dBC-8 and dBG-8 - an 8-channel compressor and 8-channel noise gate respectively. "There's a developing sector that wants to save rack space without going digital," says product specialist Filip De Vos. "These address the same need that PA companies have for more and more compact kit, each with eight channels in one unit. They also avoid too many control knobs and switches that people don't have the time to set. There is definitely still a middle range of users who want the analogue sound quality, the ease of use and the cost-effective price.

"The more digital we go, the fewer racks will be needed. Some will remain for the esoteric units, and there are those who don't have the budget to go h

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