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UK - In the history of performing arts, Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's Show Boat ranks as something of a landmark, being one of the first ever musical theatre productions of its kind to hit Broadway.

A completely new production, staged in the round by Raymond Gubbay at the Royal Albert Hall in London, has become one of the world's first productions to use a revolutionary new technology which tracks the positions of the actors to help create authentic audio localisation that matches their positions on stage.

At the heart of the system, supplied by Out Board, is a 16-input 32-output TiMax Audio Imaging delay matrix driven by a Track The Actors (TTA) system. TTA comprises a Cordis Radio Eye mounted in the grid above stage which receives signals transmitted by small radi

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UK - Set within the grounds of Balmoral Castle amongst the stunning scenery of the Scottish Highlands, a concert to celebrate the Queen's 80th Birthday took place on Friday 30 June 2006.

The concert, the brainchild and put together by George Walker Events to raise funds for the Anthony Nolan Trust for Leukaemia, featured a north of the border flavour - Fiona Kennedy, The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, The Graham Geddes Scottish Dance Band, Mass Pipes and Drums, Celtic Scottish Dancers, the highlight of the evening being a stunning performance by renowned classical singer Katherine Jenkins. Presented by BBC2's Ken Bruce, the concert was attended by a crowd of over 5,500 people and lasted over a five hour period, including a spectacular fireworks display and an air display by the 2Excel Blades aviation team.

Harrogate based FT Audio Visual Ltd provided the sound and light production

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USA - On June 24, 2006 The Phantom of the Opera - The Las Vegas Spectacular opened at the Venetian Hotel and Casino utilising custom-fabricated equipment from Tomcat USA.

The first items on the list are a series of Dance Towers - an item that has become a favourite with production electricians and has been used in productions like The Lion King, The Producers and Wicked. On stage left and stage right, three hanging towers plus one rolling tower provide an endless number of lighting positions. Unistrut installed in each tower allows the designer to position lighting instruments anywhere in the tower and an adjustable centre pick-up point on top of the towers ensure that the towers remain straight after the equipment has been loaded.

The second part of the order is the front-of-house catwalk truss. Six 10' sections of truss (custom built spans of 30" X

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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 - Allen & Heath will be unveiling a new analogue console at the forthcoming PLASA show in London, 10 - 13 September 2006. The new GL2800M desk is a dedicated live sound monitor mixer, which includes a built-in mic splitter, can provide up to 16 mixes, and has a comprehensive dual output engineer's wedge/IEM monitoring system.

"The monitor application has grown dramatically in recent times with the evolution of multiple wedge and stereo in-ear systems, which can quickly exceed the mix capability of all but the most expensive consoles," explains Allen & Heath's head of design, Carey Davies. "The GL2800M adds a fully-featured yet affordable dedicated monitor console to the popular GL Series live sound range. It is compact, easy to use, offers the best of analogue reliability and sound, and has a capability that rivals that of much bigger and more expensive console

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USA - City Theatrical has added two new staff members in two newly-created staff positions. Ken Bruns has joined the company as a salesperson, concentrating on outside sales and increasing CTI's contact with designers, consultants, distributors, production electricians, theatres and other end-users. Prior to joining CTI, Bruns - who holds a BFA degree from Ithaca College - was an account executive at PRG in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Ben Merrick has also joined CTI as new product development manager. Merrick has worked at the Hartford Stage Company, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. His role at the company will be to help ensure a steady stream of new products for City Theatrical customers.

(Lee Baldock)

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Belgium - AED Rent has not only been nominated as a new V-Dosc partner for Belgium but also as a dV-Dosc provider for France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Founded in 1987, AED Rent provides dry-rental support to production and rental companies. The AED Rent group has developed its presence in Belgium, Germany, Holland and France, currently employing 68 qualified sound and lighting customer care specialists. AED Rent's stock of rental equipment consists of more than 1700 speaker cabinets from compact systems such as L-Acoustics coaxial MTD and XT series cabinets to WST line sources Kudo, dV-Dosc, and V-Dosc.

"Today's dry-rental market demands instant-access to large inventories of state-of-the-art equipment, complex although 'plug-and-play' sound and lighting systems," explains Eddy Van Nuffel, co-managing director. "Sound systems and lighting configurations requ

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UK - Pixi-Flex consists of individual pixels moulded onto a cable. Each pixel is individually controlled and can display over 16 million colours. Three standard versions are available: 16 pixels with a nominal pitch of 250mm, 16 pixels with a 500mm pitch and 32 pixels with a 125mm pitch. Special variants of these can be manufactured for custom projects.

The product can be surface mounted using the integral 3mm thread, or simply push fit into a suitable hole in the set, wall or fabric. Pixi-Flex is perfect for creating pixilated walls of light, similar to video walls. The big difference is that Pixi-Flex can flow around contours and make three-dimensional shapes.

Pixi-Flex uses a new "point-source" RGB LED that creates both a bright white light output and, with their consistent colour mixing ability, provides an enhanced colour palette with a superior range of pastel

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Germany - Berlin's new railway station has been described as "looking like a giant glass spaceship that has landed in the middle of Berlin", 10 years in construction, the station is the largest single project since German reunification, with the opening timed to coincided with the start of the World Cup. As with all new urban developments, the inclusion of retail leisure areas are vital to the stations day-to-day life. With some 1100 train and 30,000 passengers passing through ever day, their every need has been catered for with a three level shopping plaza, where 82 stores, lounges and restaurants provide around the clock service.

One of the main anchors is a Virgin Megastore, operated by HDS-Retail. The AV installation for the new store was carried out by Raum plus Schall, working in partnership with RCF Germany.

RCF's Michael Herweg says: "We have previously

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USA - Turbosound's US distributor, Sennheiser Electronic Corporation, is the official sponsor of the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum, which celebrates the essential contributions made by generations of talented musicians in all genres of music. The company has outfitted the complex with a new Turbosound Aspect TA-500 loudspeaker system together with a broad selection of Neumann and Sennheiser microphones for the performance space. Turbosound TCS Contractor Series ceiling speakers and an Australian Monitor multi-zone paging system for the screening theatre and exhibit areas were included in the install.

The multi-million dollar Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum is the brainchild of Nashville songwriter Joe Chambers, who also owns a chain of guitar stores in the area. The 2,800sq.m complex, located in downtown Nashville close to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Gay

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UK - LED lighting specialist and manufacturer i-Vision has expanded and moved to bigger premises in Cwmbran, South Wales. The new facility - the former Matsushita Corporation building - includes an automated assembly production line for i-Vision's Lumos range of interior and exterior LED luminaries plus 12,000sq.ft of warehousing and offices.

The building has been completely gutted, refurbished and customised by the i-Vision team to meet their growing needs, which had completely outstripped the capacity of the previous premises in Chepstow, particularly the manufacturing aspect. I-Vision can also now capitalise on keeping as much of the process as possible in house.

The new address is:
Lakeside House
Lakeside
Cwmbran
NP44 3XS
Telephone: 01633 482500.

All Emails and the web address remain the same.

As an energy conscious company, i-Vision has undertaken all i

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UK - Luton-based TED AV has just completed the installation of a new Communitysound system in the Oasis Club - the main ballroom of the Entertainment Complex at Park Resorts' Cayton Bay holiday park near Scarborough in Yorkshire. With a strong line up of acts booked, including Bucks Fizz, Chas & Dave, Ray Lewis and the New Drifters, The Ivy League and The Real Thing, the ballroom hosts every type of event from bands, themed evenings and discos through to the children's entertainment and parties that run throughout the day.

Park Resorts operate 35 holiday parks at popular tourist destinations throughout the UK and has already spent more than £4M expanding and upgrading its facilities during 2006.

Park Resorts chose preferred-supplier TED AV for the refit at Cayton Bay. TED AV is the sound, lighting and stage equipment design, supply and installation division of TED UK (Th

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USA - After the close of InfoComm 2006, hundreds of audio professionals left Orlando singing the praises of Meyer Sound's new M'elodie ultracompact curvilinear array loudspeaker, says the company. As the newest (and smallest) member of the Milo family, M'elodie captivated long-time Meyer Sound users and newcomers alike with a forceful voice housed in a svelte package. In the process, M'elodie also garnered a Sound & Video Contractor Pick Hit Award from the editors of the industry trade magazine.

M'elodie was the spotlight attraction for three demo sessions staged on 9 June in one of the Orange County Convention Center's exhibit halls. Total attendance for the afternoon topped 450, with corporate AV and installation professionals finding time in their hectic schedules to hear what the "show buzz" was all about.

"Even with such a small footprint the M'elodi

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USA / Hong Kong / UK - Genlyte Group, parent company of a number of professional lighting brands including Vari-Lite, has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire the US and Hong Kong-based operations of Strand Lighting - and certain assets of Strand Lighting Ltd in the UK, as part of a restructuring being undertaken by Strand.

According to Genlyte's announcement, approximately 80 Strand US employees located in Los Angeles and 22 employees in Hong Kong will join the Genlyte organization. The UK operation is in the hands of administrators KPMG, under Jane Moriarty and Blair Nimmo. KPMG has confirmed to LSI Online that 60 reduncancies have been made in the UK, and it is not thought that anyone from the UK operation is being retained by Genlyte.

In 2005, the Strand business segments included in the transaction reported sales of approximately $31 million. The transact

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Germany - A lot has changed since the first Mayday rave in Berlin's Weissensee 15 years ago. Now staged at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, the event has grown larger and more professional, without sacrificing any of its charm, as illustrated by this year's event, which was attended by just under 25,000 ravers.

Live shows from such stars of the scene as The Prodigy and cult DJ Westbam contributed to the atmosphere, as did the sound - provided by TSE AG Berlin. The importance attached to sound by the organizers of this world-famous event is clear from the Mayday website (www.mayday.de), where they outline their vision for the "greatest sound system ever assembled" - one in which "every sound calls forth a shudder from the heart".

They wanted the ground to shake, and they called in the celebrated Berlin soundsmiths TSE AG to make sure it did. TSE sent out its

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Turkey / Sweden - Wybron dealer, Stockholm-based Spectra Stage & Event Technologies, completed a massive permanent lighting installation on the Garantibank Headquarters in Istanbul on 21June, bringing Wybron colour to the skies. The 400-foot-tall structure (120 meters) was the last of eight bank buildings in Turkey for which Istanbul-based The Partners commissioned Spectra to complete the lighting design.

Lighting Designer Per Sundin wanted the façade of the building to stand out, but had to keep Mother Nature in mind. The Spectra team fit 28 Wybron outdoor model Large Format Aquaram colour changers onto Philips ArenaVision MVF 403 1800W HID floodlighting luminaires to drench the front stone walls of the bank in beautiful shades of blue and aqua. In addition to the benefit of delivering exact gel colours, the Aquaram is built to withstand the elements. The control switch panels

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UK - Foo Fighters fans at London's Hyde Park and the Father's Day gig in Manchester rocked on to Dave Grohl and his band's high-energy performance. The sun blazed and temperatures soared, but none of the action from the Foos or support bands Motorhead, Queens of the Stoneage, Angels & Airwaves and The Subways was lost on XL Video's Lighthouse R16 16mm LED video screens.

Three curved columns in a four x nine panel configuration graced centre stage, along with various other ground stacked curved screens - an impressive 160 panels of Lighthouse R16 in total. "The most complicated thing about this was that there was an overnight from Hyde Park up to Manchester," explains Phil Mercer, XL Video project manager for music and live events. "The screen needed to be quick and easy to set up and also lightweight because of limited weight loading on the stage. Lighthouse was t

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UK - In line with its continuing expansion program, Kelco UK Limited has recently appointed Graham Barron as its new sales manager. Barron brings over 20 years of experience in the lighting industry.

Part of Barron's responsibility will be the ongoing development and sales of Kelco's 'Sensory Engineering' concept - a holistic approach to lighting, sound and aroma installations which the company says is already impacting on the leisure segment.

Kelco's MD David Kelland said: ''In order to move our company forward we felt it necessary to recruit a seasoned sales professional from within our industry. Of those we interviewed, Graham was the candidate who immediately grasped the immense power of Sensory Engineering."

''The technical sector of the leisure and entertainment business is constantly evolving and always searching for innovative, cutting-edge concepts. Sensory Eng

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USA - A-Line Affiliates are a preferred network of customers who are not only users, but also marketers of A-Line Acoustics speakers. The program is unique in that instead of selling through territorial sales representatives, A-Line shares profits with its best customers who help sales and marketing efforts.

Besides purchasing products directly at discounted prices for their use and resale, Affiliates can make sales commissions by opening and managing down-line affiliates, dealers and installers. A-Line's director of marketing, Bud Mayer says direct networking allows Affiliates to more effectively share information, swap gear and join forces for important events.

The Sound Company, Modesto, CA, recently joined the growing list of A-Line Affiliates taking delivery of an AL10 hybrid-active line array system. The system debuted on the main stage at the Sacramento County Fair with

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USA - Resurrection Life Church, a rapidly growing nondenominational congregation located in Grandville, Michigan, recently completed a $35M expansion project that added 212,000 square feet of space to its facilities in the form of a new 4,300-seat sanctuary, 350-seat chapel, large choir rehearsal area and numerous other support rooms.

Music ministry represents a significant portion of Resurrection Life's overall mission focus and the church's attention to audio performance and production overall truly reflects that. To illustrate, worship services typically will feature up to a dozen ensemble singers on stage backed by a full praise band of eight musicians, eight-piece horn section and 200-voice choir.

With this in mind, the church earmarked just over one million dollars of its construction budget for audio systems and turned to Dallas-based Acoustic Dimensions to specify a so

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UK - MC2 has developed a revised, more contemporary and customer-friendly front panel for its high performance T Series amplifiers.

The T Series is designed for installations where sonic quality and reliability are of the utmost priority, with the unique MC2 current-driven floating drive stage and side chain limiters ensuring that audio quality is consistently excellent.

The revised front panel of the range now features a perforated panel which give the amps a fresh, contemporary look, reflecting the 'family' design of MC2's other amplifiers more closely. The previous anodised finish has also been altered to a painted one, making the T Series more easily colour matched and therefore a co-ordinated appearance across an entire equipment rack much easier to achieve.

But as well as aesthetics, the revamp also has a highly practical application. With venues keen to maximise space

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USA - If you are tired of waiting for your fog to rise, American DJ provides a solution with the Jet Stream Fogger, a new fixture that shoots a high output of smoke straight up in the air like a volcano.

Similar to a pyro-type effect, this high-flying fogger creates a thick cloud of fog that settles naturally from the ceiling down onto the floor. It marks a major advance over other fog machines that disperse bottom-heavy fog too low to properly fill a venue.

"The Jet Stream Fogger gets your fog up off the ground and into the air where it belongs," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ group of companies. "Complete floor-to-ceiling fog coverage is more realistic-looking and dramatic than fog that just lingers at your feet all night. It makes all of your lighting effects, especially ceiling-mounted centerpiece fixtures, look bigger and better."

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