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UK - HSL supplied all lighting, rigging and staging for the acclaimed Whiteplane 2 project, a live interactive performance/art installation tour using an atmospheric mix of ambisonic sound and architectural lighting, created by experimental artists Alex Bradley and Charles Poulet.

Whiteplane 2 immerses its audience between two horizontal planes of light, one coming up from below and one coming down from the ceiling above.

The floor and ceiling each contain 30 JTE PixelLine LED fixtures, chosen as one of the few types of lighting that could be made into a smooth and even floor of light and walked over for 12 hours a day whilst emitting virtually no heat.

The audience enter the space and sit, stand or lie between the two planes of light, which change colour and intensity as the

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Worldwide - Automation and control specialists Kinesys have designed and built a bespoke control system for 40 giant streamer cannons which have been added to the latest leg of the Rolling Stones Bigger Bang world tour.

It's been project managed and engineered for Kinesys by Andy Cave who's been working closely with Andy Edwards from Brilliant, designer of the hardware, in conjunction with the show's set designer Mark Fisher.

This also follows on from work Kinesys completed earlier in the tour involving the design and build of a motion control system to move the B Stage into the middle of the auditorium.

The compressed air cannons are rigged to a header truss running the width of the stage, each containing a very long piece of folded silk, which is ejected - parachute style - at the designated moment, forced out by compressed air.

Kinesys was asked to design a syste

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UK - PSL is now able to offer its clients a full pre-production and production service using video, after opening a new HDV video editing suite at its corporate headquarters in Potters Bar, Herts.

The new in-house studio, offering Apple Macintosh G5 with Final Cut Pro HDV, is designed to be extremely user-friendly, and fully compatible with other edit suites. It has already been used successfully by PSL clients, editing video content for the Pet Shop Boys and the European premiere of the blockbuster Poseidon.

The suite can be rented on a daily basis, with or without an operator.

(Lee Baldock)

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

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UK - There may have been an absence of Glastonbury Festival this year, but Glastonbury Abbey delivered live music to the south west and pleased the crowds this August, with the help of That's EnTEEtainment production behind the show.

The annual three night extravaganza organised by Michael Eavis partly as a thank you to the people of Glastonbury for their acceptance of the main festival and also to raise funds for Glastonbury Abbey, this year hosted Jools Holland, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rat Pack, performing to thousands in the beautiful surroundings of the Abbey.

Having been involved with Glastonbury Festival for eight years and Glastonbury Abbey for 11 years, Dick Tee of That's EnTEEtainment was the production manager for the show, overseeing the complete production from build up to break down.

Arriving on site five days prior to the event, Tee and his tea

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USA - Nashville renegades, the Dixie Chicks, hit the road again this summer in support of their seventh album, Taking The Long Way. Because of the complex audio requirements for the tour, Dixie Chicks FOH engineer Fern Alvarez went with Digidesign's Venue live sound environment for all his mixing needs. Working closely with Digidesign product specialists Steve McCale and Jeff Priepot, Alvarez configured a multiple Venue rig with one system at FOH and two systems for monitoring (each Venue system consists of one main console and two side cars).

Alvarez chose Venue after using the console on a brief run with Lisa Marie Presley in 2005, after which he was sold. "With the onboard features, versatility of the plug-ins, and the quick access to all parameters on the surface, I knew Venue was the solution for the complete package with the Dixie Chicks." Alvarez was imme

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Slovakia - Allen & Heath's Slovakian distributor, Rock Centrum, has supplied and installed an audio and video system for a congress hall in a new building for Zilina's regional parliament. Rock Centrum selected a MixWizard 14:4:2 mixer to manage all the audio requirements, and Martin Audio speakers.

The whole project was completed in 30 days, and the new multi-function complex is one of the most modern and technologically-advanced halls in Slovakia, providing technology to enable the running of parliament voting, as well as AV for conferences, including audio recording, and multi-lingual translation into five languages.

The Centre has been used for several main events, including Parliament meetings, voting sessions, multi-lingual conferences, and video conferences. The hall is also rented out for commercial purposes and has hosted companies including Siemens, IBM, and KIA moto

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USA - Miami's Dolphin Stadium is arguably one of professional sport's more active venues. Along with regular season rosters for the Miami Dolphins football and Florida Marlins baseball teams and the annual FedEx Orange Bowl, the stadium has played host to the 1997 and 2003 baseball World Series games, three NFL Super Bowls in 1989, 1995 and 1999 (and is scheduled to welcome the match again in 2007 and 2010), and a wide range of concerts by the likes of U2, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, the Who, and the Three Tenors. On its off days Dolphin Stadium has also seen countless international soccer matches, Monster Truck shows, RV and boat exhibits, circuses, as well as numerous festivals and trade shows. And that's not to mention the odd commercial and feature film.

The 75,000-seat open-air venue shows no sign of slowing down. Part of the continued success of this pr

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UK - Lighting Partners has supplied new exterior architectural fixtures for the National Theatre on London's South Bank. The company supplied nine Showtec City Painter 575 units which feature a shutter and zoom facility, coupled with CMY colour mixing and an MSR 575 light source.

The National Theatre's lighting resources manager Alex Murphy said: "We initially tried the unit as we were extremely tight for space. However, when we turned it on and saw the light output and played with the zoom we knew we were on to a winner. We're just trying to find new places around the building to use them now."

David Morgan of Lighting Partners added: "We are delighted to build on our relationship with the National Theatre and to have been able to bring the Showtec product to their attention with an on site demo."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - One of Birmingham's best known nightclubs DV8, has chosen Wharfedale loudspeakers for its new front bar extension, Innov8.

Mark Broadhead, installation manager at local dealers Matthews Electronics, who service many of the local bars, says that the comprehensive Wharfedale range offers so many options, that each venue can have its own tailored Wharfedale-specific sound to reproduce the wide range of background and DJ sound. This was certainly a feature that appealed to DV8 owner, Wayne Toon.

The 900-capacity venue was in a run-down state when he purchased it some four years ago and added it to his 150-strong community pub portfolio in the West Midlands. Recently he decided to commit in the region of £300,000 to developing a bar that would build up the early evening trade.

DV8 itself, which trades with a 6am license, is something of an institution in the city. Whil

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Slovakia - Slovakia's leading television lighting designer Martin Kubanka specified Robe moving lights at the core of his design for the country's latest Big Brother style series, Vyvoleni.

This second series was produced by independent TV channel JOJ, and recorded in Koliba Studios - the largest in Slovakia. Like the massively popular first series, it also utilised Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs.

Vyvoleni quickly became the top rated TV show for its three month run, where 15 housemates including four couples vied for some serious money prize and the chance to become celebrities.

The TV action included twice daily 'house visit' shows, plus a weekly eviction show with an interactive and very enthusiastic live audience.

Kubanka is a big Robe fan and uses the luminaires regularly on most of his work which includes high profile shows like Superstar and large TV

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USA - Director/Choreographer Kathleen Marshall's Broadway revival of the 1950s classic play The Pajama Game has received a 2006 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, while Marshall herself won one for Best Choreography. The show received an impressive seven Tony nominations in all, including Best Direction of a Musical, and best performance nominations for leading actors Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara.

Meyer Sound's Design Services Department played a key role in the show's sound design, working with NYC-based sound designer Brian Ronan to create a system custom-tailored for the show. Ronan added an array of 15 M1D ultracompact curvilinear array loudspeakers to the American Airlines Theatre's existing sound system, which included four UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers around the proscenium, 10 UPM-1P ultracompact wide coverage loudspe

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UK - The Crystal Bar carries through the Dorchester's themes of luxury, quality and high service standards to late night opening. Opening from the refined calm of the promenade, it offers relaxed drinks and discrete corporate or VIP entertainment. Following successful commissions, CGA Integration was chosen to provide an audio system reflecting the Dorchester signature values through high quality, attention to detail and intuitive operation.

The Crystal Bar is a compact, opulent venue finished to a high degree of craftsmanship. The installation had to fit with the design brief, be invisible and yet provide a dynamic audio range and usage flexibility for many different occasions. Interfacing with the hotel fire alarm and procedures was also essential.

Consultation with the Dorchester identified an extremely varied scope for events and entertainment. Routine opening required bac

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UK - Kent-based David Fitch Services is celebrating 25 years in business this year. David Fitch took the usual route to stage lighting i.e. as an amateur, starting at the tender age of five working with his father on the school show. Later, at the age of 16, lit his first show called Asses Ears.

After leaving school he spent six years in the family engineering business with four years at college studying engineering and management, and took over the running of the business just as the 1980 recession took hold, and the company closed. Fitch was faced with the choice of unemployment or seeing if the hobby could become a business . . .

Starting with six lights and a dimmer board (laughably described as 'portable', Fitch recalls), and working from the garden shed, Fitch made inroads into the local school and amateur market. Aquiring second-hand lanterns, he build up a stock

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Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB has announced that the City of Stoke's innovative Living Lights project, of which W-DMX played a major role, has been awarded first place in the lighting category of The Street Design Awards 2006, a national contest in the UK to reward innovation by local authorities.

Recognized as one of the most advanced art lighting systems in Europe, the $900,000 installation, done by Thorn Outdoor Lighting, turns Stoke's Civic Centre into a giant 300ft by 75ft canvas for colourful light shows each night, designed by students, as featured in January's issue of L&SI.To facilitate the demanding requirements of the installation, Thorn chose W-DMX IP65 units for wireless control of the entire system.

The building is illuminated by 57 groups of DMX-controlled, Thorn RGB LED strips (more than 100 fixtures in total) fixed to the building. These c

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UK - Pharos Architectural Controls will be exhibiting at PLASA 06 in Earls Court next month on stand F31. The Pharos Lighting Playback Controller (LPC) won a PLASA Innovation Award at PLASA 05, and is ideal for architectural, retail and themed entertainment environments that require sophisticated control of colour mixing, dimming, moving light and LED sources. Its advanced timeline-based lighting control, versatile triggering options and rugged solid-state construction make it the ideal all-in-one control solution for fixed installations, the company says.

At PLASA 06 Pharos will be introducing additional products to the LPC range, including the Remote Input Output (RIO) Module, and demonstrating the latest designer software, with a host of new features including Mac OS-X support.

Pharos will also preview a brand new controller which will extend the Pharos range in a new direc

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USA - Eagle Communication Inc. recently installed two Allen & Heath GL2800 live sound mixing consoles in Second Ebenezer Baptist Church in Detroit. The mixers were selected to manage a large number of inputs, as well as multiple mixes feeding different speaker clusters and locations in the church.

"We chose the Allen & Heath GL2800 because of the great sounding, very quiet mic-preamps, simple mute groups, and easy mixing of live performances. Most importantly, the mixer is user-friendly for church volunteers," says Eagle's technical specialist, Rob Wisnieski. "It is a big improvement over the previous mixer's performance and reliability."

A 56-channel GL2800 is used for the main sound, and a 40-channel GL2800 is used for monitor mixing. Input sources include a live band with keyboards, drums, bass, 10 vocal soloists, eight choir mics, a lapel mic, podium mi

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UK - This August, the longest-running hire contract ever for entertainment lighting supplier White Light will come to an end. White Light supplied the lighting rig for The Woman In Black at the Fortune Theatre in 1989; the show has been running ever since.

However, even though the hired rig will be coming back to White Light, the show is not ending. Instead, the producers and original lighting designer Kevin Sleep have decided to update the rig to give the show a fresher look; anticipating a long continuing life for the show, they have decided to purchase rather than hire the new lighting. White Light's hire team will no longer be involved with the show, but the sales team are working to provide an updated version of the rig, based largely around ETC's Source Four profile. The changeover will happen at the end of August.

"This also means that we'll be getting back

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USA - The new JET Nightclub at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas includes a sound reinforcement system featuring EAW Avalon Series loudspeakers, which were specifically designed to meet the high demands of premium nightclub sound.

Within a 15,000sq.ft space, JET is outfitted with high-end entertainment technology in each of its three distinct rooms, which are discretely fed hip-hop, rock and house music. As he's done with numerous cutting-edge club sound designs, John Lyons, president of design/build firm John Lyons Systems, chose to head the JET system with EAW Avalon Series loudspeakers, which he originally co-designed with the EAW engineering team.

In light of unique sonic challenges presented at JET, the two entities again teamed up on a hybrid custom loudspeaker design called the Avalon DCX. Specifically, the DCX marries elements of standard Avalon DC1 and DC2 models with EAW

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UK - KV2 Audio returns to PLASA with a larger stand upstairs at Earl's Court where they will be showing their full range of Active and Powered Loudspeaker Systems. Heading the line up is the mighty VHD Touring System fresh from its festival successes this summer from around the globe.

The KV2 VHD speaker system is a very high definition, active driven, large format audio system for touring or fixed installation applications. The cabinet line up consists of the VHD 2.0 mid high cabinet and three different subwoofer modules - the VHD 4.18, the VHD 2.15 and the VHD 1.21. System control and amplification comes from the VHD 2000, a rack mounted controller/amplifier system specifically designed to actively drive the VHD 2.0 cabinet. It also contains control functions for the system and subwoofer signal routing to feed the VHD 3200 subwoofer amplifier. The VHD 2000 is the world's first

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UK - Perhaps because he lives in San Francisco, sound sculptor Bill Fontana has come to regard suspension bridges as living structures that should be heard as well as seen. Fontana creates works in which he puts microphones and sensors in interesting locations and transmits the sounds they pick up to equally interesting locations some distance away, where they are reproduced in real time by carefully placed loudspeakers.

Fontana's recent work Speeds of Time involved positioning microphones and accelerometers (vibration sensors) in the clockworks of London's Big Ben, and playing the sound back from loudspeakers in a corridor of the Palace of Westminster below. Sound Island used hydrophones (underwater microphones) to gather sounds at the beach in Normandy, France, which were reproduced from speakers hung on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

As well as clocks and beach

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UK - TMB will be exhibiting some new products at PLASA 06, on stand D38.

New to the DecoPAR range of fixtures are PAR 16 and track-mount models. Available in a variety of finishes, DecoPAR is more than a light source; the fixture is a scenic element itself.

The ColourPix range of LED display systems has been expanded to include high- and low-res modules comprised of interlocking panels, custom-configured for pixel pitch and size depending on the project. A touring version of ColourPix high- and low-res modules is offered for repeated transport, rapid setup and teardown.

Alpha One of Germany offers Falcon high-power, compact fixtures for architectural and portable use. Xenon and Metal Halide models are available, in static or automated versions, and IP-rated for outdoor use.

Interactive Technologies' new CueServer playback processor is a self-contained, web enabled solution

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