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USA - The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) held at Chicago's McCormick Center in September featured a new booth concept from Swedish manufacturer, Sandvik Coromant AB. The 5,000 square foot booth (494 sq.meters) more closely resembled a mystical ice palace bathing in the Northern Lights than a regular tool display.

IMTS is North America's largest tool show, featuring 1400 companies and attracting over 85,000 visitors. While most exhibitors relied on standard overhead fluorescent lighting and basic displays, Sandvik employed Gyromedia and Spectra Stage & Event Technologies to create a dramatic theatrical lighting scheme.

Sandvik had 22 tons of ice flown in from Sweden's famed Ice Hotel for the booth, the first time the special ice has ever been brought into the

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UK - Formerly with Reuters, Matt Hassock has established Pixellent Display Systems, a company designed to provide complete solutions for a wide range of public display projects. "Buying a display isn't just about purchasing the hardware," explains Hassock. "The end result needs to be carefully planned so that there's a maximum return on investment for the customer.

"The traditional buying pattern is to purchase the display first and then work out how to get the required content onto it. My experience allows me to look at things in a different way. My approach is to find out exactly what the client needs the end result to be, and then source and engineer the best products available to do the job."

Hassock spent twenty years with Reuters news agency, where he oversaw its trading room displays and video systems and was the instigator of analogue systems f

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Belgium - Unit 4 - the specialist outside broadcast truck built around a DiGiCo D5 Live console by Belgian company DB Videoproductions - was enlisted to provide a live to air audio mix for Flemish radio station Q-Music's promotional tour.

Taking place in mid-August, the tour took in five Belgian cities in five days, visiting Sint-Truiden, Brugge, Gent, Mechelen and St. Niklaas. Featuring performances by a range of artists - including Level 42, Sister Sledge, ABC and heavy metallers Udo - each show was a free outdoor event and broadcast live on Q-Music.

DB Videoproductions and Unit 4 were brought in to provide a live mix for the live radio transmission, as well as making a multitrack recording. The show's live audio production utilised another pair of DiGiCo D5s on FOH and monitors, supplied by hire company Soundfield, with two stage racks and three local racks. Fibre optic mul

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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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USA - The 2006 VMAs night broadcast by MTV from New York's Radio City Music Hall featured coverage of the movie and music stars' arrival on the red carpet outside, with Coemar's iWash Halos, ParLite LED, SuperCyc's e Panorama Cyc's performing key roles.

Lighting designer for Light Action, Tom Kenny provided an eye catching show for fans, reporters and TV cameras.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - With a record year and world sales up over 25% in 2006, Stourport-based XTA Electronics reports never being busier.

"We doubled our production area in 2005 in anticipation of how the DP4 Series would be accepted," says sales and marketing manager Guy Lewis. "This has proved a life-saving investment, as we have been able to keep up with this surge in demand from all parts of the globe, keeping new and old customers happy!"

To maintain the momentum, Stuart Down has joined the company as market manager, with specific responsibility for XTA's growing business in Europe and Eastern Europe. "We have had some great business this year, in Eastern Europe especially, and Stuart will be able to continue moving this forward. He has great account management skills and will, as the saying goes, be a great asset here."

Down started in the audio business b

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The Netherlands - Pixlvision, the Netherlands' new centre for professional video distribution, sales, solutions, support and training, has opened for business with office and warehouse facilities located in Utrecht.

The new company, headed by video industry specialist Hans Denekamp, will focus primarily on the importing and distribution of high-end professional video systems. It also has a fully-equipped solutions and support department that can help integrators, designers and end users find solutions for every video application, from installation to rental. Clients include AV system integrators, broadcast facilities, rental companies and cinemas.

The first product lines to be confirmed are Analog Way, Doremi, Smart-AVI and JL Cooper, making Pixlvision the country's leading supplier of hard disk recorders, video matrix switchers, decoders and accessories.

Alongside its siste

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USA - Daystar Television Network is the second largest Christian television network in the US and broadcasts all over the world. Based out of Bedford, Texas, the network recently purchased a Martin lighting and control package for its Studio A which features the station's flagship production Celebration.

The package consists of MAC 550 profile spots, Maxxyz lighting console and a very recent purchase of Martin's Maxedia Digital Media Composer, all supplied by Gemini Stage & Lighting of Dallas. The network also plans to add MAC 700 Profiles.

Michael Cerione, television lighting director and lighting designer at Daystar, commented, "The Martin lights have done everything we have expected, and we have only touched the surface of what they can do. They give movement and really set the mood for the music portions of our productions, as well as helping create an atmosphe

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Sweden - Power amplifier designer and manufacturer, Lab.gruppen, celebrated the company's most successful year ever, and the launch of the new FP+ Series and line-extending C Series amplifiers, by inviting its worldwide distributors to Kungsbacka, Sweden, for the first ever Lab.gruppen distributor conference. The event was held pre-Plasa in early September and more than 45 distributors made the journey to the factory.

Attendees were treated to the unveiling of the new FP+ Series, which includes the FP 13000 (2 x 6500 W), FP 10000Q (4 x 2500 W), FP 7000 (2 x 3500 W) and FP 6000Q (4 x 1500 W) all ratings at 2 ohms, and the new C Series models C 20:8X (8 x 250 W), C 10:4X (4 x 250 W), C 10:8X (8 x 125 W) and C 5:4X (4 x 125 W) all ratings at 4, 8, 16 Ohms and 70V.

Lab.gruppen MD Tomas Lilja opened the conference during breakfast at the factory. Delegates were then split into four

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UK - The Prize Stage at the PLASA '06 After Show Bar once again proved a resounding success, attracting crowds at Earls Court 1's central bar on the Sunday and Tuesday evening of PLASA '06.

The Prize Stage was sponsored by nine of the industry's major players and on both evenings the main event was the £1000 prize draw. The two lucky winners were Gary Sales and Alex McEwan.

"The prospect of winning £1000 was an enticing proposition to make me go and look at all the participating company's products," said McEwan. "This is the second year running I've been to the PLASA Show and the Prize Stage was certainly a very welcome added bonus."

Mc Ewan explained that the money will go towards helping him set up his new business: "I've worked freelance for quite some time and have now set up a production company based in the Birmingham area, so I'm g

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USA - The new Spectrum 575 is a quiet, exterior wash light with the wide palette of a CMY seamless colour blending system. Coverage is substantial due to a fairly wide beam angle field, between 7 and 40 degrees, via a motorised zoom.

A quality 575-watt discharge lamp provides an intense wash even in darker colours. Light intensity is 29 foot-candles at 98-foot throw using the widest angle for projection. The motorised zoom allows further manipulation of the intensity and throw distance of light.

An IP rating of 54, fast internal cooling, a solid weatherproof metal casing, thermal switch protection and water resistant cable connectors ensure dependability even in rigourous weather conditions. A full, motorised dimmer further helps maintain the consistency and precise control of selected hues when the natural light changes.

Synchronisation is possible in DMX mode as well as in

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Australia - Brisbane's North-South Bypass Tunnel (NSBT) is a massive project; a new road that will connect north-south traffic under Brisbane between Woolloongabba and Bowen Hills. This vital piece of infrastructure to the Brisbane community will open by 2010 and in the meantime a new permanent NSBT Visitors' Centre has opened in Kangaroo Point.

The Visitors' Centre is an initiative of the Brisbane City Council, Rivercity Motorway and LBBJV Consortium who, as part of Queensland's largest Public Private Partnership (PPP), has created a state-of-the-art information centre for Brisbane residents and visitors. The Centre features artist impressions, models of the finished tunnels, maps, photography throughout the construction and short construction videos.

Brisbane-based Iceworks Design was given only seven weeks to design the centre from initial concept sketch through to finished

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China - The International Audio Group (IAG) have announced that Paul Dodd has joined the company as general manager of sales, marketing and business development, Lighting Division.

Based in Shenzhen, China the IAG Lighting Division comprises the well-known and established brands of COEF, F.A.L and Apogee Lighting.

Dodd brings a lifetime of experience to IAG in all aspects of the industry having been involved at a senior level in sales, marketing, design and manufacturing for major brands worldwide.

Most relevant for IAG is the fact that for nearly ten years Dodd worked at FAL in Italy as product development and marketing manager. Working with Omar Bertani, he produced some of the most dynamic lighting products in the market today and IAG are pleased to re-establish such a winning combination.

Having spent the last five years as vice president of PR Lighting, Dodd is no str

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Australia - Jands Production Services (JPS), Australia's largest sound rental company, has made a significant upgrade to its monitor systems, including the purchase of 12 Clair Bros Audio (CBA) custom Dolby Lake Processors. The units feature proprietary software and custom CBA presets not available in the standard Dolby Lake Processors.

Additionally, JPS purchased 48 new Crown MA3600 amplifiers and added an extra 32 Clair Bros Audio 12AM monitor wedges to its already extensive CBA speaker inventory. The new monitor racks debuted in September on a national concert tour by the Australian electro-rock band, Rogue Traders. Monitor engineer Ben Shapiro commented: "This is the best monitor system I have ever heard. They sound absolutely fantastic. After I ran the 12AMs with the new Clair Dolby Lake Processor presets, I left my outboard equalizers back at the shop!"

The Dol

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UK - Bandit Lites UK has once again supplied lighting and rigging systems to the British Fashion Council (BFC) main venue at London Fashion Week. Pitched in the grounds of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, the BFC tent hosted over twenty shows - many of them back-to-back - from a spread of major international designers.

Lighting designer, Simon Tutchener has lit London Fashion Week (LFW) for the past ten years and 2006 marks Bandit's fourth season on the case, working for production company S2 Events. The production was managed by Bandit's business development manager, Lester Cobrin at the Bedford-based lighting company. The event's production manager was Tom Brunsdon and S2 Events MD, Wolter Dammers provided technical coordination.

For the 2006 autumn show, the BFC wanted the option of having a straight or u-shaped catwalk in the tent. To achieve the desired resul

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UK - Huge, life-like dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum in London appear to be feeding in water thanks to the creativity and technical knowledge of Stagecraft Theatre Services (STS). The company recently installed the Rosco X-Effects 3D projector into the Museum, as part of its new Dino Jaws exhibition. Salisbury based STS, a leading lighting, staging and sound company, was responsible for the supply and installation of the new equipment, which creates 3D moving effects.

"The Rosco X-effects is an extremely versatile piece of equipment and it has been used to great effect at the Natural History Museum. Each gobo in the X-effects rotates off-centre, which results in an image that seems to have no visible direction or pattern and the on- board potentiometers control the speed of the movement. The 3D image produced by the projector has been used to create the effec

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USA - For Shakira's Oral Fixation North American tour, lighting designer Abbey Rosen Holmes' multilayered lighting rig includes an automated and conventional lighting package supplied by PRG Lighting. The design features 34 of Clay Paky's Alpha Spot HPE 1200 luminaires, which are the only lights used for the graphic effects on the stage.

The Alpha Spot projectors offer a rich and innovative graphic section, featuring twenty gobos on three wheels, rotating prisms, an animation disc and infinite colours (CMY colour system + Linear CTO + 7-color wheel). Clay Paky created the gobos for the luminaries by following Holmes' exacting specifications.

Ben Hammett, the PRG Lighting technician who is responsible for the Shakira lights on a daily basis, adds, "The Clay Paky lights have been great; they are very reliable, and have needed very little service."

The entire crew reh

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UK - Demonstrated for the first time in the UK at PLASA 2006, the Mbox Extreme media server from PRG is billed as being one of the simplest and easiest media servers around. It offers a full editing suite and streamlined programming with crossfades between clips being created on a single layer.

Since its introduction at LDI 2005, the Mbox Extreme has built up a strong following, having been used on Broadway shows, opera and corporate events. During 2006 Lestat - a short-lived but technically acclaimed Broadway production - saw eight Mbox Extreme media servers being used to synchronise and edge-blend multiple projections to form the large images that had been conceived for the show.

For corporate events, where ideas about the presentation can change from minute to minute, Mbox Extreme gives "absolute control" over the video output, allowing the operator to make

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USA - LeAnn Rimes is touring the country with a production for which the design is centred on 5 High End Systems DL.2 digital light fixtures. LD Steve Fallon, assisted by programmer Keith Hoagland, decided to use the DL.2s after touring last year with its predecessor, the DL.1. "The experience with the DL2s has been great," says Fallon. "It's like night and day: ease of use, compact and reliable and by far a much better fixture for my tour."

The show also includes 10 HES Studio Command 700 automated wash luminaires. "The Studio Commands are super. With their full beam, they're like little sky trackers. I will have them in play again next year," adds Fallon.

The production looks big but in reality is a one-truck show with a small crew. Fallon says production manager Bill Farris enjoys having the DL.2s in the show "for their cost-effectiveness&

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Germany - 3,500 blocs of ice with an overall weight of 320 tonnes were used for the world's largest Ice-Bar (300sq.m) in Schüttorf, Germany. The bar includes a discotheque, called Index, where nearly everything from furniture to walls is made of ice. To give the bar another very special touch there are about 52,000 LEDs - or 160 LED PAR-Spotlights -implemented into the building. Lighting control is done by grandMA onPC and an NSP. Index also utilizes two grandMA full-size and a grandMA light, and grandMA video is also integrated into the network.

"The grandMA consoles are easy to handle and immediately ready for action. Furthermore they're very versatile; they control everything but mainly multimedia devices like the server and LEDs. We use grandMA technology also because of its reliability and quality workmanship," explains Sven Janning of F.A.C.E., which provided pr

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UK - Adlib Audio supplied a JBL VerTec line array system and full audio production for the Scissor Sisters' acclaimed album launch gig in Trafalgar Square. The Adlib team worked closely with event production manager Steve Allen, technical consultant Roger Barrett and independent sound consultants Jim Griffiths and John Staunton from Van Guardia, plus event producers SJM.

The band launched their second album Ta-Dah in front of a hugely enthusiastic Saturday night party crowd, and were introduced by their special friend, Kylie. Sponsored by comms giant Motorola, all proceeds were donated the Global Fund to raise AIDS awareness in Africa. The show was also recorded for broadcast on E4.

Scissor Sister's FOH engineer is Adlib's Dave Kay. Another Adlib engineer, Ben Booker, looks after monitor world, and Adlib will also supply PA for the band's upcoming UK arena tour later in

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UK - SDD Sound & Light has been awarded a distributorship for Bosch Security Systems. Steve Durrell, CEO for the SDD Group, said: "We are delighted that we have at last found in Bosch, a range of audio installation products that delivers everything in one package."

"Customers are increasingly requesting fully integrated digital systems that provide not only effective distribution and control of BGM along with selective paging but are also approved as emergency systems. The range of Bosch security products now allows us to supply complete solutions whereas historically we have had to 'mix and match' brands in order to achieve the desired results. We are now looking forward to supporting all of our clients, both trade and end user, with what must be the most advanced technology in this field."

SDD Communications, the installation arm in the SDD Group, already

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