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Japan - Geo-E-Site, a major hydroelectric power station, is sited in the Gunma Prefecture, 100km north-west of Tokyo, and covers most of the energy needs of the surrounding area.

Aiming to create an exhibition which would illustrate the processes that lead to the production of hydroelectric power, the owners have built a subterranean environment, about 300m below the level of the power station. The site hosts many Japanese and foreign tourists, including many school trips.

Six Clay Paky CP Color 150-E projectors are used through the exhibition, both to make the visit more pleasant and to highlight some of the fundamental parts of the power station. "The use of projectors with IP65 protection became indispensable since the place, by its nature, is very damp and dusty,"

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UK - In the blaze of publicity unique to the phenomenon of the 007 franchise, the world premiere of the latest James Bond movie took place in London's Leicester Square. Attended by Her Majesty The Queen, the occasion presented several new twists for the team from event services company PSL, on hand to provide the giant display screen in the Square.

Working to a brief from production company Banana Split Productions, PSL crew erected a special structure to support the 4m x 2.5m Lighthouse LED screen, which carried live interviews with all the film's creators and stars. Marking a change from the usual red carpet approach, a bridge was constructed to carry the celebrities from the Square's central garden over the cast-iron fence railings to the terrace in front of the Odeon Cinema. PSL's screen was positioned at the highest point of the bridge, allowing a clear view for all the tho

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UK - Technical staging specialist Blitz has been commissioned to work alongside director Paul Kerryson, and the production team of The Wizard of Oz. The show, featuring Helena Blackman, finalist from BBC's How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? will be staged at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester. The production runs throughout the festive period, from 1 December 2006 to 20 January 2007.

Blitz is providing a full range of services for the show, supplying AV equipment including video control systems and two Panasonic projectors, as well as complete sound solution and extensive technical staging direction. Working alongside well-known director Paul Kerryson, Blitz's project manager Mark Lewis will be offering innovative technical advice from the outset of the project to help create maximum impact from the stage production. This is a proposition which Blitz is continu

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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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The Netherlands - The latest phase in the development of Amsterdam's legendary Paradiso nightclub was recently completed with the addition of Synco compact stage monitoring on long-term rental from Synco Europe through Ampco Pro Rent (APR).

The floor monitors, which are used both on the Paradiso's main stage and its smaller stage upstairs, are rented on a 60-month arrangement - under the same formula that applies to Synco wedges already on long-term hire to six other top Dutch clubs, the Tivoli, Het Paard, the Music Centre Utrecht, O 13, Nighttown and the Milky Way. The monitors were chosen by the club after their regular use there by both Dutch and international bands.

In 2003 the Paradiso - which is housed in a beautiful former church, complete with stained glass windows that overlook the stage - completed a massive refurbishment of its main hall, which included the addition

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UK - Glam New York rockers the Scissor Sisters are currently on tour promoting their new album titled Ta-dah. Lighting designer Dave Ross first met the band over two years ago when they headlined their first ever show in the UK at The Scala London. Dave specified numerous PixelLines 1044s for the gig, which started an 18-month stint of touring. The 1044s soon became a big feature of the show, especially in the US where 1044s where relatively new to the market.

For this tour Ross, works alongside show and set designer Roy Bennett. An integral part of the design is a flat wall of 144 PixelPar 90s - 16 fixtures wide by 9 fixtures high upstage behind two Kabukis. Ross explains: "The band has very set ideas concerning the use of lighting and video and they are always keen to build their show gradually. And although the PixelPars are only really used for the last two songs

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UK - As the centrepiece of the recent MPH06 exhibition at the NEC and Earls Court, the specially-constructed MPH Theatre hosted one of the most spectacular motoring shows ever created. In total, around 100,000 'petrol-heads' crammed in to see the procession of supercars in the purpose-created arenas at the two venues, with respective capacities of 3,900 and 4,500.

Compered by Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson and James May, along with Fifth Gear TV presenter Tiff Needell, each of the 23 x 75-minute shows was reinforced by a high level of production - from the pyrotechnics that accompanied the stunts, to the highest powered state-of-the-art DLP projection available to service company XL Video.

Project manager Lee Spencer commandeered the latest additions to XL Video's hire-fleet, the supercharged Christie S+20K SXGA+ Roadsters, fitted with polarising lens to deliver a st

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UK - Arena Seating has appointed John Poyner as director of international sales and marketing. Poyner brings 30 years of global experience in the seating industry and will help steer Arena Seating to new horizons, the company says.

Poyner achieved success in former companies Audience Systems and Hussey Seating, delivering good financial results, winning key accolades, notably the Queens Award for Export and American Institute of Export Awards, and helped to create new European standards that shaped the industry.

Poyner said: "I have known Arena Seating for many years; they are certainly the leading event seating company in the UK and I am looking forward to working with some fantastic people and developing new opportunities for us all."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Sennheiser's evolution range of microphones and in-ear monitors is being used by Corinne Bailey Rae - who recently topped the BBC poll of 'Sound of 2006' - on her current world tour. Corinne's monitor engineer, Duncan Wild says: "The e935 gives me a wonderful clean definition on Corinne's voice, and complements her dynamic variations. I've not found any other mic that can do that with such clarity. For backing vocals, I have selected the supercardioid e945s, as these give me both a warm response and minimize bleed through. On the kit, I have always been using e614s on overheads, snare bottom and hi-hat. I have been amazed at how good they sound, and their exceptional value for money!"

Wild adds: "The Evolution G2 IEMs proved to be the most reliable, easiest to set up and the best sounding in-ear monitor systems I have ever used. Despite the unpredictable cond

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The Middle East - If your organisation has been involved in the design of a lighting project, within the Middle East region in the last five years, then you may want to submit an entry to the Middle East Lighting Design Awards.

The awards presentation will be held at a Gala dinner on the 21 May 2007 at the Al Murooj Rotana Hotel in Dubai. The Awards are fully supported by Jonathan Speirs, of Speirs and Major Associates, who believes this event will further encourage and stimulate creativity in the field of lighting design.

The eight award categories, including the prestigious Middle East Lighting Designer of the Year, will be judged by a broad based panel of industry experts, including Barry Hannaford IALD director of independent lighting design company dpa lighting consultants.

For full details of the event, award categories, sponsorship opportunities, and how to ent

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UK - Dialight Lumdrives has launched its new Linkled IP range based on its originalLinkled RGB system. Offering the ability to control a line of LEDs extendingover a considerable distance, Linkled IP brings new benefits including IP ratingto IP67 and multichip technology which enables colour mixing at source. It issuited to cove lighting, interior and exterior feature lighting.

New Linkled IP expands the flexibility and performance of the original Linkledsystem and is compact, faster and easier to install than previously, and isdesigned for OEMs who require a simple plug and play solution.

Benefits include less fringing, it is ideal for direct view applications, stripsof six or 12 modules can be supplied preassembled, an integrated heatsink fordirect mounting to any surface is standard and cabling spacing can be suppliedat 100mm or 200mm.

Linkled IP is supplied ready to use

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Germany - Bosch Security Systems has introduced a new version of its Plena All-in-One combined background music and paging system with DVD audio and video functionality. In addition to background music, the unit can also play DVD videos on a separate display, showing, for example, video commercials or slide shows in small shops, showrooms and boutiques. The new Plena All-in-One also features a digital FM/AM tuner with 15 presets to store preferred radio stations and a 120 W mixer amplifier, all integrated in a compact housing.

The DVD player plays normal audio and video DVD and CDs as well as MP3 encoded DVDs and CDs. In addition, it plays JPEGs on CD-R, DVD-ROM and DVD-R.

The unit has component, composite, and S-Video connections for video output and can play PAL and NTSC content in either progressive or interleaved scan. A TOSlink optical output is also available that suppor

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South Africa - The Stones chain of entertainment venues is rapidly becoming one of South Africa's most established and successful hotspots and has been successfully franchised across 19 branches nationwide. Two of the chain's key venues in Cape Town and Pretoria now boast state-of-the-art EAW sound systems throughout, supplied and installed by EAW's South African distributor, Johannesburg-based systems specialists, Surgesound.

Stones venues incorporate chilled lounge areas, up-beat dance-floors, live music stages and a relaxed bar and pool table environment, all open seven days per week. After hearing the EAW system recently installed by Surgesound in the Manhattan Club in Johannesburg, Adam Collingwood, operations manager for the Stones Group, had no hesitation in commissioning Surgesound to supply and install a customised Lab.gruppen-powered EAW system throughout Stones Tygerv

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World - Lighting director/programmer Graeme Nicol is using the grandMA console on Shakira's Oral Fixation tour now wrapping up the year in the singer's native Colombia, Chile and Argentina.

"I find you never stop learning on the grandMA," says Nicol. "There's always something new to learn to use the console to the max. Shakira's tour is more of a rock show than I've been doing lately with a lot of flash and boom. We have an interesting set up of 134 moving lights run via SMPTE. The keyboard tech runs tracks, which are striped with SMPTE. He starts his tracks, which sends SMPTE out to me, and the grandMA runs the lighting cues. It's a very interesting concept."

The show's complement of moving lights consists of 34 Clay Paky Alpha spots with custom gobos, 40 MAC 2000 washes, 48 PC beams, and 12 Vari*Lite VL2402/2500s. Eight Atomic 3K strobes and hundre

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USA - Adamson Systems Engineering has expanded their Y-Axis Partner Network in the United States with the addition of BP (Bishop Petty) Lighting Sound & Video, based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1990, BP Lighting also provides sales of entertainment lighting, sound and video equipment as well as expendables and accessories for installations. They work out of a 10,000sq.ft location with 12 full time employees and various freelancers.

After meticulous research into line arrays, they narrowed down their choices to a few, "We were amazed at the amount of detailed information available to us that explained the inherent differences of a line array," says Frank Burton, vice president / sales / production. "The calculations were solid and we followed that up by listening to various line arrays and were sold on the sonic clarity of the speakers as well as the ease of

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UK - One of the dominant themes of the December meeting of PLASA's Manufacturer's Forum will be a discussion of Ofcom's proposals (as part of the TV switchover from analogue to digital) to sell-off the radio frequencies currently used by the UK entertainment industry. If the sell-off goes ahead as planned, it will leave the UK live events sector without a licence and everyone involved in the sale, hire or use of radio microphones, in-ear monitoring systems, talkback systems or wireless links will be severely affected.

BEIRG is lobbying Government to highlight the damage that the spectrum sell-off will have to companies in the sector. Sir Alexander Muir-Mackenzie and Jonathan Sayeed from PLASA's political strategists Ranelagh, together with members of BEIRG, will explain the key objectives of the campaign and hopefully secure interest from members to support the solutions being p

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Greece - For the second time, Glass Page's events management team turned to Leicestershire-based Hawthorns to provide the technical solution in terms of lighting, sound and set for drinks giant Diageo's recent Global Finance Conference held in Athens, Greece.Two 45ft trailers were used to transport over 200m of stage trussing, 40+ Martin MAC lighting fixtures and a D&B sound system from Hawthorn's base in Old Dalby to Athens.

A dedicated seven-man project team was deployed by Hawthorn for the week-long conference, which included such events as an Opening Dinner, Conference and a Team Building activity room for the 200+ delegates. Matt Oscroft, the Hawthorn project manager said: "One of the most demanding aspects of the project was to create a stunning lighting effect at the entrance of the venue."

Diageo took the opportunity at the conference to highlight its sponsor

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Spain - French multimedia retailer FNAC has commissioned Vieta to kit out special event stages in all its new stores, commencing with the most recent openings in Murcia and Bilbao.

The French company FNAC is one of Europe's largest retailers of cultural and consumer electronics products, from books to TV sets to computer software. Vieta collaborated with FNAC on the 10th anniversary celebrations of its megastore on Barcelona's famous Diagonal. FNAC has asked for Vieta's PA speakers to be installed in new stores as they open across the country.

In each FNAC branch, an 'auditorium' is dedicated to different in-store marketing events, such as book signings, personal appearances by musicians or authors, and promotional demonstrations. In Barcelona, the store auditorium hosted a number of bands playing live, using Vieta's Fa-Line speakers. Deployment of a number of Vieta's highly-p

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UK - The development of modern, fully-featured performance spaces in both state-run and privately-funded educational facilities, has become something of a mission for Stuart Graham's company Clarity in Sound, Light & Vision. But even he would be surprised at the progressive approach taken by the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) to the construction of a new theatre at Blackheath High School in south-east London this year.

The GDST is a group of 28 independent schools operating in England and Wales and Blackheath High School was founded in 1880 as part of the Trust.

The school's business manager Tony Sutherland says the project appeared on the radar soon after the Senior Department relocated to its new premises in 1994, and by 1999 a decision to build a £1.5 million, 345-seat auditorium - principally to be used for performing arts, ballet and school assembly - was rubber sta

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UK - SSE Audio Group has one of its four Soundcraft Vi6 digital consoles on tour with rock band Thunder, one of the big guns on the British metal rock circuit, selling out all the dates on its UK tour of academies and civic halls.

The Soundcraft Vi6 is in the hands of front-of-house engineer Pete Russell, who has been mixing the band for nearly 12 years. As a project manager for the SSE Audio Group, Russell has been close to the development programme of the Vi6 but this is the first opportunity he has had to use the console on the road.

"Although it's right up there sonically, the outstanding quality of this desk is that it is just so user-friendly," comments Russell. "I'm very impressed by the amount of information that is available on the surface, and how easy it is to use it. The layout is excellent - within two minutes of seeing the Vi6 for the first time, I

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UK - Showsec was the Official Security Partner for the inaugural 2006 International Sport Event Management Conference, at London's QE2 conference centre. Showsec's London office managed all aspects of the security at the Conference, organised by Rushman's, and featuring representatives of London 2112, FIFA World Cup 2006, ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, Rugby World Cup and 2006 Ryder Cup.

Six Showsec staff led by Tracey McCarthy ensured the 250 international delegates were not only safe but greeted cordially throughout the two day summit as they made their way around the two levels of the event.

(Chris Henry)

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UK - Orbital Sound has recently completed the third and final phase of a year-long reorganisation program. Apart from doubling its staff and setting up rigorous benchmark testing, it has also involved some major structural work to expand the available space. The result is a highly modern facility, to service its clients in the UK and mainland Europe.

Bringing in experience from the retail industry, Samantha Loveless was appointed as warehouse manager in January 2006, previously with Amazon UK. Joining the company with absolutely no knowledge of sound equipment, but with considerable knowledge of warehousing, she has successfully implemented some rigorous changes to propel the company forwards as a leading rental and sales facility.

She commented: "On joining the company it was clear that it had enjoyed considerable growth in only a few years, and inevitably the warehouse

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