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New Zealand - Noise Productions Ltd - a full service production company providing sound, lighting and video system for events in the lower North Island of NewZealand - has added a Proel Edge 212P concert system to its hire stock supplied byimporter Jansen Professional Ltd.

Noise Productions managing director Toby Mills says: "The Edge Systemis another incredible example of how Proel continues to deliver cost-effective high performance professional audio solutions. The Edge cabinetsare incredibly sturdy and the quality of their sound reproduction,particularly the top end is stunning. Some people only know Proel as acable or stand manufacturer, however products like the Edge concert seriesreally place them on par with some of the leading concert speakerproviders."

The Ed

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UK - XL Video is supplying full video production and crew to George Michael's critically acclaimed 25 Live tour. The show's main video feature is made up from 3000 of XL's new Barco MiStrip LED modules, configured as a huge, dramatic 25 metre long curved backdrop-style display, running behind and underneath Michael.

This concept initially came from show designer Willie Williams - with whom XL has also worked on numerous other productions including U2. The eye-catching backdrop flows down onto the stage and beyond via a series of concave and convex curves.

XL worked closely with Barco on the design and engineering of the screen which is the dominant element of the stage set, explains XL project manager Phil Mercer. "It was an ambitious and demanding brief using a new product, and the surface needed to be very high resolution and with seamless joins between each vertical sc

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Ireland - Going to the cinema has just got a whole lot better for audiences in North Dublin thanks to the opening of Movies@Swords, a brand new 11- screen complex that is equipped throughout with JBL Professional speakers and Crown DSi amplifiers.

Cinema installation specialist GFD Communications Ltd was responsible for installing sound systems into all 11 theatres and sourced the JBL and Crown units from Harman Pro UK. JBL Professional 3000 Series speakers were used in the smaller theatres, while 4000 Series speakers were installed in the four larger theatres. GFD also installed projectors, screens and automation systems, including computer touch screens to activate the projectors.

For more than 30 years GFD has been providing full design, supply and installation services to cinema owners throughout Ireland and now boasts more than 280 cinema installations to its credit. The

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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 - The Setwear Light Pouch is now in stock and available from UK distributor Le Mark. The Light Pouch is available in five- and two-pocket versions and features a bright LED light built into the flap of the pouch. Made of a superior nylon material to withstand the toughest environments the Entertainment Industry can devise. The LED has a clever built in battery saver that turns off the light every 30 seconds.

A steel belt clip allows you to fast fix the light pouch to any convenient pocket, belt or harness. This allows clear 'close in' illuminated access to tools, say Le Mark.

(Chris Henry)

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USA - Bandit is again working with multi-platinum artist, Martina McBride and tour manager, Mark Hively and production manager, Meesha Kosciolek. McBride is taking the stage for a 16-date holiday tour. The Joy of Christmas, now in its fourth year, kicked off the tour in Chicago, Illinois on 24 November and finishes on 22 December in Uniondale, New York.

The Joy of Christmas is a two-hour multimedia event. The show includes a variety ofelaborate sets, impressive special effects, and a talented group of actors that complement McBride throughout the performance. The concert features 18 classics, many of which can be found on McBride's White Christmas album.

Lighting design was created by Craig Pierce. Lighting director, John Lucksinger, said that the objective this tour was to set time, place and mood- primarily by basing the lighting design around the video

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Germany - For over a century, the Friedrichstadtpalast has been one of the main landmarks in Berlin's night life. Over the years, the theatre has changed its name and function several times: founded as a covered market, then used as the "Renz" circus, it later became the Große Schauspielhaus, Theater des Volkes, Palast Varieté and finally the Friedrichstadtpalast, but the spirit and quality of the outstanding performances on its stage has not changed.

20 moving head luminaires and 40 scanners from Clay Paky provide lighting for the stage and the lobby of the theatre, together with many other standard projectors, with control from MA Lighting consoles. Both the lighting system and the consoles were supplied by Lightpower of Paderborn, which has been supplying the venue since 1984.

Olaf Eichler, lighting director of the Friedrichstadtpalast, has spoken of this

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Europe - Five bands a night is tough by any measure, make that five bands from thedark side of metal and you can begin to imagine the levels demanded of the system. But that is not the only pressure. "Some days we have to open doors at three in the afternoon," said Tim Quinby, soundman for top of the bill Slayer. "But to tell the truth the system we have is so fast to put up, my guys have it down to twenty minutes a side for a full blown arena rig, thatI still get time to make my line check every afternoon. I can honestly say it goes up faster than any PA I've ever seen."

The Unholy Alliance tour has recently shipped into Europe from the US and sound service provider, Eighth Day Sound elected to send the complete touring package over with them.

Quinby says: "When I was originally asked by management to specify this tour I asked for something else. Eigh

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USA - grandMA consoles were featured in two back-to-back high-profile live broadcasts from New York City's famed Radio City Music Hall: the MTV Video Music Awards 2006 (VMA) and Fashion Rocks, a music and fashion extravaganza on CBS that kicked off the city's semi-annual Fashion Week. Scharff Weisberg Lighting furnished the grandMAs in support of lighting designer Allen Branton.

Since Branton doesn't run consoles, he deferred to lighting director and programmer Felix Peralta's choice of the grandMA, a choice that was seconded by lighting director and programmer Kevin Lawson and upheld by Branton himself. "When we do these shows we're caught between two worlds: we need to do something in music TV that looks like a rock concert, but we have to be in total control, constantly editing light levels and programs. More than half of what we do is refining the TV product. The grandM

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UK - LSC Lighting Systems (Australia) and White Light (UK) have donated a maXim LP console to The Oldham College in Manchester to help educate the next generation of lighting operators. The Performance and Production Department's technical course tutor David Hughes is grateful to have received such a donation, valued at almost £4,000.

The donation means that the students studying Entertainment Technology courses can program and manipulate real lighting configurations using current industry standard equipment. "The hands-on training and access to such equipment only enriches the students learning experience ensuring when they leave college they have acquired relevant skills to enter the industry" said Pete Floyd, International Sales Manager from LSC.

The maXim will provide the students with enormous capabilities including: two DMX outputs (1024 slots), up to 378

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Europe - George Michael has sold in excess of 85 million albums worldwide. George is also the most played artist on British Radio. Celebrating 25 years in the music industry, his 25 Live tour is the singer's first in 15 years.

Accompanying the long-awaited tour is a profusion of Sennheiser and Neumann systems. The microphone choice for Michael is the Sennheiser SKM 5200 fitted with the Neumann KK 104 capsule, and this same mic configuration has been selected for a further six backing vocals. On front-of-house is Gary Bradshaw, and two monitor engineers are in control of the stage mix - John Roden for the band, and Andy Robinson balancing Michael's personal mix.

Robinson says: "It's important that an artist of George's stature feels completely comfortable with their mic. Combining the Neumann capsule with the Sennheiser wireless system has thrust the legendary Neuma

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Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden recently had the opportunity to help with a unique large-scale project in their home country. Täby Centrum, Sweden's largest indoor shopping mall, has installed a massive Christmas light show on the façade of the building, sequenced to holiday music. During the four-minute show, which repeats every half hour from 4pm to 8pm nightly, Christmas tree lights chase, Syncrolites sweep over the crowd, and giant Blachiere snowflakes flash to the beat of the popular Trans Siberian Orchestra. The inaugural show kicked off on 4 December, and runs until 26 December.

Stockholm-based Spectra Stage & Event Technologies supplied equipment for the show, which includes 90 Par-64, two Syncrolite B-52, 200 Egg Strobes, 3 Data Flash Strobes, 13 Blachiere Christmas decorations, 3 High End Systems F-100 Fog Generators, 96 flood lights, and 12 Color mixing fluorescen

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Norway - The Norwegian distributor for Cornered Audio, EHS, reports "a flying start". Since summer, EHS has installed Cornered speakers all over the country in places such as Bistro Brocante in Oslo, Barskapet in Jesseim, Skogstad H°yfjellshotell, Phileas Fog in Kristiansand and Pollen in Arendal. In addition, the company has installed Cornered in the highly successful pizza/bar/club venue Peppes Pizza in Trysil and Hemsedal.Technical director at EHS Thomas Edvardsen comments: "When I saw our first Cornered install, it surprised me how well the speakers integrate into the room". "Asking the installer if he was satisfied, his answer was 'No, we are not satisfied, we are impressed - the boxes are really loud and you don't need massive amps'."

Edvardsen continues: "While having to think differently when installing the boxes, once you get the h

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Spain - The celebrated Museo Picasso in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona is comprised of five old palaces, and much of its original structure can be dated back to the thirteenth century. Although it is a popular venue for functions and receptions, the cavernous space not only has a number of side chambers of differing sizes, but it is made out of old stone, in some places 700-year old stone, so fixing reinforcement equipment to the walls is not an option.

For the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, hosting a reception at the Museo for many distinguished foreign visitors, the challenge was to provide a sound reinforcement for speech and acoustic music, which would service a 70-metre long central space as well as the side chambers.

The solution was the revolutionary wireless So Cube system from Vieta. 16 cubes were deployed, the contents of Vieta's standard fl

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USA - Color Kinetics Inc has announced a distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics Inc, an $11 billion provider of electronic components and computer products. The agreement is intended to drive adoption of LED technology by manufacturers across multiple markets. With its broad North American sales network and established base of over 130,000 customers, Arrow will serve as an important channel partner for Color Kinetics' growing OEM business.

Through the agreement, Arrow can distribute Color Kinetics' OEM products, including intelligent RGB and white digital light engines (DLEs), lamps, power/data modules and controllers - essential elements required for a high-performance LED illumination system.

"Now more than ever, manufacturers both within and beyond the core lighting industry are exploring ways to incorporate LED technology into their products or introduce entire

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Finland - The Svenska Teatern, a Swedish-speaking theatre in Helsinki, is the first venue in Finland to purchase Digidesign's new D-Show Profile live mixing console. The theatre, designed by Russian architect Nikolaj Benois and built in 1866, has hosted many concerts by Swedish performers and also repertory theatre during its illustrious history.

Although the great hall seats around 500 and the small hall 100, the red and gold adorned architecture made scant provision for the sound control room. Resident house engineer, Andreas (Stanley) Lönnquist operates from the tiniest of sound booths, from where he often has to send a monitor mix to the performers as well as deliver a highly intelligible house mix to the d&b system in the auditorium.

Commissioned four years ago, the existing sound desk was ready to be upgraded. Top of Lönnquist's wish list was Digidesign's Venue - but h

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USA - The View, winner of 20 Daytime Emmy awards, has received critical acclaim since its 1997 debut. Now in its tenth season, the show is hosted by ABC news icon Barbara Walters, entertainer Rosie O'Donnell, comedian Joy Behar and former Survivor star Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and offers a wide-ranging menu of news, celebrity interviews and live entertainment.

The intimate 199-seat Manhattan studio from which the show is broadcast live recently received a high-end audio upgrade courtesy of Yonkers-based Sound Associates. Sound Associates sound designer Timothy Mazur specified a unique and highly focused system featuring multiple zones using a total of 26 Meyer Sound M1D ultra-compact curvilinear array loudspeakers and 17 MM-4 miniature wide-range loudspeakers.

Mazur points out that sound for live television is an art form very different from others he's pursued, pre

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UK - Lighting industry support charity Light Relief has relaunched its website at www.lightrelief.org.uk, to provide more and better information about its aims and how you can get help from them.

Light Relief was set up as a charity in 2001 by Rick Fisher and the late Tony Gottelier to help lighting industry professionals in times of extreme hardship. The organisation assists people by providing practical support or financial help - occasionally both - and most of the people that the charity helps are lighting designers or technicians, or members of the Association of Lighting Designers. Like most freelance people, they do not earn money unless they are working, so sickness, physical injuries or domestic crises can lead to dramatic falls of income. This, in turn, affects not just them but also their families.

The site, at www.l

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UK - Following on from their major installation of acoustic and blackout blinds at the Royal Horticultural Halls (the venue for the annual ABTT show) in Westminster this summer, Triple E has installed 15 permanent Chaintrack drape systems in the venue's Lawrence Hall, enabling the hall to quickly close off its side bay areas and create a simple box style space.

While installing the 56 acoustic roller blinds and three Venetian acoustic banners in the Lawrence Hall, Triple E had also provided a semi-permanent, manual pipe and drape partition system which allowed the staff to mask off the hall's 14 side bays. The drapes, manufactured by J&C Joel, were of reversible, double sided, bonded wool serge, providing the option of black or sand coloured drapes, the latter being dyed, like the acoustic blinds and banners, to colour match the walls.

David Edelstein, managing director of Tri

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UK - Malaysia's annual Citrawarna festival is a month-long, nationwide celebration of multiculturalism and the broad regional and spiritual influences of the peoples of Malaysia. Citrawarna's festivities culminate with a live pageant, parade, and street festival featuring prominent national singers, and the highlight of the festival, the Citrawarna dance exhibition. The music powering the dance was heard in the stadium-sized area, through a system of Meyer Sound Milo high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers.

The exhibition features some 1,500 ornately costumed dancers, with each group performing a traditional routine reflecting the cultural heritage they are costumed to represent. The show presented a number of challenges to sound reinforcement. "This event is the cultural and dance event of the year in Malaysia, with a huge variety of different dances, and dancers perform

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UK - If you are still looking for a present for your board operator or lighting technician, then Zero 88 has announced the addition of two new products to their control portfolio. The first is the new DMX tester - Cable Test. Made from brushed aluminium and shipped in a belt holster, Cable Test utilises nine diagnostic LEDs to allow a variety of test functions. The unit can test for the presence of DMX; detect reversed polarity in cables as well as checking all wires are connected. This battery-operated unit is priced to allow anyone to afford a good, easy to operate tester.

Also announced, is the availability of Light Converse. Light Converse is lighting control system software program with an internal 3D visualizer. The software is intended for lighting control in theatres, concert halls, clubs, bars, aswell as for architectural lighting. 3D visualizer shows realistic pictures

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Qatar - The 15th Asian Games were officially opened on 1 December by HH Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani at Doha's Khalifa Stadium. In a breathtaking ceremony, a movie was cast on the world's largest LCD while a spectacular live show featuring hundreds of performers was taking place on the field.

Artistic director David Atkins, in charge of the creation of the opening and closing ceremonies at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, devised a show under the theme of Qatar reaching out to Asia, celebrating its history, its culture and the spirit of the games.

Several top stars performed during this opening ceremony such as Chinese pop star Jacky Cheung, Spanish tenor Jose Carreras, Bollywood singer Sunidhi Chauhan as well as Lebanese artist Magida El Roumi.

The show was broadcast live in 60 countries throughout the world, and the 50 000 spectators enjoyed the Kudo sound system des

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