Details
USA - Two standout, low budget videos, one produced in a backyard for just ten dollars and the other choreographed with eight treadmills and performed in a single take, have brought Chicago-based band OK Go a lot of attention over the last year. Capitalising on their new-found public recognition, the band is currently touring the US with a stage full of Sennheiser Evolution Series wired and RF microphones, as well as wireless personal monitor systems.

Mike Kent has been touring for the last two years as front-of-house engineer with the band, and reports that backline amplification, drum and vocal microphones are all Sennheiser Evolution Series."On the kick drum I'm using the e901, which is absolutely my favourite kick drum mic in the whole world right now. It just sounds phen

Details
Germany/Ireland - Loudspeaker manufacturer Klein + Hummel has relocated its manufacturing arm to the Sennheiser factory in Ireland.

In parallel to the Ireland relocation, the after sales service has also been relocated within Germany. Spare parts, service information and equipment is now handled by: Sennheiser Vertrieb und Service GmbH & Co.KG, Niederlassung Magdeburg, Ebendorfer Chaussee 1, Germany - 39179 Barleben. Tel: +49 39203 / 72 680.

A company statement says, "The service relocation to Sennheiser in Germany is seen as the next step in creating full-line service centres around the world to support their commitment to the growing needs of their global customers."

(Jim Evans)

Details
USA - Color Kinetics has announced the signing of a global licensing agreement with Neo-Neon International Ltd. Neo-Neon will be granted access to Color Kinetics' complete patent portfolio, allowing the continuing development and sale of its LED lighting products worldwide.

Neo-Neon is a China-based, 25-year established manufacturer of decorative and entertainment lighting products that include a growing number of LED-based offerings. Through the agreement, Neo-Neon will be able to offer its customers the capabilities of digital intelligence as protected by Color Kinetics' patents. The license will apply to sales of numerous Neo-Neon products in all markets covered by Color Kinetics' patent portfolio.

"We believe that demand for LED-based lighting products will continue to increase as the technology progresses and becomes even more competitive with traditional light sourc

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

Details
Spain - Sound rental and installation company Oscar Molowny Sonido e lluminación, S.L. was responsible for the sound installation in the luxury hotel Mencey in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. Oscar Molowny resolved the sound requirements using D.A.S. flush mount Ceiling series and specially equipped Factor series where wall mounting was appropriate.

The nine conference rooms are outfitted with the most modern audio-visual equipment. A total of 96 D.A.S. CL-8T and 12 CL-6T ceiling mounted speakers provide background music and voice reproduction when needed.

"The Ceiling Series speakers optimise the dispersion," comments Molowny. "They provide better intelligibility which is fundamental in the conference rooms of the hotel. Besides being easy to install, the CL-8T speakers offer extended bass response additional bass providing a hi-fi sound for background music or A/V pres

Details
USA - Nemetschek North America reports that Spaeth Design used VectorWorks in designing the elaborate holiday displays that animate the windows of many department stores in New York City, as well as Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver.

For more than 60 years, Spaeth Design has been creating the festive displays that populate the windows of Lord & Taylor, Macy's, and Saks Fifth Avenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, the New York City-based firm expanded their use of VectorWorks' 2D drafting and 3D modelling capabilities to design and construct Lord & Taylor's gazebo window, Macy's O Christmas Tree scenes, and Saks' snow crystals story.

"We're trying to tell a big story within a very small space, between five and seven feet deep, and ten and twelve feet wide, and it's a constant challenge to make sure our concepts translate accurately, the p

Details
USA - Barbra Streisand recently returned for a twenty-date tour across North America with guests Il Divo, the pop opera quartet, marking the singer's first live concert appearances since 1999. The vocal microphone of choice for the diva and Il Divo was the Sennheiser SKM 5200 wireless handheld fitted with Neumann's KK 105 S capsule, while the 'popera' foursome also made use of Sennheiser's 3000 Series RF personal monitors.

FOH engineer and sound designer Bruce Jackson, who has mixed Streisand live for many years, reports that the Sennheiser/Neumann vocal mic won a shootout against competing systems. "I listened and compared it against some other mics that I was interested in," he says. "It worked out well."

Jackson, who was once front-of-house engineer for Elvis Presley and, for many years, Bruce Springsteen, was especially impressed with the strong RF perf

Details
USA - Lamp Lite's small MR RGB 12V and MR RGB E27 LED lamps, distributed by the American DJ Group of Cos, can simply be plugged directly into venues' existing electrical setups.The MR RGB 12V and MR RGB E27 are low-priced, high-power LED lamps that promise "tremendous brightness and cutting-edge RGB colour mixing". The lamps have their own wireless controller, the WR LED.

In most cases, the MR RGB 12V and MR RGB E27 can be used with existing fixtures. Since the lamps don't require the user to run cable or DMX, bar and restaurant owners won't have to make costly electrical wiring changes to integrate them into their venue - they can simply install them in, say, an ordinary track lighting setup. Even the mounting hardware is user-friendly: The E27 model attaches to a standard medium screw base E27 socket from 90-240v power, while the 12V model attaches with an ordinary b

Details
UK - Harman Pro UK, the distributors for the Harman Group of audio-related products and brands, has announced that customer services specialist Matt Coleman has been appointed as the company's MI telesales operative at the Potters bar head office.

Says the company, "Matt's natural aptitude for sales shone through when dealing with customers' service requirements and he is now looking forward to the new challenge of generating sales of his own accord.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - The opening of temporary outdoor ice rinks across the UK were delayed due to the unusually warm November weather (the Met Office states the warmest autumn since 1659). However, Stage Electrics' supplied rinks in Bristol & Gloucester which managed to open on schedule.

Speed of freezing was crucial to the rink Stage Electrics supplied to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway, a regional shopping centre on the outskirts of Bristol. The team led by Sam Saltmarsh, installed ice, lighting, sound and structures in less than a week to meet the launch deadline. The rink opened on time and runs until early January.

For the second consecutive year Stage Electrics is working with Gloucester City Council to provide a 475m2 ice rink for the Christmas season. The rink is situated in Kings Square in Gloucester city centre. Paul Greenwood led the team that installed all of the technical elements in

Details
UK - Proel Speakers have recently been installed - by Harlequin Sound Services - in the clubhouse at the prestigious Dulwich & Sydenham Hill Golf Club which boasts one of the most breathtaking views of the London skyline.

The white EDGE25PW are part of the professional touring standard EDGE series. With 2 x 5,25" woofers and a 1" dome tweeter, these compact speakers can handle up to 200W of programme power and are rated at 16 Ohm, allowing many speakers to be linked together on one amplifier.

The club has chosen to use the Proel EDGE25PW speakers as they require a natural sounding system for background music and presentations, but with enough power for parties and events.The installation has been designed with several feeds around the rooms, allowing additional powered subwoofers to be added when extended low frequencies are required.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Belgium - ADB Lighting has announced the appointment of Koto Lighting, based in Tokyo, as a distribution, sales and installation partner for the Japanese market.

The signing, which follows an agreement reached at the 2006 PLASA show in London, brings together ADB's growing product line-up and the expertise and resources of Koto Lighting, a subsidiary of Koto Electric Co., a major supplier to the professional lighting market in Japan.

The Koto Group has grown from its origins as a light bulb specialist with interests in manufacturing, distribution and sales of lighting products throughout Japan. It will handle the ADB Lighting product range, from the award-winning WARP zoom profile spotlight range to the MENTOR and PHOENIX control desks.

ADB's products have already enjoyed considerable success in Japan, with the NIETHAMMER range of profile spotlights installed in major Japane

Details
Russia - Rental Capital, one of Moscow's biggest lighting rental companies, has invested in 16 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs and 24 ColorWash 1200 ATs, complete with flight-casing, plus Weather Shields for use on outdoor projects.

The company supplies all the major Russian TV channels including ORT, NTV, RUSSIA and many others, and is also engaged in staging concerts, festivals and other events nationwide and throughout the CIS.

Rental Capital was founded in 2000, and now employs eighty staff. The company purchased the Robe kit to compliment its existing generic and moving light ranges.

The sales deal was completed through local distributor Sofitlight, following intense negotiations by director Arcady Chakhidjanov, with support from Robe HQ in the Czech Republic, International sales manager Harry von den Stemmen and Boris Krylov from Robe's Russian office.

Krylov comments, "

Details
UK - Wirral based lifting and rigging specialists Lift-Turn-Move has launched an apprentice scheme, and taken on its first new recruit. "We became acutely aware of the engineering skills shortage needed in our specific area of the industry when we were recently trying to recruit a workshop engineer," explains LTM's John Jones.

The company eventually engaged Lee Culff an experienced Lift Engineer, who joined Dave Ward, Alan Wood and Phil Jones in LTM's busy and expanding workshop.

The first apprentice is 17-year-old Phil Newton. "Phil wants to learn, he has a very positive temperament, a good brain and there's always a smile on his face," says Jones. Newton's apprenticeship in 'Electro & Mechanical Engineering' lasts three and a half years, and will be a valid qualification that he can use in other sectors of industry. He works at LTM's Wirral base four days

Details
Spain - In the twelve months it has been on air, La Sexta has seen its ratings rise steadily and a gratifying return from advertising sales. La Sexta's broadcast studios are in Barcelona and its news editorial offices in Madrid. Post-production is divided between the two, and the task of streamlining communications between, as well as within, the two centres was entrusted to Telex-RTS's Madrid-based partner Unitecnic.

In Barcelona, Unitecnic installed an ADAM 64 matrix with RVON and Mini Trunkmasters, two ISDN2005 interfaces and a variety of keypanels (9 x DKP 12, 5 x KP32 and 5 x MKP12). In Madrid an ADAM 48 with RVON was combined with four different types of keypanel (6 x KP32-16, 5 x KP32, 2 x DKP12 and 3 x MKP4), as well as four ISDN2005 interfaces, a BTR800 wireless intercom system and three TR825 UHF transceivers.

The system that links the studios in the Castilian and Ca

Details
UK - The 31st Annual Vision Charity Ball has raised a total of over £100,000 for visually-impaired and dyslexic children. Themed as 'Carnival!', this year's event in the Great Room of the Grosvenor House was attended by nearly 1,000 guests, and, as usual, was energetically supported by professionals from the video, TV, production and broadcast industries.

With a visual presentation created by Skaramoosh, illustrating some of the good works of the Vision Charity in the past year, Chairman Larry Davis welcomed everyone to the party. Comedian Dara O'Briain commenced the evening's impressive entertainment, which featured acrobats, strongmen and even a mindreader.

No less skilled an auctioneer than the Chairman of Christies, Hugh Edmeades, took charge of the celebrity auction, which raised a staggering £40,000, including £18,000 for the Avid Media Composer Edit Sy

Details
Qatar - For the $190 million opening ceremony of the 15th Asian Games in the Khalifa Stadium, Doha, four grandMA full-size, four grandMA light and 22 NSPs for the 44 DMX universes were employed by lighting designers Fabrice Kebour and Andrew Doig and associate designer Steve Shipman.

Forty-five nations competed during fourteen days to win gold, silver and bronze medals. Network and Console Technician Paul Collison and programmers Jim Beagley, Romain Labat, Roger Ray and Maran Persoons did their very best to give the competitions a good start. They divided the grandMA system into four sessions: Alpha Spots and Conventionals; VL3000 spots, Cameleon Lyre and TP6 projectors; Searchlights; Mac 2K Washes. Each grandMA console had an identical console as a backup which was also used for pre-programming.

The Element Labs LED video-screen that towered over Khalifa Stadium was 165 metre

Details
UK - The Killers are often described as the 'Best British band to have come out of America'. James Gebhard has been the band's front of house engineer since the spring of 2004 and, wherever possible, uses a combination of DiGiCo D5 Live and XTA processing for their live performances.

Presently, Gebhard is using a stripped down version of the D5 with 46 inputs and nine or 10 outputs for PA routing depending on requirements. "I want to try and get into the console's snapshots function more," continues Gebhard. "We have a lot of instruments on stage, but they're only used in specific songs and it would a lot easier and simpler between song changes if I used snapshots.

"I think the D5 sounds great. I took out a competitor's console in the States because it's part of the tools of the trade and you should learn what's out there. It sounds good, but not as good as

Details
Nigeria - In 1986, the Nigerian capital of Lagos played host to the first Holy Ghost Service organised by Pastor Enoch A Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. This grew to become the monthly Holy Ghost Nights. In 1996, the first Holy Ghost Festival was held in the London Arena with Pastor Adeboye as its sole speaker.

Now called the Festival of Life, it has become a bi-annual occurrence and claims to be the biggest all night non-denominational gathering of people in Europe. The latest event was held at London's ExCel at the end of November and with attendance figures estimated at 32,000 meant that audio supplier Canegreen Commercial needed to provide a substantial amount of audio equipment with XTA digital signal processing delivering essential control.

The largest of the venue's auditoria, measuring 175m x 87m, was used as the site of the main gathering and a

Details
USA - Tomcat USA Inc. has shipped a package of equipment to Las Vegas for the Four Wall Entertainment installation of a new entertainment lounge at the Green Valley Ranch Resort and Casino.

"Tomcat worked with us to create a completely engineered truss solution that significantly lowered the installation cost," senior project manager of 4Wall West, Buddy Pope, explained. After working on the design for the unique system, it was dubbed the "Spider Grid" because of its appearance. It is made up of dozens of ladder trusses that intersect at various angles, creating a grid over the floor. At all of these intersections, the ladders are joined by a specially-designed universal hub. These hubs also serve as the pick-up points for the system. Brackets were made that will attach to the walls of the venue to terminate the runs of the ladders through the venue.

"

Details
UK - Following the purchase of Academy of Sound by Sound Control at the end of 2004, Gareth Hunt, the former managing director of Academy of Sound, has now completed his time with Sound Control helping to integrate the two businesses, and will now begin working with a number of companies, in a variety of roles, both in and outside of the music industry.

Carlsbro Electronics is one of the companies within the music industry that has engaged the Hunt's services. Working together with Carlsbro MD Andrew Bishop and the Carlsbro team, he will help to build on the existing momentum and continue to move Carlsbro forward globally, say the company.

At the same time, Carlsbro has announced the appointment of Tony Whitworth to the Carlsbro team as the Northern Area sales manager commencing. Whitworth is based in Manchester and has many years' experience as a sales specialist at Sound Con

Details
The Caribbean - For such a small island in the Caribbean, Dynamic Guys Audio is getting a very big Adamson system. Dynamic Guys Audio in Kingston, St. Vincent has taken delivery of eight T21 Subs as well as another eight Y18s, bringing their Y18 inventory up to 16 boxes. This has made Dynamic Guys Audio a contender for all size shows passing through wanting a large format high-end system.

Another island based Adamson partner, Zamar, also substantially boosted their Adamson lineup. Based in Nassau, Bahamas, Zamar is the leading major event, staging and production company in the country. They added eight Y18s and also ordered eight T21 subs. This brings their total Adamson inventory up to 16 Y18s and eight T21s.

(Chris Henry)

Page 2018 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .