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UK - XL Video UK is supplying a digital PPU, camera system, two Catalyst digital media servers and crew for Snow Patrol's current UK arena tour. It's the first time the band has used video on tour. The live mix is being directed and cut by Blue Leach.

XL's account manager Phil Mercer says: "It's always interesting working with Blue. He's demanding and always pushes imaginative boundaries, which is challenging, stimulating and hugely rewarding for everyone working with him. His work speaks for itself!"

Leach - much acclaimed for his creative video design on the 2006 Depeche Mode Touring The Angel tour (also supplied by XL) - has produced an original and unusual show. He worked very closely on developing integrated show visuals with lighting designer Davy Sherwin

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Northern UK sales manager, Adam Beaumont, has been named Manfrotto Lighting Support Product Manager of the Year 2006.

The award recognises the sales and promotional achievements of the most active dealer for each Manfrotto division and was announced at the company's recent product managers annual meeting in Venice.

The annual meeting is a key opportunity for Manfrotto to meet face to face with its dealers to exchange feedback, review sales performance and market trends, and announce new products coming next year.

Vitec Photographic Div. regional sales manager (E.ME.A.I.) Fabio Prada, who presented the award, says: "Adam has proved to be particularly dedicated to the Manfrotto & Avenger brands and really got behind the launch of some of their key new products this year, such as the Avenger CrossPole, providing a level of dealer promotional support in

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UK - Long-time Klark Teknik and Midas enthusiast Ian Bond has been using the recently-launched Square ONE Dynamics unit for UK rockers Porcupine Tree on their recent DVD promotional tour of Europe and the US.

The Square ONE range is designed for ease of use and good sound at an affordable price point. Apart from these obvious advantages, Bond was appreciative of the eight channels of flexible, configurable, high-performance dynamics processing included in the 3U Dynamics unit. For the Porcupine Tree gigs, the unit was used to process the drum kit, with six gates across the kick and toms and two compressors used on the top of the two snares. "The compressors worked well in vintage mode, giving the snare more edge," he says. "The gates were also extremely good, very quick and, because of the different closing threshold, were all but transparent."

Porcupine Tr

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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 - Chart-topping artists from across the recording industry made the 2006 Billboard Music Awards this December's "must see" event in Las Vegas. PRG built the massive stage and supplied the lighting for the show, which was televised live over the Fox network from the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

"Billboard's awards command attention throughout the music industry," said Jere Harris, chairman and founder of PRG. "They really went all out this year, and we were glad to help them set the stage for these exciting performers."

Designed by production designer Leroy Bennett and art director Anne Brahic, the show's stage measured approximately 160 feet wide by 80 feet deep. The structure, which was fabricated by PRG, was covered with inlaid laminate flooring. The stage also featured a custom-painted performance area and two lighted platforms covered wi

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France - Blackout, alongside ETC Audiovisuel, G-LEC and Lumison won the Most Creative Stand Awardat Heavent 2006. This award was judged by press, events and television professionals at the show that was held between 21 - 23 November, 2006 at the Hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris.

"At Heavent, all individual companies combined their resources to create a large amount of wow factor and enjoyed welcoming many visitors to the stand. All individual companies work together on a regular basis to supply the equipment and know how that supports some of the most creative events in the industry and we are delighted to receive industry recognition," says Dominic Peissel, Gerant at Blackout Paris.

(Chris Henry)

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Egypt - Egyptian telecom company Orascom marked their 50 millionth subscriber with a celebration at the Pyramids in Giza recently. Guests were housed in a large tent overlooking the site and were entertained by an international cabaret headlined by the Pussy Cat Dolls. Italian production company K events were originally tasked to provide a light and fireworks extravaganza as a highlight to the evening but a combination of a very short lead time and delays in the granting of the necessary permissions saw the firework element removed and British lighting designer Durham Marenghi from Lumitect appointed as art director for the event.

Marenghi required dramatic floodlighting of the central pyramid and powerful aerial effects, so he approached Jack Calmes at Syncrolite in the USA, and 16 of the new 10kW dichroic searchlights and 12 8kW units were flown in from Dallas. The 10kW Syncro

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Norway - Le Mark Group, leading producers of specialist floors we chosen by NRK of Norway to provide 1100sq.m of stage flooring for the recent Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Recognised as the largest annual Norwegian production, the programme will be shown in over 100 countries. Le Mark's 175 micron thick super high gloss black StudioTak was selected.

"StudioTak has an excellent pedigree for this type of production," says Donna Wilson, Le Mark's export project coordinator. "The Scandinavian market is showing strong growth for Le Mark's decorative and performance floors. Clients had the opportunity to see StudioTak in regular use this year as the same super high gloss black was used for the complete series of ITV's Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Take Away."

Wilson continues: "Having recently taken on a new position within Le Mark's Export Sales department, it w

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UK - SPS, one of the UK's largest live event companies, is extending into the IT rental market with the launch in January of its 'Event IT' division. In the build-up to the launch, the company has invested significant financial resource in the latest technology which it believes will enable it to compete aggressively against those currently leading the field.

To head up this new division SPS has appointed Robin Fell from Hamilton Rentals, where he was instrumental in helping develop the company to become the current leader of this sector. Fell will become head of Event IT and will responsible for devising and implementing a sales strategy that will meet the company's considerable sales target assigned for 2007.

Fell is highly well known within this sector, working for Mircorent before moving onto become PC/AV sales team leader at Hamilton Rental.

The new division has been se

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Russia - The historic Novosibirsk State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet (NSATOB) is the biggest theatre complex in Russia, a whopping 62,245sq.m larger than the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. It is also now one of the most technologically advanced in the country, thanks to a recent £2.9m (€4.32m) government grant for renovation. From acoustics to lighting to general stage technology, the theatre is now completely digital. And, as part of the upgrade, NSATOB chose lighting systems by ETC.

The last time the 62-year-old theatre underwent renovation was in 1953 - after weathering a challenging early history. The original architectural design for the massive neoclassical complex was chosen at a competition in Paris in 1930. Construction began the following year, but was halted during WWII. During the war, the partially completed building was used to house famous works of art

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USA - New from the Q-Series, the Q-Wash LED is a DMX-512 programmable moving yoke fitted with eighteen 1-watt LEDs to deliver a wash with full RGB mixing capability.

Besides the obvious advantage of longevity, low power consumption and low heat emission afforded by the use of LEDs, the Q-Wash LED also offers the convenience of remote reset, vector speed control, and the functionality of full dimming and automatic pan and tilt correction. Users can program and store up to 100 steps for later recall without the need for a controller.

The Q-Wash LED comes equipped with standard lenses that create a 30-degree beam angle. Optional lenses are also available to create a wider, 45-degree beam angle.

Movement is extremely smooth and fast, within a range of 540 degrees of pan by 270 degrees of tilt. Pan and tilt are reversible. Users can access built in automated and sound-activated p

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The Netherlands - As Integrated Systems Europe 2007 (30 January - 1 February 2007) draws nearer, the show's organisers have announced that all four halls at the Amsterdam RAI are now full, with over 350 exhibitors. An unprecedented number of visitor registrations have been made, demonstrating the expectation which is mounting for the fourth and biggest edition of ISE.

The event promises a range of new features, displays and innovations, and includes strong backing from the three industry associations CEDIA, InfoComm International and NSCA. Mike Blackman, managing director for ISE, said: "ISE just seems to grow stronger each year, with more suppliers and manufacturers of AV related products and services keen to be part of this exciting event. With such a high quality and diversity of new and existing exhibitors to this show, I anticipate that visitor records again will be br

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UK - When Task Brasil, the charity for Brazilian orphans supported by rock-legend Jimmy Page, decided to stage a star-studded fundraiser in London recently, MLsoundadvice was called in to provide a state of the art sound system for the event.

Concert organisers The Sanctuary Group gave members of Iron Maiden the night off from their current world tour (for which ML Executives are providing sound equipment worldwide) to play the small but exclusive Embassy Club in London's Mayfair district alongside stars Kim Mazelle, Matt Sage, and Paul Rodgers of Bad Company.

Iron Maiden's own sound engineer, Doug Hall, was flown back from the tour for one night only to take his place behind the console. MLsoundadvice opted for a small L-Acoustics dV-Dosc system, with two DV subs and three DV- Dosc per side.

"We've worked regularly at The Embassy but nothing with production values this

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South Africa - Kingston Sound recently supplied stage production, lighting and sound for the Women's Day Event held at Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban, located on the eastern coast of South Africa. The company used JBL Vertec VT4888 line array enclosures to provide high-fidelity audio to thousands of women who showed their support for women's rights.

One of Durban's most successful sound rental companies, Kingston Sound has recently undergone a transformation. After a decade servicing live bands and cultural music festivals in KwaZulu Natal (KZN), Brett Kingsland, owner/manager of Kingston Sound, decided to invest in new sound reinforcement gear.

"It was our integral understanding of loudspeaker system and cabinet design that led us to the JBL Vertec system," Kingsland said. " Vertec is a new way of looking at PA systems. Lighter weight arrays, with fewer bo

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Malta - A performance by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli accompanied by the Maltese National Orchestra launched the new Malta Fairs & Convention Centre (MFCC) as a concert venue. The show was attended by 7,500 people including Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, and President Edward Fenech Adami.

The new 27,000 square metre MFCC venue is located on a purpose built site at the centre of the Island, with a large parking area and easy access from all directions. It's the largest performance/convention/exhibition space in the country and the only indoor venue offering full production facilities to accommodate medium to large concerts, tours and shows. It is intended to generate a whole new level of commercial fairs, concert, conference, corporate event and live music business in the county, attracting world class performers and leading destination management companies.

The structure is th

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UK - Blackburn-based HSL has purchased a 16-way Kinesys automation system, including 15 1-tonne Liftket vari-speed motors, converted to work with the Kinesys kit and Elevation 1+ hoist controllers, which went straight out on the Snow Patrol pre-Xmas UK arena tour.

Lighting designer Dave Sherwin wanted to move some of his trusses, while video director Blue Leach's design was based on having five differently shaped moving high resolution video screens (supplied by XL Video), so HSL decided it was the right time to buy a system.

"We'd been looking into this for some time," says HSL's technical director Howard Dean. "We explored the options and reckoned that it's the best automation system on the market, so it was really just a question of 'when?'."

Kinesys, complete with its proprietary PC-based Vector software, seemed to be the most flexible and user-friend

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UK - Appointed by Jack Morton Worldwide, large-format projection specialist E//T//C UK projected 40 giant portrait images depicting 'Dreams of London' onto the Shell Tower for London's New Year's Eve 2006/07 celebrations.

The spectacular public event organised by the Mayor of London and Visit London, included a memorable pyrotechnic, lighting and visual extravaganza designed to capture the spirit of London at the start of 2007. The event took place along the Thames, encompassing the South Bank between Jubilee and Westminster Bridges, including iconic landmarks like the London Eye and Big Ben. It was enjoyed live by 200,000 people on the streets, and broadcast live on BBC 1 to several million viewers.

The eye-catching black and white photographs by Mark Livemore illustrating the dreams and aspirations of selected pupils from the Johanna Primary School in Lambeth - were projecte

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UK - The Unsigned Heroes contest, sponsored by microphone company AKG, has been a great success so far, with over 1100 entrants in the first two months. The competition, which is run by AKG's distributor in the British Isles, Harman Pro UK, aims to find the best unsigned band in the UK and Eire. It was launched at the Music Live show in Birmingham in early November.

Over 370 bands have entered, sending their tracks to be assessed by the Harman judges. The rules of the competition forbid bands with fewer than three members from entering, so over 1100 band members are currently awaiting the results of the final.

The winning band get to play at the prestigious Koko club in London, to record for a day with a name producer in a top studio, and to play at one of the UK's Summer 2007 outdoor festivals. They'll also net a PA rig from Harman Pro UK with a total value of £1

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The Netherlands - 3M will launch its Vikuiti Rear Projection Film at Integrated Systems Europe 2007 (Stand O 50). The flexible, easy to apply film enables video, static images and dynamic messaging to be projected directly onto windows and glass surfaces or partitions, becoming the centre of attraction in any high street or shopping mall. A range of digital wall displays and interactive whiteboards will also be on show with the brand new Digital Media System 700 and 800 Series, featuring Vikuiti Super Close Projection from 3M.

The Vikuiti display enhancement film is 3M's latest rear projection innovation designed to transform any glass surface into a dynamic branding and promotions tool. Up to now, implementing on-glass or in-window digital signage in retail, banking, corporate and education environments has been problematic due to the inherent reflection challenges created when

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UK - Drapes specialist J&C Joel has completed the installation of a set of motorised acoustic drapes for the new Music School and Concert Hall at Millfield School in Street, Somerset. Millfield is one of the UK's most famous independent schools. Set in the fabulous undulating Somerset countryside overlooking Glastonbury Tor, it's renowned for the sporting achievements of many of its pupils.

The opening of the new Music School and Concert Hall demonstrates Millfield's ongoing commitment to the Arts, and incorporates a 350-seat concert venue, rehearsal areas for all their ensembles, six classrooms, 25 teaching/practice rooms, recording studios and specialist percussion rooms.

J&C Joel was consulted by main contractors Cowlin, who were working directly for DK Architects. The new main performance space has been designed to offer both acoustically correct music or drama performance

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UK - SPS, one of the UK's largest live event companies, is extending into the IT rental market with the launch in January of its 'Event IT' division. In the build-up to the launch, the company has invested significant financial resource in the latest technology which it believes will enable it to compete aggressively against those currently leading the field.

To head up this new division SPS has appointed Robin Fell from Hamilton Rentals, where he was instrumental in helping develop the company to become the current leader of this sector. Fell will become head of Event IT and will responsible for devising and implementing a sales strategy that will meet the company's considerable sales target assigned for 2007.

Fell is highly well known within this sector, working for Mircorent before moving on to become PC/AV sales team leader at Hamilton Rental.

The new division has been s

Details
Taiwan - The central library of Fo Guang University has completed a complex project of Mipro's wireless in-ear monitoring systems. The MI-808 system is a professional UHF-band stereo receiver and transmitter. The system is frequency-agile over a 24 MHz bandwidth with 16 selectable pre-programmed non-interference frequencies. 100 MI-808R receivers, eight MI-808T transmitters, four customised AD-808 Antenna Divider Combiners and 100-set of E8S earphones were installed.

Fo Guang University is a unique institution of higher learning dedicated to providing a traditional liberal arts education of global outlook in the grand Buddhist spirit (students are neither required nor expected to study Buddhism or practice it's tenants). The university belongs to Fo Guang Shan, built in 1967, it is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan today with over 1,000 monastics. Presently Fo Guang Shan

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