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UK - Video specialist and event solutions company PSL has further expanded its rental inventory of Green Hippo's Hippotizer Media Servers, and is currently the only rental house in the UK to provide systems complete with the additional cards which enable VGA and SDI input.

PSL offers both the Stage and Express Hippotizer models, bringing high quality media playback solutions to the live presentation industry. Live events, concerts, television, clubs and theatre can all use the system to enhance their productions.

With eight individually configurable layers of 1024 x 768 resolution media, multi-level previews for each channel and a new user interface, the Hippotizer Stage is ideal as the heart of any controlled environment. Powerful effects, including fully variable blur in two f

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USA - In a city known for great entertainment, The Pearl, the new theatre at Las Vegas' Palms Casino Resort, is destined to become an attraction in itself. Scheduled to open in the spring of 2007, the venue features innovative stage and seating designs and state-of-the art performance technology. PRG engineered the lighting, dimming and control systems and provided all the lighting fixtures for The Pearl and a nearby ballroom.

"When we set out to build the most advanced live performance space in Las Vegas, The Palms naturally turned to PRG, the world's leading entertainment technology company. Their expertise in theatrical lighting and rigging is apparent in The Pearl concert theatre," said H.C. Rowe, entertainment director at The Palms Casino Resort.

Flexibility was key in lighting The Pearl's stage, which will serve as a luxury showcase for top-flight events, rangi

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South Africa - The Playhouse Company is a premier theatre organization located in the heart of the coastal city of Durban on the eastern seaboard of South Africa. The Company is one of South Africa's leading performing arts bodies, producing live theatre representative of the diverse cultural groups that comprise the population of KwaZulu-Natal.

The Company comprises various performance and public venues including one of South Africa's most famous performance spaces, the historic 1225-seat Playhouse Opera theatre with its ornate décor and vast infrastructure that includes 79 fly bars, five stage lifts, 25 trap doors and much more.

Early in 2006 the Opera underwent a partial renovation, securing a new floor and seats. At the same time the Company acquired an extensive rig of Martin equipment that included 16 MAC 700 Profiles, 16 MAC 2000 Washes, 12 MAC 250 Entours, 12 MA

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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 first guests to the recently-opened Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands have given the brand experience centre and its state-of-the-art interactive attractions the thumbs up. Mercedes-Benz World is the largest automotive development of its kind in the UK, offering a unique opportunity to appreciate and embrace the history, innovation, passion and values behind the Mercedes-Benz brand.

The central features within the stunning Mercedes-Benz World building include four star brand attractions, designed specifically to stimulate a variety of senses and encourage lateral thinking for visitors. Aptly named Build, Solve, Watch and Play, the attractions were brought to life through a close working collaboration between DaimlerChrysler, Stage One and brand experience agency LIVE.

'Build' is a 3D simulator ride, which takes guests along the production line of a Mercedes-Benz CLK-C

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UK - Appointed by Jack Morton Worldwide, Summit Steel supplied 10 of their 10 metre high SmarTmast 1 masts and rigged a series of banners on catenary wires for London's 2006-07 New Year's Eve event. This was staged along the Thames, organised by the Mayor of London and Visit London, and attended by 200,000 enthusiastic revellers.

Eight SmarTmasts were sited in parks to the side of Victoria Embankment to provide sound coverage to the main viewing area between Westminster and Jubilee bridges opposite the British Airways London Eye. They all supported L-Acoustics V-Dosc line arrays at a suitable heights to throw over the shrubs between the gardens and the road. The sound system was supplied by Delta Sound and project managed for them by Jim Lambert.

An additional SmarTmast was erected at the north end of Westminster Bridge, complete with three different hangs of PA, pointing in t

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USA - Lighting designer Nick Wisdom specified a Jands Vista S3 console and 32 Chroma-Q Color Blocks as part of his lighting rig for the Boost Mobile Major League Gaming Pro Circuit Tour 2006. Major League Gaming (MLG) is the largest organized league for professional video gaming, the world's fastest growing competitive sport. The debut tour visited seven US cities and saw around 200 teams of four per city competing in the Xbox 'Halo 2' tournament for large cash prizes and a place in the final in Las Vegas.

Production for the live event was by LubieRocks Inc, with management and scenic design by David Elliott, lighting design/programming by Nick Wisdom, graphics/video by Don Fisher and audio by Paul Tucci. The tour was also filmed for a seven-part US cable TV series which included live game play, interviews and gaming tips.

The 'Mainstage Arena', which was reserved for the city

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UK - Bandit Lites is excited to announce that they have recently provided lighting production to the extremely successful, first ever Cbeebies Live! Fantasy Circus tour, presented by BBC Worldwide.

The tour - production managed by Nigel Mousley with lighting designed by Mark Cunniffe - visited UK arenas over the holidays, with a star-studded cast including The Tweenies, Postman Pat, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam and many more. The tour included three shows daily, enthralling thousands of children and parents alike in a block-busting, action-packed highly visual performance.

Bandit UK's chief executive, Lester Cobrin, comments: "This is a fantastic song and dance show for the whole family to enjoy, especially over the holidays. The show is a highly innovative live stage production and I am extremely proud and privileged to be involved with such a dynamic team of peop

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UK - When you're out shopping, you can tell Christmas is approaching when you hear festive music in the shops and start seeing decorations in the high street. In a lighting rental company, you can tell Christmas is approaching when there's a massive upturn in demand for smoke machines, pyrotechnic controls, moving lights and battens for lighting painted cloths - that's how White Light knew Christmas was getting near as far back as November, as the first rigs for the traditional British pantomime season started shipping.

Before the end of that month, White Light had supplied lighting equipment to pantomimes including Mother Goose in Bromley (lit by Graham McClusky) and Aladdin in Glasgow (lit by John Tapster). These shows were quickly joined by another Aladdin in Brighton (lit by David Howe), Snow White in Manchester (lit by John Tapster), Cinderell

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Italy - In just over two years, Fiera Milano has built an avant-garde exhibition complex that combines record-breaking dimensions and exceptionally flexible use with the highest technological equipment standards. With its 345,000 gross square metres of undercover exhibition area (plus 60,000sq.m outdoors), eight huge halls almost totally free of columns, 74 conference rooms, 84 refreshment spots, and parking for 10,000 vehicles plus another 10,000 planned, the new Fiera Milano is the largest complex in Europe and sets a new world standard for the exhibition sector.

A nucleus of nine conference rooms make up the Stella Polare Conference Center, together with the newly-opened Auditorium, designed by the architect Speroni. This lavish shell-shaped space includes high quality audio management, from local control of all audio variables by a 40-channel Soundcraft MH3 audio console to

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UK - Using LED technology from Dialight Lumidrives, DW Lighting has helped transform the revamped Clocktower restaurant at Rudding Park, one of Yorkshire's top hotel and golf resorts.

The well-known Clocktower restaurant has undergone a major refurbishment featuring a cosmopolitan fusion of interior design inspirations from all over the world. Interior and feature lighting is provided by cool white and blue LEDs. Gordon Routledge, managing director of Dialight Lumidrives says: "The Clocktower redesign has enabled DW Lighting to make fantastic use of LEDs to create a visually stunning scene."

Dialight Lumidrives supplied 53 arrays with cool white LEDS and 12 arrays with blue LEDs powered by 33 Variled 16 drivers. Dialight Lumidrives specialises in the development of components to enable applications in solid state lighting, including power drivers, LED arrays and opti

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Europe - For the promotion of their latest album Feelin' Good, jazz artists Joe Sample (piano) and Randy Crawford (vocals) have been touring through Europe, accompanied by Sample's son Nick on (contra-) bass and Johnny Vidacovich on drums.The band was reinforced by Alcons pro-ribbon line-arrays.

This tour, Paul Mitchell was both sound supervisor and tour manager. Mitchell has worked with several of the great names in contemporary jazz and fusion; He was engineer on David Sanborn's Inside and Marcus Miller's M2, both Grammy award winning albums, but also engineer (& co-producer) of The Rembrandt's hit single I'll Be There For You from the TV show Friends.

Mitchell says: "I always loved the smooth top-end of a specific brand that I've been working with for many years and never thought of the possibility that it could be beaten. I started m

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UK - Three exciting performances took place in December in arena settings in Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham. A selection of the most captivating scenes from The Blue Planet programme were projected on an immense custom made ECT projection screen. At 16m x 8m, it was one of the largest screens ever used in the country. ECT designed and manufactured strong very lightweight truss sections in a aluminium finish for the frame. The front projection screen material had webbed black border with eyelets which allowed easy dismantling and erection.

Howard Raynor, promoter for the show said: "The screen did its job magnificently presenting these breathtaking BBC pictures to over 14,000 people in Arenas in Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham. The Blue Planet Live! has been attracting great reviews in all three cities."

The show was conducted by award-winning compos

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Qatar - In early December as Doha, Qatar hosted the 15th annual Asian Games with an Opening and Closing ceremony befitting the world's top international sporting events. In a celebration of Qatar, the city of Doha and Arabic culture, Khalifa Stadium was transformed into a spectacle of colour and costume that placed Doha firmly on the sporting world's map. The ceremonies were produced by David Atkins Enterprises for DAGOC (Doha Asian Games Organising Committee).

Although the Qatari capital uncharacteristically suffered the most rain locals could remember in years, including a downpour just 45 minutes before the Opening, it neither dampened the spirit of the Games nor affected the nearly 400 MAC 2000 Washes used on the production.

Distributed through Martin's Australian representative, Show Technology, the MAC 2000 Wash fixtures along with Atomic 3000 strobes and Stage Cyclos w

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UK - Jeremy Perkins, a key anchorman of De Boer Structures in the UK and internationally for many years, has joined the Arena Group as business development director.

With over 20 years experience in the live events and exhibitions industry, including managing director of De Boer's UK operation and special projects director of De Boer International B.V., Perkins joins the board of Arena with responsibility for leveraging the strengths of all Arena Group companies.

David Walley, Arena Group chief executive says: "We are absolutely delighted to welcome Jeremy on board. He is one of several key appointments we have made as the group moves from strength to strength.

"The stature, knowledge and experience that Jeremy brings to Arena will further reinforce our position and I know he will bring about substantial opportunities in new business and geographical areas."

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USA - The Entertainment Technician Certification Program Council has announced the first ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians. These individuals have passed the rigorous, competency-based electrical examination which took place in October 2006. These electricians, the "Class of 2006", are listed on the ETCP website. There are 110 ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians. 23 of these individuals also hold certifications in Arena and/or Theatrical Rigging. Each can be identified on the jobsite by requesting to see their ETCP ID card that includes their picture, date of certification and, most importantly, area(s) of specialty. They are also identifiable through the exclusive use of the ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians logo on their business card or website.

Administrations of the electrical examination will begin at computer testing centres across the U.S.

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Finland - Two nights at Helsinki's largest venue, the Hartwall Arena, not bad for aboy from the wrong side of Queens. But then 50 Cent has become quite theinternational phenomenon in recent years, even in the frozen north ofEurope. Helsinki might be the capital of Finland, and Finland might beEurope's heavy metal HQ, but that didn't stop seventeen thousand excitedFinnish rap and hip-hop fans wanting to 'get tickets or die tryin'.

The Hartwall concerts were a one-off event, 50 Cent was not on tour, and assuch his Production called upon Akun Tehdas, Finland's leading equipment rental provider, to supply all of50 Cent's sound requirements. "This was a typical large scale event for us,"said Timo Liski of Akun Tehdas, "that meant 100% attention to detail."

Thecompany had just taken delivery of their brand new J-Series line arraysystem from d&b audiotechnik in Ge

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UK - Summit Steel supplied two 10 metre SmarTasts for Fatboy Slim's Big Beach Boutique event, taking place in Brighton, between the city's Palace Pier and its Marina.

Twenty thousand people moved, grooved and kicked 2007 off at the fantastic New Year's Day event, Norman Cook's first public performance on the beach since his ground-breaking Beach Party of 2002. To avoid a repeat of the chaos caused when 250,000 people descended on the south coast resort, this time around, the audience was very tightly controlled, and ticket sales were restricted to people with a local BN post code.

Summit was asked to provide the SmarTmasts by audio suppliers Britannia Row. Brit Row's Roly Oliver and Summit's Jay Call co-ordinated rigging the masts and the main Outline Butterfly line array PA system that was flown from them. They were positioned either side of the stage, 16 cabine

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UK - PSL supplied one of its biggest screens of 2006 to the UK arena tour by Madness, which culminated in a hometown gig at Wembley Arena days before Christmas.

PSL Music's Pod Bluman, says: "Production screens are getting bigger all the time, and the giant central screen for the Nutty Boys uses 80 panels of Lighthouse LED screens in 16:9 aspect ratio." Weighing in at 5.5 tonnes, the screen is of such a size that, in some of the smaller venues, PSL video rigger Chris Harris has had to put extra trussing into the roof spaces to hold it up.

To match the show concept, developed by production manager Lee Charteris, the screen carries a spectacular combination of live footage and graphic content, designed by vision director Tim Fleming. PSL provided a 3-man digital PPU travelling with the tour, all using Sony DXC-D35 cameras, with four additional fixed Sony cameras, and J

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USA - American Idol champ and Nashville recording artist Carrie Underwood, touring in support of her album, Some Hearts, is travelling light as she crosses the country with the grandMA light console. Underwood's album has sold more than four million copies since its release; her national tour is focusing on the fair and festival circuit.

The lighting for Underwood's show was built in rehearsals with a grandMA console by lighting designer Seth Jackson. Bandit Lites' lighting director, Drew Gnagey, who partnered with David Convertino to program and direct the show, is touring with Underwood armed with a grandMA light. "We programmed on a grandMA full-size and took a grandMA light on the road and it's been seamless," says Jackson. "It's as if it's the same console." Jackson and his team programmed the show so it not only includes the lights they're travel

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Portugal - Lighting designer Luis Vidigal enthusiastically embraced Robe moving lights on Monica Sintra's latest tour. She is one of Portugal's leading and most popular artists with an illustrious international career spanning the last 15 years.

The lighting kit was supplied by Lisbon-based Insom, and Vidigal's design utilised 10 Robe ColorWash 575 ATs and 12 ColorSpot 575 ATs positioned on the back truss and floor, "I wanted to have a lot of power from the back of the stage" he explains. The tour itinerary included a great variety of venues, and "The 575 is a neat enough fixture to fit into the medium sized and smaller venues on the tour, but it's output is incredibly bright, so it was the ideal solution for the specific 'look' I was trying to create for Monica."

He's first used Robe fixtures on Sintra's 2005 tour, and was impressed; he now always requests

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UK - XL Video UK renewed its acquaintance with dance gurus Basement Jaxx - arguably one of the most exciting live acts in the UK right now - supplying all the video kit for their UK arena tour.

Basement Jaxx's largest tour to date, amalgamated the talents of their LD Jonathan Armstrong and video director Nick Fry into a dynamic creative team. The two worked very closely in their respective departments to produce energy pumping show visuals that matched the band's full-on, action-packed dance attack.

XL project manager Des Fallon says: "Once again it's refreshing to see something truly original and unique happening through the close collaboration between video and lighting."

It was Jaxx 'ringmaster' Felix Buxton in particular who initiated the idea of an upstage video screen. He specifically wanted a light source that could be used to silhouette the band, and has al

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