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UK - The 2007 edition of the Total Production International Awards was staged at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith, west London on Monday 5 February. Hosted by Suggs, the frontman of Madness, the TPi Awards drew a record-breaking audience of almost 1,200 people from across the live music production industry, and included special guest presentations by Sir George Martin, Queen guitar legend Brian May, Feargal Sharkey, Jeff Wayne of The War Of The Worlds fame and The Smiths' Andy Rourke.

During the 'Swinging Sixties'-themed ceremony, TPi Awards creative director Mark Cunningham announced that the event is set to grow even bigger in 2008, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Total Production International magazine. Details will be officially announced by Mondiale Publ

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UK - Beadlight will be launching five new products at the ARC Show next week (Business Design Centre, London, 12-13 February). Based on their proprietary diffusion and video technologies, these Bead*light LED fixtures add a rich ambiance to the local environment through their ability to work together as an automated, integrated 2D or 3D screen array. The ice*lighting range, of which these new products form part, offers designers the ability to create unique dispersed screen features over which animations, textures and colours seamlessly flow, say the company.

The ice*lighting products being officially launched at ARC are: Panel - five-pixel panel (L 510mm / W 110mm / D 85mm); Crystal Cube - an artistic version of the ice*lighting cube where the 'circular' light source is contained within a clear acrylic housing; Pixule - the ice*lighting version of the Bead*light capsule which a

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Italy - The Mole Antonelliana dominates the skyline of Turin. At over 167m, La Mole was the highest brick building in the world at the time of its completion and remains the tallest building in Turin. To celebrate International AIDS Day, architect Daniela Fabbris began a search to find a lighting fixture capable of projecting a logo directly on to La Mole from a terrace at a distance of 30m.

Alessandro Fantin from Vari*Lite distributor Audio Link explains: "During the meeting I had to personally guarantee that the VL3500Q spot would be able to project the standard colour of the red AIDS logo - as it was impossible to do tests due to the city location of La Mole and the webcams connected. A risky promise, but one I knew the fixture could deliver!"

The Turin government have embraced the project as previously the only logos that could be projected and seen on the brown

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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 - VME, a specialist in the hire, sale and installation of professional sound, lighting and AV equipment, has taken delivery of two 56-channel Soundcraft Series FIVE consoles from Harman Pro UK. VME director Dion Davie says the desks were ordered for a specific purpose - to handle the audio at the annual Wakestock Festival, which takes place during July at the Pwllheli Marina in Wales.

Inaugurated in 2000, Wakestock is Europe's largest wakeboard competition, attracting some of the world's best riders who compete for the title of Wakestock Champion. Each year's event is supported by a two-night live music festival that has previously featured appearances from top DJs and bands such as the Zutons, The Automatic, Carl Cox & Friends, Athlete, Soul II Soul, Judge Jules, Goldie Lookin' Chain, DJ Yoda and Reef.

VME has had a long association with the Festival, supplying both sound

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UK - Musion Systems, the projection technology behind the seminal video holograms of Sir Richard Branson, Madonna and virtual band Gorillaz, have installed the largest virtual 3D video hologram ever to appear in a single unit retail outlet - the projection of a full-size Toyota Auris family car spinning in mid-air, complete with a life-size human test driver.

The ground-breaking project at the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent was undertaken on behalf of Toyota GB in collaboration with creative agency Brandwidth Marketing and video production house Square Zero. High definition digital video projection of the 5m wide x 3m high image is achieved using a single Barco R12+ Performer fitted with a special high brightness short-throw lens and an HD digital interface card installed and configured by Barco UK. The image reflects from a Harkness Screens high contrast grey front projectio

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South Korea - The burgeoning South Korean pro audioindustry is proving profitable for Prism Sound, the company reports, particularly since it appointeda new distributor in the territory to handle its range of multi-channel analogueand digital audio converters and processors.

Seoul-based Audio Network Korea (ANK) is renowned as a distributor of high endpro audio products working on behalf of companies such as AMS Neve andDigidesign, for whom it acts as a repair centre. Headed by former recording andmastering engineer Tom Kim, ANK also undertakes systems integration projects forKorean music and post production facilities.

Tom Kim says: "Prism Sound products are of the highest calibre and are very wellregarded by audio professionals around the world. I first used the company's EQprocessors when I was working as a mastering engineer and was always impressedby the great result

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USA - The Vilar Center located in the heart of Colorado's Beaver Creek Resort, features a 530-seat theatre that presents a variety of year-round performances, such as jazz, comedy, dance, film, musicals, theatre, family shows and more. The intimate performance space was designed to exacting specifications to create perfect acoustics and unobstructed views from every seat.

The upgrading of the conventional sound system was greatly driven by the demands of visiting performers. The theatre found itself having to rent systems for more demanding performers that were visiting, and found it hard to control the coverage and SPL from one performance to the next (often from a single piano concert to a full blown rock show), and frequently working with an unfamiliar system that wasn't ideal for the space.

The theatre's technical team started to assess their choices and thorough shootouts

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UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light will be at ARC 07, the architectural, retail and commercial lighting show, which takes place at the Business Design Centre in Islington, North London from February 12-13. White Light will be on the Enliten Architectural Lighting stand, M35, demonstrating a range of products for which they are the exclusive UK distributors.

Those looking to control lighting remotely without the need cables will be interested in the W-DMX wireless DMX system from Wireless Solutions in Sweden, currently in use on the Light Elements project in Maidstone.

Designers looking for cost-effective playback of pre-programmed lighting will be interested in the showSTORE and miniSTORE DMX playback systems from ELC which record and playback DMX data from shows created on full-featured lighting controllers and then play it back triggered by conditions such as c

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UK - Spains Hall in Essex has been a family home for ten centuries. It has recently completed a prestigious conversion and extension of its listed stable buildings. Although the Hall itself dates from the early 15th century, installation company CGA Integration has equipped its function rooms with modern audio systems from Electro-Voice, part of Bosch Communications Systems.

CGA Integration was commissioned to provide zoned audio for a wide range of functions. Scope for future developments was part of the brief from the outset. Audio quality came top of the list for project requirements, with system flexibility and ease of routine use close behind. From the ceremony room to the vaulted dining rooms, separate zones were installed, all requiring individual design, while installation needed to be impressively finished to match the venue's high standards of decor.

Audio flexibilit

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France - This year marks the 25th anniversary of the SIEL exhibition and d&baudiotechnik will be exhibiting with their expanded Remote network includingthe latest ROPE C Version 2.0.7 software.

This exhibition for the live entertainment and events industry will be staged at thethe Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles and will be held from 11-14 February. Also on show will be d&b's J-Series line array system, which was launched at last year's SIEL. The recently introduced M4 stage monitor will also be exhibited as well as d&b's Q-Series loudspeaker range.

All these products will be presented by d&b's French office along with theirregional partners, who will be available to provide any technicalinformation or answer any questions on stand number K005.

(Chris Henry)

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UK - Allen & Heath has introduced theXone:2D, a follow-up product to the Xone:3Dmixer/controller. The Xone:2D is a combination of a four stereo channel USBsoundcard and MIDI controller, which will enable DJs to combine with theirexisting analogue mixer to create a complete Digital DJ mixing system,suitable for integration with leading DJ software such as Ableton Live andTraktor DJ Studio.

The high quality USB soundcard can operate in either of two modes - stereochannels for three inputs from a PC and one return, or two channels from a PC and tworeturns. A large array of connections are provided to enable easyconnection into any DJ setup, so the 2D can be directly connected toturntables, CD players or linked to an external mixer. Digital IO (opticaland coaxial) is also provided. The Xone:3D BPM counter with LED display isincluded, which is capable of detecting a beat in music pro

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USA - Located on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, the Paramount Theatre is a slice of history. With its magnificent, 2,992-seat, Art Deco design, the Paramount was the last studio-owned movie palace built in the nation. Over the years, the theatre changed hands several times as both the downtown film market and the building itself slowly decayed, and in 1970, the doors were shut for good. Or at least until 1972, when the Oakland Symphony (now the Oakland East Bay Symphony) purchased it and restored it to its original grandeur, reopening it as a performing arts centre. Shortly thereafter, it was declared a National Historic Landmark, and ownership was transferred to the city.

Today the Paramount is one of the Bay Area's prime spots for high-profile concerts, lectures, theatre, and film, but one recurrent complaint has dogged the theatre in recent years: mediocre sound. &

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France - ETC, through its French partner ATF - Avab Transtechnik France - will onceagain be showing off its newest and latest products at SIEL, including Congoand its little brother Congo jr, which has been a runaway success in Franceand across Europe.

The Congo console was designed " to be the most complete platform forcontrol of any device - whether that happens to be conventional dimming,automated luminaires or media servers - without losing the feel of a classiclighting control system," says Avab software developer Anders Ekvall. Otherteam members included Avab Transtechnik France's Jean-Louis Pernette andChristian Rezgui, who were instrumental in directing product development.

Just a year later, ETC introduced the Congo jr, with the same functionalityof Congo but with a smaller footprint and smaller price tag - aimed at venues like rehearsal halls or black-box t

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UK - Richmond Studios' Toby Alington will produce the audio for his 13th consecutive Brit Awards at Earls Court on 14 February, with the event being broadcast live-to-air on ITV at 8pm in the UK for the very first time.

Building on the success of last year's move to a fully digital Brits audio production, Richmond Studios have contracted Floating Earth to provide their latest mobile recording solution with its SSL200 digital console, fibre optic connection to the stage, and digital output to the broadcasters. Richmond Studios will once again do the sound-design and dub for Hello Charlie's nomination packages.

The show is set to be an unforgettable celebration of a year in which seven of the Top 10 bestselling albums in the UK were by British artists, whilst Oasis have been confirmed as winners of the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Music Award.

The acts

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UK - Summit Steel is once again supplying rigging infrastructure and associated support services for Cirque du Soleil's acclaimed production of Alegria at the Royal Albert Hall.

It's the seventh Cirque production that Summit has put into the venue. Alegria was also the first Cirque production which Summit were involved with in the central London venue, back in 1998.

The 2007 project involved the preparation of over 100 points of rigging, for which Summit has supplied 40 of their own Lodestar hoists in addition to using the house hoists.

Summit also designed and installed truss mothergrids, lighting and drape masking trusses, utilising nearly 400m of James Thomas Supertruss. This is needed for Cirque to produce their daring, highly acrobatic production in a Grade One listed venue, as opposed to staging it in their own purpose-built big top.

Before Christmas a

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UK - Showsec has gained SIA Approved Contractor Status (ACS) accreditation in two sectors: Door Supervisor and Security Guarding. With an overall aim of supplying the best customer service Showsec has invested heavily in training and internal business systems over recent years. This was acknowledged during the independent audit during process undertaken to gain the SIA ACS approval, which considered everything from recruitment through training to actions in the workplace. This process involved many key members of Showsec staff who reached (and sometimes exceed) the stringent criteria of the SIA audit requirements.

Managing director Mark Harding said: "I'm very proud of the positive comments we received from the independent assessors that related back to our staff at all levels. Following on from being awarded 'Investors in People' in 2006, this SIA approval re-iterates our

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New Zealand - Selecon and Philips hosted a seminar in Taiwan that highlighted the supply chain from lamp manufacturer to end user. "We had a challenging situation" says Phil Sargent, regional market manager for Selecon, "you can do a nice presentation together with product demonstrations but it really doesn't do justice to the whole background story behind the optical system development and thousands of hours of R&D time."

Normally the partnership between the luminaire and lamp manufacturer's R&D teams is glossed over and presenters move on to more product specific areas, and this leaves the story of the collaboration untold.

"Philips and Selecon have the same dealer in Taiwan, and when Mr. Anthony Wu, managing director of Ming Li approached us with his idea of a joint seminar, we were delighted to be involved" says Sargent. "After discussin

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UK - The New Year sees a change in company structure for UK digital console manufacturer, DiGiCo. This heralds a period of intense development for the company, as it gets set to continue its growth in the digital audio sector, and puts Bob Doyle, one of the best-known figures of the audio industry, back at the sharp end of the business.

Currently managing director, Doyle will become chief executive, DiGiCo (UK) Ltd, whilst senior sales director James Gordon will assume the role of managing director, DiGiCo (UK) Ltd. The remainder of the management team comprises marketing director David Webster and technical director John Stadius.

Doyle's new position will utilize his 40 years of experience, as well as his skills for maintaining and raising company profile, to its maximum potential thus helping to increase top line revenue generation. "I've enjoyed my time as managing dir

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World - Lighting designer Bryan Leitch has specified Avolites to control lighting for Justin Timberlake's extensive Future Sex/Love 2007 world tour which kicked off in San Diego in January and hits the UK and Europe in April and May.

As soon as Leitch won the design contract, his company Siyan immediately purchased two additional Diamond 4s from Avo. Siyan's three existing D4 consoles were already committed and spec'd onto other tours running during the same period.

Leitch co-designed and developed the Future Sex/Love show with programmer Nick Whitehouse. The two had worked together on Coldplay's 2003/04 Rush of Blood To The Head tour which also utilised a D4.

Fixture-wise, the D4 is controlling over 120 Vari*Lites - a mix of VL4s and VL3000 spots and washes plus 12 VL1000s; 120 ColorKinetics ColorBlasts; 20 Syncrolites - eight 1Ks and twelve 3ks; 40 Ato

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UK - Star Events Group and SRC have announced that they are combining their mobile stage operations to form what is probably Europe's biggest rental fleet.

"We are always looking for ways to expand our operation so that we can continue to provide our clients with a first class service," says Star Events' group sales director Jane Russen. "There is an obvious synergy between our Star Mobile division and SRC, so when the opportunity to combine our two mobile fleets presented itself, it seemed a logical progression."

Jon Slater of SRC commented, "SRC has always had a good working relationship with Star Events Group. Combining forces in this way can only make our service stronger. We are looking forward to the challenges ahead."

The new alliance will operate from Star Events Group's headquarters. All contact names, numbers, web and email addresses r

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France - Digital console manufacturer Innovason reports record sales in its home territory during 2006 and says that it is poised to break that record yet again during 2007 as demand continues to rise.

The list of tours and events throughout the French territory for which Innovason consoles have been specifically purchased is impressive and includes the likes of the blockbuster musical, Le Roi Soleil (a three-console configuration on an EtherSound network), jazz/folk artist Sanseverino (FoH and monitors), young, upcoming artists Da Silva and Jeann Cherhal and French icon Francis Cabrel.

Innovason consoles are also finding their way into more and more fixed installations including theatres, performing arts centres and into the live broadcast sector as well. Radio France now has several consoles including two Sy80s and is about to take delivery of an Sy48.

Innovason sal

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