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Liechtenstein - Following recent press reports highlighting the problem of counterfeit pro audio and MI equipment, Neutrik, the market-leading supplier of audio connectors, is warning that the problem of fake goods does not apply only to finished products. The component market is also being hit by far eastern counterfeiters, with Neutrik'sproprietary Speakon connectors a prime target.

The Speakon's quality of manufacture and reliability has made it a premium item, often used as a selling point in product brochures. That cachet is, naturally enough, reflected in the price, which represents an opportunity for unscrupulous producers to undercut Neutrik by passing off inferior connectors as Speakons.

"This isn't only about the commercial damage to Neutrik through loss of legiti

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Romania - Paradigma Group hosted the official opening of its brand new headquarters on 8 March, based in Bucharest, as the final part of a special Romanian-Dutch joint venture in the entertainment technology market. His Excellency Dhr. J. Werner, Dutch Ambassador to Romania, was guest of honour at the opening ceremony.

The purpose built 3,500sq.m headquarters, just a few miles from Bucharest's Otopeni International Airport, is divided into offices and warehouses. The space enables Paradigma Group to maintain large rental stocks of audio, lighting, video and staging equipment, to provide professional servicing and training facilities, as well as housing the group's sales company including a showroom and maintenance department.

Paradigma Group is a joint venture between Ampco Flashlight Holding BV of Holland and AEI Broadcast Concept, one of the leading facilities companies in R

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UK - Post-punk multi instrumentalists the Cooper Temple Clause will be headlining at the final of the AKG-sponsored Unsigned Heroes competition, which will take place at the prestigious London venue KOKO on 26 April.

The contest itself is progressing; the names of the twenty bands that have been chosen to go through to the next stage of the contest have been declared. The next stage in the competition, which is also open as of now is the Vote-off, during which the shortlisted bands will be whittled down to the three that will take part in the final at Koko in April,

.The Unsigned Heroes competition is designed to find the best as-yet unsigned band in the UK and Eire, and will offer the winning band a range of prizes, including a recording session with a name producer, PA equipment worth over £10,000 and the chance to play at a major summer festival. The con

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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 - At the USITT show in Phoenix (15-17 March), Meyer Sound is staging a hands-on demo station for the LCS Series Matrix3 audio show control system. Complete with the SpaceMap multichannel panning software and Wild Tracks hard disk recording and playback, Matrix3 now provides even greater power and flexibility in controlling complex and dynamic audio effects in theatrical presentations.

The established repertoire of Meyer Sound loudspeakers for theatre sound will also be on display, including the M'elodie ultra-compact high power curvilinear array. Other models shown on the booth will include the versatile UPJ-1P compact VariO loudspeaker, the palm-sized MM-4 miniature wide-range loudspeaker, the potent M1D ultra-compact subwoofer, and the UPM-1P ultra-compact wide coverage loudspeaker.

Additional UPJ-1P loudspeakers provided by Meyer Sound can be heard in action at the ESTA

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UK - 5 Star Cases has supplied a whole range of flightcases to recently launched Newmarket-based Think AV. The B2B provider of professional AV and technical services contacted 5 Star after a personal recommendation, and has recently taken delivery of a series of cases and trunks.

A variety of cases were required by Think to house all aspects of their equipment. Audio kit included Soundcraft GB consoles and Sennheiser radio mic racks; on the lighting side they needed trunks for ETC Source Four Zoom fixtures and there were also several Christie LX video projectors needing cases.

The case types were selected from 5 Star's Lite-Flite range, through to the popular Super Tour - all of which were supplied in a smart green high-pressure laminate (HPL), incorporating the Think AV logo, screen printed in-house at 5 Star. Various 19" rack systems were also supplied by 5 Star for out

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UK - ADB Lighting has launched its new website (www.adblighting.com), designed to make navigation around the company's wide range of products and support services much easier, the company says.

A new, lively, user friendly interface presents the ADB range in product families, with colour photography throughout, and introduces a 'search by market' feature that allows viewers to view products from all product families that are relevant to either television, rental, theatre or architectural applications.

Other new or redesgined features include the information request and downloads areas, trade show information, subscription to email based news and ADB's Insight newsletter, and a secure distributors' area.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Bandit Lites UK is supplying the current Bryan Ferry UK and European tour with full lighting production and crew. This marks Bandit's first tour with the artist, whose hit-making career stretches back to the 1970s. Lighting designer for this tour is Graham Feast, and Bandit also worked with production manager, Jason Danter, on the project.

Bryan Ferry is performing songs from his new Dylanesque album, plus a few carefully selected classic Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music blockbusters. Ferry, a former fine art student, has some very clear ideas on visuals himself and is good at communicating these. Together, Ferry and Feast decided to make the show look totally different from a Roxy Music gig, keeping it moody, mysterious and with a definite 'sense of the unknown'.

On the first UK leg of the tour, they are playing concert halls and theatres. With no production rehearsals, j

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UAE - UK audio and video distribution equipment company Smart-e Limited will be exhibiting at PALME Middle East for the first time.

The company, which is well known in Europe for its purple coloured AV distribution equipment, is looking to expand the availability of its product range by appointing distributors to cover the EMEA area. The company has an extensive range of multi-format HD compatible video matrix switches and equipment that combine high bandwidth video (400MHz) and high quality stereo audio switching with integral Cat 5/5e/6/7/8 and structured cabling distribution.

Smart-e will be demonstrating the new products within its SNX range of HD compatible multi-format video matrix switches, which start at the SNX-4x4 (offering 4 outputs/4 inputs) to the massive SNX-256x256 (providing a total of 256 outputs/256 inputs).

Also on show will be Smart-e's SLX range of exten

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USA -With the installation of a new sound system featuring Meyer Sound's M'elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers, North Point Ministries' newest satellite location, Browns Bridge Community Church in Cumming, Ga., delivers their message with the utmost power and clarity.

About 5,000 guests regularly attend Browns Bridge Community Church, which opened in October 2006. As with Buckhead Church in nearby Buckhead, Ga., an impressive, high-definition video presentation featuring senior pastor Andy Stanley's sermons highlights the church's Sunday morning programming. The recently installed Meyer Sound system ensures that everyone in the audience hears the inspirational messages with unquestionable intelligibility.

The loudspeaker system in the 2,100-seat main sanctuary is comprised of 26 self-powered M'elodie boxes configured in two arrays. "M'elodie was

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UK - For chart topping Mika's current series of live dates, lighting designer Ian Tomlinson chose a mixture of fixtures, including: 12 PixelLine Micro Effects, 12 PixelLine 1044s, six PixelPars, six MAC 250 washes, six Mirrorballs and "lots of festoon".

The diverse rig allows Tomlinson to produce big theatrical effects, injecting visual creativity to the various characters that Mika brings to life during his shows. The Micros form an arch at the back of the stage and their high powered effects complemented the 1044s.

Tomlinson comments: "The Micros hold their own against the 1044s, I was very impressed and hopefully on the next tour we will introduce a media server. I'm pleased PixelLines are now available in different sizes, as it allows more flexibility in the rig - particularly when we are touring venues of different sizes."

All the lighting is supplie

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Italy - Three grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, three MA mediaPCs with grandMA video and two NSPs were on the equipment list for the Deutsche Bank convention in Turin. Lighting designer Giovanni Pinna, who also worked as set designer and operator, had chosen MA technology for this event, because "we wanted to integrate a lot of video. With grandMA video we got a powerful tool that is easy to handle and provides a very fast and direct access of the media server content due to the integration into the MA-Net. No other media server on the market is that comfortable."

In total, three screens were used for the videos - one screen measured 12m x 2.5m and two screens for back-projection. Pinna relates: "The aim was to create a multimedia show based on animations, video effects and projections with the possibility to interact with special Deutsche Bank content, backgr

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UK - A group of lean, fit and relatively small companies are taking the sound equipment industry by storm and showing the bigger players how it's done. That's according to business analysts Plimsoll Publishing, which says the emerging companies are increasing sales at three times the rate of their larger competitors, delivering four times the profitability, and showing five times the return on investment.

According to Plimsoll, which has 16,000 customers worldwide who rely on its regular reports on the market, price deflation is hitting the bigger companies where it hurts - in their pockets. It started with air travel, moved to electrical goods, used cars and even insurance. And now it has arrived in the sound equipment industry.

14 of the top 50 firms are losing money, while 27 are making less profit than last year. Salaries alone at the top 50 companies eat up 19% of sales.

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Europe - Audio-Technica has launched a dedicated website (www.atheadphones.com) to promote its full range of professional and consumer headphones directly to the customer, throughout the European Union. The website has been developed with two main objectives - to provide a brochure-ware site, with information on the full range of Audio-Technica headphones, and an e-commerce facility, enabling customers to purchase headphones directly by credit card, in both GBPs or Euros.

A parallel marketing campaign, to stimulate both online and offline sales, will include promotion of Audio-Technica headphones via the three major internet search engines, and advertising in the press and on the London Underground.

Commenting on the launch of the website, Harvey Roberts senior UK marketing manager Audio-Technica, said: "It is important to our growth strategy that we increase our share of

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UK - Digidesign has released the new Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 and Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 Pro bundles of creative software and tools available free with all Digidesign Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools LE systems.

"Our customers are going to be very pleased with the new Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 bundles, which are a dramatic step forward in terms of the variety as well as overall value," remarks Ed Gray, Digidesign's director of partnering programmes. "We worked diligently to compile the best software from some of the world's top audio companies. Whether virtual instruments or creative effects, top-of-the-line sound libraries or valuable artist promotion services, we believe that the Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 provides the best tools to allow our users to create the music that lives in their imagination."

Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 and the premium Pro Tools Ignit

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USA - City Theatrical has released its new line of Stackers tapered top hats. Stackers are designed to stack without sticking and to save space on the shelf and in transport, while maintaining all of the benefits of standard top hats.

Stackers' patent pending design allows them to stack neatly on the shelf, but a ridge on the top hat prevents sticking, no matter how much pressure is applied, the company says. All Stackers feature black flocked interiors to reduced light bounce and round frames to allow rotation of half top hats to the most advantageous angle.

A full line of 20 different varieties of Stackers are available including 6.25", 7.5", 10", 12" and 14" diameters in full, half, short full, and short half styles to suit the needs of lighting designers.

Top hats are used in lighting design for two primary purposes: to reduce spill light from li

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UK - Sitaaray, a Bollywood-themed two-tier dining and corporate hospitality complex, has opened in London's Drury Lane with a sound system that incorporates JBL Control series speakers, Crown Xs series amplification and a complex BSS Soundweb London DSP routing system and mode switcher, all supplied by Harman Pro UK and installed by the Sound Division Group.

The new restaurant, above last year's much-vaunted Tamarai, completes restaurant entrepreneur Rohit Khattar's mission to combine a restaurant, 5.1 cinema, dance venue, art gallery and corporate entertainment under one roof.

The Sound Division Group was commissioned to install the complex system requirements by the restaurant's parent company Old World Hospitality. The company arrived on site in 2005, soon after Rohit Khattar purchased the former Millennium Club with a view to providing an extravagant sister operation in Lo

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Germany - ETC's SmartFade ML (ML for moving lights) console will make its European debut at ProLight&Sound in Frankfurt later this month. The latest addition to ETC's Smart Solutions line of basic lighting gear - which includes portable control consoles, dimmers, luminaires and stands - the SmartFade ML is aimed at small touring acts, schools, product launches and corporate events.

SmartFade ML's professional features include palettes, parameter "fan" and built-in dynamic effects. Its direct access style of operation means that students, volunteers and non-technicalstaff can be lighting memorable shows in minutes, suggests ETC.

With a capacity for up to 24 moving lights and an additional 48 intensity channels (dimmers), plus the ability to patch to two complete universes of DMX512A (1,024 outputs), SmartFade ML provides a solid range of control for smaller lighting r

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Denmark - In order to provide users with "the best product documentation possible" Martin Professional has recently added a new, functional, and useful area to its website(s). The Product Resource Centre (www.martin.com/product/resource.asp) is a one-stop shop for all content related to an individual Martin product - information which users might otherwise have to click through a number of pages to find. The Product Resource Centre covers the complete Martin entertainment and Martin Architectural product lines.

At the Product Resource Centre users will find comprehensive information on Martin products such as features and description; press releases, including product news and associated case stories; videos and images; brochures and leaflets; other marketing material such as screensavers; technical data, including in-depth specifications, user manuals, instruction not

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UK - Recolight, now approved as a producer compliance scheme for gas discharge lamps and related equipment, is hosting six workshop events this spring to update and explore the impact of the WEEE Regulations with all stakeholders involved in the lamps market. The WEEE Regulations come into full force on 1 July 2007 so it is hoped that the timing of these workshops will prove very helpful to all those involved in dealing with lamps - electrical distributors, contractors, and local authorities, says Recolight.

Recolight will "seek to establish an efficient and cost effective process for recycling end-of-life lamps and related equipment, which is fully compliant with the Regulations. This will involve supporting and facilitating the development of a national network of collection points for end-of-life products and arranging contracts for the collection and recycling of such p

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USA - Colorado-based lighting innovator Wybron reports that it is "picking up the pace of new product development and delivery". The company says it is committed to introducing one product per month up to the start of the professional lighting trade show season.

"Our customers have asked us to provide them with a more diverse product line," said Miles Dudgeon, director of marketing at Wybron. "This is just the beginning of our response to their demands."

"By giving our customers what they want and need, we can take advantage of market demand and increase the strategic value of our relationships," added Larry Turner, CEO of Wybron. "We are seeing rapid adoption of Wybron's products in certain markets and expect this pace to increase."

In addition to developing products for Wybron's sales channel, the company is working with ot

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UK - Wigwam Acoustics will be providing the sound equipment for George Michael's forthcoming British and European stadium tour which starts in Denmark on 18 May and includes the first two concerts to be staged in the rebuilt Wembley Stadium.

Chris Hill, director of Wigwam Acoustics, says: "We'll be using Van Damme cables for microphones, speakers and mains because they are tough enough to withstand the rigours of a tour of this size. The brand is well established and we know from many years experience that its products can be trusted to deliver great results."

Over the years, Wigwam Acoustics has provided its expertise to many high profile artistes and events touring Europe, USA, Asia, Africa and the Eastern Block. Recent tour contracts have included Westlife, Radiohead, Prince, Eminem, Björk, Blue, Moby, Ronan Keating and Barry Manilow, as well as George Michael's

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