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Singapore - Singapore's growing infrastructure - requiring the need for ever more professional staging services - is already having a positive effect on this year's Event 360º show, which makes its debut under the wing of the umbrella PALME Asia expo in July.

Some 1,000sq.m, a quarter of the overall capacity at Singapore Expo, will be set aside for Event 360º Asia. Heartened by the initial response, Davin Er, who is responsible for developing this sector, believes that interest has not only been stimulated by the support from the Singapore Tourism Board, but the building of the S$3.85bn Marina Bay Sands complex, housing casino, hotel and convention centre.

Event 360º Asia will also be working closely alongside Singapore-based UnUsUal Productions, who are

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USA - Los Angeles night club, the Temple Bar in Santa Monica, has installed Allen & Heath's iLive Digital Console, now providing mixing duties for the club's nightly live music schedule.

Based in LA's fashionable Santa Monica area, the Temple Bar is a unique music venue hosting local, national and international artists performing a spectrum of music covering the genres of jazz, electronica, indie, hip hop, soul, latin, reggae, and world music. There is also a house DJ performing between acts, and the venue regularly organises film screenings and poetry nights.

The Temple Bar's music director and chief mixing engineer, Swan, commented, "The sound of the console is magnificent, I've been mixing at the Temple Bar for five years, I have never hear the room sound like this before. It brought our sound system alive! Its compact footprint fit perfectly in our sound booth, and ou

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USA - Digidesign has announced a new family of bi-amplified, professional-grade studio reference monitors - the Reference Monitor Series (RMS). Developed jointly with PMC (the Professional Monitor Company, based in the UK), the new RMS monitors unite Digidesign's deep expertise in digital audio with PMC's legacy for fine, cutting-edge loudspeaker designs and meticulous manufacturing, says the company.

"For many years Digidesign's commitment to developing state-of-the-art professional recording technologies has helped artists, engineers, and producers alike create award-winning recordings with unrivalled audio purity," explains Gannon Kashiwa, market manager for Digidesign's professional products. "The new RMS monitors are a natural complement to our existing product line and a logical extension of our commitment to achieving consistent and pure sound from input to

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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 - With so many broadcasters now considering IP as a viable and cost effective means of transporting audio, compression specialist APT has joined the debate by publishing a booklet entitled A Practical Guide To IP Audio Networking.

This guide draws on APT's extensive experience in the field of audio over IP networking and gives useful information on IP networks and their implications for real-time audio transfer. It also makes valuable recommendations for those specifying both networks and equipment for audio over IP broadcasting.

Jon McClintock, APT's commercial director, says: "In recent years we have supported many customers through the transition from synchronous to IP and have worked hard in standards bodies within the industry to ensure interoperability of audio codecs over IP networks. This booklet allows us to share our knowledge and experience with those

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UK - Summit Steel supplied four SmarTmasts to Britannia Row which were utilised to emulate a concert style set up for sound tests in the new Wembley Stadium. Two SmarTmast 4s were used to suspend speaker arrays that mimicked the height and positioning of PA wing hangs on a typical concert stage set up in the end-on position. The masts were picked for their 15m height, quick buildability and neat footprint.

The main object of the exercise was to integrate a show PA system with Wembley's house PA to provide full audio coverage throughout the stadium. They also took the opportunity to ensure that Emergency announcements could be heard in all locations around the venue.

Summit's Jon Bray was contacted by Brit Row's Bryan Grant to supply the necessary support structures for the tests. Bray and a team of three riggers erected a total of five masts, which stayed up for a two-day peri

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UK - Located in Plaistow, east London, Glory House is a family-based, multi-racial and multi-cultural church where audio and visual technologies have been embraced to broadcast the church's message in the most effective way possible.Music is an integral part of Glory House: up to a 100-strong Gospel choir and musical director being complemented by an in-house technical sound team.

The venue now has a new sound system supplied and installed by South London-based Subfrantic Production Services. The Turbosound system comprises four TA-500 Aspect Wide mid-highs, four TSB-118 subs and six TXD-15M wedge monitors, all controlled by two LMS-D24s. Subfrantic also supplied amplifiers, mixing consoles, outboard equipment, microphones, a custom-designed multicore and an ASL communications system.

"The main factor dictating the specification was to get the best sound we could on a rea

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USA - Two public institutions in the USA have recently been the recipient of new Merging digital audio workstations. The Washington-based Library of Congress has recently acquired several Pyramix DAWs, each built around a Merging Mykerinos MB5 card with an AES-EBU digital output daughterboard.

The DAWs are being installed in the Library's new facilities at the National Audio Visual Conservation Centre in Culpeper, Virginia, where staff will be using them primarily to digitise the Library's audio collections, creating high-quality preservation files. The Pyramix systems were assembled by Merging Technologies' US distributor Independent Audio and supplied to the Library of Congress by Massachusetts dealer Parsons Audio.

In a separate sale, Washington's National Gallery of Art has also installed a Pyramix for use by the Gallery's audio-visual staff.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Harman Pro UK has announced the judges for the final of the AKG Unsigned Heroes battle of the bands competition, which is taking place at Camden's Koko on 26 April. The Summer festivals at which the winning group will play later in the year have also been confirmed. The lucky band will take the stage at both the prestigious Isle Of Wight festival at the start of June (headlining on the Platform 1 stage), and also on the Brit Bus stage at the Kent Festival, with headliners the Feeling, the Ordinary Boys and the Ghosts, from 29 June to 1 July.

With this and other prizes (such as an AKG sponsorship deal and PA equipment worth £10,000) riding on how the bands perform at Koko on the night of the final, it's important that the competition judges have plenty of music-business experience.

Harman Pro UK's five choices fit the bill nicely: Jez Coad is a renowned film composer

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USA - Clear-Com has released a number of upgrades to its FreeSpeak Digital Wireless Intercom System, including a software upgrade, improved electronics with internal silent vibrator alert and a new multi-way battery charger.

With the release of version 1.5.6 of FreeSpeak software, users will benefit from improvements in the software that makes it easy to restore factory default settings, says the company.

Version 1.5.6 will be delivered installed on new FreeSpeak belt-pack purchases, and is available for installation on existing FreeSpeak units as a purchasable upgrade. The software is installed from a PC via a serial connection to the belt-pack.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Over the past few years, use of Rosco's range of dance floors has steadily and quietly increased across Europe and the UK, thanks almost entirely to the diversity, quality and reliability of the products. Traditionally there has been little in the way of marketing to support the range, but for the first time last year Rosco attended a number of trade shows specifically to promote dance floors and the interest was extraordinary.

So much so in fact, that Rosco has now brought a dance floor specialist onto the sales team with the specific remit to provide product information and advice to customers and to take the range into markets and venues previously untapped.

Lee Payne joins Rosco straight from performing on the Riverdance tour. He is looking forward to hanging up his tap shoes and taking on the challenge of growing Rosco's floor business.

Says Payne: "It'

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Italy - Traxon Technologies is set to showcase three LED developments at Euroluce 2007 which takes place from 18-23 Aprilat the New Milan Fairgrounds.

Traxon's booth will feature a complete overview of its colour changing and white LED lighting systems - Panels, Luminaires, XB Luminaires and Modules - along with their latest product line enhancements in all categories: 16PXL Board and Module, high brightness Luminaires with 1W, 3W and K2 Luxeon LEDs and a preview of its Tile 64PXL Outdoor panel.

(Jim Evans)

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South Africa - The Durban International Conference Centre in KwaZulu-Natal has celebrated its 10th anniversary with the launch of the new ICC Durban Arena - a sub-divisible 32,000sq.m space that will be used for show space and exhibitions. Midas consoles and Klark Teknik signal processing equipment were used extensively for the new venue's launch, supplied by South African distributor Prosound Pty, which was contracted to provide the audio and production management for the event including overseeing the design and set-up of the audio system.

The opening of the arena coincided with George Benson and Al Jarreau's South African leg of their Giving It Up tour, so it was decided to host the Durban show at the new venue as part of the opening ceremony. The launch also featured a speciality show, The Power of Durban, devised and produced by Durban ICC's technical producti

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UK - The annual St Patrick's Day celebration took place in London on 17 March 2007. A major part of the action took place in the Capital's iconic landmark Trafalgar Square, where the fountains turned green, large amounts of Guinness were drunk and the action was relayed by Lighthouse LED screens.

The free event, organised by Mean Fiddler for the Mayor of London, featured the best of contemporary and traditional Irish music on the main stage in Trafalgar Square, with video specialist The Picture Works supplying all the visual elements for the show.

Two 5 x 5 panels of Lighthouse R16 16mm LED screens, each measuring 5.08m (w) x 3.85m (h), were positioned stage left and right, with a further 4 x 3 panels of Lighthouse R16 measuring 4.05m (w) by 2.8m (h) placed centre stage.

"We've done this particular job for six consecutive years," says The Picture Works owner Robin

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USA - Production Resource Group, LLC (PRG) and High End Systems, (HES) have announced a joint licensing agreement regarding their patent portfolios of lighting and control technology. The agreement goes into effect immediately.

Both PRG and HES have been innovators in developing digital and analogue lighting fixtures, systems and controls for the entertainment industry. Both companies hold extensive catalogues of patents in the United States and abroad. Under the agreement, PRG will be able to offer licensees a single license that covers both the PRG and the HES patents.

"This means that manufacturers who develop products can conveniently access both PRG and HES patents with a single license from PRG," says Jere Harris, chairman and founder of PRG. "We expect that this agreement will make it easier for manufacturers to utilise the innovations developed by PRG an

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UK - XL Video supplied Production North with plasma and LED screens and a Version 4 Catalyst digital media server, all of which were used as an 'ambient' video system for the Lemar theatre tour.

Production North's Steve Levitt and Sarah Hollis (also the tour's production manager) came up with a set design which also incorporated the video screens. They wanted something a bit different, a slightly discreet and understated visual effect that would work appropriately in the venues that Lemar was playing.

The seven screens consisted of six plasmas ranging from 42 to 61" dotted asymmetrically around the set for a quirky slightly random feel, and a 6ft by 4ft panel of Barco i-Lite 6 LED screen to stage left. The plasmas were attached to various bits of set and trussing with scaffolding clamps and adaptors. All surfaces were driven by content stored on the Catalyst, which was tr

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USA - The Chauvet Q-Spot 575 won the 2007 Club World award in the Best Lighting Category. Every March, the Club World Awards honour the club industry's best, from LJs, DJs and club designers to lighting, sound systems and the clubs themselves. Editorial staffers of Club Systems International magazine and parent company Testa Communication select nominees from a submission pool. A panel of industry experts determines the winners who were announced at a ceremony held in Miami, FL.

Development Manager Victor Menendez accepted the Best Lighting Product award for the Q-Spot 575 on behalf of the entire team Chauvet. Also in attendance was CEO Albert Chauvet. " This means a lot to us," he said, "because we not only feel that it does justice to the Q-Spot 575's outstanding performance but it also validates our team's hard work and determination to make a difference

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UK / USA - UK manufacturer GDS has formally announced the appointment of TMB as the exclusive distributor for its award-winning 'Blues System' in America, Asia and the Middle East.

The system was extremely well received at its North American debut at USITT in Phoenix, says Chris Curran, TMB's architectural sales director: "The Blues System is truly one of those 'why didn't I think of that?' new products. It solves many backstage lighting problems as well as offering options that were previously impractical. We were almost overwhelmed by the positive response at USITT and also by the various possible new applications that arose during conversation with the many visitors to our booth."

Specifically designed for backstage lighting applications in the working theatre, the Blues System won a PLASA Innovation Award at its European launch at the PLASA Show last year, and a

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Spain / Portugal - Quercus Equity has invested 60 million euros in the acquisition of the Spanish group Stonex and the Portuguese audio-visual group Alfasom - owner of the Spanish companies Aysav and Congress Rental Ibérica - creating the largest audio-visual group in the Iberian Peninsular.

The Stonex group, founded in Madrid in 1980, specializes in engineering and turnkey stage equipment projects for theatres, auditoriums, congress centres, casinos and theme parks, encompassing stage engineering, show lighting, architectural lighting and audio-visual installations. The company has offices in Madrid and La Coruña, and boasts more than 300 reference projects in the Iberian market, such as WB Madrid theme park, Pamplona Auditorium and congress centre (Baluarte), Colon Theatre in La Coruña, Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo, Expo 98's Lisboa Camoens Theatre and Gran Casino de A

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UK - After some 34 years in the lighting controls industry, David H Kerr will be retiring from Polaron Controls at the end of May. Kerr began his career with Electrosonic and over a tenure of some 20 years led the company into being a world leader in lighting controls and architectural dimming systems. During that time he was credited with instigating the global standard of 'Scene Setting', which is now in use in most lighting controls applications in Architectural and Residential buildings around the world.

Kerr is also credited with founding Dynalite Ltd in the UK in 1993, which went onto be the brand leader in the UK with projects such as Bluewater, Windsor Castle and Millennium Dome. In 2001, Kerr was the driving force behind the launch of the iLight Group, which embraced the Zero 88 Lighting and iLight brands.

Due to health and family considerations, Kerr sold the iLight

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World - In early 2007 Rod Stewart embarked on his Rockin' in the Round Tour an ambitious theatre-in-the-round production that kicked off a 56-city North American tour in January, to be followed by a swing through European stadiums in June and July.

The production is impressive in both scope and scale. Stewart's tour makes the most of the set, starting with four huge, high-definition video screens that face each direction. Before the show, a video called The Rodfather touting Stewart's history as a pop innovator is screened, while during the show, images of Stewart, his band, and shots of the city in which the performance is taking place are displayed on the screens. Two catwalks coming off opposite sides of the stage allow Stewart to venture out of the main performing area and into the crowd. The intricate lighting rig includes multicolour LED lights built into the

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USA - Intelix LLC has announced the release of the AVO-A2-WP-F wallplate balun, which distributes a high-fidelity stereo audio signal up to 2,500ft over standard twisted pair cable, such as Cat 5 or Cat 6.

The front panel of the AVO-A2-WP-F features two gold-plated female RCA connectors on a white decora face-plate. The rear panel features an RJ45 connector and optional grounding screw. The installed unit fits in a standard depth wall-box.

Used in pairs or with a rack-mountable Intelix AVO-A2 modular balun, the AVO-A2-WP-F transmits 20 Hz to 20 kHz analogue audio in either direction up to 2,500 feet.

(Jim Evans)The AVO-A2-WP.

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