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USA - Nexxus Lighting has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Advanced Lighting Systems, Inc based in Sauk Center, Minnesota. The transaction is scheduled to close on or before 31 July, 2007, subject to satisfactory completion of a due diligence review, approval of Nexxus' board of directors and other customary closing conditions.

"Advanced Lighting Systems is an excellent strategic fit with Nexxus Lighting, not only in terms of LED lighting/fibre optic products, but also with respect to technology and market coverage," stated Mike Bauer, president and CEO of Nexxus Lighting. "They have an excellent team of people and our strategy is to provide ALS the infrastructure and resources to help them flourish as a brand and accelerate new product development.<

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UK - Bloc Party's recent UK tour featured a Radical Lighting RADlite NG1 digital media server, operated by lighting designer Dom Smith. The RADlite was driving five 4m high columns of Element Labs VersaTILES (18 panels in total) which were attached to the front of five upright trussing sections standing on the floor. These were arranged in a gently curving semi circle mimicking the lines of the rear truss overhead.

The aesthetic idea behind these were that they would create a monolithic tower block feel to the stage - reflecting the slightly perturbed and harsher urban ambience of the new album A Weekend In The City. He also intended this architecture to physically enclose the band within their performance area onstage.

Smith specified the RADlite because he wanted a video element to the show and he thought the towers should come to life, and play a multiple role in the

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India - The second PALME India integrated entertainment technology show promises to grow by as much as 25% under the weight of the sub-continent's fast-developing infrastructure, according to the promoters.

Inaugurated last year as PALA India, this year's exhibition (4-6 October, Bombay Exhibition Centre) will be spread over 3,000sq.m of exhibition space and is expected to feature around 200 brands distributed across 115 stands.

This is the target for exhibition manager James Raffoul, who has been taken on by IIR Exhibitions to maximise PALME India's potential. Having previously worked on high-profile exhibitions for Brintex and Emap, Raffoul says he couldn't resist the challenge to consolidate an incipient event in such a fast-emerging market.

"The fact that last year the show attracted 120 exhibiting companies spread over 75 stands, with 2,500 visitors attending, indi

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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 - Event and exhibition services company PSL has named Lauren Steadman as a new director of the company, in recognition of the success she has had heading up PSL's Exhibitions Division.

Steadman is well-known in the exhibitions industry. Coming from the music and photographic industries into the audio-visual business, she pioneered the provision of official AV services to exhibition events, becoming exhibitions director at Samuelson Communications.

A founding director of PSL in 1990, she has since spent time in the USA, opening an office in Los Angeles. Since 2003, she has been running PSL's Exhibition Division, establishing and consolidating the company's position as Official AV and IT Suppliers to leading exhibition organisers in the UK.

Steadman's promotion to PSL's main board coincides with the start of one of the busiest summers ever for PSL Exhibitions, with the addi

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Denmark - Already named 'Product of the Year' by the Confederation of Danish Industries - the latest in a series of awards - dnp's revolutionary Supernova optical front-projection screen portfolio combines new technologies with innovative design to produce ten times more contrast than comparable media displays, says the manufacturer.

Supernova technology is based on advanced film technology which involves nine separate micro thin layers to absorb ambient lighting. Since these optical screens filter out unwanted reflections, Supernova is able to deliver this quality even in broad daylight.

The full suite of five Supernova products - which are purpose-designed for specific professional applications - is now available in the UK and Ireland through the Danish manufacturer's exclusive distributor Paradigm Audio Visual.

Said Paradigm's Greg Jeffreys, "This technology has evol

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USA - Hippotizer V3 media server started shipping earlier this month. The product launch follows sharp on the heels of worldwide Beta testing on productions including London's Theatre de Complicite, New York's Deuce on Broadway and the TPI Awards in London, where a network of three Hippo V3s provided both video and audio to the entire award ceremony.

V3 also featured in the World Premiere of Frobisher at the Calgary Opera and Hard Dance Awards 2007 in London. Upcoming productions to be served by Hippotizer V3 include Dancing With The Stars on NBC TV and five networked V3 Hippotizers will enhance this weekend's 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, broadcast live to an audience of over 600 million.

(Jim Evans)

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Eire - Dublin-based Zandar Technologies will be displaying a range of key product enhancements at InfoComm, 19-21 June 2007 in Anaheim. These enhancements are designed to increase both the flexibility and the usability of Zandar's products in a wide range of professional AV applications.

"InfoComm will be the first opportunity that the international pro-AV community has had to view our enhanced Predator Series of MultiViewers, which now offers dual HD output functionality, whereby a single MultiViewer can drive one or two displays at native HD resolution.

"We shall also be showing our flagship FusionPro+ series MultiViewers designed for mission critical environments where flexible configuration of multiple input sources is required for centralised monitoring," comments Deirdre Smith, CEO at Zandar Technologies.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Martin Audio AQ series speakers provided an elegant sound solution for Leamington Sight & Sound recently when they became involved in the conversion of a former fire station in Coventry to a chic bar/bistro and live entertainment venue.

The Old Fire Station in Coventry's new Millennium Quarter was purchased by local entrepreneur Brian Mills of Phoenix Bars, and turned into Escape. To carry out the transfiguration he enlisted MA Design to build the interior character. LSS's Ian Potter saw the opportunity to work within the design and divide the single-floor venue into three separate sound zones, covering the live and dance area, the bar and the reception/front of house.

Potter specified four flown AQ12's and a pair of ground-stacked AQ212's for the main dancefloor, with six AQ10's and a pair of AQ112's covering the peripheral areas - all processed using two of the dedicate

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UK - PMC has announced its collaboration with Digidesign in the production of the new RMS Series of professional Active Monitors.

The new RMS range is launched with the RM1 and RM2, utilising PMC's ATL technology to deliver high - definition audio with accurate bass response. Both systems feature a revolutionary, onboard digital signal processing (DSP) engine that manages a variety of tasks, bass port emulation, multifrequency limiting and multi layered crossovers. Both monitors are designed with proprietary drivers, digital electronics, power amp and cabinet engineering to provide tonal accuracy, low distortion, stunning clarity and "incredible" dynamic range.

The RM1 is designed for project studios, editing suites, home studios and mobile production vehicles, whereas the RM2 is big on power, making it suitable for mixing suites, post production facilities and broad

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UK - Projected Image Digital (PID) has supplied, commissioned, programmed and created custom content for an Element Labs VersaPixel light ceiling installation at the new-build G Casino in Luton. This features 2,800 45mm round Versa Pixels.

This project once again saw close collaboration between the PID team, Paula Reason and Desmond Harte of London-based designers Cadmium Design and Grosvenor Casino's Senior Project Manager, Paul Taylor.

It follows a similar installation in Manchester last year. Here, Cadmium's first LED ceiling above the main bar area proved so popular with clients and staff and to be such a great atmosphere enhancer, that the concept has now become a design feature of operator Grosvenor's new 'G' brand. G Casinos present a stylishly designed modern environment, aimed at attracting a younger demographic.

Cadmium's Paula Reason explains that their brief was

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Finland - Barco once again played a key role in show visualisation at this year's 52nd Eurovision Song contest, staged in Helsinki and hosted by Finish broadcaster YLE. With an impressive combination of LED technology and digital projectors, the show was bigger and more visually entertaining than ever before.

Show designer Mikki Kunttu's visual design featured more than 200 sq.m of Barco's new MiTRIX LED screen, 125sq.m of ultra bright OLite 510 LED modules and three SLM R12+ digital projectors. Barco rental partner Massteknik (Sweden) was the general video supplier to the show.

Fully integrated into the stage set was a gigantic curved screen 'the cobra'. This not only towered 9.5m up and behind the stage, but also stretched out in to the audience, creating an animated catwalk. In addition to that, extending around almost the entire stage was a massive LED backdrop made up fro

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UK - Lightfactor Sales has supplied SPS Audio with a selection of fixtures from Italian lighting manufacturer LDR's extensive theatrical range for a new installation at the UK's award winning Eden Project 'green' attraction in Cornwall.

SPS's Steve Yelland and Lucy Gaskell from CQ Lighting - who work regularly on lighting design and supply of equipment for the Eden Project's busy event schedule - were asked to specify a new lighting scheme for the Visitor Centre. This covers the plant sales, retail and ticketing areas and is part of a whole new look to the Visitor Centre conceived by Eugene Sellors.

The idea was that the lighting should be "bright and sparkly", and combine both an "industrial" and a "theatrical" look and feel to the space.

The proposal was to install the lighting onto a series of ceiling mounted trusses, which were quite low bec

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Denmark - Martin Professional has announced that Ulrich Borup Hansen has joined the company in the position of product manager, smoke. Hansen, who assumed the position in April, will oversee the company's complete range of Jem and Magnum haze, fog and heavy fog products.

Hansen comes to Martin from Cheminova, a large global chemical company based in Denmark, where he worked as a product manager dealing with strategic product development and global implementation.

Hansen says: "I'm excited to join a company with as great a market position as Martin holds today. Recognising the long and successful history of Jem family smoke products and Martin's unique background in continuously offering leading smoke products to the market, by setting focus on value and benefits for the customer, I'm confident that we will remain the preferred choice within the industry."

Hansen is

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Germany With 22 dates in 3,000 to 12,000-capacity halls, Reamonn's recent Wish tour reflects their status as one of the most successful rock bands in Germany. Satis&Fy deployed EV systems to ensure that the sound reinforcement matched up.

Fronted by Irish singer Rae Garvin, Reamonn first found fame in 2000 with the hit Supergirl. For the Satis&Fy sound crew, led by sound engineer Sven Bonse and system technician Stefan Holtz, the disparities in size between the different locations made theirs a far from easy task. However, as Stefan Holtz pointed out, "with preparation and the right material, we succeeded in mastering it completely."

He continued, "In this way we were able to prepare at least a rough sketch of the configuration with which we would be working in each hall several days before we got there. In addition to the X-Line as the main PA, we

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UK - Orbital Sound has announced the launch of its ZedAlpha monitoring software, which has been designed to complement its range of Zaxcom digital radio microphones. Designed by Orbital's Theo Holloway, ZedAlpha boasts "an extremely friendly user interface". It runs on a Windows platform with a Universal PCI interface and is designed for complex theatre and broadcast applications.

ZedAlpha allows the remote monitoring of all the principle parameters of the Zaxcom TRX900 body pack and TRX800 hand-held transmitters. These include remaining battery life, RF levels and audio levels. Plus an expanded view of each channel streams the last two minutes of data for analysis and fault finding. The software can also be used to fully program the receiver functions including encryption levels enabling secure and confidential transmissions.

As a very powerful software tool, ZedAlp

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Finland - Over 500 Robe moving lights were used on the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest staged in Helsinki's Hartwall Arena.

Mikki Kunttu utilised a wide range of Robe fixtures - the new all-powerful ColorSpot 2500E AT, the workhorse ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200E ATs, the new ColorSpot 700E ATs and ColorWash 250E ATs.

The deal with Robe was instigated by Eurovision 2007's technical production manager Ola Melzig, working for lighting and video suppliers/technical co-ordinators Spectra Stage & Event Technologies from Stockholm.

Melzig also used Robe moving lights for the 2005 event in Kiev, Ukraine. This proved such a positive success, that he was keen to repeat the experience when he and Spectra won the contract to technically produce the 2007 ESC.

"Robe lights are just so reliable that we had to have them again," states Melzig, who cut the deal with Robe's internatio

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Europe - After the Middle East & South East Asia Tour 2007, in March Sir Cliff Richard continued his tour in the largest European arenas, starting from Finland ( Helsinki ) and finishing in Germany ( Frankfurt ).

For FOH, Britannia Row Productions used a system comprising 48 Butterfly Hi-Pack and 16 Subtech 218 (plus six dV-Dosc on front-fill duty), all powered by Outline T series amplifiers, processed by two Dolby Lake units and mixed with a Yamaha PM5D console.

The set-up changed according to the venue, but, generally two main hangs (16+16) of Hi-Pack systems were used, plus 8+8 for 'side' seating.

In charge of PA was Richard Trow, who was already familiar with a lot of the arenas, as he'd worked in them on the last Depeche Mode tour. He was supported by FOH assistant Davide Lombardi of Brit Row, who also assisted sound engineer Michael "Bunny" Warren (Simply Red

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Dubai - Hugh Frazer-Mann's HFM Lighting & Sound installed 1,316 Stealth tiles on the Nakheel exhibition stand at this year's ATM 2007 show in Dubai. Nakheel is the largest land developer in Dubai and builder of the Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel, The World and Coral Resort islands.

On an initial idea of a Fibre Optic Curtain, HFM on subsequent meetings with Phil and Nakheel moved it forward to the four 6M diameter circles of Stealth LED, manufactured by Element Labs in USA.

HFM project manager Simon Husband put a team together consisting of LED video guru Ian Henderson and Miami-based video director Jason Randolph.

Husband comments, "Ian and Jason worked brilliantly with me to bring the content and technical issues together. They had us so well set up that even on the night before first show day when it was confirmed that HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum was making a spe

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UK - The Lionel Richie tour has just passed through the UK. Show designer, Chris Medvitz of Lightswitch, spoke of his concept for the tour, back in the rehearsal period, saying: "We tried to take the look from videos and album artwork to make the transition to live. We were keen to keep the focus on the performers, rather than have special effects and gimmicks."

PRG Europe have supplied supplied kit for the show, Medvitz says : "We're using a great deal of LED fixtures as well as Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12, PixelLine battens, MAC 2ks, Vari-Lite luminaires and a handful of Syncrolite searchlights. A lot of the three or four thousand LEDs are built into the scenery, primarily so that we can do a lot of cool close up lighting with Lionel and the band. They allow us to have a lot of colour changing effects on them while performing, and we can put them in spaces wher

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UK - Welsh alternative rock band Lostprophets is the first in the world to tour with a Nexo Geo T Series array system implementing the new NXstream system management software. Nexo claims that the new operating software offers significant improvements to system flexibility and audio quality.

Lostprophets and their front-of-house engineer Alan 'Doof' McCann specified an Alpha system worldwide for two tours in 2006. Following the success of last autumn's theatre tour, the band is back to play their first arena headlining shows. For these dates, SSE Audio Group has upgraded them to a Nexo Geo T Series system plus Nexo NX242 second-generation digital controller, fitted with NXtension (expander) memory cards, and carrying the NXstream software operating system.

"It's the best I've ever heard it sound," says Jason 'Baboon' Hattams, SSE's senior systems tech. "The syst

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UK - Martin Professional will be exhibiting at this year's BAR Show, held at Earls Court from the 5-6 June. Martin's aim is to show how it can provide solutions for external bar lighting in view of the new smoking ban legislation.

Visitors to the stand will have the opportunity of seeing the effects that lighting can provide. The Martin team will be on hand to demonstrate the latest products and innovations of its growing range, including the new LED Videowall LC2140.

Stand C24, in Earls Court 2.

(Chris Henry)

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