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UK - The three days of the Give It A Name indoor shows are seen as the start of the UK festival season - as the best up-and-coming new alt-rock bands flip-flop through three venues in England and Scotland. With up to 12 acts a day going through each stage, this was an opportunity for an army of different front-of-house engineers to get their hands on a big Nexo Geo T line array, running the newly-launched NXStream management software.

Give It a Name began in 2005 and soon became established as the biggest indoor rock festival in the UK. This year it has expanded - beginning in Germany at venues in Berlin and Cologne, followed by Paris, before heading to the UK. A weekend crowd of more than 25,000 came to Earls Court alone for a bill dominated by pop-punk and emo band

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USA - Aviom has announced several additions to its global sales team.

Jonathan 'JP' Parker, who has been serving as Aviom's sales director in the Southeastern US, is now assuming the role of director of international sales, Asia Pacific.

Mark Meding, who has been Aviom's sales director for the Northeast US and Canada, will now assume Parker's former Southeastern territory and will be in charge of sales throughout the entire East Coast of the US.

The Canadian territory is now back in the hands of Aviom's longtime international sales director, Joel Brazy, who also continues to oversee the company's European sales efforts.

The Aviom sales force is managed by national sales director Gary Lee, under the leadership of Aviom's new vice president of sales & marketing, Mike McGinn.

(Jim Evans)

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Spain - The Spanish production of the hit musical We Will Rock You recently returned to Madrid's Calderón Theatre after a successful national tour, complete with a Cadac J-Type Live Production Console supplied by local rental company Milán Acústica.

Featuring sound design by Javier G Isequilla, the show has been touring around Spain for the past two years, and was initially scheduled to run in Madrid for a three-month period. This has been extended until the end of 2007, thanks to the show's continuing popularity and excellent ticket sales, which won We Will Rock You the coveted Gold Ticket Award.

Milán Acústica has been involved with the show from the outset, supplying the sound equipment for the original Madrid production as well as the tour. Javier G Isequilla's original sound design centred around a J-Type console, which was replaced with a Yamah

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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 - Beyerdynamic will feature the Revoluto line array microphone station, at InfoComm 2007. Made for use with the MCS-D 200 conferencing system, the Revoluto provides superior sound reproduction without the use of a gooseneck microphone, says the company.

Utilising patented line array technology, the microphone capsules in the Revoluto create an omnidirectional pattern allowing the speaker to move around without affecting the volume or sound quality. Due to its multi-capsule design, the Revoluto provides additional redundancy with no loss of pickup. In addition, the Revoluto's low-profile design provides a clear view of the speaker.

"What makes the Revoluto a truly unique solution for conference room situations is its line array technology," explains Bob Lowig, beyerdynamic's conferencing & presentation business unit manager. "No longer does a speaker need to

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USA - For celebrities attending the Kentucky Derby, the annual Barnstable Brown Gala, held on the eve of the race, is the party at which to be seen. This year's star-studded event drew the likes of Jenny McCarthy, Cybill Shepherd, Kevin Federline and Peyton Manning. The performers included Kid Rock, Gene Simmons, Jimmy Fallon, Joey Fatone, Nick Lachey, Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels, Michael McDonald, Eddie Money, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, and more.

For the event, a package of lighting from Elation Professional was put together and operated by Sounds Unlimited Productions (SUP) of New Albany, IN.

According to Chris Hughes of SUP, who has handled the event for a number of years, the Barnstable Brown Gala presents a couple of unique lighting challenges. For one, it is held in a 40ft x 90ft tent at the private residence of Patricia Barnstable Brown, who co-hosts the party with her sis

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Denmark - Martin Professional has established a separate business unit - Martin Visual Solutions - and named Lars Dall vice president of the new division.

A long-time Martin employee, Lars Dall who retains his current position as head of Martin's O.E.M. sector, assumed the new responsibility on 1 April 1 this year. His new tasks include implementation of the overall strategy and business plan within Visual Solutions, including staffing and build-up of the new division.

"The potential market for video walls is tremendous and presents a great opportunity for us to grow our business substantially," comments Dall. "We are determined to establish ourselves in this new field with a meaningful market share. In order to do so we will allocate significant resources to Martin Visual Solutions in order to establish the necessary momentum and create the focus needed to ensu

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USA - Symetrix has expanded its facilities and made a number of new appointments.

Trent Wagner has taken up the head of the marketing department and is leading the advertising, dealer/rep communications,public relations, and related activities of Symetrix and its Lucid, AirTools and SymNet brands.

Bruce Yunker is now working as art director; Francesca Grove is the new logistics coordinator; Mike Wall is now product manager. Dallas Dougherty will visit current and potential clientsat points home and abroad, explaining the benefits of Symetrix technology.

Within engineering, Frank Heller is the new senior graphic designer and has already stamped his aesthetic on the Zone Mix 760 software.

Symetrix hired IT guru Wil Bailey to the more formal-sounding position of technical resource manager. Finally, Quy Tang and David Joiner have taken on the respective roles of manufacturing

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UK - Lighting designer Mark Wynn Edwards specified 29 i-Pix Satellite fixtures on the recent Klaxons UK tour. The band - among the most exciting newcomers to the UK scene - completed their first full UK production tour, creating real waves as they blasted around the UK playing completely sold out shows.

Wynn-Edwards had used Satellites before on several TV productions and one-offs that he's worked on as a technician, "I was fully aware of the potential of these fixtures and also how reliable and tough they are," he says, which is essential for a touring environment. He also thought they would be ideal to fulfil a number of different lighting tasks in his design.

He used the Satellites to up-light six vertical A-type trussing towers on the stage - measuring 8, 6 and 4ft high respectively, and arranged in descending order upstage to downstage. One Satellite was tucked

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UK - Spider-Man 3 is alleged to be the most expensive film ever made, with a plethora of jaw-dropping visual effects. Its UK premiere, held on 23 April, saw one of the most ambitious visual accompaniments ever staged in London's Leicester Square: a vast Lighthouse Technologies LED screen system erected outside the cinema to give the invited guests and assembled star spotters a taste of what was to come.

Supplied by Hampshire-based rental company LED Screen Hire, a massive 153sq.m of Lighthouse R16 screen was arranged in a pattern of seven screen 'blocks' totalling 199 panels - one six panels wide by four high (6.09m x 3.04m), one four by eight (4.06m x 6.09), one three by nine (3.04m x 6.85m), two four by four (4.06m x 3.04m) and two six by five (6.09m x 3.81m).

Devised by AD Events, the screens were arranged in an uneven pattern, which was designed to resemble the Manh

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UK - Tigz Productions staged a technically ambitious production of the Queen musical We Will Rock You at the Sundial Theatre in Cirencester, featuring 37 Robe moving heads and Anolis LED lighting.

Tigz' Andy Webb directed and produced the work as well as creating the lighting design. His aim was to make it "very bit as memorable as any West End production in the context of the space and place".

Webb is also technical manager of the Sundial Theatre, and they have invested in Robe moving lights as part of the house rig (Wash 250 XTs and MS Zoom 250 XTs) which have been a great asset and are used in all types of student productions. For We Will Rock You, he boosted the Robe content of the rig by hiring in additional moving lights from Bath-based rental house, Enlightened.

The total Robe count included 12 ColorSpot 575 ATs and eight ColorWash 575 ATs, 10

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UK - Le Mark Group has appointed John Henry's as its new London Stockist for its gloves & accessories range. John Henry's already offers an extensive range of spares, accessories, equipment and instruments, sold from their 5000sq.ft showroom, 'The Pro Shop', at its London premises.

Mark Gibbons, Le Mark Group's business development manager comments, "The Setwear Gloves & Accessories range only started a few years ago with Le Mark. Since the addition of the IronClad range we've noticed a tremendous increase in interest from both end-users and existing distributors. The addition of John Henry's stocking the range is a huge advantage, especially as they are a company already well established within this industry but, most importantly, one that is known as a friendly, fast and reliable supplier."

Paul Cooper, Pro Shop sales manager adds, "Having grown up in an indus

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UK - HSL supplied full lighting production for the Klaxons first incendiary full production UK tour, which sold out in minutes off the back of the band's first album, Myths of The Near Future.

Lighting designer Mark Wynn-Edwards was delighted when HSL won the contract to supply the kit, as he's worked with them on several events and projects in the past, "HSL has really excellent equipment, great crew and the right attitude. I am happy to work with them at every opportunity" he says.

The account was project managed by HSL's Mike Oates, who states "It was hugely exciting working with a band like Klaxons - they have lots of energy and a real future ahead. Mark is also full of original and different ideas and is great fun to work with."

Wynn-Edwards' basic brief was to get away from anything looking too ravey, after which he was left to his own imagin

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UK - Fleetwood Mobiles recorded the recent Roger Waters tour dates in Birmingham and Manchester. The tour's production manager Andrew Zweck, who commissioned Fleetwood Mobiles to record the Manchester M.E.N Arena and Birmingham NEC concerts, says: "We were very happy with the job that Fleetwood did and everything went very smoothly at both concert venues."

The Fleetwood team consisted of Tim Summerhayes, Ollie Nesham and Matt Wood, who worked alongside Waters' long-time friend and producer James Guthrie to capture the audio in 5.1 surround sound. The concerts were also filmed in HD, with Nick Morris as director of photography.

"We recorded the audio in 48k, 96-bit using three RADARs as a 72-track and Pyramix for back-up," Summerhayes explains. "We understand the recording is being used for Roger's personal archive."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Theatrical Lighting Systems (TLS) recently completed the installation of lighting to the exterior of the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) Battle House Tower in Mobile, Ala. The 745 foot building is Alabama's tallest office building, with a three story lobby, four floor hotel, and 25 floors for office space.

Doug Bennett, TLS project manager, worked with Wayne J. Griffin Electric of Holliston, Mass. to provide the lighting fixtures and control for the lighting design by PHA Lighting of Atlanta.

The TLS lighting package comes from Martin Professional and includes: 16 Exterior 1200's, 36 Exterior 600's, and 96 Exterior 200's all controlled by the Maxxyz PC.

The exterior lighting is designed to will enhance the building's architecture as well as add a bold colour-palette to the downtown area during holiday seasons and other cultural activities, such as the annual Mardi

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Russia - Et Cetera Theater is a newly built, six-storey, 8,940 sq.m performing arts facility that opened recently in Moscow. For more than a decade, home for the theatre's troupe was a smaller building on Moscow's Arbat Street. This year marks a new beginning as the troupe takes over the new facility near the city's centre.

Et Cetera has two halls - a main hall with a capacity of 650 and a smaller hall of 150. The Theatre designers wanted to fit out the new halls with the latest in stage technology, including moving lights. They chose ETC's Source Four Revolutions - 48 of them - setting a record for the most Revolutions in a single European venue.

The new automated fixtures have been hung throughout the theatre in order to light every aspect of the stage, doing away with the refocusing work of dozens of conventional luminaires on many positions. Several of the Revolutions are

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UK - When Spanish fashion house Mango wanted to make a serious splash for the launch of its new Prestige Book to London's fashion and general press, its event design company turned to the River Thames for a backdrop, and to the company that knows the river as an event venue better than most - Vertigo.

The presentation of 'Mango in big words' was designed by Elsinor of Spain as a celebrity surprise reveal in which the press, gathered on the Millennium Bridge, would be treated to a sail-by of giant pages from the book.

That was to be followed by a presentation by the celebrity guest - Elizabeth Jagger, the new face of Mango - and speeches at the Old Billingsgate Market in the City of London.

The production brief required technical director Adam Wildi and Vertigo's project team, headed by MD Becky Loughran, to organise and equip suitable vessels to transport the giant pa

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Dubai - Lighthouse Technologies has confirmed that Staging Connections, the event and exhibition services group with its Middle East subsidiary Gearhouse Staging Connections in Dubai, has purchased a total of 200sq.m of its R16i/o-II 16mm indoor/outdoor LED screen for the region. The deal, worth US$5m, was completed at PALME Middle East.

The Staging Connections Group, headquartered in Australia, operates from over 90 locations around the world. The group delivers production, design, staging and venue solutions across a wide spectrum of live events and exhibitions as well as providing venue services.

The purchase decision was made for a variety of reasons, as Gearhouse's managing director, Peter McCann explains: "Gearhouse and the Staging Connections Group have been instrumental in bringing the latest and best technology to the Middle East, introducing high-definition solu

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UK - Following on from the successful launch promotion of the new Artist Series microphone range last year, Audio-Technica is launching a new Artist Series gift with purchase in-store promotion throughout Europe. The promotion capitalises on the success of the Artist Series launch last year, and features an Audio-Technica branded rucksack shipped with all Artist Series microphones from 1 June, says the company.

Commenting on the new promotion, senior UK marketing manager, Harvey Roberts, stated: "With this latest campaign we are continuing to develop a greater in-store presence in MI through the use of strong PoS materials and customer incentives, designed to enhance pavement appeal and draw customers into the store."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Northern Stage Services continue to strengthen its operations and has announced that Keith Hartley has joined the company as technical support manager, heading up a team of three. Hartley has been trained by all the major lighting manufacturers including ETC, Strand Lighting, Zero 88, Avolites, and Martin Professional.

Northern Stage's David Cusworth comments, "Keith joining us is important, as it allows us to improve the support we offer to professional venues in the North of England. Keith is known to many in the business and originally joined the industry at Futurist but joins Northern Stage Services from White Light North."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Liverpool-based Adlib Audio supplied a Nexo Alpha PA and lighting system to the recent Hanson tour. This follows on from Adlib's previous work with the band on their two previous UK tours. Chris Sudall babysat at FOH for the band's engineer Kevin James, while Steve Cole mixed and looked after monitor world.

The PA configuration was ground stacked and consisted of six Nexo Alpha M3 mid/tops, six B1 bass enclosures & four S2 subs a side. For the larger venues they added more M3s for in-fills and out-fills as required, and they also toured and used Adlib FD2 cabinets for in-fills.

The FOH desk was a Yamaha PM5D, on which they fully utilised its onboard effects and processing plus the proprietary Nexo processors. The desk also had enough space on which to fit the opening act.

The system was powered by Crown VZ 5002 amplifiers throughout - which are an Adlib standard when ru

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UK - Brighton-based out post sound has just completed recording of one of the final shows at this year's Great Escape Festival organised by the Barfly Group. The gig, at the Brighton Centre's East Wing and featuring headline sets from The Magic Numbers and Captain, was packed to the rafters with around 700 audience in attendance.

out post utilised one of its fully tour ready Digidesign Pro Tools HD | 2 systems with two fully expanded 192s, one Digidesign PRE, three Audient ASP008 mic pre amplifiers and XTA active mic splits recording up to 26 channels. The company then provided the session data to festival sponsor, London's X-FM, who will be broadcasting the recordings in the near future.

out post, which only started trading at the beginning of the year, worked closely with Jon Mac from The Barfly and Giles Bristow of Austublief Audio to secure the deal. "This is a

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