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UK / Italy - Sennheiser UK has announced that as of 23 July 2007, it is the sole UK distributor for Italian high-end pro audio amplifier manufacturer Powersoft.

Based in Florence, since its formation in 1995 Powersoft has become one of Europe's market leaders in rack-mountable digital amplification, providing products for a huge range of applications from large-scale tours and permanent installations to portable, versatile PA systems. Combined with high quality audio response and a documented history of reliability, the deal is another welcome addition to Sennheiser UK's growing roster of distribution partners, the company says.

"We're delighted to add Powersoft to our portfolio of brands," explained Sennheiser UK general manager, Philip Massey. "Having spoken to

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UK - Allen & Heath's digital iLive system was the mixer of choice for the recent Till the Cows Come Home festival, a small grassroots event which began life as a friends' get together, and has evolved simply through word-of-mouth into one of the UK's fastest-growing small festivals, and a significant date on the UK festival calendar.

Held annually over two days in July on a remote farm near Bedford, more than 30 bands played on the festival's main stage this year. London-based Autograph Sales provided the PA system, which comprised Allen & Heath's digital iDR10 stage rack with iLive-144 control surface managing FOH and monitors, Meyer Sound concert series MSL-4 long throw loudspeakers alongside EM Acoustics MSE118 concert series subwoofers, complemented by the EM Acoustics i12 Ultra Low Frequency subwoofers. On stage monitoring was the EM M-12 monitor system and Meyer Sou

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UK - Paradigm Audio Visual has assisted system integrators Pixel Inspiration in the first phase of a contract to supply Manchester Airport with 79 of the 84" dnp New Wide Angle rear projection displays, in a mixture of 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.

Forming part of the Airport's digital signage upgrade at their check-in desks, the screens were specified by consultant Tom Batey, while Pixel Inspiration carried out the installation of the displays, working in conjunction with Panasonic PT-D3500 single chip DLP projectors.

Since the Airport will not be using the screens as a revenue generator, their choice of concept was based on a combination of high clarity, relatively low capital outlay and predictable cost of ownership (with weight and engineering considerations).

Paradigm AV director Greg Jeffreys comments: "This is proving to be one of our most technically-challeng

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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 - Audio-Technica will be showing "a wealth of new product", including the new Engineered Sound Series installation microphones, the ATH-M50 monitor headphones, the Sabine Phantom Mic Rider DSP microphone management system, and the 1800 Series camera mount wireless microphone system, all of which can be viewed on what is billed as an 'island of serenity', rather than a conventional exhibition stand.

Whilst Audio-Technica is keen for its visitors to come and view its new product, it says it is equally pleased to welcome them onto the stand to escape the stress and frenetic activity of the exhibition halls. The new stand concept Audio-Technica first unveiled at last year's PLASA show, is officially designated a 'serenity zone', offering Japanese massage, health reviving beverages, and a chill out area with ambient music played through ATH-ANC7 noise-cancelling headphon

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UK - Blitz Communications, part of the Blitz Charter Group, and the UK's leading provider of audio-visual equipment and services, has formalised the structure of its new management team under the experienced eye of Paul Hutton, who continues in his role as managing director.

Amongst the new line up is Richard Rogers, who is promoted to operations director; Dave Watchorn also receives recognition for his contribution to the business with promotion to operations manager - assisted by a £150k investment in a new operating system, which will further enhance performance delivery, the company says.

The account handling department, headed by Andy Watterston as senior account director, has been organised into three groups, each supported by a Project Co-ordinator. This will ensure that each client is serviced by a team, rather than just one individual and will lead to enhanced c

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Germany - Sirius Showequipment AG recently provided a live sound reinforcement system for a concert in Rostock, Germany held in protest of the G8 summit. The concert drew an audience of more than 70,000, bringing together a lineup of international artists and political figures to address the issue of poverty around the world.

The two-day concert featured artists including Brigada Flores Magon, Mono und Nikitaman, Patchanka and Chaoze One, as well as several speakers and short films. The PA system included 64 JBL Vertec full-size line array elements, with VT4880 subwoofers arranged in matching arrays directly beside the VT4889 arrays.

"We chose the Vertec line arrays because they are very efficient and able to cover all styles of music during a concert like this," said Wolfgang Neumann of Sirius Showequipment. "Everybody was really happy with the performance of t

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USA - Community Professional has announced the appointment of Chris Barrow to the position of product manager. In his new role, he will be responsible for charting the future course of products at Community.

Barrow comes to the position from his previously held post as manager of new product development, and has long been instrumental in the development of many of Community's most successful products, including the iBOX, the new SONUS and VERIS lines and the redesigned WETSeries II.

"Community's products have always been based on solid engineering designs," says Barrow. "In my new position, I look forward to increasing our focus on solving problems for our customers, and on putting our 30-plus years of experience into creating well-engineered, well-designed and dependable products that our customers want and need."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Schroff has introduced a new version of its popular Minirack 19" cabinet to meet the requirements of users in the audio-visual and broadcast industries. The AVB Minirack is supplied as an open-frame unit to allow quick and easy access to equipment and cabling.

The rack consists of a bolted, die-cast frame with aluminium extrusions, giving it high stability despite its lightweight construction. Recessed 19" mounting cutouts are integrated into the four uprights, and the frame can be disassembled if required.

Suitable for housing amplifiers, equalisers and a variety of other audio and video equipment, the rack has a static load bearing capacity of 200kg and is equipped with integral handle strips on the side panels to facilitate transportation. It can be supplied with adjustable feet, castors or a special mobile plinth.

Available in heights from 6U to 34U and de

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UK - Opening features at London's O2 Arena, included performances from Marley Brothers, Simon Webbe, Mutya Bueno and Jason Donovan on the London Piazza, one of the vast new public spaces inside the O2 complex that has been built specifically to stage innovative public events in areas that are always free to access. Star Events Group (SEGL) provided a complete package of stage, PA, lights and barriers for the event.

"We had a very tight timescale," explains Martin Green from AEG, owner and operator of The O2. "We were staging this series of events as part of the very high profile opening of The 02 in what is essentially a new building. Not only that, but it was organised in a matter of weeks, so we needed a fast, quality response and a very reactive one as we came to know our new venue more."

"As a result of the merger of SEGL and SRC, the group now has

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UK - For the touring production of Torvill & Dean's Dancing on Ice Live, production company Sonalyst's Rory Madden provided a sound system based on Meyer Sound self-powered MIica compact and M'elodie curvilinear array loudspeakers.

Madden customised the design to suit each arena's specifications, but based them all on line arrays incorporating 40 Mica cabinets, 18 M'elodie units, three UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers, and four groundstacked 600-HP subwoofers. Madden's original plans called for additional UPA-1P loudspeakers and 600-HP subs, but he ultimately didn't need them "because the Mica goes down so low," he said.

The presence of a large, reflective ice floor presented a dilemma in venues that weren't designed for entertainment on ice. "Many of the arenas weren't made for ice skating, unlike the hockey arenas we usually use," says Mad

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UK - Chauvet continues its steady foray into the touring industry with a strong presence at this summer's Ozzfest. The manufacturer lights the Jägermeister's Mobile Stage, a self-contained portable stage, which premiered in July as the secondary stage for the heavy metal festival.

When not in use, the unit appears to be just another huge 34ft trailer, but at the push of a button, it unfolds Transformers-style to reveal a professional stage. The complete sound and lighting rig is set up in minutes. Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil observed: "The stage is an awesome portable stage with top notch sound and lights. I look forward to playing on it again."

All power for the stage comes from a built-in generator, and with a sound system designed for an audience of 10,000, power constraints were a prime consideration when the lighting system was planned. Designers found a solutio

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Australia - For Keith Urban's homecoming arena dates promoting his latest album, Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing, Norwest Productions, who recently purchased Adamson Y18s, Y10s, SpekTrix, SpekTrix Waves, M15s and T-21 Subs, put an Adamson arena system together for the tour.

The system comprised 56 Adamson Y10 line source array boxes, eight Adamson SpekTrix boxes and eight Adamson T-21 Subwoofers. The system was powered by LabGruppen fp6400s and processed using Dolby Lake processors controlled from a tablet PC using a Cisco wireless network.

Keith Urban's audio crew includes front-of-house engineer Steve Law, who has been mixing Urban for years, monitor engineer Jason Spence, FOH system engineer Joe Keiser, and monitor technician Bill Flugan. Norwest's audio crew was made up of senior system engineers Jason Norman and Matthew Ling.

(Jim Evans)

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South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa has launched a new company that will provide a complete power distribution service for the Live Events industry. Gearhouse Power operates between Cape Town and Johannesburg as a separate business unit within the Gearhouse group.

Gearhouse Power is headed by Antony Sackstein, who initially worked for Gearhouse managing director Ofer Lapid as a freelance lighting technician at Lighting Unlimited in 1992, moving to a permanent position in the company in 1995.

The new company is able to offer clients a comprehensive range of power generators with a range of 300, 200 and 100 KVA generators on hand.

All generators have their own trailers so each may be used as a separate unit for individual events. All of the machines can be integrated and they are all cam-locked and power locked, which reduces the set-up time required on site, a great advanta

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Europe - Integrated Systems Events, organiser of Integrated Systems Europe, Integrated Systems Russia and the Integrated Systems Roadshow, has announced five new appointments to strengthen its team as its activities continue to broaden.

ISE is appointing three new members to its Board of Directors - Timothy Penn, managing director of AMX UK; Matt Teevan, international director of Da-Lite Screen Company; and Thierry Ollivier, sales manager of projectiondesign. The trio replace A C Ter Meulen, president of Mitsubishi Europe Benelux; Susanne Seidel, vice-president, Sennheiser, and John Forney, vice-president, Lutron, who have all just completed their terms of office.

Additionally, Ian Morrish has joined ISE as sales manager responsible for the UK, Benelux, Scandinavia and Latvia, as well as the residential sector of the US market. Morrish comes to ISE after spending eight years w

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Italy - Di and Di Lighting & Truck of Rome, one of Italy's largest rental companies for entertainment lighting gear, has established itself as a key supplier to Italy's well developed television market.

With a recent purchase of Martin moving head and LED lighting gear, Di and Di has now expanded into other rental areas such as the touring market. "With the recent purchase of Martin moving heads and LED lighting gear, Di and Di is a new reality in dry rental for the international market," comments Di and Di head David Biancifiori.

Di and Di has expanded its stock of lighting equipment through the purchase of a large, two million euro Martin lighting package. Added to its existing stock are 100 MAC 700 Profiles, 50 MAC 700 Washes, 100 MAC TW1 tungsten washlights, 50 MAC 2000 Washes, 50 Stagebar 54L and 50 Stagebar 54S LED luminaires and 50 LC 2140 LED panels.

Among

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Russia - On 18 July at the Luzhniki sports arena, Metallica completed the European leg of their Sick Of The Studio 2007 tour. More than 60 000 people came to the stadium to see the band who last played there in 1991.

The stage for the show was designed and built by JSA - the recognised Russian leader in this field. "We are very happy with the interaction with JSA and we hope for successful continuation of this cooperation in the future," said a spokesman for the band.

Last year, the Russian company built a stage and provided production-functions at a Metallica concert in Estonia with 80.000 spectators.

"We have been involved in this business for more than 10 years now," says JSA president Alexander Strizhak. "We have built up a growing client list and service many of the major touring productions that come to Russia."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The history of the Vishwa Hindu Kendra Temple in London dates back to March 1978 when is was inaugurated by Swami Satyamitrananda and is renowned for the presentation of its sacred images.

The external appearance of the Kendra reflects the design of many temples in India, including a portico with niches which house a popular Hindu image of welcome in the form of Lakshmi, and also Siva as Nataraja, Lord of the Dance.

The new building extension to the temple in Southall opened in April 2007 with a sound system installation in the main function room by Electracoustic. The function room will be used for community and religious events, weddings and meetings but also includes DJ and small live band facilities.

Powered by MC2 Audio T Series amplifiers and controlled by the Biamp Nexia, the system is designed to blend sympathetically with the stylish building interior to the ex

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USA - The new World of Coca-Cola, the $100 million Coke museum which opened at a new site in Atlanta, features a 30ft tall replica of Coke's famous contour bottle which is encased in a 90ft, ice-like glass cylinder suspended above the lobby entrance, with lighting control via a grandMA.

Lighting designers Michael Creason and Seth Rapaport of Visionary Light & Media in Montverde, Florida, were charged with illuminating the iconic bottle and creating lighting effects for the attention-getting signage. Within the bottle are 216 Color Kinetics ColorCast 14 fixtures, 10 Flutes, 96 Birkett Strobes and one Coemar PAR. Each six-foot high level of two-ply glass panels forming the glass cylinder, which goes from opaque to translucent to give the illusion of ice, is outfitted with 104 x Color Kinetics Color Blast 12s.

"The client came to us with the fixtures already specified and pu

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UK - St George's Metropolitan Cathedral in Southwark, London, has recently made a substantial investment in an extensive new sound reinforcement system, which includes a portable 16-channel Cadac S-Type console.

Designed by Mark Hornsby for Paul Gillieron Acoustic Design, and installed by Orbital Sound, the system is designed to handle the Cathedral's wide variety of events and congregation sizes, forming part of a major £500,000 refurbishment. Key requirements for the sound reinforcement system included scalability and ease of use, incorporating discrete speaker positioning around the Cathedral, and a flexible, mobile mixer.

The Cathedral is the mother church for the Roman Catholic diocese of Southwark, and regularly holds congregations of up to 2000. Designed by the Victorian architect Pugin, the original building opened in 1848 but was destroyed during the Blitz and r

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World - Bandit Lites is working with Keith Urban on his current tour in support of the Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy World album. The tour takes in Canada, the US, Europe and Australia.

Production designer Marc Brickman chose to use six Lycian M2 under hung truss spots, 52 Vari*Lite 3500 spots, 37 VL 3000 washes, seven VL 3000 spots and 36 Martin Atomic Strobes with Atomic Colors.

Additionally, Brickman puts great emphasis on smoke machine styles and effects as well as placement to enhance the show's looks. Specifically, the Martin ZR33 smoke machines provide an added effect by bering hung up in the upstage truss.

The most substantial element in the production design is a 29ft tall by 56ft wide LED display from Barco.

(Jim Evans)

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South Africa - Robe lighting fixtures are used extensively on the live SABC2 TV broadcast of the South African version of Strictly Come Dancing.

The show is staged at the iconic Carlton Hotel in downtown Johannesburg. The 119m high building with its distinct bell-bottomed base has been mothballed since 1997. Once a week, its deserted but still highly atmospheric ballroom is reinvented beyond its former glory days.

The essential lighting requirement for the series was to make the dancefloor into 'an ocean of gobos'. Working with original LD Hugh Turner, rental company Gearhouse SA achieved this with a little Robe power - buying the fixtures off Robe SA's distributor DWR Distribution for the show.

Production company Rapid Blue have required the same spec for the last three seasons, explains lighting director Sean Rosig from Gearhouse SA, who programmes and runs each epi

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