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USA - Rental company Sound Image provided the live sound system for the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago. The show was staged on 28 July at Toyota Park, Chicago's newest outdoor concert facility that can accommodate up to 28,000 concertgoers.

First staged in 2004, the Crossroads Guitar Festival was created by Eric Clapton to bring together musicians of all genres. In addition to Clapton, featured artists at the all-day show included Jeff Beck, Sheryl Crow, Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughn, BB King, Albert Lee, Stevie Winwood, John Mayer and many more.

"This was a once in a lifetime musical experience," observed Dave Shadoan, president of Sound Image. "The amount of musical talent that was pulled together in one place, on one stage, for 11 hours of live music, had t

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Italy - Vasco Rossi is one of Italy's most popular singers and his live concerts are the biggest events of the Italian summer. The first part of his tour took in a number of major Italian stadiums and ended on 14 July. All the shows, each of which attracted almost 100,000 people, have been sold out for months. The second part of the tour will continue in September, starting on the 7th in Cosenza. The conclusion of the tour is scheduled for 26 September in Udine.

RCF played a leading role in this, the most important summer concert shows in Italy. Diego Spagnoli, tour and stage manager of Vasco Rossi, and his technicians chose to use the TT+ High Definition Touring and Theatre products for the stage monitoring of the Vasco Live 2007.

RCF's TTSM25-A stage monitors have been used mostly on the two 22m long fly bridges in the front part of the stage. In these areas, where the audie

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Falkland Islands - FiberPlex reports that its LightViper audio transport system was recently utilised by BBC Television on the Falkland Islands last month to capture and link live pictures and sound for a Remembrance Service which commemorated the 25th Anniversary of the British/Argentinian armed conflict.

Live coverage from the Falkland's service, attended by veterans and currently-serving British soldiers, was sent via satellite and simultaneously fed into live coverage of a corollary service taking place at the Horse Guards venue in London's Whitehall.

For the BBC's senior sound supervisor, Tim Davies, there were a number of important considerations since the crew would be working in arduous conditions with limited electricity supply. High on his list were reducing freight costs and equipment reliability.

As the hub for his signal chain, Davies chose a FiberPlex LightVipe

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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 - City Theatrical has purchased the assets of San Diego-based Candle Lite Unlimited. City Theatrical has been the exclusive distributor of Candle Lite Unlimited brand electronic flicker candles since 1996. Candle Lite Unlimited flicker candles are used everywhere in live entertainment including Broadway shows, tours, theme parks, and museums around the world.

Gary Fails, City Theatrical's president, said: "I first used Dave Johnson's candles when I was a Broadway electrician. Dave was making them and selling them himself and I called him then and we worked out an agreement for CTI to be the exclusive distributor of his candle products. This sale allows CTI to take over the manufacturing processes and to make improvements in the technology, such as LED based candles, to allow these product lines to grow both now and in the future.

Dave Johnson commented: "I was lo

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UK - With PLASA07 exhibitor space almost completely sold out, PLASA Events is anticipating record exhibitor and visitor numbers at the new-look show at Earls Court 1 and 2 on September 9th-12th.The first event to be organised by PLASA's new events division, PLASA07 will occupy two halls of Earls Court for the first time, and will offer a wide range of new features (many designed in response to visitor research) to make mixing business with pleasure more enjoyable and productive than ever.

New products will be the true stars of the show, with the industry's leading manufacturers already confirming that they will use PLASA07 as the launchpad for their latest technologies, including new developments in lighting, analogue and digital audio, video, special effects, staging and rigging products.

The show's new single-floor layout - which gives the show plenty of room for future grow

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UK - 5 Star Cases will show a wide variety of its specialist and 'standard' cases and products at PLASA 2007 including the industry standard 'Touring' grade range. Centre-stage will be 'Robo-Jock', a unique fully-featured special project which demonstrates 5 Star's custom concept, design and build capabilities. This is a collaboration with two other leading UK companies, ABB - a world leader in industrial robotics and automation - and club specialists Pioneer GB.

At the heart of 'Robo-Jock' is an ABB IRB140 six-axis robot which operates a complete video console featuring Pioneer DVJ players and DJM mixer. 5 Star designed and built the entire 'Super Tour' case in which Robo-Jock operates, featuring all-round vision panels and a CNC-machined 'Inner Pod' to house the Pioneer equipment.

The Pod also includes 10" TFT monitors and a full audio system. Engineers at ABB programme

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UK - HSL Group Holdings is highlighting its diverse range of products and services at the show, plus the team's indomitable abilities to run a superlative bar and social area. This will be located just behind the Robe Show Lighting stand. The HSL bar is designed to be lively, interactive and fun, paying homage to the massive amount of industry business that gets processed and finalised "over a couple of drinks".

One of the fastest growing lighting and rigging rental companies in the UK, HSL services a host of entertainment sectors including theatre, live events, concert tours, festivals, television productions, corporate presentations and special events of all types. The last 12 months has seen an increase in activity in every market sector for HSL, the company reports.

HSL has large stocks of all the latest lighting technology - including moving lights, LED light so

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UK - Summit Steel has been appointed as the official in-house rigger for London's newest and highest profile arena, The O2. The Kent-based company reports that it tendered and won this highly valued contract, beating some serious competition. The company says its safety conscious and service orientated pitch impressed The O2, where Summit will be working alongside senior event technical manager, Q Willis and management company AEG.

Summit has already taken on Kate Smith as a dedicated administrator for all the O2 business, and will shortly announce the appointment of a new project manager. Summit's Jon Bray comments, "Obviously we're delighted with this result and appreciate all the hard teamwork that's gone into achieving it. We look forward to working with a venue of this calibre."

Summit will be responsible for the provision of all rigging services within the O2.

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UK - Sir Paul McCartney usually tours with one of the most spectacular and theatrical shows on the planet, so when Sir Paul performed a small, secret show in London to launch his new album, Memory almost full, he wanted a show with an intimate feel, but not lacking the dramatic lighting his fans were accustomed to.

He turned to Paul Normandale for the lighting design, who put together a show that was both visually engaging for the lucky fans gathered at the Electric Ballroom in London, while also camera friendly - as the show was broadcast to various American TV channels that night.

Normandale said: "We had very limited stage space and power, so I had to come up with a practical plot to give the audience a feeling of just turning up to a small pub or club show. This was of course then filmed for American TV links which were mixed, edited and despatched overnight. I

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USA - Just three years after building and moving into its 250,000 sq.ft headquarters facility in Middleton, Wisconsin, ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.) is expanding again. The international entertainment- and architectural-lighting manufacturer is adding an estimated 78,000sq.ft to the factory portion of the building, on its southern quadrant. An initial estimate of the project budget is $9 million. The groundbreaking is scheduled to take place in mid October.

According to Kobi Danke, building-project manager, the new footage will give ETC more manufacturing and warehousing space: "We continue to introduce new products requiring greater assembly space. We also recently brought surface-mount technology in house to manufacture our own PCB/circuit board technology, which required spatial adjustments. And we anticipate further increases in production to meet rising order

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UK - DPL Production Lighting used Chroma-Q Color Web 125 and a Hippotizer media server to provide a high resolution visual effects backdrop for the Jazz World Stage at this year's Glastonbury Festival.

DPL is one of the first UK production companies to purchase the new 125mm version of the popular LED webbing system and has used it on a number of events since adding the panels to its rental stock. The company provides its production and lighting design services to a broad client base which includes the architectural lighting, concert, fashion, multi-media and corporate events sectors.

Owner Darren Parker comments, "I was amazed that I could still see the Color Web in daylight after walking about 175m away from it, so knew it would be ideal for the all-day lineup on the stage."

Featuring 64 colour mixing LED cells with a pitch of 125mm for double the resolution per

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China - Prolight&Sound Shanghai takes place from 17-20 October 2007 at the New International Expo Centre in Shanghai and will feature over 140 exhibitors from 10 countries, covering 20,000sqm in two halls, the organizers report.

Prolight&Sound Shanghai has grown considerably since its debut in 2003, attracting key light and sound professionals from every sector of the entertainment and display industry each year. In 2006, over 12,000 visitors from 80 countries came to the fair.

For 2007 the event will be twice as big as before. Amongst the confirmed exhibitors for the fair are Active Audio, Allen & Heath, AT Laser, Neo-Neon, PHD, PAS, Sennheiser, Shure, SoundKing, Terbly Lighting, Triple Onda, and Wharfedale.

Exhibitors from Australia, China, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain and the UK are all confirmed, plus large national pavilions from Germany and Taiwan.

A

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Portugal The Benfica Stadium staged the official Declaration Ceremony of the contest to find the modern Seven Wonders of the World, with help from Stage One's automation control system, Q-Motion.

Stage One's technical director Jim Tinsley comments, "We had just three weeks to install 35 axes of aeriel automation, but are very proud of the fact that Q-Motion has advanced to a point whereby we could deliver the show requirements within such a tight timescale and with few problems."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Nexxus Lighting has entered into an agreement pursuant to which Advanced Lighting Systems (ALS) would be merged into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nexxus Lighting. The consummation of the transaction is subject to certain closing contingencies, including the delivery by ALS of audited financial statements.

Under the terms of the agreement, the sole shareholder of ALS would receive cash consideration of approximately $1.1 million, 260,000 shares of Nexxus Lighting's Common Stock, and based upon certain future earn-out formulations, up to an aggregate of approximately 425,000 additional shares of Nexxus Lighting's Common Stock.

Paul Streitz, the president and sole shareholder of ALS, is expected to remain as president of the new, wholly-owned Nexxus Lighting subsidiary.

"We believe that Advanced Lighting Systems has significant opportunities for growth," stated

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USA - Over 100,000 people made their way to Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville last month for the annual July 4th fireworks show. Ranked amongst the 'Top 10 Independence Day Celebrations' in the country, the party at Riverfront Park included a day filled with entertainment and family fun and an evening fireworks display.

Sponsored by GAC, this year's music included pre-show live music from The Dirt Drifters, Dead Country, Chris Janson and Jeffrey Steele. Keni Thomas performed the National Anthem before a two-hour live show that featured Rodney Atkins, Van Zant and Taylor Swift, joined by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Lighting designer Mark Carver chose to use ETC Source Fours, Gladiator 3k Followspots, Martin MAC 500s, 600s and 2000 washes, and Vari*Lite 3000 spots to light the show. Equipment was controlled by two Wholehog IIs and wings.

Carver said the surrounding s

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UK - The Barbican Concert Hall, the 2,000 seat concert hall at the Barbican Arts Centre in London, was recently equipped with one grandMA full-size, two MA NSPs and one MA mediaPC with the software grandMA video installed.

"With the MA system we got the flexibility we need. We have large range of productions here from bands which we 'busk' to opera where we use a more theatrical programming style. We are using LEDs and video a lot more. With the grandMA video and the MA mediaPC we are able to control these with the lighting desk," explains deputy technical manager Ingo Rheinhardt his choice of the grandMA system. Besides others the lighting rig consists of 16 Martin Mac 700, 24 Martin TW1 and 18 ADB Warps.

The Barbican Arts Centre, which recently celebrated its 25th birthday, is Europe's largest multi-arts and conference venue, presenting a year-round programme of ar

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UK - M-Audio has announced shipment of its EX Series EX66 digital high-definition studio reference monitors. Sold individually, the monitors easily integrate into both 2-channel and multi-channel environments, say the company.

The M-Audio EX66 uses a midwoofer-tweeter-midwoofer (MTM) vertical array configuration to provide optimal imaging. Traditional 2-way speaker designs can cause significant early reflections from consoles, floors and ceilings, resulting in coloration and smeared details in the audio. In the M-Audio EX66 monitor's MTM design, the interaction of the two large drivers with the tweeter channels the sound into a much narrower vertical band, thereby eliminating many of these reflection problems, say M-Audio.

The M-Audio EX66 monitor uses two separate 100W continuous power amplifiers to drive the 4-ohm woofer combination and 4-ohm tweeter separately in an audioph

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USA - As part of its ongoing effort to strengthen business operations, Theatre Projects US has announced the appointment of Karen Ruta as business manager. Ruta brings with her extensive experience in business and financial management, having held the positions of business manager and CFO for several businesses in Connecticut including a sports marketing company, a professional photography studio, and a media buying company. Ruta's addition to the company provides Theatre Projects with the business expertise to help manage the continued growth of the company.

Ruta will assume the administrative responsibilities of the general manager, and Gene Leitermann, who has assumed that role for the past four years, will relinquish the title. Leitermann will remain Director of Business Development and will continue to serve on the management team in that capacity. He is also a senior proje

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Germany - Superband Toto played on an Alcons Audio-based sound system while visiting Germany on their European Falling In Between 2007 tour, promoting the album of the same name.

For the gig in Bremerhafen, Herbert Heinze of Blue Sound Veranstaltungstechnik designed a sound system based on Alcons pro-ribbon line-arrays. The system consisted of LR16s (main left/right), LR16Bs (bass left/right) and LR14s, powered and controlled by ALC. Overall system control was taken care of by a Dolby Lake processor.

Toto's engineer Jon Ostrin observed: "The Alcons pro-ribbon line-array is a great system: I love it."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The UK managing director of Showsec, Mark Harding, was elected chair of the UK Crowd Management Association (UKCMA) at its AGM earlier this year. Following the appointment, Harding has drawn up a series of priorities that he believes the crowd management industry needs to address.

"I am looking forward to taking the UKCMA to its next phase," he says. "A key part of my role will be to encourage all reputable crowd management companies to join the UKCMA and adopt its best practices. By doing so they will be signing up to a professional standard recognised by and beyond the event industry.

"It is important for key member companies such as Safestyle, Special Events, Show and Event Security and Rocksteady to continue to set the standards in a unified approach."

He continues: "With the Olympic Games approaching in 2012 we must ensure that the UK'

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UK - Richard Martin Lighting in Park Royal, London, has invested further in the Clay Paky Alpha range of moving head luminaires.

The company has taken stock of Alpha Spot HPE 575s, Alpha Wash 575s and Alpha Wash 1200s adding to an already large and varied stock of moving and LED lights.

(Jim Evans)

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