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USA - Element Labs' Stealth technology took data display to the extreme at X Games 13 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. For the first time in its five-year history, ESPN's X Games moved from static to interactive data display for the BMX and Skateboard 'Big Air' events. Element Labs' Stealth LED video display system was used to show real-time height results, as well as sponsor logos and other full animations.

The modular flexibility of the Stealth panels allowed the construction of a 'huck-o-meter' as a 30ft high cylinder with a 7ft 6" diameter at the top of the 27ft quarter pipe ramp.

The annual X Games is the premier action sports event in the world, featuring athletes from across the globe competing for medals and prize money in the following sports: BMX Freestyle, M

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Eire - The Royal Dublin Society is Ireland's premier venue for meetings, conferences, exhibitions, trade and public shows, entertainment and sporting events. It is also to be the new home for Leinster Rugby Club and to facilitate this RDS has purchased three new grandstands that provide an additional 12,600 seats using Arena Seating's clearview product.

Royal Dublin Society chief executive, Michael Duffy says: "We have to provide the best available for our customers and evaluated several seating systems. Arena's clearview product provides the best sightlines, a comfortable seat and the ability to be reconfigured to suit the many different types of event we stage here at RDS."

Arena's managing director Joe O'Neill says: "We recognised the ever more exacting requirements of event organisers, architects and specifiers and took a 'clean sheet' approach to create a s

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Germany - Cadac Electronics Plc reports that the German cruise ship AIDAdiva recently set sail, complete with a 64 input Cadac R-Type Live Production Console and three D16 Digital Mix Matrices as part of its sound and complex multimedia system. Designed by Hendrik Maassen and Malte Polli-Holstein, the ship's system was supplied and installed by the specialist German systems house, Amptown Sound & Communication (ASC).

The R-Type provides the main FOH mixing facilities in the AIDAdiva's Theatrium, incorporating more than 3000sq.m of central entertainment area and stages over three decks, linked by an impressive open stairway. Comprising a giant glass and steel dome, the Theatrium plays host to up to five different shows a night across a wide range of production styles.

Hendrik Maassen comments: "We needed a highly flexible and capable solution that would deliver a top quali

featured content

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 - Blitz has been commissioned to work alongside sound designer Richard Brooker on the new musical Never Forget which is breaking box office records around the country.

The production, which features the catalogue of music by Take That, premiered in Cardiff last month and will move on to venues in Manchester, Stoke, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Richard Brooker comments: "The Never Forget musical is a production which promises Take That and musical fans a night that they will never forget, therefore the partnership with the technical specialist has to be perfectly aligned with the audiences' incredibly high expectations."

Blitz provided a full range of services for the show from its extensive Cadac mixer stock. Cadac D16s and M16s, provide monitor mixes to an Aviom system for band foldback. A 38-way Sennheiser radio microphone system is utilised, while Bli

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USA - The ZZ Top Hollywood Blues Tour 2007 is using a grandMA and grandMA light to control lighting and video displayed on a big, soft LED drape onstage. The Texas band began their tour in March, will be joined by The Pretenders and The Stray Cats for the summer and then continue solo through October.

"I'm a grandMA guy through and through," says lighting designer/director Christopher Stuba. "The band wasn't really into IMAG but had been wanting to do video. So we bought a Catalyst system a couple of years ago. We're running the soft LED drape with it and using the grandMA through the Catalyst. The grandMA is wonderful and easy to manipulate. Troy Eckerman is our grandMA programmer; we've been working together on and off for 15 years - he's the best there is."

Currently, the grandMA controls an array of moving and conventional light fixtures, includi

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UK - Anyone who pre-registers for PLASA 2007 will be automatically entered into the Harman 'Hot Tickets' daily draw to win tickets to see major superstars in concert at the O2 Arena (the newly completed stadium at the former Millennium Dome) in September.

Harman Pro UK, organisers of the 'Hot Tickets' campaign, will be giving away tickets each day of the show at their stand at the show (D22), to celebrate the recent completion of its installation work at the rebuilt Dome. Among the top acts appearing at the O2 this autumn are The White Stripes and Prince.

Harman played a major role in the design of the PA/VA system in the stadium (and supplied most of the equipment for it), as well as assisting with the design and equipment supply for the sound systems throughout the rest of the reconstructed Dome.

JBL speakers are in evidence in all the public walkways, the 11-screen multip

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USA - The new Antari M-5 Fogger from Elation Professional is a versatile 1,500-watt stage fogger that's designed specifically for stage and touring use, the M-5 Fogger combines heavy-duty, rugged durability with a high-capacity tank and a stage-friendly case design, all in a portable unit that's quick and easy to set up, says the company.

Featuring a low-profile level rectangular case, the M-5 Fogger is designed to lay flat on a stage floor securely and unobtrusively. Two oversized handles allow for easy mobility and positioning. Another feature is its high-capacity 10-litre tank.

"With the M-5, Antari has created a truly one of-a-kind fogger designed uniquely for staging and touring," said Eric Loader, director of sales for Elation Professional. "Now bands, stage shows and touring productions can have all the incredible features of Antari's top-notch fog machin

Details
UK - Clay Paky will launch three small moving body projectors for professional use designed with "the big features of the whole Alpha Series" - the Alpha Spot HPE 300, Alpha Spot 300 effects projectors and the Alpha Wash 300 washlight.

The Alpha Spot HPE 300 is compact, light, silent, easy to install and extremely bright, with superior graphic and optical performances, says the company. It features a wide Zoom, CMY, 8+1 Colour Wheel, 15 gobos (of which eight are rotating), rotating prism, linear frost, smooth frost, 0-100% dimmer on dedicated channel, iris and stop/strobe. It has electronic ballast as standard.

With the same optical, lighting engineering and constructional qualities as the Alpha Spot HPE 300, the Alpha Spot 300 is fitted with two 8+1 colour wheels combinable together, 15 gobos (of which 8 rotate), rotating prism, 0-100% dimmer on dedicated channel an

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UK - The headlines on the Shuttlesound stand at PLASA 07 are all about the 80th anniversary of Electro-Voice. New to the UK is EV's ZxA5 powered speaker, which features an integrated high output, lightweight digital amplifier that produces 1000W LF and 250W HF. Designed for a wide range of applications, the DVX3150 provides lightweight reliability, but with a heavyweight 500W power rating.

Shuttlesound is focussing its high-end product display on compact line array, featuring flown hangs from three different ranges, the XLC, XLD and XLE. The well-established XLC design has recently been given a major boost in the shape of the DVX upgrade, incorporating new EV 12" low-frequency/mid-bass woofers into the XLC127 cabinets, giving greater high-SPL stability and full-bandwidth intelligibility than previously available.

EV's smaller XLD systems are also capable of producing conc

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USA - The fourth of July - American Independence Day - means major celebrations across the USA, no more so than in Boston, Massachusetts where a huge firework display was set to a live soundtrack by the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra.

With up to one million spectators gathered along the banks of the Charles River, visual relays by large screens were needed for the spectators to enjoy the full impact of the event - and Lighthouse HD ready LED screens were deployed.

Since 2003 the celebrations have been televised across the US on the CBS network, the television coverage now dictating the overall appearance of the event. Thus the large format screens placed on both side of the orchestra stage have needed to be high resolution in order to look good on domestic television screens. CBS then decided to broadcast the event in high definition format in 2007, hence a higher resolution

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UK - This year, for the first time, staging specialist Stageco was asked to work on two major concert series in Hyde Park, promoted by Live Nation. The Wireless O2 Festival featured 2007's only UK appearance by the White Stripes, while other headliners included the Kaiser Chiefs, Daft Punk and Faithless. The following weekend, Hyde Park Calling, sponsored by Hard Rock Café, featured Peter Gabriel and Aerosmith on consecutive evenings.

Stageco was specifically asked to improve the event's sightlines for both the audience and television cameras. The company came up with a novel solution. They sited the front of house mixing positions in low profile structures to the left and right of the auditorium, with lighting desk stage right and sound desk stage left.

The stage itself was a Stageco Boogdak roof system, which created a 18.6m x 14m performance area as well as height ab

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UK - Void Acoustics, celebrating its fourth year at Earls Court, will be featuring the new Waveform Series, offering "sweeping curves and ultra modern design for those discerning club owners and consultants wanting to give a venue that extra edge over its competitors in the all too familiar 'Black Box' environment.

The portable line array system Arcline has been designed to take the logistical difficulties away and "provides amazing sound for most venues without having to constantly travel with four plus workers to set up and break down with a mire of cabinets". Designed to be a one-man system to feed 2000+ arenas, but with a price tag that's very cost effective, says the company.

Void Acoustics touring series Stasys has been augmented with the addition of the Stasys X double 18 bass enclosure.

Also on show will be the Kryo and Infinite amplifiers, while the B

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UK - Sound reinforcement specialist Vieta will unveil its proprietary network protocol and software - Vieta-Net - demonstrating its potential with another new product, the Ti Line compact remote-controlled amplifier system.

Designed to DIN rail size and fixing standards, compatible with an extensive range of over-the-counter accessories, these simple devices can connect via IP to Vieta-Net to drive small, medium and large installations, which can be monitored and controlled remotely, says the company - "Fit them in a shop or hotel in London, and manage the installation from a laptop on the beach in Barcelona."

Vieta has also produced new accessories for the established So Line wireless speakers. An adaptor now allows the So Cube to be mounted on any microphone stand, and a new Junior Flightcase/Re-charging station for six units enables the So Line technology to be us

Details
Estonia - The Athena Conference and Incentive Centre in Tartu is undergoing a major renovation programme. Although the renovations are yet to be fully realised, the venue is completely booked up for the next year with cultural event and conference organisers eager to take advantage of the state of the art in-house theatrical lighting, sound and video equipment on offer.

Athena has two theatres. The first holds 275 seated; and if all the seats are removed this increases to a 700-person limit. The second is black-box style seating 150 patrons.

Lighting equipment for both theatres includes over 150 Selecon luminaires including Rama 175 High Performance PCs with Fast Focus Technology yokes, Arena 2kW PCs, white Acclaim Axial 18º -34º Zoomspots, Pacific 12º-28º and 23º-50º Zoomspots with 80V 1200W power systems, Pacific Followspots with 80V 1200W power systems, Acclaim Fresne

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USA - Rental company Sound Image is providing the JBL Vertec live audio system for the current Gwen Stefani world tour, The Sweet Escape. Since kicking off with a successful two months in North America, the tour is now extending to Australia, Asia and Europe. Additional US dates are now being added for November.

Rehearsals for the current world tour began March 17 at Sound Image's worldwide headquarters in San Diego, California. Front-of-house sound engineer Michelle Sabolchik-Pettinat challenged Sound Image to provide a touring system that was adaptable to both medium and large-scale venues, and that would deliver consistent sound in the wide variety of indoor and outdoor buildings where the show would play.

Tour industry veteran Gary Sanguinet is the project's system engineer, and long-time Sound Image employee John Schimke is on board as monitor engineer. Sound Image

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UK - The past 12 months have seen further growth into an increasingly varied selection of projects and markets requesting Kinesys products, says the company. High profile touring artists using Kinesys systems have included Genesis, The Killers, Keane, Snow Patrol, The Arctic Monkeys, Lionel Richie, Kylie and many more. Installations have included the Royal Albert Hall with over one hundred channels of positioning chain hoist control.

Highlighted at PLASA 07 are two newly launched hoist control products - Smart 8 and Sentinel - along with other innovations including Kinesys' K2 control software.

The Smart 8 expands on Kinesys' existing Power 8 product and offers full positioning facilities built into a standard hoist controller. Smart 8 allows fixed speed encoded hoists to be programmed and controlled from a single unit, offering cost savings over the traditional approach of a

Details
UK - Stage Electrics and White Light recently supplied a range of LED lighting, truss, control and sound equipment to what is believed to be the world's first performance powered solely by a fuel cell, which was held at the Arcola Theatre.

The theatre in Dalston, North East London, aims to become carbon neutral following an ambitious seven-year plan known as Arcola Energy. It has installed energy efficient stage lighting, biomass heating, solar panels, fuel cells and state of the art energy saving technologies throughout the building.

The Arcola Energy launch event took place during monsoon type rain and included a performance from Golden Globe winning actress Cathy Tyson, who coincidentally read from The Flood. During the performance Tyson was lit by a range of low-energy LED lights, solely powered by a 5kW PEM fuel cell.

For the launch performance, Stage Electrics s

Details
UK - Out Board will be showing the all new LV-Series Low Voltage Hoist Controllers and DV-Series Direct Hoist Controllers, plus new ergonomic RC handsets and accessories. Features include built-in phase detection and selection, integral E-Stop and linkable Remote Go and E-Stop functions.

LV6 and LV12 controllers are configured in multiples of three channels of control and power mixed on two or four Ceep (Socapex19-style) connectors, to match the widely-adopted standard established by Out Board's former CM Series controllers.

LV8 provides two sets of four-channels of control and power on separate male and female Ceep connectors respectively. New LV4 and DV4 units deliver four-channels each of low voltage or direct control via rear panel C-Form connectors.

Also on show will be the Savant fully-automated PAT and Cable Testing systems with database logging, including single-user

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UK - Risks come in all shapes and sizes in live music and The Event Safety Shop (TESS) had to be prepared for all eventualities when Genesis took a state-of-the-art set on tour this summer.

The event safety specialists were an integral part of the tour planning, working with Genesis's production manager, Wob Roberts, to draw up risk assessments and safety policies. They ensured that tour personnel adhered to the required standards and informed all international promoters of the safety information required by local authorities.

Two TESS safety officers, Jake Piper and Mike Herbert, were attached to the tour. "Although they acted as safety 'police' to a certain extent, they spent most of their time with the crew advising and helping them to work in a safe manner," said TESS director Simon James.

Perhaps the most dramatic off-stage moment of the tour was when lightnin

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Singapore - The first Robe DigitalSpot 5000 DTs in the territory have been supplied to leading Singapore lighting company CSP, which took delivery of four units immediately after the PALME Asia exhibition from Robe SEA.

CSP's MD Kenny Heng says: "We've been closely watching the growing convergence between conventional and digital lighting, and the time is absolutely right for us to invest in this new technology and bring it to Singapore."

CSP works extensively throughout Singapore, Malaysia and other south east Asian countries, traversing several market sectors including live events, TV productions, theatre shows and corporate and industrial presentations.

CSP's Robe hire stock is the largest of any rental company in Singapore, and now includes 56 ColorSpot 1200E ATs and 16 ColorWash 1200E ATs , plus the new DigitalSpot 5000 DTs.

Recent CSP projects using Robe ha

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UK - The R&A has awarded Arena Structures an extension of its existing contract to supply The Open Championship with course structures until 2011. The new contract starts in 2008, following the successful conclusion of the current contract at the 2007 event in Carnoustie this July.

Arena Structures has an impressive track record at UK golfing tournaments and this year alone will have supplied over 500,000sq.m of structures to the major UK golf events, from Wentworth to Loch Lomond to Celtic Manor.

Bespoke structures range from luxurious double decker hospitality suites used by corporate sponsors such as BMW and HSBC and VIP lounges,to more functional spaces such as press centres. Ron Smith, Arena Structure's projects director said: "We are delighted to be able to continue our relationship with The R&A and look forward to offering the highest standard of service at The Ope

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