UK - Community Professional Loudspeakers is exhibiting at PLASA 07 with UK distributor CUK Audio. On display will be an extensive selection from the recently introduced iBOX and VERIS installation loudspeakers, the all-weather R-Series and WET Series ll, CLOUD ceiling and I/O indoor/outdoor loudspeakers and, for professional musicians and portable applications, the new SONUS Series.

New at PLASA is an addition to the iBOX Series. The Community i2W8 is a two-way, full-range loudspeaker system designed to provide high quality music and voice reproduction in applications requiring smooth, ultra-wide, horizontal coverage. It provides an uncompromised musical system in a compact, attractive package, says the company.

Designed for use in distributed systems and for fill, the loudspeak

UK - HSL is once again supplying C Venues with lighting equipment for its seven main venues - incorporating 17 theatre spaces - at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

C Venues is presenting over 200 shows performed by 140 companies from all over the world across the three-week festival period.

HSL's Mike Oates project managed, working closely with C Venues' production manager Julie Rawlins. The supply has included over 350 lighting fixtures, desks, dimmers and several kilometres of cable.

It's the third year running that HSL has supplied C Venues at Edinburgh. Mike Oates says: "We're really pleased to be involved with C-Venues and the Fringe again. HSL has a history of working with all types of theatre shows, and it's great to support all the energy and enthusiasm - not to mention some cutting-edge performances - of the Fringe."

Each C Venues space has a 'standar

UK - Every inch of Trafalgar Square was taken up for the first-ever open-air Pakistan Festival, staged to mark 60 years of Pakistan's independence. Designed to show off Pakistan's rich heritage, and vibrant diverse culture, the free show in the centre of London was based around a large stage, complete with Electro-Voice XLD compact line array.

Some of the country's best-known stars were flown over from Pakistan, their performances broadcast live back to Asia via satellite link. Musical genres included pop, bhangra and folk music; top names included Abrar-ul-Haq, Hadiqa Kiyani, Ali Zafar and Jawad Ahmed.

For the 10,000-strong audience, London-based PA rental company Systems Etc provided an impressively small sound system, the new EV XLD compact line array, which delivered coverage throughout the huge square with just eight boxes per side (six XLD281 plus two XLC215 subs). Power

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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

USA - Hard Rock Park, billed as the world's first rock 'n' roll theme park, has broken ground as the first new major attraction to be built in the United States in nearly a decade. Slated to open in Myrtle Beach in May 2008, Hard Rock Park will celebrate the spirit of rock 'n' roll through "a myriad of unprecedented rides and attractions", marking the single largest tourism investment in South Carolina's history, say the developers.

GearSource's sales team worked with lighting designer, Bob Shultz and Hard Rock staff to provide the package they needed, This includes 20 Studio Color 575, 26 Studio Spot 575, Wybron Scrollers, ETC Source 4's and a Hog iPC and began shipping within days of receiving the final order from Hard Rock.

This new package will be used in a venue called the Ice House Theatre which features a country music themed ice show on a 50' x 50' real ice s

USA - Elation Professional has introduced the Design Spot 575E, a larger 575-watt version of its popular Design Spot 250 "hybrid" effect, which functions as both a spotlight and a colour wash.

Like its more compact cousin, the Design Spot 575E is a professional-quality moving-head fixture that offers both Frost and Iris capabilities in one unit. The Frost feature is what allows it to function as a hybrid, taking away the hard edges of a spotlight and converting it to a wash-type fixture. The Frost is variable type, so users can control how much edge is taken away, from hard edge to soft to no spotlight edge whatsoever. The Iris allows users to pinpoint performers at any distance and is also capable of creating an eye-popping pulse effect.

Now in its brawnier 575W version, the 24-channel Design Spot 575E is designed for stage productions, churches, theatres, concert h

Iceland - The recent concert-stage event in Iceland's capitol city of Reykjavik, commemorating the country's National Day, drew thousands of enthusiastic live-music fans. The nationwide holiday celebration marked the anniversary of Iceland's independence from Denmark in 1944.

The concert was staged at Arnarholl, an outdoor performance venue in downtown Reykjavik. Artists on the bill included Mezzoforte, Lay Low, Ampop, Steed Lord, Benni Heem Heem and Shogun. All sound, lights and staging including the rental audio system, were deployed by Hljodx.

The package included 16 Vertec VT4888 mid-size line array elements with an array of eight on each side of the stage, powered by Crown I-Tech 8000 and 6000 amplifiers and relying upon a dbx 4800 DriveRack loudspeaker management system.

Remote control and monitoring of the system was achieved with Harman's HiQnet System Architect soft

France - Jean Louis Pernette, managing director of Avab Transtechnik France, has been connected with the Avignon Festival for the past 25 years, and each year the amount of technology involved increases.

The festival, which has been running for over 60 years and runs throughout the whole of July, showcases French and foreign contemporary drama as well as dance creations. In addition to the official festival venues, some 900 performances by 300 troupes are held as part of the fringe festival.

The centre of the festival, as far as Pernette is concerned, is the Cour d'Honneur (Courtyard of Honour) at the historic Palais des Papes - the Palace of the Popes which has walls up to 5.5m thick, which explains why it is in such a good state of repair - it was virtually impregnable to attack. It also explains why one of the pieces of technology which lighting director Philippe Catalano c

UK - The latest additions to the Turbosound TA-500 family of professional point source loudspeakers are the TA-500t and TA-500tDP touring enclosures. These two new products are aimed specifically at regional, national and theatre touring applications, taking advantage of a fully integrated rigging system.

Aspect system flybars are designed to offer both simplicity and flexibility, being available in 2-wide and 3-wide fixed angle configurations. They are designed with reference to international safety standards such as BGV C1, BS7905:2001, BS70906:2005, LOLER and ESTA, with a safety factor of 12:1.

The new additions bring the TA-500 Aspect Wide series up to a total of seven self-powered and bi-amped/tri-amped products, providing a spread of practical solutions for both flown and ground stacked touring, down-fill and in-fill use, as well as for fixed installations, while the TA-

UK - Theatre sound specialists Orbital Sound will exhibit at PLASA for the first time. With a big cat theme Orbital's stand will feature a number of new products.

Making it's UK debut is RockNet, billed as an advanced and fully scaleable, cost-effective network solution conceived and optimised for managing audio and control data for live sound. RockNet also features a plug-in card for Yamaha's M7CL, creating a fully integrated Cat 5-based multicore solution for this popular console.

As a d&b audiotechnik official sales and installation partner, Orbital's staff will be on hand to discuss its latest d&b installations and demonstrate the company's latest Remote Network Software solutions.

The latest digital mixing consoles from Yamaha and Digidesign will be showcased as will a host of wireless radio comms solutions from both HME and Telex. Also on display will be RTS Telex's ra

UK - Mixer manufacturer Allen & Heath, has appointed Sanecore as its new distributor in China, including Hong Kong and Macau. The company will manage the sales, distribution and service of the complete Allen & Heath product line from its HQ in Hong Kong, and regional offices in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xi'an.

"For our new distribution arrangement in China we were looking for a company that was solidly established on the mainland, with young, motivated sales, marketing and technical staff, plus an organisation with the financial resources to bring A&H to prominence in the growing Hong Kong and Macau region," comments Allen & Heath's Asia regional sales manager, Bardy Hayes. "In Sanecore, these criteria were not just met but exceeded, and we are very proud to be in partnership with the Chang brothers, Michael and Bernard, and their team."

Sane

UK - Following a significant expansion into mainland Europe, Presteigne Broadcast Hire is taking this year's IBC in Amsterdam as the opportunity for its clients, both existing and potential, to meet the Presteigne team and learn a little more about its services, says the company.

"Over the last year or so, Presteigne has made a number of significant acquisitions, as well as taking the decision to open offices in The Netherlands and Germany," says managing director Mike Ransome. "This means we can service the Northern and Central regions of Europe on a more local level, which benefits our customers.

"We have invested heavily in equipment and have the latest in HD and SD camera equipment, VTRs, EVS hard disk recorders, lenses, RF links and de-rig systems available. We also took the decision last year to launch a broadcast audio rental division. We invested ov

USA - In a high-profile tropical event, sound reinforcement company Rent-A-Amp recently provided the live audio system for the Plymouth Jazz Festival, held on the Caribbean island of Tobago. The three-day festival featured numerous world-class acts, including Elton John, Al Green, Earth Wind & Fire, Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J and Diana Ross.

Now in its third year, the Plymouth Jazz Festival brings together legendary performers from around the globe for a unique concert setting. The Festival grounds are located on the coast of Tobago, with the island paradise providing a scenic backdrop to accompany the talent on stage. With a 5,000-person audience extending to 300ft from the stage, providing even coverage with high fidelity throughout the seating area was a significant challenge.

To overcome these obstacles, Rent-A-Amp deployed a JBL Vertec system with 16 VT4889 large-format lin

UK - Riedel Communications has added several new products to its Performer digital partyline intercom series. The world's first digital partyline intercom system featuring high-quality digital audio now provides two and four-channel master stations, rack-mount, wall-mount and desktop speaker stations, call light indicators and two-channel beltpack headset stations.

The new Performer master stations CR-4 (4-channel) and CR-2 (2-channel) are designed for setting up a stand-alone digital partyline system. Depending on the setup, the integrated power supply of the 19"/1RU device can power up to 32 Performer devices - such as beltpacks, split-boxes or desktop speaker stations - per line. Additional power-supplies expand the possibilities.

The remote mic-kill function allows the user to silence any open microphone on the intercom channels. The CR-4/CR-2 features an additional p

UK - APB Dynasonics will be exhibiting at PLASA this year on the stand of its newly appointed UK and Eire distributor - Resolution Distribution (part of KV2Audio in the UK).

APB DynaSonics is an audio manufacturing company based in Totowa, New Jersey with the mission to design and build high performance analogue live performance mixing consoles offering superior sound quality in fixed and touring applications.

Chuck Augustowski, John Petrucelli and Taz Bhogal, leading audio designers with over 65 years of combined experience, founded APB in 2004 to bring analogue consoles to the next generation of development. Their expertise has produced innovative products such as the Spectra-C and Spectra-T consoles, and MixSwitch, all designed and manufactured in the United States.

On the stand will be the Spectra-Ti, a high performance analogue VCA console available with 24, 32, 40, 48

USA - D-Tools has announced the 5th annual D-Tools Design Awards call for entries. The 2007 D-Tools Design Awards showcase "the finest residential and commercial system integration projects created with the newest version of D-Tools' award-winning System Integrator software". Winners will be announced at this year's D-Tools University (DTU) in November.

Winning projects will be selected from the following categories for this year's Design Awards: Best Residential System, Best Commercial System, Most Unique System (residential or commercial), and Best Overall System.

Winners in each category will receive an attractive award for display in their office and a copy of D-Tools System Integrator 5 Standard as well as significant prizes supplied by D-Tools Manufacturer Vantage Point (MVP) members. All entrants will receive recognition for their submissions with a prize pack

UK - Beyerdynamic will be taking part in the PLASA 07 four day DJ programmes. The company will be presenting, demonstrating and offering an opportunity to try out a 'plug and play' PA which highlights the versatility and intelligibility of its Dynacord D-Lite product range and the versatility and audible quality of the Dynacord XA2 system.

The seminar will last one-and-a-half hours on Monday 10 September from 1-2.30pm. It will be run using beyerdynamic radio microphones and Dynacord mixing desk and will be open to DJ's and dealers and anyone looking for simple cost effective solutions.

(Jim Evans)

UK - During a two-day workshop (10-11 September) at PLASA 07, a Columbus McKinnon representative will discuss the proper use of CM Lodestar products. He will also lead participants in hands-on disassembly and reassembly of a one ton CM Lodestar motor and discuss maintenance and troubleshooting techniques.

A Tomcat Representative will discuss the basics of truss theory, use and design. The workshop will emphasise safety and usage. Demonstrations of load scenarios and truss inspection will also be featured.

(Jim Evans)

UK - As part of what has by now become a PLASA Show institution, Litestructures, Le Maitre, Wembley Loudspeaker and Adam Hall will be hosting a Real Music Get Down And Dirty Party at the 100 Club, Oxford Street, on the evening of Tuesday 11 September.

If the chance to see many of the industry's elder statesmen acting like 18-year olds doesn't exactly float your boat, how does Uncle Bull, Bobby Tench, Papa George and the Adam Hall band laying down some classic R'n'B grab you?

Tickets are available from any of the above mentioned companies during the show. Enjoy one of the special house cocktails on the night. We're told that this year, it will probably be lager and lime. Again.

(Jim Evans)

UK Designed for schools, houses of worship, hotels, event organisers and more, IntelliStage Portable Stage Systems are billed as "the ultimate in portablilty and convenience". They consist of modular, lightweight platforms and risers that can be combined to create customised stages in various heights and configurations.

Easily assembled by a single person, each platform and riser are fastened together using an internal locking system and each platform can bear weight up to 185 lbs./sq.ft (900 KGS/sq.m).

Disassembly and storage are equally convenient. IntelliStage systems are available in kits with an optional compact storage flight case featuring integrated casters.

Platforms and risers are also available on an individual basis. Optional upgrade accessories like storage carts for larger systems and stage skirts are also available.

(Jim Evans)

Germany - The Red Flowers of Baudelaire at the Russian Embassy in Berlin, was a spectacular light show for the Hugo Boss party held during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Lighting designer Gert Hof commissioned A&O Lighting Technology to act as technical service providers for the event.

A&O delivered 77 Alpha One Falcon Beam 3,000W xenon lights for the show, arranged in four concentric circles with an external diameter of 12m. Behind this ring formation, 16 alpha one Falcon Beam 7,000W luminaires were arranged in a line. Also, 90 Sky Falcon Arc Colour 1,200W metal halide fixtures illuminated the front façade and the interior courtyard. A&O Technology also supplied the requisite controllers for the system, as well as 30sq.m of VersaTile LED panels and media content.

A&O's in-house media department, A&O Vision, carried out the technical planning, visualisation and pre-pr

Denmark - When monitor technician Claus Pedersen was tasked with working on perhaps the most complex Danish musical production of 2007, he had to choose a console which could cope with an entire symphony orchestra, backing band and no fewer than 28 actors and singers.

The event was the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra's musical version of Matador, which played to sold out audiences at Copenhagen's Operaen for three weeks in June. With 35,000 tickets sold for the 22 performances, Pedersen needed ultra-reliability from a console, as well as one that could handle an extremely complex production. He chose the DiGiCo D5T supplied by European Tour Production, Copenhagen.

Named after the Danish word for a business magnate, Matador aired on Danish television between 1978 and 1981, but has been regularly repeated and issued on video / DVD since. Set in the fictional Danish

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