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The Netherlands / USA - Royal Philips Electronics has completed its acquisition of Color Kinetics Incorporated. As a result of the transaction, Color Kinetics will be financially consolidated with immediate effect within the Luminaires business group of Philips' Lighting division.

A statement says: "The acquisition of Color Kinetics further bolsters Philips' strong intellectual property portfolio, adding important patents relating to intelligence and control technology for LED lighting. Color Kinetics also has in excess of 15,000 professional installations worldwide and an array of large, industrial customers in professional channels.

"The acquisition of Color Kinetics builds on the acquisition of Lumileds in 2005, through which Philips ensured a leading position in hi

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UK - International staging specialists Stageco provided the organisers with three identical main stages for shows on both sides of the Atlantic, for the second year running.

The company supplied its Classic 4-Tower Roof system, offering a 25 x 20m performance area to bands such as Basement Jaxx, Kasabian and The Killers in the UK and The Police and The Smashing Pumpkins in the USA.

This tried and tested stage design was introduced by Stageco 17 years ago and is still highly popular with production teams for festivals and touring throughout Europe: it was used recently for Metallica tour 07, and the German festivals Rock am Ring and Rock im Park. The V Festival stages were installed over a three day build and took just two days to demount, creating a consistent focal point at all the shows.

The European Stageco teams under the management of Dirk de Decker installed the main s

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China - The 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games will be held in Shanghai from 2-11 October 2007. The event will mark the first time the World Summer Games will be held in Asia, and only the second time they will be held outside the United States. In addition to almost 7,500 athletes, Special Olympics expects the Games to draw 40,000 volunteers, 3,500 event officials and thousands of spectators and journalists.

The Opening Ceremonies for the World Games will be produced by award-winning producer/director Don Mischer and take place in the 80,000-seat Shanghai Stadium.

Trinity Technology, responsible for the supply of technical equipment for the Opening Ceremonies, selected Prolyte Asia Pacific to supply Prolyft hoists for the rigging equipment. Over 260 hoists, in various types, are currently being installed in the new stadium. A crew of trained technicians organised by Pro

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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 - Rambert Dance Company - England's oldest contemporary dance company - has invested in an Eos by ETC. Technical director Malcolm Glanville comments: "We'd had an ETC Obsession for 10 years, and with the introduction of moving lights, programming became quite a time consuming process. The Rambert Company's presentation is primarily based on its lighting and when we had a lunch break, the programmer would have to stay behind to continue working.

"As soon as I got my first look at Eos, I decided that was the way we wanted to go. We've also always had a very good relationship with ETC."

The Company holds regular dance workshops and shows across the country, returning twice a year to London's Sadler's Wells, but the first outing for Eos was at Truro's Hall for Cornwall in July, when the Company performed several pieces created by some of its own dancers.

As par

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UK - Adlib Audio supplied sound and lights to the Virgin Mobile Sessions Stages at both sites - Stafford and Chelmsford - of the V Festival.

Located in 2,000 capacity tents, Sessions featured a lively line up of "ones to watch". Adlib designed and supplied two identical sound and lighting systems for the different venues. The rigs were designed to be fully flexible and as dynamic as possible to cater for a full range of bands and fast changeovers.

On the sound side, crew chiefs Steve Pattison (Chelmsford) and Hassane Es Siahi (Stafford) studied as many band specs as they could ahead of time and made sure they were appropriately equipped.

The FOH desks were Midas H3000s, supplied complete with a comprehensive set of effects including Lexicon PCM 70s, TC D2 delays and Yamaha SPX 2000s. Compressors were a mix of dbx and BSS and the gates were Drawmer. "Essentiall

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USA - For the past ten years, the little town of Ellensburg, WA has lit up with the sweet sound of jazz for one July weekend. Dubbed 'Jazz in the Valley', the event attracted ever-growing crowds in the early years until officials put a clamp on the maximum number of attendees to preserve the intimate feel of their 10 stages. Now tickets sell out months in advance and bands clamber to join the roster.

The sound system on the main stage has grown as well. Musicians were self-amplified the first year. In the nine years that followed, FOH engineer Mike Bruce evolved his system to keep pace with the size of the crowd and the technical sophistication of the performing bands. The main stage at this year's Jazz in the Valley boasted 15,000 Watts and digital signal processing from Symetrix' Integrator Series - the Deuce 722.

Bruce replaced six rack spaces of analogue processing with th

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Ireland - J&C Joel has designed, fabricated and installed seven movable acoustic panels in the main Curtis Auditorium at the prestigious new Cork School of Music.

The J&C Joel team led by Tony Griffiths, played an active role in ensuring that the 420 seat Curtis Auditorium has the flexibility to provide exactly the right acoustic environment for anything from piano recitals to full orchestral performances to vocal and choral works.

J&C Joel's biggest challenge was presented by their late appointment to the project. By the time this happened, all the AC, ventilation, heating ducting, drainage pipes, containment trays and other plant and services were already in place up in the plenum - the sound proofed concealed roof space above the auditorium.

This is where all the suspension and movement control equipment required for the seven panels had to be installed - comprising a com

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UK - Pharos Architectural Controls is introducing the LPC X, a big brother to the award-winning LPC1 and LPC2. This Lighting Playback Controller offers capacities up to a massive 100 DMX universes from a single unit, taking control for large installations to a whole new level, says the company.

The LPC X supports a variety of control protocols to suit different project needs, including DMX-over-Ethernet standards such as Pathport, ArtNet, ETCNet2 and Streaming ACN. Also provided are DVI and Firewire DV outputs for integrating with arrays of fixtures that require video-based control.

There is also a framework in place to support custom protocols for bespoke projects. Multiple different protocols can be output simultaneously from a single unit giving synchronised control across an installation and making the LPC X a flexible answer for large-scale control.

Pharos has also anno

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Hong Kong - With the 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing next summer, a series of sporting events entitled Good Luck Beijing began in July of this year to mark the final, year-long countdown to the Games. One of the most high profile events was the HKSAR 10th Invitation Cup Eventing Competition in Hong Kong and Lighthouse Technologies and the leading LED media design company Demiurge Unit took part.

Held at the equestrian venues in Shatin and the Beas River Country Club on 11 and 13 August, the event was divided into two classes for international competitors and Hong Kong riders to compete in dressage, cross-country and jumping. It was also part of the celebrations to mark the passing of a decade since the establishment of Hong Kong being a Special Administrative Region of China.

Featured prominently at this high profile event was the Multimedia Information Systems

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UK - Best known in the sports and corporate hospitality world, Arena Structures strapped on a guitar and turned its amps up to 11 for a stroll into rock and pop territory this August. The company provided over 40 structures for the V Festival site at Hylands Park in Chelmsford.

Providing everything from crew catering structures to the spectacularly themed Virgin hospitality area, project manager Mark Shelley installed a wide range of structures across the large site. They were a welcome shelter to crew, artists, audience and guests alike, as one of the rainiest festival seasons in recent memory drew to a damp close.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - ISCE's new certification course for the design and installation of induction loop systems is intended to overcome the growing problem of badly designed and poorly installed Induction loop systems, many of which are not set up or commissioned correctly in accordance with the requisite standards.

The problem, which has been brought to the attention of the local authorities, RNID, and raised in Parliament (motion by Tom Levitt MP, Labour, 2 July 2007), stems from unqualified persons designing and fitting induction loops using, seemingly low cost, equipment now available from electrical wholesalers, online stores and even stationery supplier catalogues.

To ensure that a system is installed professionally, meets the recommendations of BS 7594, as well as the requirements IEC/EN 60118-4 and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), all installers should be trained and competent.

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UK - When George Michael made a triumphant return to the world's arena stages in 2006, little did audiences know that an even bigger event was just around the corner. Using no less than four DiGiCo consoles, Michael performed the very first gigs at the new Wembley Stadium on 9 and 10 June 2007, in the process ushering in a new (and long awaited) era for live music in the UK capital's most infamous and controversial venue.

As with the arena tour, two DiGiCo D5 Lives were used for front of house sound and Michael's monitors, with a D5T on band monitors. But for the first Wembley show a third D5 was added to perform perhaps the most high profile task of all - mixing the sound for a live television broadcast.

Ruadhri Cushan and Niall Flynn were the engineers given the onerous task, but the D5 ensured that their lives were as straightforward as possible - despite neither of the tea

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USA - FiberPlex has announced that its LightViper audio transport system was recently deployed for the live stage production of Primerica's 2007 Convention in Atlanta, GA. The corporate event drew 60,000 participants and was held in Atlanta's largest venue, the Georgia Dome, home to the NFL's Atlanta Falcons. The "plug n' play" LightViper fiber optic audio system was deployed by Syntonic Design Group.

Tom Clark, Syntonic's managing director and project manager for the Primerica show, commented on his firm's first experience using the LightViper: "We used the LightViper for the first time. I wanted to specifically replace the unwieldy copper snakes we usually take to big shows like this one. Not only did the system save us significant labour costs, set-up time and shipping expense - it performed perfectly.

"It really is a 'plug n' play' copper snake replacem

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Australia - The new ARX MSX 48 transformer isolated microphone/line Splitter from ARX has been developed to deliver the performance required by the increasing complexity of today's standards of audio production, says the company.

The MSX 48 is a totally passive device requiring no power, and consists of 16 channels of transformer isolated ultra low noise microphone/line splitter. Each of these channels has a direct looped main / FOH feed, and a transformer isolated monitor split on the front panel.

On the rear panel is an auxiliary transformer isolated split suitable for use with a remote recording truck or TV feed. Duplicates of the monitor and aux splits are also provided on two sets of dual 25-pin D connectors on the rear panel, wired to Tascam wiring protocol.

(Jim Evans)

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Dubai - Locally-based company 3db, set up in 2001 by well-known monitor engineer Eddie Mulrainey and lighting professional Mike Snape, has invested in a Martin Audio W8LM system for its rental fleet.

3db entered into a joint venture partnership with Wigwam Hire in October 2004 - and set out to provide a turnkey solution to the corporate market (with the incorporation of a lighting and video division and shortly some Litedeck staging).

The company already had conventional loudspeakers in its inventory, but needed a proprietary compact line array system to make them competitive. "I was fortunate in being able to hear the W8LM system which Wigwam used as side-hangs on the George Michael tour," said Mulrainey. "That's what swung it for us. It came out top on all the specs and when I listed to the LM's they sounded fantastic."

Supplied by Wigwam, the order com

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Germany - The new REV professional wireless system from Electro-Voice offers an array of high tech features, including an optimised analogue audio path developed with Digital Audio Labs to provide "the truest representation of a wired microphone sound possible in a wireless system"

REV-Link PC software enables remote monitoring, control and programming over a CAN bus connection through an Electro-Voice UCC-1 converter or Electro-Voice Netmax N8000.

Factory set channel groups allow up to 16 systems to operate simultaneously in one frequency band. Programmable in 25kHz steps across 24MHz operating bandwidth, there are over 950 possible channels so users can always find a clear channel. Advanced ClearScan automatic group and channel selection allows quick, simple setup, says the company.

REV offers two handheld options - a stylish metal compact handle for concert and

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UK/USA - Mojo Barriers were called in to supply the crowd management barriers for the main stages at both UK sites of the V Festival - Hylands Park, Chelmsford, and Weston Park, Staffordshire. At the same time, it worked in Baltimore's Pimlico Racecourse for the US version of the event.

The company has worked at the UK festival for many years, but, as always, V Festival production manager Tony Wheeler of Nine Yards Ltd, alongside promoters Metropolis and SJM, decided to take a long, hard look at other products available for the 2007 events.

Following the review, Mojo was delighted to be invited back to provide barriers for the festivals' most demanding areas, the main stages, where organisers needed complete confidence in the ability of the barrier to handle the large crowd pressures.

Mojo Barriers' US service was the choice for the festival's twin event in Baltimore, USA. T

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UK - Power Logistics supplied all of the power and site lighting to the V Festival in Hylands Park, with a team of 15 installing 25km of cabling and distro to carry the power from 103 generators around the Essex site. In the region of 70,000 litres of fuel were used to power everything from cash point machines up to the main stage's PA, lighting and screens.

More than 6km of festoon lighting lit temporary roadways and footpaths for the 70,000 music fans and the production team that transformed Hylands Park into a festival town for the weekend of music. Power Logistics used shatterproof light bulbs on the festoon, minimising the environmental impact to the park.

Managing director Pete Wills commented: "This year's festival has grown and the layout has been changed from previous years. Once again, Maztech created a well-managed festival behind the scenes and the fans certai

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USA - Diana Ross, on tour in support of her latest release, I Love You, performed a limited series of US dates before embarking on a European arena tour earlier this year. During the brief US jaunt, Thunder Audio supplied a powerful Meyer Sound loudspeaker system for her performances at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago and the Palace of Auburn Hills located just outside of Ross's hometown of Detroit.

The self-powered Meyer Sound system was centered on two arrays of 12 Milo high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers each, along with six UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers for front-fill.

FOH engineer E. Kevin Jones mixed the shows on Thunder's Midas H3000 console, while Michael Droke handled the monitor mixes on a second H3000. "The MILO really does sound great," says Droke. "We've specified it on Diana's rider for the US dates, and we'll be carrying a

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UK - Directed by Ed Curtis and designed by Bob Bailey with lighting from James Whiteside the touring production of Never Forget uses a wide variety of LEDs. For lighting control a grandMA full-size, a grandMA light, a grandMA video media server and an MA NSP are utilised.

Amongst others the lighting rig features Clay Paky Alpha Wash Halos, Vari*Lite VL 1000, VL2000 spots and VL2000 washes, Rainbow Scrollers and Robert Juliat Super Korrigans.

On the LED front there are Thomas PixelLine 1044 battens and a ChromaQ Color Web 250 flexible LED mesh grid installed in the show. Because of the full integration of grandMA video, the media server could be controlled as a fixture. The PixelLine battens are controlled directly from the console so that effects can be created quickly by using the grandMA effects.

White Light supplied the lighting equipment for the show. Andy Greenwo

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UK - PSCo is launching a revolutionary lifting solution in the UK, enabling easy, fast and cost effective installation for the 103" Panasonic Plasma.

PSCo has partnered with German manufacturers Mediascreen to launch this flight-case based system which can position the 103" up to 3m in the air at the touch of a button. The Screen Lifter is a specially designed portable installation, handling and display system, which is now available for both trade rental and sale from PSCo.

The sheer size of the new Panasonic 103" Plasma screen has presented an installation challenge for early purchasers of the system. Until now the 8ft wide, 220kg screen has required bespoke lifting for both permanent and temporary installations, be that a domestic environment, an exhibition or a luxury retail outlet.

However, The Screen Lifter houses the 103" screen in a flight case on

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