USA - Acclaim Lighting's new X-Band 300 II wall wash brings a fresh approach to outdoor LED lighting, says the company. The ruggedly constructed X-Band 300 II is rated at IP65 for its ability to withstand dust and rain, providing an solution to exterior lighting applications.

All models of the X-Band 300 II feature built in power supplies for direct AC power input from 100-260v. This allows the user to run power and data direct to each unit without the need of an external power or data driver plus; you can link up to 20 units from one power/data source on 120v power and 40 units from a 220v power. Acclaim also offers a junction box (CC-JB1) as an option for customers, which provides a Neutrik Power-Con input connector and 3-pin Neutrik DMX input connector. The CC-JB1 combines thos

UK - Allen & Heath's digital and analogue mixers were employed to manage FOH and monitor sound reinforcement at a new UK festival, which included performances from Echo & The Bunnymen, From The Jam, Badly Drawn Boy and The Bluetones.

Organised by promoters, the Gum & Glue Co, Falmouth Bay Events Square Live was held in the Cornish port over the August bank holiday weekend, providing two evenings of diverse musical entertainment.

The Exeter branch of Sound2Light Productions was chosen to provide all the sound, lighting and staging equipment, with support from Cornwall-based Allen & Heath. The new iLive digital system - comprisingan iDR10 stage rack and iLive-144 control surface - was selected for FOH, with a 32-channel GL2800M dedicated analogue monitor console.

Reflecting on their first event with iLive, Sound2Light director, Richard Jordan, commented, "Initially I was

UK - Helen & Douglas House held their most successful ever fundraising event on Saturday 15 September whilst commemorating their 25th anniversary, over £155,000 was raised on the night with Stage Electrics supplying a full sound system, AV equipment and technical crew.

Based on a circus theme, the ball was held in a stunning big top tent with a helter skelter built right into the twinkling roof. Magicians, 'birds of paradise', juggling stilt walkers, a carousel and the Honda Racing F1 Team simulator car added to the fun, while celebrity guests including Trinny Woodall, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Alex James (Blur), Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Richard Hammond and James May added the glamour.

The complete sound system for the event supplied by Stage Electrics included the PA in the Big Top utilising Function1 and L-Acoustics equipment, background sound reinforcement in the bar a

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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

Austria - Le Mark Group, as UK distributor for the Tuchler Show Floor range, continues to expand its product development partnership. High Gloss 'Color X' roll out vinyl floor continues to find new clients and markets in both the UK and Europe, says the company.

ColorX was selected to cover a floating pontoon catwalk in Vienna's Amalienbad art deco swimming hall. The event was on behalf of the Foundation for Breast Health which presented a 'Pink Ribbon Night'. Every possible area of the Amalienbad was used for drama, music, dance and swimming performances. Fashion house Popp & Kretschmar used top international models to present exclusive designs from renowned Munich designer Ella Singh during a 15 minute fashion show.

"ColorX vinyl flooring is proving to be a fantastic new addition to our established range of television flooring," said Le Mark's managing director Stu

UK - The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, announced yesterday that he is working with London's theatres to reduce their carbon emissions. Speaking at Somerset House, where he helped launch the new energy efficient lighting scheme at the National Theatre, the Mayor announced a partnership across the London theatre sector with a shared goal of making London's theatres more energy efficient.

The organisations involved include the Arts Council London, the Theatres Trust, the Independent Theatre Council, Equity and a number of key players from the industry who have all agreed to work with the Mayor to produce a Climate Change Action Plan for London Theatre.

Climate change is a key priority for the Mayor and this announcement builds on his Climate Change Action Plan launched in February this year. The Plan states that London can achieve the 60% reduction in carbon emissions that th

UK - Lighting designer Emma Westerberg has just finished off her year long worldwide tour with Damien Rice and her ETC Congo jr, saying she remains delighted with the control system. She bought the Congo jr a year ago, and,she says, it's behaved flawlessly ever since.

Speaking at London's Wembley Arena after she had finished focussing the lights, Westerberg explained: "I got the desk in January, and within the hour, I had everything programmed in and was up and running. The same was true when Damien was playing at festivals over the summer - because I had my own desk, we could get going so quickly."

In addition to nine 19º and eight 36º Source Four profile spotlights, the Arena rig included battens, floodlights, snow machines, foggers and some 40MAC moving lights.

(Jim Evans)

UK - XL Video UK is supplying Maximo Park's lighting and visuals designer Stevie Marr with Barco MiTrix screen and Catalyst digital media server for the band's current UK and European tour, marking stage three of a progressive video/lighting design process which commenced at the start of 2006.

For Marr, an enthusiastic exponent of video and lighting 'convergence', the MiTrix added a new edge and depth to the show as well as providing surfaces for his custom created video clips. These were all sorted on and played back through two layers of the Catalyst.

The account was handled for XL by Jo Beirne and Phil Mercer who comment, "Stevie always comes up with new and refreshing ideas, and it's been great to see Maximo Park's video design evolve. He knows what he wants and is great to work with on all levels."

The MiTrix are arranged in seven rectangular columns of variou

Finland - High End Systems has announced a new partner agreement with Soundata Oy in Helsinki to supply HES products to Finland's entertainment and television markets. Soundata is active in a variety of fields including lighting, AV contracting, live sound and studio technology.

Juhani Vitikka, Soundata CEO and partner for Soundata says, "We are excited about representing High End Systems products in Finland, as the country is known for a unique variety of entertainment - perfect for High End's unique products."

Soundata showed off the new product line at Audiovisual 2007 in Helsinki. The international trade fair is the most important professional event of the year in the Nordic region for professionals, designers and decision-makers in the audiovisual and corporate event markets. Soundata's booth demonstrated Road Hog and Wholehog 3, as well as Showgun and DL.2.

M

UK - Blitz has recently completed internal investment with a value of £100k following the purchase of additional High Definition (HD) broadcast graphics systems for its already impressive rental fleet.

Blitz has invested in one of the world's most advanced graphics systems Chyron HyperX with Lyric PRO. The HyperX supports one or two independent HD/SD-switchable channels and simultaneous HD animations on two channels for "truly stunning graphics play out". Blitz has also added the Pixel Power Clarity 5000. It is a multi-format, multi-channel hybrid graphics system which includes SD and HD character generation with embedded still store, video clips, 2D DVE, real-time 3D and audio capability.

The systems have already been used in many high profile events, including, the Rugby World Cup and will be used at the first NBA (US National Basket Association) basketball g

UK - Tyco Traffic & Transportation (Tyco T&T), part of Tyco Fire & Integrated is building on its success in audio visual systems for local government with the design and installation of a new generation AV system to enhance communications during meetings held by Wycombe District Council.

The integrated system provided by Tyco T&T includes new large screen displays, projection equipment and desktop displays. The entire system is linked using the latest Cat 6 network cabling which is designed to minimise the amount of cabling and help make the system easy to expand and future-proof.

The system includes a total of 11 screens including two large screen projectors and pull-down screens at each side of the large general chamber. The large screen projectors can show two different AV presentations simultaneously.

Tyco T&T have also provided two large 42" LCD panels in the publi

USA - Madrix 2.1 - the DMX 512, ArtNet and DVI lighting control software will be exhibited at the forthcoming LDI show (16-18 November, Orlando, USA). The latest Madrix 2.1 is designed for the club, disco, mobile DJ, music professional and it is billed as an ideal solution for live shows.

Madrix 2.1 improves all features from the older versions that make working with LED installations a one-click affair, the company says. Madrix supports DMX512 and ArtNet interfaces and includes an installation CD-ROM, a software protection dongle and an English user guide.

(Jim Evans)

UK - HSL supplied Starsailor's LD Chris Megginson with a set of specials for their recent Fairtrade 'teaser' UK tour. The band - long term Fairtrade supporters - played 10 locations which are currently working towards achieving Fair-trade Town status as part of an ongoing consciousness raising exercise for the cause.

Being a charity tour, budget was tight, but naturally Megginson wanted to provide as good a light show as possible, and approached HSL's Mike Oates to see what they could offer in terms of a package.

He was looking for the most versatile and interesting combination of lighting fixtures that could be fitted into some very tight spaces. "HSL came up with blindingly good deal" states Megginson, who chose four of the new i-Pix BB Washlight LED fixtures, two strobes, a fogger and a WholeHog II console as his 'tour essentials' which would be combined with hous

UK - PRG Europe has been busy at London's O2, with almost every show since theArena opened being supplied by them. For Prince's 21-date residency, part of his Earth Tour at the arena, as well as over 100 MAC 2000 luminaires, the rig included Atomic strobes, ColorBlaze 72s and B52 Syncrolites.

The most interesting part of the rig, however, were the 'Prince'O'graphs' - 28 custom manufactured PRG pantographs, each with a MAC 2000 on the end, which could be lowered and raised at varying speeds creating endless different looks. The control of the pantographs was via a Kinesys Elevationhoist control system, programmed by Stuart Hale.

Lighting designer and director Garry 'Sport' Waldie explains: "Prince didn't want any overhead lighting, which made things interesting for us - a lot was pushed to the outside and hidden behind the PA and video. He likes a lot of different l

USA - : Symetrix has named Sanecore Audio Co. Ltd., Shenzhen, China as their 2007 international distributor of the year. Sanecore is recognised as one of leading distributors of both consumer and professional audio products in the Asian marketplace.

Commented Paul Roberts, director of sales for Symetrix: "Over the past twelve months Sanecore. has shown a tremendous dedication to the Symetrix brand and their growth in sales is indicative of this. Mr. Jun Zhu and his staff have been exemplary in their adoption of Symetrix technology and its implementation into the Chinese installed sound market."

(Jim Evans)

Denmark - Martin Professional has named Mats Karlsson as technology manager for the company's Visual Solutions business unit. Karlsson has more than 25 years of industry experience in lighting, and more recently in video, and joins Martin from Barco where he served as product manager for the company's successful line of creative LED products.

Karlsson's' role at Martin will be to strengthen the technical and marketing foundation for products within Martin Visual Solutions, a business unit of the company created earlier this year to expand business opportunities and capitalise on the growing popularity of LED video screens. Martin recently introduced its LC Series of LED video screens, a semi-transparent, modular system of lightweight LED panels.

"Creative video and visualization is the new frontier and challenge for the lighting market, in the same way that automated ligh

USA - Community Professional has appointed pro audio veteran Rod Falconer to the position of regional sales manager for the Western US region and Canada.

With more than 25 years in professional audio sales, Falconer comes to Community from Sabine, where he was director of sales. Previously he has held positions in sales and marketing at SLS Audio, L'Acoustics, JBL Professional and AMX. Falconer will be responsible for outside sales management in Canada and the western half of the United States.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - The Vatican decided to invest in a new conference system for the prestigious Sala del Sinodo (Synod Hall). The system chosen was a DCN Next Generation consisting of interpretation, camera control, PC control and 364 positions with flush-mount units and nine positions table top DCN Concentus.

The flush-mount units offer the same functionality and performance as the table top DCN Concentus systems while enabling tailor-made fixed installations to be built into tables and arm rests. The flush-mount units consist of a microphone, loudspeaker and microphone activation button, simply combined in a strip and finished with matching end-caps.

(Jim Evans)

UK / USA - Pulsar Light of Cambridge has signed an exclusive distribution agreement for the USA with Group One of Farmingdale, New York.

Paul Mardon, Pulsar Managing Director commented: "We are extremely pleased to enter into this new arrangement with our long time friends at Group One. It is sure to be a highly successful venture."

Jack Kelly, Group One pPresident added: "This exciting move will allow Group One to focus our skills in the rapid growth of Pulsar's presence and support package here in the USA."

Andy Graves, Pulsar's head of sales and marketing said: "Pulsar manufactures an extremely wide range of products that are ideal for the USA markets. In particular our LED ChromaRange provides a huge opportunity for growth."

The agreement also makes way for Pulsar's Jerry Colmenero to take on the role of US sales manager for Pulsar product

USA - Renkus-Heinz was forced to evacuate its factory in Foothill Ranch, California, as the wildfires that have devastated large areas of California in the past few days came within 250 yards of the 50,000sq.ft facility. All employees left the building safely and structural damage was averted by a combination of the dedication of firefighting teams and a sudden change in direction of the wind. The factory has since reopened.

A rapid decision was made by the company to evacuate to protect employees and vital documents as the Orange County Fire Department fought to contain the inferno that has already left one dead, scores injured and over 1,000 properties destroyed. US President George Bush has declared a state of emergency in California.

Renkus-Heinz VP of Operations Rik Kirby said that although the atmosphere had become smoky in the early morning there had not been an undue s

UK - Light Relief Day, held earlier this year to raise funds for the charity Light Relief, proved to be a great success, raising more than £5000, thanks to donations of a day's royalties from numerous lighting designers.

Now set to become an annual event, the first Light Relief Day took place on 24 April 2007, when lighting designers were asked to donate a day's royalties from their current shows. Organised by lighting designer Rick Fisher, the day is in honour of the late Tony Gottelier, who played such a big part in setting up the charity.

Light Relief exists to help lighting designers and technicians during times of hardship and Chris Luscombe was a recent beneficiary. He says: "Working on Starlight Express in Edinburgh, I dislocated my ankle walking down some steps and faced the prospect of being unable to work for several months. However, the trustees at

UK - Manchester-based DBN Lighting is one of the first UK hire companies to stock the new Chroma-Q Color Split multi-purpose LED fixture.

DBN was already a keen user of Chroma-Q's Color Block modular LED fixture, which has proven ideal for lighting its diverse range of client events and is still providing a good return on investment three yearslater, says the company.

DBN lighting director Stephen Page commented: "The Color Split produces the closest light output to that of an asymmetric cyc flood, of any LED product we've seen so far and offers significantly more even colour transmission in this application than conventional LED products.

"Its modular nature makes it flexible enough to be used in a huge variety of applications and, as large stockholders of Color Blocks, we are confident in the consistency and reliability of the product and in thesupport from A.C.

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