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UK - With an ever-increasing workload, Mansfield-based Entertainment Sound Specialists (ESS) is now one of the UK's major concert sound providers. Festivals and one-off shows form a significant part of the company's workload, which often include considerable time pressures and the need to provide a high quality technical infrastructure on a fairly tight budget.

With this in mind, 2007 was the year that ESS decided to bite the bullet and embrace all the advantages that digital audio offers. Yet, although it was a very significant move for this previously all-analogue company, the benefits of digital were so quickly embraced that digital has already become ESS's standard format, with analogue offered as an option.

"When we decided to buy digital consoles we had three key crit

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UK - Stage Electrics has recently completed the installation of a new sound system at the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) in South London. BAC, which is at present home to one of London's most critically acclaimed shows, The Masque of the Red Death, produced by Punchdrunk, is providing the new sound system with a stringent test.

For this production, the whole of the building is used, as Metro magazine described: "Punchdrunk's transformation of the labyrinthine BAC into an extraordinary warren of velvety interiors and glamorous decadence."

BAC's technical manager Luke Girling takes up the story: "The performance is driven by the soundtrack, so the development of the sound within the show has been our real goal. We were aiming at a sound as comprehensive and high quality as possible, that was the real challenge." Girling continued: "The RCF sys

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Brazil - Nemetschek North America has announced that CAD Technology, its international distribution partner in Brazil, has released its localized version of the VectorWorks 2008 family of design software. CAD Technology has tailored the VectorWorks products to meet the specific needs of the Brazilian marketplace.

CAD Technology held an event on 31 October in Sao Paulo to promote the release of this new version for Brazilian VectorWorks dealers. Similar events will be offered by CAD Technology dealers in Latin American countries.

The English-language versions of the VectorWorks 2008 product line were released in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other international markets on 13 September. Many major European markets also recently released their localized versions.

"We have all worked hard during the 2008 development cycle to minimize the time between the English-l

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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 - Live event lighting company Essential Lighting has announced that it has become part of the Australian-based Staging Connections Group - a family of businesses based in eight countries around Australia, Asia and the United Arab Emirates. This news marks its first step in a European expansion.

Essential says this is "great news for Essential's customers, adding a wealth of expertise and skills to the Essential offering and ensuring that the newest and most advanced fixtures and technology are available to lighting designers and production companies in the UK and Europe.

Essential's 24-hour support and technical assistance will also benefit from close links with people who provide technical services for over 50,000 events a year, from a small conference to challenges as epic as the Sydney Olympic Games. Through a network of group businesses it will now be easier both t

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Cambodia - DPA Microphones has donated a pair of 4091 omnidirectional instrument mics to Studio CLA in Phnom Penh. The studio, set up by US producer Scot Stafford in conjunction with the Cambodian Living Arts project, documents and records the repertoire and skills of Cambodia's master musicians for the next generation of musicians. The project is supported by Peter Gabriel's Real World organisation, which arranged the donation of audio equipment as well as sending experienced recording technicians to assist on key projects.

Real World became involved last year when Gabriel's studio and monitor engineer Richard Chappell visited Cambodia and met Kong Nay, one of Cambodia's few surviving master musicians. Kong Nay subsequently performed at last summer's WOMAD festival, followed by a UK tour organised, booked, promoted and engineered by Chappell to raise funds for the musicians' ca

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USA - The Walters Art Museum annual fundraiser gala received a revamp this year when the gala moved outdoors under a 9,000sq.ft Clearspan tent. Hanover, Maryland-based production company Event Tech provided sound, lighting, and power for the event, utilizing the advances in LED technology to save on energy usage and fuel costs.

Over 65 Chauvet LED fixtures were utilised for stage, dance floor, and ambient lighting. Colorado 1 units provided stage and dance floor lighting, with additional Colorado 3 and LEDrain 56 fixtures providing ambient and spot lighting. The result was a wash of saturated hues that could be varied to reflect the different moods of the event.

The result was a success, generating financial contributions that will allow the Walters Art Museum to continue offering free admission for the coming year to an impressive fine art collection that spans the eras betwe

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USA - Apollo Design Technology and Blue Pony Digital recently announced the launch of the Top 100 Apollo ColourScenic standards in digital format. The same ColourScenic gobos used for lighting can now be used in projection and media servers formatted at optimal resolution.

"Apollo introduced the ColourScenic glass gobo, in November 1999, winning ESTA's coveted Dealer's Choice Award for New Product of the Year," states Apollo dealer manager Keith Kankovsky. "Stunning full colour photographic resolution from moving and static projectors became the industry standard, which Apollo continues to lead today."

With frequent requests for Apollo standards in digital format from Apollo and Blue Pony customers, Joel Nichols, president and founder of both companies, decided Apollo and Blue Pony should join together to release the award winning gobos in a digital file. N

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USA - Meyer Sound has announced that audio system design, analysis, and tuning authority Bob McCarthy has joined Meyer Sound in the position of senior design consultant to work closely on the design of Constellation electroacoustic architecture, the company's newest technology.

McCarthy was an early employee at Meyer Sound and was instrumental in the development of the company's SIM source independent measurement system. He also taught the first SIM School, which later evolved into Meyer Sound's ongoing education programme that today spans the globe. McCarthy eventually went on to become an independent sound system designer and tuner, a role in which he worked on numerous events, experience he now brings back to Meyer Sound.

Besides working on Constellation, McCarthy will also continue his involvement with Meyer Sound's worldwide seminar series. In recent years, McCarthy has t

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USA - Owned and managed by the City of Dallas, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center is home to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and plays host to other musical ensembles/events as well as various corporate meetings, religious services and other events.

The large, complex, open-space hall boasts unsurpassed and elaborate acoustic accommodations. The lighting system on the other hand was essentially "cobbled together" over the last 15 years. Meyerson had welcomed a succession of lighting consoles and other technology until Vari*Lite installed a large system. They kept "building on top of what was there," reflects Peter Maurelli of Barbizon Light of the Rockies, who delivered a grandMA full-size to Meyerson. "Our goal," he says, "was to not only to put the grandMA in, but to improve the network infrastructure and build a backbone they could rely o

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USA - The Cross Church, Fresno, California last month held a concert starring their very own minister - Stan Leisle. Flix Productions were employed to light The Cross Church and used their new LSC maXim LP Lighting Console, supplied by Applied Electronics, for the first time.

Lighting designer Vance Riffel of Flix Productions commented: "To be honest I was hesitant to try a new lighting control console. However, the maxim, with PaTPad, has been an enormous improvement from the controller I was originally using. My lighting gigs look great and are so much easier to program and operate."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - D-Tools has announced that PMI (Performance Media Industries) has joined the D-Tools Manufacturer Vantage Point (MVP) programme. Headquartered in Fairfax, California, PMI is an award winning engineering company that specializes in high-end Home Theatre.

"PMI couldn't be happier to be a part of The MVP Programme. It's a great fit for our company and provides our A/V dealer partners with tremendous power," said Terry Hill, general manager for PMI. "PMI has delivered world class service for years and now gives D-Tools SI users a simple method to specify our services. This will expand our reach to a larger market of system integrators."

"We are very excited to have PMI join the MVP Programme," said Adam Stone, president of D-Tools. "As the only company in the programme offering Home Theatre room design and engineering services, PMI brings a

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USA - DiGiCo has appointed a new US representative, covering Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. Founded by Bruce Marlin 20 years ago, Marketing Concepts focuses on comprehensive customer support. "When I started the company, the south west already had a lot of rep firms. But they were all sales-orientated, whereas I wanted one that came from a technical perspective," says Marlin.

"Rather than just selling equipment, we have the attitude that we form partnerships with our customers, providing long-term technical support, training and servicing facilities. All of our sales team go through technical training, with us you never get the guy who just wants to make the sale."

He continues: "I have been impressed with the new DiGiCo management and their vision of the future. I like the direction that the company is going in, it works very well with the o

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UK - Stage Electrics provided technical services for the Diwali in the Square Celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London on 28 October 2007.

The event which celebrates the Hindu Festival of Lights is organised by the Mayor of London and the Diwali in London Committee and sees Trafalgar Square lit up with colour to celebrate the occasion.

Contracted by Greenwich + Docklands Festivals to supply technical elements for the event, Stage Electrics supplied lighting across the site, PA system, power distribution and generation requirements.

A broad spectrum of products was utilised for the lighting duties including Martin MAC2000 and MAC700 washes, Studio Due City Colors, Pulsar Chroma Floods and HTI150W architectural wash luminaires. Control was by way of an Avolites Pearl with Avolites Radio EDMX system providing data transfer duties across the square to minimise cable runs.

An E

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New Zealand - Selecon is promoting an opportunity to meet renowned lighting designer Rick Fisher who is currently in Australia for the premier season of Billy Elliot The Musical which opens at Sydney's Capitol Theatre in December 2007.

"Talking about Light": A Conversation with Rick Fisher presents an opportunity for a small group of like-minded individuals to meet Rick, see a successful West End production followed by a post show discussion on stage, says Selecon. The next day Rick will lead a workshop based on his approach to lighting design including demonstrations of particular stage lighting techniques in a theatre environment wrapping up with lunch.

Full details and the cost for participating in this two-day experience (5 and 6 December) plus who you should contact can be found at: www.seleconlight.com.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Blitz has taken centre stage in proving its theatre prowess by adding the adaptation of Alex to its impressive catalogue of productions. Alex, the much loved newspaper cartoon column has been converted into a play to celebrate its 20th anniversary and has opened at the Arts Theatre in the heart of London's theatre land.

Blitz worked with Eleanor Lloyd Productions for over a year providing a variety of equipment for workshop productions before deciding on three Panasonic D5600E DLP projectors with short throw lenses to enable the famous cartoon to be transformed from paper to two-dimensional figures on stage. The only real life actor in the show is Alex - the rest of the cast are in cartoon form, therefore it was imperative that the technology provided was both reliable and highly effective at engaging the attention of the audience.

Eleanor Lloyd comments: "Alex is an

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Sweden - Seven Kinesys Smart 8 hoist controllers and a specially customised version of their Vector software were chosen by Unusual Rigging to control 50 motors at the brand new, state-of-the-art Studio Acusticum concert hall at the Pitea School of Music in northern Sweden.

The hoists - all three tonne Liftkets - are utilised to fly five separate rectangular acoustic roof panels, each suspended by 10 hoists. These each move individually with up to 4m of vertical travel, the idea being to create a fully flexible acoustic space offering the optimum sonic environment for a wide variety of performances - from choral and orchestral works to experimental and electronic.

Each panel weighs approximately 15 tonnes. The internal aluminium ceiling structure consists of a trussing grid designed to take a weight of up to 100 tonnes - including all the panels and motors.

Kinesys' Dave Wea

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Australia - Robe moving lights have been installed into the City Life Church's Knox campus in Melbourne. City Life is a non-denominational Pentecostal church and the largest church in Melbourne. It has a congregation of approximately 7,500 - and growing - 5000 of whom attend regular weekly services at the 1850 capacity main auditorium in Knox.

In addition to the services, a host of other events are staged at the Knox venue, including weddings, funerals, youth events and local school theatre productions. The main auditorium is utilised every day for a wide variety of performances that can feature anything from a single preacher to full choirs, orchestras and electric or acoustic bands.

The Church's lighting director James Fielding specified the four Robe ColorSpot 575 ATs along with four ColorWash 575 ATs which are hung above the stage, and with a Robe Haze 400 FT hazer.

The

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USA - XL worked with tour creative director, Ray Woodbury of RK Diversified Entertainment and lighting designer, Scott Holthaus of 40W Labs to integrate video into lighting which resulted in a special modification of the five DL2s supplied by XL that shot rear projection with wide angle lenses to accommodate their vision for Kelly Clarkson's current tour.

Touring on behalf of XL is DL2 tech, Adam Finer. President of XL Touring, John Wiseman says: "This is our second tour with Kelly and we are excited to be included on another Kelly Clarkson sold out tour."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Wybron will launch Luxera, a new line of theatrical light fixtures at LDI 2007 (16-18 November, Orlando, Florida) . The Luxera is built on Wybron's award-winning Nexera optics and was developed based on demand from the house of worship market's need for affordable spotlights, says the company.

Wybron is offering three Luxera fixtures: a washlight, 19-26° profile and 25-40° profile in 575W or 750W tungsten models.

"The Luxera is ideal for houses of worship that need to arrange strong white spotlights with the same zoom angles," said Terry Taylor, Wybron's houses of worship specialist. "Like our Nexera line of fixtures, Luxera is a complete solution and is convection cooled for virtually silent operation."

(Jim Evans)

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Cyprus - Premium Soundcraft MH-series analogue desks have been installed in Cyprus's leading rock venue. Avlea, in the island capital of Nicosia, has doubled in size since being taken over by owners George Ioannou, Charalambous Xenos and John Ioannou five years ago, and now attracts some of the best artists from Greece.

Most of the investment in the 933-capacity venue has taken place this summer, with an extended stage and acoustic insulation to the floors and walls (provided by Pan Acoustics from Limassol), to prevent sound leakage.

The venue, which can also be configured cabaret style, with table seating for 400, approached A.L.A Equipment Co for a sound system that would satisfy the wide demands of quality rock and traditional music from Cyprus and the Greece mainland, and lead them into the digital era.

Said George Ioannou: "We already had a relationship with Andrea

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UK - Northern Light, Black Light and the RSAMD have announced their collaboration on a new exhibition of sound, light and stage technologies to take place in Scotland.

The three organisations took the decision to join forces and deliver a Scottish exhibition to showcase the latest technologies available for the performance, presentation and events industries. PerformTech will take place on 28 and 29 May 2008 and will be hosted at the RSAMD in Glasgow.

The event will incorporate RSAMD's Technical and Production Arts Graduate Show, as well as building on the annual Black Light Show. PerformTech will provide the ideal platform for industry suppliers and manufacturers to demonstrate their products and services to a Scottish audience, say the organisers.

Gavin Stewart, managing director at Black Light, said: "For a number of years, Black Light have been hosting an exhibition

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