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USA - FogScreen and PlayMotion have announced that they have signed a strategic partnership to bring fully interactive capabilities to the award-winning fog projection screen. Now people everywhere can manipulate and play with virtual objects that look as if they are literally floating in mid-air, say the companies.

PlayMotion's software enables users to physically interact with fun, educational and fully interactive programs that are projected onto FogScreen's projection screen. Participants can engage in virtual games and activities using their hands and bodies to experience 'superhero powers', build virtual landscapes, and play sports - all in mid-air.

"We are very excited about this new partnership with FogScreen," said Scott Burkett, CEO of PlayMotion. "The s

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Europe - XL Video is supplying robotic cameras and Christie FOH projectors to Arcade Fire's current European tour for Richard Stembridge's innovative video design.

XL's project managers Jo Beirne and Phil Mercer have been involved with supplying the band's video needs throughout 2007, and the latest leg of their hugely successful Neon Bible tour is the largest yet in terms of production.

"Working with Richard is always interesting and brings visually stunning results as the show is constantly evolving and growing" says Jo Beirne.

Stembridge was brought into the equation by lighting designer Paul Normandale, who was looking for a specific style and approach to facilitate what he anticipated would become a video-driven show. Normandale is well known for his offbeat designs and imaginative daring. He wanted someone with a fresh and non standard approach to vide

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Denmark - Spring of 2008 will see the opening of Danish soccer club Vejle BK's new stadium, which is equipped with Dynacord enclosures installed by Ascon Trading - one of four major projects in which the Danish pro audio specialists are currently involved.

Ascon Trading has recently completed a whole series of fixed installations, including sports centres in Odense and Hjallerup, a metro shopping centre in Aalborg, a cultural centre in Nibe and swimming baths in Ringsted, in each case employing components from Dynacord. Morten Larsen, Ascon's marketing manager MI, says, "Dynacord enjoys the same kind of reputation here as BMW or Audi in the automobile world. Like BMWs or Audis, Dynacord products are associated with high prices, but also with absolute reliability and real quality. And, at the present time, with the market increasingly flooded by cheap products from China, pe

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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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USA - Intelix recently released the Audisey 70V-AM, an eight channel 70V transformer module for use with the Intelix Audisey Athena matrix mixer/amplifier or in standalone 70V applications.

The Intelix 70V-AM provides eight toroid transformers in a compact 1U, 19 inch rack-mountable chassis. The Intelix 70V-AM features a rack and panel style input connector, providing a single quick connection point when used with the Intelix Audisey Athena matrix mixer/amplifier, and eight convenient screw terminal (Euroblock) output connectors.

The fully isolated transformers provide flat frequency response within 1dB from 20Hz to 20kHz, and are designed for an 8ohm 50W input.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Vieta's ultra-compact energy-efficient Ti Line amplifier is part of the in-house audio specification for the ultimate eco-friendly dream house. Winner of the international competition, the Solar Decathlon 2007, in Washington DC, the unique model home is a showcase for technologies and materials that are energy-efficient as well as attractive to live with.

The Solar Decathlon competition is hosted every year by the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy, Efficiency and Renewable Energy. It's a highly prestigious event, attracting competition entries from academic institutions all over the world - the USA, Canada, Germany and Spain. Teams must design a solar house, with every last watt of electricity used by the house being generated by the solar panels on the roof. The houses are displayed to the public on the National Mall in Washington DC and the winning house will to

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UK - Harman Pro UK recently supplied all the AKG microphones for Ray Davies' live performance at the BBC's Electric Proms event, which took place in North London over the course of a week at the end of October 2007. The Kinks' co-founder and chief songwriter took the stage to a packed audience at Camden's Roundhouse and ran through a set of vintage Kinks numbers and recent solo material.

Davies's live sound engineers Tristan Mallett and Chris Wibberley have been using C414s on the guitars and as drum overheads on all of the concerts Davies has performed this year in support of his new album, Working Man's Café, and introduced Davies to the new C5 and D5 stage mics when they were released earlier this year.

For the Electric Proms concert at the Roundhouse, Harman Pro UK supplied them with an Elle C microphone for one of Ray's female backing singers, while the man

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UK - Guerrilla projection specialists from PSL surprised Londoners by delivering one of the world's greatest-ever rock bands straight into the heart of the city. Heralded by the iconic image of lead singer Robert Plant, videos of Led Zeppelin were played out on some of London's most famous buildings, including the Science Museum and the National Gallery, to mark the release of the band's DVD Mothership.

PSL's Pod Bluman and his team ran a five-night campaign, across seven different locations - Trafalgar Square, the Haymarket, Chinatown, Covent Garden, Brick Lane and the Science Museum in Kensington. Each night, they premiered a different song from the new album release, playing it just once before packing up and moving onto a new location.

Performances of Black Dog, Whole Lotta Love and Kashmir were prefaced with a five-minute countdown, the project

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UK - The South African superstars Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who first came to international prominence performing with Paul Simon over 20 years ago, called on the specialist branding and stage fabric experts Sunbaba to provide them with a series of colourful backdrop images for their 35 date tour of the UK.

Lighting designer Tim Speechley was responsible for the visual element of the performance by the nine-strong vocal group and he hit upon the idea of using the band's LP covers as an image. He ordered a number of coated polyester backdrops, emblazoned with images of the group's LP covers, which themselves told the story of Ladysmith's illustrious heritage at the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle.

"When I was planning the look, I realised that they had released about 40 LPs during their career and some of the covers were very impressive," he explains. "There

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UK - Blitz has been commissioned to work alongside the production team of the award winning children's show, Lazy Town. Blitz is joining Lazy Town in its UK tour to motivate children nationwide to be more active.

Blitz is providing a full range of services for the show, supplying AV equipment including video control systems as well as a complete sound solution. The show began its journey in Hackney and is set to tour around the UK in 2008.

Blitz provided a d&b speaker system, Sennheiser radio mics and a Yamaha M7CL mixer. This technical setup was pioneered by sound designer Ian Horrocks-Taylor for the Lazy Town production, and Blitz worked alongside him to ensure consistency in the quality.

Ian Horrocks-Taylor explains: "Lazy Town carries an important message which is portrayed to the audience in a fun and highly entertaining manner so our te

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USA - The CyberHoist / InMotion 3D motion control system is to be exclusively distributed in North America by CyberHoist USA. The deal will be officially signed on CyberHoist USA's booth at this weekend's LDI show in Orlando.

CyberHoist USA, part of Tomcat Global Corporation, will provide a comprehensive sales, service, training and rental customer support operation for the USA and Canada from its base in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mitch Clark, president of Tomcat Global, said: "The future is looking incredibly exciting for the CyberHoist marque in North America. It's by far the best designed, fastest, and most flexible motion control system out there, as well as one of the quietest systems on the market. CyberHoist meets what our clients in the touring, theatre and corporate show markets have been asking for. I think they will be delighted to get access and full support, based r

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USA - Philips Lumileds has announced its new cool-white Luxeon K2 with TFFC LED. Chip and packaging advancements enable extended capabilities that deliver maximum performance in any environment, says the company.

"Customers are already making the move to 1000 mA drive currents and higher to take advantage of higher light output and improved efficacies," said Erik Milz, product manager at Philips Lumileds.

"Incorporating TFFC technology and package improvements gives us the best LED for the most demanding applications and environments such as automotive, signaling, general lighting and architectural applications. Using a single chip allows for the smallest optical source size making it easier to design optics such as reflectors, diffusers and lenses that are essential for most applications."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Meyer Sound has announced the appointment of Bob Langlois to the position of senior technical support representative. Langlois will be providing technical support and design services to Meyer Sound's customers, and will also join the company's worldwide education programme to teach seminars on audio concepts and real world applications.

A pro-audio veteran with more than 30 years experience, Langlois joins Meyer Sound from Audio Analysts in Colorado, where he held the positions of vice president of worship design and senior project manager. Langlois has designed and managed the sound system installations at some of the best known churches in the country, including Phoenix First Assembly and Jubilee Fellowship Church. His career has also included positions with MXR, Whirlwind and other manufacturers in the audio industry.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Sound designers Chris Full and Terry Jardine of London's Autograph Sound Recording set out to infuse new life into the UK tour of the classic musical Guys and Dolls. The touring production is a spin-off of the popular London West End revival that opened in June 2005.

Full knew that in order to put a new twist on an old standard, he would have to adjust the show's signature sound. "The director (Michael Grandage), music department, and I agreed that, since the musical is so well-known, we should approach this tour as a new piece of theatre," says Full. "This had a noticeable effect on the score, as we ended up with a very modern sound, but still retained the underpinnings of a classic big band. So, to reproduce the frequency range and SPL required, we needed a cabinet that could deal with a huge dynamic range."

Full and Jardine's design utilises

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USA - At the 41st Annual CMA Awards Show, broadcast in 5.1 surround sound on ABC Television from the Sommet Center in Nashville, XM Productions/Effanel Music implemented Genelec 8200 Series DSP Monitoring Systems. Genelec DSP systems comprised of 8250 and 8240 monitors along with the 7260 subwoofer were used in XM Productions/Effanel Music's L7 and OBU mobile recording trucks for the music mix.

The HDTV/5.1 broadcast was mixed and monitored by a team of top-tier professionals, all relying on Genelec to provide them an accurate monitoring environment. The audio portion of the broadcast was supervised by award-winning Audio Producer Tom Davis; the audio coordinator was Michael Abbott; the music mixers included John Harris and Jay Vicari.

John Harris, XM Productions/Effanel Music's lead music mixer, stated: "We had such success the first time we used the Genelec DSP system a

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UK - Show Hire, the Milford-based PA rental company, has made a significant investment in Electro-Voice loudspeaker systems in order to stay abreast of its increasing workload at outdoor events, notably high-profile equestrian competitions such as the Burghley and Badminton Horse Trials, and county shows.

Nick Chubb of Show Hire purchased a number of Electro-Voice Zx100T loudspeakers and PA2400T amplifiers from Shuttlesound, after a successful test-drive of the equipment at the Badminton Horse Trials earlier in the year. At Burghley, the new 100V line compact cabinets were mounted on poles around the large arena, where the dressage and show-jumping elements of the three-day eventing competition are staged, along with demonstrations, workshops and prize-giving ceremonies.

"Everything we do at Burghley is temporary," explains Nick Chubb. "We can't even concrete a

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UK - Showsec has been selected to manage audiences and artist backstage areas for the Academy Music Group (AMG) as it expands its network of music venues across the UK with the recent opening of Carling Academy Oxford in September. The new AMG Oxford concert and club venue opened its doors with shows by New Young Pony Club and The Magic Numbers.

Showsec has enjoyed a strong working relationship with AMG management for the past ten years at its other venues including Shepherds Bush Empire, London, and Carling Academy venues in Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle.

Showsec's area manager, London, Steve Reynolds said: "We are proud to be working with the AMG team at the new Carling Academy Oxford, where we will be ensuring artists and clients enjoy a consistent standard of security and crowd management alongside their other award winning Academy venues."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Adlib Audio supplied their new Digidesign D-Show Venue live mixing console and new VerTec subs for The Fray, along with full audio production and crew for the band's recent UK Tour.

It was the first 'full Adlib experience' for The Fray's FOH and monitor engineers Mark Maher and Brian Joseph, and they were pleased with the results. James Neale looked after FOH and Richie Nicholson was on monitor duty. Joseph reports: "Richie and James are way above and beyond what we expected as crew - in terms of their knowledge, professionalism, hard work and total dedication to the job."

The sound system was a JBL VerTec line array. This varied in size day to day due to the wide variety of venues on the itinerary, with the full system running at 10 VT4889 elements per side, together with four VT4888s for front-of-stage in-fills, and eight VT4880 subs per side. All Adlib's VerT

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UK - Lighting designer Paddy Sollitt has specified 18 Robe 575 AT Series fixtures - six ColorWash 575E AT Zooms and 12 ColorSpot 575E ATs - for the Pigeon Detectives' current sold-out UK tour.

Sollitt was given a free hand in the lighting design and needed a lighting rig with plenty of creative options to match the band's intensely energetic live performance.

The 12 ColorSpot 575E ATs are all rigged on the back truss. Four of the ColorWash 575E AT Zooms are attached to the top of four vertical trussing sections stood behind the band on the deck, with the other two on the floor. The rig is a precursor to the one that Sollitt is designing for them next year, which steps up to much larger venues.

The 36-date Pigeon Detectives tour is carrying a large lighting 'specials' package supplied by Zig Zag Lighting which includes the four vertical trussing sections, with the Robe's prov

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UK - A sophisticated new restaurant, which celebrates Barbara Hulanicki's iconic 1960's fashion boutique Biba, has opened in Bristol's burgeoning waterfront area.

Situated on Welsh Back, Bibas Lounge Bar & Restaurant has been created in authentic art deco style by owner Costa Kkolos, and incorporates genuine memorabilia from the original Carnaby Street boutique.

Among the chrome and beveled mirrors, which form part of the £550,000 spent in developing the new infrastructure, is the type of Martin Audio sound reinforcement system you might expect to see in any of the world's leading dance venues.

Trevor Brooks, who runs local pro audio specialists CPM, was brought in to carry out a site survey after Kkolos heard the Martin Audio system installed by the contractors at nearby Barcelona Bar. The CPM proprietor and his freelance sound engineer Alan Crane knew immediately how

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UK - The opening of the High Speed 1 service at London St Pancras International this month saw the cream of the events world, including Arena Seating, work together to create one of the most spectacular launches this country has witnessed in recent years. With the Queen and Prime Minister Gordon Brown in attendance, security was at the highest possible level, while the production team worked under extraordinarily tight conditions to deliver a remarkable event.

The launch was produced by Flux Events for London & Continental Railways (LCR) under the technical direction of John Farquhar-Smith. The executive producer was Jon Teeman, with Mark Fisher providing creative direction.

Arena Seating's key role was to provide a temporary seating grandstand three metres above the level of the platform, with the additional challenge of having to position the structure over an eight metre de

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USA - Theatre Projects Consultants has been selected as the theatre design consultant for the Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center (DPAC). Theatre Projects has been involved with the planning of the performing arts centre since the late 1980s.

The design team also includes design architect Barton Myers Associates and acoustical consultant Artec Consultants. Most recently Theatre Projects collaborated with Barton Myers Associates on the Tempe Center for the Arts in Arizona which opened in September 2007.

(Jim Evans)

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