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Sweden - Lighting designers Flux have lit up the prestigious SAS Radisson Hotelin Linkoping, Sweden, using Dialight Lumidrives' LED modules. The hotel exterior uses Dilaight Lumidrives' Colada 425 linear LED modules driven by a Colourdriver 36 controller to create six columns of colour on the building's front façade.

Colourdriver 36 gives control of up to 36 LEDs, is compliant with Luxeon power light sources and can be remote mounted by up to 30 metres from the LEDs. With thermal feedback protection and a three-channel driver powering a minimum of four to a maximum 36x350mA LEDs, Colourdriver 36 is ideal for exterior architectural lighting, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - At the Opening Ceremonies of the 123rd AES Convention in New York City, Soundcraft technical director and co-founder Graham Blyth was presented with the Fellowship Award "in recognition of his distinguished career in mixing console design and service to the Society", noted AES President Wieslaw Woszczyk, who officially conferred the award at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

"I was both surprised and delighted to be awarded an AES Fellowship, particularly because I've never presented any papers on my subject," notes Blyth. "What I have learned and done in the 37 years I've been designing consoles has more to do with having green fingers and a very inquiring mind than any structured research process, so I was flattered for the recognition of my contributions. It was also an honour to share the stage with such luminaries as Bob Ludwig, Phil Ramo

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Germany - Stephen Rodway has joined Telex/RTS with responsibility with immediate effect for Eastern Europe and the rapidly growing Russian market.

Comments Nico Lewis, director sales CCS EMEA, "I am absolutely delighted that we have been able to secure the services of yet another seasoned expert to add to our team. Stephen has already accumulated many years of precious experience in the broadcast, intercom and telecommunications market and has been active in a leading role for the last seven years in a variety of regions."

For years, I have admired the innovations and company philosophy of Telex/RTS," says Rodway. "To be a part of the firm now fills me with pride."

(Jim Evans)

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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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The Netherlands / USA - The Genlyte Group Inc, the US-based manufacturer of lighting fixtures, controls, and related products for the commercial, industrial, residential and entertainment markets, has announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Philips Holding USA Inc - a fully-owned subsidiary of Royal Philips Electronics.

The agreement will see Philips will acquire Genlyte - whose entertainment industry brands include Vari-Lite and Strand Lighting - in an all-cash transaction for approximately US$2.7billion - creating one of the world leaders in lighting fixtures, controls and related products.

The acquisition will be conducted by means of a tender offer for all of the issued and outstanding shares of Genlyte, followed by the merger of Genlyte with Philips' acquisition subsidiary. The tender offer is subject to a number of customary closing conditio

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UK - London-based Source has announced a major programme of expansion for 2008, coinciding with its recent appointment as exclusive UK distributor of Genelec professional monitoring systems.

In January, Source takes up residence in new, 3000sq.ft premises in north-west London. The building combines offices, warehousing, technical support and product demonstration areas, providing Source with the room and facilities to accommodate a growth in both personnel and product lines.

In the first of a series of new staff appointments, Steve Fisher joins the company as its dedicated Genelec product specialist - with responsibilities for providing technical support to resellers and end users, performing Genelec product demos, providing dealer training and offering advice on speaker placement, room set-up and acoustic treatment. With a background in both architecture and sound recording,

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UK - Philip L. Edwards, a lighting manager from Glossop, has just returned from a five-week Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to America, touring universities and colleges. The aim of the Fellowship was to find out at first hand how they tracked the problems of staging student opera, and also how they set about training young theatre technicians and designers.

For Edwards, this was a chance to see how the Americans approach the problems he has been facing in his job for many years. Edwards is the lighting manager at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where he is responsible for the lighting of the College's performances - especially the operas. His job entails not only looking after and operating the lighting systems in the four performance venues and keeping up to date with developments in the field, but also the artistic design of the lighting for dramatic

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UK - The producers of the new London production of Rent, now playing at the Duke of York's Theatre, have brought in an entirely new creative team, led by Kylie Minogue's creative director William Baker, to take a completely fresh look at the show. Working alongside Baker were set designer Mark Bailey, sound designer Seb Frost, and lighting designer David Howe.

"The new design is conceived not as the 'grunge' look of the original, but as a clean white box - simple stylish lines with a white reflective floor, a raised dias in the middle for the apartment and, above, a clean shiny metallic bridge," explains David Howe. "This all meant that the available lighting positions were quite restricted, having only 1m of space between the safety curtain and the white walls, and quite high trim heights, over 9m, on hemp bars overhead, making access for focus and mainten

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UK - Blitz is helping another touring production of Dancing in the Streets to dance around the UK during its nationwide run.

Blitz has been commissioned by sound designer Ben Harrison to provide a complete touring sound system from its extensive and wide ranging stock. Blitz is providing a d&b C7 speaker system which is designed to provide a high quality, versatile solution to the problem of working in a wide variety of venues. Blitz is also supplying 14 Sennheiser 3072 handheld radio mics with 1046 receivers and PM5D live sound console.

Ben Harrison, explains: "Dancing in the Streets celebrates classic anthems by the likes of The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and many other soul musicians, and the systems have to compliment the music to ensure the best visual and audio experience for the audience. Blitz is passionate about theatre and this is conve

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Spain - PRG Europe has supplied the new Barcelona production of Mamma Mia!, following the show's hugely successful run in Madrid, where it not only broke the record for the city's fastest selling musical in the week after opening, but also holds the record as the highest grossing show in Spanish theatre history.

With a large rig comprising over 80 moving lights - including Vari-Lite luminaires - and over 300 conventionals, the show is set to open at Barcelona Teatre Musical on 29 November. PRG Europe will be supplying all lighting and control for the show. The venue is a multipurpose indoor arena recently converted from a sports stadium to take musical theatre.

Lighting designer is Howard Harrison, working with Pia Virolainen; programmers are Marcus Kromer and Ros Baker; production electrician is Ian Moulds working with electrician Chris Durnford; and production manager

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UK - South-coast PA installation consultancy, Creative Solutions, has specified a single array of Electro-Voice XLE compact cabinets for a Bournemouth church, making the most of its dispersion characteristics in the reverberant environment of an ancient C of E building.

St Swithuns of Bournemouth is home to the Bournemouth Family Church, part of the New Frontiers ministry, and host to a vibrant congregation which is growing so fast that it is looking for a second venue. The Church called upon Creative Solutions, and on the advice of John Ellis and David Howe of Shuttlesound (EV's UK distributor), chose to design a sound system that would handle all their speech reinforcement needs as well as provide amplification for the singers and bands that perform as part of the services.

The solution came in the shape of a single line array comprising six Electro-Voice XLE181 cabinets, fl

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Spain - Kusan, D.A.S. Audio distributor for Korea, has opted to install Aero line array systems at the Gyesan Central Church, located in the city of Bupyoung. The systems were chosen not for their lightweight and ease of use, but for their high-level performance and directivity, say the company.

Natural light is a major theme at this place of worship, housing a main hall which seats 4500 people. Kusan flew 16 two-way, compact CA-28A powered mid-high systems from the elaborate metal structure supporting the church's glass dome. On each side of the altar, eight CA-28A units were flown below four powered CA-215A bass units. The main system incorporates a Midas model V400/8/IP mixing console.

Roy Curtis from Kusan explains: "One of the main difficulties we had to overcome here was the building's bad acoustics, because it really has a high-level of reverberation and, on top of

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Sweden - Skottes Music Theatre has commenced its new season with Rolf Berlin's dramatization of Bram Stoker's classic, Dracula. The 19th century theatre has just undergone a major refurbishment including new lighting and control equipment.

Lighting designer Micke Berglund has completed the installation for the production and made a specific request for LSC's e24 dimmers. "If we want either dimmed or straight power we can configure each channel to whatever we want it to be. Along with the remote monitoring option it's no longer just a dimmer," comments Berglund. "I know that the Culture Centre will have lots of fun with these for a long time to come."

Interlite in Sweden supplied the equipment.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - On 12 October, Take That's Beautiful World tour kicked-off with its first sold-out concert in Belfast. Making sure fans were treated to the night of their lives, Take That added glitter and glam to the show with Element Labs' Stealth LED displays totaling 250sq.m, which act as backdrops to the band's high energy performance.

The Stealth LED display, supplied by rental company XL Video, consists of three columns - used as two columns of 16 panels wide and 25 panels high on either side of the stage, as well as one column centre-back of 19 panels wide and 25 panels high.

TT Video's production team Andy Tonks and Richard Shipman, conceived and designed a unique way of exploiting the Stealth fan-fold capacity to enable the 200sq.m to be rigged at the speeds which production manager Chris Vaughan demanded. Dollies housing the processors allow for the screens to be hung a

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Spain - iLight's intelligent lighting control products are at the heart of a new visitor attraction on the Spanish island of Mallorca. The House of Katmandu is an interactive adventure-style attraction in the centre of Magaluf, which takes the form of a 1600sp.m 'upside down' Tibetan-style mansion.

The control of lighting, and other systems including animatronics, was the responsibility of Technovations, an Essex-based technical design company that creatively uses sound and light to provide fully choreographed and controlled features to museums, exhibitions and theme parks.

"This type of job, with substantial lighting dimming, isn't exactly unique these days," said Technovations director Graham Owens, "but the way we went about it was probably a little unconventional."

The usual approach would have been to use a show control system, which could be anythin

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Belgium - Artcoustic Loudspeakers are providing the audio solution for The Institute of the High Studies of the Social Communications (IHECS) in Brussels. At its on-campus conference facility, The Institute was faced with the requirement for more technology-based multimedia presentations, as they could no longer afford an under-utilised venue.

The venue consists of a large conference room with seating for 400, as well as several smaller rooms, each with seating for 130. The challenge was to install a high quality AV system, including sound reinforcement and multimedia capabilities for the whole facility.

A major objective was that he system was unobtrusive and would not affect the interior design. The Institution turned to the Engineer Bureau Droyers to provide the solution and selected Strobbe Sprl to install the system.

Strobbe, the Artcoustic dealer for Benelux, chose a s

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UK - Hawthorn's recently acquired Rex Howard has supplied drapes to three major TV shows this autumn in a reality TV hat-trick. Hawthorn has supplied drapes to BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, ITV's The X Factor and Sky One's Cirque de Celebrite.

Hawthorn's MD, Martin Hawthorn, commented: "We are delighted to have acquired Rex Howard and we are all really enjoying working with their clients in the TV and Film industries. It is a great complement to our theatre and corporate event work, and we look forward to increasing our joint stock of drapes on an ongoing basis."

(Jim Evans)

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Denmark - Martin Professional has introduced Light Fox, a simple and inexpensive interface for control of colour changing luminaires in fixed installations. Light Fox is billed as an easy-to-use, wall-mounted, playback controller optimised for Martin's range of fluorescent Cyclo, LED Extube and LED Stagebar luminaires, but capable of controlling all types of RGBW fixtures.

Light Fox comes with 20 pre-programmed scenes - static colours or colour changing. Anyone can easily connect the controller and run programmes for quick atmosphere adjustments. Light intensity is also adjustable for instant mood manipulation, says the company.

The lighting presets are pre-programmed to achieve market-useful lighting looks with smooth cross-fades between presets. Free-for-download, Design Fox software allows for easy re-programming of presets. DMX communicable if needed, Light Fox can mange u

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Audio division has been selected as an authorised UK distributor for the Powersoft pro audio power amplifier range, the company has announced. A.C. Audio was selected as one of only four distribution partners in collaboration with Sennheiser UK, based on its distribution capability, familiarity of product, stock holding facility and a reputation for providing elite products and customer support.

A.C. Audio Sales Manager Peter Butler commented: "We are very keen to be a part of the Powersoft distribution partnership. We have always been a fan of the product portfolio due to its adaptability and reliability, and are looking forward to working closely with all parties involved to showcase these products in the UK marketplace."

Powersoft has a strong reputation of producing high end amplifiers for the pro audio industry. The company's products have a

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Belgium - Earlier this month, Visual Productions supported Quiet & Shadow, its new dealer in Belgium at the ACF trade show. The relationship between Visual Productions and Quiet & Shadow began in September this year when the Belgium Sales company was still under the name of The Blue Squares Group.

During ACF Maarten Engels, director of Visual Productions, stated that he was "delighted to meet Quiet and Shadow's first customer for Canvix Matrix Control: GSF Sonoraisation" and to hear about "the two VisualDMX installation projects that are being supplied to the LED specialist company RGB-LED Lightin' Art."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - ESTA has announced the winners of the 2007 Dealers' Choice Product Awards which recognise outstanding entertainment technology products in three categories: Expendable, Widget and Equipment. These Awards, honouring product innovation, were established in recognition of the fact that dealers have an enormous impact on the success of a new product, as well as a unique perspective on its merits.

The winners for 2007 are: Expendable Category - Lex-Loc Cage Clamp NEMA Wiring Device from Lex Products Corp; Widget Category - Gel Miser from Apollo Design Technology; Equipment Category - Right Arm from Apollo Design Technology.

The Dealers' Choice Product Awards were presented during the LDI 2007 awards ceremony on Saturday, 17 November in Orlando.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - It was around the middle of 2005 that experienced sound engineer Tom Marshall started working with Liverpool band, The Coral - brought in by tour manager Pete Hillier to look after the FOH position.

Since that Invisible Invasion tour, Marshall has remained the band's first choice, taking Adlib Audio's production across Europe - punctuated by stints in the US and Japan.

But it was the less likely location of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London this summer during the iTunes Festival that provided his first opportunity to mix on the Soundcraft Vi6.

"I had already seen Dave Kay using it at FOH on the Scissor Sisters tour, where it was also used as a recording console," he reports. "I really enjoyed using the desk at the ICA but it wasn't until the latest full production tour (to promote the band's fifth album Roots And Echoes

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