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USA - Engineered Audio Rentals is using a combination of the latest high-performance, compact sound solutions from Electro-Voice to address demanding corporate applications. Built around EV's versatile Phoenix PX1122M and PX1152M two-way loudspeakers and Tour Grade TG-7 microprocessor-controlled, class-H amplifiers running IRIS-Net software, EAR's latest system designs are both streamlined and powerful, the company says.

"We recently provided sound reinforcement for a major US-based agribusiness company's worldwide town hall meeting, held in the large auditorium at their headquarters in Decatur, Illinois," reports Benny Oldenburg of EAR. "Various executives presented on lavalier mics, including the CEO, so impeccable vocal reproduction, as always, was critical. Comp

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France - ETC France enjoyed an exceptionally busy Heavent 2007 show in Paris, launching two innovative new products - OnlyView 3D and the Focal Triple.

The stand was the result of a collaboration with three other international companies - UK-based Stage One, specialists in automation systems, stage machinery and set creations; Anglo-French draping and material specialists Blackout and lighting, LED screen and sound rental house, Lumière et Son Paris.

The stand and the live show presentation on it were designed by Fabien Martineau of Scenographism, who was also integrally involved in the R&D of the new OnlyView 3D product launched by ETC at the show.

The show centrepiece was a revolving cube, projected onto with video controlled by OnlyView 3D. This was Martineau's brainchild for demonstrating the versatility and scope of the system, on which he collaborated with ETC France'

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UK - Deacon Blue's UK tour was another first for the Midas XL8 Live Performance System, with consoles used at both FOH and for monitors. The systems were provided by Scottish rental company EFX, who took delivery of the XL8s just days before the tour began.

Deacon Blue's FOH engineer Dave Pringle was previously unconvinced that a digital desk would provide fast enough access, but the XL8 changed his view. "The way it's been designed to bring the channels to you means it's really quick," he says. "It's become like second nature, hitting a VCA and seeing the channels that are grouped on that VCA move over to the left. I've always used Midas consoles, and switching over to XL8 was much easier than I thought.

"It has so much potential and I've been learning something new every day. I'm using the automation, saving a scene for each song, storing the FX and mute

featured content

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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Czech Republic - To the delight of Czech jazzmen, the world's best jazz piano player Chick Corea arrived in Prague to give a concert at the prestigious Smetanova Hall. His technical rider, fulfilled by RentalPro, was satisfied by a Nexo Geo S8 and CD12 front-of-house PA, and a PS Series stage monitoring system.

Completely sold out, the much-anticipated show also featured legendary banjo player Béla Fleck. Although undemanding in terms of inputs (just 12), the show required nothing but the best quality sound reinforcement, controlled by an EtherSound network.

RentalPro flew Nexo Geo S8 arrays on either side of the proscenium arch stage, tucking the cabinets closely next to the decorative statues. Each array comprised nine S805s plus one S830 down-fill box, completed by two CD12 sub-bass units on the floor below. Four pieces of Nexo's PS8 cabinets were used as front-fill.

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Northern sales office has supplied the complete inventory of entertainment lighting, rigging and associated equipment for STS Touring Productions Ltd's new lighting hire division.

The launch of the division was timed to coincide with the10th anniversary of trading for STS, and is a natural progression to complete the full hire package that STS can now offer clients. PA, lighting, backline and staging equipment are all available in-house from STS.

The STS inventory includes Robe moving lights, the new Jands FPX dimming system, ETC and Avolites control, as well as Litec trussing and Manfrotto Grip equipment supplied by A.C.'s new dedicated Rigging division.

A.C. Lighting's Cable Express manufacturing department also played a key role in pulling the order together, producing all the made up cable, internally wired lighting bars and customised dimming system

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France - Rental company MPM was the first in the country to acquire Martin Professional's new LC Series of bright, semi-transparent LED panels. Seeking to diversify and strengthen its rental inventory - already stocked with Martin product - MPM chose the LC Series because of its power, modularity and value for money, among other assets, says the company.

Marc Morosini, general director for MPM, commented on the new possibilities the LC Series offers, "The image is an inescapable element in the conception of any set design today, naturally in television but also for a tour, festival or any show. It is obvious that the use of multimedia systems is largely facilitated by the strong development of digital and LED technology by our profession. Martin's LC 2140 video screens allow us to propose to our customers the integration of image as well as sound and light.

"Besides

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Switzerland - The summer season by Switzerland's ThunerSeespiele theatre company saw a month of performances of the musical Les Misérables take place on the company's unique outdoor stage, with a DiGiCo D1 console making its debut on front-of-house and monitors.

ThunerSeespiele (Lake Thun Plays), performs in a beautiful exterior setting, its stage built actually on Lake Thun near the town of the same name. The backdrop of the lake and mountains make its productions visually breathtaking.

Equally as important to the company is the audio component which, being outdoor, requires sound reinforcement. Specialising in high quality audio consultation, design, engineering and installation, Basel-based contractor Audiopool was chosen to supply the sound infrastructure to the production.

Audiopool has a long association with the DiGiCo platform, as it was one of the firs

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USA - Link, introduced the new DGlink digital audio distribution system, at the LDI Show in Orlando.

"The primary objective was to offer a solution that will replace, or integrate with, traditional audio distribution systems (analogue and digital) during live applications, utilizing one, or multiple, digital transport protocol standards over Cat 5 or 6 cables", said Marco Piromalli, president of Link.

DGlink is a modular touring grade digital audio distribution snake (48kHz/24-bit) designed for live applications leveraging the architecture of traditional Stage Boxes.

Supporting up to 64 mic/line level inputs and up to 64 line level outputs (foldback and drive sends), DGlink offers remote control of all stage box functions including control of phantom power, polarity, and gain settings, while maintaining a modular system that supports multiple configurations of inpu

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UK - FX Rentals has recently updated its extensive inventory with a wide range of new DJ gear. Now available for rental is the new Pioneer DJM700 DJ Mixer featuring a unique master filter which can be overlaid on any other effects and switched to sweep over the EQ band to filter frequency ranges. New effects include the Robot and Crusher, plus full MIDI mapping on all but three controls.

Other new DJ mixers on offer from FX are the Vestax PMC-08 Pro Digital Mixer and the Pioneer DJM909 and DJM800 DJ mixers, plus Allen & Heath's XONE:92 DJ mixer with six dual stereo channels, two offering mic inputs, totalling 10 stereo and two microphone inputs and a full range of connectors; this allows connection to four turntables, two mics, CD and MD players, drum machines and samplers.

FX has also added the Pioneer DVJ-1000 Pro DVD turntable with the same operation and layout as the CDJ-1

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USA - QSC has named Dale Sandberg as its new senior product manager. Sandberg, who comes to the post from dbx Professional Products, will take charge of guiding the development of the Costa Mesa, CA-based manufacturer's installed sound product line.

"Dale joins us at a truly venturesome time in our company's history," QSC VP of marketing Gerry Tschetter said upon officially announcing Sandberg's appointment. "With his solid background in multiple vertical markets, and reputation as an innovator of industry-leading technology, he'll be bringing fresh new insights into our marketing and product development efforts."

From 2005 until taking on his current role at QSC, Sandberg served as dbx's senior product manager in Sandy, UT. While with dbx, Sandberg's accomplishments included playing a vital role in the development and marketing of the DriveRack and ZonePRO

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Singapore - Traffic Jam is thought to be the biggest-ever street party to be held in Singapore, a carefully-collaborated event staged by Sony Ericsson and SingTel at Connaught Drive. This exclusive street party was open to only 2,500 partygoers and, with well-known American hip-hop/R&B group Arrested Development headlining the party, the event was the most sought-after ticket in town. Alongside Arrested Development were a few of Singapore's own bands like Electrico, Mystroe, Inquisitive, adding their own spice to the mix.

The events company taking care of the show was LTM Productions, one of the lighting and sound industry's most experienced operators, known for their expertise in setting up large-format PA systems for major events.

Sound engineer Justin Tan specified some of LTM's new Nexo Geo D10 arrayable loudspeakers, purchased a few months ago from Show Company. For the m

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UK - The Sudell Cross and Northgate area is a major transport route and an important pedestrian gateway, linking Corporation Park, the College and Strawberry Bank areas to Blackburn town centre. It was identified as a priority area for improvement and is part of a £1.1 million revamp organized by Blackburn Borough Council.

The Braid, a modern light feature soaring 32ft into the air, forms the centrepiece of the Sudell Cross and was unveiled in April of 2007. The feature was designed by renowned UK artist Simon Watkinson and built by the specialist bespoke metal fabrication and stainless steel architecture company, M-TEC of Darwen, part of the WEC Group.

This bold feature is now lit throughout the day and night in a changing array of colours. The lights used were 3M Martin Architectural Light Pipe with Color Kinetics ColorBurst 6 LED source fittings. The lighting w

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Singapore - The Singapore National Day has been celebrated every year, since 1966, on 9 August with the National Day Parade (NDP) which has been the main feature since the inception of the celebrations in 1966. A string of activities and events were held around the vibrant Marina Bay, including this year's NDP named City of Possibilities, or as it was officially nicknamed PossibiCities.

The event's appointed technical director Nick Eltis together with designer Paul Collison and audio designer Scott Willsallen were given an immense challenge by the Singapore Government: the event was to be the best audio and lighting extravaganza in the republic's history.

The NDP 2007 show comprised of five segments, Sea, Earth, Sky, People and Fire, weaved together by a central character SING, which symbolized the tremendous willpower and bountiful energy of Singapore and its pe

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World - It's been a busy year for Rihanna. The Barbados-born R&B singer climbed to the top of charts around the world with her global hit, Umbrella, and picked up two MTV Video Music Awards, plus an MTV Europe Music Award, for the song and its accompanying video.

Her success inspired a totally new live show, both artistically and technically, with the addition of a new band and the adoption of Sennheiser evolution wireless G2 personal monitoring systems and a Sennheiser SKM 5200 wireless handheld mic outfitted with an MD 5235 capsule.

"That microphone she sings on is fantastic," enthuses Rihanna's monitor engineer, Ricky 'Bongos' Galecki. "It's one of the best mics I've ever heard in my life."

"It works really well," reckons front-of-house engineer Davie Kirkwood, who has over thirty years of experience working with names like Joss Stone,

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UK - Show organiser PLASA Events reports that interest in PLASA08 is running high, with over two thirds of exhibitors having already rebooked their stand space and further applications arriving at the PLASA Events' offices daily.

On the back of the success of PLASA07, many companies have increased their stand size and several have doubled their space, setting PLASA08 on course to be the major industry event of next year. The success of the 2007 show has also been a catalyst for drawing back former exhibitors and generating strong levels of interest from new exhibitors, impressed with the professionalism and energy of the event.

The show management team has identified a range of new initiatives to develop and strengthen visitor attendance and is also focusing on a number of key areas for further development.

"One of the key messages that came across very powerfully from

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Ireland - Beacon South Quarter - situated in Dublin's southside - incorporates upmarket retail outlets, luxurious apartments, leisure facilities and Ireland's first children's Museum, Imaginosity. Situated next to the museum, the water feature brings a splash of colour to the exclusive surroundings. Conceived by Fountains Direct Limited, the fountain consists of directional jet arrays built as three squares (one inside the other), with water jets reaching up to 3m in height.

Each square is programmed via a computer to produce water jet sequences of different heights at set times. The concept that Fountains Direct designed consisted of a number of lighting fixtures which run parallel to the jet arrays, allowing unlimited colour mixing. As there were no systems available which could achieve this whilst submerged in water, a new scheme had to be purposely designed to their specific

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USA - Nexxus Lighting reports that it has been issued a new patent related to its LED lighting technology. US patent number 7,303,301 is for a unique method of heat-sinking an LED light engine in a lighting fixture when it is submerged in a body of water.

"As solid-state lighting expands its penetration into white light illumination, submersible applications such as fountains, pools and architectural water features are being transformed by digital technology. In order for these new high brightness LED arrays to achieve their promoted 30,000 to 50,000 hour rated life, we are developing new thermal management techniques to provide proper heat sinking," stated Mike Bauer, president and CEO.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Elation Professional has added a new model to its Opti Series of LED stage PAR cans. The new Opti 30 RGB is a high-output RGB colour-mixing PAR can with 12 powerful 1W LEDs which can be combined via DMX to create virtually any colour in the spectrum. Additionally, this fixture comes equipped with smooth colour changing macros, and manual control option, says the company.

A compact version of Elation's popular Opti RGB, the Opti 30 LED is billed as an ideal colour-changing stage light for smaller spaces and also fits easily into 12" box truss for truss toning. Its 1W LEDs produce more vibrant colours than the typical truss toner, casting "a dazzlingly brilliant glow on stage productions" the company says.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Aquagraphics, a company managed by effects specialist MTFX, has introduced the Aquagraphics programmable water screen.

The screen uses hundreds of individually controllable jets of water to form precisely-controllable falls of water droplets, to create text, graphics or logos and various effects for branding and messaging applications.

Aquagraphics is a 2.4m-long linear bank water jets, illuminated by LEDs. The units can be truss mounted, stand alone, framed or un-framed, the company says.

(Lee Baldock)

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Germany - Camco has introduced its new Q-Power Series of high-output 4-channel power amplifiers. At launch there are two models in the Series, the Q- Power 6 and Q- Power 10, both of them 19" 2U 4-channel amps using class D and class H technology respectively and benefitting from developments in Camco's proprietary dual-voltage SMPS with automatic voltage selection for 120V/230V operation. They are designed for live sound and theatre applications.

Rated at 2500W (Q-Power 10) and 1500W (Q-Power 6) peak power RMS output at 4 Ohms, the Q-Power 10 offers 625W per channel for 100V line operation, and the Q-Power 6 will deliver 950W per channel for 70V line operation. Although the Q- Power units represent a high-tech 'no-frills' alternative, they have been given careful consideration when it comes to basic features, for example, having XLR and Phoenix input connectors, and Speako

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UK - Avolites has announced that Lighting Partners will be its exclusive partner for the sale of used Avolites equipment.

Continuing its commitment to quality used equipment sold through usedlighting.co.uk, the Avolites collaboration will see consoles serviced and refurbished at Lighting Partners South London base by Avolites trained technicians. This will ensure the exacting standards customers have come to expect from Avolites will be upheld as the consoles enter their second life, says the company.

David Morgan of Lighting Partners commented: "We are thrilled to be able to work with such an esteemed manufacturer as Avolites. The optional addition of a cost effective Avolites- backed one year factory warranty and other upgrades, pushes further the quality of used equipment from usedlighting.co.uk".

Avolites' Phil Blue added: "Our new collaboration with Light

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