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UK - Marquee Audio is in administration. The Shepperton-based supply, distribution and install operation which has been in business for 20 years, is understood to have been experiencing financial difficulties.

Robert Keys of Tenon Recovery was appointed joint administrator of the company by the High Court last month. "This move effectively bubble wraps the company to protect it from its creditors and give it some breathing space in which to sort out its affairs," says Keys.

The administrators are in talks with potential purchasers of the company and its constituent parts and report some interest from within the industry.

There are three levels of creditors - chargeholders such as banks that have issued secured loans, employees and general trade creditors. How much an

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USA - Chris Brown recently completed a multi-city US tour, which ended just one week prior to his appearance on the 50th Annual Grammy Awards telecast last month.

J&R Audio of Las Vegas, NV, handled the audio production for Brown's tour exclusively. Rick Camp, a long-time Pro Tools user and J&R's senior audio consultant, says: "As an FOH engineer by trade and a Pro Tools user since 1997, it just made sense for me to recommend using Venue live. I had mixed a couple of one-offs on the D-Show about two years ago and fell in love with it. The D-Show software is [also] very intuitive. Its flow is that of an analogue console for the most part.

"Virtual Soundcheck gives the artist a chance to stand with the engineer at front of house and critique the mix and also the band's performance during sound check," Camp explains. "It allows for tweaking the comps and gates

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UK - Man-of-the moment Mark Ronson, who recently received a Grammy for his role as producer on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album just days before winning a BRIT Award as Best Male Artist for his own release Version, has recently completed a tour of the UK with his own band.

Ronson's 12-piece band, including string and brass sections, plays with a variety of guest vocalists - rarely the same bill twice. In the UK alone, the guest list has included Amy Winehouse, Adele, Tim Burgess of the Charlatans, rapper Rhymefest, and Australian vocalist Daniel Merriweather. One of the few faces always to be found in the same place is front-of-house engineer Matthew Kettle, sitting behind a DigiDesign D-Show mixing a Nexo GEO T line array system, supplied by SSE Audio Group.

Kettle, who is a regular user of Nexo's GEO technology, has specified a digital network for the show,

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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Australia - During the recent APEC summit in Sydney, an entire fleet of yachts sailing through Sydney Harbour were illuminated with SGM Palco 5 fixtures with OEM installed W-DMX receivers.

The exhibition was part of a showcase for the leaders and ministers from 21 APEC economies, displaying the best that Sydney has to offer. The APEC summit involved a series of meetings focused on the discussion of economic, trade, security and environmental topics.

Produced and designed by Mark Hammer of Hammer Lighting, in conjunction with Simon Crow of Chameleon Touring, the sailing display was part of the formal finale event hosted at the Sydney Opera House.

Each of the yachts involved had their sails illuminated by two SGM Palco 5 RGB LEDs with onboard W-DMX receivers, on either side of their sails. The effects included colour changing, rainbow effects, chases and the ability to light u

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Germany - Traditionally taking place at the turn of the year, the international Four Hills competition (or "Vierschanzentournee) ranks alongside the World Championships and Olympic Games as one of the most prestigious events in the winter sports calendar. The most recent competition, which ran from 30 December 2007, to 1 January 2008 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, was the 56th Vierschanzentournee and featured a new runway, further heightening media interest in the event.

For the tenth year running, the event's organizers relied upon production company TC Showtechnik of Uffing am Staffelsee in Upper Bavaria to provide sound reinforcement. The team, led by managing director Martin Schulze and Stefan Rehthaler, opted once again to use systems from EVI Audio.

This year the centrepiece of TC's sound reinforcement concept was the Electro-Voice XLD compact line array s

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USA - After 15 years of in-depth training for industry professionals, Tomcat USA launched a new series of courses for 2008. A team of instructors and about 70 participants from all over the United States, Canada and Mexico converged on Midland, Texas for the launch of Tomcat's Hoist & Truss workshop and Rigging & Truss workshop.

The Hoist & Truss workshop featured the disassembly and reassembly of a one ton Lodestar as well as a Prostar with Dave Carmack of Columbus McKinnon. Dave Sowa of Tomcat USA led a discussion on control systems and also coached an advanced troubleshooting session. Instruction was rounded out by Dana Bartholomew of Fisher Technical Services, Inc. who gave instruction and demonstrations on automation.

Rocky Paulson, retired president of Stage Rigging Inc., taught safe rigging practices and principles while Morgan Neff of Mine Safety Appliances gave instru

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UK - The Smashing Pumpkins are on their third European run of their current world tour which features six different lighting designs, all based around a central theme of triangles.

The act decided to take some of the lighting equipment from Bandit America, which was seamlessly incorporated with Bandit UK's power distribution and motor systems- thus allowing the current system to meet codes throughout Europe.

"Apart from making the logistics flow, it was a great opportunity to show how inter-continental co-operation offers the client ultimate continuity," says Bandit UK's Lester Cobrin, adding, "It has been a great pleasure for us here in the UK to work with Chris Gratton (production manager) and his team."

Lighting designer Greg Shipley has been working with the band since June 2007. In that time, the lighting design has undergone several metamorphoses. E

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Germany - Kinesys will be exhibiting with new company Rigging Europe at ProLight & Sound this month in Frankfurt.

Rigging Europe has been formed by two of the largest and most well respected entertainment distributors in Europe, Sonoss of France and Louis Reyners of the Netherlands. Both are long-standing CM distributors and have been jointly distributing the Kinesys range in mainland Europe up to this point.

Dave Weatherhead of Kinesys explains further: "While both Sonoss and Louis Reyners have done a great job of representing and distributing Kinesys products so far, having two companies covering similar territory could lead to potential confusion as to which company to contact for information and products. The formation of Rigging Europe means that there is now a single point of contact across the whole of mainland Europe for both existing and new customers while still

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UK - Specialist audio visual distributor AVM has announced a new distribution partnership with Christie. The agreement sees AVM become Christie's distributor for the UK audio visual market and brings its range of single chip and three chip DLP projectors to AVM's channel customers.

Commenting on the new agreement, Mark Nisbet, AVM's managing director said: "Christie is recognised as a pioneer of DLP technology and their success in both professional display applications and in particular d-cinema has earned them and their products an unrivalled reputation for image quality. This expertise is reflected right across their range, and with their bespoke approach to developing projectors designed for individual applications, it means that resellers can offer truly tailored solutions to their customers."

Dale Miller, vice-president EMEA for Christie said: "We've chosen

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UK - Set in the heart of Northamptonshire, Sywell Aerodrome boasts one of the best general aviation airfields in the United Kingdom, as well as an aviation museum and the authentic art deco Aviator Hotel.

While awaiting permission to construct an all-weather runway, which they hope will be serviceable for Winter 2009, Sywell Aerodrome has wasted no time in developing its second hangar into a fully-equipped conference facility.

The contract for Hangar Two (as with Hangar One, developed five years ago) was awarded to Middlesex Sound & Lighting (MSL). The Harrow-based integrators have a relationship with the facility extending back a decade when Sywell Aerodrome managing director, Michael Bletsoe-Brown, first brought them in to equip the Cirrus Room - another function room at the Aviator Hotel.

After returning to install Martin Audio EM architectural speakers into Hangar One, o

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Canada - MDG, Montreal-based fog generators manufacturer, have announced that they have recently moved into new premises.

Located in Montreal North, the new facilities are 24,000sq.ft (2,300sq.m); essentially three times larger than their previous location. The new building has been completely designed to optimise MDG's production line and answer the accelerated growth that the company has known for several years, say the company. The fog generator manufacturer will also be hiring additional staff, who will work at these premises, on "state of the art technologies".

MDG'S customers will be the first to benefit from this expansion, which will allow the company to increase its efforts in R & D for new products. They will have at their disposal a vast showroom where they will be able to appreciate all equipment made available to them by MDG, be it the fog generators or

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Switzerland - Zero 88's Jester consoles are helping the company to continue its expansion into the TV sector with two recent studio installations in Switzerland.

The first installation was for a virtual studio for the French speaking Swiss Television station TSR. This 'blue box' studio has been commissioned by a mobile phone television company to produce news, sport and weather forecast programmes for their network. The 72sq.m studio includes a digital camera and 24 DMX softlights controlled by a Jester 24 console.

The second installation was for Canal 9 TV. Their new studio features 24 tungsten fresnel cyclo lights, 12 DMX softlights, another Jester 24 console plus five Betapack 3 dimmers from Zero 88.

"Both companies were impressed with the Jester consoles", explains Thomas Gottschlich of Swiss Light Consulting. "Firstly, having both a French manual and Fren

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France - The new Lexus launch ceremony at the National Theater in Tokyo, created and staged by Yves Pépin and his ECA2 team as part of a production by the Dentsu agency, has just scooped the Special Prize at the Japan Event Awards, the highest distinction in the Japanese events industry.

This latest award crowns French company ECA2 and Dentsu's collaboration with the world's leading car maker Toyota, for which Yves Pépin and his team had previously produced the Toyota Pavilion at the 2005 Aichi World Expo - an achievement that received the Best Live Event accolade at the 2007 THEA Awards, the most prestigious honours in the global experience industry.

In addition, the Songs of the Sea show in Singapore was in January named Best Tourist Attraction in Southeast Asia by the ASEAN Tourism Forum. This large-scale fantasy spectacular, devised and produced by ECA

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UK - PSL's video display technology was deployed in an innovative musical performances, as non-conformist band The Bays joined with the Heritage Orchestra for the world premiere of a new piece of music which was being written as the musicians played. This hugely ambitious musical challenge was undertaken at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, as part of the city's Fresh festival.

The Bays famously don't rehearse; their music is improvised and spontaneous, and different at every performance. But this show was edgy, even by their standards. Musicians in the Heritage Orchestra played the notes in real time as they were written by two 'live composers' John Metcalfe and Simon Hale; with the four members of the Bays - drummer Andy Gangadeen, bassist Chris Taylor and keyboard and effects men Jamie Odell and Simon Richmond - joining in, the results prompted Metcalfe and Hale to interact an

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South Africa - Celine Dion kicked off her Taking Chances world tour with nine dates in South Africa, where lighting equipment was supplied by Gearhouse South Africa.

Part of the rig designed by Yves Aucoin, Celine's LD for 19 years, and also the production designer on this tour, involved using Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs as key lights for the band and central onstage positions. The 12 Robe fixtures were rigged on the downstage edges of two U-shaped trusses. "They are a very bright light and I knew we could count on them," says Aucoin.

t was only his second experience using Robe fixtures. The first had been for a radio show in New York, where most of the moving lights were Robes, and he was impressed with the performance. He adds, "I had also heard a lot of good things about Robe lights."

Aucoin programmed and operated the show using a GrandMA console.

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UK - The Institute of Acoustics has issued a call for papers for its Reproduced Sound 24 Conference, which is to be held at The Old Ship Hotel in Brighton on 20-21 November 2008. This year's event will follow on from the very successful conference held at The Sage, Gateshead in November of last year.

Nick Screen of Duran Audio is part of the conference's organizing committee, and says: "Reproduced Sound is a great opportunity for people with an interest in electro-acoustics and pro audio to come together, share ideas, push forward new concepts and technologies and network with fellow industry professionals and talk about subjects close to our hearts."

The call for papers in now out and the committee is looking for papers covering the following topics:

Auralisation and sound art
Multi-channel sound perception, creation and coding (Ambisonics, Wave Field Synthe

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UK - Media Powerhouse has announced the arrival of video engineering expert Simon Cox, formerly of Blitz Communications.

Cox joins after 10 years as head of engineering at Blitz and has long experience of developing video and widescreen video. He was responsible for its video offering and designed a multipurpose Multi Definition Portable Production Unit (MDPPU) which proved to be a tremendous success with clients.

At Media Powerhouse, Cox will assist in the research, development and sourcing of new equipment to ensure that the business is at the forefront of video technology and provide quality solutions for its increasing client base, says the company.

Simon Cox comments: "I am extremely excited to join such a new and ambitious company. I'm also looking forward to working together with Kevin Orwin to design and supply the very latest technologies and equipment availabl

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USA - The North American leg of Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight World Tour, which has to date has passed through southeast Asia, Australia, and most recently Europe and UK, started in Omaha, NE on 12 February. Pre-production rehearsals took place in Baton Rouge and Lafayette for a week with Ben Cabot, Adamson's tour support flying out for initial set-up support.

Some of the new technical aspects for this leg of the tour include a new, fully automated lighting rig. On the sound side, Linkin Park carry on with FOH engineer Ken van Druten, whose full Adamson set-up for mains, sides, delays, and front- fills, remains as number one on the LP technical rider. Kevin McCarthy, LP's monitor engineer also continues requesting 16 Adamson M15 monitors combined with in-ears, for a monitor rig.

Tour Manager Jim Digby engaged the complete sound rig with full turnkey package from Ato

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UK / South Africa - Wirral-based Lift-Turn-Move (LTM) has just staged two motor schools in Johannesburg. The first was at leading lighting and rigging sales company DWR Distribution and the other at the country's largest rental and production facility, Gearhouse South Africa.

LTM's John Jones taught his first South African Motor School in 1999 at Gearhouse and has returned three times since then to do Motor Schools. He says: "I really enjoy the energy of South Africa. The thirst for knowledge here is incredible, and it's great to see such a wide cross section of people wanting to take their technical knowledge and understanding of such an important part of the industry forward."

The motor schools took the standard format of 16 places - with a couple of extras squeezed in. They were presented by LTM's Dave Ward, who did the majority of the technical talk, while Jones

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UK - In early March, Stage Electrics was the first supplier of lighting, sound and rigging at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool. Stage Electrics was contracted by Steve Burrell at LXFX on behalf of the Social Enterprise Coalition.

The BT Convention Centre is a purpose built meeting facility that consists of three auditoriums, 18 breakout rooms and a 3,725sq.m multi-purpose hall.

The centre hosted the Social Enterprise Coalition's VOICE08 Conference with Stage Electrics responsible for the provision of two 30m truss structures along with lighting and sound systems. The project was overseen by Stage Electrics' project manager David Wicks, account manager Chris Philpott, with sound by Rob McNeil and lighting by Tim Massey.

Production manager Steve Burrell from LXFX in East Sussex commented: "I was very pleased with the way Stage Electrics dealt with this project

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UK - Clockaudio has announced a restructuring of its distribution channels in the UK, appointing two partners for the brand: Tukans, the business-to-business AV specialist based in the north of England, will act on behalf of Clockaudio alongside CIE-Group, one of the UK's largest suppliers of commercial audio equipment to the installation sector.

Rod Geary of Clockaudio has taken the unusual step of sharing distribution of Clock's portfolio between two agents. "Their skillsets and their customer bases are very different, and both companies will have substantial input into building up Clockaudio's presence in the UK marketplace. Tukans has established knowledge of our brand, having worked with us for the past 3 years; they present our products to leading systems integrators in the AV installation business, and are highly oriented towards technical service and support. CIE-Gr

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