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USA - Joseph Volpe, former general manager of the Metropolitan Opera and former senior vice-president of Giuliani Partners, has joined Theatre Projects as director of strategic development.

"After my long and wonderful career at the Metropolitan Opera joining one of the finest theatre consulting companies is both logical and very exciting," states Volpe.

Richard Pilbrow, founder of Theatre Projects, states: "It is a tremendous privilege for me to welcome Joe to the Theatre Projects team. His rise at the Met from carpenter to general manager very much parallels our own, from backstage technicians to designing many of the world's most significant performing arts spaces. Our record of innovative and ground breaking theatre buildings will be enhanced by Joe's knowledg

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UK - The University of Glamorgan has recently teamed up with MA Lighting to offer training on the grandMA range of lighting consoles. This new relationship allows MA to offer regular free training sessions to users who are unable to easily travel to MA's London offices. Level 1 and Level 2 training courses are to be held at the University's facility in Treforest during May.

Level 1 training (12 May) is designed to give new users the ability to move around and work with the grandMA, grandMA light or grandMA ultra light consoles. Level 2 training (13-14 May) is designed to bring existing moving light and conventional lighting console operators to a competent level on those consoles.

"We are very excited to be able to work with MA Lighting in this way," commented Glamorgan's Stuart Green. "The University recognise the importance of training industry technicians and

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USA - German pro audio manufacturer d&b audiotechnik unlocked its latest treasures for all to view at the USITT exhibition in Houston, Texas last week. These included the latest additions to the company's renowned E-Series range, four new loudspeakers; the E8, E12 and E12-D as well as the E15X subwoofer and last but by no means least, their lightweight D6 amplifier.

Lightness and power typifies the new additions to d&b's multipurpose E-Series; thoroughly modern loudspeakers, the E8, E12 and E12-D combine astutely engineered polyurethane hard foam cabinets with highly efficient coaxial LF/HF drivers at their heart, say d&b. Designed for use as stand-alone, full-range loudspeakers, any of these models can be integrated seamlessly into larger d&b systems. All three models have rotatable horns, with patterns of 90° x 50°, 80° x 50° and 110° x 50° (h x v) resp

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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 - Pro Tapes & Specialties, a leading provider of pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) tapes for industrial and consumer use, has announced plans to expand and relocate all its operations to a single 140,000sq.ft. corporate headquarters and manufacturing centre in North Brunswick, New Jersey. The company also plans to invest $3.5m during its current fiscal year in equipment, facilities, and personnel.

The move to North Brunswick will be completed by 1 June of this year. Pro Tapes currently operates out of two facilities in Edison, NJ totaling 40,000sq.ft.

According to Pro Tapes executives, the company has enjoyed five consecutive years of double-digit sales growth, straining the capacity of its current production facilities. They forecast continued sales growth for 2008 and beyond in such key markets as contract converting and private-label services for the retail, paint and h

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UK - DiGiCo has chosen 5 Star Cases to manufacture an innovative flightcase solution - based around the popular industry 'Nosecone' type flightcase - for its recently launched SD7 console. 5 Star worked closely with DiGiCo's Chris Ladbrook, who heads the company's mechanical design team, to develop a case to meet the additional demands of this high specification console.

"We wanted a flightcase that took on the no-compromise design concept used on the SD7 project. Working through the process with 5 Star, it was clear that they value attention to detail as much as we do. It's a great case for an awesome console," says DiGiCo's managing director James Gordon.

(Jim Evans)

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Australia - Melbourne's St Paul's has had an ambitious restoration and conservation programme in place since 2001. Along with many important structural building repairs, substantial work on the interior and a major upgrade of the building's services is being undertaken.

A key component of the restoration is a complete reworking of the Cathedral's audio distribution system. To this end the services of Acoustic Directions' principal acoustics consultant Glenn Leembruggen were engaged. His brief was to design and commission a modern and effective audio system which would enable the Cathedral to more effectively conduct its ministry and communicate with the congregation.

Leembruggen is a pioneer in the use of beam steered line arrays and knew that this technology would be the best solution for the problems associated with long reverb times and multi-path reflections which are evid

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Thailand - Ten Years After Audio (TYAA), one of the leading audio rental firms in Thailand, provided the live sound system for the recent Assanee and Wasan Ram-Rai Concert at Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok. TYAA deployed JBL Vertec line arrays throughout the entire venue.

Brothers Assanee and Wasan Chotikul are popular, pioneering Thai rock artists. With a strong following of local fans and support by Thailand's music industry for over 20 years, Assanee and Wasan are being heralded for having brought back the classic rock era of the 70s and 80s. Their latest production, the Assanee and Wasan Ram-Rai Concert, drew a sell-out attendance of more than 50,000.

The audio system included a total of 54 Vertec VT4889 full-size line array elements, configured as 30 enclosures for left and right main arrays serving the open field, with four clusters of six VT4889 line array elem

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USA - Elation Professional has introduced LED fixtures based on tri-colour LEDs. Instead of each LED lamp being a single colour, the new tri-colour technology makes it possible for each lens to contain a combination of three 1W LEDs - red, green and blue. This advanced three-colour innovation gives users advantages over single-colour LEDs, including improved RGB colour mixing, the elimination of multi-colour shadows, and a much brighter, more even field, says the company.

Elation is introducing its first LED fixture to utilise the tri-colour technology, the DLED36 Tri-Brick. An RGB colour mixing brick, the DLED36 Tri-Brick features four heads, each containing three of the new tri-colour LED lamps for a total of 12 tri-colour lamps. With a 1W red, green and blue LEDs per lamp, there are a total of 36 1W LEDs in this high-output, compact fixture.

Eric Loader, director of sales f

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The Netherlands - Integrated Systems Events has opened its own operations office in Amsterdam. The hiring of a full-time operations team brings to an end ISE's four-year working relationship with Congrex, which had handled ISE's event management since 2005.

Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, comments: "With our main Integrated Systems Europe show in Amsterdam breaking all exhibitor and attendee records this year, and further expansion inevitable, we felt it was time to bring the functions previously performed by Congrex in-house, so that they can be carried out by a dedicated team."

ISE's new Amsterdam team will be headed up by Martine Niermans, who becomes operations director. Niermans has worked for Amsterdam's RAI Convention Centre as an event co-ordinator for four years, and was the venue's ISE Account Manager when the show first came

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Australia - Easter 2008 saw the Australian Gospel Music Festival celebrate its tenth anniversary with a name change to Easterfest. Getting bigger by the year, the festival featured seven stages across Queens Park in the centre of the city of Toowoomba, Queensland.

Located inside a large six pole tent, the festival B stage -called the Bigtop - featured a full Electro-Voice sound system, including XLC/XLD combination line arrays, QRx 218 subs, and a spread of new Phoenix monitors, all powered by EV amplifiers.

The Bigtop stage also relied upon EV equipment at the input end of the signal chain, thanks to a complete EV microphone kit. Along with a number of RE-1 wireless systems, a pair of new REV wireless handheld transmitters, custom supplied in chrome, made a visual impact.

The REV dual receiver was purchased by longtime festival FOH engineer Phill Webb."I have an

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Italy / USA - LDR (Luci della Ribalta) the Italian lighting manufacturer and Strong Entertainment Lighting, the leading American followspot manufacturer, have jointly announced an exclusive, multi-year distribution agreement for the whole LDR range in the United States.

Under the terms of the agreement, Strong will market and distribute the extensive LDR product line of theatre, television and architectural products in the US using their existing distributor network.

"The US market is very significant market for us," said Fabiano Besio of LDR. "Strategically, Strong is the right partner at the right time. They are very well established and have significant distribution skills in the US. Together, following the success of the Canto followspot line, we look forward to expand our sales in the theatre and architectural market sectors."

Paul Rabinovitz, vice-p

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USA - Clair Brothers Systems has installed six Dolby Lake Processors at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York to control a zoned and distributed speaker system that is part of a complete audio system upgrade and modernization at the venue. The multipurpose HSBC Arena is home to the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres and the National Lacrosse League's Buffalo Bandits and hosts a variety of other sporting events in addition to music concerts, ice shows and other entertainment.

Jim Devenney, senior audio designer, Clair Brothers Systems, selected the Dolby Lake Processors for their familiarity, he said. Although the processors may be controlled from a wireless tablet, Devenney said: "They have a rack-mount computer with which to control the system. They didn't feel there was a need to go around tweaking the system once it was in and tuned."

The full audio system replacem

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Australia - Viewed by over 300,000 spectators, the 30th Annual Sydney Mardi Gras Parade was held in Sydney's Darlinghurst on 1 March. The massive 4km procession travelled over a 1.6km route and was made up over 150 floats and 10,000 participants.

Produced and designed by Wayne Mulder of Sydney's Action Sound, the Wireless Solution system was featured on the Surf Life Saving Australia's float themed Whatever floats your boat. W-DMX was used to communicate between the two float trucks that travelled anywhere from 150 to 200m apart. Dancing between the two trucks was a contingent of life savers, illuminated by four City Lights that were required to change colour on cue.

"It was very important that the lights on the two trucks were in sync without the need to have two lighting controllers and two operators," says Mulder. "Through the use of W-DMX we were able

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Germany - The Kosmos, located close to the famous Alexanderplatz in Berlin was the largest most modern and popular cinema of the former GDR. In the old times it had more than 1000 seats. The building now stands under landmark protection, and since 2005 has been operated by Kosmos KG Berlin, which offers made-to-measure entertainment concepts for all kinds of events.

Kosmos offers five different halls plus a summer terrace and a lounge. The entrance hall has a capacity of approximately 600 people, in addition to two conference areas and a theatre auditorium.

The oval main hall extends over 1000sq.m. More than 10% of the space is reserved for the main stage with a 18x9m cinema/video screen and two 4x3m screens on the stage sides. Halls 2 to 4 are mainly used for seminars and theatre performances. The main hall is designed for big events and club dancing.

Two 10kW JBL Sound-Pow

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Germany - Designed for the working musician, HK Audio's Premium PR:O series now offers further flexibility with the addition of new versions of all models with integrated Class-D digital power amplifier, providing 600W RMS. This only adds an extra 1.5kg to the overall weight of the boxes, the company says, thanks to its innovative internal cooling system.

The powered components have been designed to match the tonal qualities of the passive versions, and to further facilitate the use of both powered and passive components in one system, the powered cabinets are equipped with a parallel 'speaker out' which allows another passive cabinet to be fed.

All full range cabinets come with gain and tone (music/speech) controls and a Mic/Line switch. Furthermore, the integrated active stereo crossover in the Premium PR:O 18 Sub A makes system expansion even easier. The light weight and en

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Germany - Robert Juliat's presence at ProLight & Sound,Frankfurt, proved considerable with the company "clocking up impressive sales across its followspot range". Foremost amongst these were the Lancelot 4K HTI image projector and the latest followspot model, the 1800W MSR Victor, both of which attracted many orders on the stand, says the company.

"We were extremely pleased with the interest generated by our stand again this year," comments Lionel Garraud, international sales director. "The Lancelot has really come into its own now with customers grasping the concept behind its motorised, modular design. They are now using it in ways which exhibit its full potential beyond that of just a followspot.

"The Victor is winning fans rapidly following its launch at PLASA last year. This is the first time it has been shown in Germany and the response has

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UK - The University of Surrey Students' Union in Guildford is the home to Rubix, the campus-based nightclub, which recently had a new Turbosound loudspeaker system installed.

The multi-levelled nightclub has a capacity of up to 1,500 students and sits directly on top of the Students' Union building. There are five areas: the main dance floor, Haris, the Bottle Bank, PJDs Bar and the main foyer and walkthroughs.

Ian Lipp, technical manager of Rubix explains the reasoning behind the new install: "The previous system was 10 years old and sounded like it needed replacing. The old one was a cross between an installation and a touring rig that we used in our other venues. We wanted to get a rig installed that was designed purely as an install for our club without the requirement of needing it to be used elsewhere."

The Turbosound products that make up the installation ar

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UK - Blaydon Communications has announced that after more than 40 years in charge, managing director Dave Chapman, has decided to retire from the company.

During his reign Chapman has guided the company through many avenues of the sound and communication industry. From the humble beginnings of supplying, installing and maintaining such things as push-button intercoms, right through to the current line of business which includes all aspects of Public Address, pro sound, induction loop, visual systems, digital conference ystems and CCTV.

Throughout his time in the industry Chapman has forged friendships with many fellow distributors and installers assuring him of a respected status both currently and for future ventures that he may be involved in. He has set up distributorships with some major players in the audio industry including TOA, RCF, KV2, Beyerdynamic and many more.

B

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UK - An Allen & Heath iDR DSP system has been installed in St Paul's Church in London's Covent Garden as part of an overhaul of the sound distribution system.

The church, affectionately known as 'The Actors' Church' because of its long association with the theatre community, commissioned Autograph Sales to supply, design, install and programme a new audio system in time for the Julian Slade memorial where a host of stars, including Christopher Biggins, Jeremy Irons and Humphrey Barclay, turned out to pay their respects.

EM Acoustics speakers and MC2 amplifiers were installed in the main areas, with JBL speakers in the foyer and vicar's office. Processing is provided by the Allen & Heath iDR-8, which offers easy operation for non-technical users.

"The iDR-8 allows control of system presets, levels and muting from the front panel of the iDR-8 or from three remote location

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Denmark - Martin Professional's Magnum line of fog effects is now complete with the introduction of the mid-range Magnum 850.

This replacement for Martin's popular Magnum 800 fogger, upgraded with new electronics and a new design to match the rest of the Magnum family, is Martin's latest fog solution for small clubs, mobile DJs, bars, bands or any venue where a mid-air projection canopy or atmosphere enhancing effect is needed, says the company.

The compact Magnum 850 uses a 750W heat exchanger together with a piston pump to punch out a full 200m3/min of dense fog. The delivery of a continuous and even level of fog and the incorporation of soft-start electronics means that the Magnum 850 operates at a very low noise level.

"This new series of Magnum fog machines has been created with the ambition to capture new technology and solid performance in a new design," sta

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Germany - At the recent ProLight & Sound in Frankfurt, RCF unveiled a raft of new products for 2008. Standing out among these is the new ART 7 Series the latest addition to its ART amplified speaker range.

The ART catalogue has been expanded with the 7 Series, representing "a series of speakers that combine the results of a major functional and acoustic study with a new design".

The new ART has a cabinet specifically designed for use by musicians in live performances. Its structure is designed to dampen vibrations and the reflex tubes have been resized for improved efficiency.The handles are in fully rubber-coated aluminium for a more ergonomic grip.

All the loudspeaker models are equipped with a new generation of powerful, cutting-edge 750W digital amplifiers - 250 for the compression driver and 500 for the woofer. Each amplifier presents both XLR/jack (Combo) bal

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