Details
USA - Electro-Voice XLC 127DVX compact line arrays are employed on the current tour by platinum-selling, CMA Award-winning country artists Sugarland. The tour sound and lighting systems are from Dale Morris Leasing, who have had had great success deploying the world's largest EV touring system - comprised of X-Line, XLC, P-Series remote control amps, and NetMax processing - on country superstar Kenny Chesney's record-breaking tours, providing sound for sold-out shows at some of the largest venues in the US.

Part of a system design by Phil Scobee of Dale Morris Leasing, XLC enclosures upgraded with new DVX-series woofers serve as the main PA for the Sugarland tour, offering increased power handling and enhanced frequency response. The EV equipment list includes 32 XLC boxes, 20 XLC

Details
UK - Lighting designer Dave Byars (Beautiful South, Young Knives, Blur, Deacon Blue & many more) has joined the product development team at Manchester based LED innovators, i-Pix.

He and i-Pix founder Chris Ewington have worked closely on various projects since Ewington launched the original Pixel range of products into the entertainment market in 2003. Byars used these products, and has also been a keen advocate of the first i-Pix fixture - the Satellite - and more recently their new BB range - integrating these into his designs and creative work.

"We're delighted to be working with Dave and to have someone of his touring experience on the team," declares Ewington, "His appointment also reinforces our commitment to ensuring that working LD's are actively involved in our product creation and development". This is one of the areas which helps keep I-Pix uniq

Details
UK - Arcola Theatre has demonstrated that there is no artistic compromise required to deliver low energy naturalistic lighting for classic works. Mehmet Ergen's critically acclaimed production of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People is lit on under 5kW.

The challenge was to light a naturalistic piece of theatre with a peak lighting load of just 5kW. For a previous show at Arcola Theatre The Living Unknown Soldier, LED and fluorescent sources were used to cut power consumption to this level, however the colours, dimming profiles, and quality of light given from the current generation of LEDs and fluorescents makes it difficult to use them in naturalistic pieces where the lighting should go unnoticed.

Lighting designer Michael Nabarro instead used a combination of lower-wattage and lower-voltage tungsten sources provided by Selecon, ETC and White Light to trim the overal

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

Details
USA - Located in Hallandale Beachin North Miami, Scarlett's Cabaret is 'part gentlemen's club, part nightclub'. "Scarlett's is a one-of-a-kind club, it's a hybrid," said Michael Meacham, lighting designer and programmer at idesign.

Helping to create the atmosphere is a long list of Martin gear that includes MAC 250 Kryptons, MX-10, MX-4 and Mania SCX600 scanners, and Wizard Extremes all brought to life by a Magnum Club Smoke system. Lighting control is from a Martin LightJockey.

Adding a distinctively decorative look to the club is a wall of Martin LC Series LED panels that work against mirrored pillars and chrome poles to emit a brightness that seems to increase in intensity and range throughout the venue.

"Its brightness is remarkable and reliable," said Meacham, who had the panels installed in the 'skybox' at the back of the club. "It took no long

Details
Another busy week headed by news of the official launch of the first PLASA Focus event, to be held in the Saviles Hall of the Royal Armouries in Leeds, on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 April 2009.

On the personnel front, there have been some key appointments confirmed in the increasingly-competitive loudspeaker sector. HK Audio has named Oliver Rückle as the company's new head of international sales. Prior to joining HK Audio, he spent seven years with beyerdynamic in Heilbronn, first as sales manager and then as product manager. At Community Audio, industry veteran Chris Foreman has been promoted to the position of vice-president, chief operating officer.

The Association of British Theatre Technician's ABTT Theatre Show is gearing up to celebrate its 30th birthday in London's Royal Horticultural Halls, 11-12 June 2008. Many new innovations on the lighting front will be showcased this

Details
UK - Utilising 24 Christie 20K projectors and 16 OnlyView servers for control, E/T/C London supplied multi-screen projections onto a distorted perspective set for the Lux Zee Cine Awards (ZCA) 2008. One of the most prestigious international Awards events on the Indian showbusiness calendar, it was staged this year at London's ExCel Centre and produced by Cineyug for Zee TV.

The starting point was an original set design by award-winning scenic designer Bart Clement, a special version of which was licensed for the event. This filled the limited 10m available headroom of the space, creating a widescreen feel, with its deceptive angles and shrinking points amplifying the depth of the space.

E/T/C projected onto the proscenium arch, the ceiling, both walls and the floor of the set, and each projection area was a different size and shape. All areas were projected in bold, striking i

Details
UK - Industrial and entertainment lifting gear specialists Hoist UK has recently taken a UK distributorship of the complete manual hand winch range from the Dutch winch manufacturer Gebuwin.

In addition to the competitive Verlinde range of manual winches Hoist UK can now offer a full range of spur gear models ranging from 125kg to 2,000kg and worm-gear winches with capacities ranging from 250kg to 5,000kg. Both the spur gear and worm gear winches come in either a painted finish or galvanised finish. All models have sealed bearings and adjustable crank handles.

Hans Siertsema, managing director of Gebuwin BV tied up the deal with Hoist UK's Paul Jordan and says: "As a manufacturer of hoisting equipment we are happy to do business with Hoist UK because their team has great knowledge of anything to do with professional hoisting. Whether standard or specialised equipment, the

Details
UK - PLASA Events has announced the official launch of the first PLASA Focus event, to be held in the Saviles Hall of the Royal Armouries in Leeds, on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 April 2009.

PLASA Focus - Leeds 2009, the successor to the A.C. Lighting North trade show, will be the first of an entirely new style of regional event under the PLASA Focus banner, with an emphasis on connecting the industry with exceptional networking opportunities.

It will be the perfect regional networking complement to the PLASA Show itself and will build on both the growing success of the redesigned and expanded PLASA Show and the legacy of goodwill created by A.C. Lighting North.

Taking the 'look and feel' of the latter as its basis, PLASA Focus - Leeds 2009 will see an expansion and development in many areas, including exhibitor space and seminar sessions, alongside partnerships with regiona

Details
USA - The Chauvet DMX D-Fi 2.0 upgrades the company's wireless DMX technology that has been in use for just over a year. Using two DMX D-Fi units will allow programmers to eliminate long cable runs over distances as far as 120m, the company says.

Version 2.0 of the D-Fi features more assignable frequencies, allowing users to run up to six separate universes inside one venue, and allowing for additional options when experiencing difficulties in transmission due to signal interference. Multiple units can also be assigned to a single frequency in order to split a signal or cross a vast expanse that would otherwise require long cable runs, the company says.

The D-Fi features LED indicators for operating mode (transmitter or receiver), frequency, and DMX signal transmission, key-hole slots for discrete wall mounting, and frequency indicator lights, say Chauvet.

(Lee Baldock)

Details
Germany - HK Audio has named Oliver Rückle as the company's new head of international sales. Prior to joining HK Audio, he spent seven years with beyerdynamic in Heilbronn, first as sales manager and then as product manager.

"I have great expectations for my new job at HK Audio, and I relish this opportunity to continue working for a global brand with a reputation for excellence," commented Rückle. His primary duties at HK Audio comprise caring for customers and managing marketing and sales activities.

Export director Andreas Mayerl added: "We are confident that Oliver is the perfect addition to our team, and are happy to have him join us in our efforts to drive our brand's controlled global growth."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - HSL supplied lighting equipment for LD Davy Sherwin and the We Are Scientists UK tour, which was sold out for the New York indie rockers.

"It's great to work with Davy again," says HSL's project manager Mike Oates. "He has a very creative eye and can make an expedient sized rig go a long way."

It was Sherwin's first tour with the band and his design was based on exploring the mixing of different qualities and textures of light emitted by LED and tungsten lightsources.

Upstage were four Litec wind-up towers at different heights, with a total variation of about a foot. These introduced form and architecture to the stage. Attached to the top of each of these was a 2m section of truss, each rigged with two Robe ColorWash 700E AT moving lights and four Showtec Sunstrips - with 10 individual channels of MR16 lights. Two of the Sunstrips were mounted vertic

Details
India - L-Acoustics reports that V-DOSC owner J Davis Prosound & Lighting, Bangalore, was chosen to supply the Dance Music concert featuring DJ Tiesto which took place in the Gachibowli Sports Stadium.

It was a great pleasure being associated with the world's number one DJ," says Santana Davis, chief sound engineer with J Davis. Bart, system engineer for Tiesto, adds: "It was a pleasure to work with J Davis, they are so professional, and the set up was so quick. Overall, it went way beyond all my expectations."

A total of 68 L-Acoustics enclosures were deployed for the event - 20 V-DOSC, 12 KUDO, 12 ARCS, 16 SB218 and eight SB118.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Iceland - Former vice President and Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore brought his An Inconvenient Truth presentation to Reykjavik, as a guest of Iceland's president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. Gore delivered his message on environmental consciousness to an audience of nearly 1,000 people who filled the University of Iceland's Haskolabio theatre. Sound reinforcement for the event was entrusted to a self-powered Meyer Sound system provided by Reykjavik-based AV company, Exton.

As Exton project manager Ivar Ragnarsson explains, the venue was not an easy room for system designers. "The hall is rather wide and steep, and has always been a bit hard to cover with conventional speakers," says Ragnarsson. "M'elodie has perfect coverage for this venue. Because of its very tight focus, it's also really great for working with lavaliers."

The system comprised two arrays o

Details
UK - One of 5 Star Cases' most recent clients has been the noted London department store, Harrods. 5 Star designed, manufactured and delivered a specially customised DJ 'booth in a box' flightcase for Shock Solutions, who were asked to provide DJ equipment, along with a long-term portable solution for setting-up temporary DJ operating positions on the shop floor for special events. The need was specifically prompted by a new promotion with superclub Ministry of Sound, involving regular DJ appearances in the Menswear department.

The case contains all the DJ kit required for a show - including two Pioneer CDJ-1000s, a DKM800 mixer and rack mountable screens, together with a series of custom connecter panels to integrate with the store's existing Technics 1210 vinyl decks and Bose Lifestyle "monitor" speakers. The latter are now incorporated into the top left and right ha

Details
UK - Front-of-house engineer Davy Kirkwood has been using a Midas XL8 Live Performance System provided by Britannia Row for the UK and European leg of the Rihanna tour.

Kirkwood arrived at the first date in Dublin directly from Jamaica in time for a few run-throughs with Britrow's Josh Lloyd, who has completed the XL8 training at Midas' Kidderminster headquarters.

"I've always been a Midas fan and have been using their consoles since 1977, but I think this sounds even better than the XL4," says Kirkwood of the XL8. "Although I'd used other digital desks, I'd never felt as comfortable or as fast on them, and audibly they were a step down. However I find the XL8 a far more natural way of working, and very similar to using an analogue console."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - Alex Proud's new venue in north London is an inventive and stylish addition to one of the city's busiest districts for live music as well as an exhibition gallery for photographic works, and private hire space. Trendily labelled in lower case, 'at proud' also manages to be a minor miracle of architectural restoration and a showcase for the latest audio technology - all at the same time.

Entrepreneur Alex Proud built his first Camden venue up as a gallery for photographic works. Located in Camden Market, recent planning developments have compelled a move to new premises and he has set up his new venue in a former horse hospital close by.

Once filled by horses injured by pulling the barges up the nearby canal, the Victorian building has lately been used by the market's antique dealers. The 'at proud' refurbishment has kept many of the original features, including the cobble

Details
Australia - The network of HK Audio sound system users in Australia has grown. In late 2007, BE Productions, a company located in the north of Sydney, bought a 2x8 Cohedra Compact system comprising 16 CDR 108 C enclosures, eight CDR 210 C cabinets, and two PR 8 amp racks. This newcomer is the fifth firm on the continent to join the Cohedra user network.

BE Productions installs systems and provides concert sound reinforcement, but specialises in outdoor cinema events, exclusively using high-quality Sanyo projectors and inflatable screens made by the German manufacturer Airscreen. The company's crew of eight technicians and its two proprietors handle the technical support for major Australian events such as Newton's Playground Extreme Sports Festival and Starlight Cinema events. A highlight on the company calendar is the annual Movies in the Overflow, held in Sydney

Details
USA - Towering over the banks of the Potomac River just south of the US's capital city, the new Gaylord National Resort and Convention Centre now ranks as the largest combined hotel and convention centre on the East Coast. Opened in April 2008, the $865 million development encompasses 2,000 rooms, four signature restaurants, the sleek Pose Ultra Lounge nightclub, and 470,000sq.ft of meeting space. A cavernous 18-story atrium houses full-size replicas of a Virginia farmhouse and a Georgetown row house in a park-like setting. The vast complex also incorporates scores of different sound systems for foreground music, live entertainment, and audio-for-video applications, all driven by more than 100 Lab.gruppen C Series power amplifiers.

According to Chess McKinney, director of project technologies Gaylord Entertainment, Lab.gruppen amplifiers were chosen based on the Swedish manufact

Details
UK - White Light's busy installation team has recently helped Kingsmead School in Enfield carry out a spectacular conversion, turning what the school described as its "dull and dowdy traditional old school hall with its block flooring, wooden chairs, squeaky stage and harsh fluorescent lighting" into an "exciting, modern theatre space".

The transformation of the hall was designed by Tim Foster of Tim Foster Architects, well known for their theatre work, particularly the Tricycle Theatre and the associated Tricycle Cinema in Kilburn, the re-development of the Theatre Royal in Norwich, the adaptation of London's Whitehall Theatre into the Trafalgar Studios and many more.

At Kingsmead, they were asked to develop much needed performing facilities for a school that had recently been awarded special status for the performing and visual arts. The result is a recta

Details
USA - Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige's Heart of the City tour has been a huge box office success, raking in more than $9 million after only its first eight dates.

With the two co-headliners sharing a stage set and teaming up for some numbers such as an opening duet of Jay-Z's Can't Knock the Hustle, then going on to perform solo with their individual bands, the show's lighting fixtures had to be versatile. The lighting had to accommodate both Blige's "softer, more feminine" show and Jay-Z's performance, which "is very hard-hitting and masculine," said Patrick Dierson of Artfag, LLC, the tour's lighting director.

"They are two very high-profile artists, and the dynamic of her show versus his is a bit different," Dierson elaborated. "Her show is a lot softer, although it still has a lot of accents and pushes because she's a strong perfor

Details
New Zealand - The Singing Bee is the local New Zealand production of the US format show of the same name. The singing competition combines karaoke with a spelling bee as contestants try to remember the lyrics to popular songs. Airing on New Zealand's TV2, lighting director for the show is Chris McKenzie of Martin Professional distributor Kenderdine Electrical.

The major visual element of The Singing Bee set is a cyclorama-like backing created by eight large S shaped panels. "When we saw that the Australian production had used an RP screen material and LED sources to back light it, we decided that this was the way to go," says McKenzie. "We set up a test with the Martin Stagebar 54 LED luminaires and a sample of the material and were blown away with the result."

A total of 60 Stagebars are used in vertical rows of three to light the cyclorama p

Page 2192 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .