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USA - The upcoming world concert tour by R.E.M. will feature EAW MicroWedge MW12 stage monitors deployed by Monitor Engineer George Squiers to provide monitor sound on stage for all band members.

R.E.M. are touring in support of the Accelerate album, released earlier this year, which debuted at number two on the Billboard charts. The band continues to be led by iconic lead singer Michael Stipe, with Peter Buck on guitar and Mike Mills on bass. They are supported by Scott McCaughey as a second guitarist, keyboardist and utility man, as well as Bill Rieflin on drums.

The tour kicks off in late May with a month of North American dates before moving on to an extensive set of European dates over the summer. Oxnard, California-based Rat Sound Systems Inc. is serving as t

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USA - Technomad Associates, LLC will introduce new mounting yokes to address challenging outdoor loudspeaker installations for audio contractors and installers at the upcoming Infocomm 2008 convention (18-20 June, Las Vegas). The yokes will initially be available as accessories with Technomad Berlin and Noho C loudspeakers, two of the company's more popular loudspeakers for outdoor PA systems in stadiums, theme parks, and other open air venues.

The new mounting yokes are essentially "U" shaped arms that give the contractor more flexibility for outdoor loudspeaker installations. The mounting yokes improve loudspeaker support on round surfaces such as outdoor poles and columns to provide a more secure installation than traditional mounting brackets, says the company. Flexibility is further enhanced when the yokes are used with Allen Products PoleStar all-weather pole and

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USA - Bandit Lites is working with multi-platinum country recording artist, Blake Shelton on his current tour.

Lighting designer Jody Marsh chose to use Martin MAC 500s and MAC 600s for this tour. Lighting is controlled by a Whole Hog II. He said the thought process behind the design had to do primarily with the venues they would be playing.

"I know what I'm going to get from local vendors and then I make changes accordingly to essentially pull off the same show every night," Marsh explained. "You may not see the lights hung the same every night but you're still getting the same overall product, or as close to it as you can get. Creatively, I know what I can do with the lights."

Marsh said that biggest challenge for this tour is just to be flexible. "This past weekend we had two shows. One show was a 'normal day.' The second show, I didn't have the a

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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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Canada - Ross Video has announced the appointment of Marcel Fontaine, as regional sales manager for the Southwest USA. Fontaine joins the sales team after working for Ross as a demonstration artist and trainer for six years. He is currently located in Vancouver, BC, but will be based in Southern California and will report to Kyle Luther, national sales manager for USA.

"Marcel is going to be a great addition to our already strong team of regional sales managers," said Kyle Luther. "His demonstrated abilities as a TD are well noted, and his sales professionalism and familiarity with our award winning product line will allow him to make an immediate impact and contribution to the region and the industry."

(Jim Evans)

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UAE - DPA's distributor for the United Arab Emirates, Triangle Sound & Image, has supplied the largest single order of DPA microphones in the region to the Creative Communication Group (CCG), a Doha-based events management and production company.

CCG is looking to meet future requirements and, as part of a major expansion, ordered a quantity of DPA mics including 4060 miniature omnis; BLM4060 boundary layer mics; 4088 headbands; 4011 cardioids; 4006-TL omnis; SMK4060, 3506 and 3511 stereo kits and a comprehensive package of accessories.

Since it was established in 1998, CCG has expanded to serve all aspects of the entertainment business in the Gulf region and the Middle East. It provides a wide range of products and services, and has pioneered world-class theatrical shows in Qatar by artists including Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras, and has staged grand operas and

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USA - The third annual Behind the Scenes Tony Awards Party is set for Sunday, 15 June in New York City. The event brings together the shops that work on Broadway and the companies that supply them for "a terrific evening of schmoozing, food and drink, and cheering for their Tony-nominated shows".

Fred Gallo of PRG Scenic Technologies, one of the organizers of the evening, says: "Those of us that work on Broadway rarely get the time to catch up with friends, colleagues, and co-workers outside the pressures of getting the show up. The Tony Party offers a great opportunity to see each other, celebrate what we're doing, spend some down-time together, and at the same time provide important help to our colleagues in need. What could be better?"

The 2008 Behind the Scenes Tony Awards party will be held on 15 June 7pm to 11pm at Cibo restaurant, 767 Second Avenue b

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USA - D-Tools has announced its 500th live, web based training offering for users of D-Tools' System Integrator 5 software through its' MIT (Media Interactive Training) programme.

"We have offered live, instructor led D-Tools training courses every business day for the past two years to over 200 subscribing companies," said Ryan Brown, vice-president of Media Environment Design.

The MIT (Media Interactive Training) programme is an online training programme for D-Tools, consisting of (16) instructor led web based courses, with one course being offered live every business day of the year. Subscription to the programme includes unlimited access to these daily trainings as well as access to a series of on demand video trainings available 24 hours a day.

"MIT has been a great programme for both our new customers and our long-time users," said Adam Stone, presi

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UK Summit Steel has moved into new, bigger and more convenient premises just outside Maidstone in Kent. The new address and contact details are: Summit Steel, Clockhouse Farm, Heath Road, Coxheath, Maidstone, Kent ME17 4BP. Tel : 01622 745977. Fax : 01622 746370.

The move was necessitated by the massive expansion in Summit's equipment stock over the last 12 months, reflecting a healthy growth in the working schedule. This has recently included The BAFTAs, Take That's 2007 tour, Cirque du Soleil at the RAH and ongoing work at the O2 Arena, where Summit is the house rigging company.

The new warehouse and offices will consolidate all the equipment stock - including James Thomas trussing, ground support systems, Lodestar Motors and Summit's own SmarTmast small footprint PA towers - in one location.

The warehouse will have easier access for more trucks - up to five at a time, and

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Australia - Show Technology Australia, exclusive dealers for Robert Juliat products throughout Australia, reports "fantastic feedback" following the sale of a pair of Super Korrigan followspots to the Gold Coast Arts Centre in Queensland.

The Super Korrigan is a replacement for the 1200W HMI Korrigan followspot and incorporates a new double-condenser optical system that produces 25 per cent more light than the older model.

"Compared to other followspots on the market we found the Super Korrigans to be uniquely compact and light," remarked Russell Jones, senior lighting technician at GCAC. "The crew thinks the Super Korrigans are great and everyone loves them. We love their output, the smooth operating of the iris and the fact that we've got the DMX models too. The way that the sliders work is fantastic. Externally, the followspots are not very hot eith

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Italy - dSound Pro has acquired the exclusive right to distribute Dynacord products in Italy. A young company, it is based in the town of Renate (near Milan).

"We share the corporate and product philosophy of the Dynacord brand," says Camilla Galeone, managing director of dSound Pro. "For this reason I am certain that Dynacord will soon be playing a still more important role in the Italian market."

(Jim Evans)

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Hong Kong - LED artist Teddy Lo has a reputation for his groundbreaking pieces of visual art. Committed to demonstrating both the illuminative and environmental benefits of LED lighting, he has used the latest Lighthouse LED technology for the maiden display of his newest - and biggest - creation, Phaeodaria.

An integral part of the A-Glow-Glow Macro Interactive Media Arts Exhibition, which took place at the peripheral area of the Hong Kong Museum of Art from 11-20 April 2008, Lo's 'Phaeodaria' comprised around 80 pieces of Lighthouse's new creative video solution, LEDscape Bar, arranged to form an 8m diameter geodesic dome.

Inspired by Ernst Haeckel's illustrations of marine life forms, the project utilised wireless mobile telecommunications technologies to change the colours of the Lighthouse LEDscape Bar - thereby illustrating in lit form the wireless informat

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Denmark - Martin Professional's Magnum 2500 Hz is a plug-and-play hazer for DJs or when a simple haze solution is needed in smaller venues, clubs, and bars. Its large fluid container and optional DMX also make it suitable for a large variety of installations, says the company.

The compact Magnum 2500 Hz uses a 900W heat exchanger to punch out a full 2500 cubic meters per minute of uniform haze for mid-air projection or atmosphere enhancement.

This portable hazer heats up fast and is continuously operational for a trouble-free 'set it and forget it' effect. Its large 3.8 litre fluid capacity (1 US gallon) provides for extremely long runs when needed.

Haze output and on/off timing are controllable via a handy remote control that can be conveniently stored in its own compartment. Like all Magnum products the Magnum 2500 incorporates advanced Jem technology including new electro

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UK - A cloud hangs at Heathrow - but its silver lining shows itself in a remarkable display. This is Cloud, a 5m digital sculpture by art and design company Troika, in the atrium to British Airways luxury lounges at Heathrow's Terminal 5. Evocative of the technology used on old-fashioned travel information boards, 4638 flip-dots cover the surface, switching between black and silver.

A Pharos Lighting Playback Controller (LPC X) controls the continuous fluid motion, displaying dramatic geometric and organic patterns across the sculpture, generating stunning visual and audio effects.

Drivers for the mechanical switching were pre-designed to receive RS232 serial data rather than DMX, so Pharos developed and implemented a custom control protocol to allow seamless communication with the sculpture's RS232 flip-dot drivers. This then allowed Troika to utilise Pharos Designer s

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UK - The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama has invested in the future careers of its technical production arts students by introducing a TiMax Image Maker 16 (eight-inputs, 16-outputs) in to its portfolio of equipment. Senior lecturer, David Ripley explains: "For these students TiMax is a vital piece of equipment and they need to be learning and understanding its capabilities as standard. There are other systems that deal in playback and creation but TiMax is unique in its context of image placement."

The Academy houses the 344-capacity Athenaeum Theatre, which boasts Glasgow's largest proscenium arch and a stage the size of the London Palladium. With an opera school and courses ranging from acting through musical theatre, digital film and TV, a production arts course, the performance space is in almost constant use throughout the year. Ripley continues: "

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USA - In a deal signed at the recent PALME Expo, Renkus-Heinz has announced the appointment of Dubai-based Mediatronics - Middle East as its new exclusive distributor for the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Mediatronics ME is a leading pro-audio and communications solution provider for entertainment, sports and convention venues as well as for TV and radio broadcasting, recording studios, the hospitality industry, shopping malls and airports.

The Middle East market has boomed for Renkus-Heinz in recent years, with high-profile installations including the Sharm El Sheikh Congress Center in Egypt, the new Hajj Terminal Building at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Naad al Sheba Horse race track in Dubai and the new luxurious Dubai Mall in UAE.

Renkus-Heinz export sales manager Karl-Gustaf Kahlau says: "We are very pleased to be partnering with

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Belgium - Earlier this year, Belgian singer Natalia invited En Vogue and Shaggy on stage for six shows that took the roof off the Antwerp Sportpaleis. More than 80,000 people attended the performances.

Produced by PSE-Belgium with lighting design by Luc Peumans of digital lighting specialists Painting with Light, Martin's LC Series of LED panels played a prominent role in the set design as video screen and set piece, both in the rig and on stage.

Painting with Light, one of Belgium's leading design companies for live television, chose the Martin LC Series for its semi-transparent design, which made it possible to place moving lights and Martin Atomic 3000 strobes behind the panels. The LC panels integrated with the large amount of projection screens used on the show and the panels' fast and simple assembly was a much applauded feature due to a very short load in and load out t

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Germany - Klein+Hummel has introduced the KPA series, audio power amplifiers designed and built to drive the largest and most demanding sound reinforcement applications.

Power factor corrected and operating at levels as high as 6000W into 2Ohms down to models providing 1100W into 8Ohms, the KPA series covers the full range of reinforcement needs, says the company. The amplifiers can be daisy chained together using a single Cat 5 cable for both digital audio distribution and remote control and monitoring of all amplifier functions, including load monitoring. The head end of the K8 digital audio distribution system may be fed with an expanding selection of inputs including the choice of Ether Sound, AES3 digital or analogue.

Klein+Hummel's installed sound product manager Dave Theis points out the advantage of this system: "K8 only requires a single control connection to Eth

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USA - Bandit Lites is working with Enrique Iglesias whose Insomniac tour began in South Africa and Europe last year. Bandit joined the tour in South America, where Iglesias recently played 10 shows. The tour is scheduled to continue in Central America, Mexico, and the US. before heading back to Europe and the Middle East.

Lighting and show designer Travis Shirley said that his lighting and set design was inspired by Iglesias'desire to transition away from stereotypical pop music to more of a rock feel. "Enrique's sound features loud guitar riffs and an amazingly high energy level, and he wanted to have a look that matched it," says Shirley.

Due to smaller venue capacity and freight constraints in South America, Shirley was challenged to create a design and select equipment that allowed him to provide essentially the same show as previous legs of the tour but o

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UK - Kooks' lighting designer Luton Pete (Pete Hosier) chose an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision console to control all lighting on Kooks, who's latest album Konk hit the UK number one slot just as they played the first date on that leg of the itinerary.

Taking a less-is-more approach to the design, the look and feel of the show is based on a rear wall of light, which was one of the many ideas that Hosier discussed with the band, who take an active interest in the aesthetics of the show.

The wall is constructed around seven 20ft vertical scaffolding pipes, each rigged with three LED PARs, a Martin Professional Atomic strobe with scroller and a GLP Impression moving LED wash fixture. The rest of the lights are spread across 3 trusses and the floor.

The back truss contains eight Robe ColorSpot 700E AT fixtures; the mid truss has five Robe ColorSpot 575E ATs, while the front ha

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UK - Frank Lambrechts has joined Rosco's sales force in line with Rosco's commitment to further developing their international business, and to further increase awareness of their custom gobo service.

Reporting to business development manager, Katrin Schlueter, Frank comes to Rosco with considerable experience of working with lighting designers in Belgium and with an in depth knowledge of the Rosco product range.

Having spent the last two and a half years years at Rosco dealer Candela, developing their Rosco business, Frank has the ideal background to develop the Rosco brand in Benelux and Northern France.

Frank will focus his attention and considerable energy on end users ensuring that theatres, lighting designers, TV Studios and filmmakers understand the breadth of the Rosco range and the value it brings to their productions, whilst Katrin will continue to support the Rosc

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UK - Inter-M has launched the PX8000 8x8 Audio Matrix - a simple to operate multi-zone audio distribution system for installations such as hotels, leisure complexes, retail outlets and multi-room applications.

Featuring clear LED indicators, illuminated buttons and fader-type level controls per output channel, the PX8000 Matrix is simple to set up, providing full choice and control of up to eight separate mic./line input signals over eight separate zones.

The unit also features in-built monitor loudspeaker to review the selected input sources, microphone input for zoned paging, as well as an internal digital message store facility to record and broadcast emergency messages to be activated by dry contact closure such as opening/closing doors, fire/burglar alarm, etc. Where no message is recorded, this facility can be used as an emergency mute.

Integrating into any standard 10

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