Details
Brazil - An Adamson SpekTrix system was recently installed in the Espaço Brazil Telecom Theatre, located in Brasilia.. The newly opened theatre, which is in the Brasilia Alvorada Hotel, promises a continuous line-up of performances including music, theatre, literary workshops, and lectures.

Marc Systems was contracted for the lighting and sound design, which on the sound side included four SpekTrix enclosures, two SpekTrix W, and two SpekTrix subs. The small 350 seat Brazil Telecom theatre's concert hall called for a system that would smoothly cover the wide room, without overpowering its intimate quality.

"The theatre will showcase performances by famous artists, but will also include performances by new regional talent," said Ricardo Knoepfelmacher, president of Bra

Details
UK - Two new automated fixtures, previewed by PR Lighting at the recent Pro Light&Sound Show in Frankfurt, are now available through distributors.

With the XL250 the company has managed to pack a full range of features into a restyled chassis. Available in two versions (with Magnetic or Electronic ballast), the XL250 combines a 250W lamp - and all the features of the established XL series - with a highly-efficient optical system, making the fixture sufficiently bright for any small-to-medium sized venue as well as theatre and television studios, says the company.

Highlights of the XL250 are the interchangeable colour gobos, 15°-23° linear zoom, LCD display and an energy-saving design for both the electronic (XL250) and magnetic ballast (XL250M) versions.

The XL250 also contains an energy-saving design, reducing lamp consumption to half power at shutter closing status

Details
Canada - Celine Dion is back on the road with her Taking Chances production tour, and is the first major artist to carry two Studer Vista 5SR digital audio consoles to handle front-of-house and monitor mixing.

Dion's world tour kicked off in South Africa on Valentine's Day 2008 and is due to run until the end of January 2009. Audio for the tour is being supplied by Canadian PA company Solotech, which has had a long relationship with Celine Dion; in fact, most of the tour's key personnel have worked with Dion for nearly 20 years, including tour manager Denis Savage, front-of-house engineer Frankie Desjardins and monitor engineer Charles Ethier.

Frankie Desjardins took over front-of-house duties last year, replacing Denis Savage who has stepped up to become tour/production manager. Together with Charles Ethier, they began the search for the tour's control systems while Ce

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
UK - The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh has recently opened a permanent exhibition of letters and historical items from one of the most important literary archives, the John Murray Archive.

Lighting designer Nich Smith was brought in to design a lighting scheme which would form both an exciting interactive experience for the visitor whilst fulfilling the conservation requirements demanded by the sensitive exhibits.

The result was a series of 'Character Showcases', each of which contain significant props and archive materials pertinent to the individual author. The showcases are left intentionally dim until activated by a visitor using interactive touch screens to fade lights up on the appropriate object. This has the dual effect of restricting light exposure of the manuscripts, and engaging the visitor with the case contents.

The showcase lighting is a mixture of

Details
UK - Broadcast sound specialists Red TX was in Edinburgh last weekend to capture the audio from the first Vodafone TBA gig of 2008.

Introduced last year, the Vodafone TBA gigs started out as small, secret venue gigs in front of an invited audience and with just one artist on stage. However this year the format has been expanded and Vodafone TBA is now taking the form of multi-artist mini festivals, the first of which took place on Sunday in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens. This was broadcast on Channel 4 with just a half hour delay.

Three bands took part in the gig - the Sugababes, the Feeling and 'odd-pop' trio, the Hoosiers. They performed live on the Ross Stage in front of an invited audience and also gave exclusive back-stage interviews to presenter and XFM DJ Dave Berry, which were subsequently broadcast as part of Channel 4's coverage.

Red TX was commissioned to han

Details
UK - Essential Lighting has announced that Loz Wilcox has joined their System team, further increasing the project management support that the company offers to lighting and set designers.

Loz joins Essential from PRG Europe where he gained experience supporting such projects as The Lion King, Jersey Boys and Wicked in London's West End, product launches for prestigious clients such as Audi, Lexus and Rolls Royce and special events including the Nobel Peace Prize concerts.

Loz grew up with both parents involved in the entertainment industry and began his professional career aged 16 in his local theatre. Prior to returning to London, Loz travelled the world in the position of production manager for P&O Cruises, looking after the lighting design aboard their cruise liners; all of which earned him a wealth of experience that he brings to the team at Essential.

&qu

Details
USA - Described as having a "retro-chic French touch," with a "calculated racy edge," Josephine's is Washington DC's newest and most exclusive hot spot in a city reputed for its burgeoning nightlife. The club opened to rave reviews in April 2008 complete with a Lab.gruppen-driven EAW sound system designed and installed by the BAHA Design Group.

BAHA Design's Alex Haje explained that the design process for Josephine faced a number of challenges: "The main issue was overcoming the limitations imposed by the height restrictions and the many structural supporting columns and beams in the space. My partner, Mood Bacho, was integral to the project's success with his background in installation, construction, and nightlife venues. He brings years of experience to the table working at clubs and lounges; which contributes greatly during the design and installatio

Details
Ireland - Performed at the Glór Theatre, Ennis in February, before going on tour later this year, Out of Time explores Dunne's private world as a dancer rooted in the Irish step dance tradition, looking to the past for simple beginnings as he examines his relationship with a tradition that has shaped his life.

Dunne wanted find a way to present traditional Irish dance within a contemporary piece and an introduction to Sean Westgate of media server specialist Green Hippo by director Sinead Rushe, was the beginning of an evolutionary creative process which was to do just that.

"It is nearly a year ago since we all first met in London," recalls Dunne, "me not really knowing anything about film technology at this end - and Sean not knowing anything about bloody Irish dance at his end! We were not sure what the Hippotizer was really about and were a bit intim

Details
Germany - Almost 2,000 people participated in the Dynacord prize draw competition at this year's ProLight+Sound trade show in Frankfurt. The winner has been confirmed as Maria Weinfurtner of Ludwigshafen.

The central attractions of the prize draw competition was the ultra-compact Dynacord D-Lite 1000 system and a Streamliner BSC-090 bicycle. Around 2,000 visitors vied for the stretch-bike with the longest single-seater frame in the world; exactly 587 of them correctly answered the questions posed regarding the technical details of the new D-Lite1000 system.

Custom-modified, the bike winged its way to Frau Weinfurtner just in time for the summer season.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Russia - Aero line array are the systems of choice for a number of large venue sports projects in Moscow, including the CSKA stadium, Central Sports Army Club Moscow which is noted internationally for its major league football, basketball and hockey teams.

This centre celebrates sports events with wide media coverage. Bossman, D.A.S. distributor for Russia, was responsible for this project and chose D.A.S. Audio's Aero 38A.powered line array systems. 16 of these units were installed as a central cluster and eight Aero 218 subs as bass reinforcement.

Bossman installed 16 powered Aero 38A systems, divided into three zones. In the first and second zones they installed two clusters with three Aero 38A units each. A third zone includes a cluster of four powered Aero 38A modules. This configuration and the precise aiming provided by the rigging system offers a uniform coverage throu

Details
Russia - The annual MUZ-TV Awards ceremonies took show place last week in the Olympic Sports Centre in Moscow. The awards were handed out during a live show, with performances of Jennifer Lopez , 30 seconds to Mars and Eurovision song contest winner, Dima Bilan.

This annual show is designed to set new standards every year, with an impressive set of scenery and lights. The organizers of MUZ-TV 2008 appointed JSA as main supplier for all staging and rigging equipment, based on their experience from last year and the fact that JSA is recognised as leading professional rental company in Russia.

A team of trained riggers were responsible for the complex installation of over 180 hoists. Prolyft hoists with several loading capacities were used, in combination with Prolyte B100 truss for the main grid.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - Gardeners' Question Time offers advice and solutions to two million weekly radio listeners. Taking charge of the programme making is producer Trevor Taylor who continues its unbroken 60 year run, and has now recently purchased a Trantec S5.5 wireless microphone system to record the series.

Based on Trantec's S6000 series, the S5.5 simultaneously operates up to 24 channels in 10 banks within its 35MHz window. Designed for larger projects, it utilises fully interactive PC monitoring, true-diversity reception, credit card size beltpacks, frequency autoscan, and in-built Infra-red data link.

Taylor's production company Taylor Made Broadcasts, has recently commenced a complete refit of one of its OB trucks and he explains, "Taking the Trantec wireless system on board has been a dramatic departure from the previous wired mics. We now have much more flexibility and t

Details
USA - Radian Audio Engineering, a leading manufacturer of loudspeaker systems and speaker components for permanently installed and touring live sound applications based in Southern California, has appointed Timothy Thornton to the position of director of sales and marketing. Thornton brings to the position a broad base of knowledge and experience acquired during 20 years in the professional audio industry, including nine years with Apogee Sound International.

Most recently, Thornton completed a contract as managing director of Stage Directions, an in-house media and event production sales and rental company in Houston, Texas. Prior to that, Thornton was with Apogee Sound International, rising rapidly from the position of National Sales Manager to Vice President of International Sales. His extensive background of sales and managerial positions also includes design, installation a

Details
Germany - On the recently concluded Tod oder Lebendig Rebirth Tour 2008 by rapper Kool Savas, GLP impression luminaires were used during 13 concerts in the German-speaking countries. The Berlin-based artist had engaged Gunnar Loose, whose references include Revolverheld and Bushido, to provide a lighting design in which 24 of the LED moving heads from German Light Products (GLP) played key roles.

"The impression combines high light output with very low power consumption, which is of great importance on tours with very variable lighting sets," Loose explained. "The lightness of these compact moving heads was of crucial importance on this tour, since all the lighting equipment had to be packed into a single trailer attached to the tour bus; with 24 conventional washlights that would have been unthinkable."

Loose mounted the moving heads in a 6 x 4 matr

Details
UK - The HSL Group will be in attendance for the fourth consecutive year. In the last 12 months, HSL has supplied numerous festivals and events including O2 Wireless Festival, Leeds, Rockness, The Full Ponty, Creamfields, Bestival, Knowsley Park, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Uganda (CHOGM), the World Scout Jamboree, the 2007 Festival of Scouting, the Premier League All Stars Football tournament, Opera Holland Park and the War Child Benefit show at Brixton Academy.

Artists on tour have been Snow Patrol, Keane, Human League, Brand New, Jarvis Cocker, Massive Attack, The Klaxons, Lily Allen, and the Super Furry Animals.

This year's shows and events have included supplying lighting for The People's Opening' Extravaganza to launch Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year, ,I>Dream On, the launch of theatre producer Bill Kenwright's new boyband, Roisi

Details
USA / Belgium - In the entertainment technology industry's latest high-profile acquisition, Barco has announced that it has bought High End Systems Inc, the well-known manufacturer of automated luminaires, digital lighting and lighting controls, for a total value of USD 55 million. "With the merging of two strong industry players, this acquisition reinforces Barco's leadership position in the fast converging video and lighting segments," say Barco.

Based in Austin, Texas, High End Systems employs 156 people and is a profitable company with USD 44m sales in 2007. The total value of the transaction is USD 55m, which implies an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortisation) multiple of around eight on the past 12 months. The impact on 2008 EPS (earnings per share) is estimated to be about neutral due to the required IFRS (International Financial R

Details
UK - Erstwhile Chairman of PLASA, Diane Grant, has teamed up with Artistic Licence as part of an ongoing business development plan to maximise the potential of its product sales, says the company.

"Artistic Licence has a strong footing in the international projects market, and an equally strong presence for its products within mainland Europe," explains Artistic Licence managing director, Wayne Howell. "Within the UK, however, it is viewed primarily as the provider of solutions to a specific set of, mainly DMX orientated, problems.

"Many people do not realise the full extent of our product range, which includes LED fixtures and component parts for OEM, in addition to the well known Art-Net Ethernet products such as Net-Lynx and Data-Lynx. Our intention therefore is to spread the remit of our product range across a wider market, increasing its profile to inc

Details
UK - A.C. Lighting reports that its stand at the ABTT show will highlight a selection of the exclusive products and services available from the supplier's dedicated Lighting, Rigging, Audio and Video sales divisions, and sister Special Projects company.

As the exclusive UK distributor for the Chroma-Q, Jands and Spotlight brands, A.C.'s lighting area will feature recent additions to each range. The Chroma-Q LED range includes the new Color Punch compact IP65 fixture, providing super bright results for both indoor and temporary outdoor applications, and the Color Split fixture with dual side by side RGBA LED cells. The Jands range includes the revolutionary Vista lighting console with graphic based user interface and the FPX/WMX portable/wall mounted, professional touring quality 12x2.4kW channel dimmers. The Spotlight range includes the Cyclorama Domino RGBA LED floodlight with

Details
UK - Over the last 12 months KAVE Theatre Services has increased the Avolites products it holds within the Hire/Events departments.

Ben Jenkins, event manager at KAVE, says: "KAVE Theatre Services has established itself as a key player in the outdoor events environment and the Avolites products we now stock have assisted to ensure we deliver top quality results, with the reliability our customers rightly expect.

"Last year we worked with the band The Feeling and the Avolites products allowed us to achieve great results throughout the show. Customers are already requesting the Art 2000T4 dimmers and the Pearl Expert lighting desk for the Edinburgh Festival which we are delighted to supply. There is no doubt that the Avolites dimmers and desks were a great investment as they have proved to be very popular with customers and our engineers alike."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - XL Video UK supplied equipment and crew to the Kaiser Chiefs homecoming gig at Elland Road Stadium, Leeds last weekend.

Video director Jon Shrimpton added his magic into the 15 screen live mix at the concert staged in front of 35,000 excited fans - the largest own-headlining show the band has played to date.

Once again, Shrimpton collaborated closely with lighting designer Richard Larkum on the look and feel of the show, cutting the IMAG from FOH instead of the more conventional side-stage position.This was something they started on the arena tour at the end of 2007, finding it enhanced communication and a creative rapport..

The Elland Road stage was similar in set up to that of the arena tour, with five portrait format screens 'crowning' the action above the front of the stage. At this show, these were constructed from Barco MiTrix - 18 tiles high and five wide - chose

Details
Sweden - Lab.gruppen launched a new customer-focused, interactive website this month. The site, www.labgruppen.com, has been designed in direct response to Lab.gruppen's research into what its customers really need, says the company.

Lab.gruppen's managing director Tomas Lilja says, "At Lab.gruppen we have always taken customer support very seriously, talking and listening to our customers and taking their views on board. Over the last year we have conducted a series of informal research initiatives and the results have influenced the new website design and content."

"Right from the outset we've provided an auto-update feature on the PLMSeries software and firmware installer and we have now extended this initiative to make all updates and informational improvements totally available," says Michael Jarl Christensen, VP sales and marketing. "The new webs

Page 2207 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .