Details
UK - The very first edition of the Knight of Illumination Awards was held on Wednesday 11 June 2008 in London. These awards are exclusively dedicated to lighting designers, as the result of an idea launched by Clay Paky and organised by the Italian company in collaboration with STLD and ALD.

The Awards were hosted by the ABTT Award Dinner 2008, the traditional gala of the ABTT show. Over 230 professionals attended the event at Church House, which was tastefully lit and coloured for the occasion by Clay Paky Alpha fixtures.

The awards were voted and assigned by a group of professionals, who also operate in the specific categories of the contest, selected and coordinated entirely by STLD and ALD, whose professional standards guaranteed the credibility and the reliability of the ev

Details
Brazil - Capital Inicial is a Brazilian post-punk band that has recorded seven highly successful albums and is one of the most popular bands in the country. During the celebration of the 48th birthday of Brazil's capital Brasilia, they played a special concert that was also recorded for a DVD release. Lighting design for the show was by Dave Hill. One grandMA full-size and one grandMA light as well as two MA NSPs provided the necessary performance for his design, that was seen live by nearly one million people.

Dave Hill also worked as programmer and operator whilst Cesio Lima was director of photography. Caio Berti provided the local coordination. The stage lighting equipment was provided by LPL from Sao Paulo. Marc Systems delivered the audience lights.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK AP Security's services were enlisted for the University College London (UCL) annual summer shindig - this year dubbed The Circus.

Lesley Dempsey is AP's operational manager for the event, in charge of ensuring that both the client and her staff are looked after correctly. "It's the fourth year I've been overseeing things here," says Dembsey. "AP's main function for the evening is to make sure that everyone is safe."

This event sees the college Quad and surrounding buildings turned into the venue for a night of celebration featuring four large music arenas, a fairground with traditional sideshows, casino, chocolate fountains, chill-out zones and a Pimms Tent.

"UCL Summer Ball, in terms of the venue, is not an easy event run," says Mark Williams, UCLU events manager. "We have a very difficult site with plenty of potential hazards to avoid.

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 - Cotswold Leisure Cirencester has provided an invaluable public sports facility in Cirencester for many years. But when faced with increased private competition and deteriorating conditions, Cotswold District Council took the decision to demolish its existing leisure centre and replace it with a new centre to meet the needs of its population for the next few decades. PEL Services Ltd was awarded the contract to supply, install and commission all the fire, security, safety and audio-visual systems for the new venue.

With a raft of new legislation in place to help protect the public and ensure all are treated equally, most notable of which is the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), special consideration has to be given to safety in a leisure centre. PEL Services installed a number of key assistance systems in Cotswold Leisure Cirencester including Personal Assistance buttons

Details
Italy - Aethra SpA has announced that it has signed a new agreement with Keysco Co for the distribution of its video conferencing product range throughout the Korean market using Keysco's well-established sales network.

Keysco will distribute the entire Aethra video communication range, with a particular emphasis on the Vega X Line series of set tops, X3, X5 and X7, the Maia XC videophone and the Aethra Director Suite, which are perfectly targeted at the Korean market.

Kwangyoung Seo, CEO of Keysco said: "I'm very proud to be Aethra's distributor and I believe that we can create good synergy for business improvement in Korea in this long-term and strong relationship. Keysco has been developing video streaming solution based on H.264, and we also have launched a Unified Management System which integrates internet broadcasting into video conferencing through our agreement.

Details
Russia - Robe moving lights have been installed into two separate areas of the Korston Hotel in Moscow - on the stage of Casino de Paris main gaming floor, and in the café Bonjour, the main private dining room in the complex.

The lighting concept for the Casino -previously a large concert hall - was completed by Sofitlight, who also supplied all the stage and effects lighting kit, architectural lighting, sound design and audio equipment.

On the main gaming floor stage, the biggest lighting challenge was to devise a special hanging system for the fixtures that didn't interrupt the sight lines of the spectacular roof - which is painted like a sky. The rigging was engineered by Sofitlight director Arkady Shahidzanov.

The 22 Robe fixtures in this massive room are 16 Robe ColorMix 250 ATs and six Scan 575 XTs. They are controlled by a Compulite Rave console, along with som

Details
UK - HSL supplied lighting production and crew to the Main and Clash Tent stages at the 2008 Rockness Festival, staged on the shores of Scotland's Loch Ness.

It was the second consecutive year that HSL has worked on the event, produced by Loudsound Events and production managed by Lee Charteris. HSL's crew chief Ian Stevens headed a strong team of Steven Abbiss (LD Main stage), Davey Sherwin (LD Clash stage), Rob Starksfield, Rick "Avo" Butler and Andy "Paris" Hilton. The production lighting design for both stages was created by HSL's Mike Oates, who also project managed.

The Main stage was a Serious Structures Solar Roof below which HSL sub-hung four trusses for lighting. This was headlined by Fatboy Slim on the Saturday and Razorlight on Sunday. All the moving lights on this stage were Robe ColorWash 700 and 1200E ATs and ColorSpot 700 and 1200E AT

Details
UK - PLASA Events Ltd, the organisers of the PLASA Show at Earls Court in London (7-10 Sept 2008) have announced the official launch of the 2008 PLASA Awards for Innovation, which this year will feature some significant enhancements - and also the 2008 Gottelier Award, which recognises the contribution of an outstanding individual to product development.

Innovation: PLASA goes for Gold
During consultation with the PLASA Awards for Innovation Judges after the 2007 PLASA Show, the judges expressed a desire to be able to more accurately reflect the levels of innovation seen in the products nominated for the Awards. Specifically, they were looking for a way to highlight those cases where a product truly delivered something strikingly new and innovative to the industry.

Roland Hemming, a highly-respected audio consultant and a regular on the PLASA Awards for Innovation j

Details
Germany - Dance act, Scooter, whose first album release in the UK since 2002 promptly knocked Madonna off the number one slot last month, has just completed a triumphant tour throughout Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The most successful act of all time in their native Germany, Scooter has also enjoyed a huge international career with over 14 million record sales and in excess of 80 gold and platinum discs worldwide, plus countless music prizes and trophies.

Their latest tour, Jumping All Over The World was a high-energy techno extravaganza in true Scooter fashion. Czech rental company, RentalPro, supplied full audio, lighting, laser, video and staging equipment including two InnovaSon Sy48 digital mixing consoles equipped with an LX6464ES soundcard.

A Camco-driven Nexo GEO T system was selected for the main PA, all run from an Sy48 digital console. A second Sy48 was

Details
USA - The Joint Training Initiative of The ESTA Foundation and USITT has announced Lighting and Console Training Sessions to be held at Wharton Center for Performing Arts, Michigan State University, East Lansing Michigan. This event is being hosted by The Wharton Center and IATSE Local 274 in East Lansing, Michigan.

The four-day schedule of courses is designed for lighting programmers, technicians, and electricians at a basic to intermediate level. Sessions will be held 28 July 28 through 31 July. The courses will be taught by ETCP Certified Entertainment Electrician and ETCP Recognized Trainer, Eric Rimes.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Russia - In preparation for the UEFA Champions League Final 2008, the host venue, Luzhniki Stadium, installed a new audio system in its press and VIP centre based around Allen & Heath's iDR DSP matrix mixer and a GL4800 multi-purpose mixing console.

The Moscow stadium's press centre comprises a 275-capacity conference hall, working area with 80 stations and eight individual reporting booths for journalists, and a press bar.

The iDR-8 forms the core of the new sound system deployed in the press centre, with iDR-in and iDR-out expander units providing additional inputs and outputs, bringing the system to its full capacity of a 16x16 digital matrix. A 32-channel Allen & Heath GL4800 multi-purpose console was also selected to provide manual control of the live audio requirements.

Victor Okladnov, sound engineer of Luzhniki Stadium, commented, "Our new GL4800 proved to be ve

Details
USA - As part of an ongoing expansion, J. R. Clancy has promoted one staff member to the position of engineer, and added an estimator and an accounting manager at its corporate headquarters in upstate New York.

Craig Eagleson has been promoted to the position of engineer from his project manager job at Clancy. Eagleson joined the staff a year ago. In his new position, he will work on research and development of new products in all areas of Clancy's expertise, with emphasis on automation and motorized rigging.

Jennifer VanWaldick joins Clancy as the company's accounting manager. Formerly an accountant for Bowers & Company, VanWaldick came to Clancy in December 2007. She now handles accounts payable, accounts receivable and billing for the company.

Bill Jones brings more than 35 years of theatre experience to his new position as estimator for J. R. Clancy. He works closely wit

Details
UK - London Light Production Services has invested in an ETC Eos and an ETC Ion lighting control desk through dealer TMB, to complement its range of lighting, dimming and rigging products.

London Light director David Buffham says: "We were looking for a replacement for our old desk, which was no longer supported, and took several potential replacements out for a trial. The Eos really stood out as being both quick and easy to use. When we're working on a show, we generally have very little time to plot, so aren't able to spend hours on site adjusting the lighting. We need the desk to be powerful, responsive and intuitive, and both Eos and Ion really fit that description.

"Reliability is important, and although we never had any disasters, our old desk couldn't do full tracking backup. Now, with the Remote Processor Unit (RPU) backup, we can be sure that, should the wor

Details
UK - The world's first consumer products to feature airSound's single point stereo technology are being shown for the first time at CEDIA Expo. new products from ELAC and orbitsound mark the entry of the airSound's single enclosure stereo reproduction system to the commercial market place.

Commenting on the company's CEDIA debut, business development director Alan Johnson states: "We have come from launching airSound technology and the company just one year ago, to showing the first commercial products featuring our technology at CEDIA 08. The industry is beginning to realise the significance of this technology; potentially it changes everything. The products on our stand represent the single most significant development in audio since the inception of stereo itself."

The ELAC 3D-13 Bluetooth (A2DP) equipped, fully active loudspeaker is billed as a 21st century stere

Details
UK - Winning J&C Joel its third Hook Clamp award, the company's new JCJ Serge Tape attracted a lot of attention at this year's ABTT show. Fiona Blackett, marketing and Far East business manager, said: "Black wool serge is our biggest selling product and now most tears can be invisibly repaired with a matching strip of black serge instead of shiny gaffer tape. It is such a simple idea, but I am nevertheless surprised at just how genuinely interested people are - we've already had verbal orders from many technicians and theatrical dealers."

The tape that won Widget of the Year for J&C Joel was a prototype, but with a few minor changes to the packaging and branding the JCJ Serge Tape should be in production and ready for delivery by the end of July. Designed for use in Ideal theatres, touring shows, rental companies, film and TV studios and schools, this is one of those p

Details
UK - A.C. Lighting has supplied a state of the art LED TV lighting system for the dedicated set of the new Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky television show.

As part of five TV's plans to refresh and relaunch its pioneering news programme, which include recruiting high-profile news presenter Natasha Kaplinsky for the show, the broadcaster decided to rebrand the set with a completely new look.

Set designer Chris Webster produced the concept of backlit acrylic panels that could be lit to achieve a varied range of looks to suit the mood of a bulletin, whether based on a particular theme or time of day.

Sky News, producer of the show for five, has a policy of incorporating energy efficient lighting into its sets where technology provides a viable solution, so approached A.C. Lighting to supply an LED system which would also provide five with maximum creative opportunities

Details
UK - Digidesign has announced the immediate availability of Pro Tools 7.4.2 software, which provides Mac OS X 10.5.3 (Leopard) compatibility for Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered users.

"Since the release of Mac OS X Leopard, we have been working closely with Apple to ensure that a Leopard-compatible version of Pro Tools delivers the same level of performance and reliability that our customers have come to depend on," commented Dave Lebolt, Avid vice-president and general manager of Digidesign.

"With the release of Mac OS X 10.5.3 just a few weeks ago, we were able to enter the final stages of performance testing and quality assurance before making qualified versions of Pro Tools available to our customers. We're pleased to finally be able to offer all of our customers - HD, LE, and M-Powered alike - a fully qualified version of Pro Tools softw

Details
Business News: Yamaha Corporation is making an offer to the founders of French loudspeaker manufacturer Nexo S.A. to acquire all of their shares of Nexo - bringing Yamaha's share holding to 74.9% of the share capital. Yamaha intends to seek to acquire 100% of the shares of Nexo through the launching of a tender offer process for the acquisition of the remaining shares.

Festival News: Organisers of festivals including Womad, Creamfields, Bestival, Electric Picnic and Big Chill have joined forces to take on their bigger rivals. They have agreed to work together to help make events better for fans, greener and more cost-effective. Bestival promoter Rob da Bank said it was important to "ride out the problems and make them better for the customer". Creamfields owner James Barton said it was a good idea because "smaller festivals are also often overlooked". He added: &quo

Details
UK - Cirrus Environmental, a new business which aims to help organisations measure the noise they make and thereby manage the impact that noise has on neighbours and the surrounding environment, has been established this month. The new business is a sister company to Cirrus Research plc, the UK operation which specialises in the design and development of noise measurement equipment for health, safety and environmental applications.

Cirrus Environmental will use acoustic equipment developed by Cirrus Research to provide tailor-made environmental noise measurement systems for a wide range of applications including: transport, mining, construction, power generation, manufacturing and entertainment. Environmental noise pollution is an extremely serious issue according to Cirrus Environmental's new managing director, Richard Wright.

"Noise can have a negative impact on people'

Details
UK - Showsec were at the heart of the security and crowd management planning and operations for Download 2008, the annual celebration of heavy rock, which required a number of major site changes this year. These were necessitated by preparations for the Motorcycle Grand Prix at Donington Park racetrack the following week and involved creating a new main stage arena, an open air second stage at the far end of the site and a third tented stage.

Simon Battersby, Showsec operations director and Download's head of security, says: "We worked closely with the Live Nation production team throughout the planning phase, working to ensure the correct crowd management plans were in place."

One key challenge was the sloping ground towards the main stage: Showsec, Live Nation and barrier suppliers Mojo Barriers worked together to create a barrier configuration which would m

Details
USA - Introduced in 2007, the Sygma Line from Renkus-Heinz is designed for flexibility and outstanding performance in a broad range of professional audio applications. "Sygma has become a vital growth platform for our business partners," says national sales manager David Rahn. "Along with enthusiastic support, they have given us excellent suggestions, to which we have listened."

New this month is the SG/SGX12S subwoofer. Multiple versions are available: the externally powered SGX12S, the SG12S-2 with a 200W digital amplifier, and the SG12S-5 with 500W of integrated Class D amplification. Also available, the RHAON-Empowered SG12S-2R and SG12S-5R. All versions are capable of at least 128dB SPL from 60 to 120Hz.

The Sygma Line now makes it easier to choose the best coverage pattern with expanded Complex Conic horn options. The SG/SGX121 is available either a 1

Page 2212 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .