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UK - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) joined forces with Humanbeatbox.com to help support the Vauxhall UK Beatbox Championships 2008. As part of their ongoing campaign to highlight home grown music talent whatever the genre, SDUK provided an essential accompaniment for any beatboxer, a Shure microphone. Armed with Shure mics, beatboxers were challenged to use their vocal cords to compete against each other in a series of one-to-one battles to take the trophy and win some audio equipment from Shure Distribution UK.

After months of heats around the country, the final eight beatboxers battled it out at the Grand Final at the London Islington Carling Academy on 13 June. Last year's champion Beardyman, as well as Shlomo and Killa Kela presided over this year's event and eventually judged t

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USA - Taking place at the end of April in Indio, California, the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival regularly sees festival-goers enduring temperatures in the high 90s Fahrenheit. In that kind of heat, somewhere to cool off is essential and with one area providing cool music via Turbosound loudspeakers as well as shade and water, it inevitably proved one of the most popular parts of the festival.

A total of five main stages for live acts were dotted around Coachella - this year headlined by Roger Waters and Prince - with the aforementioned 'cool' area run by the Do Lab artist network. Ostensibly an art installation, it featured kind souls wielding hosepipes to help cool festival-goers off, as well as the latest dance beats and DJ sets playing in 'hexaphonic' sound day and night.

Audio provider Whump! Sound provided an all-Turbosound rig for the installation, with

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Counterfeit News: Microphone and other component manufacturers will no doubt have taken note of a recent judgement. A French court has ordered eBay to pay 40m euros (£31.6m; $63m) to luxury goods group LVMH for allowing online auctions of fake copies of its goods. LVMH said eBay's French site had not done enough to stop the sale of counterfeit bags and perfumes. An eBay statement said LVMH was trying to "protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice" and added that it would appeal.

Disturbing News: Almost one in four secondary schools in England no longer has any specialist physics teachers, a survey suggests. The report, published by academics at the University of Buckingham, warns of a threat to the subject's future. The government has set targets to promote the number of physics teachers in secondary schools. But the report's authors wa

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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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Sweden - The Greek Theatre, an award-winning 5,800-seat open-air amphitheater located at the edge of Griffith Park close to Hollywood, has earned an enviable reputation providing high-performance sound in an intimate environment. When the time came to replace the power amplifiers, Schubert Systems - the company responsible for supplying and operating the Greek's state-of-the-art PA rig - decided to integrate Lab.gruppen PLM Series Powered Loudspeaker Management systems and FP+ Series amplifiers at what many consider to be the Number 1 US outdoor venue.

"I have admired the company's product line for many years," says company founder Dirk Schubert. "We received one of the first pallets of amps shipped to the US in 2002, and adopted Lab.gruppen for our systems the first time we listened to them. No other amplifier makes a rig sound as good as Lab.gruppen. I particul

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USA - Community Professional has introduced new powered versions of each model in its S-Series range. Designed for working musicians, all Sonus models feature lightweight design. Powered S-Series systems add high-efficiency Class D amplifiers for better performance, less heat and maximum reliability, says the company.

"In the year since its debut, Sonus has become one of our most popular loudspeaker lines," said Julia Lee, Community's director of sales and marketing. "We're pleased to expand this lineup into the S-Series to include both passive and active versions of each model."

The S-1296A and S-1596A are two-way models with 400-Watts of low-frequency power and 100-Watt high-frequency amplification. The S-3294A and S-3594A three-way models add 100W mid-range amps to the package. Powered subwoofers complete the lineup, employing single 1000W amplifiers in

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Germany - Yamaha has been one of the main driving forces in the development of digital sound over the past two decades and, with digital now well-established in the audio industry mainstream, the company says it is forging ahead with the next big step of digital audio technology - digital networking.

The knowledge of Yamaha engineers is regularly being used to help a wide range of audio professionals to improve their skills, via teaching documents, a range of seminars and 'hands-on' training programmes.

"In order to design reliable and functional networked audio systems, the application of this complex technology requires a very high level of technical knowledge," says Nils-Peter Keller, YMCE deputy general manager. "Therefore, Yamaha actively provides the knowledge and support required to those who need it."

One such event was an advanced training semina

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UK - Glastonbury Festival has been hailed as "very successful" by Mendip District Council, which grants the licence for the event.

The licence, which was issued before the 2007 event, lasts for four years and allows organisers to continue holding the Glastonbury Festival until 2010, after which they will need to apply for a new licence.

One main issue dealt with by the district council was concerns about noise. Wind and low cloud meant that some Mendip residents who have normally not been able to hear the festival could hear some noise this year. However, according to Mendip's director for planning and environment, Charles Uzzell, although noise monitoring had taken place there was no significant breaches of the licence, and the levels of noise were within the national recommended guidelines.

Tom Killen, Mendip's portfolio holder for licensing and public protection

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UK - Glastonbury-based supplier Batmink Ltd says it has been so impressed with the visual impact of its video dance floor that they have decided to take a demo floor on a UK 'Roadshow'.

Grant Thomas, sales director for Batmink, explains: "It soon became obvious that although still images and video footage give a flavour of what this flooring system can deliver, there is absolutely no substitute for seeing the floor operating 'in the flesh'. With this in mind, we have decided to take a 6m x 6m floor on a tour of the UK to enable interested parties to come and have a look, see a demonstration of its motion graphics and text capabilities and discuss any questions they might have."

The floor will be in Glasgow, on Monday 11 August, Leeds on Tuesday 12 August, Donington Park on Wednesday 13 August and London on Thursday 14 August. For more information regarding venues and

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USA - The Broadway musical Spring Awakening has won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical in 2007. The show also relies on 20 channels of Shure UHF-R wireless.

"Historically, you don't think of handheld microphones as being go-to devices on Broadway," says Spring audio engineer Francis Elers. "But as the nature and scope of the shows change, so do our needs for mics. There are four or five full-on rock songs in Spring Awakening that haven't been diluted one bit for theatre sensibilities.To meet the needs of these numbers both in look and performance, handheld mics were the only choice."

Sound designer Brian Ronan' comments, "This is a very rambunctious show. The first mics we chose weren't up to the task of taking hard knocks. We needed something that could be punished regularly, and that's one of the reasons the switch was mad

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UK - An exhibition of the work of architect, Richard Rogers, has begun at London's Design Museum with the help of GE Consumer and Industrial lighting.

Rogers' portfolio includes some of the most notable buildings of our time - the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Millennium Dome and Madrid Bajaras airport.

GE CMH TC 70w 3000k lamps with IOS reflector with narrow and beams are used in all ambar track mounted and suspended units which light up the exhibition models and stands.

The Richard Rogers + Architects exhibition, which has already run for three months in the Pompidou Centre, Paris, opened at the Design Museum in April and will run until 25 August.

(Jim Evans)

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UAE - The TV show Millions Poet is billed as a 'Pop Idol for poets' where the winner walks away with one million UAE Dirhams (about 180,000 Euro). The show held at the 2.000 seat Al Raha Theatre in Abu Dhabi began in 2006 and has been such a phenomenal success it starts the fourth season in 2008; the last series peaked at 26 million viewers across the Arab region.

Lighting designer Paul Nancollas used one grandMA full-size, one grandMA light and five MA NSPs. "The grandMA is the only desk capable of controlling something so complex, the choice was obvious," he says.

The show also used two grandMA video servers and was visualised via grandMA 3D. The design integrated over 2500 LED strips of various types from German manufacturer Schnick-Schnack-Systems. "I had used the B25 and B12 strips in previous shows to great effect so I was very excited when the C25

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Denmark - The largest superliner built exclusively for the British market, the 116,000 ton P&O Cruises Ventura, sailed on her maiden voyage to the Mediterranean, decked out in a full complement of colour and effect lighting from Martin Professional.

"In my role as entertainment consultant to P&O Cruises I was instrumental in selecting Martin as the lead supplier to provide the moving light elements of the entertainment systems for Ventura," reports Chris Blackburn of Snap2Black.

Ventura incorporates flexible Martin lighting systems into several areas of the ship. "Most major entertainment areas are multi-use, although they do have a main use focus," says Blackburn. "They all have an identity."

The two-deck Arena Theatre is the ship's primary show space. "The brief was to augment the generic rig with moving light and mirror fixtures. There w

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USA - Crown's Commercial Audio series amplifiers with a built-in XM Radio tuner have been installed in Uptown Kitchen, located in Granger, Indiana, as part of a major system.

Owner Jonathan Lutz turned to United Digital Integrators (UDI) to fix their "musical problems" and bring in an efficient and easy to use solution for their indoor and outdoor seating areas. Prior to the installation, the previous system needed to be reset every 20 minutes, causing massive interruption with the service of its customers.

The new system consists of two Crown amplifiers; the 180MAx Pack is an 80W mixer amplifier with built-in XM Radio tuner and comes with four JBL Control 1S speakers. The system also includes a Crown 1160MA 160W single channel amplifier and eight additional JBL Control 1S speakers.

"Our goal for Uptown Kitchen was to fix two big issues; the unreliable digital

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UK - Cloud Electronics has confirmed Erikson Commercial as the exclusive distribution channel for the full range of Cloud audio mixers, zoners, multi-channel amplifiers, and audio distribution systems, throughout Canada.

The Canadian company is a division of JAM Industries, which itself has been distributing audio and music equipment in Canada for over 30 years. The company has office and warehouse space in Montreal and a nationwide sales force.

John Vellone, director of Erikson Commercial comments: "Cloud products are truly designed for the contractor's ease of installation and the user's ease of operation. Cloud products are a perfect fit and compliment Erikson Commercial's product offerings."

Simon Curtis, managing director of Cloud Electronics, adds: "For the distribution of the Cloud brand across Canada, there really is no other company that better fits o

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UK - The 5 Star Cases sales team has expanded with the addition of Richard Chilvers, who joins as technical sales representative.

Chilvers has been a 5 Star case user for 10 years, ever since his early days as an apprentice with lighting rental company, Hawthorn Theatrical. He has also worked as a technical manager at venues, including the Kings Lynn Corn Exchange and Arts Centre and the Princess Theatre in Hunstanton.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - PLASA 2008 will be the second year of the prestigious Gottelier Award. Named in honour of the late designer, developer and commentator Tony Gottelier, this award aims to recognise the tireless product developers who have made a significant contribution to the development of the equipment and tools that enable our entertainment technology practitioners to continually push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation.

Last year's inaugural Award was won by Tony Andrews of Funktion One for his decades of dedication to the advancement of loudspeaker design.

The Nomination phase of the 2008 Gottelier Award is now open, and industry professionals worldwide are being asked to put forward the names of individuals who they believe should be considered for this year's award.

Following the nomination period, a shortlist of the leading nominees will then be ope

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USA - At its annual Member Meeting and Industry Forum during InfoComm 08, NSCA appointed two new members to the association's Board of Directors. Dave Ferlino, president of VistaCom, and Michael Hester, managing partner of Beacon Communications, will each join the NSCA Board for three-year terms.Andy Musci, president of Altel Systems, took the helm as president when Nancy Emerson, vice president of Vodaci Technologies, retired from the NSCA Board in June.

"Andy will continue to bring great enthusiasm and passion to the Board," said NSCA executive director Chuck Wilson. "We look forward to his leadership. At the same time, we thank Nancy and our two other retiring board members, Randy Vaughan and Rick Scharmann, for their hard work and dedication to NSCA."

Ron Pusey, president and CEO of Communications Specialists of Virginia, moves into the role of vice-pre

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UK - Radio 1's Massive weekend kicks off the British festival season and features some of the world's top performers over two packed days. Madonna, Usher, Raconteurs, Kooks and Editors are but a few of the brilliant acts that entertained the tens of thousand visitors to this year's festival in Maidstone.

With such an eclectic array of performers, the lighting rig needed to be equally diverse and able to adapt to each unique show. Putting it all together again this year was lighting designer Paul Normandale, who laid out a spectacular rig on the main stages for the various guest LDs who came and lit individual shows. With so many artists and so many LDs in such a short period of time, once again flexibility was the order of the day.

Paul explains the brief: "The lighting had to be suitable for a live, multi-band event which has a constant BBC/TV broadcast element. So a bal

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UK - Stageco has developed a new type of stage roof whose three systems went on tour for the first time with Bon Jovi this summer.The Boogdak XL is a new variation on Stageco's existing range, combining the capacity of the company's classical four tower system with the look and convenience of the smaller Boogdak (arch roof). It will also get its first festival outing at T in the Park in Scotland this July.

"In response to modern production specifications, we decided we wanted to bring a new roof to the market," says Hedwig de Meyer, Stageco's president. "Bon Jovi needed three roofs and approached us for a standard roof type. We told them we wanted to invest in a new roof type and offered them the new, original product."

The Bon Jovi team has always used innovative production elements, where possible, to create an exciting live show, and the three new roofs

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UK - Show Presentation Services (SPS) has added to its creative design team by appointing Jack Beccegato to the role of senior designer and content producer.

Beccegato has extensive experience in the industry, previously owning his own creative agency called Sedicinoni SRL, based in Verona, Italy. There he also worked as senior designer and produced video graphics and other visualisations for events, business meetings and conventions, both in house and for other Italian communications agencies.

In his new role, Beccegato will be responsible for directing some of SPS's other graphic designers and taking the creative lead in corporate event projects. He will also be working alongside many of SPS's clients to establish briefs and to present and sell ideas.

Robin Coles, managing director at SPS commented, "Adding Jack to the team is a great boost to the creative arm of our

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UK - Genie Industries has introduced the Super-Straddle accessory redesign. The Super-Straddle is an attachment that allows operators to mount a Genie AWP Super Series personnel lift above obstacles such as fixed seating in theatres, auditoriums and convention centres.

It provides 'up and over' access for the Genie AWP Super Series to be used in spaces that are otherwise inaccessible and hard to reach. Now available in all markets worldwide, the new Genie Super-Straddle was redesigned to meet the latest ANSI A92.3 standards and is CE compliant, the company says.

"The Super-Straddle is a versatile, efficient accessory for facilities such as schools and churches," says Kim Williams, senior market analyst at Genie Industries. "It allows easy overhead access for maintenance like changing light bulbs, replacing ceiling panels and even for touching up paint."

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