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UK - RG Jones, Synco and Martin Audio, played together to create the solution for the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

With mostly dry weather and a fantastically eclectic Glastonbury musical line-up including Kings of Leon, The Fratellis, Amy Winehouse, Jay-Z, Goldfrapp, Leonard Cohen and The Verve, there was plenty for audiences to smile about - including an all-new PA system design that saw RG Jones extend its contribution in 2007 from the stage sound to the main arena PA.

Engaged last year to provide full control systems and stage monitoring, this year the team was brought in by Chris Beale of CBA and Dick Tee, respectively Pyramid Stage sound co-ordinator and production manager, to supply a powerful, pristine, controlled sound solution and a highly experienced crew fo

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UK - Kylie Minogue has launched a three-month European tour KYLIEX2008 with UK-based Capital Sound supplying a powerful Meyer Sound rig, based around left and right hangs of 14 Milo and two Milo 120 line array loudspeakers each. For some of the larger arenas, such as Manchester's Evening News Arena and London's O2, two additional side arrays of 12 Mica line array loudspeakers augment the system.

Low end is covered by a combination of six flown 600-HP subwoofers per side, along with eight 700-HP subwoofers per side on the ground. "Chris Pyne (FOH engineer) wanted a powerful but present low end, with both power and attack. Therefore we suggested the 600-HP and 700-HP together as an ideal combination to achieve that," explains Paul Timmins, Capital Sound's project manager.

As the massive production utilises the entire stage as a visual backdrop, a centre hang of

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UK - The second phase of The All England Lawn Tennis Club's three-year plan to transform the Centre Court at Wimbledon includes the installation of a major public address system featuring Martin Audio loudspeakers and BSS Soundweb London.

After going roofless in 2007, Centre Court has assumed a more traditional look following the installation of the permanent non-moveable new roof. At the same time the seating capacity will increase by 1200 to 15,000, and the East and North stands have been equipped with upgraded leisure facilities.

The dilemma facing Jon Berry from RG Jones Sound Engineering, the All England Club's long-term pro audio contractors, was in finding a system that could be installed on a temporary basis for this year's Championships, knowing that immediately after the event it would need to be removed in preparation for the third phase. A soffit will be added to t

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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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USA - The grandMA hobnobbed with royalty at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival where it was the console of choice for programmer Demfis Fyssicopulos and lighting designer Garry 'Sport' Waldie who helped headliner Prince light up the stage. The three-day annual Coachella Festival was held in Indio, California. It was founded as the first major independent festival of all-rock, electronica and hip hop and has since grown into a top showcase for indie bands. This year Prince headlined day two of the event.

"Sport brought some elements from the lighting rig we used last year for Prince: 21 Nights in London. I cloned the information from the London show (for which we had several weeks of rehearsals) into what we had at Coachella," says Fyssicopulos. "Once on site, we used an ESP Pre-Visualization system to massage the show and adapt it to the festival. A

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USA - Nexxus Lighting's Advanced Lighting Systems business unit has completed a lighting project for the Georgia Power Wrap.

The Power Wrap is an art installation created for The Georgia Institute of Technology, by Amy Landesberg Architects with students from the Power Wrap Workshop, College of Architecture and the Georgia Institute of Technology. It was a recipient of an American Institute of Architects Merit Award and earlier this month received an Award of Excellence from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission.

The project goal was to screen the unsightly substation equipment that spread over several acres. It consists of a 500ft long screen made up of 75 panels; each panel has three sections of differently rotated vertical steel louvers, so that visibility varies depending on orientation. In daylight there is a visually rich pattern of light and shadow and at night, a surpris

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UK - Strand Lighting has announced the appointment of Audio Light Systems as the exclusive Scotland-based distributor for Strand products. "This is an extremely exciting development for us and completes our multi-discipline portfolio," said Trevor Cross of Audio Light Systems.

The Edinburgh-based company, now in the fifth year of trading, has been supplying and installing theatre equipment throughout the UK and is currently working on major projects in Theatre Royal Newcastle, Edward Alleyn School Dulwich and Usher Hall Edinburgh.

Strand Lighting offers a comprehensive and competitive range of luminaires, dimmers, control systems and software to answer the creative needs of lighting professionals in theatre, television, film, themed environments and architectural applications.

As part of the Strand expansion there are also exciting new products coming out towards t

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UK - Nelson Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday this year at the 46664 charity concert in London's Hyde Park with a spectacular show featuring artists from all over the World and 60,000 fans joining in their appreciation of the great man's achievements.

Adjacent to the stage, Arena Seating installed a bespoke, three tiered platform. It comprised a disabled viewing area with access ramps on level one, sponsors and VIP guest seating on level two and VVIP seating at the top level, complete with a cover, to host Mr Mandela, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and guests.

As an additional facility, Arena was asked to install a lift at the rear of the grandstand, making it easy for the guests to access the structure with minimal effort.

Arena Seating's sales and marketing director said: "It was a privilege to work with 46664, RW Productions and Live Nation to contribute to an event

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Germany - SchoolJam is Germany's national festival for school bands, which is organised annually by the Keyboards, Gitarre & Bass and Sticks magazines in cooperation with VIVA, Musikmesse Frankfurt and the German Music Council (Deutscher Musikrat). The aim of SchoolJam is to find Germany's best school bands and, via their first live appearances, give them a launch pad for their further development.

In December 2007, a jury of musicians, celebrities and journalists listened to the numerous CDs and invited the best 120 bands to take part in live concerts, with eight bands each appearing in 15 German cities between January and February 2008. After the heats, this was whittled down to eight bands, who competed in the final round at the Musikmesse in Frankfurt.

At the international music expo, the groups performed live under PR Lighting XL 700 spo

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Good News: London's theatres enjoyed their most successful year on record in 2007, with attendances exceeding 13m for the first time, a report says. The Society of London Theatre's annual report says that box office takings rose to almost £470m. But the number of plays opening was down by a third on the previous year. The report says two-thirds of tickets sold were for musicals, with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Grease doing particularly well.

Sports News: More than 90,000 visitors to the Beijing Grand National Stadium will hear the words of the opening speeches of the 2008 Olympic Gasmes mixed on two Aurus desks installed in the stadium's central control room,, which will be fed via a Nexus audio network to the sound reinforcement system of 220 line arrays. Additionally, around 40 billion TV viewers around the world will view the opening ceremo

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UK - 14 years after the public was first introduced to the Irish dancing of Riverdance, there are still usually at least two touring companies on the road at any one time performing a full theatre production of the show. This year has so far seen tours in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, China and Taiwan, with a tour in the production's native Ireland also in full swing. And at the heart of them all are Yamaha PM5D audio consoles.

The public's appetite for it has shown no signs of diminishing. Despite having played across the world and having spawned an entire genre of dance shows and with production values far more akin to rock'n'roll than anything that had gone before in the dance genre, Riverdance continues to delight audiences in many countries.

Sound design for all Riverdance productions is by Mick O'Gorman and his sound design company MOSCO,

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UK - LSI Online has received the sad news of the death of Light Engineering's Cliff Wilding. Cliff, the founder and managing director of Light Engineering, died suddenly at home on Saturday 28 June.

Light Engineering, the company Cliff formed in 1980, is a wholesale supplier of specialist lighting and sound products and has been for many years a member of PLASA (the Professional Lighting and Sound Association). From its base in Walthamstow in London's East End, the company provides a wide range of over 1,000 professional lighting and sound products, and is especially known for its expertise in creating custom mirror balls and other novelty shapes. In 2003, Light Engineering merged with Multiform Lighting, a specialist manufacturer of lighting controls since 1971.

Cliff's funeral will take place this Friday, 11 July, at the City of London Cemetery in Wanstead.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - At Glastonbury 2008, CBA Wireless Events rolled out its latest solutions aimed at simplifying and 'greening up' communications between the myriad companies and people scattered across hundreds of acres of Worthy Farm for the event.

CBA Wireless Events, the networking operations part of CBA, founded by Chris Beale in 2005, has been quietly developing event-proven, mud- and rain-proof, battle-hardened wireless IT, networking and telephony services to event sites. This was the company's second year at Glastonbury - where Beale also doubled his duties as Pyramid Stage sound coordinator - delivering those services to every corner of the sprawling site that for the other 50 weeks of the year is Michael Eavis's working dairy farm.

Beale has long been an enthusiastic embracer of technological progress - including the UK's first wireless linked festival PA delay stacks at Doningto

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UK - Robe moving lights were used by LD Dave Farmer for the touring version of Simon Cowell's hit ITV 1 series, Britain's Got Talent.

The tour - which proved as popular as the 2008 TV series - featured the 10 finalists including winner George Sampson and other popular artists like Kate & Gin, Strike and Nemesis - plus two runners up. It was a fast-paced, high-variety show playing UK arenas and theatres.

Farmer's design was based on having a clear, clean stage and the flexibility to light each of the 12 very different performers differently and dramatically. The backdrop was a large projection screen filling the whole upstage space, and he also has to avoid light spilling onto this.

The lights were positioned on a box truss and across upstage and downstage trusses, with the moving lights a mix of Robe ColorWash 700E ATs and ColorSpot 2500E ATs.

The front truss featur

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USA - Shure Incorporated has redesigned the packaging for all of its Microflex Installed Sound Microphones, ULX Wireless Microphone Systems, three of its wired and wireless Personal Monitor Systems (PSM), and two of its SE Sound Isolating Earphone models.

The size and shape of all cartons for the Microflex products, ULX Wireless Systems, and three PSM Systems (PSM400, PSM600, and PSM700) as well as the strength, durability, and product protection they provide will remain unchanged. As an environmental incentive, the elimination of the Mylar coating and full-color graphic printing on the cartons increases the recycle-ability of the packaging.

"We currently produce a wide variety of full-colour packaging across all product lines, but recently made the decision to move toward a more environmentally friendly design for several products," said Terri Hartman, director of b

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Italy - Video conferencing specialist Aethra has established Aethra UK. "Now is the time to strike in the UK," says Marco Viezzoli, CEO Aethra. "Thanks to our new brand identity and market philosophy, we are able to provide the UK market with an alternative approach to achieving top-class communications solutions. We have passed the point where just churning out great technologically sound products is enough for business applications; Our know-how in telecommunications has enabled us to achieve exceptional levels of quality and now our new vision is to go 'beyond technology' with a new range of innovative products."

Andy Wright, managing director for Aethra UK says: "Aethra is a very special company and I am proud to be spearheading their new operations here in the UK. Our offices have already been set up and I've recruited a team of specialists to work

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UK - Broadcast sound specialist Red TX is capturing the audio for ITV2's Live At IndigO2 series, which is being filmed at the eponymous London venue - the smaller, more intimate music hall attached to the O2 Arena.

Series producer Jim Parsons, of Spin TV, commissioned Red TX for the seven-episode project, which features live performances from three bands per episode. Additional tracks are also made available by New Stream Media to download via the O2 mobile network and online.

To date, four episodes have been recorded featuring Paul Weller, The Courteeners, Scouting For Girls, The Enemy, One Night Only, Amy McDonald, The Zutons, Alphabeat, Royworld, The Charlatans, We Are Scientists and Newton Faulkner.

Red TX director Conrad Fletcher, who is the engineer for the project on board Red TX's main OB truck, says: "It's a fantastic series to be involved with because o

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USA - The Comcast Experience at Philadelphia's Comcast Center features an LED wall comprising 6,771 Barco NX-4 LED modules.

Situated in a breathtaking seven-story high glass atrium, The Comcast Experience is a joint gift to the citizens of Philadelphia from Comcast Corporation and Liberty Property Trust.

By transforming a public transportation hub into an artistic focal point for the city, The Comcast Experience encompasses a number of important "firsts." From a technology standpoint, the world's largest four millimeter LED wall is 83.3' wide by 25.4' high, and is comprised of 6,771 Barco NX-4 LED modules. With 10 million pixels mounted in a seamless flat array, the wall provides an extremely high degree of photo-realism - five times the resolution of high-definition television. Behind the scenes, Barco image processing equipment includes six DX-700 LED digitizers, s

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UK - Cambridge-based Audica Professional has gained China's CCC Certification for its electronic products; the MICROzone amplifier/controller and MICROsub active subwoofer.

Commenting for Audica Professional, sales director Derek West said: "CCC is one of the most stringent of all of the international approvals. It is a long and expensive procedure for a relatively small company, but with a good distributor and strong sales growth in the territory, it was an investment we felt was well justified.

"With such a rapid expansion of new public and commercial buildings in China, the market for our products will continue to grow and this approval is necessary for us to take a competitive lead in supplying background music, corporate AV and audio communication systems."

Audica Professional is represented in China and Hong Kong by High Wing International Technology, wh

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USA - American DJ continues its expansion with the opening of a sales/distribution facility in the UK. Centrally located in Bolton, Lancashire, north of Manchester, the new operation will provide support to dealers and consumers throughout the UK.

"We are proud to announce the launching of our UK operation, which is another major milestone for our company and an indication of the worldwide strength of the American DJ brand," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. "ADJ products are already known and well-accepted in the UK, and having a facility and staff to specifically service that market will only further increase our presence there."

The UK operation is headed by Kris Dawber and Dave Swin, who have a combined total of more than 16 years in the lighting and sound industry. As a result of their experience, Dawber and Swin

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UK - Reviewing its own top ten theatres at risk for 2008 in England, The Theatres Trust welcomed English Heritage's new initiative to protect the nation's heritage. Of the 68 theatres in England on The Theatres Trust's Theatre Buildings at Risk register (TBAR), 34 currently face an uncertain future and are at high risk. The top ten theatres in the Trust's 2008 TBAR include theatres that remain empty, are under threat of demolition, neglect or unsympathetic redevelopment, and lack of funds for repairs and restoration.

Following the launch of English Heritage's new Heritage at Risk register The Theatres Trust highlighted the importance of its own work with local authorities, theatre owners and the public to secure historic theatres for future generations. Director Mhora Samuel added: "English Heritage is encouraging local authorities to make use of its new ambitious and syste

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USA - Ravi Jakhotia, known professionally as DJ Ravidrums has been singing the praises of his AKG K181DJ headphones. "I'm very critical when it comes to headphones," he says. "It's something very personal because it's the sound you hear that puts you right there, in the moment."

AKG's K181DJ headphones work for Ravi because they were designed specifically to meet DJ requirements, says the company. "I love the way these headphones reflect what's going on in my mix," Jakhotia adds. "With other headphones I've tried, you can't get that deep low end and all the highs. These give me all I need for everything I've got going on. The sound is incredible."

(Jim Evans)

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