USA - Clair Showco of Lititz, PA, recently provided the audio system for country music star Keith Urban's US-based tour. The multi-city tour featured Studer Vista 5 SR digital audio consoles in use for both FOH and monitor mixing applications.

Taking both the Australian and US country music scenes by storm, the New Zealand born Urban heavily relies on the sound quality of the Vista 5 SR while on tour. The Studer Vista 5 SR was chosen by his mixing engineers who went through a vigorous evaluation process prior to the selection of the console but chose the Studer after it met all required criteria: Sound quality, flexibility/ease-of-use and reliability.

FOH Engineer Steve Law and monitor mixing engineer Jason Spence evaluated numerous brands of sound consoles before the tour. Spen

Turkey - Allen & Heath's iLive digital mixing system and iDR audio distribution system have been installed in the concert hall and conference suite of Turkey's Anadolu University, as part of an audio upgrade of the University's public areas.

Situated in the city of Eski?ehir, Anadolu University is the fourth largest university in the world by enrolment, housing 12 faculties, three of which are for distance education, seven schools, four vocational schools, nine institutes and 28 research centres and units.

"The institute is renowned for being at the cutting edge of technology, so it was essential that its public service areas reflect this," says Erçin Ural from Allen & Heath's Turkish distributor, Asimetrik.

Consequently, Allen & Heath's iLive digital mixing system - comprising an iDR10 mixrack and iLive-176 control surface - was selected for the 1,000-capacity co

Israel - More than 25 of Israel's most popular musicians performed cover versions of well-loved songs at the Avoda Ivrit (Hebrew Labour) concert. The show, a tribute to 60 years of original Israeli music, was one of the events celebrating Israel's 60 years of Independence. The thousands of people who attended the concert in the Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park enjoyed one of the biggest light show ever seen in Israel.

The Vector Red controlled a massive lighting rig included 24 Martin MAC 2000 profile, 24 Robe colorSpot 1200, 12 Robe ColorWash 1200, 24 Martin MAC 550, 40 Martin Mac 600, 26 Xenon 4K, 10 Atomic strobe, four Unique smoke machines and more than 200 dimmer channels.

"The lighting rig was huge and impressive and I really enjoyed programming the show with Vector consoles"; commented David Winnik, the operator of the show. "Programming is very intuitive an

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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

USA - Built in 1929 and designated a Texas State Historical Landmark, the Yucca Theatre in Midland, Texas, is home to the Midland Community Theatre and its world-renowned Summer Mummers, a locally-produced and written show that harks back to the golden age of Vaudeville. The Yucca's new Electro-Voice XLCi 127DVX sound system is ensuring this production sounds better than ever for its 60th anniversary in 2008. The EV system was designed by FitzCo Sound and installed by Midland Community Theatre personnel.

Summer Mummers runs for three months each summer and attracts audiences from around the world. The show comprises a 'Melodrama' interspersed with 'Moviola' segments, with the second half of the evening featuring a rapid-fire set of skits known as the 'Olio'. Boisterous crowds are the norm, with popcorn-throwing encouraged; for that reason, a relatively powerful sou

UK - The lighting for Radiohead's current tour is based totally on LED, is designed by Andi Watson, and is controlled via two grandMA full-size and four MA NSPs.

"I wanted to create a physical space of lighting within the performance area", explains Watson. He planned a three-dimensional array of 548 x Element Labs Versa Tubes HD that frame the band and act like a virtual stage forming a low resolution 3D video 'screen'. The Versa Tube HDs form curtains of six and nine meter long vertical strips from the back to the front of stage. The entire array is controlled from a custom 3D version of Catalyst, specially written by Richard Bleasdale for the tour.

Additional audience and band lighting comes from 48 x i-Pix BB4 and 48 x i-Pix BB7 LED fixtures. Floor lighting is from seven Color Kinetics iW Blasts, seven Pulsar ChromaFlood 200 TriColour and 12 i-Pix Satellites. A 2

USA - Cunard's newest ocean liner, the Queen Victoria features a multi-story grand lobby, numerous ambient restaurants, lounges, a casino and theatres, many of which are equipped with self-powered Meyer Sound systems designed by San Diego-based Nautilus Entertainment Design and installed by system integrator HMS Italia.

Visibility of the equipment guided the system design for over 30 venues on the ship, including the largest and most challenging Royal Court Theatre, a three-story, 800-seat venue that features opera-style box seating, professional theatres and movie screenings. "Cunard wanted to break from the traditional theatre model often found on ships, so they've created a venue that rivals anything you'd find on Broadway or London's West End," says sound designer Alan Edwards.

Royal Court Theatre's main system comprises two hangs of eight Mica line array loudspe

USA - Big House Sound (BHS), founded in 1991 by Roy Kircher and Rod Nielsen, has been providing top-flight sound reinforcement to Austin, Texas for the past 17 years. Both Kircher and Nielsen built BHS on a respect for their clients' needs for quality audio in the area. Specializing in production services for concerts and corporate events, BHS recently added 16 Adamson M15 monitors, 12 Adamson T21 Subs, 24 Y10's and 24 Y18's to their already extensive inventory of Adamson products.

BHS's Adamson inventory has grown significantly over the years; adding SX's and a RA system in 1998, and then upgrading to the Y-Axis Line in 2000. Now with the added T-21 Subs and M15 Monitors, their inventory includes practically every Adamson box ever made, and the BHS shop could practically be considered an Adamson museum.

Apart from live events, BHS also has their hands in the area of consultin

UK - Sound rental company Merlin PA is using the RSS by Roland Digital Snake at the heart of its PA systems. With two complete S-4000 systems in inventory, Merlin PA typically uses two stageboxes and two monitor pull-offs, providing up to 80 channels of digital audio. "Usually our Cat 5 runs are 100m; however, with another gigabit switcher at the 100m mark, we have extended out to 200m," says Graham White from Merlin.

"The Snakes have proved themselves absolutely bomb-proof. We had them up and running within 10 minutes of being delivered. They cost a bit more money than the analogue copper cable alternative, but they are completely cost-effective. If you run over this multicore in a van, you can still use it."

Merlin PA has a contract to provide PA for the popular Newmarket Nights evening horse-race meetings held at Newmarket Racecourse which are fol

Portugal - Gabisom Audio Equipment provided a massive Vertec line array system at Rock in Rio, one of the world's largest music festivals. The first in two series of shows, Rock in Rio Lisbon featured performances by Lenny Kravitz, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Rod Stewart, and Linkin Park. The second series of shows in Madrid featured Bob Dylan, Franz Ferdinand, Chris Cornell, Neil Young, Shakira, The Police, and Amy Winehouse.

In both locations, Gabisom deployed a JBL Vertec system with four array locations for the main (World Stage) system. A total of 120 VT4889 large-format line array elements and 60 VT4880A Ultra Long Excursion subwoofers were deployed in the main suspend arrays. The main system consisted of four arrays across the front in the normal L/R (front), LL/RR (outfill) configuration.

Each array consisted of three separate hangs: dual Vertec VT488

Germany - The Halle Münsterland is the largest events centre in the region of Westphalia. 80 years after the first events were staged there, the Congress Hall has made a significant investment in a new sound reinforcement system for its main auditorium, a cutting-edge design driven by an EtherSound audio network via a digital matrix, allowing the settings of different sound reinforcement situations to be retrieved at the push of a button.

Jens Schmidt from installation specialists Trendco and Norbert Sangermann, the acoustics expert from Camco GmbH responsible for fixed installations, joined forces to design a system tailored precisely to the Congress hall.

For Jens Schmidt and Norbert Sangermann, the concept design had to accommodate possible future requirements while offering the clearest possible signal transmission. Decision-makers at the Halle Münsterland focussed stron

UK - The first UK installation of the new OmniLine Micro Line Array from Martin Audio has been installed in the new, three-storey, glass-fronted Kingly Club in London's Covent Garden.

The scalable system was specified by Bernard Mani, head of London integration company Systems Etc, after witnessing its launch at PLASA 2007 and seeing it immediately adopted in the US for Star Trek The Tour .

The Kingly Club is owned by Dezzi Mc Causland, founder and creator of the original award winning members club of the same name in Soho - on which Systems Etc also worked.

The new operation in St Martin's Lane consists of a contemporary Japanese restaurant, Kyashii, a lounge bar, a VIP mezzanine area and al fresco seating during the summer months.

Overlooking the ground floor with a private bar, DJ and the large floor to ceiling screens, the VIP mezzanine area offers views over th

UK - Communication Technology in conjunction with UK Distributors, CIE Group will be exhibiting their whole range of commercial sound system accessories and conference microphones at PLASA 08.

Communication Technology will be introducing DPM102B/FM, their new in-wall mounting Pro-Series paging microphone incorporating automatic bass cut and sound level limiting electronics. A heavy duty gooseneck microphone is included. Pro-Series is available in single zone and two zone versions.

The facility for including DSP350, a plug-in digital signal processor for reducing background noise by better than 40dB, is provided, making systems using it ideal for use in noisy environments such as transport termini or busy shopping centres, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

- Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, the British Museum's latest major exhibition, which opened to the public on 24 July, sees the 360-degree projection system designed and installed by systems integrator Sysco deployed to dramatic effect for the second time.

The projection system, which helped the previous exhibition, ,I>First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army win the Museums & Heritage 2008 Award for Temporary or Touring Exhibition, was specifically designed to be reconfigurable - a technological 'first' both for the UK and the British Museum - thus maximising the Museum's investment in technology.

It features an array of 10 Barco HD Icon H250 projectors, arranged to project onto a variety of screens in different formats around the Round Reading Room's circumference - a space whose ornate domed roof was itself originally inspired by one of Hadrian's most iconic bui

Spain - Vieta has custom-designed two-metre tall loudspeaker cylinders for installation in the signature building of Expo Zaragoza 2008, an international event dedicated to the issues of Water and Sustainable Development. Vieta's bespoke speakers are fitted in the Expo's signature building, the Water Tower, alongside the company's Ti Line media players and amps, and more than 150 of its other loudspeaker products.

The city of Zaragoza, the fifth largest in Spain, has built an architecturally remarkable campus to house the Expo 2008, spread over 60 acres and featuring designs by leading architects such as Zaha Hadid. Running from July to mid-September, the event is expected to attract up to seven million visitors. More than 100 countries are participating, as well as private corporations, and live entertainment on-site will come from 350 international artists ranging from the Cir

UK - Weston-Super-Mare's beach once again played host to T4 on the Beach on Sunday 20th July, 2008. This year the event attracted it's largest live audience of 45,000 and a total of 30 artists including Kelly Roland, McFly, The Hoosiers, Scouting for Girls, Basehunter, Sam Sparro, Neo, Duffy and the Ting Tings.

Done and Dusted managed the event for Channel 4, bringing in production manager Tony Wheeler of Nine Yards to look after all aspects of the live production. Wheeler comments: "This year's event grew most significantly. We like to keep our team consistent and once again entrusted Power Logistics to ensure there was uninterrupted power, particularly important for an event driven by its live television show. As ever they have been exemplary and taken all of the late changes an event of this nature throws up in their stride."

Tony Harpur led the Power Logistics te

UK - 27 June saw a number of high-profile artists including Annie Lennox, Leona Lewis, the Sugababes and Will Smith assemble in London's Hyde Park for a concert to mark the 90th birthday of the former president of South Africa ­ and global icon ­ Nelson Mandela.

Organised by 46664, Nelson Mandela's global HIV AIDS awareness campaign, the concert was a celebration of Mr Mandela's 90th year and marked the 20th anniversary of the Free Nelson Mandela concert staged at Wembley in 1988. The concert also raised funds for his 46664 campaign to fight HIV and AIDS worldwide. This was the fifth 46664 concert that Sennheiser has supported, continuing a long standing relationship with the charity.

Working in association with the event's audio production company, Britannia Row, Sennheiser not only supplied equipment but also a high-profile technical team to the event, including Mark Saund

USA - Hard Rock Park, billed as the world's first rock 'n' roll theme park, is "a multifaceted musical experience that brings to life the iconic music that changed the course of music history and continues to influence generations of music fans".

Located in the Atlantic Coast resort town of Myrtle Beach, this $400 million music fan's dream boasts themed rock 'n' rollercoasters like Led Zeppelin: The Ride and Eagles: Life in the Fast Lane among its 50 rides and attractions, and dedicates entire sections of the park to pop-music movements such as the British Invasion, '70s era rock and even country music.

Peavey worked closely with Hard Rock Park and systems integrator Electrosonic to create an unparalleled music experience. As the first new major attraction built in the US in nearly a decade, Hard Rock Park benefits from the evolution of te

USA - Allen & Heath's iLive-80 digital console along with an iDR-8 digital zone mixer, and six remote control PL Series wall plates were installed at the Children's Theatre of Annapolis as part of a full audio system recently completed by Dennis Wilson at Audio Plus.

A new construction, the Children's Theatre hosts local and regional productions as well as other events. The iLive-80 provides FOH as well as monitor mixing duties and the iDR-8 takes care of all main loudspeaker, monitors, and zone speaker management. There are a variety of Allen & Heath PL wall plates installed in various locations throughout the theatre providing remote control of the system.

"The iLive/iDR integration is the perfect solution for theatre," states Sales Reps Audio Associates' Charles Cassell. "It is infinitely flexible and has a ton of features that will allow the system to grow w

Japan - Barco reports that Japanese rock band B'z has chosen its LED module MiSTRIP for their Action 2008 tour. The high brightness modules form a gigantic carpet-like LED screen, which moves up and down above the band during their show giving the impression of a flying carpet.

The B'z is Japan's best selling rock band. They have sold over 75m records and they were the first Asian artists to have their handprints and signatures put up in Hollywood's Rock Walk. For their Action 2008 tour, they worked together with renowned set designer Mark Fisher from Stufish. The mastermind behind stages for U2 and The Rolling Stones designed a 'magic carpet', a grand carpet-like LED screen, flying over the band.

The Stufish team worked closely together with Barco's Innovative Designs to turn their vision into reality. A total of 1,152 MiSTRIPs were used to create the experience

UK - W1 Productions has given a high profile baptism to the lowest-profile floor monitors - pressing their new Martin Audio LE1500 monitors into service for 31 consecutive nights at Koko in Camden Town throughout the month of July - the duration of the iTunes Live: London Festival '08 season.

The Festival has included performances from over 60 bands - from established acts such as The Feeling, Suzanne Vega, N*E*R*D and James Blunt to up and comers such as Hadouken! and The Ting Tings.

Stuart Turvill, who runs Bury St. Edmunds-based W1 Productions, says he had planned to upgrade his hire fleet - which already includes a large inventory of Martin Audio components - "but the iTunes Festival provided the trigger, as we needed to move up to a bigger box." And so he purchased 14 of Martin Audio's flagship monitor.

He added, "These have proved very popular and

Australia - Over 100 Robe moving lights were supplied by Clifton Productions for Australia's 2008 Future Music Festival, which was headlined by The Chemical Brothers, along with a line up of top international DJs.

Clifton supplied lighting for all the festival's auxiliary stages, all of which featured Robe at the core of their rigs. The event was project managed for them by Michael Parsons, who states, "Reliability was the key factor we looked for here, and that's why we chose Robe for this event."

For the Sydney and Brisbane legs of the tour, lighting for the main Future Music Stage was also operated by Parsons during the afternoon. He chose Robe ColorWash 2500 fixtures fitted with PC lenses, which were hung on side trusses and positioned so as not to impede on the Chemical Brothers' rig.

These were used to wash the stage and audience. "Their brightnes

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