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Italy - This year in January, Clay Paky signed Production Resource Group, LLC (PRG) as the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky products in the US, English-speaking Canada and Japan. In the Japanese market, PRG Asia immediately started planning a series of sales and marketing initiatives to promote the Clay Paky brand and products.

The first step was to organise a three-day seminar at the Tokyo Design Center Gallery Hall for all rental, theatre and TV operators exclusively focusing on the new partnership with the Italian firm. Speakers for PRG Asia included managing director Kobayashi-San, senior division manager Hisao Tanabe, sales manager Tanaka-San, marketing manager Miki Sasaki and vice-president John R Swain. On hand for Clay Paky were the Japan and America sales and marketing

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UK - Vaughan Sound Installations specified, supplied and installed a complete integrated digital signage system throughout Swansea's new LC2 leisure centre, together with sound systems for the Main Hall, Gym and Wave Pool areas, plus AV/presentation systems for three function rooms.

Previously known as Swansea Leisure Centre, the facility has recently re-opened after a £32 million refit as a state-of-the-art water park and health and fitness centre.

Llanelli-based VSI supplied 32 Mitsubishi LCD commercial displays of various sizes, which are installed around the building. In the reception area, a 10m semi-circular Trilite truss is flown in the ceiling, and fitted with five screens showing general information and opening times.

For the 'Peak' multi-level Gym, VSI supplied a full sound system consisting of two arrays of flown TOA F2000 speakers, carefully positioned to g

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UAE - Gearhouse Staging Connections has secured an exclusive three-year appointment as the event services partner of the new 1539-room ocean-themed Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah - the flagship resort of the man-made palm-shaped island development The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai.

A culmination of almost two years of planning with Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah management, the contract marks the group's first foray into the high-growth venue services market in the United Arab Emirates.

Gearhouse Staging Connections will assemble an onsite team of 15 "world-class technical and client services personnel" from its Dubai and Australian operations to deliver conferences, concerts, launches and events of any scale at the prestigious resort. The company will also install a range of multi-million-dollar audio-visual technology into the resort's facilities.

Staging Connections Group CEO Michae

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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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UK - Simon Dancey, a trustee of the Arts Council of Wales, has joined Creative & Cultural Skills as Wales Director.

Simon is former director of Community Music Wales and is a leading figure in the community arts field in Wales. Simon has vast experience in music and events management and is also recognised as a prominent performer, composer and producer with a wealth of international experience. He has travelled the world as an advocate and promoter of community arts in addressing education and social participation issues.

Simon said: "The creative industries in Wales are vital and distinctive. I welcome the opportunity to be involved in unlocking the potential of all sections of the community and providing relevant skills for people that will in turn, lead to quality employment prospects and a vibrant cultural industries sector in Wales."

Tom Bewick, chief executi

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USA / UK - Chauvet's Legend 6500, a 10- to 14-channel intelligent LED moving yoke wash suited for club, production, stage and architectural applications, with full RGBW mixing capability, will be shown at the forthcoming PLASA08 exhibition in London (7-10 September, Earls Court).

Features include adjustable colour temperatures (preset values range from 3,200°K to 10,000°K), the capability to trigger instant colour changes, discreet operation and a casing design focused on stability and ruggedness.

The unit comes fitted with a total of 90 high power LEDs (700mA red; 1,500mA blue, green and white), and 15° lenses. The unit produces an excellent long-throw wash, say Chauvet - 14,780 lux at 2m, with a beam angle of 12° and a field angle of 23°. Optional 10° and 30° lenses can be swapped into the fixture to respectively provide a tighter or wider beam co

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UK - BSS Audio has added four new members to its Soundweb London family of digital signal processors.The new BLU-800, BLU-320, BLU-160 and BLU-120 join the BLU-80, BLU-32 and BLU-16 devices in the series. HiQnet London Architect, v2.00, provides support for the four new devices and several significant feature additions.

A dedicated and comprehensively featured Room Combine Processing Object abstracts the complexity of room combining applications and reduces programming time for such applications. The addition of Dynamic Metering allows efficient troubleshooting of Soundweb London systems through the use of simple signal presence monitoring.

BSS at PLASA08 - stand D22.

(Jim Evans)

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Netherlands / UK - Dutch loudspeaker manufacturer Alcons Audio has recently opened a dedicated UK base, which will be headed up by Stephen Badham.

"In general we have adopted the philosophy that we want to have our own presence in key territories that have an international influence," says managing director Tom Back. "Germany is a domestic market that is very interesting to us in terms of volume, sales and appreciation of the technology we have and our success there has shown that our faith in this approach is justified."

Back continues, "The UK is important in many ways. It influences the European music scene and it also influences the US. We have noticed that through the relationships UK companies have in the US market. Taking all that into account, setting up the UK operation was never a matter of if, it was purely a matter of when."

"Pr

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UK - JBL Professional is extending its Control Contractor series loudspeakers to an even wider variety of applications with the new Control Contractor 40 Series premium in-ceiling specialty loudspeakers. On show at PLASA 08 for the first time in the UK, several of the models incorporate JBL's conical Radiation Boundary Integrator (RBI) technology, providing "broad and consistent pattern control with superior sonic performance".

"As customer expectations for audio quality continue to increase, we are pleased to introduce a new ceiling speaker line that not only provides extended bandwidth and improved fidelity, but also saves the customers money by covering their space more evenly with fewer speakers," said Rick Kamlet, senior market director, commercial sound, JBL Professional. "With the introduction of the Control Contractor 40 Series, JBL's lineup of h

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Russia - Leading acoustic design company Munro Acoustics has been appointed to work alongside Russian company Cineko in renovating the Grand Palace Theatre, the famous 6,000-seat concert hall inside the Kremlin in Moscow.

The hall currently hosts a diverse programme of music and theatre, including concerts for television broadcast and is in need of extensive renovation. Munro Acoustics have been tasked with giving the hall's acoustics a complete overhaul.

Managing director Andy Munro said: "It is a great honour to be selected for such a prestigious project but I do not underestimate the technical challenges involved. Fortunately, we have been working on similar auditoria concepts for some years now and we have proven the techniques that will enable our design to achieve the client's objective of a truly flexible performance space."

The hall was originally designed

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UK - After an extremely rigorous testing and selection process, London-based Britannia Row Productions - one of the UK's leading providers of live audio systems - has recently taken delivery of 80 Yamaha T5n power amplifiers to significantly boost its rental inventory.

The company was looking for a high quality, general-purpose power amplifier, which could be used with a range of point source PA and stage monitoring systems and could also effortlessly cope with the diverse range of events that Brit Row services.

"We wanted to find a model of amplifier that can work in a wide variety of situations, will deliver consistently high performance levels and will be extremely reliable," says Brit Row director Mike Lowe.

"We have a wide range of systems in our rental stock, therefore having to maintain and service as few types of amplifier as possible has obvious benef

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France - Nearly 100 Robe moving lights were utilised by lighting designer Alexander Junca for a son et lumière event staged at the Trocadero in Paris as part of the 2008 July 14 FΩte Nationale celebrations - France's most important public holiday.

The light show accompanied the traditional annual Quatorze Juillet fireworks spectacle in the Trocadero square, located on the right bank of the River Seine facing the Eiffel Tower on the left bank. All lighting equipment for the event was supplied by Paris based rental house, Impact Evénement.

Preparations and rigging started nine days in advance and involved approximately 50 technicians who rigged lights and pyro onto three trussing circles - one with a 20m diameter and two with 6m diameters - placed in the centre of the Trocadero. These were then hoisted 60m into the air by cranes.

A combination of 94 Robe ColorSpo

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UK - Following a period of significant growth over the last five years, Audio-Technica has recently restructured its UK operation to offer increased levels of customer service and to provide a solid foundation for future expansion.

Amongst the important changes for Audio-Technica UK, Isabelle Alran has assumed the position of European sales director and will take an active role in the day-to-day UK sales operation.

Audio-Technica's UK area sales managers will now report directly to London-based Alran and the drive to improved customer support will see them partnered by dedicated area sales co-ordinators at the company's head office in Leeds.

In addition, newly appointed UK sales and marketing assistant Tom Harrold will assume responsibility for building on relationships with some of Audio-Technica's smaller accounts, allowing a direct point of contact for independent reselle

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UK - Impact Products (Europe) Ltd, a leading trade-only supplier of professional audio and lighting products, is highlighting five leading manufacturers at PLASA08.

Adding to its comprehensive collection of amplifiers and speakers, Brooke has two impressive new ranges of line array speakers, suitable for every kind of venue from small club to stadium.

Rhino have introduced the robust Twin Table DJ Rack Case, whose removable doors with folding legs fix securely to the 19" flight case to form two tabletops for decks and mixers.

Business manager Keith Williams says: "We are proud to now be the stocking distributor for Litestructures and exclusive stocking distributor of US-based Chauvet Lighting in the UK."

Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, Chauvet's new MiN Spot is a portable moving head LED fixture with RGB mixing and nine gobos, whilst Impact's P

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France - To celebrate France's Presidency of the European Union, E//T//C Paris is projecting 45m wide video images onto the façade of the Assemblée National in Paris.

The projection system utilises four Christie Roadie 25K DLP projectors and E//T//C's multimedia control platform, Onlyview, to manage the images. The projectors are installed in pairs, housed in two custom built cabins on either side of the Pont de la Concorde, located directly in front of the building.

Each cabin is positioned directly on top of the bridge's pillars, where they are designed to subtly blend into the surrounding architecture. Each pair of projectors is overlaid for brightness, and covers half of the Palais Bourbon's colonnaded front.

The eight-minute long show (on constant loop) is created by French scenographers and image designers Skertzò. Spectators are taken on a journey of the EU's

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USA - Loud Technologies Inc - owner of a stable of pro audio brands including Mackie, EAW and Martin Audio - has announced the resignation of chairman and CEO Jamie Engen after more than 10 years with the company. Replacing Engen is Rodney Olson, who has over 20 years' experience in executive roles.

"Over the past ten years, Jamie has played a critical role in growing Loud Technologies into the industry leader that it is today. We appreciate his contributions and wish him the best," said Tom Taylor, the board member who led the search for Engen's successor. "We are fortunate to have a strong successor to take over the reins and continue our growth efforts."

Olson joins Loud Technologies after a decade with Cardinal Brands, a Kansas-based $170 million office products company, where he has served as CFO, president and, most recently, CEO for the past two year

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USA- Billy Joel's Last Play At Shea marked the end of an era of historic concerts at Shea Stadium. With a star-studded line-up of musicians making guest appearances throughout the evening including Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, Steven Tyler and Roger Daltrey, Billy Joel performed the last concert at the stadium. With the help of Sir Paul McCartney (who played the first concert at the stadium with The Beatles in August 1965), Billy Joel closed the show by accompanying McCartney on piano with a surprise version of Let It Be.

Joel's world tour began in January 2006 and has been touring ever since. The 2008 segment kicked off in Philadelphia, PA in January, making stops in California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Ohio, Quebec, Louisiana, Connecticut, Virginia and finishing up with two shows in Flushing, NY at Shea Stadium. Joel resumes the second leg of his world tour with dates

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Germany / UK - Supplementing its TarmLED 4x4 and TarmLED Tile large-area LED-video-displays, TarmLED will show its new TarmLED Linear Stripe 25/50 at PLASA08. Offering "much higher spatial resolution and maximum cost-effectiveness in configuring creative, large-area LED-video-displays" the Linear Stripe allows organic shapes, such as waves or cylinders, to be readily implemented, the company says.

Modules are equipped with 3-in-1 SMD LEDs spaced at 25-mm or 50-mm intervals, yielding a brightness of either 6,000 nits (25mm pixel-pitch) or 1,500 nits (50mm pixel pitch), respectively. Angular viewing fields are 120° x 120° for either version.

Their extremely narrow widths of just 7mm per module (a figure unequalled by any other, similar product available on the market, say TarmLED), yields a uniform transparency of 72%, in spite of their high pixel density (1600

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UK - Heading Turbosound's presentation at PLASA08 will be the new Flex Array series, which combines elements of line array theory with proven virtual point source technology in one loudspeaker product, and is aimed at providing rental companies with a one-box solution for a variety of venues and audiences.

Flex Array's Polyhorn and Dendritic horns are combined in a compact rotatable waveguide which delivers a phase-coherent wavefront with 75°h x 16°v coverage.

Available in switchable bi-amp/tri-amp and self-powered guises, the Flex Array mid/high cabinet is complemented by a single 18" horn-loaded bass enclosure. The digitally self-powered TFA-600HDP has been nominated for a PLASA08 Award for Innovation.

Flex Array cabinets feature two independent load-certified integrated flying systems, which enable quick and easy rigging with the minimum of external parts. Th

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UK - Green Hippo returns to PLASA brandishing a new set of tools "to keep them at the forefront of the Media Server market", the company says. Two new products have been added along with an extensive reworking of Hippotizer Software.

HippoCritter is a new entry-level Hippotizer enabling large-scale functionality at a small-scale cost. Boasting most of the features of its siblings, this small form-factor server opens up new possibilities for those wishing for high-grade media playback at a fraction of the cost. Seamless integration with the acclaimed HippoNet control protocol makes it ideal for installation and architectural applications or as an additional source on existing setups.

Also joining the line-up is HippoPortamus. This laptop-based Hippotizer brings portability to those wishing to take their show with them. As a stand-alone unit it provides all the familia

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UK - Mayfair's Zeta Bar at the Park Lane Hilton - already outfitted with JBL loudspeakers by the Sound Division Group (SDG) four years ago - has now transformed into Whisky Mist at Zeta. This has given the same installation company the opportunity to add a further generation of Harman Professional sound reinforcement products to the existing infrastructure, from the catalogue of UK distributors Sound Technology

The new bar and club is a joint collaboration between the Hilton, two of London's most successful nightlife pioneers, Nick House and Piers Adam, Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe and Marc Burton.

Open from 5pm every evening, with last entry at 2am, SDG's managing director David Graham knew instinctively how to transfigure the sound system in this sophisticated venue to optimum effect, having previously collaborated at the chic Mahiki for House and Adam.

Working

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Russia - Professional scenic design and rental company ArtStage has recently supplied Chroma-Q Color Web for four high profile Russian shows and events in just over one month.

The diverse projects include a major radio station's fifteenth anniversary celebration event in Moscow's Red Square, a music TV awards show, a leading film awards event, and a national ball to acknowledge the country's best students.

ArtStage general producer, Alexey Spaskov, sourced the Color Web at the Prolight&Sound show when he was looking for a cost-effective, flexible LED visual effects system capable of dressing large stage scenic areas of TV shows, concerts and events.

Manufactured by Artistic Licence, the Color Web's lightweight design was a major factor in Spaskov supplying it for the set of Muz TV, Russia's annual music TV awards show. Held at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, the Color

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