Details
USA - Harman Professional has announced the opening of new field sales offices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Kuala Lumpur office will be led by David McKinney, who is promoted to senior director of sales, Asia, Harman Professional. The San Juan office will serve Latin America and Canada and will be led by Jaime Albors, who is promoted to senior director of sales, intercontinental, Harman Professional. Both offices will soon add staff in field sales and technical support.

Michael MacDonald, executive vice president of marketing & sales, comments: "Harman Professional owes much of its global success to the contribution of channel partners in Asia, Latin America and Canada. In recognition of this fact and the considerable opportunity presented by emerg

Details
Poland - Audica Professional loudspeakers and amplifier/controllers have been installed in one of the Warsaw University of Technology's most historic and prestigious rooms, primarily used for conferences and recognized as a flagship conference facility in Warsaw. The University of Technology is the oldest technology university in Poland, founded by the visionary, Stanislaw Staszic.

The system was designed and installed by Tommex, Audica Professional's exclusive distributor for Poland. In addition to requiring the highest possible sound quality, the loudspeakers had to merge technology with the elaborate historic architecture of the room and Tommex proposed Audica MICROline and MICROpoint for their slim unobtrusive shape and neutral colour.

The system in the eight metre high Auditorium uses a distributed system, with ten MICROlines in pairs forming the basis. MICROlines' abilit

Details
UK - AV specialists 2Ci have completed a tour of the UK's festivals, supporting the Guitar Hero Experience with AV technology including the 103" Panasonic Plasma aboard a promotional trailer.

2Ci worked with brand experience company Bugle to create the Guitar Hero Experience, which featured a 103" Panasonic Plasma as the centrepiece to the stage set, where festival goers showed off their skills, rocking out to Rage Against the Machine, the Sex Pistols and the Kaiser Chiefs to name but a few. The most talented of the festival goers were offered special prizes, including the chance to play on the main stage at some festivals.

The 103" Plasma was sourced from trade rental company PSCo, with the company's exclusive Screenlifter which lifts the screen up to 3m in the air at the touch of a button. This was then built into a set to act as a stage backdrop

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 - SSE has provided a Midas XL8 and Klark Teknik DN9696 for Rafi Resurrected, a tribute to legendary Bollywood singer Mohammad Rafi performed by Indian singing superstar Sonu Niigaam and the CBSO (City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra). Rafi was a Bollywood megastar during his 35-year career as a singer on Indian film soundtracks.

SSE's then project manager Rob Hughes - now working for Midas and Klark Teknik's UK distributor Shuttlesound - won the contract to supply the PA and crew for the three shows at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, Manchester Apollo and London Collisium respectively.

Having previously worked with the show's producer Tim Pottier. Hughes had no hesitation in spec'ing the XL8. "Its large channel count, ease of navigation to channels via the VCA and POP groups and high quality audio was such an important factor for such a large show," he says.

Details
UK - As the curtain came down on the Beijing Olympics the spotlight fell on London, host of the next Summer Games in 2012. To celebrate the handing over of the Olympic baton, a star-studded event took place in The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace on 24 August. Broadcast live on the BBC, and graced by the presence of many Olympic medallists, the event climaxed with a celebratory concert featuring artists including Il Divo, The Feeling, Heather Small and Will Young.

Combining the official start of the build up to London 2012 with a celebration of the remarkable success of Team GB in Beijing, the day was also a major success for Sennheiser, working in conjunction with Britannia Row.

All the presenter mics on the day were Sennheiser SKM 5200 handhelds with Neumann KK 105 heads, and those same mics were used by Il Divo and The Feeling.

Heather Small, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Wil

Details
UK - Harlequin has opened an office in Hong Kong to serve countries in the Far East. Headed up by area sales manager, Kasper Nyboe, Harlequin has taken the decision to set up the facility to serve its fast growing markets in the area supported by locally held stock.

The newly formed Harlequin Asia Limited, a subsidiary of British Harlequin, is based in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.

(Jim Evans)

Details
USA - Shure Incorporated has launched its new Spanish-language website es.shure.com. The newly designed site allows Shure to provide an "in language" experience for the Company's Spanish-speaking customers around the world.

"This new site will make information about our products, artist endorsers, and resources more accessible for our Spanish speaking customers," said José Rivas, director of sales and marketing for Shure's International Americas Business Unit. "It will also help us share our Company's 83-year history as a leader in the audio industry with these customers."

Additional updates and resources will become available on the site in the coming months.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Germany - The Procon group is celebrating 20 years in business. In August 1988 Morten Carlsson, current CEO of Procon, founded the company, Procon Bühnen Produktions, in Hamburg with two partners who are now no longer with the company. Since then, the company has grown from being a specialist in lighting technology into a full service supplier for events and television productions.

Morten Carlsson became involved in the events market whilst still at school and later became one of the co-founders of a small lighting company in Flensburg (a small town in northern Germany). In August 1988 Carlsson founded Procon. Various company acquisitions followed: Procon acquired majority holdings in suppliers of video technology, camera technology, sound technology and stage construction. Finally, in 1999 the company became a public limited partnership. In the following years Procon acquired

Details
USA - With a casino larger than three football fields and the area's only 5/8 mile harness racing track, Harrah's Casino and Racetrack combines the best of indoor and outdoor gaming. Located just down the road from Philadelphia International Airport, the Race-Ino offers live racing during the summer months, featuring a multi-story gaming lounge that overlooks the entire track through massive walls of glass.

Jim Esher, Harrah's technical manager of entertainment, oversaw the design of the venue's audio and video systems. As Esher explains, the casino's close proximity to one of the nation's busiest airports presented its own unique challenges. "We're so close to the end of the runway, I can look up and tell you what kind of sunglasses the pilot's wearing," he says. "Needless to say, one of our biggest issues was to overcome the noise factor."

Esher specified

Details
UK - A.C. Video, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies, supplied lighting designer Mark Kenyon with two Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers to provide LED video control on the recent BBC Saturday night TV hit music talent show, Last Choir Standing.

In the show, choirs from all walks of life went up against each other to find out who had the passion, power and performance necessary to be declared Last Choir Standing. Presenters Nick Knowles and Myleene Klass followed the choirs as they progressed through the contest, joined by a panel of music experts.

Kenyon decided to invest in two Hippotizers after seeing the media server used on another high profile Saturday night light entertainment show and being impressed by how well it handled slow motion and de-focusing shots. On Last Choir Standing, the units were separately feeding moving image content t

Details
UK - The range of seminars and workshops for PLASA08 (which opens at Earls Court in London this Sunday) has attracted the highest-ever number of advance online bookings. The sessions, which are free, cover a broad range of industry subjects and interests.

Sunday's special interest seminar programme includes two Infocomm seminars; the Institute of Acoustics, Royal Shakespeare Company, National Skills Academy, PMA and Arup feature on Monday; Tuesday sees sessions from the Arcola Theatre, National Theatre, ATG/ABTT and Cirque du Soleil; while Wednesday's line-up is headed by the Institute of Acoustics and CC Skills' Creative Apprenticeships seminar. Technologies For Worship is hosting seminars on every day of the show.

Meanwhile, manufacturer-led sessions include Zero 88 (Sunday), Alcons, Wireless Solution, White Light and Martin Professional (Tuesday) and Cast Software (Wednesda

Details
UK - Specialist LED manufacturer i-Pix will be showing its product range, sharing stand space with Amptown, who produce flight cases for all i-Pix products. Highlighted i-Pix products will be the new BB7 and BB4 fixtures and the original Satellite.

The i-Pix BB 7 is a seven-cell high power homogenised 10 degree RGB source, using a Lamina custom light engine. This fixture consumes 210 Watts at 240 volts and was originally designed for Radiohead's current world tour (LD Andi Watson). The fixture features seven cells of beam control, bringing a fresh feel to modern low power beam manipulation.

The i-Pix BB 4 is a four-cell high power homogenised 20 degree RGB washlight/blinder source, using the same custom Lamina light engine, produced exclusively for i-Pix by Lamina Ceramics in New York. It consumes 120 watts at 240 volts, on full power and gives hire companies and designers ful

Details
Denmark - The Alien LED Downlight is a plug-and-play recessed LED downlight that features RGB+W colour mixing and is available in a standard or high power version. Designed for accent lighting in coloured or variable white light, the Alien LED Downlight's IP67 rating means it's equally suited to both indoor and outdoor environments, says the company.

The Alien LED Downlight can be mounted on walls or ceilings and is suitable for expressive background lighting in restaurants, cafés, bars, small clubs and lounges. It is useful for wall grazing, as decorative accent lighting and niche lighting, or for bottle or product displays. The Alien LED Downlight is also suitable for entrance lighting or orientation lighting for marking columns, aisles, walkways, steps, and architectural features.

The Alien is available in two versions to cover a wider range of applications; a 9 W st

Details
UK - At PLASA 08, RMS will show its latest version of its Rental Management System. This new version, RMS25, has become even faster and easier to use, says the company.

The programme has been completely rebuilt, using the latest techiques. RMS25 uses an entirely new technique to handle the data. This allows users to either use the native RMS-dataformat, or use a SQL-database.

Features include a new look with the Explorer-bars, which allow quick access to frequently used functions.

RMS - Rental Management Systems was one of the first software-solutions for the AV- and entertainment industry. Started in 1987 with a DOS-based version, RMS is now used worldwide by more than 2000 users, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - Commercial audio specialist Ateis UK, has announced the appointment of HD Pro Audio as a main UK distributor for its range, which will be premiered at PLASA08.

Ateis' MD Neil Voce commented: "I am personally delighted to welcome HD Pro Audio on board as a main distributor of Ateis products. Both companies are new ventures in the UK and this means fresh thinking and the positive attitude we need to succeed. The two companies offer complementary skill sets and backgrounds and these will combine well to ensure customers get a first class service."

HD Pro Audio's Andy Huffer, added: "What we like to do here is combine great products with great support, and Ateis have a fantastic range of products that are suitable for a wide range of applications from basic AV mixers to multi-site networked digital PA/VA systems. They've got an established reputation for perfor

Details
Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has appointed Mikael Uddh as key account sales manager for Europe. Uddh brings with him more than 20 years experience in the entertainment lighting industry including OneTwoSales and Spectra Stage & Event Technologies.

"I'm very excited to be part of the Wireless Solution team," says Uddh, "The company has worked very hard to build a good reputation and make W-DMX the best system on the market for wireless DMX. I look forward to helping continue this trend."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - Spanish sound reinforcement manufacturer Vieta has appointed Audioforce as its new distribution partner in the UK.

Audioforce is a relatively new addition to the pro-audio distribution scene, yet has already made its mark with the Lab.gruppen range of products. This was an influential factor in the award of the contract to Guy Lewis and his Cambridge-based agency.

"Audioforce has shown us that they can dedicate themselves to a brand and get it right," says Vieta's export sales director Mick Brophy. "We recognise in them a team of professionals which will give our products the personal attention that they need. With so many new ideas pouring out of Vieta's R&D department, we wanted to find a partner who can match our creativity with careful, intelligent and diligent representation."

Joining forces for PLASA 08, Vieta and Audioforce will present new p

Details
UK - Soundcraft today introduced 96- and 72-channel upgrades to the Vi6 and Vi4 consoles, respectively. According to Andy Trott, president of Soundcraft and Studer, the new additions will make the Vi6 and Vi4 even more potent and versatile tools for front-of-house and monitor engineers in a vast array of tour and fixed install applications including large houses of worship. The input-to-mix expansion is part of the new V3.0 software release.

"Never before has so much power and versatility been accompanied by such an easily navigable, application-engineered user interface," Andy Trott, said today. "We are very pleased to expand the Vi Series and from our continuous discussions with members of the engineering community, we're confident that the 96-channel and 72-channel variants will resonate strongly with the market."

With its advanced Vistonics II user inte

Details
UK - Zero 88 chose the first morning of PLASA 08 to launch two new products: its new theatre orientated lighting console, ORB and the Jester TL.

Designed to provide innovative control of the latest technologies in lighting including LEDs, Moving Heads and Video Server technology, ORB offers extreme flexibility, four universes and contemporary styling.

Building on the successful platform of the existing Leap Frog and Frog 2 ranges, ORB offers a combination of theatrical control philosophy with an adaptable hardware platform, providing intuitive control of both generics and moving lights.

ORB features 2048 channels which can be controlled over standard DMX universes or via Ethernet. Using a numeric keypad, encoder wheels, palettes and syntax keys, programming on ORB is familiar to both beginners and experienced professionals.

Zero 88 previewed ORB to the UK Theatre market at

Details
UK - Midas confirmed at PLASA08 that the first UK clients for its new PRO6 Live Audio System are SSE and Britannia Row, who have each purchased six PRO6 systems.

Although PLASA 08 marks the first public unveiling of the PRO6, more than 100 systems have already been ordered. Anticipating unprecedented interest in the new system, Midas is demonstrating four PRO6s on stand J33.

The PRO 6 purchases by rental companies Britannia Row and SSE confirm their commitment to Midas digital networked systems. Each company also owns two XL8 Live Performance Systems, making them the UK's only XL8 rental suppliers, together with EFX Audio in Scotland.

"We already have our XL8s lined up for a busy autumn," says Britannia Row's Mike Lowe. "Oasis are taking the first XL8 out for the autumn touring season for their UK arena tour which runs from late September until early November.

Page 2242 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .