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UK - Lighting Designers Peter Fisker and Paule Constable are the two latest lighting designers to be invited to the Lee Filters Factory to create their own unique range of colours. Working alongside the Lee research and development team, each designer created four new colours which have now been added to the popular Lee 700 series. The new colours are being launched at PLASA 2008 and will be on show on the Lee Filters stand throughout the exhibition.

Come and see for yourself at Lee Filters Stand C68.

New colours from Peter Fisker: 700 Perfect Lavender, 703 Cold Lavender, 727 QFD Blue, 780 AS Golden Amber

New colours from Paule Constable: 768 Egg Yolk Yellow, 742 Bram Brown, 733 Damp Squib, 731 Dirty Ice

(Julie Harper)

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UK - Jester TL is a theatrical version of Zero 88's popular Jester consoles, bringing the power and flexibility of this range to those operating in theatre environments. The Jester TL offers control of up to 120 dimmer channels from a numeric keypad using standard industry syntax.In common with the other Jester desks, the Jester TL features a cue stack for the play back of memories in a traditional theatrical manner. Submaster playback (via DMX-in) is also supported. As with the other Jester consoles in the range a monitor port is standard together with USB storage and easy patching. Control of up to 30 moving lights is simple using palettes, effects engines and a full fixture library. Its small form factor makes it perfect for venues that were previously limited by space.

With the addition of a dedicated theatrical console the Jester range now represents the most comprehensive

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UK - The PLASA08 exhibition, which opened its doors today at Earls Court, London, sees the official unveiling of Polar Audio Ltd - a new name to the audio industry, but the exclusive UK distributor for some of the best known names in the professional audio market.

A statement issued by the company said,"Polar audio is the exciting new face of beyerdynamic GB Ltd and brings to the market an innovative approach to distribution. Beyerdynamic GB Ltd has always been an independent company, not a subsidiary, but as such it has conducted its operation as a distributor very much in the image of beyerdynamic Germany. This of course has had huge advantages, but in many ways it has coloured our image and led to some inaccurate perceptions of who we are as a company today."

The statement continued: "Perception is not always reality, we are no longer a distributor of microph

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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 - Hot on the heels of the SD7, launched this time last year, DiGiCo has launched the SD8 The SD8 has a fixed architecture and employs a smaller Super FPGA than the SD7, yet it benefits from all the major features and versatility of the DiGiCo D Series, plus the advances already made in the SD7, says the company. "This gives a superlative performance to price ratio, allowing DiGiCo to offer an entry-level console, with remote pre amps, at a price point that has never been possible before," says a company statement issued at PLASA 08.

The SD8 incorporates the Stealth Digital Processing, based on the single Super FPGA and combined with Analogue Devices Tiger SHARCS, creates the Tiger SHARC FX engine. This provides audio quality, precision and processing power with an extensive range of built-in, reverbs, dynamics, output matrix and more.

The SD8's control surface has

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UK - Cooper Controls are pleased to announce their appointment as exclusive global distribution partner for LightFactory.

In September 2007, Zero 88 took on European distribution of LightFactory control software, bringing this incredibly powerful PC based lighting console to its extensive dealer network across Europe.

Following extremely positive response, Cooper Controls will now provide marketing, distribution, service and support worldwide. Existing LightFactory dealers will continue to service their markets. Cooper Controls will be working closely with them to ensure the continued high level of support that they have come to expect from LightFactory.

Graham Eales, Managing Director of Zero 88 said "Having seen the power of the LightFactory products we were very excited about selling them in Europe. Now that we have the opportunity to broaden the market international

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UK - Goboland introduces Gobo Motion, its new video clip service, at PLASA 2008. Utilising its experience in gobo production, Goboland now turn this expertise to video content.

Gobo Motion is a growing library of Collection video clips featuring background images and textures which can be downloaded directly from the Goboland website at www.goboland.com. Gobo Motion can also be used to create custom clips from customers' artwork to provide an economical and convenient method of basic video display.

Ideal for small scale budgets, simple installations such as trade show stands or foyer exhibitions, Gobo Motion can be used to animate, for example, a company logo which can then be played from standard hardware such as a laptop or AppleTV through a simple video projector or Plasma screen or LCD screen.

This dispenses with the need for media servers or high-tech projection equipme

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Sweden - The Hovet Arena is situated in Stockholm's famous Globe complex - the largest spherical building in the world. Turned into a multipurpose arena several years ago the 8,000-capacity Hovet today is used for a wide range of concert and corporate events -- but its predominant use is ice hockey.

Recently the venue underwent a complete refurbishment, and DM Audio, which has a long association with the entire Globe complex (including the Annex and Hovet) was awarded the contract to upgrade the audio infrastructure.

DM Audio's Lars Wern has been using QSC Audio's RAVE DSP signal transport platform almost since its inception - most notably at the Y2000 Eurovision Song Contest at the Globe, and the company subsequently carried out a major installation within the 85m high venue.

At the Hovet Icehockey Arena, DM Audio's Jan Petersson designed the sound system in stereo -

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UAE - Now in its seventh year, the 2009 edition of PALME Middle East, which will take place 26-28 April at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre, has already built up momentum and promises to receive more exhibitors and visitors than ever, claim the organisers.

Over 8,000 key buyers and decision-makers are expected to attend the 2009 show, which will consist of four key show segments.

Said show director, Alex Heuff, "The success of last year's show was accompanied by a number of constructive comments as to how the show could be even further improved. These included streamlining the layout and rebranding of certain sectors - and I am pleased to report that we have been able to respond to these suggestions.

"For example, we have re-branded MUSAC Middle East for the professional MI market and DJ equipment manufacturers as the sector starts to show real sign

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UK - InnovaSON is showing its latest digital control surface, Eclipse at PLASA 08. Based on new technology and fully networkable, Eclipse represents the French company's first console release since the ultra-compact Sy48 in 2004. More powerful than the flagship Sy80, Eclipse is also claimed to be the world's first digital live recording console to offer onboard multitrack recording.

Eclipse's DSP engine enables you to mix up to 104 inputs simultaneously into 48 mix busses with the capacity to manage up to 320 inputs on the console using up to five remote audio racks. The control surface is furnished with 48 faders and 48 fully configurable rotary knobs (spread over four layers). The concept is called SmartPanel and effectively gives you 96 "faders", taking InnovaSON's original SmartFAD concept to the next level.

According to InnovaSON's product manager and designer o

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UK - High End Systems has introduced StudioPix, a hybrid wide-angle moving yoke LEDwash light with programmable graphic imaging. This second product in HES' new line of Pixelation Luminaires makes its global at PLASA 08 in London.

HES, a new member of the Belgium-based Barco group, unveiled StudioPix at theBarco/High End Systems stand J30 at Earls Court yesterday.

Smaller than its predecessor Showpix, StudioPix features a circular array of 61homogenous 3-watt LEDs on a 13.5-inch diameter head with an output of 11,500RGB lumens. The pixels offer unlimited possibilities by projecting not just colour, but also displaying images and effects that transform the fixture head into a display device.

"We are excited about the addition of StudioPix to the LED family of luminaires,"stated Bill Morris, HES executive VP worldwide sales."We believe that the future of lightin

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UK - ETC has announced the appointment of ARRI Lighting Solutions GmbH (ARRI LS) as its preferred distributor for broadcast applications in several major markets.

The new partnership will allow ARRI LS to provide complete broadcast lighting solutions now comprised of ETC control systems and products, ARRI lighting and suspension products, with turn-key design and installation services.

The partnership covers important broadcast markets in central and Eastern Europe (including GUS) as well as the Middle East and Africa.

"ETC and ARRI have developed some of the best lighting technologies for the broadcast industry," says ETC CEO Fred Foster. "This partnership with ARRI Lighting Solutions will capitalise on the strengths of both companies to provide complete lighting systems made with ETC and ARRI products."

The partnership - which does not affect the thea

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UK - Shuttlesound can report an impressive boom in Electro-Voice line array system sales in the UK, primarily catalysed by the new compact cabinet formats introduced to the market in the last 12 months.

In addition to the recent sale of EV's XLD and XLE modules to APR Audio, Shuttlesound is pleased to welcome five rental companies into the EV family: Clear Sound, based in Stratford-upon-Avon; CWS, based in Peterborough; Ethix, based in London; Leisure Tech, based in Wigan; OneBigStar, based in Nottingham.

CWS, Clear Sound and Ethix have all invested in EV's XLC system which has been revitalised by the recent DVX upgrade, which brings EV's new 12-inch low-frequency/mid-bass woofers into the XLC127 cabinets, improving high-SPL stability and full-bandwidth intelligibility.

Colin Smith, proprietor of CWS, explains that: "we were renting in line-array systems up to ten times

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UK - Litestructures, one the largest manufacturers of lightweight aluminium trussing, staging and structural solutions in the world, has appointed Impact Products as its master stocking distributor in the UK.

Adrian Brooks, managing director of Litestructures, said, "I am delighted to announce the contractual completion of the deal with Impact Products, which we expect to be worth well in excess of £10 million over the next few years. Impact has a complete infrastructure in place to fully serve our mutual customers and we look forward to a highly successful partnership."

Impact offers Litestructures' products with immediate availability from stock in its Northampton base, supported by a national network of trade counters as well as fully automated on-line purchasing platforms on its webshop.

Litestructures is known for its wide selection of lightweight yet st

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UK - Making its official UK debut on Resolution Distribution's stand H47 at PLASA 08, the new ProDesk-4 small format console is available in five different input formats.

Available in 16, 24, 32, 40 and 48 mono mic/line input channels, ProDesk-4 includes four stereo line only input channels, each selectable from two different input sources and controlled from 100mm faders with stereo EQ and access to all aux buses. All mono input channels also include internally illuminated Mute and PFL switches, six segment channel metering, 48 Volt Phantom Power switch with LED, mic/line, Pad and Polarity Reverse switches.

The ProDesk-4 input channels are similar to those used on ProRack mixers, while the cosmetics are identical to Spectra consoles. The side panels, armrest, and bridge assembly are modeled on Spectra. ProDesk's internal electronics and components are derived directly from th

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UK - Following positive feedback from the prototypes presented at PLASA 07, Goboland has launched its range of black steel gobos which have also been nominated for the PLASA 2008 Innovation Awards.

The introduction of black non-reflective coating on the surface of the Black Steel Gobo cuts down on internal reflection to produce a crisper image when projected and eliminating unwanted halo effects, says the company.

The black coating will not burn or peel off under extreme heat and reduces the risk of image distortion caused by heat damage. The full range of Goboland Steel Collection is available in black steel, plus all custom steel gobos are manufactured from Black Steel with immediate effect.

Goboland Black Steel Gobos can be seen on the Goboland Stand F 31.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - The Digidesign D-Show Profile Mix Rack System, the newest addition to Digidesign's Venue family of live sound systems, has opened Venue technology to a vast new user base around the globe, says the company.

Developed specifically for small- and mid-sized performance venues, houses of worship, touring, and fixed installations, or as a drop-in upgrade for existing analogue systems, the D-Show Profile Mix Rack System combines a D-Show Profile console with the new Mix Rack, a compact 11-space rack enclosure that incorporates all audio I/O (stage and local) and DSP into a single chassis.

The resulting system combination offers a compact, portable, and cost-effective way to take advantage of the power and flexibility of Venue, including native control of an extensive library of TDM plug-ins and tight integration with Pro Tools software for live multitrack recording and playbac

Details
UK - FogScreen is exhibiting at PLASA08 on stand D72 a seamless 3 x One projection screen installation. The FogScreen One (one meter) and Inia (two meter) both utilise patented technology to create a thin layer of fog that is dry to the touch and environmentally safe. The one-meter-wide screen provides the option of seamlessly linking with additional FogScreen One projection devices to create a fog-canvas as large as the imagination desires.

For integrators FogScreen One is especially interesting since it enables the creation of large-scale installations, says the company.

FogScreen's AV Integrator Programme for the European market is being launched at PLASA08. This programme has been designed to support AV Integrators with conceptual and technical development, to help with presentations of the screen and to provide integrators with an opportunity to purchase affordable demons

Details
UK - At the PLASA Show in London, commercial audio specialist in public address and voice alarm systems, Ateis UK, has announced the appointment of HD Pro Audio as a main UK distributor for its internationally acclaimed range, which is being premiered at PLASA08.

Ateis' MD Neil Voce commented: "I am personally really 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, particularly with Andy, 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

Details
UK - White Light to supply ETC lighting desks to the Ambassador Theatre Group, the UK's leading theatre group.

Leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light today announces that it has reached an agreement with The Ambassador Theatre Group Limited (ATG), the largest theatre owner in London's West End and second largest across the rest of the UK, to replace the lighting consoles in all of ATG's venues with Eos or Ion, the new generation of control systems from ETC.

Founded in 1992, ATG is made up of twenty-three theatres in London's West End (including the Duke of York's, Piccadilly and Savoy Theatres) and around the UK (including many of the country's leading touring theatres). The theatres currently use a mixture of control systems; over the next 24 months these will all be replaced by either Eos or Ion, ensuring that all of the Group's venues run on the same control pl

Details
The PLASA Show got off to a flying start in London on Sunday this week, with a host of high-profile product launches from many of the entertainment technolog business's leading manufacturers. The draw of new technologies and a string of other highlights has made this a visibly successful event as we enter day three.

Tour News - With a canon of classic songs, unbowed enthusiasm and his musical faculties still sharp, Stevie Wonder has opened his first European tour for a decade. The US star took fans at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena on a two-hour journey through almost 50 years of songs that helped shape soul and pop. A sold-out crowd of 13,500 saw him play with a 10-strong band and four backing singers, including his daughter Aisha. Wonder, 58, now visits Manchester and London before other European cities.Festival News - Amy Winehouse has played her last scheduled show of the year

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UK - John Stadius, technical director of Soundtracs/DiGiCo, was confirmed as the second winner of the prestigious Gottelier Award.

Presented during the PLASA Awards for Innovation on the second night of PLASA08, and named in honour of the late designer, developer and commentator Tony Gottelier, this award aims to recognise innovative developers who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of the equipment and tools that enable entertainment technology practitioners to continually push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation.

Voted for by the industry, the Award was presented to John Stadius by Tony's wife Susie.

Stadius is a distinguished audio designer: in 1978, he joined Soundtracs PLC, designing disco consoles, mixers, power amplifiers and speakers. As technical director between 1980-1994, he continued to design a wide range of ana

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