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Norway - Last month saw the first show with the new Soundcraft Vi Series V3.0 software in use as Norwegian band Secret Garden finished off this year's tour with a special concert including a symphony orchestra.

Secret Garden has been touring China, Korea and Norway since April with two Soundcraft Vi6 consoles and AKG microphones. The last concert of the tour was a special outdoor show incorporating a 27-piece symphony orchestra in the band's hometown of Kristiansand, Norway. With the orchestra and nine musicians/singers on stage, the need for more than 64 channels was obvious.

"When we planned this gig earlier this summer we aimed to use a third Vi6 for the orchestra, but the timing for a stable beta version of the new V3 software was perfect to make it possible to just add

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UK - Hawthorn has announced the appointment of Richard Chilvers and Derek Wilson to its expanding sales and installations team.

Richard Chilvers re-joins Hawthorns after a seven- year gap, during which time he fine tuned his skills as a venue technician and later in a sales role.

Derek Wilson, former MD of Elevation Rigging, has also joined Hawthorn's sales and installations team after many years as a Hawthorn customer.

"Due to the continued expansion of our sales and installation department we needed to recruit additional staff to cope with the increased workload. Recruitment can be a gamble and so we are delighted to be able to welcome old friends to the team" commented Hawthorn's MD, Martin Hawthorn.

(Jim Evans)

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Norway - Gerben van den Berg has joined Norwegian projector manufacturer, projectiondesign as sales manager, Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg. The move follows the promotion of David Aleksandersen, former sales manager, Netherlands, as he focuses on the running of the company's Certified Product Specialist training programme worldwide.

"Gerben van den Berg's appointment is part of projectiondesign's effort to expand its sales and support resources for its growing customer base in Europe. The company has made several exciting product introductions in the past few months. We want to capitalise on the rising demand for high performance projection" said Chris Axford, international director, sales & marketing at projectiondesign. "Gerben is the ideal candidate to lead our sales effort in this region. He has a strong experience, good knowledge of our customer base and

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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 - Harman Professional today gave System Architect Version 1.8 its European debut at PLASA 08 yesterday. New advances include the ability to copy HiQnet parameter strings directly to the Windows clipboard for pasting into third-party control interface applications enabling system-wide control from control interfaces such as those manufactured by AMX and Crestron.

System-wide events can now also be triggered from device-specific error conditions, such as recalling a preset for a zone based on the conditions of individual amplifiers. A user-definable selection of controls can be automatically readdressed to different devices/parameters on a Custom Control Panel in a few simple steps, and advanced zonal control is now possible. A Fast Meter control has been added for improved meter response and device synchronization has been simplified and improved.

"With System Architect

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UK - The advent of extremely wide angle profile lenses from such manufacturers as ETC and Selecon has allowed gobos to be used to project across much wider areas than was previously possible. This is ideal when using break up designs like foliage and textured patterns.

However, projection of specific images such as windows and logos has been impossible due to the pincushion distortion inherent in these wide angle lenses.

With Goboland's mastery of keystoning and predistortion of images, it is now possible to use these extremely wide angle profiles to project precise, 'corrected' images on a much larger scale and from much shorter throw distances, says the company.

Goboland has developed a system of pre-distorting gobo images to compensate for the pincushion effect, regardless of which manufacturer's lantern is used.

Each manufacturer's unit has its own unique distortion fa

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UK - AKG Acoustics is displaying the D7 vocal microphone at PLASA08. Similarly to its predecessor, the D5, AKG's D7 is billed as a dynamic microphone that delivers clear sound for lead and backing vocals for live sound applications. The D7 additionally features an improved capsule design that contains a humbucking coil and a high-pass filter along with a sleek redesigned look, says the company.

"PLASA is a great opportunity for us to showcase the D7 along with all of its advantages and upgrades. Since the release at InfoComm, the D7 has been featured by famous recording artists and utilised in popular," states Alfred Reinprecht, vice president of marketing for AKG.

"The D7 microphone is one of the greatest microphones in the industry for vocals, and we are very pleased with the amount of positive attention that it is receiving. We are dedicated to providing an

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UK - Aviom is exhibiting with its new UK distributor Polar Audio at PLASA 08.

John Midgley, Polar Audio's managing director, says, "We look forward to educating UK markets about Aviom's solutions and to creating additional business opportunities for Aviom's full line of products. Because Aviom systems are modular and scalable, they are ideal for a broad range of applications, including those requiring high-fidelity digital snake and audio networking solutions."

With its expanding applications from monitor mixing and digital snakes to networking and audio conferencing solutions, Aviom expects to increase its market share in the UK as it is introduced to Polar Audio's broad customer base, which ranges in market segments from broadcast to conferencing, to live sound and recording, to audio visual installations.

"Because of its vast experience in design and custom

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France - Brit-Award winning Mika's larger than life personality was reflected on stage at his one-off appearance at the Parc des Princes in Paris, with the help of a set designed by multi award-winning set designer, Es Devlin (TMA Best Design 1998, Oliver Award for Best Costume Design 2005).

Production manager for the event, Chris Vaughan, once again approached Brilliant Stages to build and supply the 68m wide x 20m high solid fascia which was to provide the substantial backdrop for the show.

Devlin's design for the fascia was that of a clown's face, the mouth of which was to form the proscenium arch with the forehead, nose and eyes covering the main stage whilst the ears and hair extended off-stage and across into the wings.

Oli Metcalfe designed the lighting using 1500 Color Kinetics IColor Flex SLX units to outline the mouth, nose, eyes, ears and hair whilst James Thomas

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Germany - Oktoberfest 2008, which takes place in Munich later this month, features four major tents equipped with audio technologies from Crown Audio, Soundcraft, JBL Professional, AKG and BSS Audio.

The systems for the Hacker, Weinzelt, Armbrustschtzen and Lauenbrau tents are provided by Max Ihm and Andreas Wallisch of LUTV of Forstinning.

At the Lauenbrau tent 12 JBL Professional Vertec VT4887 compact line array elements and eight JBL P744 1x18" subwoofers will be powered by eight Crown I-Tech IT4000 Series amplifiers with mixing by a 48-channel Soundcraft Series 4 console and processing by BSS Soundweb 9088 networked signal processor. Four JBL SRX712M monitor wedges will be joined onstage with a battery of AKG microphones.

At the neighboring Armbrustschtzen tent, a similar loudspeaker lineup of 12 JBL Professional VT4887 compact line array elements, eight JBL P744 s

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USA - When John Mayer drew up plans for his 2008 summer tour, the singer-guitarist-songwriter expressed a strong desire to get back to his musical roots and make the show more "organic."

"On previous tours, we had video in the show," says lighting designer Michael Keller. "But John decided he was tired of doing video. We were going to go more straightforward rock 'n roll - the type of feeling where you're watching a band, not video. John wanted to keep everything very organic."

Keller, who has been Mayer's LD for three years, achieved the desired stage impression - and other organic benefits, too - with Elation Professional's Impression intelligent LED moving head. A small and compact, yet high-output, RGB colour-changing fixture, the Impression is the main lighting unit being used on the 30-city tour, which plays at 10,000-20,000-seat indoor and

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UK - Allen & Heath has released v1.3 software for the iLive digital console range, adding new features for monitor engineering, as well as providing a platform for the iLive Editor software for online and offline show configuration.

New features in v1.3 include engineers' fader strips for wedge and in-ears, which allow separate fader control and dedicated outputs to the operator's listen wedge and IEM personal system. Optional processing and aux monitor mixes can be assigned to wedge or IEM strips, automatically appearing in the desired monitor when auditioned.

Another key feature is the addition of Real Time Analyzer (RTA) to enable the engineer to quickly identify feedback, tune room acoustics, and tailor the onstage monitor wedges. Accessed via the PAFL system, the frequency content of any input or mix, and the spectrum of the main mix, can be viewed on screen and on meters

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Spain - Five students of ESAMA (Superior School for AudioVisual Media) in Andalusia, Spain, have been awarded the John and Helen Meyer Scholarship.

The scholarship programme was announced in 2007 by Meyer Sound Laboratories, Inc., in conjunction with Meyer Sound España, S.A. and ESAMA, to recognize the academic excellence of five first-year students.

This year's awards were presented to David Carrasco Santos, Manuel Lazaro-Carrasco Sierra, Jose Carlos Martinez Salas, Antonio Ramos Garcia, and Alonso Velasco Tavora during the graduation ceremonies held at the Hotel Silken Al-Andalus. They each received a grant of 1,000 euros toward tuition for the following semester.

"The award is a great motivation," said award-winning student David Carrasco Santos. "We're grateful to Meyer Sound not only for the money, but for the recognition."

Meyer Sound's ever-expa

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UK - Vari-Lite unveiled the new VL3500 Wash FX luminaire at PLASA08 in London this week. The unit, exceeding an output of 50,000 lumens, is a wash luminaire that is also capable of acting like a spot luminaire. In its colour bulkhead, the VL3500 Wash FX contains one FX pattern wheel with four spring-loadable rotatable and indexable 50mm glass patterns along with one open position. The dual-wattage unit runs at either 1200W or 1500W and runs 900W in standby. The luminaire projects polished images with the ultra-clear front lens which ships with the unit.

When asked to describe the market readiness for the VL3500 Wash FX luminaire, Bob Schacherl, vice-president of sales for Vari-Lite said: "Lighting designers and customers have increasingly expected feature-rich products that can be adapted or configured to meet the widest possible range of applications. We pride ourselves on

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USA - FreedomFest has continued to grow; each year almost doubling in size. Accordingly, this year's event was moved to Florida Classic Park, and with close to 30,000 people in attendance it became the largest event of its kind held on Florida's West Coast.

Adamson and Hire Company Atomic Professional Audio based in Rutland, Vermont, sponsored the 2008 concert sound system. Adamson concurrently hosted a clinic on sound system design and technology aimed for church facilities of all sizes and styles of worship.

The clinic which was held immediately following Matthew West's sound check on the FreedomFest main stage, featured Benoit Cabot (Adamson tour support) and Adam MacGillivray (Adamson sales & support) covering fundamentals of system design, demonstration of Shooter, Adamson's predictive sound design software, along with various Adamson speaker products.

Sound design for

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UK - At the PLASA08 exhibition in London this week, Stage One launched Qtrack - a brand new theatrical fly track suitable for performer flying across the entertainment industry, from small theatres to one-off large scale arena shows, as well as for wire work and special effects in the film and TV industries. Put simply, this unique product provides an automated recording of a manual flying sequence.

Currently, even the most sophisticated automation systems struggle to match the superior dexterity and subtlety offered by a manual flying system. However, as the use of manual flying systems is not practical, theatrical flying tends to be managed by large arrays of automated systems, costing Producers and Directors dearly in terms not only of programming and rehearsal time, but also in terms of artistry. Qtrack provides the answer, say Stage One.

Providing complete freedom of move

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UK - Stage Electrics provided all intelligent lighting for the recent live Big Brother 9 final. Stage Electrics supplied all moving lights, LED lighting, control systems and crew for the duration of the live eviction shows, from the main launch night back in June, through to weekly Friday night live eviction shows, including the studio interviews hosted by Davina McCall.

For the final, Stage Electrics' crew moved the inside studio (normally used for evictee interviews) to the outside and onto the Orbit stage provided by Serious Structures, ready to host the live interviews as the finalists left the house. The exterior studio set included eight VL 3500, eight VL 2000 moving lights, and chroma strip from Pulsar on the eyebrow of the stage. Stage Electrics' crew had to perform a quick turnaround after Tuesday's surprise double eviction show, having to relocate the studio and

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UK - Monacor International has announced the departure of Damon Crisp, who for the past 10 months has managed its UK operation in Newport Pagnell.

Crisp, who has left by mutual consent, joined the major German electronic suppliers from Numark Alesis Europe late last year and made an immediate impact.

Commented Marco Willroth, managing director of Monacor International: "We would like to thank Damon for his input and commitment, and wish him every success in his future endeavours."

Taking over as managing director, Monacor UK, is Scott Davis, a veteran of the company for the past 13 years. "This is a great opportunity for me to step up from purely an operational and sales role," said Davis.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The PRG stands at this week's PLASA08 exhibition were "a triumph of success in the face of the happiest of adversity", the company reports.

Simon Cox, PRG Greenford's deputy warehouse manager, has long been the crew chief and organiser for the company's extensive PLASA stands. However, after three years on a waiting list for a kidney transplant, Simon was given "the call" just seven days before PLASA and rushed into hospital. The rest of the PRG team rallied to the fore and were delighted and amazed to see Simon well enough to visit the show to see how they were getting on.

Everyone at PRG is delighted to see Simon doing so well and look forward to having him back to work after the great work by the transplant team at Hammersmith Hospital.

Pictured from left to right are Chris Henry (freelance), Phil Sharp (grubby lampy), Simon Cox (complete with new

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UK - HSL supplied and co-ordinated lighting for the Main Stage and the massive Cream Arena at Creamfields 2008 - marking the leading UK dance festival's 10th anniversary - for producers Loudsound Events.

The event featured a host of international DJ's and bands including main stage double headliners Fatboy Slim and Kasabian, and took place at the regular Creamfields site in Daresbury near Warrington.

It is the seventh year that HSL has supplied lighting to the festival, which was co-ordinated by Mike Oates in the office and crew chief Simon Lynch on site. Oates comments, "This year, being a special year, we really concentrated on ensuring that production values were the highest yet. We had a strong team on site who really made it happen very smoothly despite challenging weather and a tight schedule."

The Main Stage was a 20m wide by 15m deep Vertech roof supplied b

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UK - HHB has appointed Syntec as exclusive distributor of its products in Australia and New Zealand with immediate effect. The move comes at a time when HHB has announced important new products including the UDP-89 Professional Universal DVD/CD Player and CDR-882 DualBurn CD Recorder, and as the company ships its 10,000th FlashMic Digital Recording Microphone.

"We¹ve known Ian (Jones, HHB managing director) for many years and have admired what HHB has achieved with its location recording products," says Syntec managing director Bob Sloss. "When the FlashMic came along we just had to get involved, and we¹re equally excited about the UDP-89 and CDR-882 DualBurn."

HHB's Ian Jones says: "It makes a lot of sense to consolidate our distribution in Australia and New Zealand and Syntec was the obvious choice. In terms of product range, philosophy and even co

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Germany - ChainMaster Bühnentechnik GmbH of Eilenburg now has a distribution and sales partner in Australia with a head office near Brisbane on the Gold Coast and branches in Melbourne and Sydney.ChainMaster can already point to its first reference project in Australia - the Gold Coast Convention Centre, which has just taken delivery of 12 electric chain-hoists - each with a lifting capacity of 1,000kg. These hoists will be able to adapt flexibly to the differing demands of the various events staged at the Centre.

(Jim Evans)

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