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Canada - At the festivities marking the 400th anniversary of the city of Quebec, the Image Mill (Le Moulin à Images), a sound and image spectacular created by Robert Lepage and Ex-Machina, employed a grandMA full-size and a grandMA light to control the lighting for what was believed to be one of the world's largest video projections.

Each evening in July at sunset, the Port of Quebec's 81 monumental Bunge company grain elevators on the banks of the Bassin Louise were transformed into an immense projection screen. The Image Mill was visible from many vantage points, including across the St. Lawrence River, displaying Lepage's four-part vision of Quebec history from the 17th century-themed Water Highway to today's telecommunications-fueled Air Highway.

Lighting designer Hu

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UK - One of the hidden highlights of this year's PLASA Show was the presence of Martin Audio's new ASX floor-mounted active installation subwoofer, facing out into the aisles at the astonished passers-by.

Aside from the sheer size of a cabinet designed to house a 21" (530mm) transducer, Class D amplifier and full DSP, the ASX subwoofer "revolutionises ultra-efficient, low frequency sound reproduction -- achieving the highest ever SPL from a single low frequency enclosure housing a single drive unit".

The combination of transducer, amplifier and DSP provide double the output capability of a conventionally driven loudspeaker driver of the same size. When incorporated into a Martin Audio Hybrid horn design, the complete system can deliver a 152dB peak output (measured) from a single enclosure.

This is typically greater than can be achieved by two 2 x 18" (46

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Chile - The Quinta Vergara Park Amphitheater, one of the most important and emblematic venues in Chile and home to the Viña del Mar Song Festival was the stage of a recent concert in which Aero line array systems were used for sound reinforcement.

The sound reinforcement was provided by Chilean company Provotec under the direction of Ricardo Marqués, who also took care of the stage monitoring, choosing the D.A.S. audio systems.

Marco Ambiado, director of Spektra, designed the set up of the PA, consoles and monitors. The main installation consisted of 12 Aero 38A powered systems (six per stage side) and 20 Aero 28A (10 per side) to provide sound coverage for the entire amphitheatre area. Monitoring was achieved through 12 low profile SML-15A powered units installed throughout the stage.

Erickson Cardona of Audiomusica and D.A.S. distributor for Chile comments, "R

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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 - Limelight Presentation Systems has become the latest in a growing list of event production companies that is using Martin Audio Compact Line Array technology as the spearhead of its principle PA system.

Head of audio Dave Plant recently placed an order for 16 x W8LCs with Redditch-based dealer, John Brown at Limit Audio.

Although this will be the first time Martin Audio has appeared in Limelight's rental fleet, Plant admits his company has used the manufacturer's enclosures many times in installation work, and is aware of both their pedigree and durability.

"It was inevitable that we would eventually need to embrace line array technology. As a broad-based company, we wanted a system with a compact footprint, but at the same time one with a long throw which could serve the larger venues."

The company has already started sub-hiring to another Martin Audio line

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UK - In 2003, Rosco introduced a new colour to its Supergel range to raise funds for the UK charity Light Relief. #313 Light Relief Yellow has proved a popular colour and at PLASA 2008 Light Relief trustee and PLASA managing director, Matthew Griffiths accepted a cheque for almost $3,700 (£2,100).

Making the presentation, Mark Engel, president of Rosco, said: "This is the fourth year we've been able to support Light Relief with a cheque at PLASA. Our contribution to date now exceeds $15,000 and has been funded by purchases of #313 Supergel. We envisioned this arrangement as 'a gift that keeps on giving' and we're delighted that it continues to fulfil that promise."

Developed with the help of Rick Fisher, co-founder (along with the late Tony Gottelier) of the industry charity which supports lighting designers in difficult times, Light Relief Yellow is the vibran

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UK - The PLASA Show in London last week was the setting for the landmark launch of the Mayor of London's Green Theatre: Taking Action on Climate Change initiative.

Matthew Griffiths, CEO of PLASA, who welcomed the guest speakers and audience members to the launch, told LSI: "We're very proud to be able to host the launch of the Mayor's Green Theatre Plan at PLASA08. Many of the manufacturers represented here on the show floor are already playing an active role in developing new equipment and technologies to help theatres achieve the goals set by the Mayor's Plan, and the lighting and sound industry still has a great contribution to make. PLASA and its members are very keen to work with theatres and other industry bodies, not only to help improve the power efficiency of lighting and sound systems themselves, but also to support and encourage the adoption of the many s

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Denmark - The Extube Series from Martin Professional is a modular system of IP65 rated linear LED luminaires designed for illumination of outdoor architecture and more. With RGB+W colour mixing, a choice of opaque lenses and an easy means of installation, Extube is suitable for a variety of illumination needs including floodlighting, wall-grazing, cove lighting or creating continuous lines of decorative color, inside or out, says the company.

Extube is available in two lengths; 30cm (1ft, 12 LEDs) and 120cm (4ft, 48 LEDs). It is weatherproof rated at IP65 for the outdoor illumination of facades, structures, bridges, cruise ships and more. Made of extruded aluminum, the Extube's slim aesthetics allows the luminaire to blend iinto existing architecture. It is also suitable as a lighting effect for clubs and lounges and will fit into TV, theatre and touring shows.

The Extube come

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UK - KylieX2008, the pop princess's latest tour enjoyed rave reviews from critics and featured two DiGiCo consoles at the Front of House and monitor positions.

FOH engineer Chris Pyne and monitor man Rod Matheson are both long-term DiGiCo D5 users. This time, however, Chris swapped his D5 for a new SD7.

"I was one of the first engineers to see the SD7 and was invited into DiGiCo's 'perspex box' to operate the console at PLASA last year," says Pyne. "Then James [Gordon, DiGiCo's MD] asked me if I wanted to use the SD7 on the dates we did with Kylie earlier this year. Of course I said yes.

"We had one of the very first SD7s, which we took to production rehearsals and helped to make a few improvements to the system - DiGiCo is proactive in getting real world input from engineers."

The complexity of the show meant that Pyne had 65 inputs at FOH

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China - Eight Robert Juliat Lancelot 4000W HTI follow spots were used to cut through the vast quantity of light produced by the largest moving light rig in history, highlighting critical scenes of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic & Paralympics Games 2008.

Eight Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI follow spots were also used across other Olympic-related events across Beijing.

Chief lighting designer for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies was Mr Sha Xiaolan who worked closely with director Zhang Yimou to create the spectacular effects.

Jamie Boey, of Robert Juliat China which supplied the Lancelot and Cyrano follow spots, reports, "Mr Sha was delighted with the performance and quality of the Robert Juliat follow spots and confirmed his decision to use Robert Juliat was based on sound technical reasons."

"The brightness of the Lancelot was a decidi

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UK - Batmink Ltd, one of the UK's largest distributors of professional sound and lighting equipment has recorded an extremely successful PLASA08 exhibition. Grant Thomas, sales director, commented: "To be perfectly honest, we weren't entirely sure what to expect from this year's show. With the constant talk of the credit crunch and the effect of the smoking ban on the bar and club industry, combined with extremely unfavourable exchange rates, we were anticipating a quiet and sombre show - nothing could have been further from the truth! The show was buoyant and positive, and stand visitors were numerous and of good quality. Time will tell, but looking at initial figures I would say this is our busiest PLASA ever."

Batmink is celebrating its 25th anniversary and as one of PLASA's earliest member companies is well placed to compare shows. Particular interest was expressed

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MC2 Audio has announced the appointment of Audiosure as its new distributor in South Africa. Audiosure is the professional audio division of the First Technology Group, a leading importer and distributor of professional audio and lighting equipment across Southern Africa. With offices in Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein and Cape Town, Audiosure is well placed to support its nationwide network of dealers.

Audiosure's extensive product portfolio includes Wharfedale Pro, Gemini DJ, Hartke, Quad and Projection Design and its team of professional and experienced staff is led by general manager John Silver.

"Our aim," says Silver, "is to provide a comprehensive array of valuable advice to our nationwide dealer network in order to ensure the achievement of optimum product performance in a wide variety of applications and environments. I have followed the development of MC2

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UK - The Lighthouse Theatre is a new £2m venue which forms part of Kettering Conference Centre. The theatre, which opened earlier this summer, boasts a 562 tiered seat auditorium and balcony with armchair-style seating. The auditorium, along with its large stage is designed to be highly flexible and can accommodate conferences, presentations, award ceremonies and product launches as well as traditional theatre productions. In keeping with the versatile, high-tech nature of the venue, a sophisticated audio system based around Peavey Architectural Acoustic and Crest Audio products completes the installation.

According to theatre designer Phil Joyce who specified the equipment for the Lighthouse Theatre, the principal criteria were performance and value for money. "Architectural Acoustics from Peavey might not be amongst the best-known brands in theatre-land, but to my m

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UK - The Novas Contemporary Urban Centre (CUC) North West is the flagship venue of a charity for which social inclusion is the key theme. And to ensure that people with hearing loss can derive as much benefit from its facilities as everybody else, Ampetronic induction loops have been installed in four key areas of the building.

Focusing on the key themes of arts, social enterprise, community support / development and pathways to employment, the organisation has moved from being predominately a provider of hostels for homeless people to be at the cutting edge of tackling social disadvantage through social enterprise and innovation.

Three of the Novas Scarman Group's four CUCs are located in London, but it is the 170,000sq.ft, Grade II listed converted warehouse in Liverpool, which grabbed the headlines on its opening in the summer of 2008.

"Novas Scarman was adamant that

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UK - Lighting rental specialist HSL supplied designer Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions with lighting and rigging equipment for the main stage and for site-wide architectural highlighting at the 2008 Beck's Fusion Festival. This was held at Castlefield's Arena in Manchester.

HSL and Electric Fly also recently collaborated to supply all production lighting and design for the 2008 Global Gathering dance festival, and Jevons states, "HSL is always my first choice for lighting rentals. Mike Oates (HSL's project manager) and his team have been fantastic - as always - in providing great service and excellent kit". For this event Electric Fly was working for live brand experience producers, Sevens 7.

The highlight of the two-day music and arts event was a performance from Massive Attack and United Visual Artists (UVA) - the last show of a summer tour that HSL has also

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UK - The Sage Gateshead, the landmark centre for musical education, performance and conferences on the south bank of the River Tyne, has begun to use Cirrus equipment to ensure that the hearing of its workers is protected.

The Sage has been using Cirrus doseBadge noise dosimeters to measure its workers' noise dose exposure during sound checks and performances for the last month, as part of a full programme designed to determine the level of noise protection required for both the staff and entertainers who are performing at the venue.

The updated Noise at Work regulations came into force this year, meaning that employers in the entertainment industry are required to manage the risk to their employees caused by excessive noise. The Sage Gateshead is keen to ensure that workers at the venue and groups who work for them outside the building are well protected, and will be taking t

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UK - Audica Professional has awarded UK and Ireland distributor, CUK Audio, Distributor of the Year for the second year running. The award was presented to CUK Audio at PLASA 08 by Audica Professional director, Kieron Dunk.

The annual award is given for business development, service and support. "The UK was our leading market in 2007," commented Derek West, sales director of Audica Professional, "and has continued in this position with an exceptional growth rate of almost 250% this year. BGM and AV communication in retail premises have led the increase, with many major high street brand names joining our user list. Hotels, bars and restaurants have also been a rapidly growing market for us. For both Audica Professional and CUK Audio the key to this growth has been by putting relationships and service first; sales are a result, not an insular focus."

Stuart

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UK - Proteus Displays reports a great success at PLASA08. The company was launching a new, ultra low power reflective display screen for indoor or outdoor use, also called Proteus, which represents the first reflective display product of its type.

Dr Tim Coker, CEO, comments: "This was our first time at PLASA and we were uncertain how this new product would be received amid today's difficult financial climate. A little to our surprise, the buzz the product has generated has been beyond all our expectations, amplified of course by the Innovation Award. We have seen that this industry has an appetite for new technologies and ideas and every visitor to our stand was most enthusiastic about the product."

For the first time the PLASA Innovation Awards included an environmental prize and Proteus was the inaugural winner. Dr Coker continues: "It has been through develo

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USA - The first annual Regeneration Tour has been filling amphitheatres and arenas across North America, as fans turned out in droves for a jam-packed evening of '80s artists including The Human League, A Flock of Seagulls, Naked Eyes, Belinda Carlisle and ABC. Delivering the musical variety is a Meyer Sound system featuring the Milo line array loudspeaker.

Engineer Wayne Pauley continued his run as the hardest-working FOH guy on the road, taking advantage of a short gap between separate world tours with Celtic Woman and The High Kings to man the faders for all five acts on the month-long extravaganza.

Pauley comments, "I've always loved how the Milo sounds on the Celtic Woman material, but I've got to say it's a lot of fun hearing what it does for that classic 1980s drum machine kick and snare. It's as powerful as it is nuanced, and the amount of headroom is amaz

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UK - The PLASA08 exhibition (7-10 September, Earls Court, London) has bucked the general exhibition industry trend in spectacular style with an 11 per cent growth in visitor figures across the event's four days compared to 2007. The 13,000+ attendance figure (subject to ABC audit) reflects an exceptional level of visitor pre-registration as well as a growth in new and returning exhibitors to an expanded show floor, say organisers PLASA Events Ltd.

"The show's success was due to a combination of factors," said Director of Events Nicola Rowland, "in particular a targeted marketing campaign combined with special online registration offers; a growth in exhibitor numbers; even more new product launches than in 2007; a greatly expanded educational programme; and improved visitor and exhibitor facilities.

"Combined with the effort that so many exhibitors made to p

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