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Germany - GLP (German Light Products) reports a very successful PLASA08. Great interest was shown in its latest product, the impression XL. This luminaire is due to start shipping in December and it was greeted enthusiastically by events service providers and internationally active lighting designers alike, says the company. Advance orders have already accounted for the first production run. The Ion.System, a semi-transparent LED wall integrated into the design of the booth, was also extremely well received.

In addition, GLP was presenting the iLaser and the newly improved StarTube 4 HiRes. The iLaser features four laser light sources integrated into a single housing where they generate a white-light output of 1.2W. The StarTube 4 HiRes is notable for its high resolution and much

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Serbia - Wireless Solution Sweden's W-DMX recently took part in the 2008 Exit Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. Described as a festival "where hedonism meets activism", the Exit Festival is one of the largest and fastest-growing festivals in Europe, with the 2008 line-up featuring Nightwish, Primal Scream, Ministry and the Sex Pistols, among many others.

A crowd of over 200,000 visitors showed up for the 2008 festival, which is held near the historic Petrovaradin Fortress, built high on the banks of the River Danube and offering a stunning view of Novi Sad.

Exit Festival has more than 25 stages, and more than half are going wireless, especially the main stage with four universes controlled with W-DMX by Wireless Solution, running over 100 moving heads including Robe, Vari-Lite and Martin, and a separate Dance Arena with two wireless DMX universes. Other stages ran one DM

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USA - ETC's new architectural line, the Unison Paradigm lighting control system, was engineered to regulate energy: detecting occupancy in rooms and automatically lowering light levels in vacant spaces, operating on a programmable timed event schedule, and through 'daylight harvesting' - a light-detection capability that lowers electric lighting levels in response to incoming natural light.

ETC's Source Four luminaires are known globally for their energy efficiency. The Source Four spotlight has become the most efficient tungsten fixture for entertainment lighting. ETC also produces a full range of Source Four HID fixtures with high-intensity-discharge lamps that last up to 10,000 hours longer than other lamps, while maintaining over 90% efficiency.

ETC's products and systems are helping customers and their buildings achieve the distinguished Leadership in Energy and Environme

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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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Competition News - The ESTA Foundation has announced the Behind the Scenes 2008 raffle prizes for LDI. The lucky winner of the Grand Prize will receive a $10,000 gift certificate with a premier travel agent that can be used to travel anywhere in the world. Second Prize is a $2,500 Amazon Gift Card and Third Prize is a $1,000 Amazon Gift Card.

"Often our industry is creating "a vacation look" for everyone else, so we are very excited to offer this great opportunity to get away on your own vacation," said Rick Rudolph, chair of the Behind the Scenes committee.

Tickets are $25 each or 5 for $100 and will be available throughout the LDI show at the Behind the Scenes booth #2810. A maximum of 2000 tickets will be available. Tickets will also be available at the ESTA Annual Dinner on Thursday evening and the Rose Brand party on Friday evening. LDI 2008 takes place from

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New Zealand - New products on debut from Selecon at LDI include the Rama 6" Fresnel with the new Osram 575W BTH lamp. Footcandle light output readings taken at spot focus are only 21.5% less than those recorded with the 1000W lamp and, at flood focus 36% less - an impressive 42.5% reduction in energy consumption.

There's also the Hui Work Light which is proving a popular addition to the Hui family of Cyc, Flood and Groundrow. Fitting the Cyc with wire safety mesh instead of safety glass means that the air flow system works in any position for extended operating hours required for overstage or rehearsal applications.

Plus, there's the 8-leaf barndoor and a new and improved rock'n'roll type colour change for the Performer Series range of Followspots.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - City Theatrical has been granted US Patent number 7,432,803 for its wireless technology. City Theatrical's wireless DMX is similar in concept to a home or business WiFi system, but uses a much more robust and powerful radio transport method to ensure reliability of mission critical systems, says the company.

CTI's patent covers the transmission of DMX, RDM, and ACN via the means of FHSS (frequency hopping spread spectrum) radios as well as DHSS (direct sequence spread spectrum) radios, in the 2.4 GHz range. Also covered are the bi-directional broadcast of data, and the concept of a remote monitor for RDM and ACN.

City Theatrical's president, Gary Fails commented: "This patent is the result of over seven years of product development effort by Larry Dunn and Paul Kleissler, beginning when they were both independent engineers consulting with CTI, and leading to them jo

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USA - Comprised of professional surfing, BMX, skateboarding, freestyle motocross demos, live music, and a fashion show, Go211 Live's recently completed US Open of Surfing offered something for everyone. The event included a fashion show and three days of music that included performances by a wide range of artists - including teen star Jesse McCartney, whose hit single Leavin' was a crowd pleaser.

Held on Huntingdon Beach, sound reinforcement was a massive undertaking that was handled by Torrance, CA-based Broadcast Support and a sizeable collection of loudspeakers from the DAS Audio catalogue.

Broadcast Support was tasked with supplying a sound system that could deliver clear sound under some very difficult conditions, as company founder and co-owner Scott Ramsay explained. "In addition to the usual issues of providing sound for an outdoor event," said Ramsay,

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USA - Elation Professional's new DMX-16 System is an expandable DMX On/Off switch controller system that includes: a 16-channel DMX-16SW Control Panel, two 4-channel DP-415 DMX Switch Packs, and the necessary cables to link the system together.

The DMX-16SW Control Panel can support up to two additional Switch Packs, making it capable of controlling a total of 16 DMX effects. Also, the DMX-16SW Control Panel will work with any DMX Dimmer/Switch Pack on the market, not just those sold by Elation.

To handle even larger numbers of DMX fixtures, multiple DMX-16SW Control Panels can be linked together. Up to 32 DMX-16SWs can be linked, providing On/Off control of 512 DMX channels.

Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies, the parent company of Elation Professional, said: "With more people going to DMX lighting, our salespeople were telling us that

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UK - Lighting designer Tom Kinane used I-Pix BB7 LED wash lights for the first time whilst filming the final episode of the Peter Kay talent show Spoof Britain's Got The Pop Factor ... And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice.

Kinane, again working closely with moving and digital lighting programmer and operator Svend Pedersen utilised 12 of i-Pix' new BB7 wash lights during the 3 week shoot, complete with live audience, which took place in Studio 12 at Granada TV in Manchester.

The BB7s were used for low level effects lights, their aesthetically pleasing flower like shape (dubbed the 'Daisy Lights' by Kinane) proving a great look on camera in their own right, say the company. "They are fantastic and I look forward to incorporating them in a big LE rig soon," states Kinane.

He also used 80 i-Pix Satellites on the show for

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South Africa - Twelve new users have opted for grandMA lighting consoles within the last year. These include: Gearhouse South Africa, AV Unlimited, CS Audio, Global Events and Gold Reef.

MJ Event Gear took ownership of its console some ten months ago. "To date I have had no problems and no crashes, and trust me," says the company's Francois van der Merwe. "I can crash a desk. And when you buy a grandMA you are not only buying a console, you are buying a whole system which is backed up. Everything uses the same show file and the desk is very comfortable, very user friendly and very powerful. I like everything about the desk and the support is very good."

"We actually purchased a grandMA full-size because of the service we get from DWR's Duncan Riley," commented Simon King from the Pretoria State Theatre. "The console is great and totally diffe

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UK - Crowd management specialist Showsec was awarded the gold medal for Best Event Security Team for the third consecutive year at the 2008 Security Excellence Awards.

Mark Harding, managing director of Showsec said: "We are delighted to have won this award which is a true testament to the high quality, professionalism and consistency of our operational performance. Having also been re-accredited with our Investors in People, our clients are assured of the highest standards in all strands of our product."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, home of the University of South Carolina's Gamecocks football team, has been outfitted with a new sound system based on the EAW KF900 Series, featuring EAW's Phased PointSource Technology (PPST. The system was designed and installed by ACS Sound & Lighting.

The KF900 Series system consists of 10 KF920P mid-frequency loudspeakers, four KF910P long-throw High-Frequency Loudspeakers, four custom KF914P hgh-frequency up-fill models and two KF913 medium-throw down-fill Loudspeakers.

Seven EAW UX8800 Digital Signal Processors manage the main PA system. In addition, four KF755P down-fill array loudspeakers are used to fill in under the scoreboard, and a pair of KF750Ps are attached to the rear of the scoreboard and facing onto the stadium's parking lot for general announcement applications. All of the EAW KF900 Series speakers

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UK - Kent-based SRD Group was appointed to manage the recent Army Air Corps (AAC) Music in the Air annual concert and flying display, held at the home base of the AAC in Middle Wallop, Wiltshire. SRD used its two new Allen & Heath iLive digital systems to manage sound reinforcement, which needed to cover a 600m x 500m area.

Attracting 15,000 members of the public and service personnel, the event included aircraft displays from the Red Arrows, the Blue Eagles helicopter display team and various historic aircraft, as well as musical performances from the Army Air Corps band, and classical singers Will Martin, Kathy Leigh and Sophie Hill.

"We needed to cover the 600m wide and 500m deep runway area with both the music of the Army Air Corps Band and guests, as well as the air display commentators," says SRD's MD, Stuart Roberts.

SRD used four 10m Piram towers to

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UK - In a deal sealed at PLASA 2008, Creative Technology (CT) is to add 200 frames of G-LEC's Phantom LED video system to its inventory.

CT - one of the world's leading suppliers of audio-visual and event management services - says seeing the G-LEC Phantom system in operation at Hockenheim, which hosted the Formula 1 Santander Grand Prix in July, was a major factor in the decision making process.

Dave Crump, managing director of CT London, said: "Quality and reliability are vital to our business, and we were extremely impressed with what we saw at Hockenheim. As well as being really bright, the Phantom system is both light and easy to rig, all-important factors when the pressure is on."

The agreement was signed by David Crump and Lars Wolf, managing director of G-LEC, during an exceptionally successful PLASA show in London. CT will initially take 100 Phantom30 and

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UK - Having last year provided an integrated multimedia system for Caribbean Scene's first restaurant in the shadow of the ExCeL Exhibition and Conference Centre, the Sound Division Group have travelled from Docklands to Stratford to complete a similar design on a much larger footprint for the second restaurant.

For the new Caribbean Scene project, Peach Projects, led by Emily Chan, were the architects and main contractors, and for the media distribution Sound Division Group adopted a similar model to the Royal Victoria Dock restaurant with the exception of the speakers - which this time are exclusively Martin Audio AQ architectural series.

Designing the system into eight zones David Graham's company has provided sufficient audio and visual relays to guarantee an authentic Caribbean atmosphere across the 200 cover restaurant, as well as the separate tiki cocktail bar, the that

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China - Following up on the successful deployment of Harman Professional audio technologies at the Beijing Summer Olympics ceremonies and competition events, professional-grade audio components from Harman brands, JBL Professional, Crown Audio and Soundcraft formed the backbone of the AV system used at the Paralympics opening and closing ceremonies.

Hosted at the 90,000-capacity Beijing National Stadium, both events were designed by artistic directors Zhang Yimou and Zhang Jigang and featured highly evocative performances of sound and light that provided a suitable culmination to 12 days of competition.

The main system comprised of 20 JBL Professional Vertec VT4888DPAN powered line array elements featuring Crown-designed DrivePack power amplification modules complemented by four Vertec VT4880 arrayable subwoofers powered by two Crown I-Tech Series iT6000 amplifiers.

This sys

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UK - White Light supplied lighting equipment to a production of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall.

Lighting design for the production was by Trevor Wallace, who turned to White Light for the equipment that could both bring the Martians to life, and survive the rigours of outdoor performances next to the Atlantic Ocean in an English summer. The rig included five of Martin's MAC 700 Spotlights which were installed inside FlightDome protective domes to ensure that they were protected from the elements.

As well as the MAC 700s, White Light supplied High End Dataflash strobes, ETC Source Fours in 10?, 26?, 36?, 50? and 70? varieties, PAR64s, CCT Minuette Fresnels, and a Robert Juliat Foxie 700W followspot. White Light also supplied a Viper smoke machine, and a PowerTiny miniature smoke machine, as well as rigging, mains and DMX distribution and

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USA - Founded last year by producer Hank Neuberger, Springboard Productions was enlisted by promoters C3 Presents and Giant Pictures as supervising producer at this year's Austin City Limits Festival.

"Festivals like this differ vastly compared to working with a single band or in theatre assignments," Neuberger says. "First of all, you're doing at least five bands at each stage per day with almost no sound checks, and you can consider yourself lucky if you get a complete line check. On top of all this you're subject to the whims of the great outdoors and whatever weather comes your way, you're not always able to work in the most ideal of locations, and there are a lot of inputs. It's perfectly common to deal with 50 at a time from a single stage."

Working with headlining acts the Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Beck, Manu Chao, John Fogerty, D

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USA - Although Nashville has long been best known as a country music Mecca, fast-rising pop-punk bands like Paramore are diversifying the image of Music City USA. Recently coming off the road with its final tour in support of the band's second album, Riot!, the group's engineers were impressed by Rat Sound's L-acoustics loudspeaker rig, which the band had been carrying for the first time.

Greg Mahler served as the FOH/system tech for the six-week North American tour, which utilised a PA comprised of a dozen V-Dosc plus three dV-Dosc down-fills hung per side. Three additional dV-Dosc were flown on the downstage lighting truss for centre-fill.

With most of the venues on this particular trek being outdoor amphitheaters, six-box Kudo arrays were also flown on either side of the stage to address the far left and right seating areas. "We also occasionally used Kudo for g

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USA - Making scenery safe through operator training, regular maintenance and the use of top quality theatrical rigging is the hallmark of J. R. Clancy's worldwide business. That's why the company has chosen LDI to remind entertainment professionals to take safety seriously.

"No matter what kind of rigging system a performance space may have - counterweights, automation, a combination of the two or a customized system - we can't emphasize enough that you're hanging heavy set pieces over people's heads," said Tom Young, J. R. Clancy's vice president of marketing. "We're taking a light touch with our safety message, but we're very serious about the need to do annual maintenance, train rigging operators to spot problems, and keep everyone in the theatre safe from rigging accidents."

LDI attendees can see J. R. Clancy's PowerLift Automated Hoist with its outer c

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India - An enthusiastic crowd of more than one million gathered to witness and support the establishment of a new political party in India. Launched by Chiranjeevi, one of the biggest stars in the Indian film industry who has now entered into politics, the new party's name is Praja Rajyam (People's Rule).

The fledgling party's event organizers chose the Ava Lila Tank site in the city of Tirupati, located in the state of Andhra Pradesh, to unveil its political programme. Speeches, film clips and choreographed dance segments were included in the event. Sound reinforcement services for the ambitious multi-media outreach were supplied through a coordinated effort by Taher Sound & Lights of Hyderabad and V&P Sound of Bangalore.

"The venue selected for the huge outdoor gathering was very wide, and four main scaffold-based array hangs were designed for long-throw coverage, inclu

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