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USA - Rat Sound has taken delivery of a stadium-sized L-Acoustics K1 concert sound system. The K1 is the next generation of full-sized, line source enclosures for arena, stadium, and festival tour sound applications from L-Acoustics. Rat Sound is a member of a pilot program offered to top-level existing members of the DOSC network (V-DOSC and KUDO owners) who have interest in the advance field-proofing of the new K1/Kudo/LA8 system architecture.

Dave Rat, founder of Rat Sound Systems Inc, spoke about the decision to acquire the system: "Over a decade ago, I went down and listened to the L'Acoustics V-DOSC and heard something entirely unique. It's amazing sound clarity and line source configuration changed the industry. Through my work as sound engineer for the Red Hot Chili P

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UK - Showsec has been awarded a three-year contract to supply security and crowd management services to events in Hyde Park.

This follows the confirmation by Royal Parks that Live Nation successfully retained the contract which extends their 10-year history there. Over the years Showsec has supplied a range of event security services for live events including the Wireless and Hard Rock Calling series of festivals.

Showsec operations director Simon Battersby comments: "We are delighted to be returning to Hyde Park. It is the jewel in the crown of London's outdoor event spaces, attracting prestigious events with high profile artists and visitors. I enjoy the challenge of delivering a consistent high standard security service at a range of very different events, working alongside the best production teams in our industry."

Live Nation's festival director

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Serbia - Operacija Trijumf is one of Serbia's most popular television shows, combining a singing talent contest with Big Brother-style behind-the-scenes footage of the contestants in their shared house. Forming the backdrop on the stage during the contestants' performances, Lighthouse R10i/o 10mm LED panels are deployed.

66 panels of R10i/o LED panels, purchased by Operacija Trijumf production company Emotion Production, formed four screens on the stage.

"We choose the R10 panels partly on recommendation and partly because the only other LED screens currently in the region are 19mm pixel pitch," says Aleksandar Miljus of Emotion Production.

"We want to offer more versatile LED panels to the region and, after this series of Operacija Trijumf, we will be able to use the 10mm panels on a wide range of indoor and outdoor events. We will

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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 - The Script, the band from Dublin that hit number one with their self-titled debut album and toured with N*E*R*D, The Hoosiers and Newton Faulkner, became household names in Britain in 2008. And the band did it with a range of Sennheiser microphones in their audio arsenal - including SKM 935s and wireless e 935s for lead and backing vocals.

"I've been using the 935s for a long time now," says the band's front of house engineer John Delf. "I first bought some when I was touring with a band called The Departure. These mics give you so much level you never need to worry that you won't be able get the vocal over the rest of the band. They sound clear and crisp, with bite. I'd been using the wireless version with Lily Allen with great success. I'd always been happy with the results when using the 935s at her shows, so it was always going to be my first choice for T

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Europe & Middle East - GearSource Europe has been appointed as the official Christie Digital Partner to sell their B stock products in the EMEA region.

Garry Nelsson of GearSource said: "GearSource Europe has quickly established itself as the premier web site for industry insiders wishing to buy or sell pre-owned lighting, sound, staging and video equipment. The association with Christie will enable us to offer even more video related products to our many users in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa".

Dale Miller, vice-president EMEA, Christie explains: "Our business in the region has expanded dramatically over the last three years. As a direct result we have needed to enlarge our demonstration fleet to meet the opportunities we have to develop new business. The agreement with GearSource Europe will allow Christie to refresh its demo fleet more frequently and

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Germany - With a set created by Brian Edmonds and lighting by Pink Floyd's designer Marc Brickman, Sony's massive booth at the IFA 2008 exhibition was a formidable production. Limelight Veranstaltungstechnik from Gilching-Munich was responsible for orchestrating the smooth performance of extensive lighting, sound and video technology, and deployed more than 40 of Nexo's new Geo S12 compact cabinets in a combination of vertical and horizontal line arrays.

The IFA in Berlin is deemed to be the world's largest consumer electronics fair. The biggest showcase by a single exhibitor is that of Sony, which takes up a whole hall, an area of 6,000sq.m, this year developing an enchanted forest concept, with thick white floors to absorb sound, soft round shapes and bare white trees.

Under the direction of technical director Peter Mader, Limelight Veranstaltungstechnik was responsible for

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UK - An estimated 500,000 people turned out to watch London's annual New Year's Day Parade, one of the city's biggest charity fund-raising events. Marching bands, 1000 cheerleaders, Chelsea pensioners and car clubs were among the performers who wound their way from Parliament Square to Green Park.

Lining the 2.2 mile route, scores of Electro-Voice SX Series loudspeakers were deployed to provide live-to-air commentary, announcements and general sound reinforcement for the biggest crowd ever seen in the event's 23-year history, squeezed into grandstands and along crowded pavements.

Watford-based PA company NSR Communications have provided PA for this event since it started in 1986. By choice and experience, they favour "the workhorse speakers" from EV's SX range for the task, spaced along the route and beside the large grandstands which demark the six 'sites' of the pa

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UK / USA - Award-winning UK manufacturer Global Design Solutions has announced its expansion into the US with the opening of a New York office overlooking Manhattan. This coincides with an enlarging portfolio of products as well as increased demand, as installations the world over are using one or more of the company's solutions.

GDS, now in its fifth year, has been through some important changes during 2008 - focusing the business on product development and manufacture only, and increasing its product range to five main lines - Blues System, MOBAL, Motor Control, Stage Manager's consoles and its new RGB LED Wireless DMX Up-lighter.

The new operation will be in operation from 1 February 2009, with Scott Vontobel (previously with GDS's US distributor, TMB) at the helm as GDS-US Director. Vontobel has been in the industry for over eight years with significant success in brand de

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Germany - An extensive programme of renovation and refitting has required the Deutsches Theater in Munich to temporarily bid farewell to its permanent home in the city centre. For the next three years, the company will continue its theatrical tradition in temporary accommodations at a four-marquee, 3,750sq.m facility within a colony of marquees in the suburb of Fröttmaning, north of Munich.

Sound reinforcement in the temporary venue was installed by minos Sicherheitstechnik who opted for a Dynacord ProMatrix 4000 system complemented by Electro-Voice loudspeakers. Comprehensive 3D simulations were conducted using the programme Ulysses to ensure adequate intelligibility in all the requisite areas.

Thomas Sterling of EVI Audio comments: "To create our 3D model, we had to enter not only the room's dimensions, but also the nature of every material in the room, from the tarpau

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UK - White Light has recently provided new Ethernet lighting infrastructures at a number of leading London venues.

At the Royal Albert Hall, White Light was tasked with providing reliable DMX distribution to the dimmer room and lighting trusses to make life easier for the Hall's staff and for visiting companies. White Light's Roger Hennigan notes that: "the Hall has a Jands Vista console which outputs lighting data as ArtNet. We therefore designed a system that used Ethernet to distribute ArtNet around the building, and then ArtNet to DMX nodes to convert the ArtNet back to standard DMX locally wherever it was required."

The final system uses products from network specialists ELC: truss-mount dmXLAN Node 1 power-over-Ethernet ArtNet nodes for each of the six main lighting trusses, a dmXLAN node 4 in the dimmer room for dimmer DMX output, dmXLAN Node 2s for DMX output

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UK - Twickenham Stadium has undergone an audio upgrade using D.A.S sound systems installed by Sysco, led by Hugo Roche. They were advised by audio consultant and job project manager, Roland Hemming who also works for D.A.S. Audio's distributor for the United Kingdom, Sennheiser UK.

The RFU (Rugby Football Union) contracted an independent consultant firm, Vanguardia Consulting, directed by Jim Griffiths, to supervise the install. On site consultants working for Vanguardia were Mark Murphy, John Staunton and Mike Bedford. To complete the install Sysco used 22 kilometres of cable and seven different delays to ensure that the whole system was synchronised to perfection.

"There were acoustic shadows in the rows of seats below the balcony where live sound could not be heard and this problem really needed to be solved," says Eva Argandona. "So we decided on systems fro

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UK - Award-winning UK manufacturer Global Design Solutions has announced the appointment of Simon Debley as the company's new production manager of manufacturing. Debley, formerly of Stage Electrics, has considerable experience in running and co-ordinating a busy manufacturing workshop and is bringing significant experience and skills to the operation.

This appointment coincides with the continual expansion of the company in both staff and offices in Europe and the US and the increase in demand for GDS product, the company says.

(Lee Baldock)

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Denmark - Maxedia Broadcast, the latest generation of Martin Professional's user-friendly Maxediamedia composer and playback device, is optimised for High Definition playback with ultra fast quad core processors, 1080p playback support and two dedicated engine outputs, says the company.

Two powerful graphics cards provide a dedicated user interface plus two engine outputs. Each output can be split over a maximum of three displays for custom wide-screen projections, allowing a maximum of six projectors to be connected to Maxedia Broadcast. Maxedia Broadcast supports a full pixelmapping engine for CMY and RGB systems. It has the same intuitive graphical user interface as other Maxedia systems and can be networked with them as well.

Utilizing an intuitive touchscreen-optimised user interface, Maxedia offers users "a vast library of media content - video clips, still images a

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Australia - ARX has added the ISO-Combiner transformer isolated combiner to its established Audibox range of pro audio tools and problem solvers.

The ISO Combiner is a totally passive device with no power requirements making it suitable for use in applications where two sources need to be combined into one output silently and easily, says the company.

A pair of transformer balanced female XLR inputs combine to deliver a single transformer isolated male XLR output. The ISO-Combiner is available in single channel or double header format.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - MTFX has just invested in some new 5 way Firedance units. "MTFX's Firedance flames have been so popular with our customersthat I wanted to take them to their next level, which are these new 5 way compact units," says managing director Mark Turner.

"Each unit is light weight, compact and gives you a fantastic spread from such a small footprint. They are ideal for use on pitches and other sports arena and literally add a new dimension to flame effects. The other advantage is that the flames can now be coloured green, red, blue as well as the standard orange."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Supporting their 9th studio album, Death Magnetic, Metallica is hitting arenas across the US and Canada in a monster sized in-the-round production which includes Apogee X-Series converters for both A/D and D/A conversion. Building the production from head to toe, Thunder Audio of Taylor, Michigan chose an all-digital drive system setup for unprecedented sound quality with eight Apogee converters for 64 channels of I/O.

"When designing this system we had a criteria set forth for achieving the highest quality in uncompromised audio," states Thomas Hejnicki, project manager for Thunder Audio. "Based upon reputation and experience, we needed to look no further than Apogee for our AD/DA solution. In fact, we tried. With Apogee as our reference, we found no acceptable alternative."

Four Apogee AD-16X converters are placed shortly after the FOH console as th

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USA - Leonard Cohen and his nine-piece band, led by bassist Roscoe Beck, kicked off their first tour in 15 years with dates across Canada and Europe. Montreal-based Solotech is providing support for the tour, using a Meyer Sound system featuring Milo and Mica line array loudspeakers.

As FOH Engineer Mark Vreeken explains, the Meyer Sound system was chosen for flexibility in the face of an assortment of venue sizes and shapes, from London's O2 Arena to the Olympia, the oldest music hall in Paris. "We brought a number of different Meyer speakers along, so we can interchange and still maintain consistent tone everywhere. And the Galileo loudspeaker management system and SIM 3 audio analyzer are both excellent tools."

Solotech systems technician Étienne Lapré typically configures the rig with 16 Milo and 12 Mica line array loudspeakers per side, with each a

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USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has introduced its new MX41E series of stage monitors, a compact, versatile two-way bass reflex floor monitor.

Available in 90 x 40 (MX41E-94) or 60 x 40 (MX41E-64) degree coverage patterns, the MX41E is voiced for live performance use, providing balanced, full-range musical performance with powerful, focused coverage. Both models feature rotatable horns for narrower horizontal coverage. Angled backs allow the MX41E to be positioned at 30- or 45-degree angles.

The MX41E is designed with a host of professional features, including Community's Ferrofluid-cooled LF driver technology, solid birch plywood construction, 16-gauge perforated, powder-coated steel grille, heavy-duty steel handles, solid steel input panel with Passive/Bi-amp switch, and pro-quality Neutrik input connectors. MX41E monitors are also protected by Community's PowerSen

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UK - Zero 88 is extending its special offer for the Leap Frog 48 Lighting Control Package. to 1 March 2009.

The Special Leap Frog 48 package includes: Leap Frog 48 Console including Version 4.0 software featuring Colour Picker, direct links from offline editor to visualisation programmes and new low-light monitor options; 15" external touch screen; Light Converse Visualisation Software, and professional flight case for console and touch screen.

The Leap Frog 48 offers all the tools to create sophisticated lighting shows including control of 200 fixtures plus 48 generics, says the company. It features four opto-isolated DMX universe, multifunction keys for fast programming and provides a familiar syntax for users of Avolite, Strand, ETC and Whole Hog consoles.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Strand Lighting have confirmed their presence at evenTech Scotland 2009 in partnership with their Scottish distributor Audio Light Systems.

Audio Light Systems provide sales, installation project management and consultation for a wide variety of spaces that require audio, lighting, AV and specialist systems throughout the UK. The company says it is "set to make a serious impact on their debut at the second instalment of the exhibition - having booked the largest stand space by far on the show floor".

As well as Strand control desks and dimmers, Audio Light Systems will be exhibiting equipment from Crestron, EAW, QSC, NEC, Sennheiser, Tecpro, TOA and more for theatre, corporate and education markets.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Lighting designer/director Ali Bale specified an Avolites Pearl Expert console to control lighting for the current Kings of Leon Only By The Night tour.

Bale worked for KOL for the last four and a half years, since he was originally asked onboard by co-LD and the show's creative designer Paul Normandale. This latest tour is a co-lighting design between the two of them, on which Bale is also working closely with video director Phil Woodhead and live visuals director & Catalyst (digital media server) programmer/operator, Phil Haynes.

The lighting rig is based on 10 trusses, all moved into different positions throughout the set via a Kinesys automation system. This is operated by Yose Lawson and Andy Beller.

Each truss has a cluster of Element Labs VersaTUBE LED fixtures attached to the front of it which are driven by Hayne's Catalyst. The front trusses form a chevr

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