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USA - The US Patent Office has issued patent 7,461,500 to J. R. Clancy for a "System for Determining Wear to Rigging System Lines," more commonly known as SureGrip rope. This is the only theatrical rope with a wear indicator, to tell users when the rope should be replaced.

SureGrip was developed by J.R. Clancy specifically to address the safety concerns of worn hand lines. Excessive wear is indicated by a "telltale" red thread woven into the rope - when red threads are visible, it's time to replace the line.

"Theatre safety is important to us," said Bob Theis, president of J. R. Clancy "and the development of SureGrip is part of our ongoing work to reduce risk backstage."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - grandPA confirms that the company has been made UK dealers for the MA Lighting product range. "Our knowledge of the consoles and systems through years of experience as programmers on the platform offers potential customers the very best in system design, specification, knowledge and most importantly technical support" says co-founder of grandPA, Tim Routledge. "Both myself and Pryderi are very excited about this development especially with the imminent launch of the MA2 platform."

The company will be receiving its first grandma 2 console in the first quarter of 2009. "We invested heavily in MA products in 2008 with more consoles and NSP's, and our intention is to stay as market specialists in the systems with the new generation of consoles" says Routledge. The company is now solely based in London and has recently moved all of its hire stock th

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Snow Business - Heavy snowfall caused several West End theatres to cancel their Monday evening performances. The newly-opened Oliver!, Avenue Q, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys were all called off. The Royal Opera House performance of Die tote Stadt was also cancelled. Promoters said the weather meant that they could not guarantee the performers and crew would be able to make it into central London.

Eurovision Countdown - Jade Ewen has been chosen to sing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Eurovision Song Contest entry for the UK in Moscow. The Londoner won the public vote ahead of Sheffield siblings The Twins and Welshman Mark Evans after all three acts performed My Time. The ballad, heard for the first time, was composed by Lloyd Webber with US Grammy-winning lyricist Diane Warren. The compo

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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 festive period saw AV solutions specialist PSP service two very different Christmas events in Birmingham. Despite being very different in content, however, they were united in the large scale, high production values that PSP were required to deliver.

Hall 3 at Birmingham's International Convention Centre saw large format print business SP Group hold its annual Christmas party, with 800 attendees enjoying an event featuring a performance by classical girl band Escala, followed by after-dinner entertainment comprising a set by psychological illusionist Derren Brown and a game show marathon hosted by television presenter Vernon Kay.

The production required a technical crew of more than 50, the set consisting of an LED starcloth backdrop, with LED battens and strips running video effects. Animated graphics were projected on to a central 9.1m wide front projection screen b

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UK - The Welsh National Opera, Wales Millennium Centre and other big names from the theatre industry in Wales have pledged their commitment to the new Creative Apprenticeship for the creative and cultural industries.

In Caernarfon yesterday, Creative & Cultural Skills highlighted the actions from the Creative Blueprint which will develop skills in the workforce particularly amongst theatre and live music technicians. Research from the Creative Blueprint has shown that 87% of creative industries in Wales have no training budget yet 23% have skills gaps.

One measure to address this issue is the new Creative Apprenticeship, the first for the industry in Wales. The Creative Apprenticeship will open doors into the sector and help turn more Welsh talent into productive skills and jobs. 12 initial places will be offered to young people eager to enter the creative and cultural industr

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Norway - With the release of the F22 sx+ , projectiondesign has completed the rollout of its new platform DLP projectors for professional applications. Like the other models in the new line-up, the F22 sx+ is already shipping, in advance of its public debut at the Integrated Systems Europe 2009.

Anders L°kke, international marketing & communications manager, projectiondesign, comments, "The F22 is a compact single-chip DLP projector platform that continues to offer the installation flexibility and performance options of its predecessor, the F20 sx+. The F22, however, benefits from a variety of enhancements, one of which is Philips' latest VIDI lamp technology.

This technology enhances reliability and extends useful product life, and very importantly for many projectiondesign customers, greatly enhances image quality. Also, thanks to our close collaboration with INFITE

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UK - Live event rigging company, Summit Steel has become part of Production Resource Group LLC (PRG). The same rigging service remains unchanged. Jon Bray, Chris Walker and their team at Summit are all maintaining exactly the same roles as before.

Summit Steel will be keeping its name, logo and identity, continuing as an independent brand, focussed on the markets that it serves. The company will remain located at its base in the South East.

PRG CEO Jere Harris said, "We are delighted to add Summit Steel to PRG's portfolio of brands in the UK and Europe. A specialist rigging supplier of this strength and reputation will complement and enhance our existing brands in the region and our business globally. We are looking forward to working with Jon and his team to further broaden our group technical services offer to support every size of event."

Summit's managing direc

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UAE - With the global appetite for energy continually increasing, in only its second year the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) has already established itself as a leading forum for change that is becoming more urgent by the year. Held between 19 and 21 January 2009 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 16,820 people from 79 countries visited the WFES exhibition, while 2,634 delegates took part in a conference which featured some of the world highest profile politicians and renewable energy experts.

It was in this latter high pressure environment that a Yamaha M7CL digital mixing console was entrusted with ensuring that every word of each speaker was heard perfectly by both the delegates present and around the world via the media.

Bristol-based Revelation Event Management provided production crew for the conference and appointed Tim Headley to mix the front of house sound. Headl

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USA - The Long Reach Long Riders and The ESTA Foundation have announced their annual raffle to benefit Behind the Scenes at the USITT conference. This popular event will be held on 21 March 2009 at the Behind the Scenes booth on the trade show floor of the USITT Conference in Cincinnati, OH. Tickets, which are $5 each or 5 for $20, may be purchased at the booth throughout the show.

Raffle prizes have been donated by: Altman Rentals (ghostlight), Barbizon ($250 gift certificate), Field Template (SoftSymbols and Field Templates), Le Maitre Special Effects (Radiance Hazer), Live Design (Broadway Master Class), Nolan Engineering Services (Seminar by Shawn Nolan), Sapsis Rigging (Safety Seminar by Bill Sapsis), USITT (2010 Conference registration), Utah Shakespearean Festival (3 pair of theatre tickets), Vectorworks (Spotlight with Renderworks), and Vincent Lighting Systems ($250 gif

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Denmark - On the evening of 17 January 17th, Danmarks Radio (DR), Denmark's national public service broadcaster, christened its new Concert Hall in °restaden with a series of eclectic concerts, an event that also marked the debut of the building's innovative animated façade.

As opera, classical, jazz, pop and rock resounded through the venue's four studios, the exterior of the building came alive in a mix of light, colour and pattern from Martin Professional Exterior 1200 Image Projectors.

The idea for the flexible façade was created by celebrated French architect Jean Nouvel, designer of the new arts venue. Eight designers, five technicians and creative manager at DR then realised the complex solution.

A total of 34 Martin Exterior 1200 Image Projectors cast colour changing light and moving images onto the building's 14,000sq.m façade.

DR chose Danish companies Mar

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USA - Elation Professional's new ART-1024 touch-sensitive DMX wall-mount controller is an advanced and affordable architectural lighting control solution that lets users run all of a building's DMX fixtures and different lighting zones from one compact keypad unit.

The ART-1024 comes with its own proprietary software that makes it simple to programme shows and scenes from a PC. Then, once lighting programmes have been created, they can easily be uploaded and triggered on the ART-1024's convenient touch-sensitive keypad.

Designed as a single-controller solution for all types of DMX lighting, the ART-1024's programming software includes built-in effects for multi-categories of fixtures: LEDs, moving lights and dimmers. It features 2 DMX universes, providing the capacity to control a total of 1,024 channels.

In addition to different types of fixtures, the ART-1024 can take comm

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Slovenia - Lighting designer Andrej Hajdinjak approached Robe's distributor MK Light Sound to assist in providing lighting for an exhibition of costumes by the country's leading costume designer Alan Hranitelj, staged at the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana.

Hranitelj has been chosen to design costumes for the upcoming Cirque du Soleil show, Macao 2, scheduled to premier in 2010 preceding the grand opening of the synonymous hotel.

"We were delighted to be asked to be involved," says MK Light Sound's Dean Karov, explaining that they have worked on many previous projects with Hajdinjak a leading practitioner in the world of Slovenian theatre and professional lighting design.

The exhibition was lit with a combination of carefully positioned Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs, ColorSpot 700E ATs, ColorWash 575E AT Zooms and XT Spot 575s. The requirement was to li

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UK - Television lighting designers are increasingly turning to GLP's Impression compact LED RGB moving washlight to provide fast moving colour changes to elements of their stage sets, says the company.

LD's such as Mike 'Sooty' Sutcliffe, Gurdip Mahal and Darryl Noad have been sourcing their luminaires from the Broadcast & Event division of production rental company, Panalux, headed by managing director Ed Pagett, and business development manager, Simon Roose.

Containing 90 Luxeon K2 high-power LEDs (30 x RGB), the Impression boasts a higher light yield than that of a conventional 575W discharge lamp. And with its rapid 660° of pan and 300° tilt, it is suitable for the television sector - particularly large location spectaculars and reality shows.

Additional advantages of durability, low energy, low heat dissipation, light weight and interchangeable lens are currentl

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The Netherlands - D&M Installation (DMi) has announced the signing of an agreement between D&M Europe B.V. and Control4. The agreement provides D&M with access to Control4's digital home automation technology to produce a range of Escient home control products. The Escient branded products will be available in over 50 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

"The Control4 control platform is a comprehensive complement to the Denon, Marantz and Escient product lines," said Bert Kiggen, brand director of DMi. "This agreement is a further milestone in our objective of providing custom installers with best in class, end-to-end system integration solutions for whole home entertainment, and environmental and security control. We look forward to working with Control4 in extending our system integration offerings throughout the EMEA CI markets."

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UK - Orbital Sound announces that it has been retained to provide a full communications and multimedia infrastructure for OC Events' 2009 iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series, working an enlarged European circuit of venues that will carry through the summer season.

Confirming the appointment, OC Events' event manager, Louise Close, said, "Orbital Sound were excellent throughout the 2008 series and we look forward to working with them again this year."

iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series attracts some of the world's best Olympic, round the world, America's Cup and solo sailors, who go head-to-head on open sea, picturesque lakes and restricted canals. As the action takes place close to shore, the high-octane competition provides a visual spectacle for thousands of spectators.

To match the visual excitement, OC Events realised last year that they need

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The Netherlands - The 2009 Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) exhibition sees Tau Audio Solutions, one of the Netherlands leading importers and distributors of professional audio equipment, announce a distribution agreement with German loudspeaker manufacturer TWAUDiO.

At ISE Tau is showing a range of TWAUDiO products, including the M Series of full-range, multipurpose loudspeakers and the B15 and B30 subwoofers.

"The fact that TWAUDiO's approach is to deliver the best in sound reinforcement technology for both today and tomorrow in the same products makes the brand an extremely attractive one to the European installation market," says Tau's managing director, Ron Vossen. "We believe in distributing products which feature the best technology and audio quality. Our relationship with TWAUDiO will be very beneficial to both companies."

"We have chosen Tau

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Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has appointed Lotta Schiefer as sales manager for Europe/MiddleEast/Asia. Schiefer brings over 15 years of experience in the entertainment lighting industry including Vari*Lite Production Services and Barco, with technical knowledge in just about every discipline.

"I'm very excited to be part of the Wireless Solution team," says Schiefer, "The brand is well respected and has been involved in some very impressive installations worldwide. I am really particular about working with quality brands."

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - The musical Ich Will Spass! currently playing at the Colosseum Theater in Essen, is a return to the more carefree days of the 1980s. Written and produced by Stage Entertainment, Ich Will Spass!(I Want to Have Fun!) features a giant, multi-coloured Rubik's Cube illuminated using Martin LC Series LED panels.

Used as the main set piece throughout the play and made of nine columns that can fold apart to make it twice as wide, the Cube is positioned on a revolving platform that rotates 720 degrees so the audience can see into it. The Rubik's Cube acts as the central and only set piece in the production with all the action taking place in and around it.

36 Martin LC Series panels are used to light the Cube in traditional Rubik's Cube colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and white). Positioned 10cm from a Plexiglass screen that surrounds the panels

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USA - When the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Centre (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute opened, its theatre, concert hall and two studios were ready for action with automated rigging from J. R. Clancy.

Eight years in the making, the 221,000sq.ft Curtis R. Priem EMPAC near Troy, NY, includes nine levels of studios, a 1,200-seat concert hall, a smaller 400-seat theatre, a studio with seating for 240 people, another that seats 120, a 1,500sq.ft rehearsal studio and four artist-in-residence studios.

Designed by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners of London and New York, the project's construction began in 2003. Theatre consultants Fisher Dachs Associates designed rigging systems, with J. R. Clancy supplying the rigging and acoustical equipment for the four performance spaces.

For the theatre, the company provided 22 high speed (0 - 240 fpm) hoists with 2000-lb. capacit

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UK - LiteSwitch is a control interface, conceived with one aim - operational simplicity. Allowing control of up to 96DMX channels and 60 lighting scenes, LiteSwitch can be programmed to create and manage complex lighting environments, yet access to them is so simple; at the touch of a single button.

Additional features such as daylight sensing, PIR (Person In Room) and calendar triggers are all included in the compactLiteSwitch package, ensuring total control of the lighting environment with simplicity. LiteSwitch is designed and manufactured in the UK by Litestructures, and is available through a network of approved distributors.

LiteSwitch is launched at the ARC Show, Earls Court 2, London , this week.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - QSC has introduced its new ILA (Installation Line Array) v2 System. Representing the second generation design of the lightweight, compact line array, ILA v2 comes to end-users as a turnkey package including dedicated full-range and subwoofer loudspeaker components, processing, amplification, and suspension accessories. It is designed for use in nightclubs, ballrooms, performing arts facilities, and houses of worship.

"One of the main reasons for developing ILA v2 is to make true line array performance accessible in a far broader range of applications," QSC VP of marketing Gerry Tschetter says, explaining the underlying goal driving the product introduction. "Most line array systems today are manufactured for the touring sound market, which means that overall, system costs lie well beyond the means of many facilities that could gain direct benefits from the t

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