Germany - For 22 years, the Hausmesse in Straubing has enjoyed a secure place on pro audio traders' calendars. As on earlier occasions, the team, led by vice-president sales EMEA Robert Hesse welcomed this year some 700 guests from all over the world - including around 35 editors of pro audio magazines and other journalists.

The event kicked off in the municipal theatre with a welcome speech delivered by Robert Hesse, in which he described the stable-but-innovation-rich course the company is pursuing. Despite the worldwide financial crisis, he looked to the future with "absolute confidence," founding his optimism on the solid backing the firm enjoyed "as part of the Bosch Group" and solid results - including an increase of around 40 percent in the turnov

UK - Kave Theatre Services supplied all lighting, sound and crew requirements to Move It (the UK's largest exhibition for Dance) for the latest addition to the show: The Freestyle Stage. The show took place from Thursday 5th - Sunday 8th March at Olympia, London.

The Freestyle Stage is an area the organisers created to allow dancers visiting the show, to show off their dance skills to a crowd. The brief from organisers was to create an area that allowed maximum flexibility with lighting and sound, as there are no rehearsals or even any idea of the genre that will be performed. The performers just show up with an iPod or CD with their chosen track and take to the stage.

Kave supplied a flexible lighting rig consisting of Martin Mac 600s, Mac 2000 Profiles and the new Mac 575 Kryptons for lighting the stage, Chroma Q Colour Blocks as truss toners, Le Maitre MVS hazers, and 2 Rob

USA - As 2009 unfolds, Bandit Lites continues with O.A.R. on their 2009 tour. Tour manager Sean Murray, production manager Kevin Cassidy and lighting designer Will Anglin have worked with Bandit client rep Brent Barrett to come up with another impressive system for the 2009 campaign.

Anglin has chosen a bit of new along with a bit of throwback technology for the latest tour. VL 3000 spots work alongside High End Studio Beams as well as some durable but old school Cyberlight Turbos. The three fixtures together provide a look at the last 20 years of development of moving lights.

The entire show is controlled by the Grand MA console. The usual collection of trussing, motors and drapes round out a special look for the 11-year-old group. The This Town Tour continues throughout the year.

(Jim Evans)

featured content

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

France - For its third edition, the Dimension 3 forum will take place in Seine-saint-Denis, a region that strongly supports 3D research and production. From 2-4 June 2009, Dimension 3 is inviting professionals from the cinema, TV, video games, entertainment, communication and training industries to "one of the most important events of the 3D industry in the world".

Staged in the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin near Paris, this event will evaluate the maturity of the creation and visualization solutions dedicated to the 3D images and their application programmes. This year, a space for the 3D production promotion will be added to the Dimension 3 professional exhibition area. Added to those areas dedicated to professionals, Dimension 3 Immersion, an area for the visual experimentations, will be open to a broader audience.

60 international experts will be gathered

UK - Orbital Sound is putting its investment in the new d&b audiotechnik T-Series loudspeaker system straight to work during March. The T-Series is out on the road with three different productions.

Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Squarepants Live! is kicking off a UK tour at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo, with two hangs of 20 T10 cabinets apiece, configured as a conventional line array solution, complemented by 3 T-SUBs and a single B2 on each side.

The all-new UK tour of the hit musical Chicago, with sound design by Rick Clarke, opened in Bradford on 9March, with a 40-cabinet system designed to accommodate the wide cross-section of venues and requirements.

In London, the Flamenco Festival - running from 14-29 March at Sadler's Wells - is deploying a total of 16 T10 cabinets and T-SUBs, configured as a mixture of vertical point-source standalone cabinets and horizontal mi

UK - Audio video services company PSP, has appointed Chris Stigger as project manager for its London operation to further strengthen the technical and production management services it offers its clients.

Stigger has extensive experience of the industry on a worldwide basis, having been with SPS for almost two decades prior to his move to PSP, where he worked on some of the company's most high profile events and client accounts.

"Business continues to be good for us and our London office is expanding," comments PSP director Ian Willcox. "And with the recent addition of Animotion Live and 3D-holocube enhancing our offering of creative products, more opportunities are continually presenting themselves.

"The addition of Chris to our team gives us the capability to facilitate this increase in business, ensuring that our clients receive the quality of service

UK - The Directors of Batmink Ltd, one of the UK's largest distributors of sound and lighting equipment, are looking forward to the inaugural PLASA Focus show (Leeds, UK, 28-29 April 2009). Sales director Grant Thomas explains why Batmink are so enthusiastic about the new show: "As wholesale distributors, we often find that visitors to the trade shows are there primarily to familiarise themselves with new products, rather than to establish contacts and suppliers for these goods. At PLASA Focus, the emphasis is more on networking and developing new business relationships which may well prove more successful for a wholesale distributor such as ourselves. PLASA's own figures indicate that 70% of pre-registered visitors didn't attend the PLASA show in London, so this is also an excellent opportunity to meet new potential clients who may not be aware of our products or services.&q

UK - A.C. Video, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies, held its first Green Hippo HippoSchool training day in Scotland on 3 March 3 to great success. The one-day course was organised in conjunction with Green Hippo's in-house specialists, Simon Harris and Samantha Bailey. The diverse audience included recent purchasers of Hippotizer media server products, freelancers wanting to learn more about the system and those considering an investment in their first Hippotizer system.

Lee House, business development manager for the A.C. Video division, commented, "A.C. Entertainment Technologies is committed to providing training and after-sales support to its UK-wide Green Hippo customer base, and we hope that holding a HippoSchool event in Scotland demonstrates our total commitment to the Hippotizer and our customers across the entire country."

The HippoSchool traini

USA - The NSCA Business and Leadership Conference, sponsored by InfoComm International, concluded with positive discussions on resolutions, ideas and new strategies to handle business management in today's uncertain economy.

Commercial electronic systems integrators were encouraged by the overwhelming sense of community they experienced during this year's event. At a time when negative news and concerns surrounding economic stability consume staff at every level from business managers to technicians, conference attendees discovered staffing strategies, financial fixes and creative marketing methods at the event held last week in Phoenix, Arizona.

In addition to general sessions, a variety of networking events and social opportunities allowed attendees to discuss first hand their daily challenges and what works for them. Special guest, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), shared in

Turkey - On 3 March 2009, the newly completed Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Centre in Izmir, Turkey, designed by Arup and Tozkoparan Architects, opened its doors to the public for the opening performance of the 16th European Jazz Festival. Grammy award winning American jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater was accompanied by the Istanbul Big Band at the event.

Arup Acoustics and a multidisciplinary engineering team from Arup worked closely with Turkey-based Tozkoparan Architects to deliver the new Centre. The acoustics and venue planning were an integrated part of the design from the outset with the goal of providing a building with world-class facilities within affordable budgets.

The new arts centre, known as AASSM, is named after Turkish composer and musicologist Ahmed Adnan Saygun, who died in 1991. The Centre incorporates a 1100 seat concert hall, a 300 seat recital hall as well as v

UK - For two years running, Envy has won the title for Best Post-Production House at the UK Broadcast Awards. Handling projects for all the main broadcasters, the company has just opened its third facility in London's West End, featuring an open-plan reception - lounge bar space and 750sq.ft roof terrace, fitted with an Electro-Voice EviD sound system.

This is the 100th EviD fit for installer Clive Alexander of Empire Sound & Light. It is also the second installation of EviDs that he has done for Envy.

The new Foley Street facility, which has 34 offline production suites, boasts exceptional relaxation areas for its clients. Four pairs of white EviD 6.2s are wall-mounted below the roof beams in the reception and bar area, with another pair of 4.2s outside, catering for the huge roof terrace that overlooks central London. The system accepts iPod input, and operates primarily in

Lighting rental company HSL is supplying lighting, a 26-point Kinesys automation system and crew to Snow Patrol's One Hundred Million Suns world tour.

This has kicked off in the UK and Europe with a mix of four dynamic visual mediums - lighting, digital lighting, video and movement .

The imaginative force behind this show comes from Davy Sherwin (lighting & visuals designer), Robin Haddow (live visuals director) and video director Blue Leach. The aim of their seamless teamwork is to ensure that all the lighting, video, visuals and movement cues contrast, compliment, match and juxtapose in complete harmony.

Project manager Mike Oates says, "It's just brilliant to be involved on a show that looks this good. An incredible amount of hard work, ideas, imagination and intelligence has gone into making it work, and the end results speak for themselves."

Sherwin

France / Germany - French manufacturer APG reports a new stage in its ongoing product development, building on its experience in line source technology (i.e. Matrix Array). At the forthcoming ProLight&Sound exhibition (Frankfurt, 1-4 April) APG will launch its first Line Array.

Named Uniline, the new system comprises a main cabinet - UL210 - and a Low cabinet - UL115B. Featuring a 3-way system with twin 10" drivers, and the company's Isotop arrangement (a 6,5"+ 1"coaxially mounted with passive crossover), the UL210 is a bi-amplified cabinet. The UL115B low cabinet utilizes the efficient K-Horn load technology found in the company's TB subwoofer range, say APG.

The company says that the ergonomics and the flying points of the whole system are designed to offer safe, simple, flexible and intuitive installation. To operate and drive the complete system, users have

Germany tarm Showlaser GmbH recently staged a highlight at the German music award ceremony Echo 2009 at the O2-World in Berlin.

Lighting designer Al Gurdon, who is well known for large scale productions such as the MTV Awards and the Brit Awards, designed in the performance of popular German act Silbermond in collaboration with tarm Showlaser to mark the presentation of the band's new song Irgendwas bleibt.

A total of four high-power green and four full-colour lasers were used for the production at the O2-World.

(Claire Beeson)

USA - Behringer has launched a major hiring initiative in support of continuing expansion and business development. "Over our 20-year history we have developed technologies, core competencies and processes that we can now apply to a growing number of markets", states chairman Uli Behringer. "We will be serving new market segments with new means of marketing. We're looking for talented, creative and passionate people to make this happen."

Opportunities exist at all levels of the organization, says the company. Specific areas of expansion for Behringer are the commercial and installed sound markets.

"Of course, like any company, we're going to say that we're looking for highly-motivated people, driven to succeed, and are passionate, energetic and enthusiastic," continues Uli Behringer.

(Jim Evans)

Germany - Console designer and manufacturer Audient will unveil Zen at ProLight & Sound. A compact, recording and mixing console, Zen combines analogue mixing technology with flexible DAW integration, seamlessly blending the two formats, making the ideal mixing desk for the modern studio environment, says the company.

Dual inputs provide the mic/line input stage and the DAW return path, offering a flexible system for connecting to a DAW or stand alone recorder. With individual DAW record outputs, mono and stereo buses, auxes, a sophisticated monitor section and an optional digital output interface, Zen allows simple audio connection to the rest of the production set-up.

Moving fader automation allows for integration with DAW software, providing precise, fully-featured automation of moving faders, mutes and transport control. Drawing on David Dearden's wealth of experience, Zen

Germany TOA Europe will show its new Type H line array at ProLight & Sound. It is billed as "an all-new series of line arrays designed to fit into the smallest of gaps, the most demanding of interior designs, the most reflective of environments, as well as the tightest of project budgets".

"Type H is the most affordable line array we've ever produced and we're delighted to launch it into the European market at Prolight + Sound 2009," says Brett Downing, sales & marketing director, TOA Europe. "The speakers have been designed with a simple goal in mind: to provide clear, intelligible speech reproduction in large, modern public spaces such as airport lounges, train station concourses, hotel lobbies, auditoria, conference halls, and places of worship."

There are four models in the Type H range, each based on the same 7cm full-range drive unit. The SR

UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics, local distributors for Electro-Voice speakers, amplifiers and processors in the United Arab Emirates, has recently supplied the Dubai World Trade Centre's rental division an additional set of the EV XLC line array cabinets. The rental division already boasts a number of EV products in its inventory such as the XLC line array cabinets and Tour Grade amplifiers. The new purchase includes a dozen more line array cabinets from the XLC range, more Tour Grade amplifiers that include the RCM DSP module, Phoenix monitors and Plasma Series powered speakers.

DWTC's purchase includes the latest version of the XLC system, which features the all-new DVX transducer platform. It utilises the same high output ND6-HYDRA HF section, but provides more LF capability with the DVX3121 12-inch forced-air-cooled LF driver, along with lower distortion and more headr

USA - Biamp Systems has announced the twelve companies that received the 2008 Biamp Distributor of the Year Awards, recognising business acumen and drive to mutually grow business worldwide. Biamp developed the Distributor of the Year awards to showcase the "best and brightest" in the AV industry. The winning companies are selected on various criteria including: Business acumen; Strength of partnership with Biamp Systems; Service; Overall professionalism; Technical experience; Sales volume; and Passion for the AV industry.

The 2008 Distributor of the Year award recipients represent a broad range of companies that demonstrated excellence throughout the year, say Biamp.

Winners are: Europe West - Audiopole (France); Europe Central & East - Prase Engineering (Italy); SE Asia/Pacific - Audio Products Group (Australia/New Zealand); Latin America - Almacenes Audiovisuales/

UK - The National Outdoor Events Association's Annual Tribute Celebration Evening, held on 26h February 2009, saw AP Security add another award to its growing list - the Training in Events Tribute.

The Tribute was awarded to AP in recognition of the results its training programme has produced at events such as Leeds Festival. Each and every AP employee attends a pit training course held during non-show days at the O2 Academy Brixton, one of the many venues at which AP is responsible for crowd safety.

Leeds Festival 2008 marked AP Security's tenth year of providing crowd safety at the event. As the festival has grown, so AP's role has developed alongside it, as has a solid relationship with promoter, Festival Republic.

"Attending the course doesn't guarantee work in the pit," says AP's general manager, Andy Stevens. "But you definitely can't work there u

UK / South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa - the country's leading supplier of presentation and event technical equipment - is a long-standing XTA user and supplier, so when the time came to upgrade their loudspeaker processing inventory, they naturally turned to local XTA distributor, Tadco.

Offering services across all disciplines including lighting, audio, structures, power, staging and set design, Gearhouse takes an imaginative approach to project design and prides itself on its state-of-the-art equipment.

Dave Tudor of Gearhouse explains the background to this recent purchase: "With the sale of equipment into Nigeria, we needed to replace and upgrade our stock of audio processing. XTA has proved a very reliable product in the past, which contributed to the decision to make the purchase." He continued: "We currently have in our inventory a number XTA DP224s

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