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UK - Rightway Audio Systems, Midas and Klark Teknik's distributor for China, Hong Kong and Macau, has also been appointed to handle the brands in Taiwan, with immediate effect. Appointed last May, Rightway has already sold 10 Midas XL8 Live Performance Systems and five PRO6 Live Audio Systems, and is a leading distributor of Klark Teknik, in particular the Square ONE range.

"We're very honoured to be expanding the brands across Greater China," says sales manager Alan Wong, who will initially be handling the business from Rightway's Hong Kong office and appointing dealers across the new region.

"In just a year Rightway has proved to be an excellent distributor for Midas and Klark Teknik, as their sales performance demonstrates," says Midas and Klark Teknik's s

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UK - The fifth series of 4Music's popular weekly music programme The Shockwaves Album Chart Show was recorded live at London's Koko.

Benefiting from Koko's state-of-the art technical infrastructure, including its JBL Vertec rig, 30 artists and their crews including Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Pet Shop Boys, The Enemy and Kelly Clarkson deployed Koko's in-house FOH mixing desk - the Soundcraft Vi6.

Koko's in-house technical manager, Tim Hamper comments: "This is the third series of The Shockwaves Album Chart Show that I've been involved with using the Vi6. Its on-going success is largely down to its ease of use, mainly because it's been designed to work logically and in-tune with how a live sound engineer has to operate on the night."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Renkus-Heinz has named its first factory-authorised commissioning specialists, appointed as part of a programme to extend the community of specialists qualified to commission Iconyx and RHAON equipped audio installations.

Sam Berkow, Adam Shulman and Steve Sockey of SIA Acoustics; Stephen Solberg and Robert Ledo of CFA Consulting; Bruce Coffman of Touch Thirty Three Consulting and James Brawley of James Brawley and Associates are the appointed specialists.

The announcement follows an intensive two-day training session at the firm's Foothill Ranch, CA, factory, part of which was spent on-site at the nearby Iconyx-equipped San Juan Capistrano Mission Basilica.

David Rahn, US national sales manager, explains: "Our in-house system commissioning programme has become very popular with Iconyx installers, and a lot of other integrators have been using it as well, perhaps

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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 - Black Cat Music will once again be displaying its comprehensive range of education and performance equipment at the ABTT Theatre Show next month.

Products displayed will include music stands and lights, posture chairs, choral risers, staging equipment and theatre products and staff will be on hand to discuss and demonstrate products. Copies of Black Cat Music's new comprehensive price list and catalogue will be available from the stand.

The Black Cat Acoustics division is a professional noise control company with an experienced and friendly team offering a complete range of acoustic products. Enquiries are welcomed for the design, supply and installation of high performance acoustic equipment as a total package, or to find economic solutions to individual problem areas within existing buildings.

(Jim Evans)

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Mexico - Allen & Heath's new iLive-T digital mixing system was recently evaluated by one of Mexico City's top music venues, the Bull Dog Café. The system - comprising an iDR-32 MixRack and iLive-T80 Control Surface - was road tested for a week, managing combinations of FOH and monitor sound for the venue's busy schedule of events.

During the hectic weekend line up, which featured many of Mexico's up and coming artists, iLive-T was used to mix FOH for headliners Division Minuscula and Simplifires and their support bands, Victimas del Doctor Cerebro and The Dancers. During the week, the system was moved between monitor and FOH position for acts which included girl group, Ha-Ash, Allison and Alicia Villarreal, culminating in Los Amigos Invisibles, where the system mixed monitors.

"Most of the bands had their own engineers, and they all had positive feedback for iLive-

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) and PLASA - the lead body for those working in the live events, entertainment and communication industries - have announced their intention to endorse each other's skills initiatives.

The announcement, which came during the first day of PLASA Focus, the organisation's new regional event in Leeds, will see PLASA supporting the ABTT in becoming one of the organisation's preferred assessment centres for the theatre sector, whilst the ABTT will actively endorse and support the future development of PLASA Qualifications.

PLASA Qualifications became an Awarding Body in 2008 as part of the organisation's aim to become the 'Industry Awarding Body', a key element of its wider strategy to ensure the industry has the right skills and professional development opportunities to meet both present and future demand. The organisation w

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Arts Funding Up - Arts Council England has pledged an extra £44.5 million to artists and organisations to offset the impact of the recession. Dame Liz Forgan revealed the measures in a speech at an Arts Council-sponsored seminar in London. "We cannot protect artists from the realities of recession," she said. "But we can be as imaginative, open and useful as possible in our efforts to get us through this with minimal damage to the creative life of this country."

Arts Council England distributes public money from the Government and the National Lottery. Its new initiatives include Sustain, a £40 million open application fund for arts organisations suffering due to the economic problems. There will also be additional support for individual artists and smaller arts organisations through the Arts Council's existing Grants for the arts programme. Its 2

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UK - PLASA Focus, Leeds - the first regional trade show event from the PLASA Events portfolio - opened its doors at 10am this morning at the start of what promises to be two valuable days of business and networking opportunities. In total across the two filled halls of Leeds Royal Armouries, 100 of the industry's leading manufacturers and suppliers are exhibiting at this inaugural PLASA Focus event.

Aside from the genuinely strong exhibitor commitment to the show, organisers PLASA Events say that the response from potential visitors has also been very satisfying, with almost 2,500 online pre-registrations received prior to the closure of pre-registration facility last week. If you haven't already registered for the event but would like to visit, don't be put off - you can simply register on the door at the venue.

The show is open until 5pm today, and from 10am to 4pm tomorrow

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Denmark - The Martin MAC 301 Wash is an LED moving head washlight with a powerfully fast zoom and impressive zoom range. Designed for a variety of settings including rental applications, television use and night-time venues, it is capable of producing a wide range of exceptional colours from rich saturated shades to uniform pastels through the entire zoom range, says the company.

The MAC 301 Wash's zoom provides beam angle control from 13 - 36° for more accurate and flexible design possibilities, and the fixture's RGB colour mixing is maintained through the entire zoom range.

The fixture's 108 LEDs produce a bright and well-defined beam. With LEDs arrayed in a high density design, a more even blending of colours is achieved.

A principal feature of the MAC 301 Wash is its RGB colour mixing system. The full spectrum system combines with the optical system to produce a wide

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South Africa - ETC's Eos lighting control desk has had its first outing in South Africa, with Prosound/T&A Lighting supplying one for use on the theatrical production of High School Musical.

Lighting director Declan Randall says, "This is a user-friendly but powerful desk which was able to do everything that I needed. I was sceptical at first, but very quickly learned my way around it and was able to program all 768 lighting cues without any problem. I am very impressed. It is a new system and as ETC is frequently issuing software updates, it is improving all the time. I would not hesitate to specify it for any other show in the future."

ETC's senior programmer Luke Delwiche went over to South Africa to help with the programming, where T&A Lighting also made him available to others who were interested in learning more about the desk.

Ian Blair, T&A Lighting'

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UK - Peavey has announced that it has again been asked to provide the sound system for the main stage at the London International Music Show (LIMS) from 11-14 June 2009. A Peavey system was also used last year for the inaugural LIMS, when Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani headed the list of artists performing (along with The Blockheads, who made a special appearance at the exclusive Peavey-sponsored exhibitor party).

This year's line-up includes Jan Akkerman, Albert Lee with Hogan's Heroes, and The Swans.

"This is a fantastic showcase for music, musicians and the equipment that goes with it, and Peavey is proud to be playing its part in presenting such a talented line-up - including many of my personal idols - to the visitors at LIMS", said Clive Roberts, managing director of Peavey Europe. "Last year's show was a fantastic advertisement for the UK music scene,

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UK - British Harlequin's Hi-Shine floor will be to the fore when the company exhibits at the ABTT Theatre Show 2009 to be held at London's Royal Horticultural Halls next month.

Also on show will be a wide range of examples from Harlequin's extensive catalogue of floors for the performing arts. Visitors will able to examine many different floor types with expert support on hand to provide guidance and advice.

Although widely known for their floors for dance and the performing arts, Harlequin also provides special flooring for theatre stages, television studios, exhibitions and display. Harlequin manufactures a comprehensive range from portable, roll-out floors to cushioned, heavy duty permanent floors, plus permanent and touring sprung floor systems. These are complemented by a range of accessories including tapes and cleaning products, roll straps, storage bags and an extensiv

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UK - Proteus Displays is running two open days to demonstrate its new Mezzanine Imaging system. Mezzanine combines a tracking system to calculate the beam and footprint positions of moving lights alongside a media player with unique image controls. The system provides a facility for integrating lighting with video enabling conventional moving lights to project digital imagery on to the reflective display surface.

Paul Silsby CTO comments, "After all the interest we received at PLASA 08 we have been keen to develop this system further. The Mezzanine effect provides lighting designers with a new canvas which enables a level of integration between lighting and display technologies that has not been possible previously."

The demonstrations are taking place at LED Screenhire in Littlehampton on 7 and 8 May.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Vice president of Pyrotek Special Effects, Lorenzo Cornacchia, worked alongside production designer Daunte Kenner and production manager MaceoPrice to help create an explosive show for Lil Wayne's I Am Music World Tour.

Kenner and Price collaborated with Cornacchia to integrate a series of effects for the tour. Cornacchia was introduced to Kenner during the 2007 BET awards, where Cornacchia designed a barrage of custom flame effects, including a flaming microphone stand for Lil Wayne's performance of Gossip.Cornacchia, who has worked on numerous occasions with Kenner, enjoys doing so because "He's innovative and brings fresh ideas to the table". The Lil Wayne I Am Music World Tour consists of an array of various special effects. One of the custom effects designed for the tour resembles a gatling gun which acts as a flame thrower, shooting an

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Singapore - Chingay is a regional festival in South East Asia celebrating the upcoming spring. Tracing its roots back to the middle of the last century, it is now a parade with floats running along major streets in various cities throughout Malaysia and Singapore. Celebrated for the 37th time in Singapore, Chingay Singapore is today Asia's grandest street parade. Two grandMA full-size consoles running in full-tracking backup mode, plus four MA NSPs (Network Signal Processor) running 16 DMX universes were placed at front of house to run the show's lighting.

Emphasising the multicultural history of Singapore and themed Project Wonderland, this year's parade featured 13 floats, with over 4,000 performers from 40 organisations from Singapore and seven other countries including Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, India, South Korea and The Philippines. An estimated 150.000 visitors j

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UK - When the new Westfield London shopping centre opened in west London last October, it became the largest inner city shopping destination in Europe - and an immediate hit with shoppers, who thronged to the venue to visit retailers ranging from Marks & Spencer and Debenhams to Apple, Louis Vuiton, Dior, Prada and Tiffany.

The retail outlets are gathered in malls and a village area around a central atrium the size of a football pitch with a spectacular undulating glass roof. To bring life to the atrium, and to offer support to the entertainment events which will often be staged there, Westfield is equipped with some of the very latest lighting technology, all supplied by leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light.

"We started with a brief to support the events, shows and experiential marketing that was planned in the first year to seed the space, and I also look

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AC/DC's Black Ice world tour has crashed into the UK, accompanied by vintage and state-of-the-art Midas technology. Front of house engineer Paul 'Pab' Boothroyd is using a refurbished eighties PRO40 console to mix the band, with a PRO6 live audio system alongside to run the Klark Teknik DN9696 hard disc recorder and mix support band The Answer. A Midas Heritage 4000 is the monitor console for AC/DC, with a second PRO6 being used to monitor support bands.

"I've always enjoyed analogue consoles, and I'll use whatever suits the job," says Boothroyd. "A band like AC/DC warrants using a good old analogue desk because they're a good old analogue band. It's not like I have masses of processing, FX sends or over-EQing going on, just a little bit of compression. Nothing fancy as it doesn't need to be, and I'm having a great time using it."

The 25-year-old PRO40 was

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Germany - The Sommer Cable main catalogue has been revised and added to once again. Across 400 pages the cable manufacturer is presenting an even bigger comprehensive and well-structered product range that offers everything from cable bulkware for the audio, video and network technology sectors including the appropriate hybrid cables to matching connectors and ready-made cables to complex routing systems, various active components and the corresponding accessories.

In addition to the comprehensive product information, the catalogue covers several informative subjects like including a crash course in cable production and cable characteristics plus a brief introduction to general audio technology.

As before, it is available in German, English and French., and for the first time in Spanish and Russian.

(Jim Evans)

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Croatia - Adris Group, one of the leading companies in Croatia's tourist and travel sector, chose a Klotz Digital Varizone PA system for its new five star hotel Monte Mulini in Rovinj/Istria. Varizone has been installed by Dicroic, Klotz's Croatian sales and service partner.

Since working with the new PA system, Adris Group has secured a long term contract with Dicroic for the design, projecting, installation and maintenance in the field of audio, video & multimedia solutions and has named Klotz Digital as one of its official suppliers.

"Klotz Digital's remarkable technology allows a fast and individual assignment of zones without rewiring, which is an extraordinary advantage in the SPA. Separate areas and rooms are used for different events over a specific time period and need to be rearranged, both physically and acoustically, every few weeks," says Dicroic's proje

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Germany - At the beginning of March 2009, the 100,000th Dynacord PowerMate was delivered.

In the mid 1990s, Dynacord presented the first generation of the powered mixer, PowerMate. Unlike conventional all-in-one solutions, the PowerMate was designed to exhibit no compromises whatsoever. "Our mission was clear," says Josef Taffner, who as developer played an important role in shaping the design and history of the PowerMate. "We wanted to offer the discerning musician a compact system capable of being used intuitively at the highest performance level.

"Almost all the engineers and technicians in the PowerMate development team are musicians themselves. We knew from our own experience what qualities, in an ideal world, a power mixer ought to possess and were also able to meet the requirements of our customers in a logical way."

The PowerMate was intended

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UK - Landmark London venue The Scala, has upgraded its front-of-house console, replacing its old mixing desk with a new 32-channel Soundcraft MH3 analogue, multi-mode console.

The board was specified by the venue's experienced head of sound, George Gregori, on recommendation from Soundcraft dealer, Pete Brotzman of Crystal Pro Audio, who provided the venue with much of its audio support.

The desk is also used by day to run live sound training courses run by Gregori for his company Live Sound Courses. With many alumni having progressed to great achievements in the professional world of live sound mixing, he believes that the physicality of the analogue surface is much more forgiving than the digital equivalents.

"The MH3 is perfect for our needs - unlike our previous desk which was being repaired so often that it became uneconomical to maintain," observes Gregori.

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