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Macau - Having renovated the small auditorium at the Macao Cultural Centre in 2006 with an ARCS system, L-Acoustics' Chinese distributor, Rightway Audio has now installed a new Kudo Line Source System into the venue's Grand Auditorium. One of the first theatre systems to be installed in South East Asia, it will primarily be used for classical and orchestral concerts and was supplied by Rightway to systems integrator, J K Brothers Audio Engineering Co.

The Grand Auditorium, a two-storey space with a capacity of 1,114, has been installed with 18 Kudo cabinets configured in three equal hangs at left, centre and right positions. These are supplemented with four SB28 subwoofers which can be positioned as required, four 115XT HiQ monitors for front-fill, four 112P self-powered stage mon

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UK - Ultravox are back on the road 30 years after the release of the iconic Vienna. Keeping the crew, production teams and artists sustained on tour are caterers Eat To The Beat, also approaching their own milestone of 25 years tour catering.

The Return To Eden tour, promoted by Live Nation, plays 17 dates across the UK throughout April and May. Two Eat To The Beat chefs, Rachel Collins and Ali Matthew, are travelling with the tour, carrying their own flight cased equipment and utilising each venue facilities to prepare and serve three meals a day.

Production Manager Dave Claxton observes, "Midge [Ure] was recently a finalist on Celebrity Masterchef so he understands how pressurised the life of a chef can be. It always amazes me how they manage to produce such a varied spread at high standards in a wide range of conditions. They do it with humour and

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Indonesia - The Music Républicain Performance Hall is a part of Music Républicain, the new school for music and image founded by Ivonne Atmojo and Ivana Atmojo in August 2008. Located in South Jakarta, Indonesia, the Music Républicain Performance Hall is a multi-purpose facility, which can be used for different settings including small ensemble, orchestra, theatre, opera, Broadway show and music concert. The Performance Hall was completed at the end of 2008 and is now open for public events. With an area of 126sq.m, it has a seating capacity of 140.

Ivonne Atmojo, the owner, said that there are not many performance halls in Indonesia that have good acoustics. At the end of 2007, she and Hadi Sumoro, a member of Community Professional Loudspeaker's Technical Application Group (TAG), worked together planning the school's performance hall. Her main concern was

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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 - Orbital Sound reports that its annual Sound Fundamentals Training Course for theatre sound technicians was fully subscribed, with 24 students attending, from 14-17 April. Now in its eighth year, the course was held at Orbital's purpose-built 225m2 seminar facility in Brixton, south London, presenting students with the full range of technical disciplines across show control, radio microphones, video, communications and networking.

Tutored by Orbital's training manager Theo Holloway, the course is designed to combine theatre sound theory with extensive hands-on practice.

"A technical career in theatre sound requires a broad range of skills, from understanding the specialist technologies to the interpersonal qualities required in a tightly-knit team environment," says Holloway. "This year has probably been the most successful course to date - we had a great bu

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UK - Live performers looking for a compact and cost-effective route to recording their shows are increasingly turning to RSS, and its implementation of the Cakewalk Sonar recording software as part of the M-400 V-Mixing System.

At opposite ends of the UK, and indeed opposite ends of the musical spectrum, two artists have recently been using the RSS V-Mixing digital 40-track package to record concerts, one for a live album release later in the year and the other for archive purposes. Both AC/DC tribute band Live/Wire and Sheila Jordan, one of the stars of the Sage Gateshead International Jazz Festival, were using RSS digital audio technology to provide front-of-house and stage sound control for their shows.

The 'grandmother of bebop', Sheila Jordan is still performing in her eighties. For her concert at the Sage Centre in Gateshead, Simon Kenning from RSS was on hand to support

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UK - The Curve Theatre in Leicester's visuals may have grabbed the media headlines, but the venue's audio virtues are just as impressive. These include eight Yamaha mixing consoles and two digital mix engines. A vast amount of planning went into every facet of the venue, with Capital Project Director Graham Lister bringing together a wide variety of specialists in an 'end user consultation team' to ensure that every department offered the optimum end product for the theatre's most important users - the ticket-buying public.

Ben Harrison and John Owens were two high profile names invited to the committee to oversee the design of the audio systems.

"The brief was that the sound equipment had to be state of the art and able to cater for every kind of production that Curve might be likely to stage, with minimal extra hire costs," says Harrison. "We knew the producti

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Australia - Enttec has announced the release of its new MIDIwing control software. MIDIwing, in conjunction with Enttec's already well-established playback, shortcut, and programming wings, gives users the ability to define midi note or ASCII triggers for any lighting or media control device that will listen to the protocol.

The software, which uses TCP network packets to send midi notes over an Ethernet based network, can trigger up to 408 unique commands through a maximum of six wings, which can each handle between 54 and 68 individual single note triggers. The software is also capable of easily importing or exporting any of the wing configurations, and running quietly in the background processes of the PC.

MIDIwing's user customisable nature allows for endless adaptation to countless controllers. The programme can be successfully integrated with many widely used lighting co

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Argentina - Even after 18 years as a band and nine albums, the Babasonicos are still hungry. "We will never be satisfied to rest on our achievements," says the band's frontman Adrián Dárgelos, "because it is in our very nature to continually subvert and change the panorama of what is understood as music."

Mucho, the band's latest album, brings expression of the band's latest evolutionary steps into sharp focus with a selection of songs mixed in London by Phil Brown of Roxy Music fame. "Phil has always been a mythical rock-god engineer to us," Dárgelos says. "Given our rock en espanol budget, we didn't think there was much chance of us ever working with him, however. That's why we were stunned after we sent him a disc of some of our songs, and he accepted to do Mucho right away."

Bringing the songs of Mucho to Baba

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UAE - When the Commercial Bank of Qatar recently completed the construction of its new headquarters, it wanted to give visitors a memorable and eye-catching welcome to the new facility and Lighthouse Technologies' LED screens provided the answer.

Installed by well-established audio-visual integrator Technomight, based in Dubai and Doha, UAE, the installation of an 8 x 6 panel (5.12m(w) x 2.88 m (h)) Lighthouse P6-FA screen in the building's lobby, provides an instant impression of the bank's high quality standards.

"We first met Lighthouse in 2007 to discuss some potential projects at the Dubai Palme exhibition and have maintained regular contact ever since," says Technomight's Yogesh S. Wadke.

"This is the first time we have installed Lighthouse LED panels. We chose the P6-FA front access panels because the bank needs excellent picture quality with a short vi

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Switzerland - The Kantonsschule Wetzikon, a state college for higher education, has recently seen an extensive AV refurbishment in its Auditorium, and the installation of a high-specification audio system comprised of Nexo and Yamaha components.

The Auditorium is a multi-purpose venue, hosting meetings and presentations, theatrical productions and orchestral concerts, so the demands placed on the new sound reinforcement system were heavy. In addition, the theatre is protected under historic building regulations, so the installation of equipment had to be visually appealing.

Zap Audio proposed an all-purpose system centred on Nexo's new compact Geo S1230 two-way enclosures. Two of these modules have been flown either side of the stage, supplemented by a Nexo RS15 subwoofer and two Nexo PS8 cabinets as rear FX speakers. These loudspeakers are all driven by a pair of Nexo's NXAMP

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USA - Philips Lumileds has released Luxeon Rebel ES, a high-efficacy power LED specified to deliver a minimum of 100 lumens per Watt. As the global demand for efficient lighting solutions increases, Philips Lumileds is focusing on the performance characteristics that are most important to the lighting industry.

"Luxeon Rebel ES meets two complementary objectives: extending the energy-saving ability of LED technology and simplifying LED product selection to make it easier for lighting designers to take advantage of those capabilities," said Steve Barlow, executive VP of sales and marketing at Philips Lumileds. "Both of these features will help the industry meet its energy reduction and sustainability goals."

Creating energy efficient SSL applications is easier because, flux binning and forward voltage (Vf) binning selections are pre-determined to deliver 100

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Norway - A Medialon Manager Show & Media Control system has been integrated in the Petter Dass Museum, located in Sandnessj°en in Northern Norway.

The museum has been designed by noted architect Sn°hetta and tells the story of the 17th century Norwegian clergyman and poet named Petter Dass.

One Medialon Manager PRO license, integrated by Multitekst Ltd and YIT Systemteknikk, controls the entire auditorium and the exhibition sections of the museum.

A Rugboard (touch panel) is the main user interface for the entire installation, and runs Medialon Panel software. It allows the museum's tour guide, by a simple touch, to control windows blinds and curtains, screen and building lighting as well as the show applications running in the Auditorium and the exhibition sections of the museum.

In the Auditorium, one Medialon Display Player (MDP) runs a 20-minute introduction mo

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USA - Rock and jam band Umphrey's McGee is one of the first to take the Martin MAC III Profile out on the road. Lighting designer is Jefferson Waful, who started working with Umphrey's McGee on the run-up to the band's latest CD release, Mantisand subsequent tour. Waful replaces long time band LD Adam Budney.

"The band had just released a new album, a very important album that they had spent a lot of time on, and I wanted to make the light show brand new and cutting edge to match the new material," Waful states. "Also, coming in as a new lighting designer for the band, stepping in for an LD who had been with the band their entire career, I wanted it to look fresh and new. We knew it was going to take something extra special to highlight these new compositions."

That something extra came in the form of the Martin MAC III Profile."I was tasked wi

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USA - The Music Technology programme at Ball State University has installed an Aviom Pro16 Monitor Mixing System in its Studio 2 that is identical to its existing system in Studio 1. The university's programme provides hands-on experience in audio production, digital music technology and music creation. A Music Business track will be introduced in autumn of 2009.

The Aviom gear is an incremental upgrade to the university's current headphone distribution system and according to the programme's audio/digital systems engineer, Jeff Seitz, has proven to be flawless.

"The theory and application of recording is taught in the recording classes," says Seitz. "Learning to do a headphone mix is certainly part of the process. I chose Aviom for our studios because of its technical specification and ease of use."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Apollo gels and gobos are being added to two popular Wybron iPhone applications, the companies has announced. More than 1,300 Apollo gobos have joined the Moiré Gobo Library, and 150 Apollo gels will be integrated into Wybron's Gel Swatch Library.

The updated version of the gobo library, available now, also features 500 gobos from InLight Gobos. With the addition of InLight and Apollo, the gobo library now includes more than 3,300 different patterns.

"We are pleased to be working with Wybron on adding Apollo gobos and gel to their iPhone apps," said Apollo president Joel Nichols. "They have taken a leadership position in apps development, and adding Apollo should strengthen that by giving our industry more access to the tools needed to bring productions together on a daily basis."

The updated gel library with the Apollo gels should be releas

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India - Outdoor concert goers were recently entertained in Delhi by touring French song and dance troupe Breizh Side Soriou. The 47-member troupe performed through a Soundcraft Si3 digital console and PA company, Dhawan Electrical of Delhi, also supplied a JBL loudspeaker rig comprising VRX932LA compact arrays and SRX 728S subwoofers powered by Crown IT4000 amplification. The onstage monitor system included JBL SRX 712M's with JBL SRX 725's in use for side fill coverage.

Yogesh Dhawan, director of Dhawan Electrical comments, "The troupe's French FOH Engineer, Paul Schneiter, found the Si3 to be very user-friendly and he quickly learned the board's features and was very comfortable mixing in no time. By the time we finished the one-hour sound check, he was very familiar with the entire desk and its features."

Dhawan added, "The Si3 easily managed the 18 mic input

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Jamaica - Cloudy skies and occasional drizzle did little to dampen spirits at this year's Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, as legions of music lovers descended on Rose Hall, a historic, 7,000-acre north coast plantation, to see and hear performers ranging from Lionel Richie and Estelle to the O'Jays and Maxi Priest.

With nine acts scheduled for the first night and seven each thereafter over the course of the festival's three days, production manager Robert Stewart reached out to veteran sound engineer Raphael "Raffie" Alkins to take the festival to a different level and help solve the logistical dilemma of managing so many performances in such a short span of time.

"This was an easy one," Alkins notes, recalling the hectic days on the laid-back island leading up to the event. "I showed the team a flow chart I designed for the show and how to make it ha

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UK - Amber Lites of Scotland were the first rental company in the UK to invest in the Martin MAC III Profile and promptly supplied the fixture as part of a Martin Professional lighting package for Elaine Paige's recent anniversary tour.

Celebrating 40 years since her professional stage debut, Paige played a string of shows across the UK in February and March beneath dynamic light from six Martin MAC III Profiles, eight MAC 700 Washes and 10 MAC 700 Profiles.

"We aim to maintain a modern and comprehensive stock of lights, and as one of the most prominent and technologically advanced lights presently on the market, the MAC III Profile fits into that nicely," stated Bill Adie of Amber Lites. "It has all the attributes of an innovative moving head - brightness, easy exchange of gobos and most of all, total reliability and versatility."

Handling lighting and

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Belgium/USA - Barco has announced that new software is now available for the High End Systems Digital Lighting family, including the DL.3 Digital Light and the Axon media server.

The v1.5 software release expands feature functionality and provides a host of improvements and updates. Major features include frame blending for smooth, slow motion playback, and the expansion of Collage Generator capability, which allows users to create a setup that is 16 fixtures wide by eight fixtures high. A new Segmented Collage feature enables advanced users to pre-slice their content in order to create large collages with very high overall resolutions.

Another new feature is automatic content encoding validation. This process scans content as it is being loaded into the system, in order to ensure correct encoding, trouble-free playback, and the elimination of performance issues that might res

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UK - Lighting designer Steven Douglas is using 265sq.m of Chroma-Q Color Web 125 LED panels to provide a curved video effect backdrop for the stage design The Killers' current Day & Age World Tour 2009.

The tour sees them perform 55 dates in 14 countries to almost half a million people. Following a series of North American dates, the tour is currently on its European leg and will then return for more dates in the US and Canada.

Tour LD Steven Douglas was looking for a semi-transparent video surface that would enhance the band's performance rather than detract from it. In addition, he needed something that would take up very little truck space and could be curved into different shapes, due to the design of the stage truss configuration. Douglas considered several popular LED video surface solutions before selecting the Color Web system, which he had used to great effect

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Croatia - Robe's new Robin products - hot from the factory following their official launch at the Prolight + Sound show in Frankfurt - were the main attraction at Croatian distributors' Sali Trade's third annual open day last week.

The event was staged at the Dom Hrvatskih Branitelju (House of the Croatian Army) venue in Pula, Croatia.

It was jointly organized with guest partner Perini? Sistemi and attracted over 70 lighting specialists from TV (including HRT national TV), theatres (including the HNK Zagreb Croatian National Theatre, HNK Split, the Centre of Culture in ?akovec, INK Pula and Teatr Požega) plus several rental companies (GIS, DD Elektroakustika, ARA Electronic, Produkcija Zvuka).

Robe was represented by international sales manager Harry von Den Stemmen."This was the third Sali Trade open day " he comments. "Each time the events grow and improve

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