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UK - PSCo has added full HD 82" LCD's to its rental fleet. The new 82" is available on the 'Super ScreenLifter' which allows it to be wheeled into place and raised three metres in the air at the touch of a button, making it suitable for temporary installation at events, exhibitions, conferences, awards and meeting areas.

Stuart Holmes, managing director of PSCo comments: "The new screens are the perfect solution for those looking for big LCD technologies but without the space for a 100+" screen. The Samsung 82" is a big jump in impact from the 65" screens and we see the demand in the rental market for the screens as being high."

(Jim Evans)

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South Africa - Following almost a year of assessing digital mixing consoles, Hatfield Christian Church in Pretoria took delivery of four DiGiCo SD8s at the beginning March 2009.

Tadco, DiGiCo's South African distributor, was approached early in 2008 to quote on the console requirements for Hatfield Christian Church, and during the first discussions it was apparent that the church has some special requirements.

In addition to its normal Sunday services, it also has a radio and television broadcast arm, Impact Christian Media. The Sunday services are broadcast live via radio to Pretoria and are then packaged for worldwide television broadcast to a potential 42 countries.

A further complication is that three to four times a year large events are held in the church which use up to 70 channels of mixing at FOH. The norm would be 40 to 45 channels.

As a result, three consoles we

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UK - As part of Noise Action Week, Stage Electrics reports that it will be carrying out noise at work risk assessments at its Bristol HQ using the SPLnet noise monitoring equipment. In addition, a staff competition is being run to raise awareness of the impacts of noise and the simple measures that can be taken to prevent noise problems. Noise Action Week is a national campaign which aims to promote practical solutions to everyday noise issues.

Liz Reed, health and safety manager at Stage Electrics comments, "The effects of occupational deafness and hearing damage are devastating especially in the entertainment industry where hearing sound accurately at different frequencies is an integral part of any audio set-up. Stage Electrics is committed to completing a full and thorough programme of noise assessments and I am looking forward to using the SPLnet monitoring equipment t

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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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UAE - A grandMA was the choice to run lighting for the 2009 Dubai International Poetry Festival, staged in the Rashid Hall and Hall 4 of the Dubai World Trade Centre. The event featured 100-plus regional and international writers from 45 countries. The festival is a unites poets from around the world in one city. Based on a lighting design by Sonu A.B., the show was controlled by one grandMA ultra-light with a grandMA 2Port Node PRO and grandMA onPC as backup, plus two MA Digital Dimmer racks.

Sonu A.B. explained, "It was challenging to use the same lighting setup in another venue just 15 hours later. The poetry festival started in Hall 4 exclusively for Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Fazza'a), Crown Prince of Dubai, after which the venue was shifted to the Sheikh Rashid Hall for one day, and then back to Hall 4 for the remainder of the festival. We had t

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USA - The tenth Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April saw hundreds of performers across five stages, with a wide range of artists include Sir Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen, The Cure, The Killers and hip hop pioneers Public Enemy, among many others.

More than 50 EAW MicroWedge Series MW12 stage monitors were employed over four Coachella stages by sound reinforcement vendor Rat Sound Systems. To date, this was the largest outlay of MW units ever for a single event, according to Rat Sound president Dave Rat, who was the co-designer of the MicroWedge 12 (along with the EAW engineering team). For the last 18 months, the MicroWedge Series has been exclusively manufactured and distributed by EAW, under license from Rat Sound Systems.

Covering Coachella took a lot of monitors and a lot of manpower. A 30-member crew from Rat Sound was employed to ensure that the concert's s

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UK - A special concert to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne this May saw Arena Seating provide a stylish temporary auditorium in the challenging setting of an historic venue.

Rick Wakeman, whose LP The Six Wives of Henry VIII was a hit in the 1970s selling 15 million copies worldwide, was keen to mark the anniversary in a unique environment, so he self-promoted the commemorative concert in the grounds of Hampton Court, the palace that Henry built and lived in.

Working with Keith Morris of Riverside Production, Arena Seating drew on its technical and logistical expertise to install a temporary 5,000 seat auditorium in front of the main entrance of Hampton Court, located between the Thames tow path and the main access road into the palace.

The severely undulating ground required a solution provided by Arena Seating's Special Struc

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Switzerland - Robe DigitalSpot 5000s were in action for a 360 degree projection created by lighting and media designer Matthias Kern of Kernfusion on the latest Conelli Circus season in Zurich.

The two and a half month winter season has been running in the city for the last 25 years, and is staged in the 900 capacity tented, located on a small 'Bauschänzli' island next to Lake Zurich.

It was the first year that Kernfusion was asked onboard to design lighting and visuals. The show's director Roby Gasser was very keen to show movies and images for the intro, at the end and also during some of the acts.

Staged in the round, their only option to do this so everyone in the audience could see, was onto a big sphere 5.5m in diameter and 10m high suspended in the centre of the venue. This was moved into several different positions during the show, hence the need for a video project

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UK - The Trafford Centre in Manchester is one of Europe's largest indoor shopping malls and attracted nearly 35 million visitors in 2008. The Centre is a focal point for shopping and Osram's high power Flood luminaires are used to illuminate 'The Orient' part of the mall, home to a 1,600 seat food court as well as bars and restaurants.

The Osram fittings allow the ceiling within the centre to change colour in order to reflect the changing conditions outside. From a bright blue sky to a reddish sunset sky and all conditions in between the LED technology can create these. The colour-changing aspect of the installation provides a unique ambience for those visiting the centre.

"The existing 700W fittings were obsolete, as well as being expensive to maintain and run. They utilised oil wheels for colour changing using DMX control. The RGB LED option from OSRAM provided a simple

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USA - Tomcat has launched the latest addition to its new product line of truss, (core)18. In addition to (core)12, a 12" X 12" box truss, Tomcat is now offering (core)18 the 12" X 18" truss in the (core) product line. The focus behind (core) was to develop a stronger, slightly lighter and ultimately less expensive box truss based on market demands. "We are very excited to offer a 12" X 18" box truss in this product line that is 5lbs lighter and 25% stronger than conventional light duty 12" X 18". This adds more value for the customer," stated general manger, Stefano Rosellini.

Tomcat has essentially taken conventional 12" X 18" light duty box truss and modified the components to provide a more efficient truss - at a more efficient price. The 20.5" x 20.5" version of (core) and accessories are being developed t

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USA - Celebrating the company's 30th anniversary this year, Meyer Sound will bring a full slate of audio solutions to InfoComm 2009, which will be held on 17-19 June in Orlando, Fla.

More than 14 new products will make their InfoComm debut, ranging from cinema sound and corporate AV to commercial installation and networked digital systems for theatrical production and themed spectaculars. In addition, Meyer Sound will extend the company's ongoing education programme offerings to InfoComm participants with on-booth presentations, as well as mixing workshops with Buford Jones, the FOH mixer and Meyer Sound touring liaison manager.

Highlights will include the D-Mitri digital audio platform, a next-generation system for integrated signal processing, networked multichannel distribution, multichannel recording and playback, and show control automation.

Also featured will be Cinema

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UK - Martin lighting has been an important visual component of the live British music experience over the years and now, with the recently opened British Music Experience (BME) exhibition, Martin is involved in lighting the retrospective experience as well.

BME is a permanent exhibition dedicated to the history of popular music in Britain. Opened in March, the exhibit is a high-tech, interactive music presentation housed across 22,000sq.ft on the top floor of The O2 bubble in London.

Lighting design for BME is by David Atkinson of David Atkinson Lighting Design (DALD) who incorporated 26 Martin smartMAC colour changing luminaires - supplied by AC Lighting and installed by DES - into the exhibit's Pre Show and Exit Show areas.

Before visitors access the main BME exhibit, a Pre Show area gives a brief five minute audio visual introduction about BME and how to view the various

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South Africa - MA Lighting's South African distributor DWR Distribution ran the first of a series of grandMA Level 1 and 2 training events.

The three-day session took place at DWR's HQ in Johannesburg and was attended by working LDs and programmers who had to supply their own console or laptop running grandMA OnPC. They came from Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, and the places were limited to 10 to ensure everyone received the best attention of Nick Britz, DWR's technical manager, who instructed.

It followed on from Britz' recent visit to MA Lighting in Germany, where he refreshed his own knowledge of the grandMA Training programme, and also acquainted himself with the newly launched grandMA2 console and software. DWR has just supplied its first grandMA2 to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.

"It was the ideal opportunity for Nick to pass on his knowledge to the industr

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New Zealand - Air New Zealand Fashion Week is the country's main stage for highlighting the talent and collections of its major designers such as Karen Walker; Kate Sylvester and Trelise Cooper as well as providing a showcase platform for those in the 'ones to watch' fraternity.

Staged in boat sheds originally constructed for the America's Cup challenges in the 1990s Air New Zealand Fashion Week is a major production challenge undertaken since its inception by Auckland's Oceania Lighting. Simon Garrett, a former theatre technician and lighting designer leads the Oceania lighting team.

"I approach fashion shows as part live product showcase and part studio shoot," says Garrett. "The Designers invest heavily in Air NZ Fashion Week so we must deliver a memorable live show for each label with digital stills providing instant press ready material. In a few months tim

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Norway - National Broadcast Company NRK has purchased three DPA 4017 shotgun microphones from the company's Norwegian distributor Lyd-Systemer, following a period of evaluation.

The broadcaster needed a small and lightweight shotgun mic for recording dialogue on drama productions. As well as demonstrating natural intelligibility, good directionality and off-axis qualities, the mic also had to produce high enough audio quality to allow for extensive post production processing.

"Everyone noticed that material recorded with the 4017 had a greater tolerance for manipulation after recording, such as compression, than the other mics we tested," says NRK's Are Andreassen, the project's team leader. "It gave us more substance to work with, and the off-axis response was particularly good. When working with high frequencies, it doesn't sound hard or metallic and handles s

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Cyprus The new Babylon superclub is bringing a new level of nightclub cool to Ayia Napa, Cyprus. The venue features a Turbosound-based sound system and it already has a very high profile list of summer DJs lined up, including many Ministry of Sound sessions.

Steve Richards, in charge of music management and events at Babylon, and managing director Tasos Kritikos needed a system that would reliably support DJ and dance events, live bands, fashion shows, presentations, private functions and more.

To achieve this, they selected a system comprising 20 Turbosound TA-500DP self-powered Aspect Wide and four TCS-122 mid/high loudspeakers, with 12 TSW-218DP self-powered subs. Supplied by Turbosound's Cyprus distributor Yannis Theodoulou of C. Theodoulou & Sons, the installation was overseen by Turbosound applications engineer Dan Orton.

"The versatility of the venue was a key is

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UK - London's O2 Arena staged the world premiere of Star Wars: A Musical Journey with John Williams's famed score performed by an 86-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and an 80-voice choir. A Lucasfilm re-edit of all six movies was shown on a 100ft LED screen, while a Meyer Sound Milo and Mica line array loudspeaker system provided the sound reinforcement. An electronic shell created using the Constellation electroacoustic architecture allowed the musicians to hear themselves in an ensemble environment, despite the large arena setting.

The audience and press, including The Times, gave positive reviews on the cinema and aural extravaganza, while Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Dirk Brossé commented: "the sound was the best I've ever heard."

Sound design and front-of-house duties for the event were assigned to Fred Vogler, renowned re

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USA/Canada - ETCP has confirmed that there is a new testing centre in Canada. All three exams are now available for computer-based testing at Robertson College, 265 Notre Dame Avenue, Winnipeg, MB.

Individuals must meet eligibility requirements to take the exams and applications must be turned in to the ETCP office for approval. Once a candidate is approved, he or she will receive a letter with information on scheduling the exam. The eligibility requirements, candidate handbook and application materials can be found at http://etcp.esta.org.

(Jim Evans)

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Russia - Once again, Procon Event Engineering was the technical supplier for the Eurovision Song Contest staged in Moscow on Saturday night. The competition was won by Norway's Alexander Rybak, with Iceland second and Azerbaijan in third place.

Procon had previously worked for the event in Athens (2006) and Belgrade (2008). For this year's event, Procon deployed 40 trailer trucks with technical equipment (approximately 550 tonnes) and a team of more than 70 technical specialists. The company was contracted to provide equipment and services in the areas of lighting, sound, video/LED and rigging.

The manifest included 700 moving lights, 250 LED lights, 500 conventional lighting fixtures and 100km of cable.The main audio systems were Meyer Sound- based. In the rigging department, 4400m of trussing was utilised, together with 520 chain hoists.

Lighting designer was Al Gurdon, cr

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UK - Three people were injured when part of a stage collapsed at a music festival in Derbyshire at the weekend. Freak winds were blamed for lifting part of the roof off the stage at the Bearded Theory festival in Hulland Ward, near Ashbourne.

A Derbyshire Police spokesman said the injuries suffered included a suspected broken wrist, shoulder, back and neck injuries. A number of other people were treated for shock.

Police said the collapse happened at 1950 BST on Saturday 16 May. The stage was closed and made safe following the accident. Two other stages remained open and the festival continued.

Staff from the website efestivals.co.uk reported a freak gust of wind "described by one person as a twister" during a storm. Another witness quoted by the BBC said: "The sky darkened and within five minutes a huge squall came through, then it got seriously bad. The Port

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UK - Rycote, the UK-based manufacturer of microphone windshields and suspension systems, is continuing its Spring schedule of new product releases with the announcement that it has begun production of a large range of foam microphone windshields. The new foams are available in a variety of shapes and sizes and are designed for use with microphones of all types, including small- and large-diaphragm mics, hand-held reporter's models, and shotgun microphones.

Many regular customers assume that Rycote has always made foam windshields alongside its instantly recognisable longer-haired Windjammers and Softies - but this is a departure for them. Made of durable high-quality acoustic foam which is resistant to damage from moisture and sunlight, the new windshields offer up to 20dB of pop and wind attenuation depending on conditions - but without concurrent high-frequency loss. The foam

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USA - The long-shuttered 1950s Woolworth building in Downtown Sacramento has been reborn as the Cosmopolitan complex, the city's newest entertainment hub. The building is now home to the Cosmopolitan Cabaret musical theatre, an intimate 200-seat venue with audio delivered by a compact Meyer Sound M1D line array loudspeaker system.

Designed by San Francisco-based theatre consultants, The Shalleck Collaborative, and installed by Hercules, California-based Pro Media / UltraSound, the Meyer Sound system is centred around left and right arrays of six Meyer Sound M1D line array loudspeakers, each augmented by a 600-HP subwoofer to provide low-frequency coverage. As Shalleck's Ian Hunter explains, the M1D's compact dimensions were well suited to the project's requirements.

"As a former retail space, the venue's ceiling height is pretty low," Hunter says. "With the heig

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