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UK - A.C. Rigging has been appointed as a distributor for Youngman Group's range of professional access equipment and their growing range of event solution products, including a new Aluminium Crowd Control Barrier System.

Youngman Group is a leading provider of access equipment and systems that are designed and manufactured with safety in mind. Founded in 1926, it has built an international presence in over 25 countries worldwide through partnering with select distributors.

Adam Beaumont, sales manager of the A.C. Rigging division, commented, "We are really pleased to be working with the UK's leading access products manufacturer. With their focus on quality, safety and innovation, the new Aluminium Crowd Control Barrier system is great product and a great addition to our pr

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UK - Eat To The Beat is celebrating 25 years of service to the music, production and location catering sectors. The company celebrated in style with a party themed and catered for by sister company Upbeat Event Design.

The party was titled The Odd Ball and held in Buckinghamshire as a celebration for employees and friends of the company. The Odd Bal broke the norm of a traditional ball with a topsy turvy theme and a dress code of Black tie - but a bit odd!.

On arrival guests were greeted by serving staff disguised as 'living paintings' who served canapés through ornate frames dressed as Andy Warhol's Marylyn Monroe, The Laughing Cavalier, Botticelli's Venus and The Mona Lisa.

(Jim Evans)

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Slovakia - Over 100 Robe lighting fixtures made a stunning appearance at the 2009 Slovakian Miss Universe Pageant, an event on which they have a history, along with lighting designer Martin Kubanka.

The show was staged at the Sibamac Arena in Bratislava in front of a live audience of 4500, simultaneously broadcast live on STV1 to record ratings. It was directed by Thomas Eibner, and Kubanka also worked closely with DOP Vladimir ?ur?ansk? and set designer Martin Klang.

This year, the creative theme was nature and the scenic elements reflected grass and foliage, sea and sun. The overhead trussing configuration followed the wide lines and gentle V-shapes of the stage set below, presenting a coherent and highly attractive visual package to compliment the nature of the occasion and the 12 finalists.

Kubanka wanted to make a big impact with the lighting. He used 50 Robe ColorSpot

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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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Denmark - Lighting Science Group Corporation (Lighting Science) and Martin Professional announced today a distribution agreement that will give Martin access to Lighting Science's X16 DOTZ LED strings for global distribution.

The X16 DOTZ LED string has been well-received in the market since its introduction and will be marketed under the name FlexDOT in Martin's line of LED video products. FlexDOT has already been used in multiple projects across the lighting market.

FlexDOT is a string of (RGB) LEDs designed for a variety of dynamic lighting applications including video and other entertainment displays. Leveraging the DMX512 lighting control protocol, each LED capsule on the string produces a wide colour palette of millions of hues. This allows the user to create a personalised interactive experience through colour control, special effects and animation of each light point.

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UK - British Harlequin, in recognition of budget restrictions due to the credit crunch, is offering a special floor for theatre and stage use, called Stagefloor 100, for a limited period at a special price.

Designed for stage floors and drama studios, Stagefloor 100 is priced at £10.95 per square metre. This flooring product comes with a high level of specification, fire-rated for safety to NF P 92-507 class M3, is quick to roll out and suitable for permanent installation, or for portable use, says the company.

When permanently installed it can be either hot or cold welded. There is a colour choice of black, dark grey, light grey or hazelnut - all highly tear resistant and tough enough to stand up to props, equipment, street footwear - in fact most normal wear and tear encountered on stage. Stagefloor 100 is in stock now - ready to ship in 2m wide rolls with lengths from

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UK - A.C. Rigging, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies, is hosting a series of CM Lodestar training courses at their Leeds premises on 15-17 June. Dave Carmack, entertainment product trainer for Columbus McKinnon, will be leading the training sessions along with Adam Beaumont, sales manager for the A.C. Rigging division. Over the three-day period, A.C. will be presenting two levels of training.

The basic level course on 15 June consists of an overview of the CM Lodestar Hoists. It includes practical exercises on inspection, maintenance testing and troubleshooting CM Lodestars. The course is suitable for technicians dealing with CM Lodestar products on a regular basis and is intended to provide a more comprehensive working knowledge of the products. A.C. will supply all technical documentation, certification of the training and lunch on the day.

The advanced level cou

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USA - Barco reports that three major band tours - No Doubt, The Crystal Method and the upcoming Aerosmith tour, are all debuting the new High End Systems' Showbeam 2.5 in their shows.

The Showbeam 2.5 is a new 2500-watt automated wash luminaire that features the Twin Beam technology, allowing two hard-edge beams to exit the fixture on command. Features include variable control over the Twin Beam's deviation and rotation speed, all with little brightness degradation, the ability to add incremental colour to the Twin Beam using the CMY colour mixing system, and a LED tracking system encircling the lens. It also features a user-changeable fixed colour wheel, a variable CTO and the ability to produce an 11-degree fixed hard-edge profile with fast colour change and Electronic Strobe. The profile can be rapidly zoomed from 11 to 33 degrees.

Butch Allen, No Doubt's lighting designer,

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UK - Oscar's Pizza restaurant in Kings Langley has always been a successful and busy rendezvous for locals and visitors, but owner Tony Russo had felt for some time that the sound was not quite right. As a music producer, he appreciates good sound and was sensitive to the fact that his restaurant lacked good even audio coverage which is an essential factor in creating good ambience in a restaurant.

He approached Bose, who put him in touch with local Bose Pro Partner, Pod 3 AV. A tight schedule meant that they had just two weeks to remove the old system, rewire and install a new Bose system, alongside designers and builders who were refurbishing the whole restaurant and creating a new bar area at the same time.

A combination of Bose FreeSpace 3 satellite cubes and flush bass, plus full range FreeSpace DS16 and FreeSpace DS100 speakers was specified by Tim Dyer of Pod 3, workin

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South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa supplied lighting and power for the spectacular closing ceremony of the 2009 DLF Indian Premier League Cricket series at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. The show kicked off immediately after a knife-edge finish to the Series kept the 35,000 audience enthralled right down to the last ball, before the Deccan Chargers beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs.

Gearhouse's Tim Dunn designed the light-show for the event, - a fusion of Indian, African, Bollywood, Caribbean and American entertainment with special guest appearances by American rapper Akon, Eddie Grant and Bollywood superstar Katrina Kaif. The high energy show also included drummers, fire dancers, traditional dancers and a Miss Bollywood IPL South Africa model parade culminating in a massive pyro and fireworks show.

Four production companies were involved with the event -

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USA - When NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon debuted in the changing landscape of late night television grandMA was close at hand. Lighting designer Christopher Landy, who heads Brooklyn's Vibrant Design LLC, specified the console to control a large complement of moving and conventional lights which give the show a hip vibe while paying homage to talk show legends Johnny Carson and Jack Parr who worked in the same iconic Studio 6B at Rockefeller Centre.

"The grandMA is my board of choice for any show," says Landy. "A nightly show like Fallon is very demanding. The schedule is extremely tight and every night is a different musical performance and a different comedic bit. That doesn't leave a lot of cuing time. We need a console that can handle a large library of effects and is programmer friendly. Versatility is key"

For Late Night with Jim

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World - Britney Spears's Circus tour finds the pop diva bringing an in-the-round extravaganza to arenas across the US, Canada, and Europe. Montreal-based Solotech is masterminding the tour's sophisticated multimedia, lighting, and sound, including a highly integrated Meyer Sound system, which provides consistent coverage across the arenas.

"Today's audiences are quite sophisticated, and expect album-quality sound at every show, regardless of the venue's acoustics or other variables," observes FOH engineer Blake Suib, whose previous tour credits include Madonna, Prince, Guns and Roses, and Annie Lennox. "Meyer Sound has really been instrumental in providing the tools to achieve a seamless and cohesive sound to every seat of even the largest arenas."

The 360-degree system begins with 64 Milo line array loudspeakers in four hangs of 16 cabinets each, al

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UK - On 12th May 2009, Leicester's Curve Theatre welcomed students of technical theatre from across the country for the first of a planned series of educational open days at the venue. The event follows the ABTT Open Day also hosted earlier in the year by Stage Technologies at Curve Theatre, and was conceived as an introduction to automation for students of all non-performing theatre disciplines, from design to stage management.

Around 90 students and tutors from RADA, LAMDA, Central School of Speech and Drama, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Rose Bruford got a first-hand look at how the latest automation technology works at one of the most recent performance venues to be built in the UK. The exceptional environment of Curve Theatre allowed Stage Technologies experts to demonstrate the versatility, precision and capability of the hardware and software systems. The programme f

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UK - Lighting Partners will be exhibiting at this year's ABTT show - its fourth year at the event. Members of the Lighting Partners team will be on hand at the show to discuss the company's expanding range of used equipment, its new item sales and ready-made cable department.

On the stand for the first time will be the entire range of Hazebase smoke and haze machines including the new 650W Base Cap. Iain Dennis of Lighting Partners commented, "We are excited about showing the Hazebase range for the first time at the show. We have represented the brand in the UK for only a couple of months but we are already staggered by how well it has taken off. Machines are already in the West End and we are delighted that one of the largest arena tours of the decade is going out with over 30 Hazebase machines."

Lighting Partners is also launching a new niche website, www.colourfra

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Austria - With a long and colourful history to its name, today the Ronacher Theatre is one of the two leading music venues in the Austrian capital of Vienna, the other being the Raimund Theatre. Owned by theatre production company, Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, both venues are historical and cultural landmarks of the Viennese landscape. Following recent upgrades to the sound system, these prestigious theatres have now standardised on Lab.gruppen's dedicated installation C Series amplifiers.

According to Erich Hofbauer of ATEC Pro Audio, the exclusive Lab.gruppen distributer in Austria, a number of powerful four-channel Lab.gruppen C 48:4s were put through their paces on the musical Rebecca at the Raimund Theatre last year, driving the in-house high-efficiency coaxial APG Micro Axial FoH system. The reaction was extremely positive, and so the production company decided to inves

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UK - PEL Music & Media reports the completion of its fifth Bose Professional sound system installation for high street retailer Oakley.

Originally known for its innovative optical technology for sport professionals, Oakley, Inc. has grown into a world renowned sport and lifestyle brand featuring high performance sunglasses, prescription lenses and frames, goggles, apparel, footwear and accessories. It has a chain of retail platforms across the world, including six Oakley Stores in the UK.

Oakley chose Bose as its sound system and PEL for the installation work for its second UK Oakley Store - in Bluewater in 2007. John Pollard, Oakley (UK) director and general manager, took a hands on role in specifying the sound system.

"I took a far more proactive role in the sourcing of additional services and it was fitting that a technology driven company like Oakley should chose to

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UK - RC4 Wireless will introduce the latest in its RC4Magic series - the new RC4 Black Magic system - at London's ABTT Theatre Show.

"When we first introduced the original RC4Magic system in 2007," says James David Smith, president and chief designer at RC4, "we brought the cost of wireless dmx dimming below the $1000 threshold for the first time. With 15 years of RC3 and RC4 experience behind us, RC4Magic performance has been excellent, but we did hear one complaint over and over again."

Users didn't like the bright yellow labeling. A design decision that helped the product stand out at tradeshows and demonstrations also made it stand out where it shouldn't - inside props and set pieces on stage.

In 2008, the company released RC4Magic Series 2 with purple labels. "Problem solved, I thought," said Smith, "but I was wrong."

RC4 Black

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Switzerland - Tele Südostschweiz, located in southeastern Switzerland, has recently installed a Studer OnAir 3000 console into the broadcast control room.

The installation of the Studer OnAir 3000 consoles into the new studios emphasise the necessity for clear workflows and an infrastructure that supports the production of daily newscasts and the administration of purchased programmes as efficiently as possible. The VJ's of Tele Südostschweiz have a total of nine HD cameras available, which allows them to directly record reports onto flash data carriers for additional broadcast versatilty.

The Studer OnAir 3000 operates with 12 faders in the main control room at Tele Sudostschweiz studios and is responsible for broadcasting Swiss newscasts, weather reports and talk shows. The programmes are then produced and provided by affiliate TV stations and are efficiently transcoded vi

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Israel - Compulite's flagship console Vector has a new major software release centered on productivity features that accelerate the programming and operation of even the most complex show, says the company.

New features allow the user to organize editing and playback screens in multiple workspaces. Each workspace allows you to customise a whole environment with multiple views and panes. You can build each one and save/open each workspace separately. Create various workspaces such as live workspace, editing workspace and TOPO workspace.

You can also use the navigation utility when some of the workspaces are not visible due to the length of their name.

Editing the object's attributes right on the grid (table) where you are viewing the data saves many steps of opening the object and editing each object separately. Among the new display types that you can now edit - cue sheet. G

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Germany - Steinberg Media Technologies has announced the release of its Cubase iC remote controller application, which runs on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch products. Cubase iC provides comprehensive control for Steinberg's Cubase and Cubase Studio 5.0.1 Music Production Systems and is now available free of charge exclusively through the Apple iTunes Store.

"This attractive application is a service to all our Cubase 5 and Cubase Studio 5 customers who own an iPhone or iPod Touch. Cubase iC is a very useful tool for anyone who wants to use Cubase while not in front of the computer, for example when using Cubase live on stage or playing and recording an instrument at the same time," comments Helge Vogt, Steinberg's Product Marketing Manager for Cubase.

"Cubase iC supports a large range of functions, including comprehensive transport control, as well as the Cubase Ar

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UK - There will be keyboards, but no traditional wind or string instruments, when a 'laptop orchestra' gives its debut performance at the University of Derby.

Laptop orchestras, of which there are only a handful in the world, use laptop computers to play music, but assemble before a live audience to jointly play a whole composition, as would a traditional orchestra.

Rather than have all the players just using ordinary laptops, the Derby Laptop Orchestra (or DLO) is developing a new range of digital musical instruments for its first ever performance, at 7.30pm on Friday 5 June, in Auditorium Three, at the University's Markeaton Street site.

The event is part of the University's 2009 Degree Shows, running from Thursday 4 June to Saturday 13 June.

The music could be made using Wii game remotes, engineered to produce sounds reflecting the player's motions, or DJ turntables whi

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USA - Hip-hop, duo Chester French , currently touring Europe, return to the US in July to begin opening for punk rockers Blink-182 on their North American summer tour. For every performance Chester French will perform through Electro-Voice microphones, mixed by Tour Manager/FOH Engineer Sean Peel.

Peel, a longtime Electro-Voice user, is a busy freelance tour manager and FOH engineer who trusts his EV mics to stand up to the rigours of touring. The new PL80's sound, along with its rugged, natural-feeling design, has made it Peel's go-to vocal mic.

"I love the PL80," says Peel. "It's awesome - I'm glad it's back with a vengeance. The PL80c is just like it was back in the day, but with all the advantages of state-of-the-art materials. And not only is it a great live microphone, it even works great when we're recording TV and doing in-studio stuff like that. But it

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